Pathfinder Chronicles: Book of the Damned—Volume 1: Princes of Darkness (PFRPG)

This has, hands-down, the BEST art in any paizo product ever. I don't know who the artists are, but every single piece of art (trust me, I checked every one) is simply beautiful. Use these artists more. and more. and more.

This has, hands-down, the BEST art in any paizo product ever. I don't know who the artists are, but every single piece of art (trust me, I checked every one) is simply beautiful. Use these artists more. and more. and more.

Word to your momma, your daddy, AND your hoochy coochy grandma.

I just downloaded this, and am listening to In Flames: Clayman while reading it! Suitably goddamned metal! \m/

Thanks Wes, and Paizo!

I just downloaded this, and am listening to In Flames: Clayman while reading it! Suitably goddamned metal! \m/

Thanks Wes, and Paizo!

"Metal" huh. That's a new one for my stuff. Thanks!

Yeah but doesn't it fill you with a deep but satisfying killing dragons with your bare viking clad fists kind of anger?

Yeah but doesn't it fill you with a deep but satisfying killing dragons with your bare viking clad fists kind of anger?

Umm nooo...I never thought that strapping naked vikings to my fists would be an option, actually. Way to think outside the box!

DM: "You see a dragon up ahead, what do you do?"

ME: "I take out my vikings, strap them to my fists, and..."

DM: ?

ME: "It's cause I'm angry."

I know right, how metal is that!

Looks like the Amazon info for this book is really old (wrong cover, wrong author, etc). It needs updating.

Looks like the Amazon info for this book is really old (wrong cover, wrong author, etc). It needs updating.

Dude, Amazon still shows the placeholder cover for The Great Beyond. ;)

I take it I did not start my Chronicles subscription in time (October 10th) to get this as part of the subscription? I thought I was given the option to start with this product, but since I don't have it, or a DL available, I guess I screwed it up.

Looks like the Amazon info for this book is really old (wrong cover, wrong author, etc). It needs updating.

Amazon generally takes the initial information and mock-up covers we send to the book distributors several months before the books come out and runs with those. We often don't have authors or covers assigned yet when we do these things, and we don't really have any direct contact with Amazon at all, so it's somewhat difficult to micromanage our products when they show up on their site.

I have two comments to make about this book and the second book, which appears to be focused on demons:

1. Awesome to see that 3.5-compatible material is still being created, and that it's so great. Tyrants of the Nine Hells could be my favorite 3.5 splat book of all time, so this book is great, and I'm looking forward to part 2.

2. However: I have to second the reviewer Patoumonde's comments. I'm glad I have the PDF, because in several cases I've had to copy/paste the text to figure out what the hell it said (yuk yuk). But seriously - these are reference books - please make them legible. That was my beef about The Dragon a ways back when the layout got too funky, hopefully the Pathfinder stuff isn't heading down the same road.

I take it I did not start my Chronicles subscription in time (October 10th) to get this as part of the subscription? I thought I was given the option to start with this product, but since I don't have it, or a DL available, I guess I screwed it up.

We normally do not back-date the start of a subscription. However, in this case, the book of the Damned and the next volume, Seekers of Secrets, came out at virtually the same time, so there was not much of an opportunity for you to actually start with this book.

I will, therefore, put a subscription copy of this book into your sidecart to go out with your next subscription shipment.

Thanks,
cos

Where are the stats for the BIG DEVILS!!!!! C'mon guys - why are you so afraid to do it up for Asmodeus? Do I have to go back to 3.5????

Well, if there would be stats for Gods and Archdevils there would be no space for anything else apart from front and back cover maybe ;)

Where are the stats for the BIG DEVILS!!!!! C'mon guys - why are you so afraid to do it up for Asmodeus? Do I have to go back to 3.5????

Well assuming you are serious. With that in mind I personally don't want to see stats for gods, I never liked the whole. The PC's can eventually kill gods. Now Archdevils, for their mortal world shell? Sure I can see stats for that, not even sure i would want to see them stated up for their home plan. Though i wouldn't be against it for those that like that play style.

I am being serious. 3.5 published some good examples in their Tyrants of Hell book. I have an Epic adventure that includes 27th level (all legit and certainly challenging) characters, and I want to see how they stack up against, as well as include the Demon Lords etc. into the game - in the vein of the masterful Demogorgon CR 33 stat block that Dragon magazine put out. I am really tired of the lack of attention put on Epic material.

