I'm very confused about the relations of demon lords and the material plane.
I'd like to know if its possible in golarion to summon a demon lord to the material plane, and if so, how difficult is it?
In particular, can a demon lord be summoned to the material plane without consent, and if so, can it be blocked from returning to its abyssal realm?
If not by default, is there a plot device consistent with the setting that I could use to do so?
Can they even move freely to the material plane by themselves, and does it even make sense for a cult to actively try to summon a demon lord to the material plane?
Since demon lords gain a lot of bonuses in their abyssal realm, it seems like it would be a good idea in a mythic campaign to move the fight somewhere else.
I couldn't find a proper answer to these questions in Lords of Chaos.
A Gate can call one to the material plane if it is willing. Because demon lords are also demigods they can refuse if they want to.
I don't think there's any way to bump Planar Binding HD cap high enough to call one via that method, which doesn't make a provision for deities refusing to come because they (rightly, so far) assumed it couldn't arise anyway.
All statted Demon Lords don't have a method to leave the material plane if they do end up there, but a Banishment or Dismissal effect would work. They all have Blasphemy, which can banish non-evil extraplanar beings, if I were GMing and it fit my story I might let them use it on themselves for the purpose of sending themselves home, waiving their alignment immunity analogous to foregoing a save or lowering their spell resistance.
Demon Lords tend to have Astral Projection so that they can visit anywhere safely from their home plane (and dismiss the spell to return to their body back home), but they don't have Gate or Plane Shift to move their full physical bodies.
The only way to involuntarily move one out of the abyss would be use Plane Shift on their physical body in the Abyss, beating both their very high SR and their high Will saving throw. Send them to a small, custom demiplane would be the most controllable way to accomplish this.
Thanks so far! I'll elaborate on the background:
Currently, I'm making a homebrew AP for the pathfinder adventure card game, so it's not super important that everything works in terms of the actual rules, but it should be consistent with the setting. A 'mythic version' of planar binding would be fine, but it shouldn't be something repeatable, as outlined below.
The endgame situation I'm aiming for is this:
The PCs are evil demoniacs and summon a demon lord they want to slay to the material plane, where they are aided by 5 other demon lords that are not physically present. The point would be that due to abyssal ressurection, they wouldn't really slay the demon lord permanently, but that also means they shouldn't be able to pull this off twice in a row.
Currently, the PCs are about to find a qlippoth runestone, which will give them the information they need to make this work, and I'm wondering what the best way to go about it would be in the setting.
Would it make more sense to just summon the demon lord to another part of the abyss instead? I wouldn't know where to though, since while the other 5 demon lords are willing to help just for the fun of it, they wouldn't want to get directly involved in their own realm.
There's the Treerazer.
Treerazer is a powerful nascent demon lord, who tried to overthrow Cyth-V'sug. He failed and was either banished to Golarion or fled there on his own volition. Either way, afterwards Cyth-V'sug severed Treerazer's connection to Abyss (transforming him into an outsider native to the Material Plane), making him unable to return or reform there if he's killed.
Could PCs do something like that to a true demon lord? They would probably need to lure the demon lord to the Material Plane, then while he is occupied on the Material Plane, travel to Abyss, make their way to the demon lord's place of power, and perform some ritual there. Maybe the other demon lords would be more willing to act if their rival wasn't home? As long as he'd have his Abyssal Realm, he can't be truly destroyed, so someone would have to claim it anyway.
That's interesting!
Actually, I want abyssal ressurection to take place and not deny it; the demon lord should stay around after the campaign ends, and the PCs are more interested in humiliation than destruction.
One problem I see is this:
If you could consistently cast a spell that forces demon lords into the material plane, and you are somehow strong enough to kill them, you could just proceed by calling them to the material place twice in a row and kill them off for good, which doesn't strike me as very sensible.
I'd need a way to do this only once, so it should depend on the help of the other demon lords, and possibly some limited ressource. Would nahyndrian crystals make sense here?
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I would create a 9th level occult ritual that does it. They allow unique effects at the cost of being able to pull off skill checks, usually some expensive focus and materials, and some magical feedback damage/debuff to the ritual participants. You should be able to find some examples at Archives of Nethys to build on.
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Occult ritual is my suggestion too. Calling a demon lord should require a great evil act or perhaps a greatly good act as a form of binding. Working up to the ritual itself is enough to be multiple adventures as the party gathers the needed artifacts, holy or unholy texts, and sacrificial (gnomes) lambs.
Thanks for the suggestions! I'll settle for an occult ritual then, and I'll let them gather a nahyndrian chrystal and one bloodstone of arazni as components (I'll make the component a heart of a good-aligned herald), which the cards support very well.