Jowgen
2020-08-08, 06:27 PM
Fiend Folio (originally CotSC) features the Blood Fiend, a type of vampiric undead that strangely enough still gets categoried as a Demon in relevant sources, despite no longer being an outsider or having the chaotic subtype.
Now these boys got very little love in the books. Dragon 359's Demonomicon article mentions them as something that might actually become a naturally spawning species of Demon in the future, but that's about it.
They have slightly tweaked Vampire type powers (none of the weaknesses or auto-res stuff), though its spawn ability only works on Evil Outsiders. Any evil outsider, not just Demon despite the flavour text suggesting otherwise.
They strike me as heavily unbalanced in terms of their war potential in the blood war context.
I'd like to get some thoughts on my musings.
What we got
You are Orcus. You have a small number of loyal Bloodfiends.
They are the standard model, 12 HD undead bruisers with a slew of hefty resistances and self-healing options, 4 natural claw attacks that energy drain, at will Gaseous Form and Teleport without Error, and most importnatly: a Create Spawn ability that works on ANY Evil Outsider.
You equip them with standard anti-divination tools, put them on a boat and send them up the Styx with orders to make their way into Baator. Between their gaseous form, alternate form, +17 to stealth skills, and Dominate Monster abilities, they make pretty darn efficient infiltrators. Lets say 3 make it in.
Your 3 Bloodfiends scatter and hide via greater teleport as soon as they get onto Baator.
Their orders: use Guerillia tactics to prey on low level Devils. Anything up to Pain Devil is fair game.
Each Devil killed by one of their Energy Drains will rise as a Chaotic Evil 12 HD Blood Fiend.
Lets assume these Spawns are NOT under the Spawner's control, as the ability doesn't spell it out in this case. When each victim rises 1d4 days later, it will still go out hunting for new Devils to feed on, although not nessecarily as carefully.
The question now is, how far does the scourge of ravenous Bloodfiends spread through the 9 Hells before Baator mounts an effective countermeasure?
How can they guarantee that they'll be able to get them all, particularly your main 3, as to prevent... more waves?
Now as a note, all this assumes you are sending in bog-standard 12 HD Blood Fiends onto this mission, so for added fun, lets say you had liberal access to Feat Shuffling and could thus customise your Blood Fiend Guerrilias... your BFGs?
Now these boys got very little love in the books. Dragon 359's Demonomicon article mentions them as something that might actually become a naturally spawning species of Demon in the future, but that's about it.
They have slightly tweaked Vampire type powers (none of the weaknesses or auto-res stuff), though its spawn ability only works on Evil Outsiders. Any evil outsider, not just Demon despite the flavour text suggesting otherwise.
They strike me as heavily unbalanced in terms of their war potential in the blood war context.
I'd like to get some thoughts on my musings.
What we got
You are Orcus. You have a small number of loyal Bloodfiends.
They are the standard model, 12 HD undead bruisers with a slew of hefty resistances and self-healing options, 4 natural claw attacks that energy drain, at will Gaseous Form and Teleport without Error, and most importnatly: a Create Spawn ability that works on ANY Evil Outsider.
You equip them with standard anti-divination tools, put them on a boat and send them up the Styx with orders to make their way into Baator. Between their gaseous form, alternate form, +17 to stealth skills, and Dominate Monster abilities, they make pretty darn efficient infiltrators. Lets say 3 make it in.
Your 3 Bloodfiends scatter and hide via greater teleport as soon as they get onto Baator.
Their orders: use Guerillia tactics to prey on low level Devils. Anything up to Pain Devil is fair game.
Each Devil killed by one of their Energy Drains will rise as a Chaotic Evil 12 HD Blood Fiend.
Lets assume these Spawns are NOT under the Spawner's control, as the ability doesn't spell it out in this case. When each victim rises 1d4 days later, it will still go out hunting for new Devils to feed on, although not nessecarily as carefully.
The question now is, how far does the scourge of ravenous Bloodfiends spread through the 9 Hells before Baator mounts an effective countermeasure?
How can they guarantee that they'll be able to get them all, particularly your main 3, as to prevent... more waves?
Now as a note, all this assumes you are sending in bog-standard 12 HD Blood Fiends onto this mission, so for added fun, lets say you had liberal access to Feat Shuffling and could thus customise your Blood Fiend Guerrilias... your BFGs?