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Demons represent the dark, chaotic impulses of humanity made manifest. Different demons represent different aspects of this darkness, but none are so tempting as the demons of excess. These demons are born from the mortal desire to overindulge in life's earthly pleasures. In some worlds, these fiends operate independently to tempt and corrupt humanoids. On others, they act in service to a mighty demon lord or demonic god who presides over the domain of excess and obsession. Hedonistic Allure. Unlike other demons, these fiends often present themselves as friendly to mortals, offering to aid them in achieving whatever gratification they desire. Wherever they go, these fiends seek to drive mortals to self-destructive levels of debauchery. If time and circumstance allow, this corruption can be done subtly as the demons work their influence across one or more individuals, slowly driving their victims to commit more and more depraved acts. Over time, the victim's ability to delay any form of gratification wanes away, leaving behind a self-indulgent hedonist. In combat, these demons can unleash their supernatural allure in a much less subtle way to temporarily impair and charm their enemies. The fiends will use this tactic to reduce the number of combatants they face while swiftly dispatching any who resist their charms. Ecstasy In Pain While demons of excess prefer to undo their victims using their tempting charms, they are more than capable of dismembering their enemies. When the situation calls, these fiends can move with incredible speed, closing the distance between themselves and a foe in the blink of an eye. Their attacks are made with equal speed, and their agility makes them difficult to strike. Regardless of how quickly they move, their motions are always made with sensual grace. Even when excess demons resort to direct violence, their attacks are laced with perverse pleasure. These demons blur pleasure and pain and their victims often moan with ecstatic agony even as they are ripped limb from limb. Each of these demons' movements is made with erotic grace, and they relish every bit of pain they can inflict. They even appear to take masochistic pleasure in their own pain, and will squeal in ecstasy as they are slain.
Demons of Excess
Daemonettes. These hermaphroditic fiends feature a bizarre combination of alluring and grotesque features. Their lithe, graceful bodies are humanoid in form but include demonic mutations such as horns, hooves, and crustation-like claws. While these features should be repulsive, daemonettes possess a supernatural charm that causes onlookers to view them as paragons of beauty and desire. Daemonettes can combine their charms to quickly undo the will of their foes. The fiends will then ravage their helpless victims who remain enamored by their attackers even as they are torn apart.
Daemonette
Medium fiend (demon), chaotic evil
- Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 52 (8d8 + 16)
- Speed 50ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 18 (+4) 15 (+2) 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 18 (+4)
- Saving Throws Dex +6
- Skills Acrobatics +6, Deception +6, Perception +4, Performance +8
- Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning
- Damage Immunities poison
- Condition Immunities poisoned
- Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 14
- Languages Abyssal, telepathy 60 ft.
- Challenge 3 (700 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Charming Aura. Any non-demon creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of one or more daemonettes must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by all daemonettes within 10 feet. While a creature charmed this way, it is incapacitated. The creature may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. The effect also ends if there aren't any daemonettes within 10 feet of the creature at the end of any turn. The save DC for this effect increases by 2 for each daemonette within 10 feet of the target, up to a maximum of DC 18. Once the creature makes a successful saving throw against this effect, it is immune to the charming aura of all daemonettes for 1 hour.
Evasion. When the daemonette makes a Dexterity saving throw to reduce the damage of an effect by half, it instead takes no damage on a success and only half damage on a failure
Actions
Multiattack. The daemonette makes three attacks.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) slashing damage.
Daemonettes often serve as the primary servants for demonic lords of excess. They can fulfill the role of spies, assassins, and foot soldiers. Daemonettes are also dispatched to seduce and corrupt powerful individuals, bringing them under the sway of their demonic master.
When they are not actively pursuing the agenda of their master, daemonettes exist to serve their master's every whim. They are often found in the lairs of powerful demon lords, where they act as handmaidens, consorts, and guards. When their master goes into battle, these sycophantic fiends eagerly join the fray, laying their lives down in hopes of earning favor with their fickle lord.
Fiend of Excess
Large fiend (demon), chaotic evil
- Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 110 (13d10 + 39)
- Speed 80ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 20 (+5) 17 (+3) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 20 (+5)
- Saving Throws Dex +9
- Skills Acrobatics +9, Deception +9, Performance +9, Perception +6
- Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
- Damage Immunities poison
- Condition Immunities poisoned
- Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 16
- Languages Abyssal, telepathy 120 ft.
- Challenge 9 (5,000 XP) Proficiency Bonus +4
Disruptive Song. While the fiend is not incapacitated, it can choose to sing a haunting melody (no action required). Any non-demon creature within 120 feet of the fiend that can hear the song has disadvantage on saving throws it makes to maintain concentration.
Evasion. When the fiend makes a Dexterity saving throw to reduce the damage of an effect by half, it instead takes no damage on a success and only half damage on a failure.
Magic Resistance. The fiend has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects
Soporific Musk. Any non-demon creature that ends its turn within 20 feet of one or more fiends of excess must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or suffer the effects of the slow spell until the end of the creature's next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to the Soporific Musk of all fiends of excess for 1 hour. The save DC for this effect increases by 2 for each fiend of excess within 20 feet of the target, up to a maximum DC of 20.
