D&D 5E Hezrou demon redesign

[dave2008]

Lore:

• They’re no strategic geniuses, but they have low cunning on par with a kobold (sufficient to lure enemies into a trap). Intelligence 5 seems too low. 8 is more in line with how I see them, comparable to a vrock.
• This helps reflect their “demonic sergeant” role. While they can still be powerful brutes, I want to play up this part of their identity which seems to have fallen by the wayside. 5e doesn’t describe any demon as being the “squad leader”, just mariliths commanding demonic hordes, so restoring this aspect of the hezrou fills a gap. Hezrou lead from the front.
• The 2e bit about “Dark Walks” is great and makes hezrous a bit like evil recruiters, not in the tricky sense of a succubus, but in a very transparent bargain: “yes, I can do this for you, but after a ten-year, you will serve forever in the army of the Abyss.”

As I mentioned in another post I think it makes some sense to have them be ambush predators, but that doesn't mesh with them as front-line leaders. Though it makes some sense if they are tricky like kobolds. Maybe you can work it in, maybe not. Perhaps they are good a leading some groups in ambush / guerrilla tactics

 

[dave2008]

Mechanics:

• They have a ton of HP - 136. This is the same as a CR 8 young green dragon or tyrannosaurus rex! And the hezrou has damage resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing weapons to boot, which according to the DMG give it 204 effective HP! To be fair the CR 8 frost giants have 138 HP and CR 8 hydra have 178 HP, so there is precedent, but mostly these are Huge creature (excepting the young green dragon – but that’s a dragon). A good comparison might be the large CR 8 green slaad with 127 HP and no B/P/S resistances (but does have regeneration giving it 157 effective HP). Right now, their hit points sit squarely between a CR 6 vrock (104) than a CR 9 glabrezu (157!), which is relationally the same as the AD&D versions with 8 HD vrocks, 9 HD hezrou, and 10 HD glabrezu. I may drop this down to 116-130 to lower the hezrous defensive CR slightly in order to bump its offensive CR slightly while keeping its total CR 8.
• Probably best not to try to incorporate the Improved Grab stuff, since the 5e glabrezu already grapples with its pincer. It doesn’t seem essential to the hezrou’s core concept.
• I think the hezrou needs another trait/action, and though I was originally thinking Innate Spellcasting, as you’ll see in my examinatino of each spell hezrou have had in older editions, probably spellcasting isn’t the right fit, but the spells can be used to inform a new special ability.

I typically think of innate spellcasting as extra options / flavor if needed. I like to give it enough traits / actions that I don't have to rely on spellcasting. It probably needs some type of ranged attack. I gave mine a leap bonus action and tongue attack to give it some ability to deal with ranged attacks / close the distance. The tongue can pull victims in the stench

 

[dave2008]

Mechanics: Innate Spellcasting
If barlgura can have Innate Spellcasting, so can the hezrou…or if not spellcasting, then special/magical abilities. I’m going through each spell it got in older editions to evaluate the spell against the “demonic sergeant” theme.

• The physics-altering spells of AD&D like animate object, blink, and duo-dimenion, don’t seem to fit – these seem better suited to a banderhobb or some other boogeyman out of a fairy tale who jump scares you. Blink and duo-dimension have an element of evasion to them, however, so keeping that in the back of my mind.
• However, protection from normal missiles would make sense if if protected more than one creatures. That would make it easier for a squad of demons to close to melee. There’s no 5e version of this spell, but a way to represent it might be attaching heavy obscurement to the hezrou’s Stench cloud in some way. I think this will be a thread I lean into.
• The “Old Testament” spells from AD&D are produce flame, summon insects, unholy word, and wall of fire. Right away, I’m nixing produce flame because the hezrou really isn’t a ranged combatant. Also, hezrou can summon dretches already so no need for summon insects (plus it’s kind of off theme). While wall of fire would be a cool strategic spell on a battlefield, it never became something hezrou were known for, could significantly boost their CR with ongoing damage, and their Stench already exerts a bit of battlefield control. Unholy word becomes blasphemy in 3e, so I’ll address that next.
• The “Old Testament” spells from 3e are blasphemy, chaos hammer, and unholy blight. Well, unholy word/blasphemy kind of fits a demonic imagining of a drill sergeant, though there’s no exact 5e equivalent and the matter of targeting is complicated (e.g. if it affected non-evil creatures, well, normally the hezrou is engaged in the Blood War which is against lawful evil devils, so…). It was also a spell the 3.5e balor had, but the 5e balor gets no such spell. So putting it in my back pocket for now.
• Chaos hammer and unholy blight were shared with the glabrezu in 3.5e, but unleashing area effect destruction was never the glabrezu’s thing – it was more about corrupting spellcasters, and it’s 5e spells like confusion, dispel magic, and power word stun reflect that. The hezrou, on the other hand, IS about battlefield magic. Chaos hammer does area damage and slows; while there is no exact 5e equivalent, the idea that a hezrou makes it easier for its troops to bypass difficult terrain goes hand-in-hand with the idea of making it harder for enemies to cross difficult terrain (which is like a lesser slow effect). I think that’s something I can expand on. Unholy blight targets non-evil creatures and damages + sickens (the latter which the hezrou already does with Stench), so maybe not the best fit for a 1:1 conversion; however, the spell description is “a cold, cloying miasma of greasy darkness.” I’m going to lean on that.
• Gaseous form has me thinking. Even though it doesn’t fit the hezrou’s role, what if the hezrou has a trait/action which protects its troops (protection from normal missiles) and “slipstreams” them across difficult terrain surrounded by “a cold, cloying miasma of greasy darkness”? And what if this heavy obscurement rolling from its Stench cloud makes movement harder for hostile forces? THAT sounds perfect for the hezrou. It merges several older edition ideas and gives mechanical support to hezrou being squad leaders.

I like your thinking in general, but to me, summoning a swarm of insects does seem like something this demon might do.

Proposed Mechanical Changes (rough draft):

• Increase Intelligence to 8.
• Decrease Hit Points to 126 (12d10+60).
• Caustic Miasma (recharges after a short or long rest). Magical dark greasy whirling vapors fill a 20-foot radius sphere around the hezrou and move with it. Ranged attacks made from within this miasma, as well as ranged attacks made against creatures within this miasma, have disadvantage. Demons in the miasma ignore difficult terrain. Creatures hostile to the hezrou must spend an additional 5 feet of movement for every space within the miasma they move through, and take 1d6 acid damage for every 5 feet they move through the miasma toward the hezrou. The miasma lasts as long as the hezrou maintains concentration or until strong winds displace it.

Really like Caustic Miasma. Nice protection against ranges attacks. I think it would be wise to add an ability to move creatures in and out of the miasma.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

As any third-world dictator will tell you, it is best to have scary troops behind your regular troops, so that the regular troops would be more scared of them then the enemy. I always figured that is what herzous were to the cannon fodder lemurs and dretches.

Still, changing them to be useful to the troops is an interesting idea. Caustic Miasma is cool. One other thought is that herzous are basically super troglodytes, you could give them some kind of camouflage ability (and extend it to demons under their command).

 

[Quickleaf]

@dave2008 Thank you for all the art ideas! I've been thinking the frog-themed monster space is a bit crowded where you have regular monsters like bullywugs, grung, and froghemoths, as well as planar monsters like the slaad and hydroloth. At least the RAW stat block really could be interpreted as a baboon or a giant troglodyte or a hyena and it would still apply.

Your direction seemed to be to lean into the frog identity, and you did a great stat block encouraging ambush tactics, giving it a leap, and a tongue attack. Whereas my initial approach was trying to get a sense of the totality of the hezrou across the editions and present minimal changes to evoke that essence.

As any third-world dictator will tell you, it is best to have scary troops behind your regular troops, so that the regular troops would be more scared of them then the enemy. I always figured that is what herzous were to the cannon fodder lemurs and dretches.

That makes sense. I don't know how that informs their mechanical or artistic design, but it totally fits lore-wise.

There's several good ideas... I don't want to say alternative takes... that involve reading between the lines more carefully/creatively.

• @Celebrim described the hezrou as "black magic wizard's toad familiar turned into a combat brute." While 5e doesn't usually give origin stories to demon types (i.e. they're spawned by the Abyss itself), it could make for a compelling origin. Maybe every time a quasit damns a soul it "earns its wings"...er...not wings, but something else...and is turned into a hezrou. EDIT: "...earns the Dark Walk."
• @Dausuul described the hezrou as a "plague-bringer." This was actually well reflected in its spell abilities back in 2e and 3.5e, and I missed it. Maybe that's a big reason why mortal mages summon hezrous – to cast a plague upon the house of their enemy. This is the demon that is invited when a mortal utters a curse like "a pox upon your house". However, poison and disease are poor weapons against other fiends, and given that the hezrou is a warrior/sergeant in the Blood War, this might not be as useful. Then again, that's making me re-think the hezrou's Stench feature... maybe something that doesn't lean on the poisoned condition (which devils and most fiends are immune to) would make more sense.
• @MechaTarrasque portrayed the hezrou as a morale-enforcer of sorts. That dovetails pretty seamlessly with the "demonic sergeant" theme. And my Caustic Miasma touches on this a little – "Advance with me if you wish to live. Cowards who fall behind will fall to arrow fire."

 

[Quickleaf]

I took a stab at conceptual art redesigns of the hezrou, and tried to make them very different from one another...

• A is the "black magic familiar", and I drew on inspiration from Where the Wild Things Are, an Ars Goetia demon Stolas, and animalistic villains in the vein of the old Redwall young adult books.
• B is the "plague-bringer", and I used the 17th century German plague doctor's mask, a mash-up of troll and hag art, and demons from Todd McFarlane's Spawn comics.
• C is the "demonic sergeant/foot soldier", and I incorporated the Predator movie, a 15th century sallet helmet, and a bunch of generic video game demons.
• D is my wild card to push the design, a "cyborg-juicer" based on early Chris Burdett concept art, He Man villains, DC's Bane, and art from 3e/4e which depicted the hezrou with built-in armor with a kind of mechanical look.

Personally, I'm leaning toward a combination of A and C. What are your thoughts?

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Since all variations of this creature have a huge mouth, what about a 'swallow-whole' ability?

 

[Quickleaf]

Since all variations of this creature have a huge mouth, what about a 'swallow-whole' ability?

I'd considered that. The only non-Huge/Gargantuan monster with a swallow ability is the Banderhobb from VGtM; that monster already has a froggish appearance and occupies a unique niche, so I felt that giving a similar ability to the large Hezrou would only further blur the line between the Hezrou and froggy monsters. Whereas I think greater distinctiveness would be good for the Hezrou's design.

 

[dave2008]

I'd considered that. The only non-Huge/Gargantuan monster with a swallow ability is the Banderhobb from VGtM; that monster already has a froggish appearance and occupies a unique niche, so I felt that giving a similar ability to the large Hezrou would only further blur the line between the Hezrou and froggy monsters. Whereas I think greater distinctiveness would be good for the Hezrou's design.

But then is it really a Hezrou? Why not just use a different demon or make one up completely at that point. It doesn't seem like you are embracing the Hezrou, but instead designing it into something completely different.

 

[dave2008]

I took a stab at conceptual art redesigns of the hezrou, and tried to make them very different from one another...

• A is the "black magic familiar", and I drew on inspiration from Where the Wild Things Are, an Ars Goetia demon Stolas, and animalistic villains in the vein of the old Redwall young adult books.
• B is the "plague-bringer", and I used the 17th century German plague doctor's mask, a mash-up of troll and hag art, and demons from Todd McFarlane's Spawn comics.
• C is the "demonic sergeant/foot soldier", and I incorporated the Predator movie, a 15th century sallet helmet, and a bunch of generic video game demons.
• D is my wild card to push the design, a "cyborg-juicer" based on early Chris Burdett concept art, He Man villains, DC's Bane, and art from 3e/4e which depicted the hezrou with built-in armor with a kind of mechanical look.

Personally, I'm leaning toward a combination of A and C. What are your thoughts?

No one in particular is jumping out at me, but I like parts of several. Also, just to be up-front: I hate giving demons masks (seems more of a devil thing to me) and I trend to more "traditional" demon designs.

With those caveats: I Iike the general design of D without the cyborg bits + the back and ears of B + the feet of C. Does that make sense.