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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
It's actually one of the reasons they existed in the original mythology, depending on the source.
Anyway, they made Baphomet a level 20 wizard? Doesn't that make him just about the most powerful Demon Lord now?:smallconfused:
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Definitely not. The version of Orcus in ToH casts as a Necromancer 20/Cleric 15.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Ah. So they are just a lot stronger than the WotC versions of Archfiends, with their pitiful little spell-like abilities.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldan
Ah. So they are just a lot stronger than the WotC versions of Archfiends, with their pitiful little spell-like abilities.
Yeah. I can't help but think the fact that Necromancer Games, the publishers of the ToH series, have Orcus as their logo miiight just be a factor as well. :smalltongue:
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Fair enough, really. The guy was a god once for a while, so he should be strong. What's Demogorgon like, then?
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Demogorgon isn't in the ToH, sadly.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldan
Yeah, but... who ever thought Tiger Barbs were exciting monsters? There's so many more interesting aquatic critters. Giant Pistol Shrimp? Gulper eel? Goblin Shark (come on, after so many sea-creature related puns, that one is obvious)?
I sea. :smallbiggrin:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldan
Fair enough, really. The guy was a god once for a while, so he should be strong. What's Demogorgon like, then?
In savage tides they have a CR 35 one.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
The question is mostly if those things are actually worth their CR. There's the Asmodeus thread, where people are currently discussing level 20 wizards soloing all archfiends.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
It was mainly a beatstick, but it had the usual SLA of gate, pit fiends, meteor swarm. Level drain aura that was very impressive.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
I'd say the ToH versions are, at least. What better to fight level 20 wizards than 20+ level spellcasters that also have supernatural abilities on top of that? There are CRs over 30 for each of the major lower planers in the Tome; CR 35 Orcus for the demons, CR 37 Anthraxus for the daemons/yugoloths, and CR 39 Lucifer for the devils. Of course, we still have a little ways to go until we get to either Orcus or Lucifer.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
No Rhea stats? I'm disappointed.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Demon, Beluiri the Temptress
Tied to Baphomet, the CR 15 demon Baluiri is the Minotaur King's favored concubine. Other than venomous claws, nearly all of her abilities are based on seduction. I couldn't care less. Moving. On!
Demon, Cambion
The "brothers" of the alu-demons, the cambions are the result of an incubus-human mating. They are fat, blue-scaled, horned demons whose powers are geared toward them being the assassins of the lower demons. Cambions can detect magic and thoughts, levitate, induce fear, shapeshift, and wield hefty longswords that they like to coat in various poisons (although the baseline cambion presented here has a regular, non-poisoned longsword so that you can pick and choose whichever deadly delight you like). They're at least more interesting than the alu-demons, and these CR 6 baddies also become a plot hook of their own when you note that a cambion that is bested in combat and manages to retreat holds a long, long grudge that he will spend every waking moment trying to figure out how to fulfill.
Demon, Dagon (Demon Prince of Sea Creatures)
Dagon is a CR 27 demon lord (in spite of his princely title) that combines the utter devastation of an angry ocean with the seemingly innocent body of a merman. He is the lord of all that which dwells in the sea, and can summon immense amounts of sea life with a single word; he is also a patron deity of merfolk and locathah gone bad, as well as the infamous "sea devil" sahuagin, all of whom take upon themselves the mantle of the Scaled Ones when they enter his servitude. Spells that call upon the water do not affect him, and he is more than able to shoot back with a copious amount of magic of his own. An enemy that isn't using magic or is immune to Dagon's isn't out of the woods either, since this sadistic sea king has a supernatural trident at his disposal. Dagon is a foe that isn't to be taken lightly, since his realm is entirely submerged; when you fight the demon prince of the sea, you fight on his terms and in his element.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Halflings riding giant marmosets would be a good counter for my setting's goblins, who, when in the jungles, ride jaguars. :smallbiggrin:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rappy
Turtle, Giant Snapping
This, on the other hand, I could see being frightening. Snapping turtles are rather unpleasant to be around, and the idea of one that is 40 feet is frightening.
I used this one a while back. My party still refers to it as the "Giant Sodding Turtle".
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Demons of Corruption
Yes, these are after Dagon in the tome; no clue why, since everything else is rather orderly and alphabetical and all, but eh. The CR 3 barizou, CR 4 azizou, and CR 5 geruzou are a triad of bestial demons that live to corrupt mortals. They do this through an ability that lets them whisper less-than-sweet nothings into the ears of those that summon them to drive them slowly evil and insane. Corruptor demons can also try to summon other corruptor demons to their aid. Beyond that, each of the corruptor demons has some abilities unique to them. The sneaky barizou have stealth-related SLAs, bonuses to Hide checks, and a Rogue-style sneak attack, the violent azizou adds a few stench and fear-related SLAs to the mix and has a rend attack, and the sickly, mucus-oozing geruzou have "armor" of slime and can spit globules of gunk that has a slowing effect.
Demon, Daraka
Goat-like demons (as if that's a surprise), the CR 12 darakas act as coordinators for battalions of minor demons. As such, they can summon hordes of dretches or a couple of vrocks, and have SLAs such as chaos hammer and deeper darkness to disrupt enemy tactics. Oh, and did I mention it's body is crawling with scorpions? That is not a joke. The darakas actually spawn their own breed of scorpion (which deliver their venom by biting, for some unfathomable reason) that crawl all over their bodies and attack those that attempt to go toe to toe with a daraka unarmed. A daraka can also throw their scorpions like slingshot bullets. Now that is a demon. The daraka entry also contains a new spell, call lesser demon, which allows the caster to summon demons of 5 HD or less and is a 3rd level spell, allowing for earlier demon summoning. Why exactly it is listed in the daraka's entry, I am not sure; the daraka has 12 Hit Dice, and it doesn't have CLD as a spell-like ability either.
Demon Prince, Fraz-Urb'luu
The amusingly named Fraz-Urb'luu is certainly not amusing to those who face him; a CR 29 demon prince of deception. Resembling a winged ape with an ankylosaur tail, his realm is a heat-blasted one nearly devoid of life, save for the various mortal and demon slaves that the prince keeps around until he bores of them, at which time they're either eaten or tossed aside to be abused by their fellow slaves. In addition to the standard trickery and mind control-related SLAs, ominiscienc, mind-shielding and summoning powers of other high-ranking demons, Fraz has two rather unique powers: the first is gnash, which is like Rend but for bite attacks, and the second allows him to summon a demon prince or lord once per day and convince them that they were summoned by Fraz's opponent. This is a rather nasty ability, as being cheap-shotted by Orcus because Fraz disturbed his nap and blamed you on it is probably not the most fun event for the party.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Demon, Gharros
Resembling two-tailed scorpionfolk (or man-scorpions for those of y'all that prefer the older terminology), the CR 14 gharros are actually pretty bland beyond their shocking appearance and the fact that they can smash you in the face with a battleaxe while striking at you with two venomous barbs at the same time. They have the standard demon summoning, the same old same old SLAs for demons, etc. Then again, they are meant to be the shock troopers of the demons, so I guess they aren't supposed to be special...
Demon Lord, Jubilex the Faceless Lord
Jubilex is the gunky demon lord of oozes and ooze-like creatures; not sure how many of those would provide any stimulating worship, but that can be forgiven considering how unique the Faceless Lord is. He is an acid-secreting hunk of CR 23 slime, ruling his festering pit of muck with an iron...erm...pseudopod, I guess. In addition to having a fair dose of heat, cold, disease, and slime-flavored SLAS (including a variant wall of fire called wall of acid), Jubilex can cast as a 20th level Cleric with access to the Chaos, Evil, and Water domains, the ability to summon glabrezus and hezrous or various oozes, depending on his mood, fast healing and immunity to critical hits, and the typical demon lord omniscience. There's a sidebar that allows you to shake things up a little; it notes that you can replace the Water domain with the Ooze domain if you have the book Chaos Rising, and that if you have the Tome of Horrors II you can replace glabrezus and hezrous with the ability to summon lesser and greater ooze demons, which are more appropriate. Devotees of Jubilex are known as Masters of Ooze.
Demon Lord, Kostchtchie
Kostchtchie is the CR 23 demon lord of cold, somewhat resembling an elderly frost giant or a very large dwarf (yes, I note the irony there) wielding a +4 icy burst thundering warhammer that can also stun targets. He presides over an icy, mountainous reach of the Abyss and is a patron of frost giants. Kostchtchie casts as a 20th level Wizard and has SLAs with little deviation from the standard lineup of demon SLAs such as blasphemy and unholy aura. He also gets demon summoning and planar omniscience, surprise surprise. Devotees of Kostchtchie are known as Ice Lords and often engage in ritualized humanoid sacrifice.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rappy
There's a sidebar that allows you to shake things up a little; it notes that you can replace the Water domain with the Ooze domain if you have the book Chaos Rising, and that if you have the Tome of Horrors II you can replace glabrezus and hezrous with the ability to summon lesser and greater ooze demons, which are more appropriate. Devotees of Jubilex are known as Masters of Ooze.
