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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Babau (Blood Demon)

The babau is an assassin, a murderer, and a sadist—certainly not unusual traits, yet their penchant for stealth and surprise sets them apart from their kin. Babaus form from mortal souls of lone killers—those who took pleasure in more personal murders, and particularly those with grisly patterns to their killings.

Recall Knowledge - Fiend (Religion): DC 22
Unspecific Lore: DC 20
Specific Lore: DC 17

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

BabauCreature 6

CEMediumDemonFiend
Source Bestiary 2 pg. 64 2.0
Perception +13; darkvision, see invisibility
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 feet
Skills Acrobatics +12, Athletics +13, Intimidation +14, Religion +10, Stealth +16, Thievery +14
Str +4, Dex +4, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +3, Cha +2
Items +1 longspear
AC 24; Fort +14, Ref +16, Will +11; +1 to all saves vs. magic
HP 130; Resistances acid 10; Weaknesses cold iron 5, good 5
Mercy Vulnerability Babaus revel in gore, and when wounds are healed, they recoil in pain. When a creature heals from damage that the babau dealt on their last turn with Grievous Strike, sneak attack, or a critical hit, the demon takes 4d6 mental damage. The babau can take this mental damage only once per round.
Reactive Slime Trigger A creature within the babau's reach successfully hits the babau with a Strike; Effect The babau excretes a gout of acidic, bloodlike slime against the attacker and its weapon. The attacker must attempt a DC 24 Reflex save.
Critical Success The attacker is unaffected.
Success The attacker takes 1d6 acid damage.
Failure The attacker takes 2d6 acid damage.
Critical Failure As failure, except the weapon used to Strike the babau becomes broken, unless the weapon is made of a material that is immune to acid.
Speed 25 feet
Melee longspear +17 [+12/+7] (evil, magical, reach 10 feet), Damage 1d8+7 piercing plus 1d6 evilMelee jaws +16 [+11/+6] (evil, magical), Damage 1d10+7 piercing plus 1d6 evilMelee claw +16 [+12/+8] (agile, evil, magical), Damage 1d4+7 slashing plus 1d6 evilDivine Innate Spells DC 24; 5th dimension door; 4th dimension door (at will); 2nd darkness; Constant (5th) see invisibility
Rituals DC 24; 1st abyssal pact
Grievous Strike The babau attacks with the intent of creating a particularly horrific and gory wound. The babau makes a melee Strike. This counts as two attacks when calculating the daemon's multiple attack penalty. If this Strike hits, the babau deals an additional 2d6 damage of the same damage type, and the creature struck is frightened 2.Sneak Attack The babau's Strikes deal an extra 2d6 precision damage to flat-footed creatures.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Signs of Murder

Babaus revel in their art and often leave behind a grim token or marker as a signature. They may leave a distinctive mutilation upon the bodies of their victims, rather than harvesting keepsakes and trophies for a personal collection. Babaus want their legacy to grow among those they hunt and kill.

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
Glabrezu (Treachery Demon)13
Hezrou (Toad Demon)11
Invidiak (Shadow Demon)7
Kalavakus (Slaver Demon)10
Marilith (Pride Demon)17
Nabasu (Gluttony Demon)8
Nalfeshnee (Boar Demon)14
Omox (Slime Demon)12
Quasit1
Demon, Roru7
Shemhazian (Mutilation Demon)16
Succubus (Lust Demon)7
Vavakia18
Vermlek (Worm Demon)3
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.