how to ACTUALLY use Devils in D&D
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- Опубликовано: 21 июл 2022
- Devils are one of the coolest monster types in D&D (and the cooler of the fiends, fight me) so I had to give them the old twist!
Check out the Hellish Adept of Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom HERE!
docs.google.com/document/d/1j...
Video Editing by the amazing Bia: / bnazf
Writing, Illustration, and Narration by me: / antodemico 
Развлечения
Well well well, speak of the devil (in a 24 minute long youtube video oh god this one sure was long)
The twist is not ready yet! This was the longest video yet, and it's three pieces of fully illustrated art AND statblocks AND rules to make pacts with the Hellish Adepts. Will update this message and make a little community post when they are up! (so check those out!)
Thank u for understanding, I'm doing my very best 😔
Idea: Do a Video on Kobolds
It's not an issue I don't watch your videos for the creatures I watch a videos for your opinions and ideas
take it easy !! ur doing all of this for free and making these videos can't be easy. love your stuff 👍🏾
Hey, take your time ^^
Guess you didn't make a Faustian deal with a Hellish Adept of Intelligence...good, didn't want to see you yeet yourself to the Nine Planes of Hell before that video gets uploaded! lol
Here's an idea for a party ally: The Duke of Hell, Steve.
See, Steve isn't much of a devil. He's not terribly powerful, and worse, he is _lazy;_ nowhere will you find a devil with less ambition. But, how then did he reach the rank of Duke, and how does he stay there?
Easy! There is one thing that Steve understands better than any other devil around, even the Archdevils: _Bureaucracy._ By very carefully agreeing to the correct contracts, performing the right favors, making the right deals, and getting his name into the correct stones, Steve not only secured for himself the rank of Duke, but he also doesn't have to do any actual work, and even better, due to the arcane nature of the rules that got him into that position, nobody can compel him to do anything, _or_ get rid of him! At least, those who want to can't get rid of him, because for many others, he's the one devil who can acquire the item or perform the task that they need acquired or performed (even if all he ever does is pawn the task or acquisition off onto someone else. All within the rules, of course!)
He's the ideal mix of replaceable and indispensable that makes for the perfect middle manager!
How does he serve as a party ally? Easy! The party asks him for a favor, and he's always thrilled to help them out with whatever they need. "But listen, the gears of Hell always need a little more grease, so I'm going to need you to do/get something for me...."
Great idea! Though I think Staan would be a better name lol.
Sounds like Stalin.
I... I really hope my dm never sees this. He'll just make Steve our boss and pawn all his stuff off to us.
Wow, someone has worked in the corporate world 🤣
So this is where those Warlocks got all those devil pacts! They called Steve and had him set them up with sugar devils!
Character concept: Fiendchain Warlock, Son of an erinyes who wants him to take her place in the Nine Hells as she's slated to be promoted to a Pit Fiend in the near future (even though he would rather do literally anything else). His imp familiar is his mother's underling, sent to make sure the poor guy doesn't get himself killed.
I looooooooove this.
Another twist to this idea, said child also becomes a paladin Oath Bound to fulfil the justice their mother's kind are meant to enforce, which would actually bring them closer to their mother's devilish nature without the risk of turning them into a devil that isn't one of their mother's kind.
I hope the imp familiar, in character's mother's voice, yells out cliche motherly advice at random. Like the party having a meal after a harrowing battle, and the imp's mouth just opens and like a speaker system, "Eat your veggies! You need them to be big and strong!"
Not really a typical Erinyes thing to do or say, but might alleviate a tense moment if done right.
@@nephicus339 "Master, you forgot to take a coat! Luckily I brought one..." (proceeds to move a hellish thing made of flaming chains out of the bag of holding)
@@nephicus339 or the mother uses the imp to call their child through them.
Imagine the imp suddenly starts speaking in the voice of your mother, ranting about! XD
I love the idea of a secretly good devil who acts like Mr. Incredible at the insurance agency. Keeping up the appearance of evil and sadism and rising through the ranks, but actually being super nice behind closed doors. Other devils try to rat him out for being good or try to spread rumors that he’s working with celestials, but his paperwork is always orderly so they can’t do anything to him
I think it would be perfect if this guy avoided getting in trouble because he supervisor covered for him because he used the bureaucracy to screw over his supervisor's rivals.
YES
If a character was "in reality good" they would not end up in the Nine Hells.
@@demilunghe mentioned it working with celestial so I would say a cleric or Paladin gets sent there by their holy god to mess up the entire empire
You might enjoy watching or reading "Good Omens"
The Lemure to lemur mispronunciation was hilarious every time, thank you for this. From now on my devil spawn will look like little raccoon monkeys from hell.
This same mixup actually happened in an old Magic the Gathering art brief for the card Hyalopterous Lemure.
thats where the Malagasy primates got their English name from, actually - from Latin "lemure".
@@keenirr5332 Cool etymology fact, nice one
I got a character to sell their soul in-game- here's how: A wizard PC died- and the party had no divine casters. I took the wizard into another room and described a devil coming and offering a simple contract; A resurrection in exchange for the bearer of the contract owning the soul when the wizard dies.
Fast forward more than a year and now the party is level 17. The wizard still has the sword of Damocles over their head, but they're all convinced that someday they can go down to hell and steal the contract to nullify it by becoming the bearer ( since they're nearing the highest tier of play, this might actually be possible)
that's so fucking cool omg, Imma steal ur idea a lil bit sorryyy
So… how did they do?!
@@apollyon1 We actually left the question unanswered. I wanted to end the campaign after 8 years so we had a big climactic lvl20 boss battle, but it was about the Wizard's soul.
But in the epilogue the wizard did have children with the Warlock and their heir was born a teifling.
We may come back someday and run a mini-campaign in hell.
I’ve actually had a player take a Faustian Deal to bring an NPC (The characters best friend and eventual lover) back to life. The player accidentally broke the deal (because our Paladin meta gamed) and we had an instance of “soul reclamation”, but the party won that fight… which was impressive considering they went up against a Pit Fiend, a Balor, a Chain Devil, and a Bone Devil (I was a new DM back then, I made a lot of mistakes)
Those sound like pretty fun mistakes NGL
Sounds rad as hell though, incredible chad move from the party indeed.
