The second Book of Fiends, "Armies of the Abyss"
describes a host of new demons and demon princes, and provides some contextual
background for the Abyss itself. Like the first book in this series, this
one mentions the "big names" in demonology and refers to them as an intrinsic
part of the picture. None the less, the fiends depicted here are new ones
that shouldn't be found elsewhere, making exception for the fact that some
of their names are common to earthly mythology.
In the first chapter and throughout the book, a bit of geography and history
of the Abyss is proposed, laying down big lines for possible incursions (only
at the gaming table, of course).
This book includes twenty-one demon princes that are given about a page each
and are approached somewhat like gods. Their descriptions do not include any
stats but tell which domains are granted by worshiping them, as well as the
nature and form of that worship. The layer of the Abyss ruled by these entities
is also detailed. Each description covers that demon prince's philosophy and
the particular facets that evil and chaos wear through them. Many different
kinds of evil are described here, from the debauché to the maniacal. The authors
found some of their inspiration in western occultism, as their bibliography
testifies, and as the appearance of words such as Qlippoth confirms. The description
of each demon prince is fascinating, and sometimes disturbing enough that
I decided to read something else just before going to sleep.
To insure the worship of these demon princes, a new core class has been created:
the thaumaturge. The thaumaturge is a divine spellcaster with the same access
to spells as a cleric. These spells are granted by a demon prince, whose worship
also grants access to two domains. The book includes ten new domains (see
below). The thaumaturge's casting ability is based on charisma, the class
gets a wizard's BAB and saves and a d6 HD. The thaumaturge suffers from "corruption"
when gaining levels. These corrupions will have debilitating effects of great
or small severity, but as far as I can tell this element greatly disadvantages
the class without any counterbalancing benefits. The thaumaturge can actually
suffer charisma point losses, diminishing the character's capacity to use
magic.
For those of us who need something to kill (or things to kill PCs with), the
book also includes twenty-six new demons with stats, ranging from CR2 creatures
to the CR25 Armageddon Beast. These new monsters are highly original. Their
descriptions further develop the Abyss as an environment and reference previous
material when the creatures serve one of the new demon princes.
This is an superbly well written book and a worthy sequel to the first one
in this series. A formidable amount of research must have been done to come
up with all the twisted and complex entities resting between the covers of
"Armies of the Abyss".
