It only does an average of 28dmg. Which can be resisted by a first level spell as a reaction. Since its a dex save, all rogues and monks who would fight these things either take half or non from the feature by way of evasion. All that factored in, it deals an avg of 0-14dmg... no longer that scary huh?
@@vadaritis Perhaps, but keep in mind, it can keep on pelting fireballs at you until it maxes a damage roll. Until you fail a save. 1 fireball isn't so scary. What about 35 fireballs?
35 is scary, but what im trying to say is that fireball is only the thing it does, while it closes into melee. Reason being 4 attacks that each do significantly more damage than fireball and a bite that stops healing magic. Fireball has a range of 150ft +20ft for radius to 170ft max. It will be able to cast 3 before reaching the party assuming it doesnt dash the first round to nullify the parties ranged characters. This also assumes the party isnt splitting up, or running, or looking for cover because fireball cannot be cast at a location that cannot be seen. You do make a valid point that eventually it will max out on damage, but it is just as likely to do minmum, so it averages out anyways. The main tactic that the pitfiend employs is to use fireball at a distance to get the party to split up. Once they do, engage the party stragglers one at a time to kill them off individually. Every time I have used a pit fiend against my players they only used a fireball once maybe twice. 35 would be terrifying, but combats only last 3-4 rounds on average 5-7 for the most difficult. Which is more scary and engaging for the players, 7 fireballs while this thing is pelted by arrows at a distance because it seems to be afraid of the platers by running from the party at every engagement? Or 1-2 fireballs before 5-6 melee blender attacks with this thing showing it is highly intelligent in how it fights and that it isnt scared of anything? What is scary though is the ability to cast Hold Monster 3/day. Paralyzation means auto crit if hit in melee and advantage on attack rolls. However, thats not a good expenditure of its action economy either, because it can cast a spell OR make 4 attacks. These things should almost never be fought by themselfes unless the party is clever. Give them spellcaster minions for support, give them a phalynx of bearded devils to flank and keep the party seperated as well as a meatshield for the pitfiend to retreat to if things get hairy. Give them spined/horned/erinyes devil air support. Then the players will have to be smart. Just remember. Pit fiends and all devils are Lawful Evil. Which means it could kill you if its contracted to do so, but if its not, it would rather make a deal for the parties souls or a favor. (Depending on dm, may not work at every table, but definately at mine)
Артём Усенко just remember, if played right I’m pretty sure some warlocks can cast shatter at will, also I once fought an Npc spellcaster who could cast “DESINTIGRATE” at will. Think about that.
When I was DMing, my players went into this underwater dungeon full of devils. Devils that had adapted to living under the sea for story reasons. This dungeon was pitch black, bottom of the ocean, full of traps and water currents that would yeet the party in random directions if they took a wrong turn. And at the very center of this cavern was a Pit Fiend. So not only did they fight one, they fought one in complete darkness, underwater at the bottom of the ocean, miles from any place to rest.
Such amazing art! Thank you for not reinforcing the "big red generic devil" stereotype. Devils have such a great potential for variability in their design, but the art directors of DnD books rarely tend to explore it.
Sorry I can’t think of a monster again. So instead I would like to suggest that you redesign and modernise the cast of the 80’s D&D cartoon. Perhaps even as different races. PS: I love Pit Fiends :). Although the only instances where I’ve used them is when one was summoned by an NPC Halfling against the Giant Mindflayer, second time was when a villain from a previous chapter returned against a new party and summoned one to force them into taking an amnesia potion.
My favorite depiction of a pit fiend was in the Neverwinter Nights 1 module Hordes of the Underdark, which features a pit fiend who works a desk job. No, really. He doesn't even fight you unless you instigate it, he just tells you to piss off. It's great.
As a dm, these monsters are some of the only high level monster actually worth its CR rating. Though they lack legendary resistance, or legendary actions. I have used these twice in my campaign. One was a planar bound warden to an interplanar prison. The other was in a legion of the nine hells. Both are terrifying, and they should be.