I think it’s safe to say those PC’s (if they’re later turned into NPC’s) are celebrated as Legendary Badasses for defeating such powerful foes for such a cause.
Bruh, that sounds exactly like the sort of stuff I came up with and failed to properly set up when I just started DMing when I was a teenager. Don't worry, we've all been there, and we all look back and cringe a bit when we think about it.
But the important thing is that I suspect you and all your dorky friends had a lot of fun in those games, just like me and my dorky friends did, and they still probably play today. If nothing else, that's a fucking win in my book. Cheers, to being dorks 🍻
How is that a mistake?
I want you to know you've inspired so many NPCs during the short time I've known about your channel. Thanks for sharing your creativity
Honestly the fact you pump out all of these homebrew ideas out for FREE is astounding. You have such creative takes, and put in the work for gorgeous art and well-crafted stats and lore. I really hope you know that I, and so many others, hugely appreciate you
I love the idea of erinyes basically being Internal Affairs for the Nine Hells. 😆
Infernal Affairs
Pathfinder actually did a slight twist on the Enriyes specifically, almost as if Paizo agrees with your complaint, in that the lore in that universe says that Furies actually deeply resent the comparison they often get to Succubi, and one of the quickest ways to piss one off is to ask if they'll try to seduce you.
I had a faustian deal in my campaign wich came very suprising. My BBEG is an Archdevil and at lvl 5 my party beat one of his mortal minions who had an evil book that gave him his powers, the Octo Tenebris. After the fight I had the BBEG show up and taunt the players, as you do, saying that if they wanted whatever they desired most all they needed was to pick up the book and become his champion. Suprisingly one of the players made a jump for the book. The others stopped him and threw the book in a portal, but his intention was declared and so the book found his way back to the new champion. After that I got to plot with him against the party wich was amazing, he killed kings, incited wars, hindered the party and at lvl 8 turned on them. Of course the Archdevil betrayed him afterwards, he only said he would support the player as long as he was his champion, but when he didnt need him anymore he fired him. And now the group is back together to stop the BBEG. All in all it was totally amazing and really helped the campaign to become great.
Idea for a character: a powerful devil gets tired of the nine hells and wants to go fet out, with the help of a god who owed him a favor he manages to "reincarnate" into the mortal plane by possessing an unborn human child. The result looks a lot like a teafling, and the main drawback is that now he has the mind and body of an infant. After spending a relatively normal childhood his memories and power start coming back, slowly.
I wasn’t sure how you were going to make a twist for one of the most compelling and lore-filled monster types in D&D, but my good sir you crushed it!! I already have so many ideas running through my head on how to bring Hellish Adepts into my games!! ^w^
A pity hè didn't talk about Chain Devils.
They have such sights to show you.
Another thing that I personally like in "historical" Faustian bargains is that the contract usually doesn't say outloud that the soul is immediately and completely damned. Instead, there is a condition: the mortal has to either perform something as a payment (which is either secretly impossible and results in damnation via collateral or leads to greater corruption and damns the soul anyway) or has to NOT do something as the contract specifies that their soul can only be collected on a condition (which is very likely to actually happen at some point, because people are foolish). Hell, in actual "Faust" by Goethe the bargain was formed in a latter way: Mephistopheles will serve Faust until Faust will feel so satisfies that he will wish that moment to last forever and *SPOILER DOWN*.
Anyway, introducing such conditions, even if blatantly lopsided, seems to be the exact thing that would make PC devilish bargains happen. Because it gives this psychological safety valve that is I'm good enough or clever enough I can find a way out (your mileage may vary if it's true or not) and because D&D players are that kind of people that are guaranteed to rules lawyer every problem they're allowed to rules lawyer.
*HERE SPOILER*
when he does so at the end, the angels appear and rule that it is because he feels joy at seeing humans prosper and develop, thus his joy is not because of earthly satisfaction, but because of idea of perfect future, thus the deal's condition was not satisfied and Faust dies without damning himself, so he avoids Hell.
This just gave me another great idea to keep ironing Hell Adepts: how about the contract establishes that the gifts they grant to mortals *cannot* be used in other people's benefits in an altruistic manner? Like, someone making a deal with a Strength Adept is forbidden to ever use it to protect the weak without gaining any personal benefit in the process. The moment they do, their soul is for the devil's to claim immediately. Of course, respecting the contract will inevitably lead to the debtor's slow decay anyway, since being forced to act in a selfish way everytime is bound to become taxing to the soul in the long run.
We never said devils had to play fair, didn't we? :P
Ive always ran it like this. Because frankly : selling your soul isn't going to actually have an effect in the campaign. It's dramatic fluff, but it won't have any real consequences in the campaign.
Which, aside from personally just finding it more interesting to have stuff actually happen in the campaign, most players understand that there isn't any real consequences to it, and many, especially newer players, are in the mindset of controlling a videogame character rather than thinking about what their character would actually do.
@@rustyshovel7179
That said a custom, possibly one shot campaign set in the 9 hells itself involving a veteran party finding dead or "retired" player characters they once knew that had sold their souls to devils and seeing how they started out as gooey lemurs after their *'untimely' deaths* and (having the players) possibly 'help' them achieve a more powerful, lesser devil form were they might actually retain some scant memories of their old, mortal lives and might even recognize some of the party's surviving characters!
Backstory.
In life they (the newly made devil) saved some of their fellow adventurers from certain death by sacrificing their lives during an epic, climactic encounter with a *"beholder pirate"!*
As an example of a first interaction.
*Newly raised lesser devil:* Wa-wait...I-I recall...something...a....boat, really BIG boat a-and you...you were there! **points to one of the party members**
And then it could go from there in a number of interesting ways, again probably as a high level, brief campaign.
