Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 2: Demons, part 1
This is part of a series! Go [here][1] to see the other entries.
You thought getting out of the Abyss was going to be easy? Right after finishing all nine pages of Demogorgon’s entry, it’s time to proceed to eleven more pages of assorted demons. Each individual demon entry comes with a bit of lore and a sample encounter group, so it’s better for me to do “Lore” and “Numbers” subsections for each of them instead of the other way around. Since each individual entry seems fairly simple, I’ll keep adding them to this post until I hit my “usual” post size, and split it into subsequent parts as needed.
First, though, we get a small paragraph of extra Abyss lore. It says demons are among the oldest creatures in the universe, which places the creation of the Abyss waaaaay back at the literal dawn of time. At first there were only a few of them: the book implies these were the original demon lords (or “demon princes”, as written), who initially served the Chained God and had orders to bring the universe under his heel.
I guess they were either the primordials caught in the “blast” that created the Abyss, or the first ones to enter the place. Plus Dagon, who was already there. Anyway, as the corruption of the Abyss spread, it infected other elemental creatures and turned them into the types of “lesser” demon we know today.
Abyssal Eviscerator
These creatures made it to the Monster Vault, and I covered them here. My impression of them hasn’t changed.
Abyssal Rotfiend
An abyssal rotfiend is what you get when you take the undead spirit of an evil creature and stuff it inside a meat puppet made of stitched-together bits of demons and devils. The spirit is usually a demon soul, but any evil creature will do in a pinch. With that description you’d think they’re mindless, but they’re actually quite intelligent.
As undead demons, rotfiends are an Orcus specialty. Many inhabit the halls of his fortress of Everlost, put there as a defense against teleporting enemies. Despite their hulking appearance they rely more on damaging mind magic than on brute force.
The Numbers
Rotfiends are Large Elemental Humanoids (demons) and Level 26 Controllers with 245 HP. They have Truesight, ground and fly speeds of 6, and a whole bunch of resistances! They’re immune to fear, have Resist Fire 20, Resist Necrotic 10, and Variable Resistance 20 (3/encounter). They are surrounded by Abyssal Fields (aura 5) that prevent anyone inside from teleporting.
They’re attacks are all related to madness and body horror. The basic attack is Skullsplitter (melee 2 vs. Reflex), which does psychic damage and is stronger against unbloodied targets. Conjure Abscess (ranged 10 vs. Fortitude) also does psychic damage, and does a bit of delayed damage if the target moves more than 2 squares in its next turn. If the rotfiend is bloodied, that delayed damage happens when the target moves 1 or more squares.
Finally, Floating Despair (area burst 2 within 10; encounter) creates a zone of miasma that last for a turn but can be sustained and moved with a minor action. Anyone caught inside takes 10 psychic damage and grants combat advantage to the rotfiend.
The sample encounter is Level 24 and has a rotfiend, a glabrezu, and a marilith. Due to the math bug its damage is low enough that I think a lot of PCs will just take the extra hit from the abscess instead of limiting their movement. If you fix that, though, the rotfiend becomes a better controller.
Impressions
“Ghosts clothed in dead demon flesh” is a nice, creepy concept, though I think they lack a bit of mechanical oomph. After increasing their damage, I’d probably tag them with the Leader keyword and make the Floating Despair zone make victims grant combat advantage to any enemy, not just that single rotfiend.
Bebilith
Look, let’s face the truth here: Lolth is a demon lord. She’s Chaotic Evil, lives in the Abyss, and has lineages of demons aspected to her. It’s likely the only reason she’s classified as a “Goddess” is that she was one before in the same way Graz’zt was a devil. And maybe due to Drow publicity campaigns.
Bebiliths are one of those Lolth-aspected demon lineages. They’re huge spiderlike monsters, whose forms diverge from a spider’s only in ways that make them scarier. Sapient but not very smart, they prowl the Demonweb Pits and other planes eternally hunting and killing for the joy of it. Drow often use them as heavy summoned muscle, which is the largest role their limited intellect allows them to play in drow intrigue. They’re what your typical drow queen is going to call up when she’s ready to start an open war.
Bebiliths are super-fast, have wicked claws, venomous bites, and shoot webs that are on fire. They’re near the top of the spider-monster hierarchy, of which Lolth is the undisputed leader.
The Numbers
These are Huge Elemental Magical Beasts (demons) and Level 18 Solo Brutes with 696 HP. They have darkvision and Tremorsense 20, and are surrounded by a Spectral Death Web (aura 3). Enemies caught inside that lose all their resistances for a turn when they’re hit by an attack. It doesn’t have to be an attack by the bebilith!
They have ridiculous ground and climb speeds of 12, obviously with Spider Climb. They also don’t roll initiative: their Dangersense makes them act at initiatives 20 and 10, with a full set of actions in each of these turns. Additionally, their Hunter’s Reflexes (reaction; recharge 5-6) allow them to shift 4 squares when someone moves adjacent to them.
Their basic attack is a Reaving Claw (melee 3 vs. AC) which does damage and inflicts a cumulative -1 AC penalty on the target, which clears at the end of the encounter. Flashing Claws allows bebiliths to make this attack twice in the same action, against different targets. There’s also a Venomous Bite (melee 1 vs. AC; recharge 6) which does more or less the same damage as a claw plus ongoing poison damage (save ends).
The Flaming Web (close blast 5 vs. Reflex; recharge 5-6) does fire damage, slows, and does ongoing fire damage (save ends both). The first failed save causes the ongoing damage to increase and worsens the “slowed” condition to “restrained” (save still ends both).
The sample encounter is level 20, and has a Bebilith, 3 drider shadowspinners, and 1 drow priest. The demon is this team’s heavy, but the others can be dangerous too, particularly against a level 15-16 party.
Impressions
I have “fond” memories of bebiliths because one of them featured prominently in Hordes of the Underdark (the epic-level campaign in Neverwinter Nights). Though they’re mostly “even giant-er” spiders, I like the mechanical “feel” on this version. It has plenty of options.
Bloodseep Demon
These things are covered in thin, translucid skin that constantly cracks and weeps poisonous blood. They coat their claws in this foulness and spray it at their victims. They’re also clever enough to use it in subtler ways, tainting the food supplies of their intended targets in order to weaken them for the final attack.
The Numbers
Bloodseep demons are Medium Elemental Humanoids (demons) and Level 7 Skirmishers with the Leader keyword and 79 HP. They have darkvision, a ground speed of 7 and a teleport speed of 3. Their Variable Resistance is 10 (1/encounter), and they project a Weeping Poison aura (2) that deals 5 poison damage to enemies caught inside. If the demon is bloodied the aura also heals any demons inside for 5 HP at the start of their turns.
Their claws also do ongoing poison damage (save ends), and once per encounter they can squeeze out a Poison Blast (close blast 5 vs. Fortitude) which does light poison damage. Demons caught in the blast instead heal the rolled amount of HP.
Their final trick is the Poison Portal Strike (recharge 4-6), which allows them to teleport 5 squares, attack someone with a claw, and teleport another 5 squares. If used well this can cause some havoc in the party’s back line and force some defenders to turn away from the front.
The sample encounter is level 7 and has one of these, 2 barlguras and 2 evistros.
Impressions
“Bloodseep demon” is a horrible name, but the actual monster seems a bit more interesting than I thought at first.
Dretch
The lowest of the low, dretches were covered in this post of the Monster Manual/Vault Let’s Read.
End of Part 1
That’s about it for this post. I estimate it will take two more of about the same size to go through all this book’s demons.