Actions
Multiattack. The fiend makes three attacks: two with its claws and one with its sting.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 16). The fiend has two claws, each of which can grapple only one target.
Sting. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 5) piercing damage plus 11 (2d10) psychic damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. If its saving throw result is 11 or lower, the poisoned target falls unconscious until the poisoned condition ends. The target repeats the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. Emptying a vial of holy water on the target also ends the effect.
Fiends of Excess. These obscene fiends combine lewd human features with a mutated bestial form. Fiends of excess gallop at high speeds, their long tongues tasting the air as they search for prey. Their unfortunate victims must not only contend with powerful claws but a nubile scorpion-like tail. The poison from the tail's stinger numbs the senses to the point where many victims fall unconscious. Fiends of excess use this opportunity to toy with their new playthings, ravaging their helpless prey with cruel wounds. Those who awaken are racked with pain as sensation rushes back, their final moments filled with agony as the fiend gleefully tears apart and eats its victim alive.
Fiends of excess often serve as favored pets and war beasts for more powerful demon lords of excess. When unleashed upon enemy forces, they sing disturbing melodies that disrupt the minds of any who hear them, impairing the ability to concentrate on spells. Opponents who engage the fiends in melee combat fair no better, and they soon find themselves overwhelmed by a coying musk that leaves them sluggish and unresponsive. These fiends relish the chaos and disruption they sow and gracefully dance through enemy ranks picking apart targets with surgical precision.
Keeper of Secrets. These greater demons are paragons of unfettered desire and destructive obsession. The forms they assume are varied, but they are all huge fiends with vaguely humanoid forms that feature an amalgam of male, female, and bestial features. These bodies sport four arms that end in diamond-sharp claws, and they move at such speed in combat they appear to be a blur of motion.
These fiends drive mortals to push every experience to the extreme, and those under their influence lose themselves in pursuit of new sensations and experiences. These pursuits may begin with frenzied artistic creation or the indulgence of forbidden pleasures, but they soon devolve into depraved acts of self-gratification and sadism.
Keepers of secrets eagerly partake in the cruel, hedonistic frenzy using their elegant great blades to masterfully cut a swath through awed onlookers, each slice moving with the grace of a dancer and each blood splatter painting the ground with the aesthetic precision of an artist. Even those who resist their charms find themselves facing a martial master capable of wielding overwhelmingly seductive magics.
Keeper of Secrets
Huge fiend (demon), chaotic evil
- Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 283 (27d12 + 108)
- Speed 100ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 22 (+6) 18 (+4) 22 (+6) 22 (+6) 25 (+7)
- Saving Throws Dex +12, Con +10, Wis +12, Int +12
- Skills Acrobatics +12, Athletics +10, Deception +19, Insight +12, Perception +12, Persuasion +19, Performance +19
- Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
- Damage Immunities poison
- Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned
- Senses truesight 120 ft., darkvision 300 ft., passive Perception 22
- Languages Abyssal, telepathy 300 ft.
- Challenge 17 (18,000 XP) Proficiency Bonus +6
Avoidance. If the keeper is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
Blurred Movement. Attack rolls against the keeper have disadvantage unless it is incapacitated or restrained.
Charming Aura. Any non-demon creature that ends its turn within 30 feet of the keeper must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by all keepers of secrets within 30 feet. While a creature is charmed this way, it is incapacitated. The creature may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. The effect also ends if there aren't any keepers of secrets within 30 feet of the creature at the end of any turn.
Once the creature makes a successful saving throw against this effect, it is immune to the charming aura of all keepers of secrets for 1 hour.
Distant Caster. When the keeper casts a spell with a range of 5 feet or greater, the range of that spell is doubled. When the keeper casts a spell with a range of touch, the range of that spell becomes 30 feet.
Magic Resistance. The keeper has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. The keeper makes four attacks: two with its Elegant Greatblade and two with its claws. Alternatively, it makes two attacks with its claws and casts one at will spell.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a large or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 21). The keeper has two claws, each of which can grapple only one target.
Elegant Greatblade. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (6d6 + 6) slashing damage.
Spellcasting. The keeper casts one of the following spells, requiring no components and using Charisma as its spellcasting ability (spell save DC 21):
At will: cacophonic caress*, charm monster, command, dispel magic, enthrall, nystul's magic aura(self only), slicing shards*
1/day each: dominate monster, glibness, hypnotic pattern, otto's irresistible dance, phantasmagoria*, project image
*Spells described later in this documentReactions
Instinctive Charm. When a creature the keeper can see within 120 feet of it makes an attack roll against it, the attacker must make a DC 21 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the attacker must target another creature within range of the attack other than the keeper. If multiple creatures are within range, the attacker chooses which one to target. If no other creatures are within range of the attack, the attack is wasted.
Lore of Excess
Within the Warhammer world, the daemon god Slaanesh represents excess, pain, and pleasure, all taken to the extreme, and there is an entire school of spells devoted to his magic. While many existing D&D spells can represent Slaanesh's magic, the following new spells provide even more ways of bringing his profane style of sorcery into your campaigns.
