Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: That Old Black Magic

Random racial spells.... not my cup of tea but could be fun.

Summoning demons seem like fun spells. Reminds me of the instinctive actions of some 4e summons.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I can agree with this, though I love the specific flavor for the specific types of demons. From a game-play perspective, I'd rather them be more like the existing conjuration spells but the flavor is really cool. I guess I'm torn on that.

I'm with you on this front. While utility-wise something like the old 2e summon fiend would be easier, I love the image of tracking down old forgotten tomes that contain the snippets of how to summon a barlgura, and sighing in frustration because what you were looking for was the version to summon a hezrou.

Maybe the solution is to make the spells less reliable than most, in terms of what they actually summon. Page 52 of the MM has the demon type table, and page 54 has the demon summoning variant. Maybe casting any of the new demon summoning spells has a chance to misfire and summon the wrong kind of demon. Most entries on the summoning table have a 30% chance of success, so I'd buy the spell having a 30% chance of failure/misfire. There are 6 types of demon listed on the demon type table; a simple d6 roll will easily make the PCs quake in fear. Will they accidentally summon a pack pf dretches? A balor? All they wanted was a shadow demon . . .

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I'm a bit surprised no one brought this up, except Wednesday Boy a bit:

The Infernal Tiefling in the core book is designed pretty much exclusively for the fiend warlock. The Aasimar, which is basically a variant tiefling in all but name, is aimed at clerics. In the SCAG, we have variant rules for flying rogue non-magic type, and rules for a lore-bard tiefling. Its clear to me that the Abyssal Tiefling is designed with the same "one variant for every class!" mindset - Wild Magic Sorcerer in this case. That's probably why all those demon spells are suddenly on the Sorcerer spell list - because that's what the demon-y goodness is aiming for. And it explains why we're seeign so many tiefling variants - we'll probably end up with around 8 or so variants for the majority of classes.

As for the demon summoning spells themselves... I'm actually Not A Fan of the design. This format would probably be fine for a wizard, who could flip through his spellbook and pick whatever summon he wants. But for the Sorcerer (or other classes) that have restriced spells known? Its too much to study - there's no reason for a separate spell for each type. By this format, we'd need new spells every time a new demon came out. I'd rather see all the unique aspects for each demon be contained as part of a giant spell, rather than listed separately.

As for the warlock and conjuring magic... summoner/chain warlocks need help as it is, just like the Beastmaster Ranger does. I'd like to wait and see if they fix that up.

I am glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought chaos sorcerer when looking at the abyssal tiefling.

I really like the flavor of the conjure spells, but I have to admit I was very surprised that they didn't just go with a conjure fiend that was similar to conjure elemental/conjure fey. They could have gone with a slight variant of having to check each round (at increasing difficulty) to see if the fiend rebels where you could substitute a sacrifice (similar to the flavor in the current spells) instead of making the check (say a single food item 100 gp's in value for a herzou, eventually everyone will run out of scooby snacks and have to take their chances). The only reason I can think to change it is that they plan on having a completely different set up for devils and other kinds of fiends (honestly this set up would be great for yugoloths, but I can't see it working for an incubus/succubus)

 

[Minigiant]

Random thought: The hezrou requires a certain GP amount of food to be satisfied. Which has the weird implication that the hezrou is sort of a gourmand; it would be as satisfied with a few tins of the fantasy equivalent of caviar as it would be with hundreds of pounds of rotten goat meat! That's certainly not the picture I have of a hezrou, although I do like the mental picture of him picking up the wine bottle the caster has presented and checking the label to make sure it's a worthy offering.

That's a new spin of the "noble demon".

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I was thinking something like:

Conjure Fiend
level 5 conjuration v,s, m (see below)
casting 1 round, duration 11 hour.

When using this spell, you indicate to the DM which type of fiend you are trying to conjure: devil, demon, other (includes yugoloths, succubus/incubus, hell hound, nightmare, night hag, rakasha)
Roll a 1d8. This is the fiend you get. If the CR of the fiend is equal to or less than level you cast the spell at, the fiend is friendly toward you and your allies. If the CR of the fiend is higher than level you cast the spell, the fiend's attitude is indifferent and the fiend will request an offering (see below). If the offering is made, the fiend's attitude will be friendly. If not, it will be hostile (and remain for the full hour). If the caster loses concentration, the fiend will become hostile regardless of whether an offering was made, and will remain for 1 hour. If you leave the area after casting the spell, the fiend will attempt to get a sacrifice from anyone else in the area. The fiend will be to detect where its caster went, but won't be inclined to follow unless the sacrifice is made to it by someone else. If no one sacrifices to the fiend, it will be hostile toward everything it encounters for the rest of the hour.

1-roll again. If the caster chose devil, the conjured creature will be a demon (and hostile). If the caster chose demon, the conjured creature will be a devil (and hostile). If the caster chose other, the DM picks between devil and demon (either way hostile)
2-CR 4 fiend (closest lower level if CR 4 does not exist)
3-CR 5 fiend (closest lower level if CR 5 does not exist)
4-CR 6 fiend (closest lower level if CR 6 does not exist)
5-CR 7 fiend (closest lower level if CR 7 does not exist)
6-CR 8 fiend (closest lower level if CR 8 does not exist)
7-CR 9 fiend (closest lower level if CR 9 does not exist)
8-higher than a CR 9 fiend (horned devil, nalfashee, or arcanaloth)

I will leave it to others to come up with the appropriate sacrifices. The temptation of this spell is you might get something really powerful. The problem is that if you can't pay for it, you will have to fight it. Of course, if you cast it and dimension door out of there, it will be someone else's problem for an hour.......

Casting at higher level doesn't change the fiends, but it does increase the chance that the fiend will be friendly towards your group without sacrifice.

 

[CapnZapp]

Lol, now I need to create a mecromancer class.

I'm sure it's just a misspelling and that he meant Mechromancer.

 

[JohnLynch]

Variant tieflings after we get some in SCAG and some spells? Colour me disappointed.

 

[CapnZapp]

Hang on a sec - the demon summoning spells that start out as concentration spells, doesn't this mean you can poke the caster to get rid of the demon?

Meaning that if I were an evil NPC about to cast these spells at the heroes, I would want to fail the secret charisma check a.s.a.p. so the demon would stay and fight for the duration (I'm assuming it will eventually go down, rather than actually winning over the PCs)

That it would not be under my command is simply solved by casting it near a foe, then retreating as necessary.

I guess my question is: why can't the spell be cast uncontrolled already from the start, so I don't risk having to see my precious brute go poof just because a pesky hero decided to shoot an arrow at me instead of him?

 

[Ath-kethin]

I don't see anything in the rules that says you have to maintain concentration if you are unwilling to do so. The demon summoning spells are unique (so far) in 5e because losing concentration doesn't end the spell, it just ends your control of the creature. If you're comfortable behind your circle of innocent blood, I don't see any reason why you can't release the demon immediately. The spells last until the demon is killed or an hour passes, whichever comes first.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

NPC's may have alternative ways of getting demon minions--see the drow in the Monster Manual for example. I figure any NPC with a demon that the PC's fight got it in an obscene ceremony involving a barrel of orc grown wine, a succubus with a tooth ache, and a two headed purple worm. What are the odds the PC's will ever encounter any of that (much less know the ritual)?

 

[maceochaid]

I don't see anything in the rules that says you have to maintain concentration if you are unwilling to do so. The demon summoning spells are unique (so far) in 5e because losing concentration doesn't end the spell, it just ends your control of the creature. If you're comfortable behind your circle of innocent blood, I don't see any reason why you can't release the demon immediately. The spells last until the demon is killed or an hour passes, whichever comes first.

Well the spell rules say "disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends."