tanari are just one "type" of demon. What are all the rest in the infinite Abyss?

Shemeska said:
On Ancient Baatorians: Larvae in Baator will, over a long period of time, mutate into Nupperibos. Given even more time the Nupperibo will mature into an advanced form that is both intelligent and has energy draining tentacles. Over an even longer period of time these will mutate into a sluglike entity that is immune to anything short of a wish.

There was an advanced Nupperibo help as a curiousity by the former Kyton lord of Jangling Hiter. It was given to him by, you guessed it, a Yugoloth. The Yugoloths, for unknown reasons, have been known to buy Nupperibos from the Baatezu who otherwise kill and force Nupperibos into lemure status so they can be forced into the Baatezu heirarchy. (It appeared in 'Tales of the Infinite Staircase')

Which adventure? (I'm sorry to say I never fully read the Tales... only skimmed through it as I wasn't running Planescape at the time)

Shemeska said:
There was also a mature Baatorian lurking in the caves of the 5th layer of Baator IIRC. (This critter was obliquely mentioned in the 3e MotP. The original appeared in 'Hellbound: The Blood War')

In the glaciers of Stygia, the forms frozen in the ice seen in combat with Archons and Aasimon are in fact Ancient Baatorians in various ranges of maturity. (3e MotP, 'Planes of Law' box set)

It's always been my thought that the Baernaloths urged the Yugoloths to create the Tanar'ri and Baatezu in order to remove the original races of both planes from power and install races of their own creation that they could one day control. It's rumored that when created, the original Tanar'ri and Baatezu had things written into their essence that would allow them to be controlled like puppets when the Yugoloths wished to see the Blood War end.

Yugoloths are awesome. I always loved them first and foremost. The fact that they are almost never used and very little is written about them only makes them better.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

reanjr said:
As an important note, I believe Wizards has added 3 new Devils (at least 2 new Abishai which should be entirely ignored in my opinion)

I'm fairly sure that the very first incarnation of abishai had all 5 colours, they had just cut two colours by the time it came round to Planescape. I don't know why, as the full chromatic selection and Tiamat affiliation is a much better idea that just green, black and red.
 

reanjr said:
But what is a devil? A native to Baator?
Yes. Simply put, any native of the Nine Hells is a Devil.

But the Barghest is native to Baator. What is the Barghest? Is it a devil? I would think so. But they're not listed under Devil in the SRD.
That's because they're native to Gehenna.

As an important note, I believe Wizards has added 3 new Devils (at least 2 new Abishai which should be entirely ignored in my opinion) and 2 new Yugoloths between their various monster supplements (I may be remembering incorrectly since Wizards muddled their fiendish monster line by publishing them across 4 separate books). You should be able to fit them in pretty easily with the information from 2e.
New Devils include:
Garghatula (BoVD) (Baatezu)
Paelyrion (FF) (Baatezu)
Xerfilstyx (FF) (Baatezu)
Malebranche (MMII) (Okay so this one isn't technically 'new.' Back in the day, Cornugons were originally Malebranches, but for whatever reason they were changed to Cornugons. Probably at the switchover to 2nd edition, although I'm not too sure about this... 3rd Edition releases both the Cornugon and the Malebranche, effectively creating a 'new' monster. Kinda weird actually.) (Baatezu)
Advespa (MMII) (Baatezu)
Narzugon (MotP) (Baatezu)

New Demons include:
Armanite (MotP) (Tanar'ri)
Klurichir (FF) (Tanar'ri)
Myrmixicus (FF) (Tanar'ri)
Ghour (MoF) (Tanar'ri)
Skulvyn (FF) (Tanar'ri?? I don't have my book right now...)
The Abyssal Maw, Ravager, and Skulker (MMII)
Kelvezu (MMII) (Tanar'ri)
Palrethee (MMII) (Tanar'ri)
Jovoc (MMII) (Tanar'ri)
Jarilith (MMII) (Tanar'ri)
Zovuut (MMII)

New Yugoloths/Daemons include:
Skereloth (FF)

I hope I'm not missing any.
Green Ronin's Book of Fiends also has some cool demons and devils, although IMO the section on the devils is the best part of the book. The Monster Manual II also has some really cool demons in it.

Also, in an effort to continually pimp myself, I've updated quite a bit of the fiends for 3.5. Check the links in my sig for more details. ;)
 

Pants said:
New Demons include:
Armanite (MotP) (Tanar'ri)

Armanites are not new to 3E. They were in 2E at least (don't know about 1E). I'm pretty sure they were showcased in Planes of Chaos.
 

Part of the problem we're seeing in defining these terms is that the terms changed between 2E and 3E.

In 1E and late 2E, "devils/baatezu" and "demons/tanar'ri" were specific subtypes of creatures native to, respectively, Baator/The Nine Hells and the Abyss. These creatures were considered subtypes because they had commonalities in their powers, and because they had the ability to rise in "rank" over time...a low-hit dice creature could become a high-hit dice creature given enough time.

In 3E, things changed. "Devil" was different from "baatezu", and the same for "demon" and "tanar'ri". Now, a devil was any creature native to Baator/the Nine Hells, and a demon was anything from the Abyss. Baatezu and tanar'ri were sub-categories of those terms now. Likewise, apparently the ability for these creatures to gain new forms of their respective subtypes seems to have been lost as well.
 

If you want to step out of officialdom for a moment, I've got an old page (not updated since way before 3.5e) that mentions another type of demon: the ri'ava. These creatures aren't a single progressive race like the tanar'ri. They're more of a collection of different types that are nevertheless more similar to each other than to anything else.

A ri'avum reproduces by laying eggs in dead bodies. Well, that's the gist of it; the fact that ri'ava are responsible for almost every undead in the world is a mere detail. These eggs animate and, in many cases, spread fresh eggs from the moment of their inception. They take hundreds or thousands of years to hatch (gathering energy and flesh from victims), and over that time the undead husk mutates in strange, hideous ways. The example given is the hevacore or cannibal wraith. Its eggs create ghouls. The overghast ghoul in Creature Collection III is a step along the evolution path.

One day, I should really design some other ri'ava husks...
 

reanjr said:
Which adventure? (I'm sorry to say I never fully read the Tales... only skimmed through it as I wasn't running Planescape at the time)

The last one in the book, the name escapes me at the moment.

Yugoloths are awesome. I always loved them first and foremost. The fact that they are almost never used and very little is written about them only makes them better.

Indeed, though they've gotten mildly shafted in 3rd ed however. The flavor they got in Planescape has been largely reduced to 'they're greedy and selfish'. Heck the encounter tables in the PlHB don't list Yugoloths in the Gray Waste and they're the native fiends of the plane...

The stats for the Ultroloth need a boost, though the arcanaloth was wonderfully translated from 2e to 3e. Still waiting for hydroloths and Baernaloths to be translated to 3e aside from making my own homebrew translations on the fly (though I prefer to have any Baern to be unique individuals, a little side project I'm working on at the moment).
 

Shemeska said:
The stats for the Ultroloth need a boost

To say nothing for how utterly lacking their 3.5E conversion was. They need to be remade from the ground up, like the pit fiend and balor were.

Still waiting for hydroloths and Baernaloths to be translated to 3e

Along with the gacholoth and guardian yugoloths.
 

Shemeska said:
The stats for the Ultroloth need a boost, though the arcanaloth was wonderfully translated from 2e to 3e. Still waiting for hydroloths and Baernaloths to be translated to 3e aside from making my own homebrew translations on the fly (though I prefer to have any Baern to be unique individuals, a little side project I'm working on at the moment).

Out of curiosity, how did you handle them (in general)?
 

Khayman said:
Out of curiosity, how did you handle them (in general)?

Ultroloths or Baernaloths? I've featured 13 Baern in my campaign, each of which has a name and a title and their own unique physical flaw. I'm slowly writing up stats for each of them, plus a piece of fiction to introduce and describe each of the 13 as well.

For example:

Harishek apt Thul’kesh – ‘The Blind Clockmaker’ [Blind]

Koristal Il Palinthiin - ‘The Proselytizer’ [mute]

Methikus sar Telmuril - 'The Flesh Sculptor’ [compulsive self-mutilation]

Freakishly powerful in their own areas, and much weakened when away from the Gray Waste. One of them nearly slaughtered six 23rd level PCs in the Quasielemental Plane of Ash. Killed one of them, nearly killed 3 others. Very nearly a TPK. The players were on the edge of their seats for hours during and after it all, so it was well worth it because they felt like they earned victory in that case, as short lived as it may be since the thing will eventually reform back on its home plane. The direct conflict had been brewing for some time, and the thing was at its weakest considering how far removed from the Waste I had it.

My use of them may not please everyone of course.
 

Remove ads

Top