Please do firbolgs I know they're more of a player race creature but they did start as a monster race. Plus the development the firbolg have gone through, through all the editions I.e. 3.5 - 5e is interesting
My Dm used this monster once. We were level 5 and I was our healer. We were just walking around looking for magic items and ancient dungeons, when all of a sudden we were asked to roll a stealth check. I managed to pass but out paladin didn't. This huge beast fell from the sky and began to set up the ring of fire. Our Dm had given us a broken helmet of teleportation so I was able to get our boys out of there. However the helmet broke and I can't mend that. So now there is a Pit Fiend somewhere in our world, hunting the adventurers that got away. In one round we were teleporting unconscious people. When we asked the Dm what we had done, he told us that he was rolling his random encounters, and the d20 would set his cr. We were level five!
I love how that green and purple combo looks! For requests...hm...I guess I'll recommend another high level fiend, this time Obox-ob, former Prince of Demons, current Demon Prince of Vermin!!
Ooo! I don't know this one, Sideways! I'll make sure to pop the on the "to draw" list for you though! That'll be fun to research! Cheers for watching and for your suggestion!
Oooohhh! What a great call, Rohan! I'll definitely make sure to pup them on my list for you! Thanks so much for watching and for your great suggestion!
Thanks so much for the like, Silvestre! I've had a couple of suggestions for the Balor, but I can't wait to draw one! Thank you so much for watching and for your suggestion!
Again, nice work, my good man! I finished my campaign just recently with one of these bad guys. My players didn't get to fight it, but it was there to pose a threat in the background fighting with another high level monster. Basically two mafia bosses fighting over who wins the turf 😄
My players actually fought one at the end of our last campaign... and a Balor, a Lich, a Red Dragon, and the Tarrasque. To be fair, though, they knew this was coming and spent several levels gearing up for it.
Ah the pitfiend, probably the strongest creature a player can true poly/shapechange into, so in the spirit of this I'll suggest what I would consider the second strongest true poly/shapechange form a player could take: The Ancient White (Shadow) Dragon
What an epic choice of color pallets and overall look to this beast of a devil. The closest thing my players have gotten to when it came to the hells was making a deal with a bone devil(those fools) that a dozen sessions down the line tore the party apart. “Don’t deal with the devil” as Cuphead learned players. Unless it fits your character, then sell your soul to your hearts content
Thanks so much Azzy! That's really kind of you to say! Bone devils are treacherous creatures. I hope your players are more hesitant to deal with the damned beasts of the lower realms in future haha! Cheers for watching!
I really love this design it deviates from those classic red scaled guys that i see all the time and when I was designing my pit fiend i was scared that they had to be red because I wanted to make a blue one
I've not done redcaps yet, but I'd be really up for drawing them! I used to talk about them a lot when I was a tour-guide up here in Scotland, so it would be great to use some of my past experience with those guys! Thanks so much for the lovely suggestion and for watching!
Haha! Thank you so much, Alex. I can't honestly remember if Ropers are on my list or not at the minute, but I'll make sure they are for you! Thanks so much for the suggestion and for watching!
Could you do a half-fiend? My character was turned into one by a pit fiend x3 I like that this came out today since we finished our campaign yesterday and a pit fiend was an important character in the end. Not as an enemy tho x3
@@TuckBolt cambion might be the closest thing to a half fiend in 5e, but in 3,5 they are there own thing. And I've been playing that for the most part. 😅
@@TheTriiChi That's fair. I forgot how prevalent templates were in 3.5. It's been a while since I've played a 3e game. I've kinda permanently transitioned over to 5e due to it's streamlined mechanics. 3.5 is fun, but it's very busy. That's just my opinion though. I hope you have fun!!! Good luck with the whole half fiend thing XD
Its funny you should mention them. I just finished writing one of my very longest sets of video notes that talks about these guys at length! Keep an eye out soon! Cheers for watching and for your suggestion.
