/tg/ - Traditional Games

>>43218972

Had a extra-dimensional guy who occasionally acted as a jack-ass genie when someone bargained with him.

>Party asks him for an enchanted item that would help them survive longer
>He whips out this demonic looking amulet covered in sigils and runes that they've never seen before
>They know about his "careful what you wish for" bullshit in-universe, so instead of using it right away they stash it and go to have it checked out
>Go to wizard's school, pay a nice sum to have them examine it
>Wizards have no idea what it's supposed to be, just that it's pumping out magic like a fire-hose
>Take it to friendly neighborhood mob boss
>He hates demons so they dodge his questions and cash in a personal favor to let his guys look it over
>Mob boss is now annoyed at them for refusing to tell him the truth about something that looks like it came out of Hellrazer
>No dice, his people think it's a scam
>Take it to magi-tech general guy
>His people are convinced it's dangerous just by looking at it, demand it be quarantined until they finish an extensive evaluation
>General Guy is flipping shit about potentially harmful magic devices near his facility
>2 IG weeks later they finally get it back
>It's just a healing charm with a lot of extra magic and bad drawings on it
>It was completely safe all along
>The entire thing was a ruse to get the party to waste money and piss off their contacts
>The tricky demon was enthralled by the BBEG all along
JUST AS PLAN- okay that's a lie I had to make most of that up on the fly because the cursed [INSERT WISH HERE] was supposed to be the next major plot hook and without it I was totally out of ideas. No major long term damage was done, but it caused a bit of friction between the party and major factions. Probably makes me a dick.

My current character really wants to make a deal with dark forces because he really desperately needs power.

It's ended up he's likely going to not be working with demons, but a LE cult of the LN deity of time. He's going to be selling off years of his life for power. I have no idea what LN time outsiders would even look like though?

>>43218972
Lawful Evil can be used in your favour. Write contracts, form binding agreements, and cover your own ass. Entrap your summons in a complex web of paperwork and legality, causing them to forfeit their existence if they dare to misinterpret the fine print.

>>43219329

>>43219649

bamp

>>43219902
Does no one else have any devil/demon pics?

>>43225575

>>43225784

>>43223660
>Behold, a crocodile.jpg

> be playing pathfinder
> had the possibility to sell my soul to a demon in exchange of a wish.
> ask for a bag of holding witch nothing could escape without my consent.
> as soon the devil has handed me the bag, in shove him into.
> then go to the blacksmith
> make another bargain with the same devil: my soul for his freedom and the promise of him never coming back in this village.
> devil refuse
> pay the blacksmith to beat the bag to pulp between the anvil and the hammer.
> devil had a change of heart 10 minutes later

>>43227929
Nice story. But I don't think the mechanics of a bag of holding work that way. It's an extradimensional space, isn't it? The devil shouldn't have felt the hammer.

>>43227457
I am familiar with the thing to which you are referring.

>>43223730
This scares me. Mostly because this could go two ways - the demon is trying to take advantage of a child's innocence, or it genuinely is willing to spend time with her despite it's evilness. And I know the latter is not the most likely answer.

boomp

>>43229087
Ironically. The latter is more plausible just to "break the cliche"

And breaking the cliches is not becoming a cliche on its own.

>>43231464
Now*, is now becoming.

I need coffee.

>>43231464
It comes down to your interpretation of devils and demons in literature.

Lucifer actually has a lot of "good qualities" about him, striving for equality, politeness, etc. I mean sure, ultimately he's about damnation, but "Good Guy Lucifier" is a meme for a reason.

>>43231694
Case in point. Pic related.

>>43219451

Except baatezu invented fine print, how do mortals stand a chance there?

>>43218972
>>43231968

This is a plan you only really get one shot with, but it worked for me. First, the fluff (skip to part 2 for the useful shit).

