Legions of Hell

Type: d20Company: Green RoninURL: http://www.greenronin.comDesigner: Chris PramasRelease: Available nowWhat this is: This is a review. That means I'm looking through the book again and thinking about what I've read. And I'm telling you what I think. What this is not: This is not me giving my opinion on how the book rates according to some nebulous ideal I might have. Monte Cook, Jesse Dean, and Alan Kohler already did that, and the book fared positively.

What I'm going to do is hopefully more helpful: I'm going to suggest ways to use this book in a roleplaying game. There are several different considerations for this, including compatibility with other resources, density of inspiring thoughts, and the nature of the rules. Hopefully, this review will be a tool you all can use in going over any hurdles you might encounter, either in the book itself or in the fabric of prejudice inherent in a project of this sort.

First, this is a book about Hell. With exhaustive research by Erik Mona, it borrows heavily from sources like the Book of Enoch, the Koran, and medieval grimoires for witches and infernalists to bring historical weight and resonance to your game, if you want it.

Next, keep in mind that this is not a really a book about Hell at all. Most of the creatures described within are entirely made up for the book, with the main exceptions being the ones the scrupulous Erik Mona designed. Even those elements that do come from historical and literary sources are bent and twisted to fit into the AD&D cosmology created by Gary Gygax, developed by Ed Greenwood and Colin McComb, and collected and warped by Chris Pramas in his earlier AD&D book Guide to Hell.

This means it uses terms peculiar to earlier editions of the game. It's always the Prime Material Plane or the Prime instead of just the Material Plane, as the new d20 Player's Handbook calls it. It also means that gods like Set are hanging out in Hell with the devils instead of in their own cosmologies, though I don't actually know if the new Manual of the Planes is going to be that rigorous in seperating things or not, and I kind of hope they won't be. It might ressurect the term "the Prime," too, for all I know. Never mind all that.

Most significantly, this means Legions of Hell uses the terms "baatezu" and "devil" interchangeably, as latter-day AD&D products like Guide to Hell did. This means that where the d20 Monster Manual separates devils like kytons and hellcats from members of the specific baatezu race like hamatulas and pit fiends, Legions of Hell meshes them all together. Everything in the book that's a native of Hell has "baatezu" written after it in parentheses, indicating that the Baatezu Qualities listed in the d20 Monster Manual and reprinted in the beginning of Legions of Hell are to be tagged on to them, whether they deserve them or not.

Personally, I'm fairly picky about this sort of thing. The d20 Monster Manual defines the terms in this way: "Devils are fiends from the plane of Baator, a lawful evil realm. The most numerous are the baatezu, who are infamous for their strength, evil temperament, and ruthlessly efficient organization. "Baatezu have a rigid caste system…" This means that devils that belong to the "rigid caste system" of the baatezu race are baatezu, and those that aren't, aren't.

Creatures detailed in Legions of Hell like whiptails and spinders are described as wild vermin, certainly not any part of the baatific hierarchy. I'm surprised that a team that includes people like Chris Pramas, Jim Bishop, and Erik Mona would be that sloppy, unless I'm missing something. I mean, Jim friggin' Bishop! Some fixes? Take a pencil and cross "baatezu" out in the few paltry places it's incorrectly placed. Or figure out a way that these devils can fit into the baatific hierarchy anyway. Or assume they all have baatezu qualities purely by coincidence. Or change the rules so that any devilish thing can be a baatezu, though I'll be damned (ha!) if I know why you'd want to. It's no big deal. Okay, bitchfest over.

Now to the meat. Using the Nobles As those of you who have been keeping up with the previews and reviews of Legions of Hell already know, this book has quite a number of unique rulers of Hell (baatezu or otherwise, devils or otherwise) in it. The most common reaction has been "they seem cool enough, but how can I possibly use all these boss-type monsters in one campaign?" You can't, of course. At least, not unless you want your campaign to be entirely dominated by them. Or can you? No, you really can't. Oh, alright.

You can in various ways, including the following ones: Cults Next to dwarf tossing, there's nothing more fun than fiendish cults. Hobgoblins, sahuagin, medusae, the mysterious Horned Society, creepy guys hanging out in basements and sewers: they all love to bestow praise and sacrifice to their lower planar masters. Which is cooler, a bunch of hobgoblins worshipping Achoo.net the Great One, or a bunch of hobgoblins worshipping Antaia the Witch Queen? No contest. Many of the nobles of Hell here are described specifically as having followers on the Prime, and those that aren't can have some anyway.

 Start real-life cults! Kids, scare your parents by sacrificing your pet hamster to Jalie Squarefoot! It's fun and educational, and a great tax write-off. If Bush's faith-based initiative passes, you might even qualify for federal funding! Hey, it's no sillier than your religion probably is.

Big Monsters. Another great way to use Legions of Hell's supermonsters is as just that: bigger monsters. Create a simple dungeon and put a diabolic ruler in each room, guarding a box of treasure and growling occasionally. Then send four 30th level characters through the dungeon. Laugh as they die. Let the big guys inform the small guys More minor fiends take on new character if they mimic their leaders. Just use a few in each campaign You don't have to use every page of a supplement all at once. Dribble a small amount of hell-kings in over a period of years.

What if my campaign doesn't have devils in it? If you're stuck with some jerk-off mythology that doesn't allow for a Lucifer or three (and yes, Legions of Hell has three: Iblis, Samyasa, and Asmodeus), I feel sorry for you. But all is not lost. First, maybe the monsters in Legions of Hell aren't devils after all. Maybe they're awnsheghlian corrupted by mythal energy, or delusions brought about by a dreamspin spell. Maybe they're super-villains who've been genetically engineered by agents of the shadow government. Maybe they're fallen or minor gods, ancient ascendent wizards, or puppets of the fata. Maybe the devils are cats and the PCs are mice in a magical version of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, or Maus for that matter.

Don't write the supplement off just because you have difficulty with the basic premise. What if I run a PLANESCAPE campaign? Kudos to you, then. Some Planescape fans wish to have their alignment-born creatures be culturally neutral. In a setting containing a hundreds of different cultures, it makes sense to some people that the races associated with specific alignments would transcend any individual cultures. This means dropping loaded words like demon and devil and Beelzebub in favor of using only words like tanar'ri, baatezu, and Triel the Fallen. I sympathize with these people. I like the idea of having the baatezu be a race of utmost law and evil unto themselves, something lurking with various names behind every culture that's aware of tyranny but without having any specific myths awkwardly shoehorned into the D&D alignment system. Some non-Planescape fans might feel the same way. For me, the resonance that real-life words create is too tempting to resist. But if you're into shaving off the serial numbers of things, it's not hard to do so with Legions of Hell. Apparently Levistus has his mouth free of the ice he's supposed to be encased in.

Why are the nobles so weak? They are a bit, now that you mention it. The AD&D book Faces of Evil says that fiendish evolution can take centuries and even millennia, but there's still the problem that most of the rulers of Hell described here are weaker than the toughest of pit fiends, or at least weaker than the toughest of solars. I think it's another AD&D atavism, since fiends didn't use to have such variable hit dice. I'm sure Pramas and company were confused by that. You might want to add a few character levels to most of the nobles - Monte Cook says the CRs are off anyway.

What do I do with Iblis? Iblis is cool, isn't he? Milton's Lucifer seen through Muslim eyes. I wonder if Pramas and company have received any jihad threats yet. Anyway, how I'd use him is I'd have him be trying to create a new race to replace humanity. He's not allied with any of the other powers of Hell, and he's not beholden to Asmodeus. He does his own thing, researching dark knowledge, relics, and the mysteries of divine blood to find a way to create a powerful, fast-reproducing race made of flame instead of clay. For whatever reason, whoever or whatever created humanity in your campaign, Iblis doesn't like them. He refused to bow to them once, and he doesn't want it to even be an issue. He's going to make a creation of his own, the gods be damned.

Why does Vuall look like Joe Camel? As everyone knows, men with camel heads cause children to want to buy your product. It's a scientific fact. No, actually they were being true to historical demonology. What's the deal with Nergal? He's the only noble that's neither a fallen celestial nor a baatezu. Maybe it's a typo, but I like to think there's more to it than that. With his emphasis on disease, I kind of think Nergal is a rogue yugoloth-daemon. That'd be refreshing, with all the denizens of the Seven Heavens of Celestia magnetically drawn to Hell in this book.

Which reminds me: Why do celestials get so much more powerful when they fall? Probably, most of them don't. Likely they just lose their good-themed abilities and wander around all lonely and weak. But those who dedicate themselves to the principles of Baator become empowered by it. Maybe they're all nobles of a sort. Possibly other planes can do this as well. Where's my risen fiend template? You'll have to wait. I hope they do a Legions of Heaven, but it's probably not sexy enough for them.

By: Rip Van WormerImported from a previous version of Planewalker.com