History Characters / DungeonsAndDragonsFiends

* MonstrousCannibalism: When food runs out, a demonhive queen begins to starve, and starts to kill an attendant each day. The queen does not eat the corpse but instead leaves it for demonets and other attendants to feed on.

''[[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreatures Creatures]]'': General ([[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesAToE A to E]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesFToI F to I]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesJToO J to O]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsCreaturesPToZ P to Z]]) | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsDragons Dragons]] | '''Fiends''' | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsUndead Undead]] | [[Characters/DungeonsAndDragonsSettingSpecificCreatures Setting-Specific Creatures]]\\

* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: The lower planes are ruled by various fiends who managed to bully or manipulate their way into positions of power over their fellows. Demon Lords rule various layers of the Abyss by right of conquest, while Archdevils are appointed to positions of oversight over large sections of the devilish heirarchy by Asmodeus, the ultimate ruler of the Hells. The Yugoloths' equivalents are the General of Gehenna and, prior to 5e, the Oinoloth.

->'''Classification:''' Outsider (3E), various Elemental (4E), Fiend (5E)
->'''Alignment:''' ChaoticEvil

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Literally, as demons are personifications of Chaos and Evil as much as any other outsider is for the alignment of their native plane.

* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: Quite possibly the trope namer, as particularly powerful demons are called Demon Lords (while Archdevils are their Lawful counterparts), or Demon Princes. Some notable ones:
** Demogorgon, a massive two-headed fiend who's generally considered the foremost and most powerful demon prince.
** Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead, and the trope namer for OrcusOnHisThrone due to several published adventures having him as the ultimate villain, but with the players only fighting his followers. One of the few demon lords who was explicitly a former mortal.
** Graz'zt, the fairly human looking (he's a black-skinned satyr with yellow eyes, small horns, and six fingers on each hand) demon prince of either corruption and nepotism or lust and hedonism, depending on the source. He's one of the very rare demons who will actually use planning and trickery to get his way instead of just smashing everything, which has produced the rumor that he's a former devil.
** {{Baphomet}}, demon lord of beasts and hunting, who despite his general shtick of wanting to destroy civilization and create a world where the strong prey on the weak, is actually quite smart.
** Pazuzu, a demon prince of air who enjoys corrupting mortals and will appear to anyone who chants his name three times.
** Juiblex, the barely-sentient prince of oozes and slimes.
** Yeenoghu, the demon prince of savagery and the creator of gnolls.
** Zuggtmoy, the demon princess of fungi.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Demons, or Tanar'ri, are ChaoticEvil fiends from the Abyss, and want to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy everything]]. In 4E, they are corrupted elementals.%%In-universe alignment.

* ResurrectiveImmortality: If a demon is killed anywhere other than in the Abyss, it just reforms there instantly. The only way to permanently kill a demon is to kill it within the Abyss, but even this is not full proof as the more powerful Demons require being killed in their own domain to solidify it.

->'''Classification:''' Outsider (3E), Immortal Humanoid (4E), Fiend (5E)
->'''Alignment:''' LawfulEvil

Also known as Baatezu, the outsiders residing in the Lawful Evil plane of Baator. These are the guys who usually [[DealWithTheDevil make deals with mortals]]. Devils are part of a strict hierarchy, each individual subservient to the ones above it, but also constantly scheming to ascend the ranks themselves. At the top of the hierarchy are the Archdukes of the nine hells, and at their head is Asmodeus, god of vice.

* {{Beelzebub}}: Baalzebul is the [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Lord of the Seventh]] layer of Hell since 1[[superscript:st Edition]]. After a failed rebellion against his master Asmodeus, he was left in command of his territory but was cursed into a loathsome sluglike form, an insult for which he [[TheStarscream continues to plot revenge]].

