Why all the demon love?

[Sammael]

Because the designers are afraid of writing about devils. Heck, Erik Mona said so here several times. Also, demons are infinitely easier to write about. All they want to do is blow stuff up. None of that complicated "story" thing.*

*The above paragraph was written in character and should not be taken entirely seriously.

 

[Imruphel]

Well with all this demon love going around I'm rather hoping that one of the designers will come up with a good explanation as to why the tanar'ri are immune to electricity.

Of course, that also raises the question as to why balors aren't surrounded by a great electrical storm rather than fire. After all, surely the Abyssal generals of the Blood War are aware that their baatezu opponents are neither immune nor resistant to electricity while the tanar'ri are? Or does being of chaotic alignment mean that they are not supposed to make sense like that?

 

[paradox42]

I want a stereogram guide to the Far Realm.

...what?

Off topic from demons, but in fairness I should point out that 4-dimensional stereograms do not yet exist- so you'll be waiting for a while unfortunately. 5-D and higher are going to take even longer.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

For the same reason people attach 'Chaotic Evil' to the descriptions of any particularly psychotic bad guys. When someone imagines a dangerous and destructive bad guy, they tend to think of them as being chaotic evil.

Lawful evil is a harder sell.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Kaodi]

What baggage to devils have the demons do not have?

Anyway... now that Glasya has finally received her promotion, I think it would be an ideal time for a campaign based around a massive new plot she is cutting her teeth on...

 

[Celebrim]

I've never really understood the attraction of either of them. It seems to me that if they are common, then they become mundane, and if mundane then they loss whatever value that they might possibly have to the story. They seem to me to be the sort of monster to which Hitchcock's maxim to never show the monster definately applies. It's bizzarre how much attention that they recieve compared to thier importance to the game.

I've always had the impression that they were attractive more to people who like to read RPG books for enjoyment than anything else. They appeal I'd guess to the simulationist that wants to know how it all fits together.

 

[DragonLancer]

As long as it has tentacles, it's all good.

Oh yeah...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Heh, when I have used the 'Iconic Outsiders' in my game they have always been the devils - they have goals, methods, organization. While demons might be more destructive devils are slow corrupters, willing to take their time.

The fact that I picked up Tyrants of the Nine Hells and left the demons book on the shelf may indicate a personal bias.

The Auld Grump

 

[Geoffrey]

I prefer the Galchutt (from Monte Cook's Chaositech) to either demons or devils.

 

[James Jacobs]

Both Erik and I prefer demons over devils, so I suppose that's a major reason why they've had such a presence in the magazines lately. When combined with the fact that the Demonomicon and Savage Tide are two of the more popular series that are in the magazines right now, it sort of creates a perfect storm of chaotic evilness. One of the things that intrigues me the most about demons over devils in D&D, I suppose, is that there's more or less no cap to the development of demons, since there's 666 layers of the Abyss and no strict hierarchy of demon lords. For devils, you've got a very limited number of arch devils to work with; introducing new ones is really tricky and requires a lot more work; the same goes for the fact that all nine layers of Hell are pretty well detailed.

The Abyss is a deeper, larger pond, is all. It's nice to swim in a luxury swimming pool (devils), but I prefer floating around on the ocean and finding shores that are yet undiscovered (demons).

But I agree. More CERTAINLY needs to be done with yugoloths. And that's something that's hopefully going to be apparent in the next few issues of Dungeon, with more of the critters showing up in Savage Tide here and there. Including stats and an important role for a unique one...