While this was apparently the case in 2nd Edition AD&D, in 3rd Edition D&D they are apparently just factions - the terms demon and devil are back in use. Now that is an opponent to be feared.Īnother problem is the use of the terms "Tanar'ri" and "Baatezu" instead of "Demon" and "Devil". He has a CR of 20, 810 hp, +22 attack bonus, a ton of feats and abilities. A more accurately statted demon is Rahu, an ancient Indian demon-god. Smith's contributions to the book are few (though as I point out, some other authors share his problem). Ravana also had a mightly +3 attack bonus with his swords, and can cast spells as a 5th level wizard. Even relatively low level characters can do more than 10 points of damage in one attack, thus being able to hurt him. While he does have a damage reduction (10/+5), that's way too few. He has a challenge rating of 23, but has a whopping 34 hit points (that's sarcasm). The main culprit is his (and their, it's a relatively common problem in this book) use of damage reduction in lieu of giving hit points.įor an example, Ravana, King of the Rakshasas. While he's a nice guy, and creative (I've chatted with him a couple of times about his old game, Dark Conspiracy), Lester Smith seems to have problems understanding and creating stats in virtually every game system he's written for. The most glaring problem is the d20 stats. Unfortunately, this book has a lot of flaws that did annoy me. Some of the monsters in the MM are also re-done, such as the Succubus, Nixie, and Djinn, which might annoy some. Some people might find a problem with this, but not me. In some cases, it's not a unique creature that is worshipped, but an archetype. Many of these critters are also treated as deities, with all the relevent deity info given (most of these get 2 pages devoted to them). (This book contains such notables as Abraxas, Ahriman, Asmodeus, Astaroth, Azazel, Baal, Beelzebub, Belial, Lilith, Lucifer, Mammon, Samael, Satanchia, and Tiamat.) It's hard to tell in many cases, because of editing and terminology problems. The critters seem well researched, varied (though there is a lot of the beautiful woman that does something bad to you type), and are described in terms of appearance, behavior, history, and such.Ī lot of the creatures are unique. If you're read an old book on demonology or the like, most the art in it is from wood cuttings, and is somewhat grotesque. While the artwork is somewhat crude, this is apparently deliberate - much of the art seems derived or inspired by actual books on demons or drawings of those critters. The top, left, and right margins are virtually non-existant, and the bottom margin is only an inch or so, so each page is packed with text.Įach critter is also illustrated. They get a minimum of at least 1 page, with 2 pages being devoted to the most powerful or interesting. There are a total of 172 critters described. Summerian, Judeo Christian, Indian, Asian, North American, African, pretty much all over. The premise of the book is to describe and detail demons, devils, and evil critters from the real world, taken from most cultures mythology and religion.
It's a very heavy book, heavier than any other d20 hardback I have, so the paper is apparently pretty decent quality. It's more expensive than similarly sized books from some publishers (like Ritual & Relics from White Wolf), but the same price as some (the Sovereign Stone Campaign book, for instance). This is a large hardcover, 220 pages and priced at $29.95.
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