* DemonLordsAndArchDevils: The Nine Hells are ruled by nine archdevils, some of the most powerful fiends in the D&D cosmology. Asmodeus is the most powerful archdevil and their unquestioned leader, and from 4E onward he is also a GodOfEvil. In order, they are:
** Zariel, Lord of the First. A fallen angel focused on fighting in the Blood War.
** Dispater, Lord of the Second. Paranoid even by devilish standards, but this isn't exactly unreasonable given the nature of devils.
** Mammon, Lord of the Third. A very miserly devil and patron of material greed.
** Belial and Fierna, co-lords of the Fourth. Belial handles most of the bureaucracy, while his daughter/lover Fierna handles the contract-making.
** Levistus, Lord of the Fifth. An oddity in that, despite being an archdevil, he's still trapped in an unbreakable iceberg as punishment for killing Asmodeus's consort Bensozia.
** Glasya, Lord of the Sixth. Asmodeus's daughter, and the biggest RulesLawyer in Baator. She was given her layer partially as a reward and partially so the responsibility would distract her from creating and running a mafia.
** Baalzebul, Lord of the Seventh. A fallen angel who screwed up an attempted rebellion and was cursed to be turned into a giant slug for a year every time he lied to a devil... applied ''retroactively'' to all the lies he told beforehand. Plus, no deal he makes will ever work out well for the other party.
** Mephistopheles, Lord of the Eigth. Your classic BigRedDevil, who invented Hellfire and constantly plots to overthrow Asmodeus.
** Asmodeus, Lord of the Ninth. The unquestioned ruler of all devils.

* SuperSenses: Devils can see perfectly in the dark. Even magical darkness, which would stymie any other creature’s darkvision, is perfectly clear to their infernal eyes.
* WingedHumanoid: Several kinds of devils are winged. Usually devil wings are batlike and leathery, but Erinyes have feathered wings.
* WoundThatWillNotHeal: The infernal wounds inflicted by a bearded devil's glaive or a horned devil's tail do not heal on their own, and they will continuously damage a wounded creature until treated with magic or medicine.

"Prince" Levistus, the ancient Lord of Stygia, ruled his layer for eons until he attempted to ravish Bensozia, the consort of Asmodeus himself, and killed her when she spurned him. An enraged Asmodeus stripped Levistus of his lordship and trapped him in an unmeltable iceberg, giving his mantle to Geryon, who ruled Stygia for many centuries. After the Reckoning, Geryon was in turn deposed, and Asmodeus unexpectedly re-appointed Levistus as ruler of Stygia... without unfreezing him, or giving Levistus the power that usually comes with archdevilhood. Levistus thus must use telepathy to control his minions from his icy prison, and schemes to both free himself and get his revenge on Asmodeus.

The highest of the Archdukes rules Cania, Baator's eighth and second-lowest layer. Mephistopheles' magical research has created a unique form of magic called Hellfire, which can even burn creatures explicitly immune to fire. He constantly schemes against Asmodeus, who is his only superior in the hierarchy of devils.

* GiantCorpseWorld: Her titanic corpse makes up the entirety of Malbolge in 3rd edition, with her ribs forming mountains, her innards forming subterranean tunnels, and her skull being the fortress from which Glasya rules the plane, amongst other things. Prior and subsequent editions
instead have Malbolge as an infinite rocky slope with enormous boulders tumbling down it endlessly.

* HeinousHyena: He’s a murderous hyena demon who created an entire race of bloodthirsty humanoid hyenas to serve him. He also created other hyena-like beasts such as the shoosuva and the leucrotta.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Possess four arms.

* SlaveRace: Despite their power, Draegloths are generally enslaved to the priestess who birthed them.

[[folder:Vargouille]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_vargouille_3e.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:3e]]
->'''Classification:''' Outsider (3E), Fiend (5E)\\
'''Challenge Rating:''' 2 (3E), 1 (5E)\\
'''Alignment:''' NeutralEvil (1E-3E), ChaoticEvil (5E)

Fiends resembling disembodied human heads with wings.