Those specific conditions are a lot of fun, there's an urban legend where I'm from that a guy made a faustian deal with the devil and the contract granted him power and wealth in exchange of his soul for eternal damnation the second his corpse goes underground or some similar phrasing, so this dude had a stone coffin made to be I'd say like 4 inches off the ground on 4 little legs so his corpse technically isn't buried underground, and you can go and see his grave in the municipal cemetery of Valparaíso in Chile, suspended 4 inches off the ground on stone legs
This is how our deal with a rakshasa isn’t playing out. Because the deal is mutually beneficial (the friend we’re trying to get out of hell legislation is actually a reincarnated rebel pit fiend our rakshasa would like not to go back to service in the hells) the condition for losing our souls is if we by word or deed give away his cover as head of the merchants guild (he’s pretending to just be a tiger tabaxi) or interfere in his ongoing plans. We’ve had some close calls but my character is absolutely determined not to lose her soul.
The advice and kiss at the end of every video makes me so happy, it’s like older brother vibes who’s actually cool and cares about you 😭😭
I gotta say, you're right about the idea that most PCs don't make Faustian deals at the table. However, there's one recent example of a meaningful, live devil deal that blew me away - and it came from a certain character in the final episode of EXU: Calamity. That deal had everything you described: real importance for the story, real consequences, and truly interesting parameters that served as the structure for the remainder of the story.
I'd like to think that one way devils increase the number of souls they get through contracts is to not have the soul necessarily be the thing up on offer, but as collateral that the signatory must give up if they don't complete a seemingly easy task before they die.
Or as a wager. Like in a fiddle playing contest.
@@maromania7
Problem is player characters depending on narrative fiat often can find ways to weasel out of said deals or metagame the system to easily accomplish the, at first seemingly easy but turns out to be near impossible tasks laid before them shtick. So I can see how it's tempting to use the straight up your soul is forfeit apone death no matter what you do kind of devil's deal. (that said not like there isn't a ridiculous number of ways to avoid or even reverse death in the DnD-verse..)
The lack of real risks in failing the tasks because you don't want to screw over players too hard but at the same time you want their to be a real puzzle to solve which means the strong possibility of failure.
@@navilluscire2567 just because the players are likely to succeed in weaseling out of a seemingly impossible deal doesn’t mean it isn’t worth incorporating into your game. Beating the devil at their own game could be a very interesting character/story arc.
Our Barbarian once made a deal with the Demogorgon, this however, didn't last untill the end of the campaign though. Realising his contract wasn't really binding, there were a bunch of cultists and really powerfull demons thrown at them, but the players absolutely wrecked them. My party also picked up two Quasits they found locked up in a hag's lair pretty early on, and they became group members throughout the entire story. They didn't respawn and one of the two (Toad) died pretty early on, obviously going out with "I'll see y'all in hell". The other serving as the diviner's familiar at the end of the campaign when everyone split up and she became your average tower wizard. They were a crap ton to roleplay. Invisible most of the time so they could just kind of be thrown into the fray by me or the players screaming "Toad! Jeff!". They really had a bunch of personality and even their own statblocks. Both remained in their toad forms most of the time. Toad had lower wisdom but higher Charisma, a bold fiend who constantly threw himself in battle. This backfired when the party was fighting a wizard and he suddendly dropped on the wizard while he was flying and broke the wizard's concentration, making her fall. This however also got him Squashed with a rock when the wizard started using telekenisis. Jeff, an uncomfortably ripped frog, with a strength of 12, higher wisdom and not really and flaws. He really enjoyed the bard's bagpipe music, making him think of the layer he lived on. The barbarian who had made AND broken a pact with presumably the Demogorgon went into the abbyss after the campaign to find Toad and reunite him with Jeff.
Pointy Hat over here having clearly made a deal with the Adept of RUclips, creating better and better content for his followers, who ever grow in number, but also consuming himself along the way!
Great content! My soul is sold!
I've become an addict to your content! Not only do you encourage creativity and offer new ways for us to use things in DND, but you have tangible content to employ in our own games! Thank you so much, for doing this work. Moment I get a credit card, I'm gonna support ya!
Thanks! These are all for free tho!
i couldn't agree more
Agreed lol
Same
11:40 Hold monster actually works on humanoids. The spell's text only specifies targeting "a creature". And people are definitely still creatures.
Yeah, he clarified elsewhere that he's of the view that paralyzing effects are bad form to use against PC's as it just leads to them doing nothing on their turn.
@@Lurklen yeah, but he shouldn't complain about them being bland because of a house rule he put in place. Another option would be to just replace it with a spell that he is ok with.
@@ujoupe3041 Agreed, I was jsut clarifying for those who thought he was mistaken on Hold Monsters.
I think if you're going to house rule something and you have a problem with the paralyzed condition, alter the paralyzed condition somehow. Make it more like slow, or say you can move a max of 10 feet, or use the interact with object action, but you cannot attack or cast spells (this would give paralyzed players something to do, like slowly crawl away, and/or heal themselves.)
@@ujoupe3041 if rules-as-written makes your player get bored and do nothing during their playthrough thats still bland, his houserule just removes the issue without fixing it
@@gamongames I don't really get this attitude in the hobby personally. Most DMs are going to still allow your Free Action speech, you don't do "nothing" you call for help or earn your party off doing so, RP your struggle against the bonds and the turns move on and conbat is one turn quicker for likely just a round or so and your situation adds to the tension of the group narrative. I'm the type that's okay with player death (not a sheet burner though) as long as level of threat was appropriately telegraphed and that seems to be an absolute minority outside of veteran AD&D folks so 🤷🏽♂️
1:19-1:23 To be fair, if I remember alignments correctly, Devils are Lawful Evil and Demons Chaotic Evil. Having minions about as powerful as you are who hate being controlled and will actively ignore your plans at best and downright rebel at the earliest opportunity at worst, even if you nominally have the same or similar goals would hamper the whole "evil mastermind" thing just as much if not more. Edit: I see you actually touched on that.
A demon will demolish where a devil makes a deal.
Been binge watching your entire catalog soon, and every video, even those with a topic I don’t naturally gravitate towards have been Stellar. Artwork is Amazing, the fresh thinking is super cool and you’re just generally entertaining to listen to/watch. Keep up the great work! Gonna go paste this on the rest of your videos to feed the algorithm gods
In a setting where magic items are rare - like mine, cough cough - mercantile devils offering powerful, but cursed, magic items would be very interesting as well. Imagining a powerful cursed axe that sends the soul of every monster or humanoid slain with it straight into the Nine Hells, but slowly eats away at the sanity of its user until they become an unstoppable, murderous fiend themselves.
