Monday, August 28, 2023

How Flee, Mortals! Presents Devils and Demons

 I think for a lot of people who come to play D&D, it can be surprising that they have a variety of different fiends. In most games, "demon" describes basically any inherently evil monster from whatever nether realm exists in that universe. "Devil" typically refers to "the devil" in a Christian sense, as in the primary, sort of "god of evil" (obviously Christianity is monotheistic, but Satan acts in it as a kind of mockery of the divine).

But even if we set aside the less common Yugoloths, Ghereliths, and oddities, D&D gives us two primary fiend groups - Devils and Demons. And this confuses a lot of new (and experienced) players, especially because demons are from the less recognizable Abyss, while devils play a much more traditional role in the Nine Hells, which resembles Dante's Inferno and the much more "classic" lower plane.

Now, part of the confusion is purely from the novelty of having a distinction where most fantasy universes and fantasy games just group them all together. But I also think a lot of the distinction is from the fact that, design-wise, there's not a huge difference between Devils and Demons on a cosmetic level.

Devils do tend to have the classic cloven hooves, horns, and often tails, but that's not entirely absent from demons. And sometimes things feel a bit backwards - in the 2014 MM, Pit Fiends and Lemures, both devils, look kind of splotchy and misshapen. In contrast, their closest equivalents on the demonic end of things, Balors and Manes (both occupying the highest and lowest CRs for their respective cohorts) look a little more clearly-defined, with Manes being, yes, kind of bloated sacks of fiendish flesh, but with a bit more of a skeletal, sharp look and Balors looking, well, honestly kind of cleaner and clearer-defined. I used to get these confused, and would sometimes think Balors were devils and Pit Fiends were demons based on their art alone - figuring that "messy" was a chaotic trait.

Mechanically, there are a few things that really distinguish Devils and Demons. Devils are typically resistant or immune to mundane "kinetic" damage except from silvered weapons, and they're immune to fire and poison damage and usually resistant to cold damage. Demons are only immune to poison, but get resistance to fire, cold, and lightning damage. Also, Devils typically get to see through magical darkness, while demons, less consistently, sometimes get truesight or blindsight.

That's all well and good, but unless the party is paying very close attention, you can get away with mixing fiend types and they'll seem pretty similar.

Flee, Mortals! goes a bit farther.

FM's Devils are universally humanoid in general form. They're the classic "horns, hooves, tails, and often wings." Tieflings are described in FM as being simply devils who escaped the Seven Cities of Hell (their version of the Nine Hells) and may have chosen not to serve the lawful evil regime of that place.

Devils actually lack Devil's Sight in FM, but all (with the exception of the minions) get a couple-a-day reaction to charm foes that try to attack them, and also have a liability, where if a character discovers the devil's true name and speaks it aloud, they can rob it of this reaction as well as its immunity to fire damage.

Naturally, if you want these names to come up, you'll need to build an adventure around it. But Devils in this case are really built to be able to function in humanoid realms. They're still evil and try to ensnare souls in contracts, but they really have a more human face to present to mortals.

Demons, on the other hand, have a whole different vibe.

Demons in FM, on a cosmetic level, have a couple universal traits: they have a kind of split going down their middle that opens up and reveals a whole bunch of skull-shapes in their core. These shapes represent the souls they have consumed. Because demons in FM are all soul-eaters.

Each demon stat block actually has a line between its HP and its speed that shows how many souls the demon currently has when the fight starts. They then consume souls to fuel various abilities. If they run out of Souls, they go into a state called Lethe, in which they become more aggressive but also more vulnerable, gaining advantage on attack rolls but disadvantage on saving throws, and being forced to attack and try to kill the nearest creature with a soul, and then use their Soul Devourer trait to try to restore their soul count (they also have reduced intelligence in this state).

This does a couple of things: first, it means that demons are always very dangerous monsters, as, written as is, they can perma-kill characters (though as DM you can always reign in that threat).

The art for Demons is anything but human-like. While there's a bit of an animal-like vibe to Aurumvas, the named demon villain (an embodiment of greed,) giving him a snake head, there's something more eldritch and alien to their design, but a consistency that also marks them as being similar - that kind of "layered" look that is peeling back to reveal the trapped souls within.

There will be no mistaking these devils and these demons for one another, even if both are fiends that will both be burned a bit extra by the old divine smite.

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