An id fiend, a big toothy lizard, hanging out on a rock outcropping. Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast.

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The Lore

Id fiends are big toothy lizards with psionic powers of fear manipulation, which they use to hunt their preferred prey. Which is, of course, people.

As reasonably smart magical beasts, they are capable of making alliances with other creatures, though these tend to be strained at best. More often, an id fiend might craft fearful illusions to manipulate those creatures into helping it attack others. When that happens, the best tactic is to focus on the id fiend - when it dies, its control ends.

Id fiends are a major threat to civilians, but a favorite target of seasoned monster hunters. The House of the Mind in Draj pays generously for live specimens, whose fresh organs and fluids go into making alchemical potions meant to awaken someone’s psychic potential. Many of those are dubious at best, but at least some of them have real effects. The book mentions “terror ichor” by name - this is a consumable reagent that can be used to enhance fear-based powers.

The Numbers

If Fiends are Large Aberrant Magical Beasts with the Reptile tag. This probably makes them the most mundane-looking aberrants we saw so far. Just a big lizard, not a tentacle in sight.

Mechanically, they end up filling the empty niche left by absence of low-level dragons in Athas. They’re Level 1 Solo Controllers with 120 HP, Darkvision, a Speed of 6, an immunity to Fear and Resist 5 Psychic.

A fiend can attack with a quick slash of its claws, which deals light physical damage and lets it shift 1 square; with a bite of its Snapping Jaws that deals more damage and slides the target 1 square; or with a Double Attack that uses both.

Instead of a breath weapon, it has the Manifest Fear power (recharge 4+), which affects enemies in a Close Burst 5. Those hit by it are dazed for a turn as they see a vision of their worst fears becoming reality.

Once the fiend dazes a few enemies, it will use the Fearful Torment power, a minor-action ranged attack that targets one or two tazed creatures. A hit deals psychic damage, immobilizes, and inflicts a -2 penalty to attacks for a turn. I guess this means it makes the vision of fear worse.

Once the fiend is first bloodied, Manifest Fear recharges and it can use the power immediately as a free action.

Looks like id fiends prefer to use their fear powers to kill their victims if possible, though they’re also perfectly capable of physical fighting as seen above.

Encounters and Final Impressions

A single id fiend makes a fine boss battle for beginner PCs. Once they gain a level or two, you can begin to add thralls enraptured by visions of fear, and fooled into thinking the PCs are monsters to be slain. As the book says, killing the fiend will likely free the thralls.

It’s an interesting monster, I think. Effectively a low-level dragon that breathes fear. You can level it up a bit to make it more challenging for mid-Heroic PCs, but I’d probably set that as the upper bound of their power.