I also like the idea of a Warlock trying to gain a pact of the devil, thinking they've aligned with a powerful patron, but got their ritual slightly wrong and instead gets punked by a lowly imp who becomes their familiar, the warlock and the patron both growing in strength as they work directly together.
This happens in Dimension 20’s Unsleeping City Chapter 2 with one of the main characters and it is fantastic
I did something similar to your imp thing. I played a warlock who's imp familiar was his patron. Or more accurately, he was his familar's patron. By which I mean that the imp did something to upset his boss in hell and was in major trouble so in desperation he made a pact with my warlock where if my warlock summoned him to get him out of hell and agreed to keep him safe from his devil boss then he'd give my warlock magic powers and serve him and do whatever he asks him to do. Also the imp's name was Xaq, pronounced "Zack". I'm proud of that name.
@@thepip3599 was your warlock named "Qodi" (Cody) by chance?
I love the idea of a mercantile devil. The way I would interpret that magic weapon idea is to have the weapon be just a genuinely good magic weapon, for most parties that’s already plenty reason to go around slaying sentient folks, and have the original mercantile devil return as a pit fiend or some higher ranking boss fight thanks to all the free souls gaining their promotion.
All magic in Elric is made by bsrgains with elemental spirits and creatures of chaos or law. So every magic item is a bound demon. From the mighty Stormbringer itself which feasts on souls of those around it's wielder, friend and foe. To a magic lamp that shows illusions but needs to be greased with a mix of fat and incense.
Demons DO get a book, multiple in fact! Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Out of the Abyss are both great for that stuff, and Mordenkainen gives so much more to work with for devils than Avernus does, I feel, as far as lore, especially for the Blood War
Literally heard that line and just slowly panned my head to my shelf filled with every release 5e book (plus supplements) and just narrowed my gaze at Out of the Abyss, imagining it saying "Am I a joke to you?"
Ooa is one of my favorite bokks
Look up the 2e Planescape book Hellbound: the Blood War.
Way back in my teen days of DMing, in the middle of a 6 year campaign of the original, first Edition Advanced Dungeon and Dragons, the following happened: The fiend who was the major thorn in my party of heroes' side was an Ultrodaemon. He was always a few steps ahead of them, and misled the party, which thought they were in his home of Gehenna, but were in one of the Nine Hells... One of the PCs, Evolius Pummelstone, a Paladin of the Lawful Good variety (there were no other kinds back then, even though Dragon Magazine had an "Anti-Paladin" class featured early on which was suggested to be only playable by the DM...), around 12th level, if I remember correctly, starting from level 1. He was married to a lovely bard, who was an NPC who was part of the party. During their stay in the Nine Hells, old Evo's wife died in battle. After witnessing the trauma caused by this loss, in the Nine Hells, no less, Asmodeus was nothing less than touched by what he witnessed happening in his domain. Civin, the bard, got back to life, 100%. Evolius loss his status as a good boy Paladin, and became a Lawful Neutral Cavalier (a class which appeared in Dragon Mag). The Ultrodaemon got gratitude from a new contact in a different Lower Plane than his own. That's the one time there was a Faustian deal at my table as a DM. Most things about adolescence were pretty awful. But even though me and my friends went pretty much down different paths, whenever we do meet, we recall the stories we created together with great fondness. I recently found this channel, and it's a great, cheeky, fun take of old TTRPGs. Keep up the well-researched, compelling goofy, and imaginative work! Cheers!!
I love how your animation is coming along. To be able to convey such emotion with just one eye is great.
The whole 'hat wearing a hat' thing is something we need to see more of. 🍻
Love your Hellish Adept idea and it gave me a very twisted idea of my own. "How do you tempt your players to make a Faustian bargain?" is a very good question and so I asked myself "What would tempt a player more than anything?". The answer: Stat increases.
Instead of the ultra-rare magical item books, imagine a devil straight-up offering you that coveted +2 increase to a relevant stat (and the ability to reach the 22 score). Or a Feat! More tempting if it's a feat that you couldn't take on your own like a racial feat. I know players would be jumping at the chance to get those things they could never get on their own.
That +2 to a stat is how Pathfinder (effectively 3.5e Plus) deals with devils (pun 100% intended). In fact, that's how they get you in Pathfinder, since you only get a +1 to a stat every 4 levels, meaning that +2 is effectively 8 levels of stat increases, without having to actually level that high. It's even more damning as well, since the devils in question have the ability to remove it at any time and nullify their own contracts, but will usually do so at the moment when you need that boon the most, prompting the PC's to try and get the boost back regardless of what the devil pulls in the new contract. Pathfinder can be pretty sneaky that way.
"Sorry I can't tell devils and demons apart"
"Rude"
"Well aren't both you peop-"
"YOU PEOPLE!?"
Really loving this channel! I think I'm going to binge every episode while I work. I learned a lot from this video on devils and I hope one on demons is made eventually.
"Very little in their statblock [...] is about what they could offer..."
This is a change. Prior editions, especially 3rd ed., went on at length for many of the devils of what, and how, they'd tempt mortals into giving up their souls, in great detail. It's unfortunate that this didn't carry over - but, it was probably to save on page space or some other practical concern. I'd hoped that Descent into Avernus would bring with it that kind of info again, but as it stands, I just refer to my old books and manuals for that information when I'm stumped on how this dinky little imp is supposed to convince anyone to sell their soul or whatever.
Most of the greater devils don't even involve themselves in the gathering side of the soul trade, though - they're often the ones USING that raw material to do stuff, like build infernal war-machines or what-have-you.
3:40 wait... so it's all just a big pyramid scheme?
makes sense
that's how you know they are evil
*_holds gun_* always has been
Pointy hat: asks comments to tell him why they would make a deal with a devil.
I see what you’re trying to do, well it won’t work on me.
tell me tho 😈
@@pointyhatstudios
No, no I don’t think I will.
