Illustration Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast.

This is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.

Evistros are also known as “Carnage Demons”, and they’re all about the carnage. These man-sized demons have red skin, needle-like teeth, digitigrade legs and large black claws on both their hands and feet. In other words, they look pretty much like two-armed Blood Fiends. While 4e Blood Fiends aren’t technically demons, I think the above description already provides sufficient justification for a GM to make them so, should they be so inclined. Evistros are only on the Monster Manual.

Anyway, when left to their own devices these things gather in huge hordes and rampage through whatever plane they happen to be in. Cultists and evil wizards find it easy to summon them into the world, but have a much harder time controlling them or getting them to do anything other than rampaging. Particularly inept summoners are often the first victims of their summoned evistros.

Carnage Demons are Medium Elemental Magical Beasts, and Level 6 Brutes with 90 HP. This means they are likely some of the first demons a PC party will run into during their careers. They charge at you with Speed 6, and have variable resistance 10 (1/encounter). They can’t see in the dark at all, so you have that going for you if you meet one in a dark alley.

Their basic attack is a claw, and they also have a slightly weaker bite they can use as a minor action on a bloodied target. They also have a passive ability called Carnage: if the demon has an ally adjacent to its target, it gains +1 on the attack roll. The bonus becomes +3 if that ally is also a carnage demon.

As it happens with a lot of monsters in this book, the evistro’s tactics write themselves: these demons always come in bands; they charge all at once, focus on a single target, and tear it to pieces. Rinse (in blood) and repeat forever. Quite fitting for an Int 5 demon.

The two suggested encounters are both level 6. The first is 3 evistros and 2 gnolls, which makes sense because their temperaments match perfectly. The second is 4 evistros and one harpy, which is a bit more puzzling. Is the harpy a demonologist?

I was totally unimpressed by these things when I started reading the monster entry, but now that I’m through I think they’re kinda cool as an introduction to demon opponents. They just need the standard damage fix and you’re good to go.

At higher levels, you can make them into minions and have dozens of the things swarming all around the battlefield as the party tries to fight their more powerful demon bosses.