They live by the sword and kill by the sword. Their beauty is nothing compared to their wrath. – From The Book of Vile Darkness
Ah, the succubus. A classic devil, often used in fiction. How could they not be in D&D? Although to be fair: this monster is far from your typical succubus.
While still being the most beautiful creatures in the Nine Hells, at least among lesser and greater devils, the Erinyes are fierce warriors, both highly skilled and disciplined. They fly down from the skies, reaping judgment upon those who wronged their masters or went against the will of Asmodeus. Legend has it that they were once angels that fell from the Upper Planes, having succumbed to temptation. On a mission to spread conquest or corruption, they’ll be more than willing to take advantage of that old tale.
This lore is certainly cool and interesting, but there really isn’t much you could do with it. Maybe the party could be deceived by an Eriynes to do something terrible. Or maybe they just piss off a high-ranked devil and have to deal with them. They work well as moving pieces in a grander story. But they can never stand alone in their own story.
But hey! At least they look cool!
Design: All About Deception
In most cases, I judge a design by how much I can learn just by looking at it. That’s the key to good character design; parts of that character’s personality or story should be communicated through how they look. However, in this case, I can only kind of do that. Why? Because like it said in the lore: this monster often uses deception to her advantage. And looking at her design, I can kind of see why.
When you first take a look at her, the Erinyes does look quite angelic. However, every aspect of her design carries with it a hint as to her true nature. This is a really clever way of designing a character; if you don’t read the monster’s flavor text or stats, you could easily confuse it for an angel of some kind. Just like the characters in the story itself!
The design does look angelic. The massive wings, armor, and stunning features do give it that air of divinity. However, all of the colors give you the sense that something is wrong. Rather than having white, heavenly wings, like the other angels do, her wings are blood red. Her armor is all black and red, both colors commonly affiliated with evil and bloodshed. Both her whip and sword have a sinister design to them as if they were designed to hurt as much as possible. If you look closely, you’ll notice that her eyes are dark red, as well as cold and disdaining. If you’re observant enough, you can figure out what this thing is really about!
This is a super cool design! It’s unique for a devil and effective in an interesting way! It’s not as chilling as the Bone Devil, but it works just as well!
Now, let’s talk about how she’ll dominate the party. And no, I’m not just talking about a fight.
Stats: A Duelist of Hell
Finally! A truly dangerous Devil! It’s just a shame that it isn’t all that creative in a fight.
The Erinyes is easily the beefiest Devil we’ve discussed so far. Not only does it wear plate armor, giving it a solid 18 AC, but its HP averages at 153! Combine that with the monster’s massive list of resistances and you’ve got a monster that is far from easy to kill! Not only that, but it can fucking fly for up to sixty feet! Have fun trying to even hit it!
Because it will hit you.
This monster has a special ability, simply called Hellish Weapons. With this, each attack is magical and gains an extra 13(3d8) poison damage. On its own, this isn’t a super dangerous ability. But when you consider that this thing can swing three times per turn? Well, that ain’t good.
The weapons themselves aren’t especially dangerous. The longsword can deal 8(1d8+4) damage with one hand or 9(1d10+4) if swung with two. The longbow does 7(1d8+3) piercing damage and can poison the target if they fail a DC 14 CON saving throw. Again: nothing too dangerous. But when you factor in the additional 13(3d8) that each landed attack gets? This monster starts to rack up damage super quickly!
Oh, and are you rolling well in a one-on-one? Well, roll better! With the Parry ability, the Erinyes can add an extra 4 to its AC against one melee attack that would hit. So long as it is wielding a melee weapon and can see its attacker, they’ll have a much harder time hitting it. Which is a huge pain, considering how high the AC already is!
You can also give her a Rope of Entanglement if you want. I’d go into more detail, but the book just tells you to look up the stats in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. So I won’t bother.
These guys make for a very straight-forward fight. It doesn’t really have any creative abilities that force the players to think on their toes. Fighting one of these guys is just a classic case of high numbers. Just roll well, keep an eye on your HP, communicate with your party, and you’ll eventually win. It’s unlikely that these guys can make for an especially interesting fight.
Unless you put them against a depressed barbarian in a one-on-one with a huge crowd of NPCs. Not that I’d know anything about that.
Conclusion
The Erinyes is a decent monster. The lore is interesting, although you can’t do much with it. The stats can make for a challenging fight, but not an especially interesting one. The coolest part about this is the design, which is a solid A+ in my book! Nothing about it is bad. But the only exceptional thing is the design.
With all that said, let’s put the Erinyes on the Best of the Bestiary!
- Beholder
- Death Tyrant
- Couatl
- Behir
- Aboleth
- Chuul
- Chimera
- Death Knight
- Bone Devil
- Ankheg
- Shadow Demon
- Marilith
- Aarackockra
- Azer
- Demilich
- Spectator
- Cambion
- Animated Armor
- Banshee
- Basilisk
- Yochlol
- Bulette
- Cloaker
- Darkmantle
- Erinyes <———-
- Chain Devil
- Bearded Devil
- Barbed Devil
- Nalfeshnee
- Glabrezu
- Chasme
- Barlgura
- Balor
- Vrock
- Dretch
- Goristro
- Hezrou
- Manes
- Quasit
- Planetar
- Carrion Crawler
- Rug of Smothering
- Bugbear Chief
- Bugbear
- Vine Blight
- Twig Blight
- Needle Blight
- Bullywug
- Cockatrice
- Solar
- Deva
- Cyclops
- Centaur
- Flying Sword
- Crawling Claw
