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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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PFS StandardDretch (Sloth Demon)

Among the lowest and least powerful of all demons, dretches are just as vicious and cruel as their more powerful brethren. They happily vent their frustrations on anything weaker than themselves.

Born from the souls of the slothful, these demons appear vaguely humanoid in appearance with awkward limbs and slack lumps of skin hanging from their frames. Supposedly, a single slothful soul of sufficient depravity and strength can spawn an entire horde of these creatures. However, as weaker demons, their lot in life is to suffer at the hands of more powerful Abyssal predators, and only a tiny number of dretches ever manage to become something more. For this reason, dretches are quite accommodating when summoned by mortals. They're usually content to work under conditions few other outsiders would accept, although they'll still gladly turn on even the kindest of masters who show even the slightest hint of weakness.

Recall Knowledge - Fiend (Religion): DC 16
Unspecific Lore: DC 14
Specific Lore: DC 11

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

Changes from being Elite are marked in red below.
NOTE: The +2 damage bonus to non-strike offensive abilities (+4 if the ability is limited, such as spells) is NOT factored in.

Elite DretchCreature 3

Legacy Content

CE Small Demon Fiend 
Source Bestiary 3 pg. 60
Perception +8; darkvision
Languages Abyssal; telepathy 100 feet
Skills Acrobatics +8, Athletics +9, Deception +8, Stealth +8
Str +3, Dex +0, Con +4, Int -3, Wis +0, Cha +0
Sloth At the start of each of the dretch's turns, roll 1d4. The result is the number of actions the dretch regains that turn (maximum 3). Effects like the slowed condition can further reduce their number of actions.
AC 19; Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +10
HP 60; Weaknesses cold iron 3, good 3
Speed 20 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +11 [+6/+1] (evil, magical), Damage 1d8+2+3 piercing plus 1d4 evilMelee [one-action] claw +11 [+7/+3] (agile, evil, magical), Damage 1d6+2+3 slashing plus 1d4 evilDivine Innate Spells DC 18 (+4 dmg); 3rd slow; 1st fear
Rituals DC 18 (+4 dmg); 1st abyssal pact
Cower [one-action] The dretch makes itself as small as possible, protecting its vital organs with its limbs. It gains a +4 circumstance bonus to AC but takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls. This lasts until the dretch moves from its current space, falls unconscious, or ends the effect as a free action.Frenzied Slashes [three-actions] The dretch makes three claw Strikes, each at a –2 penalty, all targeting the same creature. The dretch's multiple attack penalty doesn't increase until after it has made all three attacks. The dretch gains the clumsy 2 condition until the beginning of its next turn.Vicious Criticals A dretch makes the most of any weakness it finds. Whenever a dretch scores a critical hit with its claw Strike, the target takes an additional 1d6 persistent bleed damage.

All Monsters in "Demon"

NameLevel
Abrikandilu (Wrecker Demon)4
Babau (Blood Demon)6
Balor (Fire Demon)20
Brimorak (Arson Demon)5
Dretch (Sloth Demon)2
Ghalzarokh (Tyranny Demon)15
Glabrezu (Treachery Demon)13
Hezrou (Toad Demon)11
Invidiak (Shadow Demon)7
Kalavakus (Slaver Demon)10
Katpaskir (Nihilism Demon)18
Kithangian (Beast Demon)9
Marilith (Pride Demon)17
Nabasu (Gluttony Demon)8
Nalfeshnee (Boar Demon)14
Omox (Slime Demon)12
Quasit1
Demon, Roru7
Seraptis (Suicide Demon)15
Shemhazian (Mutilation Demon)16
Succubus (Lust Demon)7
Demon, Urglid13
Vavakia18
Vermlek (Worm Demon)3
Vloriak (Despoiler Demon)5
Vrock (Wrath Demon)9
Vrolikai (Death Demon)19

Demon

Source Bestiary pg. 76
When a sinful mortal soul is judged and sent on to the Abyss, it can become a deadly fiend—a demon. Demons are living incarnations of sin—be they classic sins like wrath or gluttony, or more “specialized” depravities like an obsession with torture or the act of treason or treachery. Once formed, a demon’s driving goals are twofold—the amassing of personal power, and the corruption of mortal souls to cause them to become tainted by sin. In this way demons ensure a never-ending supply of new demons to bolster their ever-growing ranks in the Abyss.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Abyssal Newcomers

Though now the most plentiful fiends of the Abyss, demons are relative newcomers, spawning only as mortal influence—and mortal sin, in particular—began to shape the plane. For eons, demons fought with other longstanding residents of the Abyss for dominance, but eventually their sheer numbers allowed them to become the predominant chaotic fiends.

Sidebar - Advice and Rules Conjuring Demons

Conjuring demons is ill-advised, yet the desperate or wicked still do. Rituals like planar ally or planar binding are typical for long-term ends, and summon fiend for combat applications. For planar ally, demons sometimes accept offerings that aren't valuable if gifting them to a demon pushes the ritualist further into sin.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demonic Deities

The most powerful demons are known as demon lords (the term is gender neutral in this case). Of these divinities, Lamashtu is the most powerful. Countless other demon lords exist, including Abraxas, Cyth-V’sug, Kabriri, and Zura.

Sidebar - Locations Demonic Locations

The sprawling, heaving, changing realm of the Abyss is the planar home of demonic life, but demons can be found anywhere the capacity to sin exists. Evil or foolish conjurers are fond of calling upon demons for advice or darker needs. When the Abyss wears through the boundaries of reality to create wound-like portals into other worlds, demons can spill over to wreak incredible havoc.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demonic Possession

Some demons specialize in the art of possessing creatures or objects to spread fear and chaos. In such cases a demon gains a powerful disguise with which to work its evils upon the world, a subterfuge that delights the demon.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demonic Sources

When a sinful mortal soul is consigned to the Abyss, it spends time wallowing in the mire and feeding on filth. If it survives and is not itself eaten, the soul eventually ascends into a demon, as influenced by the nature of its sin, yet most demons are themselves capable of reproduction as well. The fecundity of demonic life is perhaps the greatest—and most threatening—aspect of these dangerous fiends.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Demons and Souls

Demons, like many other fiends, hunger for souls. In their eyes, the primary use for these souls is to spawn new demons, who can serve as soldiers, slaves, pawns, or even currency for their more powerful masters.

Sidebar - Related Creatures Half-Demons

The Abyss can corrupt living creatures through direct congress or supernatural infusion of Abyssal energies, resulting in monstrous hybrids. A half-demon should be a custom creature, but you can quickly generate one by giving an existing creature a few of a demon's abilities along with the demon's sin-related vulnerability. For example, a half-hezrou hill giant would gain purity vulnerability, but perhaps also a bite, swim Speed, and poisonous pustules. When swapping over abilities between creatures of different levels, be sure to adjust the numbers for the new level.

Sidebar - Related Creatures Other Demons

The Abyss may be the largest of the Outer Planes, and mortals have an equally large capacity to betray themselves, society, and the natural order of reality. With this limitless source for increasingly specialized sins, the Abyss is constantly generating new types of demons to plague reality. While the vast majority of these are swiftly destroyed and never rise again, enough survive that dozens, if not hundreds, of types of demons are known to exist beyond those listed here. The shadowy invidiak is a demon without a body, born of envious souls. The goat-faced, flame-hooved brimorak rises from the souls of arsonists. Slimy, horned blood demons spawn from assassins, boar demons from the greedy... the list goes on and on.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Sinful Destruction

While they enjoy causing destruction themselves, most demons prefer to trick and tempt mortals into falling to sin of their own volition.

Sidebar - Additional Lore The Nature of Chaos

Some say that the nature of chaos inherently precludes cooperation and subtlety, but demons are proof of the fallacy of this claim.

Sidebar - Additional Lore What Makes a Sin?

Some classify sin into seven categories—envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath. While these sins embody some of the most powerful and numerous demons, far more than seven demons exist. Any act of cruelty or destruction a mortal takes to gratify the self at others’ expense is, in effect, a sin, and any such act can spawn a demon from a soul in the afterlife.