* BioweaponBeast: The prevailing story about the vargouilles' creation has them as the minions of Rozvankee the Strategist, a wizard and later lich who released them behind enemy lines before sending her soldiers to overrun her panicked, demoralized foes. Rozvankee took a population of vargouilles with her when she retired to the Abyss, and the monsters can now be found across the Lower Planes, or in dismal places on the Material Plane.
* FlyingFace: A vargouille's body consists of a severed head and bat-like wings in place of ears.
* KissOfDeath: The kiss of a vargouille transmits a deadly magical disease.
* TheParalyzer: A vargouille's stunning shriek can paralyze other creatures with fear.
* ViralTransformation: Vargouilles reproduce by infecting people with a magical disease through a kiss. This disease makes the victim's head gradually take on a fiendish appearance and, if not cured, will ultimately make the head sprout wings and tear itself free of the body to become a new vargouille.
-->'''Elminster:''' Until ye've seen a king's head tear off his shoulders and flap aloft amid fountaining blood, only to turn and lap his own dying gore as his body totters and falls, ye haven't lived. And if ye want to go on living, ye might want to stop watching in favor of fleeing.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: As an angel, she had long blue-green hair.

* CharmPerson: The 5E green abishai has an arsenal of innate spells including ''charm person'', ''dominate person'', and ''mass suggestion''.

The Demon Prince of Forbidden Pleasure, and one of the biggest horndogs in the Abyss, rivaled only by the Succubus Queen Malcanthet. Graz'zt looks like a handsome black-skinned human man who's just a little off, with his unnatural coloration, goatlike legs, six fingers on each hand, and small horns. He's also the biggest MagnificentBastard of the Demon Princes, which has led to theories that he's a devil who switched sides. Uniquely among demon princes, Graz'zt rules three layers at once, his realm of Azzagrat, spanning layers 45, 46 and 47.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: He is sometimes believed to be the son / creation of of the Obyrinth Lord Pale Night, who summoned a powerful fiendish outsider to be the father- said outsider is sometimes thought to be Asmodeus himself, which might explain why he is also thought to be a former Archdevil. In turn, Graz'zt himself was captured and effectively raped by the witch Iggwilv (aka Tasha), who birthed the cambion demigod and warlord known as Iuz who terrorises the world of Oerth (where the Greyhawk campaign takes place), although Graz'zt has many other fiendish children as well. This origin would also make Graz'zt a half-sibling of several Devils as well as Demons, as both Asmodeus and Pale Night have lots of other offspring too.

%%* HorrifyingTheHorror: The word of Graz'zt says it all.%%Quotes are not context.
%%-->'''Disguised Graz'zt''': Do not speak to the White Lady. Not one word.

* VillainousIncest: Belial and Fierna are alternatively described as lord and consort (who's who varies), father and daugther, and lovers. The exact nature of their relationship is unknown and probably inexplicable to mortals, but it is likely some combination of the three.

* GiantCorpseWorld: Her titanic corpse makes up the entirety of Malbolge in 3rd edition, with her ribs forming mountains, her innards forming subterranean tunnels, and her skull being the fortress from which Glasya rules the plane, amongst other things. Prior and subsequent editions instead have Malbolge as an infinite rocky slope with enormous boulders tumbling down it endlessly.

* TheSwarm: Demonets operate as such, allowing them to swarm around enemies and distract enemies.

* TheBerserker: Demonhive attendants attack nearly any creature they encounter, and kill regardless of hunger or needs.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: A demonhive attendant is an insectoid creature as big as a dog.

* MonsterProgenitor: He created the barghests to get revenge on Maglubiyet for stiffing him on pay. Barghests are charged with disrupting Maglubiyet's operations by devouring the souls of seventeen goblinoids (seventeen being the number of oaths Maglubiyet broke), the more influential the better, after which they may return to Gehenna.

! Miscellaneous

[[folder:Barghest]]
->'''Classification:''' Fiend (5E)
->'''Challenge Rating:''' 4 (5E)
->'''Alignment:''' NeutralEvil

Shapeshifting fiends which resemble monstrous wolves in their true forms, barghests can disguise themselves as ordinary goblins.
----
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: They often use the power of their fiendish forms to conquer goblin tribes. For their part, the goblins suck up to them in hopes of convincing the barghest they're of better use as slaves, or at least too pathetic to make a good meal.
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: While they're functionally goblin-werewolves, they work a bit different from normal D&D werewolves:
** They are fiends, rather than humanoids, and are Neutral Evil instead of Chaotic Evil.
** They come from a curse that causes goblin babies to be born as barghests, and cannot transform others into more of their kind.
** They can devour the souls of their victims, and seek to do so to seventeen goblinoids -- the more powerful and influential, the better.
** They have two forms -- goblin disguise and wolf monster true form -- while werecreatures have three (original creature, humanoid animal, animal).
** They are not vulnerable to silver, but can be banished by fire.
* RevengeByProxy: According to ''Volo's Guide to Monsters'', barghests were created by the General of Gehenna to get revenge on the goblin god Maglubiyet for stiffing him on payment for services rendered. They do this by devouring the souls of goblinoids, preventing them from joining Maglubiyet's armies in the afterlife.
* SoulEating: Barghests devour their victims whole, body and soul. It takes a barghest an entire day to digest a devoured soul, at which point the soul is destroyed and the person it belonged to cannot be resurrected. Kill the barghest before then, however, and its undigested souls go free.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Barghests inherently fear being banished to their home plane of Gehenna before they fulfil their purpose, as a stronger yugoloth is likely to slay or enslave them for their failure.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Demodands]]
->'''Classification:''' Outsider (3E)
->'''Challenge Rating:''' 11 (Farastu), 13 (Kelubar), 16 (Shator)
->'''Alignment:''' ChaoticEvil (2E), "often" NeutralEvil (3E)

A race of fiends native to the Tarterian Depths of Carceri. Also known as gehreleths, these cruel fiends are simultaneously inmates and self-appointed wardens of the prison plane.
----
* AcidAttack: Kelubar skin is coated in a pale green acidic slime.
* FatBastard: Kelubars are obese, partly because they live fairly sedentary lives.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Farastus are blamed for their race's long-forgotten transgression, which resulted in their banishment to Carceri, and are barely tolerated by other demodands.
* TheParalyzer: A shator's slime acts as a paralytic neurotoxin.
* {{Sadist}}: Demodands have no interest in corrupting mortals, ruling the world, or imposing their particular notion of evil upon the cosmos. Their only real desire is to make others suffer in various ways.
* WardensAreEvil: Shators are unusually cruel wardens of Carceri, and secretly hope those that are bound to the plane will attempt to escape, just so they can hunt the escapees down.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Devourer]]
->'''Classification:''' Fiend (5E)
->'''Challenge Rating:''' 13 (5E)
->'''Alignment:''' ChaoticEvil
----
* SoulEating: Devourers hunt humanoids, with the intent of consuming them body and soul.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Rakshasa]]
->'''Classification:''' Outsider (3E), Fiend (5E)
->'''Challenge Rating:''' 10 (3E), 13 (5E)
->'''Alignment:''' LawfulEvil

Tiger-like fiends with palms on the backs of their hands.
----
* CatFolk: Official art usually gives them the heads of tigers. They can have any kind of animal head, however, the tiger was simply the one that stuck.
* {{Curse}}: In 5th edition, a rakshasa's claws inflict a curse which prevents the victim from resting, meaning they [[AntiRegeneration don't regain any hit points]] or uses of their class features when they take a short or long rest.
* GreatWhiteFeline: The ak'chazar is a subtype of rakshasa with white fur. They are more powerful than the typical rakshasa and are often master necromancers.
* HumanDisguise: Rakshasas can assume the form of any humanoid.
* ImAHumanitarian: Rakshasas love the flesh of humanoids, treating it like a delicacy and often preparing grand meals with lots of spices using human flesh as the primary ingredient.
* NighInvulnerability: In 5th edition, rakshasas cannot be harmed by nonmagical weapons and are not affected by spells of 6th level or lower unless they wish to be. Good luck fighting one if you don't have a magic weapon or aren't able to cast 7th-level spells.
* UncannyValley: In-universe. Rakshasa hands are reversed, with the back where the palm would be in a human and vice-versa; they're as manually dexterous as anyone else, but watching the ways their hands move is often very disturbing for other humanoid beings.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Succubus/Incubus]]
->'''Classification:''' Outsider (3E), Fiend (5E)
->'''Challenge Rating:''' 9 (4E), 4 (5E)
->'''Alignment:''' ChaoticEvil (1E-3E), Evil (4E), NeutralEvil (5E)

A fiend specializing in seduction and sexual temptation. Their alignment and allegiances have flip-flopped a lot through various editions; they were Demons in the first three (and had their own Demon Queen, Malcanthet), became Devils in 4e, and 5e just threw in the towel and said they were generic fiends that could be found anywhere in the Lower Planes.
----
* HornyDevils: Succubi and incubi take on the form of attractive humanoids to seduce mortals and tempt them into evil. Sometimes this results in the birth of a cambion.
* KissOfDeath: A literal example. The kiss of a succubus or incubus [[LifeDrain drains the life force of its recipient]].
* {{Retcon}}: Succubi were demons in 1st through 3rd editions, but 4th edition reclassified them as devils. 5th edition changed them into an independent race of NeutralEvil fiends that work with both devils and demons as the whim takes them. %%in-universe
* SexShifter: They can change from male incubi to female succubi as they please, though most of them prefer one form or the other.
[[/folder]]

* BadassMustache: A lot of artwork gives him one of these, sometimes paired with a BeardOfEvil.

* StatusAilment: Skulvyns emit an aura of strange magic that can cause those nearby to become ''slow''ed for four rounds.

* StatusAilment: Echinoloths are surrounded by a magical aura that nauseates nearby creatures.

[[folder:Night Hag]]
->'''Classification:''' Fiend (5E)
->'''Challenge Rating:''' 5 (5E)
->'''Alignment:''' NeutralEvil

Night Hags are a fiendish branch of the Hag family tree. They can be found all over the Lower Planes (most commonly Hades and Gehenna), where they specialize in trading corrupted souls- both ones that found their way to the Lower Planes on their own, and souls the hag collects herself.
----
* HornedHumanoid: Night hags are distinguished by the pair of curved horns growing from their temples.
* YourSoulIsMine: While a humanoid sleeps, a night hag can straddle the person ethereally and intrude upon its dreams. The ethereal hag fills her victim's head with doubts and fears, in the hope of tricking it into performing evil acts in the waking world. The hag continues her nightly visitations until the victim finally expires in its sleep, and if the hag has driven her victim to commit evil deeds by that point, she traps its corrupted soul in her soul bag to be bartered with in infernal markets.
[[/folder]]

* ALoadOfBull: He resembles a minotaur.

* ALoadOfBull: This version of Baphomet is a giant minotaur, and most normal minotaurs worship him.

* ALoadOfBull: Goristros are massive demons that resemble fiendish minotaurs. They're Baphomet's preferred demonic servants and sometimes seem in the armies of other demon lords as living siege engines. They're also associated with mazes -- they can perfectly recall any path they've taken and have an excellent sense of direction, and delight in chasing prey through twisting and confusing labyrinths.

[[folder:Mephistopheles, Lord of the Eigth]]

* TheArchmage: One of the mightiest mages in all the planes. Cania is essentially an enormous arcane laboratory.

* DealWithTheDevil: He looks for particularly clever wizards and lures them into his service with the prospect of access to his magical knowledge.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: All devils are by their nature plotters and backstabbers, but Mephistopheles is bold enough to tell Asmodeus, to his face, that he will be the one to topple and supplant him, and so set on this that Mephistopheles will interfere with his rival archdukes' own schemes to take over the Nine Hells. Who better, then, for Asmodeus to put on the layer between his capital of Nessus and the rest of Baator?
* PlayingWithFire: Mephistopheles invented {{Hellfire}}. Ironically, Cania is the coldest layer of Baator, and all the fiery research is making Mephistopheles' palace start to melt