D&D 5E Quests from the Infinite Staircase TOC and Zargon.

Brandes Stoddard shared the table of contents from Quests from the Infinite Staircase, along with the stats for the elder evil Zargon the Returner, over on BlueSky. Quests from the Infinite Staircase comes out on July 16th, and is an adventure anthology for character levels 1-13.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Like here is the ranking of the Arch Devils in AD&D considering their HP and Armor

Bottom Pit Fiend (13 Hit Die, Ave 45 HP, AC -3)
Princess of Hell Glasya (69 HP, AC -2)
Duke of Hell Titivilus (86 HP, AC -2)
Duke of Hell Bael (106 HP, AC -3)
Duke of Hell Hutijin (111 HP, AC -4)
Duke of Hell Amon (126 HP, AC -2)
Archduke Moloch (126 HP, AC -3)
Archduke Geryon (133 HP, AC -3)
Archduke Mammon (139 HP, AC -3)
Archduke Dispater (144 HP, AC -2)
Archduke Belial (154 HP, AC -4)
Archduke Baalzebul (166, AC -5)
Archduke Mephistopheles (188 HP, AC -6)
King of Hell Asmodeus (HP 199, AC -7)

Asmodeus also had the power to deal damage equal to his HP in a large areas 3 times a day, so he is for sure on top.

Remember Tiamat only had 128 HP in 1st edition. So virtually all the Archdevils are on par or better than her.

Plus Gary was planning (just before being ousted) a book revising ALL the stats for all unique beings in all the monster books with increased hit points.

Possibly to bring them in line with Deities & Demigods (although I'm just speculating that last point).

 

[dave2008]

1st Edition Manual of the Planes states the Archdevils are considered Lesser Gods in their home plane. Says the same for Demon Princes. The Archomentals (princes of Elemental evil) are demipowers.

Right, but that is clearly a retcon too. A good one (IMO), but it was not the original intent. For whatever that is worth.

 

[dave2008]

Plus Gary was planning (just before being ousted) a book revising ALL the stats for all unique beings in all the monster books with increased hit points.

I hadn't heard that before. Interesting. Funny that he forced the max HP of gods from 1,000 HP down to 400 HP for Deities and Demigods. I wonder if he regretted that!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Right, but that is clearly a retcon too. A good one (IMO), but it was not the original intent. For whatever that is worth.

I think a lot of groups back in the day we're steam rolling the big bads. Oddly enough the same thing that happens today.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Remember Tiamat only had 128 HP in 1st edition. So virtually all the Archdevils are on par or better than her.

Plus Gary was planning (just before being ousted) a book revising ALL the stats for all unique beings in all the monster books with increased hit points.

Possibly to bring them in line with Deities & Demigods (although I'm just speculating that last point).

Tiamat was not really considered a god in her appearance in the Monster Manual.

 

[Stalker0]

He looks like a monster actually capable of facing off against a 15th level party. He has a regen that can only be cancelled by damage types that he resists, which usually means a damage reduction in any case.

Unfortunately like so many high CR monsters, this things defenses are pathetic. Now its got some nice anti-magic abilities, but its AC and hp are so low, 3 11th level champion fighters (not really optimized, no special buffs like a +1 or +2 weapon kidn of thing, no advantage) can mow through this guy in just about 2 rounds flat with just average damages.

and again that's just a joe shmoe champion, you could easily bust out a half optimized paladin or barbarian or something and wreck this guy even harder.

And the damage just isn't that impressive, this guy doesn't have any big damage spikes or big conditions that would make a party afraid of him.

Elder Evil? More like Elderly Evil

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Unfortunately like so many high CR monsters, this things defenses are pathetic. Now its got some nice anti-magic abilities, but its AC and hp are so low, 3 11th level champion fighters (not really optimized, no special buffs like a +1 or +2 weapon kidn of thing, no advantage) can mow through this guy in just about 2 rounds flat with just average damages.

and again that's just a joe shmoe champion, you could easily bust out a half optimized paladin or barbarian or something and wreck this guy even harder.

And the damage just isn't that impressive, this guy doesn't have any big damage spikes or big conditions that would make a party afraid of him.

Elder Evil? More like Elderly Evil

The Slime Wave is a decent spike. Also three Level 11 Champion Fighters can't kill him.

 

[Von Ether]

Interesting they are trying to keep the page count mostly equal with the original adventures. Though I feel Expedition is more of an abridged version.

 

[Demetrios1453]

EDIT. Never mind, misread something.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting they are trying to keep the page count mostly equal with the original adventures. Though I feel Expedition is more of an abridged version.

Chapters in modern 5E Adventure books tend to be about the size of an OG TSR softcover module, by and large.