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Dungeons & Dragons Edition 3.5
Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
Raw Chaos and Pure Evil
Out of the maelstrom of chaos the demons came–a primordial horde of perverse souls consumed by hatred. They are as ancient and infinite as the multiverse itself. Even the bottomless Abyss could not contain their malice, and so they spread out across the planes, corrupting and destroying everything in their path. No living soul is beyond their reach, and with each conquered soul their numbers grow. What can stand against such a terrifying onslaught?
This supplement for the D&D® game presents the definitive treatise on demons and their unspeakable home plane. Along with information about the physiology, psychology, society, and schemes of demonkind, you’ll find feats, spells, items, and tactics commonly employed by demons and those who oppose them. This book also provides detailed information on various demons, demon lords, and Abyssal layers.
For use with these Dungeons & Dragons® core books
Player’s Handbook™ Dungeon Master’s Guide™ Monster Manual™
Out of the maelstrom of chaos the demons came–a primordial horde of perverse souls consumed by hatred. They are as ancient and infinite as the multiverse itself. Even the bottomless Abyss could not contain their malice, and so they spread out across the planes, corrupting and destroying everything in their path. No living soul is beyond their reach, and with each conquered soul their numbers grow. What can stand against such a terrifying onslaught?
This supplement for the D&D® game presents the definitive treatise on demons and their unspeakable home plane. Along with information about the physiology, psychology, society, and schemes of demonkind, you’ll find feats, spells, items, and tactics commonly employed by demons and those who oppose them. This book also provides detailed information on various demons, demon lords, and Abyssal layers.
For use with these Dungeons & Dragons® core books
Player’s Handbook™ Dungeon Master’s Guide™ Monster Manual™
157 pages, Hardcover
First published June 13, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 18, 2024
A sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 that explores the official lore of demons and their home plane, the Abyss. It breaks down as follows:
- Chapter 1 focuses on demon physiology and behavior. Some interesting stuff in here, such as different demonic personalities. Though the conceit of learning about demonic anatomy through vivisection is pretty ick, and the rundown of combat tactics can get a bit into the weeds (but certainly useful for someone!).
- Chapter 2 provides new and updated demons, and describes the three major types of demons: the majority tanar'ri, the prehistoric obyrith, and the incorporeal loumara. The writeups here are pretty useful, with nice breakdowns of lore, tactics, and sample encounters.
- Chapter 3 details the major demon lords, ranging from familiar names like Orcus and Demogorgon, to lesser-known entities like Obox-Ob and Pale Night. Notably, these are are scaled for below-epic-level PCs, but they do provide upgrade guidelines. The writeups are slightly less substantive than the ones for generic demons, but still useful.
- Chapter 4 covers options for players, including new feats (such as "Abyssal Heritor" feats that give you demonic powers) and new spells. The feats are mostly just some kind of bonus, but the spells have more substance. There's also information for an organization the players can join, the anti-demon (but not quite heroic) Black Cult of Ahm, as well as connected artifacts known as the Black Scrolls of Ahm.
- Chapter 5 is the longest chapter, providing an overview of the Abyss. The first section is general, covering the Abyss's history, denizens, travel routes, and hazards such as "cacklestorms". The rest details specific layers of the Abyss, mostly those ruled by the demon lords earlier in the book. For each layer, we get major locations and NPCs - many drawn from lore in earlier editions - which provide a wealth of potential plot hooks.
- A final appendix provides one-line rundowns of more demon lords and Abyssal layers, among other lists.
Overall this is a very useful resource with many ideas for adventuring in the Abyss. The player material is probably the weakest element of the book, and more details on the lesser-known lords and layers would have been nice, but there's a lot here to like for planar adventuring. (A-)
- Chapter 1 focuses on demon physiology and behavior. Some interesting stuff in here, such as different demonic personalities. Though the conceit of learning about demonic anatomy through vivisection is pretty ick, and the rundown of combat tactics can get a bit into the weeds (but certainly useful for someone!).
- Chapter 2 provides new and updated demons, and describes the three major types of demons: the majority tanar'ri, the prehistoric obyrith, and the incorporeal loumara. The writeups here are pretty useful, with nice breakdowns of lore, tactics, and sample encounters.
- Chapter 3 details the major demon lords, ranging from familiar names like Orcus and Demogorgon, to lesser-known entities like Obox-Ob and Pale Night. Notably, these are are scaled for below-epic-level PCs, but they do provide upgrade guidelines. The writeups are slightly less substantive than the ones for generic demons, but still useful.
- Chapter 4 covers options for players, including new feats (such as "Abyssal Heritor" feats that give you demonic powers) and new spells. The feats are mostly just some kind of bonus, but the spells have more substance. There's also information for an organization the players can join, the anti-demon (but not quite heroic) Black Cult of Ahm, as well as connected artifacts known as the Black Scrolls of Ahm.
- Chapter 5 is the longest chapter, providing an overview of the Abyss. The first section is general, covering the Abyss's history, denizens, travel routes, and hazards such as "cacklestorms". The rest details specific layers of the Abyss, mostly those ruled by the demon lords earlier in the book. For each layer, we get major locations and NPCs - many drawn from lore in earlier editions - which provide a wealth of potential plot hooks.
- A final appendix provides one-line rundowns of more demon lords and Abyssal layers, among other lists.
Overall this is a very useful resource with many ideas for adventuring in the Abyss. The player material is probably the weakest element of the book, and more details on the lesser-known lords and layers would have been nice, but there's a lot here to like for planar adventuring. (A-)
May 28, 2015
A sourcebook for those players of D&D who really like to understand why their demons are so chaotic and evil, I suppose real fans of all things abyssal will really find this book worthwhile, but I must admit, it didn’t do much for me. Basically, the book is thus: after a run through D&D demonic lore, rounding out some new demons, and a discussion of the demon lords (which often feels a bit repetitious to those who have the ‘Book of Vile Darkness’), and some good descriptions of various layers of the Abyss, there’s nothing new. There are feats, but they’re repeated feats from other works. There are spells, most of which your PC wouldn’t use, but will be nice for the DM to toss at the players. But is there enough fresh and interesting information here to make the price worthwhile? Not for me. Unless you’re going for a demon-centric campaign, I’d skip this sourcebook.
May 28, 2009
I'd read on Monster Brains that this had some good art in it. Mostly, it doesn't. Still, I'm generally all for any encyclopedic collection of demons and monsters. And hey, cost me 2 bucks.
January 31, 2011
Eh, relatively typical. Didn't "try to be evil".
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews