So I'm planning for one of the villains in my campaign to reveal himself as a Demon (which would explain how he keeps coming back after my players kill him) but I'm not sure which specific kind of demon, here are some criteria:
He should be medium to slightly hard difficulty while fighting a party of 5 players alone (I'm still not sure at what part of the adventure he'll reveal himself so their level doesn't matter)
He should have transformation or illusion powers so it would make sense how he was able to disguise himself as a human
if you know any demon that fits please let me know
CR kind of matters for difficulty, since it is a rough estimate of power. But since you do not think it matters, I assume you are more concerned about the theme, and you feel comfortable homebrewing the numbers up or down to compensate.
Succubus, or Incubus in this case, comes to mind when it comes to disguises, illusions, and transformation. Depending on the level of your party, Incubi are pretty fragile though, so you want to up the boss's HP a bit and add some Legendary Resistance. You may also want to add some Legendary Actions to better compete with the party on action economy.
Many high level CR fiends can cast Alter Self, Disguise Self, or Polymorph to change their appearance. However, you may want to tone down their stats if your party is low level, unless you want to curbstomp them or something.
Or have a reason for why he doesn't just obliterate them and be done with it. Maybe there's some sort of limiter affecting his power and he's trying to destroy it. Or maybe the party is important to a long-term plan of his (yes, even chaotic evil beings can operate on the long term) so he's not interested in killing them yet.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Sounds like a Rakshasa to me but it does depend on how he was killed previously as you might need to explain away any magic they've used as Rakshasa have a lot of spell immunity.
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Rakashsa might be good if you want a charismatic, scheming-type fiend. Cambion might be ideal for a warmongering, aggressive villain. It really depends on what you're going for. I would personally lean more to Cambion though.
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Sorry for the confusion, I meant that the level doesn't matter because I haven't decided when precisely the Demon will reveal himself, if I decide he's a weaker one I'll put the reveal earlier in the adventure, if he's strong I'll put the reveal later, which means the party's level doesn't matter cause I can just put the reveal anywhere I want accordingly.
You've also got the Night Hag as a possibility. Have a coven of Hags with a secret group of cultists that keeps bringing them back from Hades. Their shapechange ability is limited to female forms only but an easy homebrew/DM fiat hand wave is to say their a little bit special and can adopt any humanoid form.
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Like others have said, on the lower CR - Succubus, Incubus, Cambion, or Night Hag.
On higher CR - Arcanaloth, Rakshasha, or possibly a Glabrezu (though you would have to give it either Alter self or a magic item to disguise itself, which is crazy, any intelligent spellcaster demon should know alter self)
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So I'm planning for one of the villains in my campaign to reveal himself as a Demon (which would explain how he keeps coming back after my players kill him) but I'm not sure which specific kind of demon, here are some criteria:
He should be medium to slightly hard difficulty while fighting a party of 5 players alone (I'm still not sure at what part of the adventure he'll reveal himself so their level doesn't matter)
He should have transformation or illusion powers so it would make sense how he was able to disguise himself as a human
if you know any demon that fits please let me know
CR kind of matters for difficulty, since it is a rough estimate of power. But since you do not think it matters, I assume you are more concerned about the theme, and you feel comfortable homebrewing the numbers up or down to compensate.
Succubus, or Incubus in this case, comes to mind when it comes to disguises, illusions, and transformation. Depending on the level of your party, Incubi are pretty fragile though, so you want to up the boss's HP a bit and add some Legendary Resistance. You may also want to add some Legendary Actions to better compete with the party on action economy.
Many high level CR fiends can cast Alter Self, Disguise Self, or Polymorph to change their appearance. However, you may want to tone down their stats if your party is low level, unless you want to curbstomp them or something.
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Or have a reason for why he doesn't just obliterate them and be done with it. Maybe there's some sort of limiter affecting his power and he's trying to destroy it. Or maybe the party is important to a long-term plan of his (yes, even chaotic evil beings can operate on the long term) so he's not interested in killing them yet.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Sounds like a Rakshasa to me but it does depend on how he was killed previously as you might need to explain away any magic they've used as Rakshasa have a lot of spell immunity.
Rakashsa might be good if you want a charismatic, scheming-type fiend. Cambion might be ideal for a warmongering, aggressive villain. It really depends on what you're going for. I would personally lean more to Cambion though.
Quokkas are objectively the best animal, anyone who disagrees needs a psychiatric evaluation
Sorry for the confusion, I meant that the level doesn't matter because I haven't decided when precisely the Demon will reveal himself, if I decide he's a weaker one I'll put the reveal earlier in the adventure, if he's strong I'll put the reveal later, which means the party's level doesn't matter cause I can just put the reveal anywhere I want accordingly.
An oni might fit the bill. They're giants in the official rules, but are really meant to represent a demonic Japanese folklore monster.
You've also got the Night Hag as a possibility. Have a coven of Hags with a secret group of cultists that keeps bringing them back from Hades. Their shapechange ability is limited to female forms only but an easy homebrew/DM fiat hand wave is to say their a little bit special and can adopt any humanoid form.
Like others have said, on the lower CR - Succubus, Incubus, Cambion, or Night Hag.
On higher CR - Arcanaloth, Rakshasha, or possibly a Glabrezu (though you would have to give it either Alter self or a magic item to disguise itself, which is crazy, any intelligent spellcaster demon should know alter self)