Devil, Bearded Devil (Barbazu)

The scourge of humanity and the cosmos, devils are fiends from the Nine Hells of Baator, a lawful evil realm. Devils enjoy bullying those weaker than themselves and often attack good creatures just to gain a trophy or three. The most powerful devils occupy themselves with plots to seize power, wreck civilizations, and inflict misery upon mortals.

Many devils are surrounded by a fear aura, which they use to break up powerful groups and defeat opponents piecemeal. Devils with spell-like abilities use their illusion abilities to delude and confuse foes as much as possible. A favorite trick is to create illusory reinforcements; enemies can never be entirely sure if a threat is only a figment or real summoned devils joining the fray.

The most numerous devils are the baatezu, infamous for their strength, evil temperament, and ruthlessly efficient organization. Baatezu have a rigid caste system, in which authority derives not only from power but also from station. They occupy themselves mainly with extending their influence throughout the planes by corrupting mortals. Baatezu who further this goal are usually rewarded with improved stations.

Bearded devils, also called barbazu, serve as shock troops in hell’s armies, spearheading attacks by masses of lemures. Between wars, they find employment as guards and sentinels for more powerful devils. Every bearded devil carries a saw-toothed glaive.

A bearded devil stands 6 feet tall and weighs about 225 pounds.

Bearded devils are aggressive and love to fight. They revel in their battle frenzy, spreading mayhem among their foes.

A bearded devil’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as evil-aligned and lawful-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

See in Darkness (Su): Can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will—greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only). Caster level 12th.

Infernal Wound (Su): The damage a bearded devil deals with its glaive causes a persistent wound. An injured creature loses 2 additional hit points each round. The wound does not heal naturally and resists healing spells. The continuing hit point loss can be stopped by a DC 16 Heal check, a cure spell, or a heal spell. However, a character attempting to cast a cure spell or a heal spell on a creature damaged by a bearded devil’s glaive must succeed on a DC 16 caster level check, or the spell has no effect on the injured character.

A successful Heal check automatically stops the continuing hit point loss as well as restoring hit points. The infernal wound is a supernatural ability of the bearded devil, not of the weapon. The check DC is Constitution-based.

Beard (Ex): If a bearded devil hits a single opponent with both claw attacks, it automatically hits with its beard. The affected creature takes 1d8+2 points of damage and must succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or be infected with a vile disease known as devil chills (incubation period 1d4 days, damage 1d4 Str). Damage is dealt each day until the afflicted creature succeeds on three consecutive Fortitude saves, the disease is cured magically, or the creature dies. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Battle Frenzy (Ex): Twice per day, a bearded devil can work itself into a battle frenzy similar to the barbarian’s rage (+4 Strength, +4 Constitution, +2 morale bonus on Will saves, -2 AC penalty). The frenzy lasts for 6 rounds, and the bearded devil suffers no ill effects afterward.

Summon Devil (Sp): Once per day a bearded devil can attempt to summon 2d10 lemures with a 50% chance of success, or another bearded devil with a 35% chance of success. This ability is the equivalent of a 3rd-level spell.