WC3 and WOW didn't just make demons inspired by the pit fiend, they straight up took the pit fiend and put it into their game. though they changed the name to "Pit Lord" and made them have 4 legs and a torso like a huge, bulky centaur. Mannoroth the Pit lord was the one who initially made the fell pact with the orcs.
Yeah! There are a few people who have talked about Pit Lords, but as you say, I didn't want to compare them because of the whole dragon butt thing. I definitely want to homebrew a kind of pit lord for d&d though, and would definitely include the fel-blood corruption in there. Thanks so much for watching and for taking the time to leave a comment too.
Another awesome piece of art! I think a group of mine met a pit fiend once, but we didn’t fight it. It was the father of the vicar of a church of Oghma, and we had to bargain with it for information on a deadly curse. No combat, just chat. Lucky us? Also, a quick question while I’m here. I know a lot of artists really hate it when people use their art without permission for the RPG games and such, so I was wondering how you feel about it. If you found out someone had taken your art and used it for an NPC in their home game, would you find that offensive? Or would you not particularly care?
Thanks so much, ExistentialOcto! I'm happy enough with people using my artwork in their home-games as long as they let people know where they found it and as long as they're not selling or otherwise making money from my work, that seems like a great use to me!
Heya! Yeah! The Pit lords are great, but they're so different to the Pit Fiend with their big dragony butts and tusks that I felt the comparison wasn't quite there. I do really want to homebrew something like that though, so keep an eye out! Cheers for watching!
Heya. So I use Photoshop. I have the creative cloud so it's the latest version which is really nice. I use a wacom tablet and a macbook laptop to do all of my drawing. I hope this helps!
Great video as always, maybe you could consider drawing a brain in a jar? Bizarre request, I know, but I have an idea for my campaign about an evil nazi-esque brain in a jar.
I would absolutely love to draw a brain in a jar! I'll make sure to pop it on the "to draw" list for you, Inaki. Fingers and toes crossed, my patrons will vote on it soon! Cheers for watching and for your suggestion!
I don't come on to your RUclips channel and call you names!!! :P Just kidding. I'll make sure hags are on my "to draw" list for you. Cheers for watching, Dominic!
"Fireball at will" is the scariest 3-word combination ever. Change my mind.
It only does an average of 28dmg. Which can be resisted by a first level spell as a reaction. Since its a dex save, all rogues and monks who would fight these things either take half or non from the feature by way of evasion. All that factored in, it deals an avg of 0-14dmg... no longer that scary huh?
@@vadaritis Perhaps, but keep in mind, it can keep on pelting fireballs at you until it maxes a damage roll. Until you fail a save.
1 fireball isn't so scary. What about 35 fireballs?
35 is scary, but what im trying to say is that fireball is only the thing it does, while it closes into melee. Reason being 4 attacks that each do significantly more damage than fireball and a bite that stops healing magic.
Fireball has a range of 150ft +20ft for radius to 170ft max. It will be able to cast 3 before reaching the party assuming it doesnt dash the first round to nullify the parties ranged characters. This also assumes the party isnt splitting up, or running, or looking for cover because fireball cannot be cast at a location that cannot be seen.
You do make a valid point that eventually it will max out on damage, but it is just as likely to do minmum, so it averages out anyways.
The main tactic that the pitfiend employs is to use fireball at a distance to get the party to split up. Once they do, engage the party stragglers one at a time to kill them off individually. Every time I have used a pit fiend against my players they only used a fireball once maybe twice. 35 would be terrifying, but combats only last 3-4 rounds on average 5-7 for the most difficult.
Which is more scary and engaging for the players, 7 fireballs while this thing is pelted by arrows at a distance because it seems to be afraid of the platers by running from the party at every engagement? Or 1-2 fireballs before 5-6 melee blender attacks with this thing showing it is highly intelligent in how it fights and that it isnt scared of anything?
What is scary though is the ability to cast Hold Monster 3/day. Paralyzation means auto crit if hit in melee and advantage on attack rolls. However, thats not a good expenditure of its action economy either, because it can cast a spell OR make 4 attacks.
