With a Little Help From My Fiends

Thursday, September 15, 2017

With a thirst for the fiendish, subscribers have begun digging their claws into Pathfinder RPG Book of the Damned. What vile and wicked things might they find within its covers?

While much of the book contains information on the fiendish movers and shakers of the outer planes and their horrid and terrifying realms, I know that many of you want a glimpse at some of the rules found in the Book of the Damned. Some of the strongest fiends in the planes have risen to become fiendish divinities. This includes archdevils, demon lords, daemonic horsemen, and others. Fifty of these fiendish divinities receive full information on their fiendish boons that work with the Fiendish Obedience feat and the associated prestige classes. In addition, the demoniac, diabolist, and souldrinker have all been updated to work with these boons as well, and Book of the Damned includes a sidebar that provides additional guidance.

Fiendish Divinity Boons

The boons granted by fiendish divinities assume that characters gain them in one of two ways—via the Fiendish Obedience feat (see page 178) or via that feat plus one of the three prestige classes presented on pages 208-213. While the boons of each divinity are categorized into the same three categories of boons used in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods, the boons granted by deities in that book are less powerful, as they are more likely to be boons gained by PCs, and thus it’s more appropriate for them to be gained at earlier levels.

While the Hit Dice at which you gain boons via Fiendish Obedience or Deific Obedience (from Inner Sea Gods) are identical, the prestige classes in Inner Sea Gods (the evangelist, exalted, and sentinel) that allow accelerated boon achievement have lower entrance requirements than the prestige classes in this book. As a result, if you wish to use one of those three prestige classes for a character who wishes to gain the boons presented by one of the fiendish divinities in this book, increase the requirements for entry into evangelist, exalted, or sentinel so that a character must be 7th level before selecting the class, as summarized below.

Evangelist: Base attack bonus +7, 7 ranks in a skill other than Knowledge (religion), or ability to cast 4th-level spells.

Exalted: Diplomacy 7 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks, ability to cast 4th-level divine spells.

Sentinel: Base attack bonus +7.

The third chapter of Book of the Damned has more rules mechanics to help a GM run a game dripping with fiendish influence. It contains feats to help you add new and exciting abilities to your villains and fiends, spells and rituals to spice things up, information on infernal contracts, and evil magic items, talismans, and artifacts—including the Book of the Damned itself!

The final chapter in the book presents a new fiend of each type, as well as statistics for petitioners in each fiendish realm: The damned of Hell, the hunted of Abaddon, larva from the Abyss, the mutilated of the Shadow Plane, the prey of the Material, and the terrorized of the Ethereal.

The new fiends in the Book of the Damned are as follows:

Nikaramsa	Asura	CR 14
Sepsidaemon	Daemon	CR 7
Squamous	Demodand	CR 20
Ghalzarokh	Demon	CR 15
Executioner Devil (munagolas)	Devil	CR 11
Bushyasta	Div	CR 6
Oitos	Kyton	CR 11
Najikai	Oni	CR 8
Deinochos	Qlippoth	CR 5
Orsatka	Rakshasa	CR 13
Nucol	Sahkil	CR 4

I hope that’s enough for now to whet your appetite for the loathsome and malicious Book of the Damned. Check back here next week as I go over some of the more lore-focused elements of this vile tome, including some information on fiendish realms and some of the lesser-known fiendish divinities.

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer