The One About the Ones that Want to Eat You
It was the late great year of 2006. Shhhh I know it was only 9.5 years ago, don't tell anyone. People still cared about D&D 3.5, and WoTC had accidentally stumbled upon the kind of not shitty method of producing books by themeing them based on monsters. You could have fluff because monsters, you could have monsters, because monsters, you could clean up stupid rules mistakes or confusions, because most of those involved monster interactions or spells that interacted with monsters, and you could have two different types of player options, be like monsters, or kill monsters.
They were even about to start the best possible version of those supplements, dealing with Demons and Devils, two of the best kinds of monsters in D&D. You can do anything! You can FLY! But you know what you can't do? Write anything that is good at all, or at least not if your name is Ed Stark, James Jacob, or Erik Mona. This could have been a book that fixed Planar Binding and Gate, that made the planes less stupid, and that provided cool options for playing as a Demon or Demon user, and also introduced cool Demons for you to fight, and given options to DMs to customize Demons. One out of Six ain't bad right?
I'm not going to pretend that I noticed different author tendencies when it comes to material, but I do know that Mona and Jacobs ended up working for Pathfinder, so seeing a bunch of fiddly shit that is weaker than extremely basic optimization material that already existed, demanding you pay real actual power for right to be the character themed how you want to be themed isn't surprising at all now.
Welcome to Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, where you can be like a demon, but really shitty and weak, or you can fight demons, but really shittly and weakly, or you can fight against demons, those are cool though, because fuck PCs.
Bullshit Intro Chapter
For the most part, this is everything you know it is without opening the book "You can use PrCs, so can Demons!" "This material helps you fight Demons sometimes!" "Man I sure hope there are feats in this book!" "Did you know we put monsters in this book?" But one particular part sticks out:
You hear that? This book overrides the Manual of the Planes, and the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Except maybe it doesn't. But it probably does officially (hey aren't we working on 4e prototypes? Yes? So when we say going forward we will use this, we really mean there will never be another book that addresses these issues in any way?)This stupid book wrote:The material contained in this tome updates earlier material, drawing from earlier sources freely and eliminating contradictions. If you have used earlier sources and you find lore in those books that contradicts Fiendish Codex . . . well, demons are known for spreading misinformation. Use the material that works best for your campaign—but be aware that future D&D works will rely on Fiendish Codex I for the definitive answers to Abyssal questions.
Keep this in mind, because it becomes important later.
Lore About Demons That Does More to Destroy Your Soul Than Any Demon In This Book
This entire chapter is called Lore, but only about half of it is actually lore. All the Lore is stupid as fuck. Highlights include:
The Abyss is a single sentience of which all Demons are a part of. It has a singular goal, and all the parts of it work towards this singular goal at all times. What? This sounds extremely ordered and not at all Chaotic? Fuck you! Well it is okay because the individual demons who mostly lack individuality (because they are part of the collective consciousness) are still chaotic. Like… they form a strict hierarchy based on CR and serve their masters and obey higher CR demons. Especially Demon Princes, they command total and complete obedience from lesser Demons who want nothing more than to serve them. Wait, that’s also lawful and not Chaotic? Well what the fuck did you want from us, a coherent explanation of chaos? I mean sure, we could have written “demons attack each other in power struggles all the time and act independently and in conflict with each other’s goals and they generally don’t work together.” But we get paid by that word, and that isn’t much money! Oh by the way, the reason all Demons are immune to electricity and poison even though they are supposed to be chaotic and unique is because the Abyss gives all demons the characteristics the Abyss thinks are most essential to its goal of vaguely defined destruction of the mortal and immortal worlds. Apparently Good isn’t the only dumb, because an entire plane consciousness thinks that immunity to electricity is the single essential characteristic necessary to world destruction.
Demon Creation: No one really knows how demons are created. Could be anything. Some people think that Demons are evil badasses who were real evil in life, but those are only CR 20 badass NPCs, not shitty PCs or level 10 characters. You have to be on a personal first name basis with Orcus before he will turn you into a Nalfashenee when you die. But we want to make it super clear, when you, a level 10 evil bastard die, you do not get to be a demon, not even some shitty Dretch, instead, you spend eternity being tortured by Demons. Instead, for your lifetime of service to Erythrul or Grummush, they punish you for eternity. Or maybe they just let you be punished by Pelor, we don’t know. The important thing is that Fuck You, Gods are good and just, even the ones that are Chaotic Evil, so for being Chaotic Evil you are punished with an eternity of torture.
So Demons are created somehow and we have no idea how, what about death? Well, remember how Calling Magic and Summoning Magic are two totally different things, and if you summon something and kill it nothing happens, and if you call something and kill it, then it dies? Let’s fuck that up! It turns out, that if you call a demon to the material plane, and then kill it, or hell, even if it walks through a portal, or planeshifts to the material plane and you kill it, then it just dies on the Material and it’s “Essence” which is totally different from a soul, because Outsiders don’t have souls, just goes back to the Abyss by magic that you can’t stop in any way, and the Demon might or might not get demoted as punishment for not serving the Abyssal hive consciousness well, but in no case does it die. WTF! But don’t worry, if you travel to the Abyss, and kill a Demon there, it still dies for real. Uh… okay. Whatever.
Well since Demons on the Material Plane are actually immortal, surely that means they really want to get to the Material. And since the Abyss is a single hive consciousness directing all Demons toward a nebulous goal of destroying the material plane, it must follow that the Material Plane is just lousy with Demons right? Well no, because the Abyss traps Demons and imprisons them in the Abyss. WTF! But you just said that Demons are a creation of its will that exist for the express purpose of destroying the material plane! Why would it trap them where they can never do that? Well, at least they can escape by occasionally portals that appear, and by being called. Hey, can you demonstrate that you have no idea how calling magic works real quick book?
Yes, you know how those tricksy demons that are absolutely under your control can just escape from your notice and be permanently on the material plane. . . for a concentration duration.”Gated Demons” wrote: A gate spell often helps the caster control a demon while it remains outside the Abyss, but fiends practice deception and betrayal as a part of life. An unwary or overly ambitious spellcaster could find a gated demon outside his control too quickly for him to respond, which could result in a demon on the loose.
Next comes Demonic Roles. This is pretty bog standard, imagine the not always great but not always terrible advice in the MM descriptions. Now imagine it was written for “Demons” instead of a specific Demon, so the author can’t mention any powers at all, because he doesn’t know what powers the monster has. You can see how useless this is. Assassins set up an attack, and then try to kill the target, and run away if they fail. Brutes buff up, attack the targets, try to kill them, and then run away if it doesn’t go well. If those sound like the same thing, it is because they are, also the sample Assassin and Brute Demons both include every Demon over CR 9. Corrupters offer deals to get people alone, at least this sounds slightly different, Manipulators are called out as a bad role for Demons, and then they basically give the same advice as the Corrupter. Finally the Overlord. . . has minions. Orders his minions to attack. Wow, that was helpful.
Possession
Now comes the second half of the chapter, the part that isn’t even remotely lore related. Did you know that demons can possess people? I mean sure, it is nowhere in the rules and not mentioned anywhere before this book except the Fiend of Possession PrC from Fiend Folio, but they can totally do it. Which ones and how? Glad you asked, all of them, none of them, and we don’t know.
This section basically creates a template that can be applied to “any Demon with 4HD or more, and a Cha score of at least 13.” This is by the way, every single Demon that exists and has more than 4HD. Literally all of them. PC access is somewhat limited, could you be a Dretch (LA +2 and 2HD) and have a Cha score of higher than 11 from your PB or rolls, and then take two Wizard levels, and then get this template? Who knows? Could you put a Cloak of Charisma on your Quasit Improved Familiar and give him the template? Who knows? There are no rules for applying the template, or obtaining it, or figuring out if a demon should or could have it on creation. Instead, the only rules say “Sometimes a fiend with at least 4 Hit Dice and a Charisma score of at least 13 has the supernatural ability to shuck its physical form and take on an incorporeal one that enables it to possess other creatures—or even objects.” And “A fiend with this ability has a Challenge Rating 2 higher than standard fiends of its kind.”
Now you ask, what does this template do that makes it so good that I would seriously waste seconds of my life asking if you want to play an ECL 4 character with stinking cloud once a day as your only ability? Everything! First, you leave your body, and become incorporeal. This is like Astral Projection, in that if you die, you just return to your body, but better, because no silver thread. Your body sits somewhere, and you can’t leave the plane it is on, so you are merely limited to storing your body someplace safe (while it doesn’t need to breath or eat, so lead boxes are nice) and then adventuring as an incorporeal ghost. What you say, ghosts are different because they are on the ethereal plane? Yeah, the writers of this book don’t understand ethereal and incorporeal any better than any random blithering idiot DM you’ve seen, so they assumed that by going incorporeal you automatically created an ethereal version of yourself at the same time like a ghost. The rules never say that you have an ethereal form, but they do describe you moving around on the ethereal, how you see from there, the action it takes to transfer between planes. Wait, doesn’t that make no sense at all? Of course not, shut up and let them ramble.
But wait you say, being an immortal ghost is no good if you can’t do anything. Glad you pointed that out, because now we get to crazy town. “While incorporeal on the ethereal plane it has its full range of special attacks and special qualities, attacks normally, and does full normal damage. WTF, you are incorporeal on the material plane and corporeal on the ethereal (even though you shouldn’t be on the ethereal at all), not incorporeal on the ethereal! But anyway, on the material plane you are incorporeal, and lose all your extraordinary, supernatural, and SL abilities. So you can’t do shit except possess people or things unless you are fighting phase spiders. Okay. On to possession.
First of all, Protection of Evil completely protects someone from being possessed by you. But it does nothing at all once you are already possessing them. WTF? Okay sure. You can also make a hide check with Int as your ability modifier against the save DC of a magic circle spell to enter it when your possessed creature enters it. Or you can just go in, because it only hedges out summons, whatever. To possess a creature, you have to be adjacent to it, and then it has to fail a will save. It doesn’t know that you are possessing it at all. Once inside, it cannot be removed by any means except exorcism. And by that I mean, that you can either cast the Exorcism spell in this book, or you can cast Banishment, Dismissal, or Dispel Evil, and they force a will save from the demon even without line of effect, and regardless of which spell you use, they return to their body (and do not get actually banished or dismissed). Unclear whether Banishment gets it’s free +40 to DC effect or not for this will save.
So far, you can ride around in a creature, and nothing short of a high level cleric can get you out, and no one knows you are there anyway. Where do we go from here? Where is the real ultimate power? Well, once you are in a creature, you are by default a “Rider” which means you detect thoughts them as if you have concentrated for 3 rounds, and they get no save and have no idea you are there. Also you can alert them to your presence by reading their memories, they get a will save to resist, and if they succeed you have to wait 24 hours to try again. So basically, if you capture a guy, your Quasit is the best interrogation tool in the universe. From there you can do different things:
First you can offer to be an ally, in which case they get a +4 Profane bonus to any ability score that you can take away at any time. Wait… you can my Quasit Familiar just give me a +4 bullshit bonus to Int all the time while being immortal? Yes, yes he can. Alternatively, you can be a controller, in which case you force a will save DC 10+1/2HD+Cha mod+1 per each time they have failed this save in the past. So if you possess someone long enough, the basically only succeed on a 20. The duration of the control effect is 10+1/2HD+Cha mod+1 for each time you have controlled them. If you are in control, you run their character for them but with your own mental scores. You get to use their supernatural and extraordinary abilities, but you can’t use their SLAs. Unless you have 9HD, and an Int of 15, and have controlled them for 10 rounds each day for a week (so basically one success each day) in which case you can also use their SLAs. Not clear how spells work, because fuck rules clarity, but whatever. You can still just be a Dretch who possesses a stone giant. Or have your familiar go off and possess a CR 13 Iron Golem (+6 Will save) at ECL 4. Oh yeah, you didn’t know, this is a non Necromancy, non Mind Affecting, non Magical will save effect. They even explicitly suggest that demons like to possess golems because they have low will saves!
What happens if they make a save though? Well you just go back to being a rider, and also they are staggered for a round, oh, and you can try again next round. And if they make three consecutive saving throws, you have to wait 24 hours. Consecutive. So you probably never even have to stop controlling them. And if you try to take control in the middle of a combat, they might let you, because you will be trying to win the combat, and the alternative is being staggered. But that still counts towards their +1 to the Save DC and +1 rounds of control next time.
You can also inflict a -4 penalty to an attribute, no save. But to do this, you have to stop controlling it, so if you are using your familiar in combat, you will just launch that sucker at someone and either gain an ally, or no save stagger an enemy for three rounds. Probably better than giving a -4 penalty.
What about remaining hidden? Well how about being pretty much in control, but them not even knowing that you are there? Sounds good right? You can be a Mutterer, and what happens is every single round (if you want) you can force them to make a save, and if they fail the save, they take whatever action you command (such as “attack your allies with your most powerful spell”) or if the make the save, they are confused. That’s right, no save confusion from your familiar on whomever the strongest enemy is. Also, they still have no idea that they are possessed regardless of the result. Wow.
Well that’s all well and good Kaelik, you might say, and you have described how the real path to ultimate power is a Quasit Familiar, but what about DMs who want to fuck over the party? Where is the love for asshole DMs who hate fun? The party will metagame the mutterer shit, and will figure out the possession, and will have a cleric solve the problem before it can get too bad. I want to make my party suffer! Okay, fine, let’s say your party is level 10. Well it would be fair to send a Vrock at them right? And it would be fair to send an EL 10 CR 11 creature at them right? Right, so what you are going to do, is you are going to send and EL 11 possession Vrock at them. What? But what does that do, we just covered how they can deal with possession before it becomes an issue. Ahh, but we haven’t covered the final form of possession. Transformation. In this one, your ethereal/incorporeal demon floats around, finds a level 1 Commoner who has no ranks in knowledge, will never know he is being possessed, and will never make a save. Then once each day the Vrock forced a Fort save DC 10+1/2HD+con mod. If it fails, which it will, then the 1/4th the commoner transforms into a Vrock. There are all these fiendish characteristics rules that you don’t care about for this part. But if he then fails a subsequent will save, he has to hide his transformation from others. Even if he does tell others, who cares, he’s a commoner, they probably drive him out of town. 3 days later, the transformation is complete, and he is 100% vrock. At this point, the person inside, the commoner, loses control, and the possessing demon gets full control all the time. The body is literally identical to the Vrock’s old body. So it can Greater Teleport from half way around the world to attack the party, and it can summon just like a regular Vrock, oh yeah, and it is immune to the Banishment and Dismissal spells. Because why not. If you kill the body, the host dies, and the Vrock spirit returns to his own body to begin the process and attack you again in 4 days. Also it specifically calls out that powerful demons have cultists who willingly undergo transformation possession. So you get attacked every 4 days, never get any loot (probably has all its treasure in the form of Eternal Wands of buff spells that it uses before it attacks and leaves with the cultists) and have to deal with this same shit every day for eternity, and the only thing that is different from a normal Vrock each time is that it is immune to the best possible spell for using against it.
