Barbed Devil (4e Race)

Barbed Devil

Barbed Devil by Shonuff at deviantArt

Horrid guardians spawned in vaults of Erberus

Racial Traits

Average Height: 6'10" - 8'6"

Average Weight: 250 - 380 lbs

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, and +2 to Dexterity or Charisma

Size: Medium

Speed: 7 squares

Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Infernal

Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Intimidate

Immortal Origin: You are considered an immortal creature for the purposes of effects that relate to creature origin. You have the devil keyword.

Fire Resistance: You have resist fire 5 + one-half your level.

Impaling Embrace: If you successfully grab a creature, that creature takes damage equal to your Strength modifier. If you sustain the grab, the target takes damage equal to half your Strength modifier.

Barbed Defense: You can use barbed defense as an Encounter power.

Infernal Heritage: When your barbed devil character gains a class utility power after 1st level, you can forgo taking a power granted to you by your class. Instead you gain a barbed devil utility power of the same level or lower.

Barbed Defense	Barbed Devil Racial Power
You threaten close-quarter opponents with a display of long, cruel spikes.
Encounter
Immediate Reaction	Melee 1
Trigger: An adjacent enemy attacks you with a melee or close attack.
Target: The triggering enemy
Effect: The triggering enemy takes 1d6 + Strength modifier or Dexterity modifier. Level 11: 2d6 + Strength modifier or Dexterity modifier. Level 21: 3d6 + Strength modifier or Dexterity modifier.

Barbed Devils are created in the lonely vaults of Erebus by imprisoning a lesser devil for three hundred and thirty three years. Occasionally the devil, fearful of its sanity, may attempt to escape; extremely rarely they succeed and slip through to another plane as a malfomed not-quite barbed monstrosity.

Physical Qualities

Barbed devils have horny, barbed hands and horrid tails. They are bristling with spikes, some of which are adorned with trophies from past victims.

Attitudes and Beliefs

Both loyal to their masters and usually restricted to Hell, some justification is needed for an adventuring barbed devil.

Tasked with guarding the vaults of their masters, a barbed devil may be released into the material plane to track down a stolen treasure or prisoner. Normally, a barbed devil would be keen on returning to Hell as soon as possible. If an individual devil particularly resents his master or finds the life of exploration on the material plane too alluring, this task might be delayed and eventually ignored. Of course, such aberrant disloyalty will grant the adventurer a powerful enemy.

Barbed Devil Communities

An adventuring barbed devil will of course be shunned by civilized communities, and good-aligned adventurers must exercise self-control over their intrinsic sadism. Their physical form also renders any kind of intimacy impossible. Most barbed devils have an appreciation for bureaucracy and will honor contracts: they will be loyal to any adventuring party they have an agreement with.

Barbed Devil Adventurers

Barbed devils favor the paladin, ranger, barbarian, warlord or sorcerer classes. Three sample barbed devil adventurers are described below.

Drori is a barbed devil blackguard. She was summoned from hell and bound under geas by the temple of Erathis, for the purpose of helping quell riotous cults disrupting the city. Drori passionately hates demons, and as the cults are believed to be abyssal in nature, she is only too pleased to follow the orders of her new contract. She sometimes pines for the darkened chambers of her old master, and wonders what terrible offering the Temple made in exchange for her servitude. Otherwise, she is interested in the little freedoms now allowed to her in bringing dominion to mere mortals.

Mortha is a barbed devil cosmic sorcerer. He served the archdevil Raamoth, one of the few barbed devils to do so, in the first layer of Hell. Never too interested in his duties of torturing the damned, he often stared up, through the fiery sky, hoping to study the Astral Sea. Eventually he slipped away with a group of outcast devils to hide in the tall, barren mountains of Avernus. His fascination with the Plane Above was justified, and he learned to manipulate the arcane connection between his soul and the cosmos. He escaped through the colour veil on a magical vessel of his own devising.

Vamegor is a barbed devil thaneborn barbarian. He lost his mind during centuries of imprisonment in Erberus, and was rejected from the ranks of barbed devils as a malformed half--thing. He was able to escape from Hell by following in the wake of an adventuring party, and emerged in the natural world. Lost and angry, he stumbled through forests and mountains, untwittingly drawing from simple, ancient spirits to complete his form. Now, crazed but confident, he seeks a meaning for his outcast existence.

Roleplaying a Barbed Devil

When creating a barbed devil adventurer, here are a few points to consider.

• To be an adventurer with an infernal origin.
• To be a warrior that favours close-quarters combat.

Barbed Devil Characteristics: Sadistic, gleeful, vigilant, bullying, regimental, subservient

Barbed Devil Names: Anglamel, Dululit, Faugonil, Irorgor, Mirgugba, Ngolimmeth, Roravaul, Vaturca, Vazgo

Barbed Devil Feats

Heroic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
Barbed Claws	Your claws are weapons
Barbed Tail	You slap prone enemies with your spiked tail.
Dominating Grab	With your gaze you paralyze your victim, before impaling him on your spikes.
Guardian of Erberus	Years of tireless guard duty in the gloomy vaults of Hell have made you vigilant.
Hurl Flame	You can lob a globe of infernal fire.

Paragon Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
Grasping Barbs	When you use the Barbed Defense power, you also grab the target, and the target is marked by you until the end of your next turn.
Horrid Claws	Your claws are brutal weapons.

Epic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
Barbed Teleport

Barbed Devil Utility Powers

When your barbed devil character gains a class utility power after 1st level, you can forgo taking a power granted to you by your class. Instead you gain a barbed devil utility power of the same level or lower.

In addition to the following, you may choose from the powers at Devil Powers.

Dreadful Strike	Barbed Devil Utility 6
You channel infernal power into your next strike, to terrify the mind of your foe.
Encounter  Fear
Minor Action	Personal
Effect: The next at-will melee weapon attack you make before the end of your turn is made against your target's Will instead of the normal defense. In addition, after the attack is resolved, the target must move its speed away from you, avoiding difficult and hindering terrain and provoking opportunity attacks.

Threatening Barbs	Barbed Devil Utility 10
You bristle with jagged quills and spikes, threatening those who dare to come near.
Daily  Stance
Minor Action	Personal
Effect: You enter the Threatening Barbs stance until the end of the encounter. Whilst in this stance you have an Aura 1: any creature in the aura that makes a melee or close attack against you takes 5 damage.

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