I am being serious. 3.5 published some good examples in their Tyrants of Hell book. I have an Epic adventure that includes 27th level (all legit and certainly challenging) characters, and I want to see how they stack up against, as well as include the Demon Lords etc. into the game - in the vein of the masterful Demogorgon CR 33 stat block that Dragon magazine put out. I am really tired of the lack of attention put on Epic material.

Well right now with out epic rules they are not really needed. When they do a epic level players book, then I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a epic level bestiary. But I kinda doubt they do it until then. But I have been wrong before.

Yes, and you will be wrong again....

LOL...I am just kidding! I just love EPIC, it's a fetish.

Where are the stats for the BIG DEVILS!!!!! C'mon guys - why are you so afraid to do it up for Asmodeus? Do I have to go back to 3.5????

Until we actually do something to actually support the epic level rules in Pathifnder, it's kinda foolish to provide lots of super-high CR stat blocks for monsters that are too powerful for core classes to fight against. And who'll use rules and abilities that would only be obsoleted or made more awkward with the release of the epic rules.

Remember how back in the early days of 3rd edition, the Deities & Demigods book came out before the Epic Level handbook? And how weird it was that things like gods and goddesses didn't use the rules for epic levels, even though pretty much ALL of their stat blocks were the very definition of epic level?

We don't want to repeat that.

Saradoc wrote:

Where are the stats for the BIG DEVILS!!!!! C'mon guys - why are you so afraid to do it up for Asmodeus? Do I have to go back to 3.5????

Until we actually do something to actually support the epic level rules in Pathifnder, it's kinda foolish to provide lots of super-high CR stat blocks for monsters that are too powerful for core classes to fight against. And who'll use rules and abilities that would only be obsoleted or made more awkward with the release of the epic rules.

Remember how back in the early days of 3rd edition, the Deities & Demigods book came out before the Epic Level handbook? And how weird it was that things like gods and goddesses didn't use the rules for epic levels, even though pretty much ALL of their stat blocks were the very definition of epic level?

We don't want to repeat that.

Woohoo I got to be right this time.

Oh James...of course you are right. Note the word "fetish" above. Wishful thinking, daydreaming, the need for high-powered creations to throw at my epic players who are using strangely concocted 3.5/Pathfinder builds...I could go on...but at the very least, on the verge of Thanksgiving, I want to thank you James and Jason, Monte, Sean Wesley and the rest of the team for putting out such great material. Thank you, and I mean it.

...

Until we actually do something to actually support the epic level rules in Pathifnder, it's kinda foolish to provide lots of super-high CR stat blocks for monsters that are too powerful for core classes to fight against. And who'll use rules and abilities that would only be obsoleted or made more awkward with the release of the epic rules.

Remember how back in the early days of 3rd edition, the Deities & Demigods book came out before the Epic Level handbook? And how weird it was that things like gods and goddesses didn't use the rules for epic levels, even though pretty much ALL of their stat blocks were the very definition of epic level?

We don't want to repeat that.

See, now that's what I love about Paizo, they're actually using fore thought in their designing of the game. That's one thing I hated about epic in 3.x in that WotC did it as an after thought and suddenly things were all out of whack. Monsters that were meant to be end game suddenly weren't and so either new versions had to be made, making the old one redundant, or something totally new had to be introduced that left the begging question. Where were those monsters to begin with? Doing it this way those monsters are there, but mysterious until the rules for epic are released at which point heroes of that level will learn what it takes to put an arch devil or god in their place. Or at least make them blink.

Robert Miller 55 wrote:

I take it I did not start my Chronicles subscription in time (October 10th) to get this as part of the subscription? I thought I was given the option to start with this product, but since I don't have it, or a DL available, I guess I screwed it up.

We normally do not back-date the start of a subscription. However, in this case, the book of the Damned and the next volume, Seekers of Secrets, came out at virtually the same time, so there was not much of an opportunity for you to actually start with this book.

I will, therefore, put a subscription copy of this book into your sidecart to go out with your next subscription shipment.

Thanks,
cos

No, THANK YOU!!

Just another reason for me to cite why I love Paizo despite not playing or running PF!

*sigh* For some reason the review monster keeps eating the text I've written for my review of this fine book.

Oh well, awesome fluff, great crunch, excellent that you didn't stat the archfiends, and please keep flavor text such as Before and Exodus in future installments of Book of the Damned. That's the gist of it.

I'm already getting this so it will not affect that decision either way but will any material that Erik Mona himself did for Legions of Hell for Green Ronin and later got shoved into Book of Fiends find its merry way into this volume updated to the Pathfinder rules system? I only ask because I rather enjoy Book of Fiends and would like to squeeze more use out of it. As is I have a massive conversion project I'm doing based on several books.

