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Note: Back in December, I held an informal poll across multiple forums to gauge reader interest for my next review. The book with the most consistent requests was Elder Evils, followed up by Iron Heroes and the Legend of Zelda D20. For those who picked the latter two, fear not, for Elder Evils is relatively light in page count!
During the final years of 3rd Edition D&D, the designers at Wizards of the Coast started releasing more experimental content. The Tome of Battle gave martial classes Vancian-like special moves, and combined with the mechanics of certain monsters in the Monster Manual V, this served as a precursor of sorts for mechanics later seen in 4th Edition. The Grand History of the Realms was a comprehensive overview of Faerûn's lore-packed world, while the Expedition series of adventures visited classic plots and dungeons from earlier editions such as Castle Ravenloft and the Ruins of Greyhawk. To mark the transitory period of the older system making way for the new, Elder Evils was a sourcebook written by Robert Schwalb to introduce world-ending horrors serving as antagonists for complete campaign arcs. Interestingly, the concept of an apocalyptic godlike entity threatening the world became the focus of Schwalb's own standalone RPG, the Shadow of the Demon Lord. One could see the seeds of such work in this very sourcebook, such as the Apocalyptic Signs echoing the various forms of Shadows representing the latter RPG's decaying world.
Elder Evils has 10 chapters, 9 of which present unique stand-alone antagonists along with their various minions and how they pose a cosmic threat to the world in which they're unleashed. Most are entirely new creatures as far as I can tell, although two of them (Kyuss and Zargon to be specific) have appeared in prior publications for D&D. While the book is mostly usable stand-alone, it does make reference to mechanics from many other sourcebooks via superscript references. Thankfully most of these mechanics are reprinted properly in Elder Evils, but it does reflect how Wizards of the Coast was catering more towards dedicated customers with decent libraries vs getting in new blood unlike later years.
Chapter 1: Evil Does Not Sleep
This chapter gives an overview of elder evils and what makes them different from other high-level foes. Namely, they are designed first and foremost to be the most prominent threat in an entire campaign, with their defeat or victory coming in at the climax. Elder evils often have powers which change the natural laws and foundations of the world, fraying reality over time until their effects can no longer be ignored. The book notes that high and epic-level play is more difficult as PCs gain more power and tools to overcome opposition, so elder evils are a means of raising the stakes for players to feel like Big Damn Heroes and bring a campaign to a satisfying conclusion.
Elder evils run the gamut of creature types, from stereotypical Lovecraftian aberrations to more classic fantasy archdemons and evil gods, but they have several features in common. Notably they have maximum hit points per Hit Die, a broad variety of immunities, can use True Seeing at will, are under the constant benefits of Nondetection, and can select epic feats among other things. Quite a few of the more notable Save or Suck spells, from Dominate Monster to Baleful Polymorph to Shivering Touch, don't work on them due to the aforementioned immunities.
Apocalyptic Signs are a mixture of flavor text and explicit rules indicating the elder evil's malevolent influence on existence itself, measured in degrees from Faint to Overwhelming much like detecting a magic or alignment aura. During the start of a campaign, such signs are initially Faint and cannot be easily identified, but as the PCs gain levels they become easier to detect both through Knowledge skills and just observing the world around them. We get information on seven signs associated with the elder evils in this book (Leviathan and Zargon share the same sign of Eerie Weather, as do Sertrous and the Worm That Walks share Infestation), plus four more unaffiliated signs for DMs creating their own elder evils. They range the gamut of end-times scenarios, from departed souls unable to pass on and rising as undead to the planet's rotation around the sun slowing until one side is bathed in perpetual night and the other side in perpetual day. All such signs have explicit game mechanics for each of the four stages. As can be expected some signs can strengthen or weaken particular character concepts. For example, Atropus' Restless Dead sign enhances Necromancy school spells and impedes healing spells, with Moderate and Strong intensity causing the entire world to be under the effects of a Desecrate or Unhallow spell respectively. But some are more egalitarian in their effects, such as Infestation causing random encounter rates with thematic monsters to be both more common and stronger, with once per week checks at Faint to once per hour at Overwhelming.
And while they're a bit out of order in coming after feats, another innate quality of elder evils are Malefic Properties. These represent supernatural abilities which cover a very large area of influence, ranging from 10 miles for 15 or fewer Hit Die elder evils to worldwide at 51 and more. Such properties can only be countered by Antimagic Fields, and even then only within the spell's area. All elder evils have the Anathematic Secrecy property which makes them immune to divination spells and effects, plus one other property: Dark Visiting (Hulks of Zoretha, can send nightmare dealing Wisdom damage to sleepers who sleep within the AoE), Discord and Woe (Father Llymic, elder evil can cause creatures to change alignment and erupt into killing frenzies akin to a Barbarian's Rage), Divine Enervation (Pandorym and Zargon, divine spellcasters within the AoE lose the ability to regain spells upon resting), Divine Scourge (Atropus, can deal Vile damage* and the sickened condition to divine spellcasters and extraplanar creatures within the AoE 1/day), Impervious to the Divine (Ragnora and Sertrous, immune to all divine spells and effects as well as such spells and effects originating from extraplanar creatures), and True Death (Leviathan, any creature who dies within the AoE can never be raised by any means and death descriptor spells are cast at +4 Caster Level).
*Vile damage can only be magically healed on consecrated grounds.
Following this section is a list of feats designed for the willing servants of Elder Evils. They all have the [Vile] tag, representing someone making the intentional decision to serve or make use of supernatural evil, ranging from pledging allegiance to a demon lord to learning the Dark Speech whose very words can cause harm and madness in listeners. Elder evils do not grant spells to servants, but they can grant a [Vile] feat as a bonus feat to an intelligent evil being who pledges service to them, with a further free [Vile] feat every 5 Hit Die/character levels.
All of the feats detailed here are reprints from earlier sourcebooks, notably the Book of Vile Darkness and Heroes of Horror. As can be expected with 3.5 feats, they run the gamut in balance and usefulness. For example, the Evil's Blessing feat requires a Charisma of 13 and can be activated as a standard action to add your Charisma bonus to all saving throws for 5 rounds, and the bonus doubles whenever you deal damage to a creature that has the good subtype or radiates an aura of good. What makes it even better is that the round duration isn't limited in use per day. Then there's Insane Defiance, where as an immediate action upon being targeted by a mind-affecting effect, the feat-taker can take 1 point of Wisdom damage to automatically reroute the effect to a new target within range, who then has a -4 penalty on the saving throw to resist. Both are pretty useful feats!
And on the other end of things we have Abyss-Bound Soul, where you get +2 on saves vs spells with the good descriptor, along with an additional benefit depending upon who your demonic patron is, but no such patrons are listed in this book so you'll need to buy Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss for this. Another weak feat is Deformity (Parasite), where you can spend an immediate action to negate any disease or poison afflicting you but can only take a standard or move action during the next round as the parasites do their work. The infamous Lichloved feat is here, although the flavor text has been altered so that necrophilia is no longer a mandate. It's still underpowered in giving +1 on saves vs typical stuff undead are immune to, and mindless undead also see the feat-taker as undead. Dark Speech is potentially abusable, in that one of its uses (Dread) is an AoE that has no listed action besides speaking and can cause a variety of debuffs on listeners depending on their level and alignment. These debuffs range from shaken to charmed, and the trade-off is that it causes 1d4 Charisma damage per use. Characters immune to ability damage cannot take this feat, but otherwise can make for good crowd control and action economy exploits.
Thoughts: The concept of elder evils are pretty cool, as while D&D is full of powerful people and creatures who pose a threat to whole worlds, their stats and relevant adventures they're in don't always reflect this portrayal. Sure you've got the Tarrasque, great wyrm dragons, and villainous masterminds such as Larloch, but they tend to be straightforward in their destruction or have MacGuffin style artifacts and rituals for how they express their threat to the world. Elder evils take things a step further in leaning into cosmic horror, where even if the entity is "inactive" or slumbering in the background, their very nature warps the land and can make their influence felt via apocalyptic signs and malefic properties across entire kingdoms and even the planet.
The [Vile] feats are a mixed bag and are clearly intended for use by NPC antagonists, so they're going to be of limited use to most PCs. Unless of course the gaming group has a permissive DM who tolerates evil-aligned party members.
Chapter 2: Atropus
This chapter, along with every other one afterwards, follows a standard format: first there's the Background and Goals of the elder evil, how to incorporate said elder evil into campaigns with suggested plot arcs in line with the four stages of apocalyptic signs, discussion of how they'd fit into the worlds of Eberron and Faerûn, stat blocks for the elder evil and their most dangerous servants, and finally a sample end-game encounter/mini-dungeon crawl incorporating the elder evil into a climactic confrontation.
Our first elder evil is the very incarnation of death, a being of unknown origin that drifts through space in the form of a giant moon with eerie craters in the arrangement of a face in agony. Atropus descends upon the world as it enters planetary orbit, causing undead to rise as it devours positive energy while constantly emitting negative energy. Far from being an instinctual force of nature, Atropus is intelligent and seeks the end of existence, and believes that killing off all mortal life will bring about the destruction of the gods and thus eventually itself. Atropus first makes its presence known as a new moon in the sky, growing in size with its approach and causing panic as its sinister visage brings about death and undeath in equal measure. Its apocalyptic sign is your stereotypical Restless Dead, where necromancy spells become stronger and corpses have increased chances of randomly animating as undead, with stronger types the more intense the sign grows.
Atropus' sample campaign arc involves an ur-priest known as Caira Xasten who seeks to summon the elder evil by stealing the Book of Vile Darkness. An undead known as Gorguth deserts the armies of Orcus after being summoned to the Material Plane by cultists of Atropus and decides to cast his lot in with them. While undead armies ravage the land, Caira continues to research spells that can awaken Atropus and cause portions of the moon to fall upon the Material Plane. The PCs thus need to split their priorities on what portions of the world they can save, but their paths lead them to travel to the surface of Atropus and defeat his Aspect before the moon crashes into the planet.
In terms of stats, Caira Xasten is a multiclass Bard/Rogue/Ur-Priest, meaning that she is both an adept skill-user and primary spell-caster. A huge amount of her higher-level spells come from the Spell Compendium or Book of Vile Darkness, although her most powerful spell, Apocalypse From the Sky, is detailed in a sidebar and is the spell she's researching in order to awaken Atropus. She primarily relies upon battlefield control and debuff options.
As for Gorguth, he is a bodak with levels in martial classes but most notably Blackguard. He is a straightforward melee combatant, and fights mounted on a unique construct known as Skyshadow which can also create damaging shadowy fields to which it and its rider can teleport between. Atropus itself is too large to have creature stats, but it manifests an Aspect as a metaphorical heart. This thing is a headless humanoid-shaped undead made up of fossilized flesh from the corpses of many prior worlds. It is first and foremost a big bulky melee bruiser of Challenge Rating 23, but it has a few spell-like abilities for long-range attacks and battlefield control such as Meteor Swarm and Circle of Death. It can also turn living creatures it kills into Angels of Decay, and can sacrifice its own hit points to call down meteors which are less damaging than Meteor Swarm but cover a much greater radius at 100 feet.
The sample end-game encounter takes place on the surface of Atropus, which as can be expected is an airless low-gravity vacuum exposed to outer space, necessitating the use of Necklaces of Adaption or broad immunities in order to survive. We get a full-page map of the region around Atropus' "face," which holds a variety of terrain hazards such as seas of negative energy in liquid form and vents of poisonous air. The Aspect of Atropus' location is subject to DM Fiat, although it is most likely to appear and venture to the "eyes" of the face if the PCs are there, which are gigantic stones 40 miles across.
