Fiendish Fast Track

[Hand_of_Vecna]

By default Evil characters in D&D have a pretty bleak future ahead of them. When they die they'll be tortured a bunch and if they're souls aren't consumed they'll eventually become a one hd thing who's existence is also pretty terrible existence.

Basically I'm curious whether a fast track to the mid tiers of evil outsiders after death has ever been established by an official 3.5 or PF book. I'm thinking about something like in Spawn where there are specific humans that the movers and shakers of hell care deeply about because they're destined to become powerful lieutenants when they die.

[Extra Anchovies]

Well, if you get in good standing with, say, a Lord of the Nine, Duke of Hell, or member of the Dark Eight, they definitely have the power and authority to fast-track you to somewhere near Erinyes status, maybe. The Dark Eight is probably the easiest group to get to like you; they're more involved in the Blood War than they are in the politics of hell, and they'd definitely like you if you did some particularly good demon-fighting. Besides, a win for Law is a win for Law, right?

As far as Lords of the Nine go, I'd think that Bel or Levistus would be good angles to try first, the former for the same reason as the Dark Eight and the latter because he needs all the hands and/or eyes he can get.

[Venger]

By default Evil characters in D&D have a pretty bleak future ahead of them. When they die they'll be tortured a bunch and if they're souls aren't consumed they'll eventually become a one hd thing who's existence is also pretty terrible existence.

Basically I'm curious whether a fast track to the mid tiers of evil outsiders after death has ever been established by an official 3.5 or PF book. I'm thinking about something like in Spawn where there are specific humans that the movers and shakers of hell care deeply about because they're destined to become powerful lieutenants when they die.

yes, it has.

in the fiendish codices (1 focuses on demons, 2 on devils) it says that there is a fast track to the mid or high tiers of fiends if you excelled at doing evil deeds in life. if you litter and jaywalk, then you start at the bottom as dretch/lemure, but if you're some kind of dark lord end boss type guy, then you might get kicked upstairs and start out as something higher up like a barbed devil or a babau.

there's a chain of command for each stripe of fiends in their respective books and it talks about their complicated office politics.

your analogue with spawn is basically exactly how it works. this is why being Evil in deeandee is a valid lifestyle choice, since you know you'll be tangibly rewarded in the next life if you're successful enough.


Well, if you get in good standing with, say, a Lord of the Nine, Duke of Hell, or member of the Dark Eight, they definitely have the power and authority to fast-track you to somewhere near Erinyes status, maybe. The Dark Eight is probably the easiest group to get to like you; they're more involved in the Blood War than they are in the politics of hell, and they'd definitely like you if you did some particularly good demon-fighting. Besides, a win for Law is a win for Law, right?

As far as Lords of the Nine go, I'd think that Bel or Levistus would be good angles to try first, the former for the same reason as the Dark Eight and the latter because he needs all the hands and/or eyes he can get.

Bel is by far the most reasonable of the nine. Levistus is easier to bribe though with his bind to hell spell which you can start slinging as early as lvl 9. feed him souls by sending your enemies to ice hell when you kill them.

[FearlessGnome]

I think it's in Faerun that devils very much try to bargain with people's souls while they wait to go to their afterlives. Accept going to Hell instead of whereever you were supposed to go and you'll get an instant promotion/we'll send some agents to take revenge on your enemies in life/etc. If you are naturally LE they won't try very hard to make deals with you, but any soul they can corrupt that wasn't already damned is worth bargaining for.

In other settings, I know Hextor values the ability to command and will put good followers in charge of his armies for the endless, meaningless war on Acheron. I suspect it varies very much by setting and individual gods. For most evil people the afterlife is horrible, though. To the point where if everyone knew for certain what all the different planes were like, evil characters would be pretty rare. Maybe you can't force yourself to be Good, but staying Neutral should be possible for even those with the very meanest dispositions.

For powerful evil people with PC levels, I think the most reasonable explanation for why they don't mend their ways when they see what awaits is because they think "It won't happen to me." Some souls do get tagged for quick promotion, after all, and if all goes their way they'll become powerful enough in their lives that the devils will see them as someone they could make use of.

[oxybe]

The thing with death in generic D&D is that everyone who dies goes to a place they should theoretically enjoy.

Good people go to good heaven, Evil people go to evil heaven. Doing evil deeds doesn't mean you'll get punished in the afterlife, it just means your soul is going to be Fed-Ex'd to evil plane that suits you best, unless you have a specific patron you pray to, at that point you're taking a taxi to their house.

How you're treated by that patron and the others there will depend on the patron and place in question.

Someone who prays to the god of innocent puppies and wide-eyed orphans and does their best to make their lives better is likely to go to a plane filled with these two things in abundance where they can continue making ghost puppies and ghost orphans the happiest little specters ever.

Someone who prays to the god of being a mean jerky-jerk and likes kicking puppies and eating orphans (or vice versa!) is likely to be sent to a place where they can continue being a jerky-jerk and kick/eat all the puppies/orphans they want.

However in both cases, the planes our respective supplicants are sent to is full of others like them. This means puppy/orphan lover will likely be sharing his puppies and orphans with similiar minded people (and probably singing kumbaya all the time), while jerky-jerk is in a place with other jerks who are going to be likely bullying him if he can't defend himself, and if they want to eat all the puppies and orphans by themselves, what's jerky-jerk gonna do about it?

either way, both guys went to their ideal plane of existence, one is just naturally more hostile then the other, though if you have the power to make your jerky claim in the inherently nasty one, you'll probably be having the bestest, most puppy-eating, orphan-kicking time you've ever had.