You can have my soul in exchange for ultimate wisdom, knowledge, understanding, $75 trillion dollars, from now on everytime I attempt to do anything I am 20 times better at it then I was the last time I attended that same thing, everyone believing anything I tell them from now on, a +30 to my Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Constitution, for my family to talk to me again, and everything on my list of things I would get if I got a whole lot of money, plus everything that I have ever lost or been stolen from me returned, all without losing anything that I already have.
@@matthewwells2520
Sounds good.
Personally, I’d sell my soul to gain complete and utter control of literally everything.
And I mean LITERALLY everything.
Whatever I think of, whatever I want, I can make it reality.
Ultimate power.
@@chaosjimthevoidlord3762 ...oh, and can I get a frisbee with that?
Yeah, I'd like to sell my soul for a frisbee.
Kidding.
I once played a character who made a Faustian Deal. She was a sorceress who, in her youth, was "taken advantage of" by the town sheriff. Since he was, well, the sheriff, there wasn't really much that could be done about that. So, somehow, devil's got involved, and a deal was struck that this sheriff would get what he deserved and she would write her name in the devil's book. Tried to scorch the book immediately after, but of course that doesn't work. The sheriff was immediately comatose, and the sorceress was haunted by his ghost or something (i think it was just a devil trick though). Anyway, it was some damn good role playing.
Really loved this video (and am looking forward to your video on the Nine Hells)! I'm trying to think of ways to work fiends into a homebrew setting I'm fleshing out, and I want the conflict between Demons, Devils, and Celestials (or some other entity possibly) to be a big part of it. Hearing your explanations and ideas for giving Devils a twist is deeply inspiring.
As a relatively new player/DM, just know that your videos help a lot, and they're very entertaining! I'll definitely be watching for the Hellish Adepts whenever they're finished.
TLDR: A ramble about DND hell lore I wanted to discuss somewhere on the internet. It features the Ars Goetia but in a different way than presented in Pointy Hat's video.
Had the same idea (to use the Ars Goetia) months ago. Didn't really do anything with it up until now. It is, frankly, a bit more literal and not as innovative as your concepts.
I used their hierarchy with Kings, Dukes, Marquises etc. with the Presidents keeping everyone in check. They still fight demons, they also battle each other, be it in court or with their legions.
I also did some maths calculating the military power of the hells (there are more than nine now, it's really just fortresses and islands floating over some infernal void (no, not THE void) ). If a legion (by Roman standards) consists of 3.000 to 6.000 soldiers and there are 2686 legions of hell this equals a total of 8.058.000 - 16.116.000 soldiers.
That would be enough to run over any medieval fantasy world (medieval = less humans ?). Let's just hope they don't start to AGREE all of a sudden and decide to conquer the Material Plane for easier access to souls. To finally beat those f*ing demons. (Campaign/Plothook)
Also they locked Malphas away so he (the Architect of Hell) could not be captured and interrogated about their fortifications. (Also because he is very scary.) They are able to manifest in the Material Plane, either through invocation or by a surge of violence, e.g. a war. But only fragments of them can pass the aether, they have to act from the shadows and corrupt mortals to do their bidding.
Essentially, Baal now runs the show, and the mightiest of every tier answers directly to him, e.g. Aamon as highest Marquis.
Humans sometimes harness their power and knowledge but don't under any circumstances trust them. On the other hand, humans are crazy enough to deal with them at all. Because of their short lives they desperately have to ensure their survival and want to leave a mark on the world despite of it. My Tieflings for example, are descendants of warlocks striking deals with the hells to survive in a crueal world with much more potent species. The mirrored thing for Aasimar, only with clerics and (biblically accurate) angels.
Closing sentiment: I really REALLY like @vincentcoviellos illustrations of Ars Goetia over on instagram. It is just great and weird and fantastical and surreal. Something to show to players. Just don't use it without permission. All art of his is terrific, tbh.
All in all this was good fun, and I hope to have inspired at least one person with this text. Unless it's filtered because of too long. I appreciate feedback, but will not demand it. And I look forward to the next video. They all have been awesome (Especially like the Tiefling one from some time ago. I love it. So much.).
That's all, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. :)
You said the Erinnyes were like the Furies. They literally ARE the Furies. Furies are basically the Latin translation/version of the Greek Erinnyes. Megaera, Tisiphone and Alecto are the three Erinnyes just as much as they are the three Furies
No they aren't
@@pointyhatstudios Thank you!
@@pointyhatstudios Even though it's not an exact match, I'm glad that you made the Hades comparison. It's the first thing that comes to mind whenever I think of Erinyes these days.
_please God I just want Megaera to step on me_
@@CptCh4os my username used to be Oneiros to :P
This was hell of good. Will be waiting for the Adepts, this concept is very innovating
"Grant us eyes, grant us eyes. Plant eyes on our brains, to cleanse our beastly idiocy."
Was about to sleep, but I heard devil’s calling
I love ur content sm. The editing, the jokes, and the art u do, everything is so good and funny!! So glad i found this channel. Its always so enjoyable to watch. Thank YOU for all the hard work u put into making these!! ^^
I only found your channel recently, but I’ve found it endlessly creative and really cool. Thank you very much.
This was exactly what i was looking for and you summarized it incredibly! Thank you so much for the video and the effort, i'll be definitely using those statblocks! 👍
I love this idea! One of the things that I do mind though is that the price is usually your character. Of course that’s the point, but my players are usually VERY careful and never take a deal that would potentially change their character’s personalities. You can get really attached to a character, and damming them to hell forever is a pretty big price for some players. Something I recommend to DMs with players like mine is offering them abilities at the cost of AC reductions, hp reductions, and maybe even permanent death fails if the ability you’re giving is particularly powerful. These permanent debuffs can give more alternatives than “an eternity of being pure evil” and my players have taken quite a few of these because they feel less out-of-character. If you’re wondering why a devil would ever make a deal that doesn’t involve a player’s soul, you could say they’re doing it to put the players at risk. If a low ac or hp score gets the adventurer killed, there will be less good in the world, so it’s a devil’s way of destroying hope and playing the long-con
10:45 I think you're right that it's kind of dumb for Erinyes to be succubi, but I will say that it makes sense for them to be hypocrites. It makes sense for a fiends to be hypocritical legalists who will punish people for breaking rules that they themselves violate. It's also appropriate for Hell to encourage doublethink for exactly the same reasons The Party in 1984 does.
its also a very common pitfall to humanize devils with stuff like "theyre hypocrites". no, theyre devils.
they dont have this inner battle for their morality and soul that we do, their actions cant be judged the same ways ours can because theyre literally already corrupted.
everything they do is already bound to be the natural extreme of what a mortal would be tempted with because they are the literal result of what happens when a mortal completely goes over the edge.
there's no lying, betraying, cruelty or hypocrisy if youre a devil, thats just called being a devil. thats the main difference between mortals and them. they cant be redeemed, by definition of what they are so their actions cant really be judged.
its like a panther being unable to properly commit homicide. theyre just naturally predators pushed by their nature to kill.
Well said. And if the hate between erinyes and succubi is faked, they can each set themselves as experts, and wrangle expert advisor jobs, versus the " opposition". The smarter leaders use them to plant reverse info that their competition uses. They reciprocate, and energy is wasted. Which is cool for angels and mortals!
To me, I see their seduction as similar to legal entrapment.
They do it, in order to get people to break rules, so that they can then punish them for it. The sort of thing you'd expect from super lawful, super evil types. I expect that devils love the idea of cops using entrapment and think it should be allowed.
Your content is amazing and I have to pace myself not to binge it in one take. Thanks so much for making these!!
Saving people, hunting things. The family business.
Winchester
I'd love to see your take on a Werewolf player character. I have always enjoyed the werewolf mythology and I had an idea of someone who has a "familiar" that is a conduit for the werewolf transformation. So maybe a ranger base but can only use a wolf as a companion. And to activate the power they fuse or the wolf is absorbed removing it from battle but then transforming into a werewolf. Having the wolf separate allows the lycan to avoid unwanted transformations at night. And I thought maybe having the last goal of the user to be the werewolves goal, like attacking that one person or maybe traversing that difficult terrain etc. But once that goal is completed, rolls are needed to be made to either break the curse and revert back to man and wolf, or if failed the werewolf becomes unstable and feral with no real guidance and starts attacking whoever and going wherever it wants until a successful roll and control is regained. Dunno if it's balanced but I was just spit balling and having the loss of control seems like a big hindrance for balance sake. Any suggestions and pointers are welcome. I can also give a few more points if anyone likes the idea.
For a Werewolf PC, Bisclavret comes to mind. Pretty much it'd be an on/off vow of poverty, the PC has to take all stuff off to transform, with the bonus of keeping its mind while transformed unlike regular werewolves. Since it can't use items, it may be a little unbalanced to worse, but can make up for it with some extra bonuses like the vow of poverty does.
You're so creative! Your ideas are really fresh, and bring something new and dynamic to D&D! Great way to freshen up games when you've played for many years and gotten used to the same old stuff. Thank you for your hard work 💕
11:44 Hold monster actually does work on the party. It works on any creature and is strictly a better version of hold person, except for upcasting if you only want to cast on humanoids(you get one extra target per spell slot so a 9th level hold person effects 8 humanoids, whereas a 9th level hold monster effects 5 creatures of any kind.)
Where's the hellish adept of constitution? I wanna be indestructible!
What a fiendishly interesting twist…
Looks awesome! Devils are interesting already and your twist makes them feel so alive and influential in the mundane world. The Paladin example is great especially if you combine it with the question: is siding with a devil to defend the city the greater evil to letting the town perish or the lesser?
Fighting and defeating this Paladin might doom the city at the same time. Or letting them stay that way might condemn the entire city to a fate of slow creeping corruption.
I am wondering about Demons. You made them (both directly and indirectly) sound pretty lame and if they're just evil for the lulz I guess that would be true. Maybe you can give even those a twist to make them exciting :D but do what you want. Your passion behind a topic makes these videos!
Looking forward to more!
On another note I think the Erinnyes have a TON of potential as a strange, temporary ally for the party hunting down some devil who wronged both normal morality AND the Law of the Hells thus being tracked down by the party and the fallen angel. They ARE embodiments of justice after all.... hellish justice but still.
Sounds like the uneasiest of alliances
Found your channel through the grace of l'algorithme via your Tiefling video like two days ago and I have spent these last two days just going through your videos. Shockingly great quality for such a fresh faced channel! Subbed and hungry for more, thank you Monsieur Pointy Hat.
This is so perfect! I am running a game where a devil is slowly corrupting everyone on board a train and causing the whole place to turn into hell on wheels. One of these is Exactly what I need 😱
Updates on the hell train?
@@Gdhttu Oh it went super well. As the players tried to figure out a murder mystery that took place on the train, they slowly discover they are ALL passengers on their way to the afterlife. It was a ghost train adventure! And everyone here is interviewed in a way, to see if they need to be sent to the hells or move in to a new life. But a devil has snuck aboard and is corrupting all of the passengers, driving them mad and causing riots. People end up killing each other. The devil used to be a part of the goddess of death; the embodiment of her love for killing and chaos, and he wants things to go back to the way they were. Throughout the whole campaigns the players have flashbacks to the lives they had and how they died. The players had an epic facedown with the devil at the end of the mini campaign. And as a reward the players decide if they want a second chance in their old life, but deny a new life being born, or do they allow their soul to be reincarnated into something new.
Some decided they had done everything they could in their old lives, they weren’t worth saving or they would prefer something new. While others wanted to return to save the loved ones they left behind.
It was such an emotional campaign and everyone was in tears by the end of it xD
I wanna be in the frat house of doom and torment
God I hope you continue to do more of these corruption systems. I've been wanting stuff like this for a while. I already picked apart your Psionic Transformation doc. Looking forward to dissect this for inspiration. Love your work :D
50+k in 4 month is the fastest I have seen a RUclipsr grow! That is impressive! You started off with a really strong, unique branding and confidence, from what I have seen that is one of the keys to growing quickly. That's what gets people to stay after finding your videos.
