Illustration Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast.

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

Ice devils are native to Cania, the frozen eight layer of Hell. Also known as Gelugons, they have an insectoid look which is significantly different from the norm for devils. This makes me think they were a different type of creature than most other rebellious divine servants (who were likely angels or such).

Individually they’re quite powerful, and hierarchically they’re starting to hit “upper management” territory. Gelugons don’t just allow themselves to be summoned by anyone. Their usual clients include evil rulers or generals. They usually function as champions, elite guards, and troop commanders.

Unfortunately ice devils are not all that good at this command business, because their disdain for their subordinates makes them favor high-attrition wave tactics. Well, unfortunately for those subordinates of course. Gelugons must think it’s really fun. Think “40K Imperial Guard Officer” when roleplaying them and you won’t go wrong.

They like cold climates, but aren’t impaired by warmer ones as they take a bit of Cania’s cold with them wherever they go. They like to fight in the front lines even when commanding others, and will prefer to target the weakest opponents first both because that’s tactically sound and because they despise weakness.

Gelugons are present in both the Monster Manual and the Vault, and there are signifitant differences between the two versions. We’ll cover them separately.

In both cases they’re Large Immortal Humanoids, have the Evil alignment (like all devils), Int 15, and speak Supernal.

Ice Devil (Monster Manual)

The MM ice devil is a Level 20 Soldier with 195 HP. It has darkvision and runs at speed 8. It’s completely immune to cold, and has Resist Fire 20. Pretty much all of its powers are tagged with the Cold keyword.

First there’s the Cold Aura, which has a radius of 5 and gives enemies inside a -2 penalty to attack rolls. Then there’s the Icy Longspear, a Reach 3 basic attack that does cold damage and slows on a hit (save ends). Freezing Breath targets Fortitude on a close blast 5, does cold damage and slows (save ends). It recharges on 3-6. And finally there’s Chilling Command, a minor action that recharges on 5-6 and targets Will. On a hit it does ongoing 5 cold damage and immobilizes (save ends both).

5 ongoing damage is low for an almost-epic creature. I imagine this is counterbalanced by the immobilization and this being a minor action. I’d increase it to 10 or 15 anyway, as well as fixing the woefully low damage of all the other attacks above.

Oh, these things also have claws, but they’re so bad as an attack that you might as well ignore them. Devils use weapons.

The sample encounter here level 19: 2 ice devils, 2 cambion hellfire magi, and 2 nabassu gargoyles. Hard to say who’s in charge on that one. I’m guessing it’s a very tense relationship between the gelugons and the cambions, all of whom are under orders from some epic-level villain to cooperate or else.

Ice Devil (Monster Vault)

The MV ice devil has the same level, HP and defenses as the previous version. The main difference are its attacks.

The puny claws are gone, as is Chilling Command. The damage on the Icy Longspear and Freezing Breath has been fixed and further increased for the breath, which now recharges on a 4-6. The spear now marks for a turn instead of slowing, and the first failed save on the breath’s slow effect increases it to immobilization.

The Cold Aura has been replaced by a new Aura 2 named Crippling Cold, which slows for a turn any enemies who start their turns inside it. And finally, the gelugon has replaced its fire resistance with a weakness to fire! Every time it takes fire damage, its Crippling Cold aura deactivates until the ice devil reactivates it. I guess that’s a minor action? It should at least be something it can only do on its turn.

Final Impressions

I think I actually like the MM version a bit more here. Chilling command is flavorful, and having the monster be both immune to cold and highly resistant to fire can lead to a nice “gotcha” moment while still being easier to remember than 3e devil resistances.

So to make my “optimal” gelugon I would start from the MV stat block, remove Warming Weakness, add the 20 fire resistance, and the Chilling Command power.