Just gathering ideas for making literal deals with a devil

[ToastyTobasco]

If the names Wilhand, Rizelda, Can-can, Bug and Lerissa pertain to you. GET OUT NAOW! Or I will send another hoard of Rust Monsters at you. As well as a new nasty creation.



The devil is the head of a bloodsport arena in a Lawful Evil city. He is very fond of bargains and gambling but cares about the contenders within his arena (to a degree) as they bring in the crowds and create a wonderful spectacle. Those that are desperate enough can make a bargain for power with him. Many souls he collects are powerful ones forged in the crucible of his making so they are particularly valuable to him.

Looking for some ideas for long term as well as short term, mechanic wise. Long term could be a wide variety of things. Really need some bits here.

Short term would be basically him supercharging you to the point of burnout and he harvests your soul after the fight you agree to use the power in and the character is kaput but goes out in a literal blaze of glory. Mostly need mechanics here.

Current reason for deal: Player wants to duke it out with a Medusa that petrified his last character. He is a Wild Soul Barbarian with no real past or ties other than getting plopped into the arena and fighting for fun. (So cost is kind of down to his soul...)

Any help is appreciated

[firelistener]

Short term, I'd suggest you have the devil provide some kind of tangible magic item. You can make it cursed so it's impossible to remove normally, and give it some kind of self-destructive effect. Descent Into Avernus has a new magic item called the "Helm of Devil Command" that very loosely inspired this magic item I just designed:


Helm of Psychological Torture
This bulky, eyeless helmet is made for a pit fiend but magically resizes to fit the heads of other wearers. While wearing the helm, you can see out of it as though you weren't wearing it. Once you don the helm, it can't be removed until you die or until a remove curse spell or similar magic is cast on it.

The helm has 3 charges. As an action, you can expend 1 charge to cast Power Word Pain without using any components. The spell save DC for this cast of Power Word Pain is 16.

If you are not a devil, using the helm's power word pain property has a 50% chance to cause you to be inflicted by a damaging curse subjecting your mind to terrible horrors from the Nine Hells.
If the curse is inflicted, you take 10d6+40 psychic damage 1d4 hours immediately following the expenditure of one of helm's charge unless the helmet is removed.

Since it blocks the eyes, this helmet would be especially great for taking down a medusa (Rules as Intended, I think. Since looking at their eyes in a mirror is what Perseus did in myth, I'd say that seeing their eyes in a different manner than normal counts as "averting"). I addition, I think it would be extremely tempting for a player to use in any other fights as well, since a DC16 Power Word Pain without components is extremely useful. The damage is hopefully enough to also to kill the barbarian outright with one or two uses, so it would really fit the "blaze of glory" idea well. For a short-term deal, the devil might offer the helmet to "promising" warriors and let them keep it in exchange for agreeing to fight in the arena.

Like you said though, the devil wants souls and living fighters for the arena. So my idea with the helmet is that the fight promoter devil informs the user of the impending doom after the person accepts it and uses it in battle, and then offers to remove it from them safely before the consequence arrives in exchange for their soul. The character would then basically be forced into a choice between their mortal life or their immortal soul. It's a win-win for the devil since they can reclaim the helm after the wearer dies and reuse it, or get a soul out of the deal and also get to reclaim it for reuse.