Demons sort of get a part of a book: Out of the Abyss.
Starts at the under dark but then something hits the fan and you get demon lords
tbh demons also have a good part of Avernus, both the book and the realm.
I think the biggest problem with Faustian deals in D&D is that even if their PCs would be enticed by such an offer... the players themselves really don't want that feeling of being bamboozled. It hits them in that prideful area where we like to believe were better than that, I guess.
I could totally see myself using the Hellish Adepts though. I'm imagining them as a kind of twist on the Four Fiends trope from Final Fantasy where they'd each presents a boss fight that's oriented towards a different kind of skill focus rather than an elemental affinity, testing the range and flexibility of the party.
...As I said in my own comment: what if the deal was for additional attunement slots?
(I'm currently playing in a campaign that has made it to higher levels and collecting tons of cool loot that can't be used because nobody can afford to unattune from what they're already using is starting to become a burden. We're also currently trapped in the Abyss, so aligning with devils to give demons the middle finger might appeal to some party members.)
@@Shalakor Some players will take a devil's contract for purely story reasons while others might indeed jump at the chance for more mechanical advantages like attunement slots or serious stat modifiers. 'Cause the Devil is ultimately you - the DM - and whether the players are comfortable enough with the idea of selling their PC's soul to you without ultimately screwing them over is the most important question regardless of the size of the carrot you've put before them.
Upon reflection, the Hellish Adept concept might alleviate some of those trust issues because it gives more agency of the players for the risk/reward of the deal -- maybe, we haven't got them yet. Like, if they use X spell/ability it will push your PC closer to damnation, so they'll make an effort to choose not use the hellish abilities unless it's massively important and thus game the system that way. By giving them a physical representation of the deal as a tattoo they get more of a sense of control over it. It becomes more like owning a highly powerful magic item with a terrible downside you're aware of.
Dude. Can we just take a quick minute to appreciate Pointy Hat? I'm pretty new to DnD so I'm not planning to be a DM anytime soon but the effort he puts into these videos plus the free treats at the end are amazing. Just how can someone be so creative? I may not be a DM looking for new ideas, but I sure am learning a lot about the game through this channel.
I'm on the edge of my seat for these statblocks.
YES! This. This is what I’ve needed to keep it going in the summer heat. The devils know nothing.
Thanks for the continued great content! It’s very inspiring and means the world, seeing all the stuff you share for free to the community. Especially at the quality it is.
The content, the creativity, editing and the comedic timing are the why I fell in irreparable love with this channel, thanks for another great video.
I have to ask, Antonio, do you plan on doing something about the elemental planes and their denizens?
When Being a devil is like being a part of a multilevel marketing
I'm binging these videos today, the art is such a great treat at the end.
It says something that D&D Hell is basically just modern corporate capitalism with a pentagram slapped on top.
There was this one time a player made a deal with a devil I've seen on a table he was a squishy wizard about to die and when he failed his third death save a devil appeared making a deal with the wizard which was permanently taking some of the wizards spell slots and if the wizard agreed the devil would save his life the wizard agreed and after that the next levels he had he put into warlock devoting himself to the devil who once saved his life
Every time I watch your videos I get excited to implement in my world's campaing, as a starting DM who loves storytelling I found amazing how you manage to the do someting fun to roleplay and that matches the whole system
This is an awesome video! Very informational, and your new devil is gonna be loads of fun at the table!
I’m also working on my own homebrew TRRPG and have been wondering how pacts for magic may work (since I think things like that should be open to all players and not just a class archetype). This video has given me lots of inspirational points to draw on and ponder over, so thank you very much! Keep up the wonderful work 😘
I have a Paladin player in one of my campaigns, and I’m really hoping to lure him into a Faustian deal by promising him an eternity of fighting the agents of evil, just like he always wanted (as a soldier in the Blood War >:] ) Thank you for making this video, this is great inspiration!
I've always had this Lawful Paladin concept who had something of a Devilish quality to him. That being, at least in my own interpretation on Devils, the fact he could never tell a lie, however he was quite good at twisting the truth as it were, and he'd often make subtly open ended deals.
For example, the party has captured a bandit are are attempting to interrogate him to find their bosses lair. My Devilish Paladin would come in and effectively "give his word as an honorable Paladin" that no harm shall befall him and that he promises to let the bandit go if he tells them what they want to know. Afterwards, the bandit is still kept in custody, at least till my devilish paladin eventually decides to let him go. That of course likely being... right into the arms of the town guard. Thus keeping his end of the deal by well, letting the bandit go. Just that it was the bandit who well, "failed to specify when or where," when the deal was made. 😈
Might not quite be a Faustian Deal, but do tend to consider such open ended deals and the dealmaker exploiting such loop-holes, as devilish deals.
Love the concept and the rythm of your video !
At first I thought you were gonna give advices on how to have a Devil PC, but i guess how to make deals is a great idea too ^^
this gave this one an idea for a potentially interesting plot/character background. Start with someone pushed metaphorically against the wall, they're in a position any devil would love a mortal in; true desperation. Perhaps it's an incurable, magically resistant disease or curse, maybe they're being hunted down and their pursers are growing near. Maybe they're already laying on the ground, bleeding out? Maybe it's even related to what's about to happen directly. Suddenly a Euriday(sp?), one of the Fury-like Devils shows up. Maybe they save the person in the short term, maybe that's not necessary.
Regardless, they offer the PC/NPC a deal. The Euriday will give them the phenomenal infernal power to solve whatever problem they have, and they even get to keep their soul! BUT they have an even bigger problem, and the deal is YOU have to deal with it. In exchange for this power, you have to go deal with something they can't touch. Perhaps it's a higher-ranked Devil, maybe some type of entity they couldn't even get near, but even a fiend-pact Warlock could. Maybe it's even a fellow Warlock, one who's found a way around the deal and has somehow prevented any Devils from getting near.
Heck, maybe instead of the Euriday forging the pact with you directly, they facilitate an equivalent pact with a third party, ensuring you get a fair shake, and paying your end of the deal.
