More flumphs than you can shake a flindbar at: Let's Read the Tome of Horrors!

These demons have been fairly bland.

Demonic Knight
These CR 10 Outsiders are also known as death knights due to their servitude to Orcus, which is rather awkward as that is also the name of an undead creature from old school D&D (which can be found in the Monster Manual II, as well as an OGL version on the ToH's "child" site). They aren't really related however, and the demonic knights are a pure ToH original. As for abilities, they have demon summoning, an aura of fear, a negative energy breath attack, a few SLAs, and the ability to create shadow demons from those they kill. Demonic knights are a good lower-level introduction to Orcus and his crew, I guess, but are otherwise outclassed by the variability of Blackguards in the role of a "dark knight of the Abyss".



Devil (Duke), Amon
Hey, our very first devil is a demon lord Duke of Hell! Just like recent times, eh? Amon is a vaguely werewolfish devil who is the commander of the bone devils and a servant of Geryon (who we'll get to soon enough). Amon's summoning abilities cover both devils and wolf-like creatures (wolves, dire wolves, winter wolves, and worgs), and he can use a fear gaze or the "fiendly SLA sets" in combat. He also has regeneration only bypassed by silver to contend with. The CR 25 duke's signature weapon (as you can't be a high level fiend without one) is a +4 axiomatic thundering mace.



Devil (Duke), Baaphel
The leader of the bearded devils and a servant of Belial, Baaphel is...erm...another canine-visaged Duke of Hell. Baaphel is CR 21 and can't summon wolf-like creatures, but is otherwise rather Amon-like, with regeneration bypassed by silver, similar SLAs, and a fear ability (only touch-based instead of a gaze). His weapon of choice is a +3 axiomatic keen scythe.

I'm feeling rather ill today, so I'm just gonna fight through this entry today before I try to lay down with the laptop, some sinus medication, and a good book...that isn't the Tome of Horrors, obviously, as that would be rather redundant.

Devil (Duke), Bael
Yet another Duke of Hell already... Bael is a servant of Mammon and the commander of the barbed devils, a CR 22 devil with a vaguely minotaur-like appearance. Bael is absolutely, positively uninteresting, at that. He has regeneration, SLAs, regeneration, fear (in an aura, this time!). Wow, just like all the other Dukes so far? What a shocker! His signature weapon is a +3 telescoping unholy morningstar.



Devil (Arch), Geryon
The first arch-devil we've met so far, the CR 28 Geryon is based on the winged, scorpion-dragon-thing-tailed fiend from the Divine Comedy rather than the Grecian giant of the same name...rather obvious, really, seeing as this is in the devils entry, not the giant entry. Geryon is a follower of Mephistopheles, feeling that, hey, if he's good enough for Spider-Man, he's good enough for Geryon. Seriously though, Geryon believes that when the next big upheaval of the politics of hell happens, Mephistopheles will overthrow Asmodeus, and he wants to be on the winning side. Stats-wise, Geryon's distinguishing combat features (I.E., stuff other than more archetypical Evil SLAs, planar omniscience, and regeneration) are a fear gaze, rending claws, a poisonous stinger on his tail, 20th-level Sorcerer casting, and an ability called the Bull's Horn. With this great bone horn, Geryon can summon a boatload of minotaurs; why minotaurs exactly, I'm not sure, as you'd think nagas or something would be more appropriate. Servants of Geryon, typically evil lizardfolk or inphidians, are known as Serpent Masters.



Devil, Ghaddar
The ghaddar is absolutely insane looking, with the head of an ibex, a long serrated pinky claw on each hand, an exposed spinal column, and a skeletal serpent (complete with skull) for a tail. These CR 16 brutes roam around the Nine Hells looking for tasty souls and devil essences to chow down on, and appropriately have an improved grab and vorpal bite to utilize in combat. It also has regeneration (shocker!), devil summoning (double shocker!), and a few SLAs including wall of fire and lightning bolt (triple shocker!). My personal question is this: if the ghaddars can simply summon devils, why do they have to go hunting at all? Why not just summon a morsel any time they have that craving for a little red meat, or if they really want to experience the "thrill of the kill or whatever" simply summon a strong devil and play a little Most Dangerous Game with them?

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Originally Posted by Rappy

My personal question is this: if the ghaddars can simply summon devils, why do they have to go hunting at all? Why not just summon a morsel any time they have that craving for a little red meat, or if they really want to experience the "thrill of the kill or whatever" simply summon a strong devil and play a little Most Dangerous Game with them?