Cacophonic Caress
3rd-level evocation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self (30-foot radius)
- Components: V
- Duration: Instantaneous
- Classes: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock
You throw back your head and emit an ululating scream. Each creature within range takes 3d6 thunder damage and must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 3d6 additional psychic damage and be deafened for 1 minute. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much psychic damage and isn't deafened. A creature deafened this way can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Phantasmagoria
6th-level illusion
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 60 feet
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Classes: Bard, Warlock
You summon illusory creatures who flit and broil within a 30 foot radius sphere centered on a point within range you can see. The creatures whisper dark promises of fulfillment, seducing and bewildering hapless foes. You can designate any number of creatures you can see to be unaffected by the spell. An affected creature in the area of the spell suffers
disadvantage on Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom saving throws and Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration. The spell ends if you move more than
60 feet away from the area under its effect.
Slicing Shards
4th-level conjuration
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 90 feet
- Components: V, S, M (a piece of broken glass)
- Duration: Instantaneous
- Classes: Artificer, Warlock
You conjure a cloud of razor-sharp glass capable of slicing through mind and body and send it flying toward a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 10d4 slashing damage and must make a Wisdom saving throw. The target takes 10d4 additional psychic damage on a failed save and half as much damage on a successful one. If the attack misses, the glass grazes the target, and it takes half as much of the initial slashing damage and does not make the Wisdom saving throw or take any additional psychic damage.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, both the slashing and psychic damage increase by 1d4 for each slot level above 4th.
Demons of Excess in Your Adventures
The demons in this document are based on the daemons of Slaanesh from the Warhammer franchise. However, they can be adapted to fit any setting in which demons work to tempt and corrupt mortals. In more traditional Dungeons and Dragons settings, they could even serve other demon lords such as Grazzt. The following tables provide you with examples of ways to incorporate these demons into your adventures.
Daemonette Adventures
| d6 | Plot Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | In a secret demon-worshipping pleasure cult, members who commit enough hedonistic atrocities warp into daemonettes. |
| 2 | A warlord trying to secure a desperate victory was seduced by demonic whispers into summoning a legion of daemonettes to win the day. They have since turned on their would-be master and now run rampant. |
| 3 | A basement-dwelling warlock has summoned a harem of daemonettes. They now sow chaos as they serve their master's petty whims. |
| 4 | A once abandoned brothel is now filled with daemonettes who roam dark streets preying the desperate and the downtrodden. |
| 5 | A powerful demon has sent daemonettes to infiltrate a city and sow chaos in preparation for his coming. |
| 6 | A group of elven nobility has engaged in such decadence they've been cursed with the forms of daemonettes, driving them to greater acts of depravity. |
Fiend of Excess Adventures
| d6 | Plot Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | A demon-worshipping noble puts on shows for guests in which he feeds peasants to his pet fiend of excess. |
| 2 | After an unholy union with a demon, a warlock has given birth to a fiend of excess, which she dotes on like a child while taking it out on hunts. |
| 3 | A mad elven ranger stalks a dark wood, leading a pack of fiends of excess as they cruelly hunt any who approach their territory. |
| 4 | A botched attempt at a succubus summoning resulted in a fiend of excess, which promptly slew the summoner and now stalks the nearby town for more prey. |
| 5 | A group of cultists performing a dark, hedonistic ritual melded together into a fiend of excess that now seeks new individuals to devour and add to the cult's "membership." |
| 6 | A former demon worshipper seeks the players' help in escaping the wrath of her former cult members, who have summoned a demon of excess to hunt her down. |
Keeper of Secrets Adventures
| d4 | Plot Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | The inhabitants of a town have slowly been losing their inhibitions over the past few days. As they descend into greater acts of hedonism, the now mad town priest raves about the coming "keeper of secrets." |
| 2 | A demonic cult leader summoned a keeper of secrets to subdue rivals, but the demon quickly made this "leader" into its pet and took control of the cult. |
| 3 | An entire city-state has fallen into decadent ruin, its remaining inhabitants losing themselves in a flurry of excess. A keeper of secrets sits upon the city's throne, ruling over the nation while it undergoes its exquisite death-throes. |
| 4 | A keeper of secrets has found its way into the mortal realm and amassed a legion of daemonettes, fiends of excess, and mortal followers. The ambitious demon now leads a campaign of conquest, plunging each city and town it takes into chaotic decadence and excess. |
Art Credit
- Seekers of Slaanesh - Igor Sid
- Daemonettes - daarken
- Fiend of Slaanesh - Igor Sid
- Keeper-of-secrets Slaanesh - slaanesh-goddess
- Sorcerer of Slaanesh - albe75
- Heralds of Slaanesh - Phil Moss
1.0.0 Changes
- Public Release
1.0.1 Changes
- Fix typos found after release
1.0.2 Changes
- Add Lore of Excess spells
1.0.3 Changes
- Fix Additional Typos
1.0.4 Changes
- Fix formatting of spell lists for keeper of secrets
1.0.5 Changes
- Daemonette Speed increased and the Claw Damage changed
Referenced Documents
- New Spells 0.0.1