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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 6973905" data-attributes="member: 32659">We finish up the Demons in this book with the Devourer, a decidedly nasty fellow, and I think the most powerful monster considered thus far. Let’s see what CR 13 gets us!<img src="http://orig10.deviantart.net/4bc1/f/2013/269/6/1/61ba20dd093bd6b33cfc61182f6c6ba8-d1npj7w.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Devourer image in the book is really good. The entrapped halfing - judging from scale - sets a note of comedy that really highlights how horrific the Devourer itself is. The flesh, with those spikes embedded in it, looks repellant; the face is unpleasant, oddly shaped and smirking through gap teeth, and the nonchalant pose tells us that the Devourer is more interested in finding the next victim than in paying attention to the fact that it digesting a halfling. Grim and glorious. This is one that will get a strong response when you hold the book up and say, “You guys see this”, which is ultimately the real purpose of these images.The Devourer is a servant of Orcus, like the Bodak that we met previously, and we get some information here about Orcus using them as a means to start an undead horde. If the Bodak is the bishop of Orcus, these guys are the champions, leading his forces into battle. They are created by Orcus directly, as he transforms a demon into a Devourer by sacrificing another “less fortunate” Demon to do so. It is hard to feel that sad for the other Demon, to be honest. They tend to hang around the Abyss, or the transit planes of the Astral and Ethereal, but Orcus will dispatch them to the Material Plane to do his bidding as well. The Devourer is described as a hunter, who likes catching and tormenting humanoids. He can stick them in his ribcage, because why not, and there he tortures their souls until they die, and he spits them out as an undead creature. That’s all pretty rad, to be honest, and I’m a big fan of this guy’s style; however, we should note that he has absolutely no ability to either hide (+1 to Stealth!), little ability to manipulate (no Alter Self, no Deception skill) and not much in the way of tricksy abilities (no spells, for example). He’s the blunt hammer of Orcus, grabbing victims and causing his undead hordes to expand, but you’ll probably be wanting to rely on other Undead or Demons to give you the more stealth or roleplaying heavy moments. With 178 hit points, and resistance or immunity to Cold, Fire, Lightning and Poison, these guys are going to stick around, but not forever. I’ve found that the burst damage of a Paladin fighting an Undead or Fiend is really huge. Regardless, they are basically a melee powerhouse, delivering two Claw attacks for lots of damage each, and then either doing a damage burst or kidnapping a downed opponent. The Damage Burst is a rare (recharge on a 6) ability to dish out 8d10 damage to every humanoid in 20ft. Nasty, and it goes up with the more humanoids on 0 HP in the area; definitely could be horrible if the players are failing an escort mission! The signature ability, Imprison Soul, is to teleport a humanoid on 0 hit points into its rib cage, where it then gets disadvantage on death saving throws. This last ability is a little vague, but I understand it to mean that the creature cannot be healed or teleported out by anyone else, and the only way to get them back is to kill the Devourer. That would certainly make it a very nasty trick indeed, especially if you wanted to give the players a hard choice between fleeing or staying and fighting. Overall, the Devourer is cool. However, I don’t feel that I’d use one as a Big Bad for a storyline, despite the flavour text about them leading undead forces; they seem just like big combat brutes to fight, without the personality to take you beyond that, and there is also no Legendary Actions suggested for them. They are mid-range CR for a Demon, and I think that Demons and Undead have some more interesting Big Bad options - Death Knights, Liches, Balors - who these guys can accompany as dangerous Boss Fight Minions. They’re actually reminding me a lot of Revenants from DOOM, now that I think about it. Dangerous, and something to take down quickly, but not really a ‘boss’ monster.</blockquote>

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