Hi everyone,
I was just thinking about how the savage tide is gonna feature demogorgon and possible in the last three adventures several other demon lords. It will also feature a couple adventures in the abyss.
I've never done much plane hopping in my campaigns before, and other than the demonomicon(sp?) articles in dragon know very little about the demon princes and the abyss.
I was just wondering if anyone out there purchased fiendish codex 1 and if it would be a helpful resource for this campaign. It looks cool but with alot of books out there to be bought and only so much money to go around, I wanted to be sure that it would be useful. Also if there are any other resources that are worth getting please let me know. I have a manual of the planes and planar handbook and I plan to read those.
Thanks,
Jay
I have it and I found it to be very interesting with a lot of usable material. There are write-ups and stats for each demon lord (Demogorgon, Dagon, Graz'zt, Orcus, etc.), domains for clerics worshipping them and a lot of really well-written material. No prestige classes, but a bunch of new feats and new demons, like rutterkin and such. They graciously avoided writing about Lolth, which I'm glad for because she's a huge spotlight hog and focused on aforementioned less detailed Demon Princes. I think Fiendish Codex is a good purchase, especially if you have the Book of Vile Darkness and access to the 'Thrall of (insert Demon Prince)' prestige classes.
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Hordes of the Abyss is a must-have for this campaign, IMHO. All the major movers and shakers referenced in the last few adventure synopses in the Dungeon preview are at least mentioned, and it's a rollicking good read. It even covers some stuff the PCs might be able to use to fight Demogorgon, and make some alliances along the way. Nothing like helping to free some eladrin kids from the Abyss to help sell the powers that be on sending you some aid.
Plus Erik and James both worked on it... which I'm sure was just coincidental. :)
If you wanna get real hardcore, you can try to dig up some old 2nd edition stuff on these guys--Faces of Evil: The Fiends comes to mind--but it'll pretty much just be superfluous background, and all the important stuff is condensed, updated, and re-spiffified in Hordes.
For general planes-hopping, you should at least take a gander at Manual of the Planes and Planar Handbook. MoP is 3.0, so you should either find it dirt cheap at a Hastings or FLGS, or not at all. These books won't directly focus on the Abyss, but it'll give you a feel for how planes work and how to survive them while they're... uh, working.
Just some thoughts.
I'm an old Planerscape fan, so I love stuff involving the planes. I'm hoping the next few APs diverge a bit from "demon princes gone wild!"--two out of the three APs so far have involved hot tanar'ri-fighting action. A little's okay, and taking on Demogorgon's definitely not like anything out there, but still. Maybe its time for the aberrations to shine. Or maybe its time for some good ol' fashioned mortal vs. mortal kombat--you know, a nice war or something to spice things up. It can be sparked by some planar/divine/non-Oerthly cause, but not every campaign has to be about "evil demi-diety threatens to bring down the whole planet", right?
Crap, I just wrote out Iuz. Forget it. I will trust implicitly in the scheming minds of the Paizo editors.
I agree. Hordes of the Abyss is a good buy, and should come in very handy for this adventure. It contains the barl-gura demon, which looks like it's gonna be featured in Adventure 4. Of course they'll print the stats for it in the issue with Adventure 4, but there might not be as much flavor text as the FC1 has. The Web Enhancement has aspects of the demon lords, and one of the adventures has an Aspect of Demogorgon. But even if you don't use the FC1 specifically for this adventure, it has some great monsters. The Molydeus in particular is quite cool. Also, the book has great descriptions (and maps!) of several layers of the Abyss.
Thanks, everyone. That info really swayed me. I'll prolly pick up the codex soon.
N'wah I agree that AP 4 could use some new flavor. i'd be happy even with egtting some Lawful evil in the mix as so far shackled has been pretty chaotic and savage tide seems pretty chaotic. Although i'd be just as happy to get an aberration based plot or just a mad wizard or something. But hey it doesn't mean i'm not totally psyched about STAP, because I really am.
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Oh yeah, totally. I'm psyched so much about STAP that I'm having trouble keeping focused on AoW, which we haven't even started playing yet. I am literally two feet away from the folder where my AoW player's character sheets dwell, with full intricate backstories and fantastic concepts... one guy even listed the birthdays of all of his family members so he can write them birthday letters. I've got the first pre-game note to his folks in an envelope in my DM folder.
But Sasserine... she calls to me... must resist!
Oh yeah, totally. I'm psyched so much about STAP that I'm having trouble keeping focused on AoW, which we haven't even started playing yet.
But Sasserine... she calls to me... must resist!
I hear ya, currently I am playing my best friend's AoW campaign, we are probably halfway through The Spire of Long Shadows. I'm a bastard mix of Pally, ranger, tempest, and monk wielding the sword of aaqa and lightning sword (which is a very fun character to play). I am DMing next and want to run savage tide. I am very excited to see what trouble awaits my friends when they face off against Demogorgon.
For general planes-hopping, you should at least take a gander at Manual of the Planes and Planar Handbook. MoP is 3.0, so you should either find it dirt cheap at a Hastings or FLGS, or not at all. These books won't directly focus on the Abyss, but it'll give you a feel for how planes work and how to survive them while they're... uh, working.
Don't forget to pick up the 3.5 update handbook, which covers the MotP!
TK
As my Dungeon has yet to show up, I started reading Hordes to get ready, As I wonder were in the Gaping Maw will the fianle battle will rage. Will it be in the halls of his sanctuary, Or mabe after battleing though his citty making it up the way the pyrimd. What do you guys think?
I looked at Hordes of the abyss last night at my FLGS. I'me gonna buy it when my next paycheck comes in. I thought the info about gaping maw looked awesome. I wonder how much of it they'll use. Could the ship accidentally sail too close the maelstrom? Or encounter that other ship, was it the black empress? and have to deal with that Lich's minions? If the PCs succeed in stopping Demogorgon will that Balor rise to fill Demo's shoes and will he be vengeful or thankful towards the PCs?
I have a filling save tide is going to have a sad emding. After killing demorgon, your going to have tone of demons trying to kill you/ or trying to take the spot of Demorgron. Also those that you made alies with may now try to kill you befor you can come to try and get them
I need to look over FC1 again, mainly as I'm thinking of switching off on the demon lord behind all this. But then again a part of might actually be prejudiced in favor of Dagon over Demogorgon.