Demons, Devils or Deva?

[Silus]

So, just a little curious, what do ya'll prefer? Who do you prefer to work for, and who do you prefer to fight?

*Just finished watching Legion*

[The Tygre]

Oi, barmy cutter! Don'tcha know 'loths be tha on'y lily beau-nasties on the lowa' fields? All tha' rest got beat by til' they all countin' worms!

[Silus]

Oi, barmy cutter! Don'tcha know 'loths be tha on'y lily beau-nasties on the lowa' fields? All tha' rest got beat by til' they all countin' worms!

Well I suppose you could count them as well, though there're....what? Only a handful left? Dagon and Pale Night at the least...

[LOTRfan]

Those are both demon lords.

There's 17 different types, at least.

[Danin]

As an antagonist definitely devils. Devas would make a neat one too but devils just scream class.

For pure style? Devas take the cake. Not 4.0 devas though, which are not my cup of tea.

Demons are... well, cannon fodder to be honest, for more impressive, cunning and scary bad guys. Dagon is the only thing in the abyss worth talking about, with the possible exception of Orcus, but even he is a Saturday morning cartoon villain at best.

[Silus]

Well yeah, but as far as I'm aware, the Obyriths were pretty much wiped out when the Tanar'ri came to power. All that are left (that I can remember) are the really crazy powerful ones, like Pale Night and Dagon.

*Flips open the Fiend Codex I and does a little research*

[MachineWraith]

Depends on the character I'm playing, but generally speaking, devils.

I'd never work for a demon except in extreme circumstances, as by their very nature they'll probably renege on the deal and just kill/enslave/whatever you when the job's done. At least with devils, you know that they're just going to come after you within the terms specified in the contract, and with enough intelligence and knowledge, you can win that little argument anyway.

I generally play lawful evil characters, as I like having the freedom to do evil things when the situation calls for them. That's not to say that I'm Stupid Evil; I don't do evil things like baby eating just because I can. I play much more of the "the ends justify the means" type.

Occasionally I'll feel the need to play the knight in shining armor or save the princess or whatever, and then I'll deal with angels, but evil is just so cool.

As an enemy, devils, again. Devious plots and schemes are awesome, and just having the possibility of catching them in a rules pickle is delightful.

[LOTRfan]

Well yeah, but as far as I'm aware, the Obyriths were pretty much wiped out when the Tanar'ri came to power. All that are left (that I can remember) are the really crazy powerful ones, like Pale Night and Dagon.

*Flips open the Fiend Codex I and does a little research*

Well, yeah, but what do Obyriths have to do with Yugoloths?

[Silus]

Well, yeah, but what do Obyriths have to do with Yugoloths?

*Double checks*

Ohhhhhhhh....

*Feels stupid*

[Zaydos]

As a player: Celestials as bosses and devils as enemies.

As a character: If brave see above; if more pragmatic replace devils with demons. They might be stronger 1 on 1 but devils will get you in the end.

[dsmiles]

As long as it's not a DIVA, everything's cool.

Rimshot.

[nekomata2]

I gotta give it to demons. I prefer the lower planes to the Upper for the most part, though outsiders of all types are my favorite type.

As for demons over devils, well devils have the whole problem of their society and its "law" isn't exactly a good work environment. They do make better antagonists in my opinion though.

[Sims]

Angels pwn!

[Bibliomancer]

Ironically, in standard D&D 3.5 Law is inefficient.

Sure, it makes great use of the forces it has available, but somehow the devils are massively outnumbered by the demons, despite having a huge and well organized agency to corrupt mortal souls. This indicates (assuming approixmte parity on the Material Plane of CE and LE alignments) that the basic processes for converting souls to devils is less efficient that the equivalent version for demons, and (to add insult to injury) the arch-devils do not appear to capture much of the lost energy (and what they capture is spent controlling their minions anyways, ensuring that they are at least organized).

Thus, although devils are scary from a nemesis point of view, demons as a whole should be more worrying.

Of course, devas would make pretty bad bosses too, as they would object to most all of the methods of the players (have you READ the BoED?), not to mention the fact that good is less efficient than evil (if the fluff on the Blood War is to be believed), although that's understandable since they seem to be providing services for their petitioners instead of slaughtering them.

Ultimately, when you're working for an incarnate force of [insert alignment here], you're pretty much doomed.* No point worrying about degree.

*Eladrin, by all accounts, are actually pretty chill.

[Loki Eremes]

Work for: Devas. Why? hate doing evil just for pleasure or fun. Chaotic Good is my alignment.

Maybe: Devils. Why? Sometimes to confront evil you need to be evil.

Destroy: Demons. Chaotic Evil? wtf?? go back to Hell crazy psychopatic bastard.

[Greymane]

As an antagonist definitely devils. Devas would make a neat one too but devils just scream class.

For pure style? Devas take the cake. Not 4.0 devas though, which are not my cup of tea.

Demons are... well, cannon fodder to be honest, for more impressive, cunning and scary bad guys. Dagon is the only thing in the abyss worth talking about, with the possible exception of Orcus, but even he is a Saturday morning cartoon villain at best.

"And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for Gareth Dragonsbane and his blasted Paladin Mount class feature!"

[Eldan]

Devas? As in, the lower ranks of Aasimon? Please. Solars with their whole "I could be a god if I wanted to but I'm sooo humble, oooooh." shtick might be pretty cool, but in the end, they are still just the servants of some prime mortal who got a bit drunk of belief and calls himself a god.

No, if you want the forces of good, at least look at the natural outer planar races. Archons are stuck up, so let's forget them. Guardinals aren't bad, but honestly, there's just no material on them. Eladrin, on the other hand, are not only one of the trickiest outer planar races, they are also the only ones able to freely roam the planes, and they are chaotic good, my favourite alignment. So, that's my favourite employers right there.

Now, for antagonists, that's more difficult. The Demons have Graz'zt and Orcus, and I guess in sheer power, Orcus is hard to beat. But I prefer my opponents more lawful, so the Baatezu win over the Tanar'ri in that aspect. There is, however, one other thing to take into account, as Tygre said: 'loths are cooler than anyone else on the evil half of the ring. So they win as antagonists. Because no matter who else you think you are fighting, there will be a 'loth behind it all eventually.

[rayne_dragon]

Generally, I like to keep planar disputes away from my business. If they leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they insist on making their business my business, then I prefer to fight them if at all possible. Working for any of them always ends up being distasteful and making me want to destroy the involved entities.

@ v - just usually a spellcaster who prefers to stick to xyr own pocket dimension, everyone else be condemned.

[Eldan]

A primeist! Haven't seen one of those in a while

[Yora]

I like Demons and Eladrin the most. Yugoloths are also cool, the rest of the outer planes is rather meh.