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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011142" data-attributes="member: 1129">The Book of Fiends updates and expands Green Ronin's <a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=currentprod&which=LEGH" target="_blank">Legions of Hell</a> and <a href="http://Armies of the Abyss" target="_blank">Armies of the Abyss</a> sourcebooks. It also updates the Unholy Warrior core class and  adds Hordes of Gehenna, the neutral evil fiends, to the mix. The book has already had some discussion on our own boards <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78383" target="_blank">here</a>.The first section is the update of Armies of the Abyss. This includes a brief background on the Abyss itself. My favorite part of this section is the introduction of the qlippoth, a fiendish race older than the demons who now rule. A few are detailed latter on including Shiggarreb,  a powerful qlippoth lord.Next are updates for the Thaumaturge Class including new domains and spells. This divine using core class is fully detailed, including rules for epic advancement and role playing archetypes. They have a nice summoning list of creatures that they can bind to their will, but suffer various corruption effects that are generated on a table.  These range from losing your hair and gaining pointy ears to weeping tears of blood or forked tail.The section, Those Who Rule, provides information on twenty one demon lords and provides the GM with an endless array of options to set up long term campaign enemies. However, while it's nice to see layer, areas of concern, domains, and favored weapons listed for those clerics or other divine worshippers, it would've been nice to see some stats on these lords as well.The meat of the first section is the Creatures of the Abyss and includes old web additions like the abyssal dragon template, old standards from the original book like the campaign shattering Armageddon Beast,  and from what I understand, some odd 20 new demons as well like the vessel of orcus, an undead construct created from the faces of sinners.  In this aspect, all three books, Legions, Hordes, and Armies, do a good job of presenting new creatures with a variety of CR's including several unique individuals native to their plane or at least adopted natives of their planes.The section on the Hordes of  Gehenna  is one of the weaker sections not because it doesn't include some background nor because it doesn't include new rulers, one for each of the seven deadly sins, but because it is missing a bit of that player focus. Legions for instance, has Infernal Prestige Classes. Armies has the Thaumaturge. Hordes of Gehenna has monsters.My personal favorite is probably one I'll never get to use, Shogarr, Consumer of Souls. This CR 30 monster is a tool that heralds the end of a universe. That's good stuff. Other daemons work for various sins. For example,That Which Cannot Be, despite being huge worm like outsiders, are watchers of lust. These creatures watch over mortals who live with and engage their lust, their segmented rings cataloging each sin. To make things more interesting then just being living catalogs of sin though, they actually help those sinners by eating those who would dare come between the sinner of lust and his victims.One of the more unique aspects of Hordes is the Companions of Malice. These are warriors who serve as mercenaries under Tyrexxus, the Exarch, or master, of Wrath. These creatures can't be hired with gold and require “services, souls, blood, feasts of wicked pleasures, and worse.” There are footmen, lieutenants, captains, and U'ulgar, the Lord Commander of the Companions clocking in at a CR of 25, perfect for those near epic characters who laugh at Dragons. When fighting him, make sure to be well prepared as he weilds Gyvast the Foe Bane, a vorpal falchion that's also a human bane.The last monstrous compendium, Legions of Hell, covers the different rulers quickly with a paragraph or two, provides devil traits, and then goes straight into the game stats.  These are some old friends like Antaia, the Witch Queen, a powerful spellcaster clocking in at a CR of 20, in addition to a few new comers who I can't pick out off as I no longer own the original. The Shadow Angel for instance, looks new to me, but... I do know that the 3.5 changes have taken place.  For example, when looking at skills for the Infernal Prestige Classes, such as Balan's Jackal, he has Survival instead of Wilderness Lore and Intuit Direciton. The skill changes aren't at 100% though for the Plaguelord has the Class Skill of Pick Pocket, which is now Sleight of Hand. The biggest change to CR I can see has to be Iblis, the Duke of Pride, a fallen solar who is now the highest CR in the book, weighting in at 40.Other material fills out the book in the appendices. The first one covers some backgrounds on the angelic choirs, even as the second one updates the core unholy warrior class. The third one introduces two overviews of fiendish cities provided by Enkwell Press, Byldgewater in Gehenna and Cacoethes in the Abyss. Ed Bourelle does a great job of illustrating the two but meaty details aren't provided. Those looking for a master CR listing have one, but it doesn't include page listings. Not a big problem as the index does but a few different takes, one by straight CR, another by type (daemon, demon and devil) and page numbers, would've been nice.Art continues to be good. The work on Gehenna is very well done but the art style is dramatically different in some cases, almost like something out of Talislanta in terms of style and differentness. Sam Wood, Raven Mimura, Denniz Detwiller, Toren Atkinson and Brian Despain all add their considerable talents to make this a visually pleasing book and have my thanks for their efforts. Layout is generally two columns with descriptions pull off in black with white text. One page, 68, had some layout issues where some of the text was lost but Green Ronin already has a replacement <a href="http://www.greenronin.com/cgi-bin/product.cgi?prodid=1025#related" target="_blank">PDF</a>page out.My biggest disappointments with the book is that too many high ranking fiends aren't written out in game terms out and are presented like the Gods from Book of the Righteous. That's good for deities but poor for demon, daemon and devil lords, especially when other companies, including WotC, have already provided some baselines for us. In addition, the price, while fair for a product of this size, may be a little tough to swallow for someone who has the previous books and only wants the Hordes of Gehenna.I know, some are asking, well Joe, where would those stats go? How about getting rid of Angelic Choirs and the Fallen? While it's nice to know the different Choirs, I want the lord stats. While I enjoy the minor details in appendix three on two fiendish cities, once again, I find that I'd get more use out of demon lord stats. The full page breaks between books is nice, but not necessary, freeing up more space for those missing stats. In short, I see the room for adding those stats.The variety in the book does make up for the lack of demon lord stats and there are many creatures in the upper challenge ratings to attack even those epic level characters.Those looking for a one shop stopping place for all things fiendish have a great resource in the Book of Fiends and will be hard pressed to find a better source of outsider enemies for their campaign.</blockquote>

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