These things should almost never be fought by themselfes unless the party is clever. Give them spellcaster minions for support, give them a phalynx of bearded devils to flank and keep the party seperated as well as a meatshield for the pitfiend to retreat to if things get hairy. Give them spined/horned/erinyes devil air support. Then the players will have to be smart.
Just remember. Pit fiends and all devils are Lawful Evil. Which means it could kill you if its contracted to do so, but if its not, it would rather make a deal for the parties souls or a favor. (Depending on dm, may not work at every table, but definately at mine)
Артём Усенко just remember, if played right I’m pretty sure some warlocks can cast shatter at will, also I once fought an Npc spellcaster who could cast “DESINTIGRATE” at will. Think about that.
Basically if a Pit Fiend is attacking you up close you’re in trouble and if it attacks you from range you’re in trouble.
When I was DMing, my players went into this underwater dungeon full of devils. Devils that had adapted to living under the sea for story reasons. This dungeon was pitch black, bottom of the ocean, full of traps and water currents that would yeet the party in random directions if they took a wrong turn. And at the very center of this cavern was a Pit Fiend. So not only did they fight one, they fought one in complete darkness, underwater at the bottom of the ocean, miles from any place to rest.
Such amazing art! Thank you for not reinforcing the "big red generic devil" stereotype. Devils have such a great potential for variability in their design, but the art directors of DnD books rarely tend to explore it.
Thanks so much for your kind words Eduardo! I really loved drawing this kind of molten look. I'm glad you enjoyed the colour scheme and design too!
@@ArcaneForge Keep up the awesome work, man! Best wishes from Brazil. :)
Coolest version of a pit fiend ever. I will now drop one on a level 5 party
Thanks so much, Nick! We'll have a moment's silence for your party!
Cheers for watching and for your kind words!
Sorry I can’t think of a monster again. So instead I would like to suggest that you redesign and modernise the cast of the 80’s D&D cartoon. Perhaps even as different races.
PS: I love Pit Fiends :). Although the only instances where I’ve used them is when one was summoned by an NPC Halfling against the Giant Mindflayer, second time was when a villain from a previous chapter returned against a new party and summoned one to force them into taking an amnesia potion.
My favorite depiction of a pit fiend was in the Neverwinter Nights 1 module Hordes of the Underdark, which features a pit fiend who works a desk job. No, really. He doesn't even fight you unless you instigate it, he just tells you to piss off. It's great.
That sounds pretty brilliant actually, Roman! I'll have to check that out!
Cheers for watching for your information too!
I guess it’s demon time for my game
Also
One more time
Can I get Will-o’-Wisp or Wraith
As a dm, these monsters are some of the only high level monster actually worth its CR rating. Though they lack legendary resistance, or legendary actions.
I have used these twice in my campaign. One was a planar bound warden to an interplanar prison. The other was in a legion of the nine hells. Both are terrifying, and they should be.
Please do firbolgs I know they're more of a player race creature but they did start as a monster race. Plus the development the firbolg have gone through, through all the editions I.e. 3.5 - 5e is interesting
My Dm used this monster once. We were level 5 and I was our healer. We were just walking around looking for magic items and ancient dungeons, when all of a sudden we were asked to roll a stealth check. I managed to pass but out paladin didn't. This huge beast fell from the sky and began to set up the ring of fire. Our Dm had given us a broken helmet of teleportation so I was able to get our boys out of there. However the helmet broke and I can't mend that. So now there is a Pit Fiend somewhere in our world, hunting the adventurers that got away. In one round we were teleporting unconscious people. When we asked the Dm what we had done, he told us that he was rolling his random encounters, and the d20 would set his cr. We were level five!
Oh my god!!! That's devastating! I'm glad some of you made it out unscathed though! Good job healing.
I love how that green and purple combo looks! For requests...hm...I guess I'll recommend another high level fiend, this time Obox-ob, former Prince of Demons, current Demon Prince of Vermin!!
Ooo! I don't know this one, Sideways! I'll make sure to pop the on the "to draw" list for you though! That'll be fun to research!
Cheers for watching and for your suggestion!
Should do an Astral Dragon that would be epic
i think it would really fit your art style
Oooohhh! What a great call, Rohan! I'll definitely make sure to pup them on my list for you!
Thanks so much for watching and for your great suggestion!
@@ArcaneForge all good brother i love your content
love the fractured body blistering with energy
Thanks so much Styrax! I like drawing molten-type things!
After that "what have you done to anger you DM so much" intro I had to hit that like button.
Is the Balor also on your "To Draw" list?
Thanks so much for the like, Silvestre! I've had a couple of suggestions for the Balor, but I can't wait to draw one! Thank you so much for watching and for your suggestion!
Again, nice work, my good man! I finished my campaign just recently with one of these bad guys. My players didn't get to fight it, but it was there to pose a threat in the background fighting with another high level monster. Basically two mafia bosses fighting over who wins the turf 😄
Thanks so much Crafty! That's a really cool idea! I love adding the mob to my rpg's!
My players actually fought one at the end of our last campaign... and a Balor, a Lich, a Red Dragon, and the Tarrasque. To be fair, though, they knew this was coming and spent several levels gearing up for it.
My goodness! It seems like you really threw the book at those guys! I hope you all enjoyed those epic conflicts though!
Cheers for watching!
Ah the pitfiend, probably the strongest creature a player can true poly/shapechange into, so in the spirit of this I'll suggest what I would consider the second strongest true poly/shapechange form a player could take: The Ancient White (Shadow) Dragon
Oh damn! That's an incredibly deadly combo, Cameron!
Level 20 bards/druids/wizards/warlocks with true poly/shapechange are scary
What an epic choice of color pallets and overall look to this beast of a devil. The closest thing my players have gotten to when it came to the hells was making a deal with a bone devil(those fools) that a dozen sessions down the line tore the party apart. “Don’t deal with the devil” as Cuphead learned players. Unless it fits your character, then sell your soul to your hearts content
Thanks so much Azzy! That's really kind of you to say! Bone devils are treacherous creatures. I hope your players are more hesitant to deal with the damned beasts of the lower realms in future haha!
Cheers for watching!
I really love this design it deviates from those classic red scaled guys that i see all the time and when I was designing my pit fiend i was scared that they had to be red because I wanted to make a blue one
Um... Redcaps? Have you done Redcaps yet? They’re in Volos and there’s a lot of folklore behind them.
I've not done redcaps yet, but I'd be really up for drawing them! I used to talk about them a lot when I was a tour-guide up here in Scotland, so it would be great to use some of my past experience with those guys! Thanks so much for the lovely suggestion and for watching!
Arcane Forge Thank you for the awesome content sir.
Pit Fiend!? This is amazing! They're my favorite monster to punch in the face aside for Balors!
Haha! I'm looking forward to drawing a Balor's punchable, punchable face! Thanks so much for watching!
yes all bow before our devil overlords, this image is gloriousness
Oh you're doing a great job forge master!
Thank you so much!!!
Thinking about Pit Fiends I would love to see your Idea of the Balor. Great work as usual:D
Thanks so much, Jan! I would also, really love to draw a Balor! I'll make sure that's up on Patreon to vote on soon!
Yaaaaas! I love it! I'm excited for this one!!
Much love
Great Art!
Maybe you'll draw travel cone of death - Roper?
Haha! Thank you so much, Alex. I can't honestly remember if Ropers are on my list or not at the minute, but I'll make sure they are for you! Thanks so much for the suggestion and for watching!
Could you do a half-fiend? My character was turned into one by a pit fiend x3
I like that this came out today since we finished our campaign yesterday and a pit fiend was an important character in the end. Not as an enemy tho x3
Wouldn't a half-fiend be a cambion? Or a tiefling?
@@TuckBolt cambion might be the closest thing to a half fiend in 5e, but in 3,5 they are there own thing. And I've been playing that for the most part. 😅
@@TheTriiChi That's fair. I forgot how prevalent templates were in 3.5. It's been a while since I've played a 3e game. I've kinda permanently transitioned over to 5e due to it's streamlined mechanics. 3.5 is fun, but it's very busy. That's just my opinion though. I hope you have fun!!! Good luck with the whole half fiend thing XD
I was wondering about purple dragons. You don't hear much about them and I'd love if you drew one.
Its funny you should mention them. I just finished writing one of my very longest sets of video notes that talks about these guys at length! Keep an eye out soon!
Cheers for watching and for your suggestion.
@@ArcaneForge yay ^^
WC3 and WOW didn't just make demons inspired by the pit fiend, they straight up took the pit fiend and put it into their game. though they changed the name to "Pit Lord" and made them have 4 legs and a torso like a huge, bulky centaur. Mannoroth the Pit lord was the one who initially made the fell pact with the orcs.
Yeah! There are a few people who have talked about Pit Lords, but as you say, I didn't want to compare them because of the whole dragon butt thing. I definitely want to homebrew a kind of pit lord for d&d though, and would definitely include the fel-blood corruption in there.
Thanks so much for watching and for taking the time to leave a comment too.
@@ArcaneForge honestly always a pleasure, I look foward to watching the one you post today when im off work!
This is gonna be good
Fingers crossed!
Lady of Pain
Are you gonna do a drawing of the Balor
Shinigami and Leshys
Another awesome piece of art! I think a group of mine met a pit fiend once, but we didn’t fight it. It was the father of the vicar of a church of Oghma, and we had to bargain with it for information on a deadly curse. No combat, just chat. Lucky us?
Also, a quick question while I’m here. I know a lot of artists really hate it when people use their art without permission for the RPG games and such, so I was wondering how you feel about it. If you found out someone had taken your art and used it for an NPC in their home game, would you find that offensive? Or would you not particularly care?
Thanks so much, ExistentialOcto!
I'm happy enough with people using my artwork in their home-games as long as they let people know where they found it and as long as they're not selling or otherwise making money from my work, that seems like a great use to me!
Here inb4 people start telling him that Warcraft has a demon actually called "Pit lord" in it
Heya! Yeah! The Pit lords are great, but they're so different to the Pit Fiend with their big dragony butts and tusks that I felt the comparison wasn't quite there. I do really want to homebrew something like that though, so keep an eye out!
Cheers for watching!
do a carrion crawler pls
Still team Awakened Shrub
My players need to think wisely from here on...
A pit fiend is the big bad in my campaign lol
U don messed up A-Aron... Fellow Key and Pele fan?
I am indeed! I couldn't resist the temptation to put that in there haha!
Cheers as always for watching, taigerus.
Hey, what software do you do your art on?
Heya. So I use Photoshop. I have the creative cloud so it's the latest version which is really nice. I use a wacom tablet and a macbook laptop to do all of my drawing. I hope this helps!
Thanks. I’m trying to do the kind of art that you do.
Great video as always, maybe you could consider drawing a brain in a jar? Bizarre request, I know, but I have an idea for my campaign about an evil nazi-esque brain in a jar.
I would absolutely love to draw a brain in a jar! I'll make sure to pop it on the "to draw" list for you, Inaki. Fingers and toes crossed, my patrons will vote on it soon!
Cheers for watching and for your suggestion!
@@ArcaneForge Wow, thank you so much, cheers from Chile!
Holy phuck.... noice. :3
Baphomet?
Yuuus! I can't wait for this one!
Syphinx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hell yeah! I can't wait to talk about these guys! Fingers and toes crossed that my patrons will vote on them soon!
Cheers for your suggestion!
Hag
I don't come on to your RUclips channel and call you names!!! :P Just kidding. I'll make sure hags are on my "to draw" list for you. Cheers for watching, Dominic!