Who are your favorite Demon Lords?

[Voadam]

And clearly Lolth is disqualified from receiving any votes, given that she isn't an actual demon lord, just a fallen deity and gothy ex-girlfriend of Corellon Larethian.

Au contraire "The demoness Lolth is a very powerful and feared demon lord." 1e Fiend folio which lists her as both Demon Queen of Spiders and Lesser Goddess. Clearly divinity and demon lord status are not mutually exclusive. She is one of my favorites and so I'll be her advocate here

 

[Shemeska]

Au contraire "The demoness Lolth is a very powerful and feared demon lord." 1e Fiend folio which lists her as both Demon Queen of Spiders and Lesser Goddess. Clearly divinity and demon lord status are not mutually exclusive. She is one of my favorites and so I'll be her advocate here

Creepy in-character response
"Demonlord status and deific status aren't at all mutually exclusive. You can become a deity out of nothingness if enough people worship you, a mortal can steal another god's power, a fiend can cultivate a mortal cult of worship and elevate themselves to godhood, and all sorts of other ways. Godhood isn't an exclusive club. Anybody can join regardless of origin. Except me, because deities suck."

"But demonlord status is a bit more exclusive. Unless you begin as an abyssal fiend of some sort, or perhaps another exemplar outsider corrupted and claimed by the Abyss, you can't join the exclusive club. Membership is predicated on you know, being an actual demon. Kanchelsis, Kali, and Lolth can have their own layers of the Abyss if they want, but they don't get invited to Demogorgon's awesome parties. Me? I sneak in by claiming to be Yeenoghu in drag, but with much better complexion."

 

[Treebore]

You fail to list Asmodeus and expect me to vote?

 

[Puggins]

You fail to list Asmodeus and expect me to vote?

Wrong plane.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Meh. I'd vote for Lilith, accuracy be damned. Or Charon, for that matter.

 

[Treebore]

Wrong plane.

Thats what all the demons say. "Your on the wrong plane! You shouldn't be GUUUURRHG!!"

 

[The Eternal GM]

Dagon all the way... Go mythos go!

 

[Desdichado]

There effectively being any difference between demon lords and deities seems to be a relatively recent thing, and honestly it's still pretty muddled. All of the demon lords have clerics and domains, for example.

I'm not much of a fan of having actual gods appear anywhere in the setting itself, honestly—which means demon lords and other powerful critters are free to claim that they're gods, and act like they're gods, and who's going to say that they're wrong? So to me, the "elevation" of Llolth out of the demon lord ranks and into the god ranks is nothing more than claims of status rather than anything mechanically distinctive or different.

One thing I like a lot about demon lords (vs. archdevils) is that there's always room for more. I don't think there's too many; I'd love to have even more options. Let's detail up some of the ones that we don't know much about, and create homebrew ones, and, and, and... anyway. I like their variety. You can find just the one you need for your campaign that way, and the fact that they represent rival empires rather than, as in the case of the devils, rival subsidiaries of the same parent company, I feel a lot freer trying to use them the way I want to.

Officialness be damned, too—Shax from Erik Mona's Armies of the Abyss is one of my favorite demon lords, and his cult is just the right blend of creepy and insidious for me.

 

[Voadam]

Creepy in-character response


"But demonlord status is a bit more exclusive. Unless you begin as an abyssal fiend of some sort, or perhaps another exemplar outsider corrupted and claimed by the Abyss, you can't join the exclusive club. Membership is predicated on you know, being an actual demon. Kanchelsis, Kali, and Lolth can have their own layers of the Abyss if they want, but they don't get invited to Demogorgon's awesome parties. Me? I sneak in by claiming to be Yeenoghu in drag, but with much better complexion."

"You are suggesting strict rules for the abyss' demon lords that are tighter than the ones for Archdevils? Why would you believe an exemplar outsider could perhaps work but not a deific outsider? That is, even if you go with those stories of her originally being a fallen elven goddess and not a demon from the start who the drow turned to. Plus there are stories of another path to demonhood, starting as a mortal soul damned to the abyss and turned into one as an afterlife existence, then demonic transformations from one type to another with even the possibility of turning into a demon lord eventually."

 

[kenobi65]

Way too many demon lords. Way too many.

With 666 planes of the Abyss to populate, in theory we still need several hundred more.