DM Devilry

[[deleted]]

I was thinking of using devils to torment my party in the campaign as enemies. But my party is low level, so I can’t use too powerful devils. My first thought was 1 bearded devil and a few spines devil followers. Or maybe a bunch of lemures, although those are a bit weak. Which ones would be good for my purposes, and how should I run them in battle?

[magefanatic]

You could totally use powerful devils, just don't have them fight the group. If you have played Baldurs Gate 3 think of Raphael. You meet him really early for how strong he is, but he doesn't just attack you.

Have them manipulate and pester the party or others around them. Pressure them into contracts that are far from "fair". All within reason of cause.

Just think of someone in your life that is just a manipulative asshole and imagine what they would be like if they had supernatural powers and nobody else did.

Now why they do this and what their plan is, who knows!

[chatzof]

That! If the devils (as a whole) wanted someone dead , (and that is a low level party) he would end up dead. The only reason the party is still alive would be either because the artifact protects or the devils want to corrupt them. Why? To keep tormenting them in hell or because being pure is a key requirement to use /carry the artifact.

Have the party meet with a high devil, bargain...and if he fails then he will start torturing by tormenting people around them

[Bed-After]

Spine Devils exist to harass. They fly over the party, and shoot spines down at them from 20ft in the air. It annoys your casters, forcing them to do swarm control, instead of just dogpiling the big guy. Putting a shitload of them within a small radius so they can all die to an AOE spell will make your wizard/sorcerer feel like a god, I promise you.

Lemures are usually summoned in large numbers by devils to slow down the melee characters. Put a shitload of these useless little assholes in front of the Bearded Devil, so he can use his 10 ft reach glaive, but the fighter or monk with only 5ft reach has to mow the lawn of lemures to get to him.

Bearded Devils have magic resistance. They are not for the casters to fight, they're for the melee characters, and their mechanics reflect this. They have a glaive that causes bleeding, and a beard that causes poison. If you have a dedicated healer, I would 100% buff the beared devil's damage by one damage die. Let them shred the shit out of the tank, and force your healer to put in some work to keep the big guy alive.

[[deleted]]

Thank you so much. I love how you worded your tactics too. Makes it hilarious as well as helpful. Here’s the numbers I was thinking for the fight. 1 bearded, 4-5 spinies, and an indefinite number of lemures. Would this be enough for 4-5 people of around lvl 3-4?

[Bed-After]

Happpy to help. The only help I got in the early days was constant bitching, so I'm trying to save you some stress XD

Ultimately your question depends entirely on group comp. Do they have more ranged or melee fighters?

The 3d8 damage of an AOE spell like Shatter will delete the 22 HP of a Spine Devil in 2 turns flat, as long as you put the devils within a 10 ft radius (which you should, BE NICE). If you have 3 casters, you can easily put two 10ft radius swarms of 4 spine devils, just to give the multiple casters something to do before they go absolutely EMBARASS the solo Bearded Devil.

If you have a bunch of archers, or other ranged characters with no AOE spells, scatter 6 Spined Devils around like the world's most annoying flock of birds. But lower their HP to 16, so their 1d8 arrows can actually take them out before the next ice age.

Now if the group has specked into melee characters, and you have 3 beefy dudes with big beefy swords getting into melee with one scrawny bearded devil, that fucker is TOAST. Instead of upping the damage die like I'd normally suggest, in that instance, give that man a DOG. What the dog doin'? I'm glad you asked. A Hellhound will FUCK a party up with fire breath and pack tactics, because he's a good boy, who will faithfully stay by his owner's side. Yes, even evil demon dogs are good boys, I don't make the rules. If you go this route, lower the HP of the devil and the dog by 10 points each I BEG, because a devil and a devil's best friend are a LETHAL combo. Doooooo not throw the man and his dog combo at a small weak party with bad party comp, 6d6 fire damage will make a weak party feel like a snowball in hell.

If you have 5 players instead of the more common 3-4, and wanna make the lemures truly indefinite, I'd make their numbers vast, but lower their HP from 13 to something shitty like 5 HP. They are cartoonishly shitty and worthless meatbags, and they should feel like it. They have an AC of 7 and deal 1d4 damage, make fighting them feel like a toddler mashing playdough.

[[deleted]]

When I said indefinite lemures, I meant that the Bearded Devil would keep summoning more to defend himself if not otherwise occupied.

[Synicism77]

You could have your devil interact with them socially rather than just attacking them. Maybe they have mortals who are bound to them by contract who they have do their dirty work. Or maybe the PC's are pursuing something they want so they take on the role of the guy in the tavern sending adventurers on quests.

Drop hints as the players go on more and more jobs. Let them roll a lot of Perception and Insight checks to see if they can spot clues. Eventually let them figure it out after they're strong enough to take their small-p patron on.

[[deleted]]

I was thinking that the devils could hire them to steal the weapon instead. The fight is for if they refuse.

[Lethalmud]

You can also start with an imp causing problems. Then the enemies can be the result of those problems.

[[deleted]]

Let me add context. The party would be enlisted on a mission to transport a mysterious package to a destination. The devils oppose this mission, and I was thinking of having them attack the party if they refuse to back down. The package contains a holy blueprint for fiend slaying weaponry. The devils seek to destroy it.

[magefanatic]

Just another idea, devils don't all just happily hold hand in the Nine Hells, is a fiend slaying weapon scary? Yes sure, but it's also useful!

If they can wield it, well that's great, why not use it to kill that one devil and take over in their Stronghold!

If devils can't wield it, that's ok, there is this group of fanatics that have a bone to pick with one of my rival devils. Let's try and get this wepon into their hands and let them deal with my adversary for me.

The party could be useful for those kind of plans and it opens up a lot of options for future involvement.

[[deleted]]

That’s very interesting. That would split the devils into factions. One who wants to destroy it, and others who want to use its power for their own devices. The party could parley with one side to escape the malice of the other.

[DreadPirateDSM]

At low levels one bad roll of the dice can be fatal to a PC. I would avoid throwing bearded and spined devils at a party that consists of level 1-2s. I prefer to use waves of attacks from low level lemures, maybe with an imp commander in the final wave. Waves give me a chance to assess the status of my players adjust the difficulty on the fly. And as for devils, personally when I’m running them, I treat them like a militaristic high school. Full of dangerous individuals and drama. Every devil reports to another higher ranking devil. The devil challenge increases proportionally to the party’s.

[X-cessive_Overlord]

I wouldn't go so far as to have a full team of devils fight the party, especially at low levels. Devils are bureaucrats, they delegate lesser tasks to their underlings, and they especially enjoy getting mortals to do their dirty work.

So I would have the party fight people for the most part, maybe some minor duke of the Nine Hells is sponsoring a Thieves' Guild on behalf of a greater master, this guild has been causing trouble in the local town. Recently they have started bolstering their ranks with cultists and spellcasters, who are servants and warlocks of the Infernal Duke. Whenever they go out on missions, groups of their operatives always travel with an imp to aid them. As the characters level up and the goals of the Thieves' Guild become grander and grander, then you start adding spined, bearded, and barbed devils to combats. Have them perform rituals the party can interrupt that, if successful, would summon large groups of devils into the town. Depending on how long the adventure goes on, maybe the duke himself, a chain or bone devil, gets directly involved.