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It's a summoning effect, so the devils would just poof back to wherever they came from when killed. It takes a Calling effect to get the summons to hang around after death, and if the ghaddar is like the SRD devils, their summons ability isn't a Calling.

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Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

It's a summoning effect, so the devils would just poof back to wherever they came from when killed. It takes a Calling effect to get the summons to hang around after death, and if the ghaddar is like the SRD devils, their summons ability isn't a Calling.

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Fair enough. It's one of those minor flubs I have at moments, as my background in RPGs is more d20 Modern than D&D. That, and I have an unhealthy obsession with monster ecologies, so the idea of a fiend that likes to summon other fiends just to play with its food, as it were, amused me.

Devil (Duke), Gorson
Also known a the Blood Duke, Gorson is a fiendish wemic-like duke (for those of you that aren't familiar with the wemics, they are a Forgotten Realms creature that resembles a centaur with lion, rather than horse, features) that commands the ranks of the barbed devils. The CR 22 Gorson is heavily melee combat-oriented, with pounce, rake, improved grab, and a +3 wounding battleaxe as his weapon of choice. Of course, being a duke, he does have SLAs as well, but he's definitely more physical than most of his kin.



Devil (Duke), Hutijin
Hutijin, a CR 22 Duke of Hell (what a shock there), is the commander of the pit fiends; indeed, he himself resembles a slightly oversized pit fiend, and it's not unreasonable to imagine that he is merely a pit fiend that got lucky or worked really hard. In addition the standard dukeish traits, Hutijin has the ability to induce fear by speaking and wields not one but two unique tool: a +4 unholy flaming burst trident and a net of snaring.



Devil, Lucifer
The big man himself, Lucifer was the original creator and ruler of the Nine Hells. One of the three main supreme evils of the planes, Lucifer was eventually deposed by one of his 9 lieutenants: an upstart archdevil by the name of Asmodeus. Asmodeus and seven other archdevils lead the Great Uprising against Lucifer and his lone loyal lieutenant, Belial. While the fighting was great, numbers and Belial's eventual betrayal cost Lucifer the war, and Asmodeus ousted him from Hell. Not one to be spurned so lightly, Lucifer sacrified some of his own essence to build a plane of pure hellfire, malice, and epic level evil known as Infernus. There, he still waits, gathering up power to attempt to take on Asmodeus and his fellow conspirators for his rightful throne once more.

One hell of a character, Lucifer is a whopping CR 39, making him the most powerful being in the entire ToH. Lucifer is not one to taken lightly, as he has a veritable boatload of abilities to back up his tremendous Challenge Rating. He has acidic and venomous secretions, two gaze attacks (one that acts as an alignment shifter, one that is a double-strength bestow curse), an absurd amount of powerful SLAs such as meteor swarm (with all but one, wish [which is 1/day], being at-will), casting as a Sorcerer 20/Cleric 19, the ability to summon archdevils - albeit a suspended power which he can't utilize unless he's back in Hell - as well as standard devil summoning, regeneration and planar omniscience like most major devils, and his key weapon, the Rod of Infernus. This mighty rod works as a +6 greatclub which has the abilities of a rod of rulership, plus a blast of utter annihilation that only deities can reverse, 3/day use of trap the soul, and extreme electricity damage and level drain to any non-devil that so much as touches it. This is definitely the end-boss of any epic level planar campaign, unless you're shooting for uber-deities as well.

Devil (Archdevil), Moloch
A traitorous servant of Baalzebul, Moloch is a CR 26 archdevil that schemes to rule the sixth plane of Hell after he managed to get rid of Geryon and his bloated boss. He is pretty much another standard archdevil, with his spellcasting being that of a 20th-level Cleric, his prerequisite fear delivery being through a breath weapon, and his unique melee weapon of choice being a +4 unholy shocking six-tailed whip. I can't really recommend using him over any other archdevil unless you have parties that are weak against electricity and you want to be a jerk toward them or you want to explore the sixth level of Hell in particular. Moloch has no real particular favorite type of servant beyond "humanoids" (wow, that's a small category right there) that are wizards, clerics, or assassins; such individuals that sign a pact with the archdevil are known as Knights of Moloch.



Devil, Nupperibo
These devils are literally lemures that were born wrong. Yeah, I'll let that sink in for a moment.