Regardless, instead of losing your soul at the end of your life, you have a much bigger challenge, one insurmountable even for an exceptionally powerful being. It's a fair deal; they need you to meet out Infernal Justice, and you need the power they're going to give you, both to hold up your end, and for whatever purpose you needed it for in the first place.
Heck, you could probably use just about any Devil in place of the Euriday with the right task. The core idea is a mutual desperation; you both need each other. You could also throw in another variable; does the player get to keep their power after the deal is complete? Could be an excuse to nerf them right back to level one and make/let them have a new class(maybe for a new campaign, leading to a character that's experiencED, but is still at a comparable level to an otherwise fresh party). Or maybe it could be spun off into them trying to recover their lost power by making a new deal. Maybe something else has come up that they need the power for, even a greater threat, but they no longer have as strong a bargaining position. Or in the grand vein of JRPGs, maybe the Devil lets them extend the contract in order to deal with an even greater threat posed to the 9 Hells. Maybe it's even something to do with Demons? Leaves open any number of options.
I typically let people find means to multiclass or level up rather than just doing XP.
(e.g. Barbarian finds a really powerful sword > They take level in hexblade
Wizard reads the Necronomicon
> They take a level in pact of the tome
Party makes friends with an archfey in the feywild?
> Everyone takes a level with them as their patron or something with wild magic sorcerer or oath of ancients paladin, etc etc)
Your actions should have consequences.
Getting hit should leave scars.
You shouldn't get abilities based on things you never did.
This video kinda reminds me of one of my first characters, an Erinyes monk who rebelled against her kind as she wanted to go back to being a celestial like their ancestors. She fought against her own nature to try and be better, so the celestials would accept her. All while dealing with the hatred of mortals who wanted nothing more than her destruction. And her own kind trying to hunt her down for her betrayal…..
Love the thinking on this one, very creative as always.
Excellent video! Can't wait for the stat blocks. Great content 👌!
and we're still waiting, 2 months later
Would have loved to see an artwork for your idea of a Charisma Adept. I can’t really picture it.
Still loving your content bro! Keep up the awesome work! It really teaches and inspires a lot!
I loved these designs. I took the hellish adept of intelligence for my adventure. He was basicly a side character based on the laplace demon and your video as a antagonist for my party. He delievered them information about my boss and a way out of avernus for killing a fellow Demon who was standing in his climbing career. Now he got his territory and the other demon was a nice boss fight. I will bring him back later again because one of my players is a Warden Paladin so he was really pissed of on making a contract to get out of avernus, but there happened a lot :D. There was drama and tension and in the end he will be the next demon enemy some time soon. He even dumbminded my cleric with his spell. They really avoid or kill demons now, more to slay as they say ^^
Thank you so much ❤
My bard made a deal with a devil. She had infernal calling as one of her magical secrets spells to summon it
She promised to let him loose in her time period (we'd been pulled to the aftermath of the apocalypse) in exchange for a form of protection.
Her soul and those of her companions (without their knowledge) were pinned as collateral (if she didn't summon him in her time).
The form of protection was an armband that fed off her life force (10hp) every time she used it but gave her the telepathy and hurl flame skills of a barbed devil for a minute. It also slightly altered her appearance to resemble a barbed devil when used.
Absolutely loved making the deal in-game and ended up taking eldritch adept as a feat for devil's sight to lean into it more.
The other players also loved it and it was the topic of a lot of conversation over the table even tho the only thing their characters knew was that they all had brands on their necks for some reason
I made a deal in my game as a rogue in a Halloween game (part of a larger arc) it was for power when fighting the current enemy type and to save the party (one of our party freed the devil from its cage as an "ah hah, your weakness) so he traded his soul for everyone's lives.
I offered a Faustian deal to a player for a free magic item. They passed, but one of my other players was upset because the devil (the dice gods) didn’t want his soul. He still occasionally suggests they go back to that city and try again.
Nah I want to meet the devil who’s just been slowly rising the ranks purely for being consistently competent at his job and is completely chill.
They can be chill but they wouldn't of become a devil if they were not evil
As a DM I applaud any attempt to make monster campaigns more a thing. It can be incredibly fun.
"Why would Erinyes do that when both Succubus and Incubus already did that but better?"
because Erinyes can literally duke your face and doesn't take as long as Succubus and Incubus
-they appear
-they grab you
-they open the door
-they yeet you
-profit
thats not seduction tho, why do they ALSO seduce people is what he was asking
@@brightestlight9462 it’s pretty simple, really, Succubus is demon before get their neutrality card in 5E for freelance work, maybe earlier but they’re still demon in nature, technically meaning that Hell does NOT have succubus
WotC in the 90s
The adepts of intellegence remind me of Dantalion, 72th archdemon of hell, who in the Ars Goetia had a hundred faces
Im running a Strixhaven game and for sure going to work in either one or both of a devil being summoned to teach or some anceient protected text that produces a devil adept.
Love your channel and of course the awesome free content you dish out! Very impressive! 😈
“Demon’s don’t get a book […]”
Pathfinder has you covered.
Small correction: Hold Monster works on any creature, so it works against the party. 'monster' means creature, as opposed to 'beast', which is more narrow
👉👈 When are this sweet little devils coming out? 🥴
Love this content! Your videos give me inspiration to write my campaign!
Character concept: Bard of Eloquence that goes around and gives people advices for everything. Love life, work life, family or friends, he can find a book, poem or painting that helps them. Twist is that a mischievous higher being (Devil, Demon, Eldritch god) swaps the motivation material with something darker. While it still helps them it does it in a twisted way. Little Jimmy gets bullied at school? Here's a book about how to become more confident and not get walked over (book on sacrifices and evil gods).
Only the one that received the book/poem/painting can see it's true nature
I love how in D&Dks sister game of Magic the Gathering, demons and devils are reversed for some reason. MtG demons make deals while devils are fiery embodiments of chaos.
Abraços do Brasil chapéu pontudo!
My wizard made a Faustian deal to escape a pact with a great old one, the being he made it with was essentially the bastard child of a devil and a celestial. He even sweetened the deal and gave him an intelligence of 27
I love the free stuff at the end, truly fantastic thank you
Sir I beg of you, please make the pacts! It's been a month!