OK, I just finished reading this and apparently the answer to my question is no. But can anyone who also has this spot me on the last monster given? I think it looks a lot like certain things in the Dark Crystal or am I going insane?

I'm already getting this so it will not affect that decision either way but will any material that Erik Mona himself did for Legions of Hell for Green Ronin and later got shoved into Book of Fiends find its merry way into this volume updated to the Pathfinder rules system? I only ask because I rather enjoy Book of Fiends and would like to squeeze more use out of it. As is I have a massive conversion project I'm doing based on several books.

Actaully... Erik didn't work on Legions of Hell. His major contribution to that series was Armies of the Abyss... so it'll be Book of the Damned II coming out this Gen Con that I'm writing that'll be the book that's similar. And as it works out, I'm a huge fan of Book of Fiends and Armies of the Abyss. We've used a LOT of material from Book of Fiends in the Adventure Paths, actually, and have incorporated several of the demon lords form it into Golarion's cosmology. The only thing that doesn't mesh super well between Golarion and the Book of Fiends as far as the demons go is Nocticula, who we turned into more of a queen of the succubi and assassin than what she was in Book of Fiends. There are countless demon lords in the Abyss, after all; the implication is that ALL of those mentioned in the Book of Fiends have a place in Golarion's cosmology, but only a few of them have a major role to play in the campaign world itself to this point.

As for Hell... since hell's a much smaller place than the Abyss, with a much more limited cast of characters, the way the two work IS different there. We do use some of the devils in Book of Fiends, but the way Hell's set up and who rules it is pretty different.

Glad to know some of what I and others consider the cream of the crop as far as D20 is gong to be dutifully recycled.

Where are the stats for the BIG DEVILS!!!!! C'mon guys - why are you so afraid to do it up for Asmodeus? Do I have to go back to 3.5????

James already tackled half the problem with this (sorry to weigh in so late one this, I'm slow). The other element is that the stats for any one of the archdevils would have required about a page each (in some cases more), meaning that each archdevil would risk actually losing description and take up double the amount of room (as this book is built for content taking up whole pages). So that would give us sections with 1 page of description about the layer and 2 on the ruler - which seems silly. So to keep the format balanced we'd have to do two spreads on each layer, alternating back and forth between layer and archdevil - meaning that Chapter #1 would take up four times the page count it currently does, not wrapping up until around page 40, leaving 24 pages to cover all of devil-kind, magic, new rules, and monsters. What that would have actually probably meant - as you can't have a book about Hell with no discussion of devils - chopping out all the Book of the Damned intermissions, and probably the entire new rules or monster section - all of which seems poor.

At the end of the day, it made better sense to describe the archdevils and put in a bunch of new rules and devils and ideas to inspire infernal adventures than walls of questionably useful statblocks. After all, you're going to encounter Mammon in a campaign how many times? Once? Maybe. And if you do, he's pretty much a deity and probably works better as a plot device than a CR-ed encounter that pseudo-extrapolates our non-existent epic-level rules. New tools that any GM running any level game can use thus seemed like a better choice than trying to make this a book useful only to those running epic-level romps.

At the end of the day, it made better sense to describe the archdevils and put in a bunch of new rules and devils and ideas to inspire infernal adventures than walls of questionably useful statblocks.

In the meantime, I'd like to alert readers to the fully statted-up archdevils in (the freely available) Dragon Magazine 360.

Like the demon lords, it shouldn't be too hard to see who's who in the D&D->Golarion overhaul (way less, actually, since few names of the archdevils are copyrighted - are any?).

No more trickle-down demonomics?

The Artifact, "book of the Damned:Diabloic" mentions the Spell "Summon HellMouth" but I cannot find it anywhere, did it get cut from the book? or will it be in the advanced players guide?

thanks is advance!

I see that Paizo is putting out the 2nd installment of Book of the Damned out, but was wondering if Angels and Archons would get the same treatment as the Devils and Demons are. I ask b/c i was quite excited with the 3.5 material in Fiendish Codex 1 & 2, but was a little let down when it happened that no Celestial Codex would be printed. =/

Im currently writing a "Hellgate" esc. style campaign in which Demons are the invaders and have effectively decimated all life on the Material Plane. The surviving native (including my future PCs) have allied themselves with either Devils or Angels and are doing what they can to close the portals to the Abyss...so you can see my frustration with so little material on the Celestials.

All in all, these look to be yet another AMAZING addition to the Pathfinder collection. =D

The problem is, Good outsiders are rarely enemies, and most GMs would rather see more books with things to throw against the party.