...Okay, sinking time's over. As a result of their origin, nupperibos are some of the absolute weakest, "kick me"-signed devils out there at a pathetic CR 1. They are worthless as anything but cannon fodder due to the fact that they are mindless and have nothing but their nearly worthless regeneration 1, minor damage reduction, and average acid and cold resistance to keep them alive in combat. The only reasons I can see for using nupperibos are for their flavor (nupperibos as a concept are admittedly rather creepy, and it's even worse when you realize that even if a nupperibo gets promoted (a listed 1% chance), its reward is...to become a lemure. Some reward, that) or if you want to introduce devil hordes really early in your game.



Devil (Duke), Titivilus
Unlike most dukes, the CR 20 Titivilus commands no specific type of demon, although he does have some erinyes and bearded devils that hang out under his watch. He is the messenger of the archdevil Dispater and is pretty average as far as the Dukes of Hell go, right down to his archetypical goat-and-bat features. He has generic Duke powers as well, with his prerequisite fear ability being fear touch and his unique weapon being a +3 wounding silver longsword. Meh.



Devil, Tormentor
The tormentor devils prowl the uppermost plane of Hell in search of escaped souls, hell hounds in tow, hunting them down to bring back to whatever archdevil has hired them; and with a name like "tormentor devil", you just know they're gonna treat your soul right. Anyway, they are CR 7 and have a lot of soul-hunting specialties. Their natural weapons are treated as having the ghost touch special quality, as are their +1 battleaxes and barbed nets, allowing them to damage and capture souls with maximum prejudice. In addition, they can track souls as if they were living things, which makes me wonder why they even have the hell hounds if they can do the tracking on their own...symbolism, maybe? I dunno. In any case, the tormentor devil is a nasty little surprise for any would-be rescuer of the damned that starts their descent into the depths of the Nine Hells.

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And that's it for the devils.

...Wow. I hadn't even thought of what I'd say at this point. We've done it; we've actually reached the apex of this Let's Read. The Tome of Horrors has been read in its entirety now! It was one wild ride, and I'm glad I was able to take y'all with me on it. It may have had its ups and downs, but the ToH is still one of my favorite monster books, and reading it from start to finish for this thread really cemented that in my mind. So once again, to all you ladies and gents that followed this thread, thank you...

...Oh, and the next Let's Read won't be the Tome of Horrors II. No, two Tomes in a row would be silly. So tonight (or tomorrow morning, not sure), we'll be venturing to another WotC-licensed third party bestiary. One that comes from a truly dreadful place...best bring your lanterns, because it's gonna be dark out there this October.

Some source, though I'm not sure which one, suggested Nupperibo are larval Ancient Baatorians.

Oh, you -kick ass-! I'll go get my cape and Mary Shelly crap!

Thanks again for this thread rappy - I've really enjoyed it, and I've picked up a few things about the ToH that I hadn't previously noticed. :smallbiggrin:

I better wrap up in some thick clothes that don't soak easily despite foggy conditions...

Oh, I didn't even see that "book finished" post. Gratz, it was awesome.

Also, the Demiplane of Dread, really?`Daymn. Always wanted that book.

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Originally Posted by The Tygre

Oh, you -kick ass-! I'll go get my cape and Mary Shelly crap!

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Originally Posted by Terraoblivion

I better wrap up in some thick clothes that don't soak easily despite foggy conditions...

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Aww, it was that easy to figure out, eh? :smalltongue:

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Originally Posted by Thurbane

Thanks again for this thread rappy - I've really enjoyed it, and I've picked up a few things about the ToH that I hadn't previously noticed. :smallbiggrin:

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You're welcome. You helped me learn as well, in addition to the others that were part of the older editions the Tome sought to revive parts of.

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Originally Posted by Eldan

Some source, though I'm not sure which one, suggested Nupperibo are larval Ancient Baatorians.

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That would be rather disturbing...and interesting. The idea of the "promotion" to lemure actually being a conversion to the rule of the devils would be a twistedly delicious evil plot.

Truth be told, it didn't click until i read The Tygre's comment. But yeah, it kinda is. "Dark" and "dread" are the keywords of the setting, especially in it's third edition incarnation, both 3.0 and 3.5. However, i don't care. That version of the setting is [I]awesome[I].

:clap: :clap:, thank you very much Rappy, I have loved the Let's Read, all the way through, and If I ever take the DM seat, I will definetly need to track down a copy to unleash it's horrors on the players!!

Indeed, plus there's the fact that my choices were between the d20 Modern Gamma World bestiary and that for my choice of the next LR. I decided that since I don't actually own the latter and don't have the money to shell out for it at the moment, silly as the LR may have been, I'd go for the former. Probably fits better for Halloween anyway; we'll see about the latter if the Tome of Horrors II LR finishes around April. :smallwink: