Demons vs Devils, how to role-play them ?

[Bastoche]

As a DM, how should a Tanna'ri (sp?) vs a Baatezu be played ?

I have a pretty good idea about how to play a LE human wizard vs a CE human wizard, but I feel lost concerning demons and devils.

Lets take a Balor and a Pit Fiend for the sake of the example. Both a et loose on the prime material plane. What each do ?

 

[Crothian]

I try to give each Balor and Pit Fiend a seperate personality. These guys are pretty important in the scheme of things and many serve the actual demon and devil lords. So, they are coming from a position of power. I think that is the most important thing. After that any traits can be applied.

 

[DanMcS]

The answer really depends on what their goals are. If both big fiends are stranded, and just want to leave, they will behave differently than if they came to the Prime intentionally to destroy a powerful good enemy. I'll hypothesize about the second one in my example- a pit fiend and a balor trying to undo an enemy.

LE fiends like heirarchy, and structure, so long as they control it. They like power games. The Pit Fiend would, depending on your cosmology, summon little buddy devils to help it, and then move in and start working on something they could corrupt. A temple, an order of knights, a bureaucracy or king's court. He might make alliances with powerful evil beings he couldn't outright order around. The Pit Fiend would get his target patsy under his control, and then go after his real enemy, whatever it was. Corrupting the initial group is just a side bonus. He mightn't really care to destroy his target, either, more subvert it and bend it to his will, and have it turn on its friends.

CE fiends like power. It's all that matters. A balor would find himself a lair, and start gathering lackeys, bullying them into aiding him, and do everything he could to take down his target. Destroy it, grind it under his heel, and make sure everyone ever associated with it was cruelly used and ultimately destroyed. He wouldn't be dumb about it, but his methods would be more direct than the pit fiend.

In Sepulchrave's story hour, Grazzt has attempted to attack the heros directly several times. Once he waited for them to attack a half-fiend he knew of, then sent in several powerful demons to lay the smack down. Almost worked, too.

The devils, on the other hand, haven't done much that we've seen, I think, but the temptation of Mostin the Metagnostic (offering him a demi-plane to serve the archdevil) happened offscreen, and the temptation of Eadric the paladin is still pending. What will they offer him? It's going to be good

 

[Bastoche]

Could you give some examples ?

Although it's true that two Balor may be different from one another, there has to be some common ground, no ? What is that common ground for both devils and demons ?

 

[Bastoche]

Loved your answer Dan !

 

[Voadam]

The old mayfair games supplement Demons has some great demon archetype roleplaying hooks. There were approaches such as the loud summoned demon who threatens the pitiful mortal with unending torments, the fawning subservient who defers obsequiously to the oh so powerful master of arcane arts, the dealmaker who is always proposing new pacts that can benefit the summoner, etc.

In my campaign the PCs now work for Baba Yaga who has six bound pit fiends at her beck and call. One of them was sent to get some iron tongs and hammer for one PC to use in "extracting information" from a wolfwere spy. When he brought the PC the tongs he immediately polymorphed/illusioned himself into a debonair elf of the same race as the PC and convinced the PC to enter a pact to protect him from energy draining in return for specific future ritual murders, a little permanent life force, and a lien on the character's soul in-case the murders were not carried out prior to death. Another of the fiend's is pure Hell on Earth large-size with flaming aura and will not willingly interact with a mortal that does not involve inflicting massive amounts of pain and destruction upon them.


So pick how you want the individual demon or devil to approach the pc interactions and go wild with it.

 

[cptg1481]

The Evil That Men Do...

AEG's "Evil" D20 source for about $20.00 describes in detail how to effectively roll play demons and devils.

I think one line reads for Demons, remember the last time you were really mad about something or someone, imagine that you've never felt any other way and that you have been living in a world where everyone around you feels the same way towards you and each other. Now imagine that you have felt that way for an eternity, 10,000 years or more and the person who caused your anger or feeling of hate has summoned you and trapped you in a circle and is making demands.

Just role play it like that....for demons.

Devils, well imagine him as the most selfish and greedy lawyer you have seen or read about and multiply that by his "godlike" intelligence. Trip up the PC's in fine print and political double speak, use words that may have multiple meanings out of context to trip them up. Draft long doucuments in foreign tounges and requirte the players to depend on an NPC (the devils minion in disguise) for a translation. Manipulation is the key thing with devils...that and remember that the devil is not bound by the spirit of the agreement but rather by the letter. Remember in that movie with Sly Stalone (can't remember the name, it was a bad movie too) and Wessly Snipes where Snipes character has one of his minions shoot teh guy he made a deal with becasue he only said that "he" wouldn't kill the guy. LIke that.

These are great opportunities for DM fun. While one should always try to be fair as a DM playing demons and devils gives you the opportunity to not be.

BTW...AEG's EVIL is a must have source well worth the cash for GMs and players of evil characters.

Edited for Deamons...duh Demons....

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Demons will be prone to casual violence and cruelty. They will main, torture, and kill people with little or no provocation - just because they feel like it.

Devils, on the other hand, would prefer causing people to destroy themselves, out of their own free will. They like to tempt, plot, and scheme until their victim suffers a complete mental breakdown and gives in to despair. The victim will believe himself hopelessly damned, utterly alone in the world, and believe that this was his own fault.

Demons kill people. Devils get people to kill themselves.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Demons:

Vrock are thugs and grunts, scavengers and killers. They are greedy, flighty and vicious. Incredibly sadistic, a vrock will cripple sooner than kill, and enjoy the suffering of its victim. Vrocks congregate in flocks, continually squabbling with each other.

Hezrous are brutes, but cunning brutes. They are gluttons, eating continuously, and drinking toxic brews. Their sense of humor is low, but their minds are sharp. Hezrous are lazy and disgusting, embodying the crudest of vices. They literally wallow in sin.

Glabrezus are egomaniacs, considering themselves equal to or superior to even balors. They like to present a friendly, civilized front, and like to sample all the pleasures of flesh (being demons, their definition of "pleasures" is very loose...). Glabrezus prefer to confound and mislead people, offering them riches and power in exchange of trivial tasks. If thwarted or insulted, they fly in enormous tantrums, smashing things and howling abuse at everything in sight.

Nalfeshnees are gloating and malicious. They are insatiably curious and secretive, tormenting mortals and lesser demons for any secrets they might know, and then more. They are haughty even for demons, and barter their knowledge at dear prices. Many nalfeshnees are writers or poets; their work can be best described as decadent but glorious.

Mariliths are Evil Masterminds. They plot incessantly, their schemes melding and changing as they see possible advantages or just feel bored with their old plans. Smart, terribly smart, but arrogant. They make flawless plans, then slip up on the execution and blame it on anyone else, preferably something that is within reach to be hacked into pieces. They resent balors and their "might makes right" attitude, trying their utmost to stab them in the back, but at the same time butter up to them.

Balors are Evil Overlords. They are cruel and rapacious, with a terrible temper and an equally terrifying intellect. A balor will rule; everything else is unthinkable. They dominate every being they come across with, or tear them apart. Balors have a disturbing vitality, taking great and obvious pleasure in their own evil. Their arrogance knows no bounds, and is one of their few weaknesses. No balor will ever admit inferiority.

 

[Bonedagger]

I actually missposted my answer to this thread in THIS thread because they where so similar (No pun intended).

I'll just copy my answer here for the fun of it.


Devils: Usually judging everything from a "Devils Lawers" point of view. With motives of control through domination, threats and fear. They gain their pleasure from turning people against each other. Twisting truth. They need people to submit of their own free will or it is meaningless.

Demons: They enjoy terror and panic. Where Devil enjoy to mess with the heads of their victims Demons enjoy creating the environment where people will mess with their own heads. Where the devils will enjoy seeing you suffer under the treath of being maimed Demons will enjoy seeing your reaction as it is maiming you. They do like a good mind manipulation now and then but unlike Devils Demons mostly make up lies instead of manipulating the truth.

Yogoloth: These alien creature don't considder their surroundings more that resources avalible to them. A human would in this case be an aktive lifeforce flesh-container. And considdering flesh being easy to shape and lifeforce being a popular energy source a human would probably get harvested.