Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "Book of the Damned, Vol. 2: Lords of Chaos" [RPG]

Lords of Chaos, the second of three sourcebooks on the evil planes of the Pathfinder multiverse, covers the demon realm known as the Abyss.  It's written by Paizo Creative Director James Jacobs himself, so you know it's going to be chock-full of accurate setting lore.  This 64-page book details the various demon lords and their domains, while also introducing a demon-themed prestige class, some new spells, and some new demons.  I'll go through everything in more detail, but first we have to stop and admire the cover art--it's perhaps the best of any Pathfinder book.  Simply stunning!

The book opens with a little two-page creation myth.  It's intriguing and ominous.  Interspersed between each of the main chapters are more brief entries in this vein, all purporting (and stylized to look like) "real" entries from the legendary Book of the Damned.  One of my favourite entries is on the Realms of Repose, where slain demon lords go.  Fascinating stories!  Other useful entries include discussion of the qlippoths and on demon-touched places on Golarion.  The art design is excellent.

Chapter 1 is "Lords of the Abyss".  Each of the major demon lords of the setting are summarized in half- to full-page entries that cover their interests, unholy symbols, personalities, mortal cults, and (for the purposes of the Demonic Obedience feat) boons.  There aren't any stat-blocks for these demon lords even though they all (with the exception of Lamashtu, an actual deity) could in theory be slain by mortals--this book was written prior to the introduction of Pathfinder's Mythic ruleset.  The information here is integrated nicely with Golarion, and there are a lot of little adventure hooks and ideas for a GM to play with.  The artwork is really good, and the boons and obediences seem well-balanced and flavourful.  The chapter covers notables like Dagon, Deskari, Pazuzu, Orcus and Nocticula as well as some more obscure ones.

Chapter 2 is "Demonkind".  It provides a brief description, "associated sin", and "preferred sacrifice" for each of the different types of demons in the game.  The writing is great here, as is the concept of the various types of demons having their origins in the manifestation of different mortal sins.  The chapter introduces the idea of "nascent demon lords" which are CR 21-25 threats suitable as end-of-campaign bosses.  The only one mentioned that I recognise from elsewhere is Treerazer.

Chapter 3 is "Demonology".  It starts with an interesting overview of whether or why members of the different classes in the game (Core Rulebook and Advanced Players Guide) would be involved in worshipping demon lords.  There's a single page introducing the concept of demonic implants, but they're not particularly interesting.  Another page covers a ritual for transforming into a demon, which I guess could be useful in an "evil PC" themed campaign.   Of more interest is a new prestige class, the Demoniac.  It looks solid and reasonably powerful, with early obedience boons, improved summoning abilities, extra resistances and ability score increases, spell progression, and a really cool capstone.  Granted, a PC would have to be Chaotic Evil to take the prestige class so I'm not likely to see it in play anytime soon.  The chapter introduces four new spells, one of which, rift of ruin, is really cinematic.

Chapter 4, "The Demonic Horde" concludes the book.  We get some very brief discussion of larvae and qlippoths (other inhabitants of the Abyss), but mostly the chapter consists of new bestiary entries.  There's vermlek demons (worms that inhabit corpses to serve as armor and disguises--gross but good!), brimorak demons (short fire-loving monsters), seraptis demons (suicide demons--the writing in this entry in particular is awesome, and I'm quite intrigued by the Dolorous Sisters), and vavakias demons (CR18 winged bull elephant-like warlords).

The inside back cover of the book is a handy list of all the demon gods, lords, nascent lords, and bhargest hero gods along with their alignments, areas of concern, domains, and favoured weapons.  Very useful for a GM who quickly needs a patron for a cult.

I used to think of demons as simply chaotic evil monsters (which they are!) but there's a lot more diversity and material to work with than I original thought. I can't think of anything to complain about with this book, but there's a lot to praise.  The writing is uniformly excellent, the artwork is great and fits the tone of the book well, and it will serve as a handy off-the-shelf resource for anything demon-related in the game.  Unless you're going with the more recent hardcover book that collects and revises all three of the softcovers, this is the best place for information on demons in Pathfinder.