Demon Character

[Shadow Lord]

How would you reply to a player who wanted to play an evolving Demon? Would you work with them so they could? Do you have any advice for how to do so? What would you suggest?

[Vangor]

An evolving demon? One which gains adaptations generally considered demonic? One which simply develops demonic racial traits as with racial hit dice? One which rises through the ranks of premade demons? However this works, nothing wrong provided you both establish how leveling, powers, etc., will work to create a useful character within reason.

Whatever this is, nothing wrong with using such for characters provided you both establish how leveling, powers, etc., will work. As well, the party needs to be comfortable with an intrinsically evil being in their midst. If the person wants to play a redeemed demon or something, this is fine, but just saying this would not assuage my fears enough to trust a demon much less adventure alongside.

[Scaliburn]

I highly recommend the Abyssal Heritor feats from fiendish codex. They don't require you to be Evil, only chaotic. The more you take, the more you slowly evolve into a demon, and the more powerful your previous traits become. I recently made a character with them, and he is amazing, maybe my favorite character ever.

[FMArthur]

Unless you take a monster class, Tiefling should be your go-to as the base for a demonic PC. Lesser Tieflings lose the level adjustment in exchange for dropping the Outsider type and becoming Humanoid (Planetouched), which is an excellent deal.

The Geomancer PrC from Complete Divine is pretty good at gradually transforming a character's physical appearance, which come with various abilities, but the background fluff is tied to nature. They certainly can produce a demonic appearance very easily, though. The downside is that you need to waste at least one level in a tertiary class to enter; it requires both Arcane and Divine 2nd-level spells and only advance one. But for that one level lost to Cleric or something, you could get a Wizard that casts in armor and has a cleric-like chassis.

Warlocks can be a very demonic class whose demonic influence can be the very source of their power as it grows, but they don't change their appearance over time AFAIK.

[Shadow Lord]

It was more along the lines of playing a demon who was advancing among the hierarchy of demons. Like, from Dretch to, eventually, possibly, Demon Lord. And no, not the series, just in general.

[Greenish]

The downside is that you need to waste at least one level in a tertiary class to enter; it requires both Arcane and Divine 2nd-level spells and only advance one.Southern Magician should fix that, if I'm not terribly mistaken. I've been toying with spirit shaman/geomancer to gain such awesome buffs as bushy green eyebrows.

[Urpriest]

It was more along the lines of playing a demon who was advancing among the hierarchy of demons. Like, from Dretch to, eventually, possibly, Demon Lord. And no, not the series, just in general.

Use one of this forum's homebrewed monster classes then. Also, someone (was it Eldan? I was in that game, I should remember this) started a game like that with Devils awhile back.

[Tvtyrant]

I would do it like playing a dragon (in my group). Each time you reach the HD of the next step up, you evolve into that form with all of its stats and all. So play a race at level 1, go through a "soul transformation" to a dretch at level 2, then into a Quasit at level 3, then a Succubus at level 6, then a Babau at level 7, then a Hezrou at level 10, then a Glabrezu or Bebellith at 12, then a Nalfeshnee at 14, then a Marillith at 16, and a Balor at 20. Between evolutions you gain HD and BaB but nothing else.

Its slightly OP at low-mid OP, but a Balor isn't even as good as a straight caster, much less some of the abominations on this board.

[Runestar]

He can use of the fiend classes from the tome of fiend supplement here.

http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Tome_of_Fiends_(3.5e_Sourcebook)/Classes;_Base_and_Prestige

Bear in mind though that they were designed to shine even in an environment dominated by tier one classes. :smalltongue:

[TroubleBrewing]

Oh, D&DWiki. It's like searching through a landfill; so much unimaginably broken stuff, a few salvageable things, and one or two true gems per square mile.

[Vandicus]

It was more along the lines of playing a demon who was advancing among the hierarchy of demons. Like, from Dretch to, eventually, possibly, Demon Lord. And no, not the series, just in general.

Is he going through their evolution process(changing from one type of demon to a more advanced one)? Cause he may experience memory and personality shifts loss like the devils, who knows really. I would personally allow him to become a demon as long as it didn't cause the campaign to ignore or lose most of its focus on the party as a whole. It always makes campaigns more interesting to have unusual characters.

[Cerlis]

i think it would be best to just use something as a template (not in game template, i mean as an idea for balanced stats, like a tiefling or a human) to represent a drechlike kinda experimental "doll" in some plan to quickly grow powerful demons rather than waiting for hundreds of years for demonlords to evolve and grow to power in such a hostile enviroment.

Then as he gains hitdice (whether you want to advance him as an outsider or through class levels) his appearance changes. Maybe simular to how the racial classes work in complete psionic (in which you kinda advance your class and race at the same time) so maybe at 4th lvl instead of gaining a class level he grows horns and wings, then at 8th he starts growing his resistances.

By the time he looks like a powerful demon he already has High BAB, Hitdice, and combat ability thanks to his class and level, and several supernatural advantages thanks to his heritage.

it IS alot of work and many DMs wouldnt put that much focus on one player.

If he wants to go the more literal route and be all those demons i'd say, just have him play lesser ones and when he reaches the RIght ECL a Succubus in a business suit summons herself, congratulates him on a job well done, tortures him for 24 hours in a ritual that turns him into the next demon. if there are big power gaps he can gain outsider Hitdice as he advances in between evolving.

[Zaq]

See, I'm thinking Totemist. Just refluff it a bit and you're pretty much good to go. Not quite "start as dretch, end as balor," but still, good way of modeling unlocking new monstrous abilities.

[Cog]

Re: Geomancer: The Sha'ir can gain entry relatively easily; for them, it's merely a skill issue rather than a casting issue. Add in Arcane Preparation and you're doing pretty good.

[Fouredged Sword]

Refulf the Sha'ir to be demonic - just replace the familier with an imp or something and go into geomancer. It would actualy benifit the Sha'ir becuse you could cast your divine spells rapidly by counting tem as arcane.