Also you can possess objects. You can ride around invisible in an object for ten days to give you a +10 to the DC to possess a creature that wears, holds, or carries the object. You can possess the ground, and the cast bestow curse on anyone who walks on the ground. You can control moving objects, like a wheel, or animate unmoving objects when you have enough HD that you no longer care about animating objects and you can just possess an Iron Golem anyway. You can also give an item magic powers. This one can actually be fun and powerful, the fun is creating a wight army by duplicating a +3 sword, and then when someone picks it up, turning it into a +1 Unholy or Anarchic Sword and making them take negative levels and die, becoming a wight. The Powerful is that if you get bored having an Iron Golem Familiar, or having a +4 bullshit bonus to Int, you can turn your Familiar into a Ring of Freedom of Movement, but its an evil Ring of Freedom of Movement though, so you should feel bad about wearing it.
Finally, some knowledge checks, DC 10, Fiends can possess people. DC 40: Still no useful information that wasn’t given at DC 10. Fuck You Players!
New Monsters!
Before we give you any new monsters, here are two new subtypes that will only ever be used on the 4 creatures in this book, and a restatement of the Demon subtype as the Tanar’ri Subtype. This completely negates that stupid thing we said earlier about how the Abyss consciousness decided that all demons needed to be immune to electricity? Well who fucking cares?
Loumaru Subtype: Immune to Acid, Electricity,and Fire. Resist Cold 10. Why didn’t the Abyss decide that all the MM demons needed those abilities but this subtype based on never being corporeal did? Fuck if I know. Also Incorporeal and Possesion. But stupid. So unlike the possession rules we jus covered, Loumara have no physical body for you to find and destroy, negating 1/4th the rules and half the knowledge checks for possession. Also, “all loumaras can possess physical objects or creatures. The exact kind of object or creature a specific loumara can possess is noted in the creatures description.” Wait, so you made a call back to the possession rules that just took up 10 pages, and you followed it with telling us that 90% of it doesn’t apply? Why would anyone ever want to be a shitty Loumara when they could instead be a regular possession demon who can possess any creature or object? Are you telling us those rules were wrong, and the only ones that can possess at all are this shitty subtype that doesn’t have a corporeal body and you were lying about all that leaving their bodies vulnerable shit?
Obyrith subtype: Immune to Poison and Mind Affecting, ER everything 10, Fast Healing (amount in description), Form of Madness: within 60ft must make will save, fail, permanent madness or insanity, depending on type, make save, immune for 24 hours. Special so ugly blindness is no protection, but it is Mind Affecting, but chaotic evil outsiders are immune. This isn’t even a subtype. Basically some shitty rules for something that might as well have been a gaze attack, and no actual descriptions of what the ability does in the subtype, because this shouldn’t be a subtype. Also they have true seeing, because why the fuck not.
Finally, creatures, first thing you should know, this is the end of 3.5, where they have a really dumb page wasting method of creature entries. For every single creature, they have a strategy and tactics section (not terrible, although sometimes it basically just says “attack things”), a sample encounter, mostly worthless, Ecology (this is about demons, the ecology is “the abyss or anywhere on the material plane”), Society (“controlled by the Abyss consciousness, also uncontrollable murderers, also rigid hierarchy of demons, all the dumb things you just explained in the last chapter, repeated for no reason, or contradicted, also for no reason”), Typical Treasure (“the shit on them in their entry”), Advancment (“two sentences to tell you their favorite class if not advanced by HD, although who cares because there are 3 more demons in the same CR range you can use instead”). Basically a huge waste of space.
Armanite:
CR 7 flying Centaur Demon. Makes charge attacks that count as mounted, also shoots lightning arrows if your party is so dumb they can’t fly. Not terrible in concept or execution. Chance to clone itself because why not.
Bar-Lgura:
CR 5 Monkey Demon. Invisible Pouncer, also Telekinesis and Major Image. Can bring unwilling subjects with Greater Teleport, DC 18. Basically a CR 5 Bone Devil, but instead of using Wall of Ice to split the party, it forces you to make a will save, and if you fail, it 1v1s you, and even if you win, you are 400 miles from your party and fucked. Basically that thing the rpgsite grognards whine about at level 10, this is that, but worse, at level 5. Not a terrible monster, but way too easy to abuse. Chance to summon a copy of itself to leave to fight the 3 people it didn’t teleport away with.
BroodSwarm:
This is a CR 6 flying swarm of tiny creatures. With a minute worth of sitting around, they have a 50% chance of summoning a CR 9 nighthag. So if they use that at all before engaging, your level 6 party has a 50% chance of being hella fucked. Supposedly they only summon the hag if they capture something, so let’s assume that the Nighthag is a just a coup de grace on your already fucked characters, and see what it does on its own. Swarm, so bullshit, DR 5/Cold Iron, so basically only the Wizard is doing anything. Anyone within 30ft must make a Will DC 15 save or be dazed for one round, but after you succeed you are immune for 24 hours. Evasion and fuck off high ref save, because fuck you using AoEs on a swarm. Each round you are in the swarm, 2d6 damage, and -2 dex penalty. Unlike all other penalties ever, this adds with itself, and can reduce you to zero at which point you are helpless, mute, blind. You can make a DC 20 strength check (it doesn’t say what action) to break free and succeed or fail you take 2d6 damage. Why isn’t the dex penalty dex damage? Because these fucks are literally sewing your limbs together with tiny little hooks. Presumably that was a good enough justification to tell undead and constructs to get fucked. I rate it Puzzle Encounter out of 10.
Bulezau:
CR 9 Goat Demon Bruiser. Some decent Crowd control, in the form of Solid Fog at will, Fear 3/day, and telekinesis, so this thing could beat entire parties by throwing objects at them while they are in a solid fog, but presumably you will be nice and have it only use Solid Fog once, and charge someone when they get out with it’s powerful charge ability, which is just a big gore with a spear, followed by four attacks per full attack. Not worthless, but I question if this really occupies a different space than other bruiser demons. Chance to clone itself, because one solid fog at will telekinesis kiter was too few.
Chasme:
CR 10 Flying Insect Bruiser Demon. Still has Telekinesis. Replace Solid Fog with Fly, Dispel Magic, Darkness, Desecrate, Insect Plague, Ray of Enfeeblement, and Contagion at will, quickened Ray of Enfeeblement 3/day. Replace Fear with a Fear Aura. Also Unholy Aura. Begins combat with a full round 60 radius spread DC 16 will save or sleep. So basically, maybe you all die, probably someone wastes an action kicking the guy on the ground in the first round of combat. Then it kites you with insect plagues, telekinesis, flying, dispelling your fly spells, and Greater Teleport, all this while enfeebling you. Eventually the DM gets bored and it comes into melee, you all get a Fear aura, and then it fights with four attacks. Another “Could kill the whole party if they aren’t smart, or could just get unlucky and fail a save against Finger of Death.” Remember when I said possession Vrocks? Fuck that, use this fucker instead, not that dangerous, but super fucking annoying. Also has a chance to clone itself, because Demon. Also, I’ll just mention this now, the authors hate players that go invisible. Every fucking Demon has see invis at will, you better not try to fucking hide your wizard you cock!
Dybbuk:
I love this piece of shit. CR 8 possession demon. Unfortunately no picture, but it looks like a floating jellyfish and it is hilarious. This jellyfish floats around touching people for 1d6 con damage. Once per day, it slaps a 10d6 damage rider on the touch. Not that impressive, but the real fun is that this guy can possess corpses of an animal, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or vermin. Theoretically, you might want to possess some big ass vermin and have it fight smart, but fuck that. Because when it possesses a creature’s corpse, that creature gets restored to full health, and then when it gets fucked up, the jellyfish gets shunted out next to it, and possesses it again the next round unless it has been beheaded or the body disintegrated. So what you do, is you possess a PyroHydra, and then you fight the party, and when they kill the PyroHydra, they fight another full strength PyroHydra next round (you can choose to be shunted to the adjacent square of “the ground under they hydra’s corpse” and then possess it again next round), and this repeats until they cut off and acid all the heads shut. Another solid Puzzle Encounter out of 10. For those keeping score, this is our first new subtype creature. You’ll notice it uses less than zero of the rules in the Possession chapter. Yeah, don’t ask me.
Ekolid:
Our first not really a subtype subtype creature. Remember these things are so horrifically monstrous to look at that even blind people are driven insane by the sight of them. So what does it look like? A big ant bug mouth with wings and like 6 scorpion tails. . . I’m not amused. I personally might need to make a will save or go insane if I ran into that, but I think your average adventurer or blind commoner might be fine… well, until they got stabbed with 6 scorpion tails. So the CR 4 Ant-Scorpo exists. You see the B movie reject, and you make a DC 14 will save and you are either immune for 24 hours, or you imagine being bitten by insects all over and this causes you to take a -1 penalty on all skill checks… not even attack rolls? Adrenaline must be one hell of a drug, I think I would curl up into a ball and die if I was being bitten by a legion of tiny insects. Also you have to make a DC 10 Concentration check to cast spells. DC 10? Pffff. But this is permanent until you get a spell cast on you that is like 3 spell levels higher than anything you have access to right now, so you take your minus one to skill checks and you like it for the next 5 levels. Then it flys 60ft and attacks you with 6 stingers and a bite, because it has two move actions per round. Because fuck fighters, that is why. Each stinger forces a DC 15 save or else an egg is implanted in you that hatches NEXT ROUND doing 1d6 damage and nauseating you for a turn. WTF even if this. These things grow to maturity in a couple hours. This thing could walk into a village and it would be overrun by Ant-Scorpos in an couple hours. Also, how does any of this work with the whole “Demons are created by the Abyss consciousness” bullshit? This should be a magical beast, and also, it should have an incubation period of fucking hours, not 6 seconds. Whatever. First not subtype subtype rating: B movie emulator 10/10, actual monster 7/10, demon 0/10 this isn’t a demon, it looks like an Bug and it breeds like an Bug and it is immune to Mind Affecting effects like a Vermin. Someone just came up with a cool Vermin and had to shove it in the Demon book. Also, true seeing from the type, because fuck your invisible PCs.
Goristro:
This is a CR 16 Huge Minotaur Demon. It has 24HD, 300HP, DR 15/good, Fast Healing 5, 29AC. It has two slams for +29 that do 3d6+28 damage. It can throw a rock that does 2d8+12 damage. It can cause Earthquakes by stomping on the ground that don’t effect it, and it has See Invis as an extraordinary ability, because fuck your invisible characters in an AMF! If it punches you, you go flying. It has fear and spider climb and levitate at will. For all that, it is pretty much a pushover. It has 300HP, but a touch AC of 7, and is immune to basically nothing. He doesn’t even have very good saves for CR 16. You could Stun Ray the thing and take your time deciding which one of the 400 ways to kill something like this you want to use. You could have your quasit familiar go possess the thing while you float always 60ft above it no matter how high it levitates. But hey, when you get to level 17, You can Dominate Monster the poor guy and use him as yet another example of why you don’t need the fighter because you can bring your own better fighters if you care. Also he heals himself for you so you don’t even need to waste wands. Fuck off Fighter. Oddly, cannot clone himself, which is weird, because that would make it cooler without making it anymore dangerous.
Guecubu:
There isn't even a picture of this, it is just a picture of a guy having a headache.
CR 4 Possession spirit number two. This thing isn’t even a demon a little bit. It has an aura that shakens you until you leave the area, and then when you come back, you have to save again, but who cares, it can never stack because you don't have to save a second time until you leave and come back, and you eventually become immune for 24 hours by making the save. It can touch you, and you have to make a save or go to sleep, but who cares, because someone can kick you and wake you up. It is naturally invisible in a way that is really greater invis, and it is immune to invisibility purge. They don’t even provide a description of what it looks like, because players can’t have see invisibility, that is just for us to put on all our monsters! It can throw objects at you with telekinesis or trip you. What a fucking prankster poltergeist. This is someone watching a ghost movie. Also it can possess anyone who is asleep, and do everything except transform them. Congrats, you get the bullshit possession ghost disease. Hope you figure out you need to cast see invis and murder it in the face after you kick it out. Because otherwise it will just possess you again. Fuck this ghost spirit bullshit. This is just trolling your players 101, the monster. I rate it Stupid Puzzle Monster out of 10.
Lilitu:
A CR 12 Succubus. She casts spells like a level 9 Cleric, (that is an Ex ability, so you explicitly get it with shapechange and polymorph, if you care), you can’t discern her alignment, even though she looks like an evil asshole, so who cares, she take a SR and saves penalty against Divine Spells for no reason (not even good divine spells, just divine spells, apparently Grummush hates her too for some reason?). Once per day she can grant a paltry Cha and saves bonus that allows her to track you wherever you go, and see with your eyes and talk to you in your head. Sure whatever. She can use any magic item as if she successfully used the Use Magic Device Skill, and no one knows what happens if she wants to use a Staff while emulating CL 500000, but you can find out by getting a staff of Holy Word, shapechanging into her, using her Ex ability, and asking your DM, have fun. Also gets at will charm monster, detect thoughts, disguise self with no duration limit, fly, suggestion, greater teleport, sending, and tongues. 1/day Dominate, quickened Suggestion, and symbol of persuasion. This monster… isn’t garbage. Her entire thing is looking like a pretty girl through magic and blessing and buffing the party while pretending to be their allies and really manipulating them. If it comes to a fight, she going to get ass beat, but whatever, she’s a monster, that was inevitable, the main thing is she’s like a succubus, but the players don’t feel as bad when she’s manipulating them because she does it by lying to them and spying on them instead of magical compulsion. Cannot clone herself though.
