Creature Types Devil

Devils are fiends from lawful evil-aligned planes.

The Gates of Hell (Dice Freaks)

Grimoire of Cosmic Entities Volume One By Eli Atkinson, William Church and Serge W. Desir, Jr.

Original Concept by Serge W. Desir, Jr.

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Many devils are surrounded by a fear aura, which they use to break up powerful groups and defeat opponents piecemeal. Devils with spell-like abilities use their illusion abilities to delude and confuse foes as much as possible. A favorite trick is to create illusory reinforcements; enemies can never be entirely sure if a threat is only a figment or real summoned devils joining the fray.

Devil Traits: Most devils possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

• – Immunity to fire and poison.
• – Resistance to acid 10 and cold 10.
• – See in Darkness (Su): Some devils can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell.
• – Summon (Sp): Some devils share the ability to summon others of their kind (the success chance and type of devils summoned are noted in each monster description).
• – Telepathy.

Except when otherwise noted, devils speak Infernal, Celestial, and Draconic.

Infernal Variants

The Powers of Hell, for all their dedication to order and tradition, are still well aware of the benefits of improvement. Devils have had an eternity to improve and grow, gaining access to abilities beyond that typically expected by even the most learned mortal scholars. Many of the rules detailed in the core rulebooks are suitable for devils as detailed in the Monster Manual. The core rulebooks assume an upper limit of 20 character levels. It is for this reason that the strongest devil in the Monster Manual, the mighty pit fiend, is a CR 20 creature. However, many of the rules that are appropriate for core rule play lose much of their power and validity once players step into epic levels. The following variant rules offer useful alternatives to ensure that advanced devils and the Powers of Hell detailed in The Gates of Hell continue to offer a viable threat in epic play.

Variant: Fiendish Advancement

As currently written in the Monster Manual, when a monster advances its feat access, natural armor class, physical attributes, and skill points are adjusted to reflect the increase in Hit Dice. At Dicefreaks, we found that while for most monsters, these improvements are good enough, they do not greatly benefit outsiders and other high-level threats that reach into epic CR levels. The following variants offer new rules for maintaining a meaningful level of challenge for advanced fiends; these rules can be extrapolated for all outsider types. It should be noted that these power increases, unless otherwise stated, are based solely off of the racial hit dice of the fiend, not any class levels.

Damage Reduction

When a fiend advances to CR 10, the amount of damage reduced increases to 10. Thus, while a CR 6 barbazu posesses damage reduction 5/good or silver, a CR 10 barbazu possesses damage reduction 10/good or silver. When a fiend advances to CR 15, change “or” qualities for damage reduction to “and.” Thus, while a CR 6 babau possesses damage reduction 10/cold iron or good, a CR 15 babau possesses damage reduction 10/cold iron and good.

When a fiend advances to CR 18, the amount of damage reduced increases to 15. Thus, while a CR 12 hamatula possesses damage reduction 10/good or silver, a CR 18 hamatula possesses damage reduction 15/good and silver.

If a fiend (i.e. an extraplanar outsider from the Depths Below) does not possess a material damage reduction quality, it gains one at CR 20. Devils gain silver, demons cold iron.

When a fiend advances to CR 23, add epic to its damage reduction. Thus, while a CR 20 pit fiend possesses damage reduction 15/good and silver, a CR 23 pit fiend possesses damage reduction 15/epic, good, and silver. When a fiend advances to CR 25, the amount of damage reduced increases to 20. Thus, while a CR 20 pit fiend possesses damage reduction 15/good and silver, a CR 25 pit fiend possesses damage reduction 20/epic, good, and silver. At CR 35 and every increase of 10 CR thereafter, the fiend increases its amount of damage reduction by 5.

Energy Resistance

When a fiend advances to CR 21, its racial energy resistance increases to 15. At CR 26, it increases to 20. At CR 31, it increases to 25. Although only the rarest fiend’s advancement will take it past this, the pattern can continue indefinitely.

Regeneration

Regeneration improves in a ratio to the fiend’s original HD. A cornugon has 15HD and regeneration 5. A cornugon advanced to 18HD would have regeneration 6. A cornugon advanced to 45HD would have regeneration 15.

Spell-Like Abilities

A fiend’s caster level for spell-like abilities is always equal to its Hit Dice. Thus, a 36 HD pit fiend casts spells and penetrates Spell Resistance as a 36th level caster.

When a fiend advances to CR 30, spell-like abilities are usable more often. Abilities that were usable 3/day become usable at will; abilities that were usable 1/day become usable 3/day; and abilities that were usable less often decrease their delay by one increment (i.e. year becomes month, month becomes week, week becomes day). This occurs again when a fiend advances to 45th caster level, and yet again when a fiend advances to 60th caster level.

Spell Resistance

Spell Resistance increases at a one-for-one basis with an increase in CR. This includes racial HD increases, class level increases, or personal power increases. Thus, a CR 30 pit fiend possesses Spell Resistance 42.

Summoning

When a fiend reaches one and a half times its initial HD, it may summon one additional time per day and its chance to successfully summon increases by 15%; the summoning ability increases by one level. Thus, a 27 HD pit fiend would be able to automatically summon 2 lemures, barbazu, or osyluths, or 1 cornugon, erinyes, gelugon, or hamatula thrice per day; this ability is the equivalent of a 9th level spell.

When a fiend reaches twice its initial HD, the number of potential creatures summoned increases by one die type (for non-variable summoning, 1 increases to 3, 2 increases to 4, 3 increases to 6, and 4 increases to 9) and its chance to successfully summon again increases by 15%. Thus, a 36 HD pit fiend would be able automatically summon 4 lemures, barbazu, or osyluths, or 3 cornugons, erinyes, gelugons, or hamatulas thrice per day; this ability is the equivalent of a 9th level spell. When a fiend achieves maximum advancement, it may summon one additional time per day, it increases the number of creatures summoned by one more die type, and its chance to successfully summon increases yet again by 15%. In addition, the fiend may summon advanced versions (up to double HD) of the creatures it is able to summon. Such summoning is the equivalent of an epic spell. Thus, a 54 HD pit fiend would be able to automatically summon 9 lemures, barbazu, or osyluths, or 6 cornugons, erinyes, gelugons, or hamatulas four times per day; this ability is the equivalent of an epic spell.

When a fiend advances to CR 20, its chance to summon becomes automatic regardless of how many HD the fiend has been advanced; the summoning ability increases by three levels. Thus, a CR 20 gelugon could automatically summon 2d10 lemures, 1d6 barbazu, 2d4 bone devils, or another gelugon once per day; this ability is the equivalent of a 7th level spell.

Telepathy

When a fiend reaches 24th caster level with its spell like abilities, its natural telepathy increases to a range of 200 feet. Every ten levels of increase thereafter (so 34th, 44th, etc) increase the range of the fiend’s telepathy by 100 feet.

Variant: Fiendish Caster Level

As immortal beings with innate magical power, fiends acclimate to ‘learned magic’ easily. Indeed, fiends that take levels in spellcasting classes find that their magical power is significantly enhanced. This variant ensures that a fiend’s CR is reflected in its magical power in the same way that its increased HD or class levels are reflected in its attack bonuses. A fiend that possesses spell-like abilities other than greater teleport has an effective caster level equal to three quarters of its Hit Dice. If a fiend that takes levels in a spellcasting class, the fiend adds its 3/4 HD to its caster level when determining level-based functions of its spells, including damage, range, and caster level checks to penetrate Spell Resistance. This does not increase the fiend’s access to higher level spells or spells per day.

Variant: wish and Inherent Bonuses

According to the Player’s Handbook, the wish spell can be used to grant a creature a +1 inherent bonus to an ability score. Furthermore, two to five wish spells cast in immediate succession can grant a creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an ability score (two wishes for a +2 inherent bonus and so forth).

At Dicefreaks, we believe that inherent bonuses stack, no matter how far apart such bonuses may be in coming. Under the official rules, a character who found a tome of clear thought to increase his Intelligence by +1 (a +1 inherent bonus), and who later bought a tome to increase his Intelligence by 4 (a +4 inherent bonus), would end up with a +4 inherent bonus to Intelligence. In other words, the benefits of the original tome would be overlapped by those of the second. Under this variant rule, the two would stack, and the character would have a +5 inherent bonuses after reading both tomes.

This allows powerful devils such a pit fiends to use their wish spell-like ability to grant inherent bonuses to their ability scores. However, you will also note that most of the entities presented in this book that could take advantage of this rule have not. This is because such creatures are wary of using such a powerful ability and then being without it when they may need it. As a general rule, when calculating the wealth of a creature that has used its wish spell-like ability to increase its ability scores, count each inherent bonus as having cost the creature 13,750gp. This is half the listed cost of a tome or manual that would grant a +1 inherent bonus to a score; reducing the wealth of the creature in this fashion helps to keep its challenge rating in line, particularly for those who generate wealth for creatures by assigning items and so forth that will augment the creature’s powers. Additionally, for creatures that have used wish to increase their ability scores in a significant fashion, it is best to assume that they have no ready uses of wish available at the time of combat, unless wish is available to them more often than once per week. This illustrates that the creature is a wastrel, seeking immediate power with no thought for the future cost. From a mechanics point of view, it helps to keep the challenge rating within its proper frame.