Illustration Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast.

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

Hezrou a relative rarity among demons in that they like to serve. Whether their master is a stronger demon or a mortal summoner, they will happily obey orders as long as they’re given opportunities to kill things.

Hezrou are Large Elemental Humanoids (demons). Their muscular frames are all hunched over, they have the heads of toads, and their skins are eternally covered in putrescent slime. In fact, judging from the illustration in the books the very flesh of the hezrou is eternally rotting, exposing bone in places, even though they’re not undead.

Hezrou exist in both books. We’ll take a look at them separately.

Hezrou (Monster Manual)

Monster Manual Hezrou are Level 22 Brutes with 225 HP, darkvision, and variable resistance 20 that can be switched twice per encounter. Their noxious stench manifests as an Aura 2 that gives all enemies inside it a -2 penalty to attacks. If the demon is bloodied, enemies in the aura are also weakened (ruptured internal pus pockets!). They run with Speed 6.

Their basic attack is a Reach 2 slam, but they also have a slightly less damaging Reach 2 bite and the ability to use both as a standard action, which brings their damage in line with the expected for their level like we’ve seen with other multi-attacking regular brutes. These demons also ignore difficult terrain, seeming to phase through it despite being otherwise solid.

They’re trained in Stealth and quite agile, so they could end up being quite sneaky… if you can’t smell them coming first.

The proposed encounter is level 22, two hezrou, a deathpriest hierophant, and 5 abyssal ghoul myrmidons. Servants of Orcus, basicaly, with the hierophant calling the shots.

Hezrou (Monster Vault)

The MV Hezrou shares many of the traits of its MM cousin, with a few important differences. It’s slightly tougher at 254 HP, and a lot stinkier. Its stench does 10 poison damage to enemies caught in the area instead of merely inflicting a penalty, and this rises to 20 damage when the thing is bloodied.

Its basic attack is still a slam, which is entirely responsible for its baseline damage now. The bite is still there as a Recharge 4-6 attack that does about 50% more damage than the slam.

The MV Hezrou also loses its Stealth training.

Final Impressions

Hezrou might not be the most badass demons around, but they sure have a lot of character. “Stinky toad demon who is happy with its lot in life as a goon” is enough to make it memorable in a whole plane of creatures that smoulder with generic rage.