Thoughts: Atropus is a very cool and threatening elder evil, so making it the first antagonist described in this book helps set the tone for things. Its motivation and threat is a bit cliche, but combining two otherwise disparate cliches (new moon on a crash course with earth + undead hordes) helps make it feel more unique. It really evokes Majora's Mask, as the moon's obvious nature plus seemingly increasing size in the sky makes for an omnipresent apocalyptic countdown clock.
Chapter 3: Father Llymic
The next elder evil hails from the Far Realm, who inadvertently came into the Material Plane when an ancient elven civilization built an extraplanar gate to enable travel to other planes. The accidental connection to the Far Realm brought forth maddening horrors, spelling the destruction of said civilization. This was also cataclysmic for the Far Realm creatures who ventured into the Material Plane, with many of them dying or going into dormant states. Father Llymic is counted among the latter, frozen and imprisoned on the top of a mountain watched over by generations of elves. As long as light touches his form, Father Llymic remains immobile, but darkness will free him from this state. The last guardian has since passed on, and the elder evil subconsciously reaches out to nearby minds of clans living in the mountains, turning them into servants. The sample campaign outline involves barbaric mountain tribes performing living sacrifices to Father Llymic who they believe is a god of winter. Llymic's influence grows with an expanding glacier and the planet's solar orbit becoming increasingly discordant, bathing entire portions of the surface in ice and darkness. All the while Father Llymic's servants grow via a supernatural disease known as Brood Fever. Its apocalyptic sign is the Dead Sun, where natural and magical darkness counters light sources and the nights grow longer and ever colder.
Father Llymic has no named NPC servants, instead having his Brood take the form of a template which grants natural weapons that deal extra cold damage along with ice-themed spells and a breath weapon that also spreads the disease. The Elder Evil himself is a Challenge Rating 18 monster whose primary physical attacks center around melee, and has a variety of cold and battle-field control spells such as Cone of Cold, Sleet Storm, and Dimension Door. Father Llymic two notable Achilles' Heels: first off he takes extra damage from sonic attacks, and natural and magical light have the effect of a Slow spell with no saving throw allowed, while actual sunlight puts him in suspended animation if he fails a DC 30 Fortitude save (he has +21 to the save) which can only be cured by being in complete darkness for 1 round. The end-game encounter location is a multi-level mountain home to a fortress of infected frost giants, human barbarians, worgs, and a white dragon, with Father Llymic's tomb and residence being at the top.
Thoughts: In comparison to Atropus, I find Father Llymic rather lacking. I don't really associate the Far Realm with unnatural winters, which feel more classic mythology in comparison. The lack of named high-level NPCs is also a mark against this elder evil, and the end-game encounter is full of mooks and middling damage sponges who can be easily circumvented by the many tools high-level characters have at this point in a campaign. Finally, and this is entirely aesthetic, but I don't like Father Llymic's art: he looks like a bipedal walrus with praying mantis forelegs!
Chapter 4: The Hulks of Zoretha
This elder evil isn't one creature, but five! They take the form of humanoid-shaped stone sculptures whose existence dates back before all known civilizations, and no god takes credit for their creation. Even when dormant they radiate an aura that fills onlookers with dread and possible insanity. The only people who claim to have deeper knowledge of the Hulks are cultists who worship them, claiming that they fell from the sky for the eventual mission of cleansing the world of hardship. Writings known as the Zoretha Scrolls were penned by an insane dwarven priest who maintains that the Hulks were created as part of an alien colonization effort from a realm known as Zoretha. Should the Hulks awaken, they will eradicate the world they're on of all life before reproducing among each other to fill the dead land with their own offspring as the sole, uncontested creatures. The Zoretha Scrolls aren't magical in and of themselves, but even reading the scrolls without understanding them creates a mystical link between the reader and the Hulks of Zoretha, with higher chances for this based on the intensity of the apocalyptic signs, taking the form of the Dark Visiting malefic property. However, further Knowledge Arcana and History checks via reading the Scrolls can reveal more randomly-determined knowledge about the Hulks on a d8 table. Their apocalyptic sign is the Blood Moon, which turns the moon orange during the initial intensity but eventually a crimson red. This causes living, intelligent creatures to more easily become angered and fall into uncontrollable rages, represented as lower initial attitudes for NPC influence mechanics, and eventually risking an uncontrollable fury akin to a Barbarian Rage at Strong and Overwhelming intensities.
The sample campaign outline for the Hulks of Zoretha involve the PCs retrieving a copy of the Zoretha Scrolls on behalf of a scholarly patron, but the Hulks' influence causes outbreaks of insane violence along with more evildoers forming cults of the Hulks. Eventually major kingdoms and empires plunge into war with each other. In terms of stats, each Hulk of Zoretha is a CR 16 monster and are Outsiders, not Constructs. The male and female Hulks use different stat blocks, and there's 4 females and 1 male. The females are all attuned to four different energy types (acid, cold, fire, and lightning) which determines the damage of their breath weapon and what kinds of elementals they can summon, but otherwise are straightforward melee combatants and have no spells or spell-like abilities. The male hulk is also melee-focused but much more dextrous (Dexterity 35 vs females' 10) while also being not as strong as the women (Strength 33 vs females' 45). The male can also fight at range by shooting poisonous spikes out of its arms and also has a fly speed, a hypnotic gaze attack it can activate as a swift action to render a target immobile, and can summon a displacer beast pack lord once per day.
The first named NPC servant in this chapter is Soelma Nilaenish, the sample scholarly patron who becomes corrupted by the Scrolls and Hulks over time and believes that awakening the elder evils will cleanse the world of evil. The second is Nanwulf the Soulbiter, a frost giant bard who manages to unite the disparate Hulk cults under one group. He doesn't actually believe in their teachings, but has the charisma and organizational skills to elevate himself to a high status and enjoys the many privileges that come with this. Soelma Nilaenish has a rivalry with Janwulf, wanting the leadership position for herself. While Janwulf uses a mixture of bardic spells and quite a bit of magical gear, he is also an accomplished melee fighter, although Soelma is first and foremost a wizard, with 1 level of Rogue being the standout vs her 7 levels in Wizard and 10 levels in Loremaster. Soelma also has a net +0 modifier to Listen and Spot, meaning that she's really easy to sneak up on.
The endgame encounter takes place in a massive cavern that serves as a temple for the cults. It is comprised of a vast central area which houses the dormant Hulks, with the rest of the interior rooms being side caves and passages housing the other cultists. The cultists are various kinds of giants and melee-centric cannon fodder such as Cave and War Trolls, Ogres with levels in Fighter and Tempest (prestige class all about two-weapon fighting), and skindancers (monstrous humanoids whose flesh adapts to damage which determines resistances and reduction based on the last attack). The idea for the encounter is that the PCs are rushing here to prevent Soelma Nilaenish from completing the ritual, which is destined to fail as the Hulks awaken even if she and the other cultists are killed.
Thoughts: The concept of an alien colonization project releasing superweapons onto a world in order to cleanse it of life is pretty novel as far as D&D campaigns go. However, the Hulks feel rather incongruent when it comes to this, for taking the forms of humanoid monoliths make them less "alien" in feel. And while they do avoid the weakness of singular bosses who have the action economy deck stacked against them, being able to summon additional monstrous minions can make for a lot of clutter for the DM to keep track of. Once again, the bulk of the end-game level minion opposition are simple-to-run yet monotonous melee damage sponges, which I suppose helps offset the complicated juggling on the DM's part but feels underwhelming for what one comes to expect out of high-level 3.5 campaigns.
Thoughts So Far: Of the first three elder evils, Atropus is my favorite. Everything about the villain feels epic and cosmic, and the endgame encounter taking place on the moon's surface is both cool and unique. Atropus' NPC servants and moon-dwelling undead also feel thematically appropriate, standing out from Father Llymic and the Hulks' humanoid/giant barbarian brutes. I wasn't feeling these latter two elder evils for other reasons I discussed above.
Join us next time as we cover the titanic Leviathan, the godslaying Pandorym, and healing magic gone wrong with the maternally monstrous Ragnorra!
