Illustration Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast.

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

Rejoice, oh reader, for we are finally done with the devils! Our next monster is no less horrific, but at at least it’s not a fiend.

I think devourers made their first appearance in D&D 3.5. Third Edition tried really hard to create a new generation of iconic monsters with mixed success at best, but I think they got it right here. These things are scary! Despite this, they’re only on the Monster Manual.

The Lore

When a mortal dies their soul goes to the Shadowfell, where the Raven Queen sorts it out and sends it on its way to the great beyond. When a psychotic serial killer dies, there’s a chance their soul goes AWOL once it hits the Shadowfell and builds itself a new body out of other people’s flesh and bones. This is how devourers are made.

Devourers retain all the mental faculties they had in life, which means they get to keep their Evil disposition and Hannibal Lecter-like intellect. There are several varieties of devourer: some enjoy eating their victims still-pulsating viscera, while others go straight for the soft, yummy soul at the center of their flesh wrapping.

I suspect that given time they’d prepare some nicely cooked fava beans and a bottle of Chianti to go with their victims, but they’ll eat them on the spot mid-fight if they’re in a hurry.

Devourers are smart enough to value strategic alliances with other monsters, and they’re even able to hold their unnatural appetite in check to work with living allies. Of course, they’re still only going to ally with creatures that don’t mind their proclivities.

The Numbers

We get three devourer varieties here.

The Spirit Devourer is a Large Shadow Humanoid (undead), and a Level 11 Elite Soldier with 224 HP. It’s trained in perception and has Darkvision. Being undead, it’s immune to disease and poison, has Resist 15 Necrotic, and Vulnerable 5 radiant. It moves with Speed 6.

Its basic melee attack is a Reach 2 claw, but the real star of the show here is Trap Spirit. This has Range 5 and targets the Fortitude of a living humanoid. On a hit, the victim’s body vanishes and its spirit is trapped as an agonizing effigy inside the devourer’s exposed rib cage (save ends). Until the victim saves, it can do absolutely nothing.

While the monster has a victim so trapped, it gains a +2 bonus to all defenses, and access to two other actions. Devour Spirit is an at-will minor action that does 10 damage to the victim, and either heals the devourer by the same amount or allows it to immediately use Spirit Rupture. This is a standard action attack that targets the Will of everyone in a Close Burst 1. On a hit, it does necrotic damage and immobilizes the target for a turn. On a miss, it does half damage without the status effect.

Should the victim be killed by Devour Spirit, it can’t be resurrected by Raise Dead. This is particularly concerning here because I don’t think there’s any other way to bring characters back from the dead at this level. At least, there weren’t at the time this book was published.

The Viscera Devourer is a little different because it’s exposed abdominal cavity comes pre-filled with squirming, drooling intestines tipped with gnashing mouths. It’s a Medium Shadow Humanoid (undead), and a Level 12 Controller with 124 HP. It has the same senses, resistances and speed as the Spirit Devourer.

Aside from the weaksauce basic claw attack, this devourer can use up to four of its tentacle-like intestines as a weapon. Their Reach is 1, and on a hit they do a bit of physical damage and grab the target. The devourer can grab up to four victims this way, or use multiple bowels to grab a single target, giving them a -2 to escape the grab for each extra intestine. Grabbed victims take 5 ongoing necrotic damage for each appendage wrapped around them until they escape, with the devourer gaining the same amount of HP as it drains their life.

Oh, and it also gains a +2 to all defenses while it has at least one person grabbed.

And finally we have the Soulspike Devourer, AKA the Big One. It’s a Huge Shadow Humanoid (undead), and a Level 20 Elite Soldier (Leader) with 376 HP. It has the same speed, senses and resistances as its smaller cousins, though its numbers here are more extreme: resist necrotic 20 and vulnerable 10 radiant.

The Soulspike Devourer’s gimmick is that it impales the souls of its victims on the many bone spikes that protude from where its ribs should be. This happens whenever its basic claw attack reduces a target to 0 HP. When encountered, the devourer will probably have at least one spirit so impaled. It’s maximum “capacity” is 4.

Impaled victims can’t perform actions at all. They can try to make a save to escape when the devourer takes radiant damage, but otherwise they’re helpless. The only other way to free them is to destroy the devourer. If either of these things happen their body reappears next to the monster’s and can be brought back to health in the usual way. The devourer and any allies within 10 squares of it gain a bonus to all their defenses equal to half the number of soulspiked spirits.

The devourer’s other special attack is Soul Shatter, which targets Will on a Close Burst 3, does a lot of necrotic damage, and stuns for a turn, after which the targets are weakened (save ends). This recharges whenever the devourer uses its variant of the Devour Spirit ability.

This, in turn, is a standard action that automatically kills one of the soulspiked spirits and heals the devourer for 75 HP. The victim’s dead body reappears adjacent to the monster, and it would seem that they can be resurrected via Raise Dead normally.

The sample encounters showcase some of those unholy alliances. The first is level 11, a spirit devourer, a vampire lord, and 5 vampire spawn. The second is level 13, 2 viscera devourers working for a posse of drow.

Final Impressions

Spooky! I also can kinda see why they didn’t make it into the Monster Vault - by the time that book came out, monsters that heal themselves had gone out of style. Still, I think they might be fine if used in moderation. The devourers presented here are all in dire need of a damage fix, but otherwise they should be able to scare your players both on a roleplaying and on a mechanical level. The soulspike devourer in particular could literally eat an ice devil for breakfast.