Part 1/2
>WoD game
>Be by this point a very old cranky Tremere (vampiric blood-sorceror, for those unfamiliar)
>Want to get access to the Holy Grail (because of Reasons)
>In the dark ages one obscure faction had it, but they've long since been disbanded/died out
>Track one down but he stonewalls me
>Research heavily
>No dice, closest I can get is "vanished during one of the Crusades"
>Annoyed
>Need to narrow it down
>Decide to cheat
>Pretty big taboo to be fucking around with demons, I'm old and powerful enough to get access to the "restricted" libraries but that would attract attention I don't need
>Plus summoning rituals for infernal forces are usually pretty gross - sacrifice, "oh my dark master" nonsense, that shit is beneath me
>Also old and powerful enough to be forming my own rituals
>Research some more on traditional summoning methods, find one that doesn't seem too awful, have to spend a bit of time adapting it
>Five years later
>Be ancient vampire at a crossroads during the new moon, under a withered tree where outlaws had been hung
>Clock strikes midnight, pour bottle of hooch on the ground, do the magic, wait
>Sure enough, The Devil shows up
>Black steed, hoarse voice, dusty coat, revolvers with bone grip, red eyes, the fucking works
>Probably not actually the First of the Fallen, maybe just a more minor demon that plays up this schtick, but I'm not about to go poking my nose in his business
>Give him the rest of the bottle
>He swigs, we get down to business

So although I've changed the fluff around we're just using the demon-summoning ritual from the books, which specifically states it's only good for negotiation and such - probably to prevent players from summoning demons into carefully-laid ambushes or binding circles or the like. Either side takes any kind of remotely hostile action, the ritual ends.

>>43233235

Part 2/2
>We settle on this: I get the answers to three questions
>I declare each question in advance, like "And for the second question" so I don't get fucked over by saying "What?" or similar bullshit
>He answers the questions truthfully, he can take his time to consult with other resources if he wants but he has to finish answering to the best of his ability before I ask the next one, no tabling answers for later
>Once he's finished giving me three complete and satisfactory answers, he gets a portion of my soul
>There's some haggling, we settle on 13%, to be precise
>We spit-shake, of course
>My GM knows I have a scheme, but he thinks I'm just never going to ask the last question
>Meaning he can tempt me with it for the rest of the game
>But that's not my plan at all
>So my first question is long and filled with a lot of legalese about physical location and such, but basically boils down to "where the fuck is the Holy Grail, anyways"
>I get my answer, I'm satisfied
>Dude's pretty thorough, actually
>There's a long silence
>"For my second question, I want you to tell me, word-for-word, what I will ask of you for my third question."
>There's a long silence
>The Devil ain't too happy about this
>Not one bit
>GM makes some faces, says fuck it and tells me to roll my countermagics and such, since I'm layered as usual in a variety of defensive magics
>I point out that any hostilities immediately violate the terms of the summoning
>Devil vanishes in a puff of sulfur
>GM shakes my hand
>I add "The Devil" to my enemies list
>Never actually did get around to getting that fucking Grail, though

And that's it. You get one answer to one question, you never get to use it again in that campaign or with that GM. Also you probably piss a demon off something fierce.

But you get something for nothing from the forces of fucking darkness, and that's worth the doing in my book.

As a DM for PF, first thing you're going to want to get is a copy of Princes of Darkness. This is the Devil book. It has rules for contracts, and goes through some of the varieties of devils.

You're going to have to talk with your DM about how he wants to handle these things too.

Ill dump as many devils from the Bestiaries as possible till I get bored.

>>43231968
Who's servants do you think teach business law?

Zebubs, sometimes known as accuser devils, are small devils that often serve greater devils and summoners as scouts and spies.

Nupperibos are among the most wretched of devils, ranking below even lemures. They are mindless drones that serve as little more than cannon fodder.

Gidim, also known as possession devils, are among the most malevolent spirits in Hell. Restricted from entering the Material Plane, they can often be found watching mortals from the Ethereal Plane.

Gidim are not true devils, but rather the foulest of Hell-trapped souls transformed into a Hellish weapon through infernal magic; consequently, they are outside the traditional infernal hierarchy. Although they are barred from entering the Material Plane since they are damned souls, the gidim wait in the Ethereal Plane for volatile mortals to experience moments of rage, anguish, pain, or death, which allow the gidim to break into the material world. Once on the Material Plane, gidim seek to possess the bodies of mortal creatures. As long as they possess a material body, they can remain on the Material Plane indefinitely to inflict suffering on mortal creatures.

Ghalshoaton are a type of devil most commonly associated with the rolling deserts of Osirion. They are known for both their physical power and their ability to utilise hideous curses. There have been several Osirion pharaohs who are known to have kept ghalshoatons as minions.

Phistophilus devils, or contract devils, serve Hell's bureaucracy as clerks, scribes, and—when given the opportunity—bargainers for mortal souls. While phistophilus' role as clerks and scribes might not make them fearsome combatants, their abilities to ensnare souls through infernal pacts makes them fearsome foes in less confrontational situations.

The uniila, also known as the cabal devil, is a fiend who seeks to seduce mortals with the mysteries of magical power.

Ayngavhauls, or "heresy devils", are corpulent scholars of corruption and despair who seek to lead virtuous intellectuals astray with cleverly worded syllogisms and beautiful, yet hollow, rhetoric.

Known as handmaiden devils, Mothers of Pain, and Maids of Miscarriage, gylous attend to the whims and schemes of Hell's few female overlords.

The slug-like exterior of the bdellavritra, or belier devil, does not hint at the incredibly evil and manipulative genius that it possess. Bdellavritras definitely prefer to manipulate events from behind the scenes, the puppet-master hidden behind a myriad of mortal plots.

The powerful deimaviggas or apostate devils are the missionaries of Hell, seeking to turn righteous men and women from their faiths and toward the easy self-aggrandizement and atheism of the Pits.

CR 17 monstrosities.

Puragaus (same spelling for singular and plural), or immolation devils, are tyrant warlords and terrifying field generals among Hell's legions. While many other greater devils manipulate and corrupt subtly and from afar, puragaus surround themselves with lesser diabolical minions, lead interplanar incursions, hold infernal redoubts upon mortal worlds, or strike against any who would defy the will of Hell.

>>43233719
The magaav are the leaders of their smaller cousins, the gaav, and act as hunters and couriers in the skies over Avernus, Hell's first layer. Also known as greater host devils, these devils always travel with large flocks of gaav.

Fierce hunters of wayward souls, gaav, or lesser host devils as they are more commonly known, fill the skies of Hell in terrifyingly vast flocks.

>>43233734
Advodazas, also known as false gods, fallen demagogues, and nemesis devils are the surviving remnants of the ancient and wicked spirits worshipped by mortals in the distant past. These spirits have been transformed and bound to Hell as fiends of blasphemy and idols.

Each nemesis devil looks unique, but they typically have the anthropomorphized monstrous appearance of its former worship, including bestial or centauric forms with wings, hooves, claws, and fangs. Nemesis devils retain the idols and talismans of their worship as armor, weapons, or jewelry. These devils usually reach a height of 18 feet and a weight of almost nine tons.

>>43233602
Devilishly. I like it. Totally going to save this idea for when i play the devil-summoner i've always wanted.

I love PFs Devil lore. They incorporate little known devils/demons found in various mythologies and give them solid places in the cosmology.
Like for instance all the demons from mesopotamian lore such as Lamashtu and the ardat lili which gave rise to Lilith or the angels of sacred prostitution from Zoharistic kabbala.

The whore queens are a group of four unique female devils who have managed to distinguish themselves despite Asmodeus' and the rest of Hell's unvarnished misogyny. All are former angels who followed the Prince of Darkness, and fled the restrictive rules of Heaven eons ago, believing that they would become monarchs in their own realms. Instead they found a strict hierarchy that had no room for women, and where they were forced to live as, at best, second-class citizens. Over time they learned to manipulate and scheme as well as the most devious of the Pit's denizens. Roughly equal in power and prestige to the infernal dukes, they have acquired a greater notoriety throughout the Great Beyond, and their cults rival those of the archdevils and Asmodeus himself in size.

>Ardad Lili, the End of Innocence
Ardad Lili is a seducer, taking great pleasure in debasing and manipulating men: the 'dimmer sex'.

>Doloras, the Lady of Pain (no relation to Planescape's Lady of Pain)
She preaches the abandonment of emotion for an unfeeling indifference. Possibly responsible for the release of the notCenobites, the Kytons, from imprisonment in Hell.

>Eiseth, the Erinyes Queen
Eiseth is said to be the first fallen celestial, and is sometimes called an angel in Hell.

>Mahathallah, the Dowager of Illusions
Once a psychopomp usher: a handmaiden of the goddess Pharasma, who was granted the double-edged vision of her own death. She fled Pharasma's side in terrible fear, wishing to avoid her fate.

I have not included devils in my current campagin and cosmology, but this thread is convincing me otherwise.

How should it be done? The setting currently has a spirit realm full of ghosts supplying all the spookiness and necromancy; the only afterlife I've mentioned so far. How should hell be shoved in there?

>>43229087
The god game Nobilis has some interesting takes on this.
devils in their setting are genuinely omnibenevolent, loving everything without exception. The problem comes from them focusing their love on the most hideous and monstrous things possible, because nobody else will love those things.
So you get devils who will genuinely want to help out and comfort a lonely child, but who will probably do so in such a way that turns them into a serial killer because they can't help but make them into what they love.
It's a pretty unique and twisted interpretation of things I think.

>>43234483
Figure out what you want them to represent and their function in your plot, then just work backwards.

Are devils born from the evil in the hearts of mortals? Are they a dark mirror for the races of the world? Make Hell a corner of some kind of "dream realm" and make demons materialized nightmares.

Do they represent sin? Going against the will of whatever gods you have in your setting? Then they're cast-down versions of celestials or angels or whatever things are doing the gods' bidding. Hell is a prison and they all got jammed in.

My games usually have a horror component, so I go a lot with the idea they exist "outside" the standard cosmology of the setting, like the god or gods beat the snot out of them or sealed them away when putting the architecture in place for reality. It's the lovecraft approach - surrounding our tiny little speck of sanity are the Many Hells - an infinite sea of shit so different and fucked-up you could only really call it evil.

Asian mythology inspires the big ol' celestial bureaucracy - devils are just doin' their jobs, dude. Hell processes and redeems souls through pain. They aren't nice people and they will definitely fuck you up, but "doing evil" is part of their job description.

If there's an "evil god", they could just be his mooks.

Or tiny crummy proto-gods in their own right, trying to get souls so they can get actual divine power.

Ancient race that predates all sentient life - the jealous older siblings of man.

They could just be particularly fucked-up ghosts or spirits from your spooky realm!

>>43218972
>2: Talk about your dealings with devils, demons, and outsiders of evil alignment. Have you ever played a wizard or character who summoned evil outsiders? Have you roleplayed the experience out? Did it not end with the cleric or paladin banishing/smiting the shit out of them?

> Be playing 3.5 homebrewed to hell and back.
> Custom setting, too, with an odd cosmolgy and a settting where there was a huge war between the deities and a giant fuck-off army of Epic level mortals about 50 years back.
>> The mortals won, killed a lot of gods, forced the rest to accept a surrender treaty wherein strict caps were placed on their worshippers and their power, enforced at pain of getting their shit kicked in by the still-standing Godslaying Army.
> Be playing a goblin girl-futa shopkeep. Be asked to investigate a 'strange new temple' located in city's poor district (instead of where the wealthier worshippers lived, as most temples were.)
> This temple appears to be dedicated to a deity called the Lady-in-Wait who's all about philanthropy and especially helping downtrodden women.
> Investigate with help of my invisible pixie chum.
> Talk for awhile with one of the priestesses while Pixie invisibly goes and checks out their basement.
> Things go well, the priestess mentions intimacy education among the things they do, she teases my goblin and asks if I'd like to lie with her.
>> Fuck Subtlety is a very goblin trait, so hells yeah! Let's go shag.
> Pixie reaches the basement chambers of the priests, finds that many of them appear to be Erinyes and Succubui and the like.
>> Custom cosmology, "Demons" are purely insane Always Super Duper Chaotic Evil ravenous things that only ever attack on sight. "Devils" are lower-plane outsiders who still have minds and can think.

>>43234942
> Am fucking the priestess.
> Pixie is freaking out at me through mind link, telling me to GTFO.
>> No, shaddup, having sex.
> Finish. Take some WIS damage from poison the priestess can't turn off.
> Try to pillow-talk the priestess about her faith.
> Epically botch, shep asses her Sense Motive to know what I'm doing, asks me the truth.
>> Fuck it. Tell her the truth; was asked by "some elves" (really one elf, my guildmaster,) to investigate the temple and see what's up. So... What's up?
> She reveals her wings, and tells me.
> The Lady-in-Wait is an arch-succubus who's trying to bring omre Succubi up from the shitty lower-plane hell-holes they're stuck in, and to do good things for women on these planes.
>> Goblin ponders this for a moment.
> I can get behind that. Wanna go again?
> Succubus laughs, and asks if goblin would like her to be a goblin.
> Goblin says nah, not now, but she would like it if the succubus had a cock and fucked her this time.

And that's how my Chaotic Good Goblin Rogue/Artificer shopkeep got a advanced succubus girlfriend and became a worshiper of the Lady-in-Wait at the same time. She also solved the "Kinks (advanced succubui name) can't have sex with mortals without poisoning them" thing by providing all the Kinks with magic items of Neutralize Poison.

>>43218972
>Make deal with demon of lust and corruption
>Female char is made a futa, has to spread their demonic seed throughout the world, each child born of their dealings being a blank host to be inhabited by a demon.

This thread got magical realm fast.

>>43234758

These are all awesome suggestions, thanks man.

Would it be too edgy or topical if they came from the sun which is also hell? My setting features planets as Gods, so maybe stars are like weird hell or energy dimesnsions. Of course, that kind of takes away from the demons at night thing, but maybe avoiding the day is like helping them from being locked up again?

Oh shit, maybe they were trapped in the sun by creator Gods, their constant warring and sin giving off hest enough to bring life to the planets?

What do you think?

>>43235467
That's actually really clever, I dig it. You get a sunburn, that's like, some evil eye shit - means them demons is watchin' you, boy.

There's a couple of systems where the evil lurks in the void between the stars - Fading Suns, most notably, but I actually really like your inversion. I say go with it!

But if Hell freezes over, everyone is well and truly fucked.

>>43235543

Exactly!

Besides, this twist plays into the bigger cosmology I'm going for, where great titans wear giant helmets filled with ecosystems that trickle down nutrients directly into their nervous system, just enough to keep them alive as they jump between solar systems and seed life everywhere.

I'm not sure WHY they are seeding life everywhere, but the fact they trapped demons in sun spheres but there should be a good reason.

This is a demon

>>43233712
>>43233719
>>43233734
>>43233987
>etc.

You are an awesome anon, sir.

As far as demon and devil types go, I'm rather partial to Infernals from the Iron Kingdoms.

Thread theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXdTIej14kU

I'm trying to homebrew a Devil/Satan/Lucifer/LE god character for my setting, but I've yet to iron out the details. Essentially, he was a deceiver and false god, usurping rulership and perverting mortals by speaking the seven First Lies which would give birth to the seven Sins. As punishment, the one true goddess condemned him to live without flesh, only able to take form as a flayed man, dripping blood from his lips like so many lies. Demons and devils are born from the pale larvae/maggots that worm and gnaw at his flesh, they themselves often flaying parts of their body and bedecking themselves in torturous chains and piercings of silver, an extremely painful and blessed metal, to honor their unholy king.

Alas, there's little art for something like that.

>>43239351 here, going to dumb what I have to contribute.

>>43239372

>>43239393
I like this guy. Something about his expression makes me think the adventurers just discovered his den and is all like "Hey guys! What took you so long?"

>>43239411

>>43239438
Lewd

>>43239462
Can't go wrong with good ol' Diablo.

I really want to play a devil character, like a Balor or one of those big fuckers, but obviously I'd have to be in a high powered game or be totally stupid evil you know? I'd rather just be a neutral character.

>>43239484

>>43239509

>>43239538

>>43239559

>>43239604

>>43239634

>>43239665
Definitely a favorite, God knows what's actually under that dress.

>>43239691
And that's it for me!

>>43231709
I'm pretty sure the point of Lucifer is that he tried to become more powerful than God out of greed, thus causing him to be driven out of Heaven. "Giving humans sentience" was him allowing things like hate, lust, and greed into our world. He doesn't really punish evildoers, so to speak; he lures them into committing sins deemed punishable by God so that he has the chance to mercilessly abuse them for eternity. It's not a "Sorry, you messed up. I gotta punish you." It's a "HAHAHAHAHA YOU GON GIT WHIPPED!" Also, the thousands slaughtered was human stupidity. Biblically, God abhors man-on-man violence.

>>43239393
>>43239411
>>43239538
>>43239634
>>43239878
>>43239909
>>43239932
>>43239961
>>43239981
>All this MTG art
Not that I'm complaining, it's all pretty good

>>43240079
That's it for MTG stuff, on to some Heroes of M&M

Here's Furcas, aka the Knight of Laurels, the infernal duke of flames, herablism, and duty.

In an old campaign of mine one of the players made a pact with certain devil, I like to call it "reverse djinni pact". He received supernatural powers, but in exchange he was bound to complete 3 wishes of said devil, essentially "somewhen in the future, when I find a suitable task for you, you won't be able to refuse".
All three wishes boiled down to murder in the end. The whole devil was a part of bigger plot, with the murders being involved in it and so on; later on the devil transformed into full-scale BBEG and the players fought an epic battle to free their comrade's soul.

>>43231968
Don't have to outsmart the devil, my friend, just the GM.

>>43242517
There's a difference?

>>43247331
My GM's retarded, so it's easier.

>>43247728
All he has to do is ask you for an opposed Profession (Lawyer) roll. Then give the devil an absurdly high check bonus and nail your skin to his wall.

>>43247755
Railroading asshole! Kidding. I'd honestly be impressed if he thought to do that.

>>43248348
Khorne is the most metal Chaos God if nothing else.

>>43231709
Well given an understanding of angels as creatures that fundamentally lack free will Lucifer's rebellion is more of an issue of God misprograming him rather than actual rebellion. According to the Book of Enoch Lucifer's rebellion was not against God's authority but in refusing to bow to humans. Lucifer was God's second and his mind did not leave any room for any other than God to be greater than himself. So when God told him to humans were his superior the only logical action his mind could reach was making humans his lesser or destroying them. Lucifer in this interpretation is not given any authority over evil souls and is merely a prisoner in the same prison as them.

This is of course the same tradition which separates Lucifer and Satan into different characters. Satan (possibly the same as Samael) is the tempter and seducer that most people think of as Lucifer, but he's not the rebel. Satan the tempter is still very much one of God's angels and acting in accordance with God's will. You see as Judaism became more and more exclusively monotheistic negative qualities had to be removed from God; so his doubt, cynicism, and general lack of faith in humans was transferred to the character of Satan as seen in Job; a literal devil's advocate. This is also a part of why the Arians believed Jesus to be subordinate to God the Father, because by this interpretation Satan would have been sent by God purposely to serve as a final test for his possibly unworthy Son.

boomp. These pics are awesome.

Post moar imps and little ones.