Personally I think that Good outsiders make for excellent enemies and I do hope we get a celestials book or two at some point. There was an article in a Dragon magazine once about using celestials as "bad guys" and I've used the advise in that article to great effect in my games.

I do see your point, though. Demons, devils, etc. are more obvious choices and it's good that they get the first few years in the spotlight.

I just recently bought this. Are the infernal dukes discussed in detail in another product? It just gives their names on the inside back cover.

Also, are the rulers of each of the levels statted anywhere?

Pardon my asking, but am I just missing the info for the 'Imp Companion' listed for the Diabolist PrC? Or is the info on page 47 all there is?

Did you see the text relating to it on page 45? I'm not sure what you think is missing.

I just recently bought this. Are the infernal dukes discussed in detail in another product? It just gives their names on the inside back cover.

Also, are the rulers of each of the levels statted anywhere?

We don't yet have rules for monsters or characters above CR 20 (other than a few creatures in the Bestiaries that edge into that category), and don't have stat blocks for such creatures because of that. Yet.

We don't yet have rules for monsters or characters above CR 20 (other than a few creatures in the Bestiaries that edge into that category), and don't have stat blocks for such creatures because of that. Yet.

Okay, thanks.

Did you see the text relating to it on page 45? I'm not sure what you think is missing.

I was referring to a small table listing the increases to Hit Dice, AC, characteristics, and whatever else a Diabolist's imp gets as the character increases in level. I suppose I was just missing it.

I'll have to go back and check.

Ah, okay, now I see what you meant. I must have blinked and missed it. Sorry about that.

Np, glad *I* didn't miss something. :)

Np, glad *I* didn't miss something. :)

Yeah, though it looks like the Diabolist will end up with one tough Imp. Hmm, give him Use Magic Device as a skill, and a wand or the like, set him up as a sniper...

I'm getting soem nasty ideas here. ;)

I enjoyed reading this. However, I don't like the method of presenting the Devils and Demons in sixty-four page book. I think there should be hard cover books for Devils and Demons. (with the leaders of hell and demon lords statted)

I have some minor complaints about the art work.

The description for Barbatos indicates he has seven fingers but the picture shows five fingered hands. Also, the picture doesn't give much of a view of his fungal beard.

Why are we only given a picture of one of the whore queens?

I don't like the picture for Asmodeus because it's mostly his throne. He deserved a much large picture.

You won't see any stat blocks for the Big Boys until Paizo have settled on a fitting way to handle epic-level play in Pathfinder RPG. That hasn't happened yet (officially at least) and they've made no announcements that it'll happen any time soon.

As for the size of the books, 64-page books are standard for the Campaign Setting line. Other than the campaign setting book itself, all books in this product line have a page count of 64. I doubt that's something Paizo will change any time soon for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is manpower.

To be honest, I don't mind that the fiend books have a page count of 64. I think of them as sources of inspiration rather than definitive books on the subject. They're chock full of material for the GM to play with and expand on as he sees fit.

I would LOVE to do a giant book about devils and demons and all the other fiend races.

Also, I would LOVE to stat up the arch devils and demon lords and horsemen and all that, but at the current point, as mentioned above, we can't.

Until we work out exactly how post-20th level stuff works (it WON'T work the same as the 3.5 Epic Level Handbook, that's for sure), it's not responsible to stat up things much beyond where the game currently supports, which is about CR 25. All of the demon lords and archdevils and the like, were we to put them on a CR scale, would probably be at about CR 35 or so. Maybe higher, maybe lower. We can't say yet because we don't know how the PCs will end up working at that point.

If and when we do an epic level expansion to the game, I suspect that stats for lots of unique bad guys like demon lords and archdevils will be coming out VERY SOON thereafter. And at that point, a big book that is basically the rules version of the Book of the Damned might be fun...

I would LOVE to do a giant book about devils and demons and all the other fiend races.

Also, I would LOVE to stat up the arch devils and demon lords and horsemen and all that, but at the current point, as mentioned above, we can't.

Until we work out exactly how post-20th level stuff works (it WON'T work the same as the 3.5 Epic Level Handbook, that's for sure), it's not responsible to stat up things much beyond where the game currently supports, which is about CR 25. All of the demon lords and archdevils and the like, were we to put them on a CR scale, would probably be at about CR 35 or so. Maybe higher, maybe lower. We can't say yet because we don't know how the PCs will end up working at that point.

If and when we do an epic level expansion to the game, I suspect that stats for lots of unique bad guys like demon lords and archdevils will be coming out VERY SOON thereafter. And at that point, a big book that is basically the rules version of the Book of the Damned might be fun...

I can't wait!