Mane:
A CR 1 Bloated Sack of gas. Does fuck all in combat till it dies, then explodes like shitty DC 12 CL 1 Acidball. Whatever, I guess if you get paid by the word one more CR 1 monster that surprise fucks the PCs won’t matter. Of particular Page Bloat Note, remember all that bullshit stuff they write for every monster? Every part of it for Manes is a waste, but the Advancment section for the Mane is longer than for every other monster, and it says “Manes don’t advance, they get turned into other Demons” in 136 words. I fucking counted. Thanks fuckface, no one cares if the Balor used to be a Mane. It’s still a Balor.
Molydeus:
I think this name literally means multi-god. Whatever, CR 19. It’s a Big ass redskinned Barbarian Body with a Hyena head and a snake growing out of the neck. It has some stats, you don’t care what they are. It has a dancing Vorpal Greataxe that bypasses DR that melts away when it dies to deprive you of treasure because of course it does, you don’t care. It’s neck snake bites once per round as a free action and does 2d6 Con Drain that is a poison that bypasses Poison immunity because fuck you, and if your con is reduced to zero you become a Mane and you need a Wish or Miracle because of course the DM is pissed that Resurrection and Poison immunity are things, and you still don’t care. It has True Seeing and can’t be flanked, because fuck rogues, and you are sort of starting to care. It can summon a Maralith with 100% success rate. You care. Now for the fun part, SLAs. Trap the Soul 1/day, Quickened Telekinesis 3/day (not sure how that interacts with concentration duration but sure), some dimensional locks and lightningbots, per day, and at will invis, Greater Teleport, Greater Dispel, Fly, Fear, Blashemy CL 19, and Baleful Polymorph. Okay, so he’s not really any better or worse than other high CR evil Outsiders. Just another dickhole who spams save or dies and fights with a weapon that disintegrates, because fuck you. I rate it a Sure I Guess, Whatever, out of 10. Just remember, you are also fighting a Maralith, and Fuck you invisible PCs!
Juvenile Nabassu:
CR 5 Scaly Gargoyle Looking Fuck. This guy is actually pretty cool. He has camo and flight, which isn’t terrible, his combat stats are not particularly impressive for level 5, but he has a 30ft gaze attack that gives negative levels and things that die rise as ghouls under it’s control. Now to understand this creature at all, you have to understand that things can turn off their gaze attacks. Basically, this thing gets a bunch of kickass bonuses for killing and eating people as part of a coup de grace attack when they are helpless but alive, and ghouls can paralyze people, but it has to turn off its gaze to eat them (probably). So when it comes to fighting the PCs, once he realizes they can kick his ass without his aura, he has to turn it back on, try to kill them, fail, and run off. But they can kill all his ghouls, so he has to start over making Ghouls in order to get the ghouls to paralyze more commoners to eat them. So the monster has a built in motivation, Eat people, that the PCs are going to want to interrupt. He gets stronger the more he eats, so the PCs want to stop him before he succeeds, and the PCs have the ability to at least slow him down if they keep tracking him down. All in all, he can be a fun, memorable encounter for a lower level party to get super fucking pissed about. Also they might lose, but in the way where he eats 30 people, not in the way they get died. Also when he eats 29 people he can kick their ass (+145HP, +29 to AB and AC and saves) so basically, they are going to give up or win before it gets to that point. But if he gets to 30 he transforms into:
Mature Nabassu: CR 15 still the same Gargoyle thing. Now, the first part of this makes no sense, because it says that when the juvenile feeds on the 30th corpse it loses the benefits, instantly transforms into a Mature Nabassu, and then on the next turn the newly mature Nabassu plane shifts back to the abyss… but the Mature Nabassu doesn’t have plane shift. Does it get this power only once on completion? If so, why would it use it? Is it being sucked back to the Abyss? Why, if it was strong enough to resist being sucked back, why did becoming more powerful change that? Why would the Abyss consciousness want to such back the suddenly CR 15 monster that could now rampage around the material plane doing whatever it does? Whatever, on to the monster: Regeneration 5, 6d6 SA, reasonable not exactly big dumb fighter CR 15 stats, still has a gaze attack that does 1d4 negative levels, but instead of an active that also does negative levels, it is a death effect. Can summon a Glabrezu with a 30% chance, or 1d4 Hezrous with a 70% chance. I’d do the Hezrous. As a standard action it can force a will save or you are connected in a link that duplicates any damage you do to it on you, or any spell you cast on it on you as long as you are within 30ft. You are level 15, even close range spells have a range longer than 30ft, so you can back out of range and hit it with anything even if you fail the save, and this basically just a Fuck Melee Fighter effect. It has SLAs, Ethereal Jaunt and Greater TP for mobility, True Seeing for fuck your invisibility, unholy aura for generic buffs, Energy Drain for pouring more negative levels on things, Blasphemy, but meh, CL 15 and CR 15, and then, in case you are making the Fort saves on its death glare but not immune to negative levels, Enervation at will to stack with its negative level passive gaze and Energy Drain. Also it still makes ghouls, but at this point, you are level 15, if you care about the ghouls, you are doing it wrong. Honestly, this would have been a lot better as a CR 10 that really wrecked havoc on the countryside when you failed to beat the CR 5 version, instead of a CR 15 that immediately goes to the Abyss, and then takes 5 months to escape, only to show up when you are level 15 and watch you cast deathward and kick it’s fucking ass. I rate this CR 5 9/10, result of losing the objective game with the CR 5 2/10, CR 15 5/10.
