it is my opinion that wotc does not give asmodeus his due.
consider that asmodeus sent an underling, graz'zt, to invade the abyss. now that underling is one of the most powerful of demon lords, reigning over three layers of the abyss and rivaling demogorgon. so, if an underling can accomplish that much, then of what could his master, asmodeus, be capable? remember, even before he became a god, asmodeus succeeded in stealing a shard of the evil seed embedded in the heart of the abyss.
i envision a merger of several evil gods with certain arch devils. i do this in order to (i) remove perceived redundancies, (ii) elevate the primacy of devils as the principle source of immortal evil, and (iii) more prominantly than has been done, place asmodeus at the top of the heap.
what results from these mergers is an implication that the nonevil gods have done a very good job of containing the physical presence of the evil gods, if not their influence. aspects of these evil gods can appear outside of hell, but if you want to fight the real mccoy, then you must pay a visit to hell (which is a good thing for gaming, right? it means that the high end of epic level play must occur, to some extent, in hell, assuming that archdevils serve as the bbegs in the campaign).
other results of these mergers are that archdevils become more powerful and more important than before and, consequently, asmodeus becomes commensurately more powerful. i mean, come on, he IS the prince of EVIL. all those other guys are just stewards of certain aspects or manifestations of evil (e.g., war, avarice, treachery, etc.)
asmodeus, prince of evil (that says it all, imo)
manual of the planes, page 105
__________
bane gives up his claim on tyranny:
asmodeus is THE tyrant. bane is not so much a tyrant as the epitome of a general; granted, a very evil general. bane is not so much concerned with tyranny as he is with military success, and everything that goes with the latter-- which is where the confusion with tyranny creeps in. think of conan, who was, for a time, a king. but, he grew bored of being a king and gave up his crown. think of the generals of attila the hun, who conquered may nations. these generals were motivated by conquest. if given the choice between (i) remaining in a conquered land with the responsibilities of monarchy or (ii) the opportunity to conquer more nations, they would choose the latter. attila, on the other hand, was interested in rulership, conquest was merely a means for him to attain rulership.
make no mistake, asmodeus is the tyrant, above all others. this is illustrated by his domination of such powerful beings as bane, tiamat and lolth (note, this is as i envision the d&d universe).
asmodeus is the evil god of tyranny and domination
power, domination, tyranny
dungeon masters guids, page 162
bane, the god of war and tyranny
manual of the planes, page 92
graz’zt is the dark prince, a demonic patron of tyrants and despots (okay, so graz'zt is a demon lord now, but you never know about that guy)
manual of the planes, page 130
__________
bane and bel merge. bane becomes asmodeus' general, charged with leading the armies of hell in their assault on the divine seals and wards throughout avernus that imprison the devils in hell. kord leads the opposition forces in battles throughout avernus to protect and maintain those divine seals and wards. this makes avernus the largest and most perpetual battlefield in all creation (note, neither the battle between gods and primordials nor the blood war was confined to a single battlefield). it's an ugly job for kord, but somebody's gotta do it ("man, this job is hell"). bahamut sometimes provides support, as needed.
bane is the evil god of war and conquest
dungeon masters guids, page 162
bel, chosen by asmodeus for his loyalty and his military genius
manual of the planes, page 99
__________
tiamat and mammon merge:
mammon, the king of greed.
given to insatiable lust and avarice,
he seeks to corrupt powerful mortals through avarice and lust
manual of the planes, page 100-101
tiamat is the evil god of wealth, greed, and envy
dungeon masters guids, page 163
Wealth, greed, vengeance
dungeon masters guids, page 162
tiamat is the evil god of wealth, greed, and envy. she is the patron of chromatic dragons and those whose lust for wealth overrides any other goal or concern.
she urges her followers to hoard wealth and to take vengeance for every slight.
draconomicon - chromatic dragons, page 244
__________
lolth and glasya merge:
the archdevil glasya, daughter of asmodeus, rules malbolge. she is brilliant, seductive, manipulative, and thoroughly wicked. she delights in playing with those who fall into her power by mixing subtle mockery and cruel teasing with queenly hauteur.
manual of the planes, page 103
lolth is the chaotic evil god of shadow, lies, and spiders.
scheming and treachery are her commands
dungeon masters guids, page 163
lolth is a capricious goddess who revels in betrayal and blood. (note, i recognize that forgotten realms tends to put its own spin on deities, but this description seems consistent with that of the default setting)
forgotten realms player's guide, page 152
__________
torog acquires, to some extent, the far realm and insanity as parts of his portfolio:
torog is the evil god of the underdark, patron of jailers and torturers (meh)
dungeon masters guids, page 163
rats are sacred to torog, the king that crawls.
their presence signifies plague, decay, and collapse in decadent cities.
monster manual, page 219
similar to graz'zt, torog was sent by asmodeus to explore and conquer the far realm, perhaps seeking a way to escape the divine confinement of hell.. unlike graz'zt, torog did return to hell and his foray was not so successful (granted, graazt did not actually succeed in his original pursuit, but he did conquer three layers of the abyss). [insert language from prior post] suffice it to say, that
asmodeus has since seemed to have backed away from his initial interest in the far realms.
__________
bye bye vecna:
orcus is known as the demon lord of undeath, the demon prince of the undead, and the blood lord. he is worshiped by undead and living creatures that do not fear undeath. (one lord of undeath is enough; as one lord of death is enough. bye bye vecna. that sacred cow has been slaughtered.)
monster manual, page 206
Friday, January 23, 2009
it's all fun and games, until someone loses an eye
when gruumsh and correlon fought, it was not a sword that plucked out gruumsh's eye, but an arrow. both gods knew that correlon could not defeat gruumsh in melee combat, so correlon instead used his intelligence to fight gruumsh. during their historic battle, correlon kept, and fought from, a distance. it was gruumsh's arrogance regarding combat that was his flaw. when faced with a mere bow, gruumsh stood dismissively in the face of correlon's bowshot. he underestimated the power of correlon's bow and his accompanying magic. thusly, did gruumsh lose his eye.
gruumsh's ensuing rage was, in truth, directed more toward's himself than toward's the puny correlon: that he allowed such a combatively inferior foe to harm his person was a greater blow to his ego than to his eye.
although gruumsh, as a god (or, imho, a primordial), was fully capable of replacing or restoring his eye, he refuses to do so. instead, he chooses to remain one-eyed, as a sort of badge of honor--or, perhaps, a badge of dishonor--until such time as he annihilates the very existence of that cowardly creature, correlon.
gruumsh's ensuing rage was, in truth, directed more toward's himself than toward's the puny correlon: that he allowed such a combatively inferior foe to harm his person was a greater blow to his ego than to his eye.
although gruumsh, as a god (or, imho, a primordial), was fully capable of replacing or restoring his eye, he refuses to do so. instead, he chooses to remain one-eyed, as a sort of badge of honor--or, perhaps, a badge of dishonor--until such time as he annihilates the very existence of that cowardly creature, correlon.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
evil gods, as revised by me
key to revisions:
added
removed
Asmodeus (evil) power, domination, tyranny
Bane = Bel (evil) war, conquest
Gruumsh = primordial (chaotic evil) turmoil, destruction
Lolth = Glasya (chaotic evil) spiders, poison, darkness, shadows, lies, secrets
Tiamat= Mammon (evil) wealth, greed, envy, vengeance, dragons, serpents
Torog (evil) underdark, imprisonment, insanity, aberration
Vecna (evil) undeath, secrets
Zehir (evil) darkness, poison, serpents
added
removed
Asmodeus (evil) power, domination, tyranny
Bane = Bel (evil) war, conquest
Gruumsh = primordial (chaotic evil) turmoil, destruction
Lolth = Glasya (chaotic evil) spiders, poison, darkness, shadows, lies, secrets
Tiamat= Mammon (evil) wealth, greed, envy, vengeance, dragons, serpents
Torog (evil) underdark, imprisonment, insanity, aberration
Vecna (evil) undeath, secrets
Zehir (evil) darkness, poison, serpents
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Drizzt Do'Urden novels
gotten from forgottenrealms.wikia.com
______________________________________
Listed in the chronological order of the events in the books:
Dark Elf trilogy
Homeland (1990)
Exile (1990)
Sojourn (1991)
Icewind Dale trilogy
The Crystal Shard (1988)
Streams of Silver (1989)
The Halfling's Gem (1990)
Legacy of the Drow
The Legacy (1992)
Starless Night (1993)
Siege of Darkness (1994)
Passage to Dawn (1996)
Paths of Darkness
The Silent Blade (1998)
The Spine of the World (1999)
Servant of the Shard (2000)*
Sea of Swords (novel) (2001)
*Servant of the Shard (2000) has been removed from this series and placed within the Sellswords series, which follows Jarlaxle and Artemis Entreri.
Hunter's Blades trilogy
The Thousand Orcs (2002)
The Lone Drow (2003)
The Two Swords (2004)
Transitions
The Orc King (2007)
The Pirate King (2008)
The Ghost King (2009)
______________________________________
Listed in the chronological order of the events in the books:
Dark Elf trilogy
Homeland (1990)
Exile (1990)
Sojourn (1991)
Icewind Dale trilogy
The Crystal Shard (1988)
Streams of Silver (1989)
The Halfling's Gem (1990)
Legacy of the Drow
The Legacy (1992)
Starless Night (1993)
Siege of Darkness (1994)
Passage to Dawn (1996)
Paths of Darkness
The Silent Blade (1998)
The Spine of the World (1999)
Servant of the Shard (2000)*
Sea of Swords (novel) (2001)
*Servant of the Shard (2000) has been removed from this series and placed within the Sellswords series, which follows Jarlaxle and Artemis Entreri.
Hunter's Blades trilogy
The Thousand Orcs (2002)
The Lone Drow (2003)
The Two Swords (2004)
Transitions
The Orc King (2007)
The Pirate King (2008)
The Ghost King (2009)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
replacing prestige multiclass (PMC) powers
gotten from wizards forum:
"It's the difference between an 11th paragon path (PP) encounter power and a 13th level class encounter Power; or more accurately, a 7th level and a 13th level, at level 27. And this doesn't kick in until level 27 anyway, so it's only for the last 4 levels of the game.
At level 27+ a PP has : 11 PP, 17 Class, 23 Class, 27 Class
At level 27+ PMC has: 13 Class, 17 Class, 23 Class, 27 Class
Before level 27 it's just extra flexibility on which level 7 enounter power you replace at level 23, the Class power or the Multiclass power."
"It's the difference between an 11th paragon path (PP) encounter power and a 13th level class encounter Power; or more accurately, a 7th level and a 13th level, at level 27. And this doesn't kick in until level 27 anyway, so it's only for the last 4 levels of the game.
At level 27+ a PP has : 11 PP, 17 Class, 23 Class, 27 Class
At level 27+ PMC has: 13 Class, 17 Class, 23 Class, 27 Class
Before level 27 it's just extra flexibility on which level 7 enounter power you replace at level 23, the Class power or the Multiclass power."
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
power swapping
from wizards forum:
"Assume you are a strength based paladin... compare the cleric daily 9 - Divine Power to any paladin encounter from that level.
Assume you are in a party with dragonborn paladin, dwarf warlock, dwarf staff bloodmage and dwarf beast ranger. Now imagine what someone with Cleric Utility 6 - Divine Vigor will do in this party.
Imagine you are swordmage with lasting frost and winter touched. Compare the warlock daily 1 - Armor of Agatheus with any swordmage daily of that level.
Imagine you are a bow ranger with Cleric Daily 5 - Weapon of the Gods. Splintering shot kind of compares in fight vs. solo, but in any other situation - WofG reigns supreme.
Power Swaps are not 100% benefit, in fact they can hurt your character if not done with planing, but they can be very useful.
Healing power - made for healing character is much stronger in the hands of a character without access to healing.
Point blank sustainable power - made for squishy ranged character who has other uses for his minor actions and can't last long at the front lines is much more useful for a fighter who is always there and is never using his minors."
________________________________________
"If you don't have a concept in mind, you won't have much use for the power swap feats. I believe they are more for experienced players (=have actually played a lot), who have a better overview of the classes and their powers, and who also know from experience what they would like to change on their class.
Unless you are masochistic and really want to pick weaker powers than those from your own class, these hold true:
- you want better damage than your powers give you at a given level (e.g. you are a warlord and load up some ranger, rodue or warlock powers to add a little more DPR to your character)
- you want to have an effect your powers just don't provide (e.g. you are a fighter, but you want some wizard utility powers like Fly, Expeditious Retreat or Arcane Gate - in which case INT doesn't come into play)
- you need to make up for a deficiency of the party (e.g. no healer is present, but people can MC into cleric or warlord to make up for it)."
_______________________________________________
"Multiclassing used to be a really easy way to make broken characters. You can still do some powerful things, but multiclassing is no longer the raison-detre of lazy optmizers.
Now the main advantage of multiclassing is for players who actually want to play multiple classes. There are some powerful things that keep the optmizers happy though:
1) Utilizing class specialities. Some classes have a unique collection of powers that no other class has access too. For example, warlocks have several teleport powers that other classes can never get. Grabbing Otherwind Stride, Ethereal Stride, or Infuriating Elusiveness can give a rogue, or even a fighter, something they would never otherwise have.
2) Filling build deficiencies. A strength paladin does not have a lot of options at level 9. Multiclassing fixes that problem.
3) Overcoming build weaknesses. A warlock or bow ranger may want to grab a few paladin or rogue powers in case they get stuck in melee."
___________________________________________
"Eyebite w/ Divine Challenge"
___________________________________________
"Or if you really feel silly and or confident charisma based paladin who multi-classes into a star pact warlock for dire radiance + divine challenge. If the target moves closer to you it takes radiant damage from dire radiance, and if it doesn't try to close with you it takes damage from divine challenge. All the while you keep blasting with dire radiance thus fulfilling the requirement of divine challenge of you having to make an attempt at attacking the target."
___________________________________________
"FIGHTER/Cleric: Healing Strike (2W+Str, Spend Surge)
ROGUE/Ranger: Cobra-Spitting Stance"
"Assume you are a strength based paladin... compare the cleric daily 9 - Divine Power to any paladin encounter from that level.
Assume you are in a party with dragonborn paladin, dwarf warlock, dwarf staff bloodmage and dwarf beast ranger. Now imagine what someone with Cleric Utility 6 - Divine Vigor will do in this party.
Imagine you are swordmage with lasting frost and winter touched. Compare the warlock daily 1 - Armor of Agatheus with any swordmage daily of that level.
Imagine you are a bow ranger with Cleric Daily 5 - Weapon of the Gods. Splintering shot kind of compares in fight vs. solo, but in any other situation - WofG reigns supreme.
Power Swaps are not 100% benefit, in fact they can hurt your character if not done with planing, but they can be very useful.
Healing power - made for healing character is much stronger in the hands of a character without access to healing.
Point blank sustainable power - made for squishy ranged character who has other uses for his minor actions and can't last long at the front lines is much more useful for a fighter who is always there and is never using his minors."
________________________________________
"If you don't have a concept in mind, you won't have much use for the power swap feats. I believe they are more for experienced players (=have actually played a lot), who have a better overview of the classes and their powers, and who also know from experience what they would like to change on their class.
Unless you are masochistic and really want to pick weaker powers than those from your own class, these hold true:
- you want better damage than your powers give you at a given level (e.g. you are a warlord and load up some ranger, rodue or warlock powers to add a little more DPR to your character)
- you want to have an effect your powers just don't provide (e.g. you are a fighter, but you want some wizard utility powers like Fly, Expeditious Retreat or Arcane Gate - in which case INT doesn't come into play)
- you need to make up for a deficiency of the party (e.g. no healer is present, but people can MC into cleric or warlord to make up for it)."
_______________________________________________
"Multiclassing used to be a really easy way to make broken characters. You can still do some powerful things, but multiclassing is no longer the raison-detre of lazy optmizers.
Now the main advantage of multiclassing is for players who actually want to play multiple classes. There are some powerful things that keep the optmizers happy though:
1) Utilizing class specialities. Some classes have a unique collection of powers that no other class has access too. For example, warlocks have several teleport powers that other classes can never get. Grabbing Otherwind Stride, Ethereal Stride, or Infuriating Elusiveness can give a rogue, or even a fighter, something they would never otherwise have.
2) Filling build deficiencies. A strength paladin does not have a lot of options at level 9. Multiclassing fixes that problem.
3) Overcoming build weaknesses. A warlock or bow ranger may want to grab a few paladin or rogue powers in case they get stuck in melee."
___________________________________________
"Eyebite w/ Divine Challenge"
___________________________________________
"Or if you really feel silly and or confident charisma based paladin who multi-classes into a star pact warlock for dire radiance + divine challenge. If the target moves closer to you it takes radiant damage from dire radiance, and if it doesn't try to close with you it takes damage from divine challenge. All the while you keep blasting with dire radiance thus fulfilling the requirement of divine challenge of you having to make an attempt at attacking the target."
___________________________________________
"FIGHTER/Cleric: Healing Strike (2W+Str, Spend Surge)
ROGUE/Ranger: Cobra-Spitting Stance"
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