:smallconfused: Referencing a book that comes later then the book making the reference seems weird to me.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Koury
:smallconfused: Referencing a book that comes later then the book making the reference seems weird to me.
I suppose they must've been planning the sequel already?
Or perhaps it was.... foreshadowing! *dun dun dun*
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Koury
:smallconfused: Referencing a book that comes later then the book making the reference seems weird to me.
Guess it's because they'd already done a 3.0 ToH, and this is an updated version.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
volthawk
Guess it's because they'd already done a 3.0 ToH, and this is an updated version.
Sounds likely... and if that wasn't the case, I'd have assumed it was because they'd wanted to put the relevant entries into the ToH, but had to cut them for space and as such had them ready for the (already planned but nowhere near finished) next book.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
volthawk
Guess it's because they'd already done a 3.0 ToH, and this is an updated version.
Correct. As stated in the first post, this is the 3.5 revision of the Tome of Horrors. There's another demon that has a similar reference to a later ToH volume, but we haven't reached him yet.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Oh, I assumed there was a logical explaination for it. It's just one of those things that catches my eye, I guess, and makes me look again. Like a naked girl or a platypus.
I mean, just look:
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Demon, Maphistal
Maphistal is a lieutenant of Orcus and the ruler of a castle known as the Keep of Bones. He is fanatically loyal to Orcus, but untrusting of anyone else, especially Orcus's general Sonechard. Maphistal is one of the few high-ranking demons without true spellcasting, only having evil- and necromantic-themed spell-like abilities. To keep his CR 21 ranking, though, he offsets this lack with the ability to deal Dexterity damage to creatures that have bones by fusing them together, he can summon both demons and the undead, his bite spreads demon fever, and he has a +3 unholy crushing mace that instakills creatures with skulls on a natural 20 followed by a critical hit confirmation by...well...crushing said skull.
Demon, Nabasu
Nabasus, or "death stealers", are torture-loving demons that look vaguely like human-sized imps. Stats are given for both the CR 7 "demonling" and the CR 10 "mature" nabasu; both are Medium-sized, but one is obviously stronger than the other. Both forms have sneak attack, damage reduction, spell resistance, immunity to electricity and poison (and resistances to most other energy types), and a death gaze, amongst other things here and there such as telepathy. The difference in their abilities comes with the demonling's feed ability. A nabasu demonling feeds on corpses to gain Hit Dice, exchanging this ability when it becomes a mature nabasu for an aura of paralysis and the ability to summon ghasts. Not ghouls, ghasts.
Demon, Nerizo
These lizard-gobliny-things are CR 9 demons used as hunting dogs by stronger demons, a fact that the nerizo resent greatly. Nerizos can spit globs of acid, have a Strength-damaging venom it can release from its spined tail, a handful of spell-like abilities including confusion and greater teleport, and the ability to summon dretches or another nerizo.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Demon Lord, Orcus
The big fiend on campus, Orcus is one of the "big three" of the evil outsiders in the ToH, being the CR 35 highest-powered demon in the title. The so-called "prince of the undead", Orcus is a powerful fiend whose main lot in life is winning wars against other demon lords and any other fools that dare oppose him. He wields a great black rod that can both induce a save-or-die effect and then turn around and animate those he has killed with it. In addition, he has a fear aura, a venomous stinger, the ability to summon demons and absurd amounts of undead (100 HD worth, meaning that Orcus can sic an atropal on you if he's feeling particularly nasty and still have plenty of undead summoning that day to spare), the standard demon lord abilities such as planar omniscience, and to top it off...Necromancer 20/Cleric 15 spellcasting. Yowch. Disciples of Orcus are known as...well...Disciples of Orcus. Yeah, creative, that.
Demon Lord, Pazuzu
The "prince of the winds", Pazuzu is an avian demon with quite the charismatic streak. Not only does have have dominion over the skies of all the layers of the Abyss, but he's pretty buddy-buddy with some of the Dukes of Hell as well, meeting with them on the neutral ground of the daemonic planes. This crafty CR 28 corrupted corvid's followers are often harpies and gargoyles, both of which sometimes follow him into battle, as well as devotees known as the Aerial Lords. Pazuzu's weapon of choice is a +5 keen anarchic greatsword, and his spellcasting of choice is that of a 20th-level Sorcerer. Pazuzu can summon arrowhawks, harpies, hieracosphinxes, and gargoyles in addition to demons, can dominate aerial creatures, and has a rather unique breath weapon as well. Said breath weapon can either deal acid damage or send forth swaths of insect swarms to plague his opponents.
Demon, Shadow
Shadow demons are particularly cranky, even by fiendish standards. They are demons that have been punished by their lords, fusing them into shadows and quite possibly depowering them as a result. They are CR 7 and don't really have that much going for them. They have pounce and a speed-boosting ability, raking claws, some shade-like abilities such as shadow blend, and...that's pretty much it. Well, they do have the ability to cast magic jar, which I guess is rather nasty, true, but still...
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Pazuzu! PAAAZUUUUUUZUUUUU! You're reading this in my voice!
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
No, I'm reading it in the Professor's voice.
Wait... are those the same shadow fiends as in the monstrous compendium and the BoED? Did they really graft an entirely new background on them?
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldan
No, I'm reading it in the Professor's voice.
GET OUT OF MY HEAD
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldan
No, I'm reading it in the Professor's voice.
Wait... are those the same shadow fiends as in the monstrous compendium and the BoED? Did they really graft an entirely new background on them?
No clue. I no longer own the Book of Exalted Deeds, and I've never owned the Monstrous Compendium. According to the addendum, shadow demons appeared in the 1E Fiend Folio, so it may or may not be an older interpretation of the creature, if they are the same at all.
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Their abilities actually are quite similar to those listed in the BoVD...can't remember exactly what their stats looked like in the 1E FF, but I definitely remember them there.
I think Shadow, Venger's crony in the D&D cartoon was supposed to be a Shadow Demon...
Spoiler
Show
[edit]Actually ran a shadow demon up against the party in the EtCR game I'm running recently. (The module gave him slightly updated stats from the BoVD, so maybe this is the latest 3.5 official version). He was possessing an half-celestial paladin. After the party defeated him, he switched bodies, and slipped into the party's barbarian. The party eventually got him out, but he escaped, so they're bound to encounter him again...[/edit]
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rappy
Disciples of Orcus are known as...well...Disciples of Orcus. Yeah, creative, that.
He's a CR 35 demon who can sick atropals on people he doesn't like. Why exactly does he need creativity?
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Re: More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rockphed
He's a CR 35 demon who can sick atropals on people he doesn't like. Why exactly does he need creativity?
Fair enough. Anyway, here we go on the last of the demons.
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Demon Lord, Sonechard
The general of Orcus's armies, Sonechard is pretty much the opposite of Maphistal in attitude. While Maphistal is a fanatic devotee of Orcus, Sonechard is just waiting for the day that his boss kicks the bucket, at which point he plans on assuming what he feels is his rightful title. The CR 21 Sonechard definitely doesn't have the power to usurp Orcus, though, so he's content to give the illusion that he is a loyal servant. Sonechard is pretty much what you'd expect; dark and gloomy SLAs, natural talent at controlling and animating the dead, summons of demons and undead, stench, and the wielder of a custom weapon (a +4 unholy wounding heavy pick). Really, at this point, I'm getting tired of undead-themed demon lords, so let's be glad we're done with them.
Demon, Stirge
A surprisingly powerful (CR 10) half-strige demon that sucks on demon blood. Meh.
Demon Lord, Tsathogga
The mighty lord of frogs, Tsathogga is the CR 30 patron of the tsathar. He is a colossal frog whose mouth is the destination of the River Styx and whose fetid slime taints the great river of the dead's waters. He seeps acid damage and a cloud of all-encompassing darkness, can utter a shriek that produces a blasphemy effect, and has spell-like abilities mostly focusing on desecration and acid. Tsathogga's spellcasting is as per a 20th-level Sorcerer, and his non-demon summoning ability allows him to summon froghemoths, giant frogs, tsathar, and oozes. Finally, it is worthy of note that Tsathogga has outside-book support, since a sidebar states that if you happen to have ToH II, this froggy fiend can summon greruors, frog-demons from that book. Tsathogga's devotees are known as Lords of the Gaping Maw.
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Alright, that's finally over. Next time, we cover a pseudo-demon that I figured we'd cover along with the true ones and start with the devils. Oh joy...