Rutterkin:
Can't find a picture, but it is a CR 3 Ugly Person Demon. At will Cause Fear and Darkness, Can try to summon either itself (poor choice) or 1d6 Dretches. Has exotic weapon proficiency in two items, one looks like Shurikens that do more damage, so basically a fuck you to Monks, the only people using Shurikens who can’t replace them just as easily with this new crap, and a Snap-Tongue, which appears to be some kind of item that can be used to grapple people, but only small people, and then it does more damage each round you stay grappled. It also has two claws, and the claws do more damage than the weapon, so aside from grappling it doesn’t serve much purpose. This might as well be a Warrior with Cause Fear at will and a chance to get fucked by 5 or 6 Dretches at level 3.
Sibriex:
A CR 15 Giant Floating Putrid Head Demon. Well at least it isn’t beaten by a single 4th level spell. This CR 15 leaves much to be desired. Basically you come across a floating head tethered to the ground by chains, and it floats at 20ft, slowly moving the chains forward. It is another form of madness not subtype subtype, and being within 60ft forces a mind affecting DC 24 Will Save, and if you fail you believe the Sibriex is just the most beautiful thing ever! Which means a -4 on enchantment saves and 1d6 Charisma drain (do these people hate damage for some reason? I’ve seen drains and penalties, but not a lot of ability damage). This can be healed by spells you already have access to, so you don’t care, also it is mind affecting, so you don’t care because you have Mindblank (to be fair, you can fight this before you are level 15, but still, this ability is so underwhelming for something that is CR 15 and was described as “insanity” in the subtype description, I mean, this isn’t even as good as Mindfog, and Mindfog is shit.) It can attack with its four animated chains and a bite attack, and be a worse version of a Chain Devil, something you could have fought in a closet 10 levels ago, instead of out in the open, where it can’t keep up with you, but it won’t do that. What it will do is spit acid on you that nauseates you as a swift action while using Hold Monster or FeebleMind every round while its minions kick your ass. No part of this monsters entry is helpful. It has acid spit that it can use as a swift action every 1d4 rounds, what is the range? Fuck if I know, it doesn’t say anywhere in the entry. Well okay, what else does it do, it Charms Monsters, it doesn’t even have Dominate, so fuck that, but whatever, it presumably has some minions, but who knows what? Also it can give its minions the Grafts from Fiend Folio for free, also itself, but the authors don’t seem to realize that, so I see giant piles of treasure you will never have, or alternatively, and evil demon you can befriend while under the effect of Mind Blank, and then get free Grafts from. So what grafts does it give to minions that you can exploit? Well, you can get a See in Darkness and Magical Darkness like a Devil and a super low DC Charm Monster Gaze effect. You can get See Invis in the other eye and a really low save Paralyze fear effect. You can replace your arms for +4 str, you can get a fly speed equal to twice your land speed with average maneuverability from your cool new black feathered wings or batlike wings The bat ones also grant ER 10 Cold and Fire. You can get a +4 racial bonus to listen and the Blindfight feat, but now if you roll a 1 on listen you get deafened and confused for 1d4+1 rounds, not worth it if you ask me. You can give the Fighter a Gore attack, if for some reason you aren’t PoA him into something better these days. You slap a bunch of tentacles onto your rogue that make an attack in addition to your other attacks, so you can have infinityd6 SA, you can slap a stinging tail onto that that does Str damage you don’t care about because you already have infinite Str damage that isn’t poison from your infinite Sneak attacks. All in all, what I’m trying to say is, I must have walked outside and seen a floating head, because I want to be friends with one of these fucks.
Yochlol:
Or alternatively:
A CR 8 Who Fucking Knows What Demon. Apparently this is a haindmaiden to lolth, so it can look like a Drow, and suck, it can look like a Spider, and suck, it can look like a Gaseous Cloud and you suffer the effects of Stinking Cloud if you are in or adjacent to it, and it can look like a pile of ooze with eight tendril attacks that it probably won’t use because it is too busy webbing you and dominate personing you. So basically, you kill a Gaseous Cloud while it tries to Nauseate you while trapping you in a web while dominating you. Hits all three saves, fucks over everyone, and the end result is a pretty decent monster. 8/10.
Next Time on OSSR
So next time we combine the “man does this fluff suck” with the “man are these monsters . . . surprisingly not all that bad” with DEMON LORDS. Then on to actual PC options!
