Demon, Thoxel DemonDead white scars and raw red flesh crisscross this creature’s scorched and sallow skin as though it has been flogged and branded a thousand times.Thoxel Demon CR 5Source Pathfinder #74: Sword of Valor pg. 86
XP 1,600
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13
Aura insolence (5 ft., DC 15)DefenseAC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 18 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 51 (6d10+18)
Fort +8, Ref +7, Will +2
Immune electricity, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10, fire 10OffenseSpeed 20 ft.
Melee mwk two–bladed sword +10/+10/+7 (1d8+6/19–20)
Ranged composite longbow +8/+3 (1d8+4/×3)
Special Attacks betrayer’s blade, disrupt coordination
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th; concentration +8)
At will—alter self, greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only), lesser confusion (DC 13)
3/day—murderous commandUM (DC 13)StatisticsStr 19, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 14
Base Atk +6; CMB +10; CMD 22
Feats Double Slice, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (two-bladed sword)
Skills Bluff +11, Craft (weapons) +4, Craft (armor) +4, Disguise +8, Intimidate +8, Perception +13, Profession (soldier) +9; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft.EcologyEnvironment any (Abyss)
Organization solitary, pair, squad (3–6), or platoon (7–12)
Treasure standard (chainmail, composite longbow, mwk two-bladed sword, other treasure)Special AbilitiesAura of Insolence (Su) Any creature adjacent to a thoxel demon must succeed at a DC 15 Will save or become insolent and uncooperative with its allies. Creatures affected by this aura stop functioning as allies to other creatures. An affected creature can’t provide flanking, can’t serve as an ally for teamwork feats or aid another actions, and doesn’t allow its allies to move through its space. Any spell or effect that requires a willing target fails if it is used on an affected creature, and even harmless effects require an attack roll (if applicable) and require the insolent creature to attempt a saving throw against them. An affected creature remains insolent as long as it is adjacent to a thoxel demon and for 1d4 rounds thereafter. A creature that successfully saves is not subject to the same thoxel’s aura for 24 hours. Thoxel demons are immune to this effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Betrayer’s Blade (Su) If a thoxel demon hits a creature with both ends of its two-bladed sword in the same round, the target is compelled to attack its leader. The target can negate this effect with a successful DC 15 Will save. A creature affected by this effect turns on its leader or commander and attacks as if it were dominated for 1d6 rounds. An animal companion, cohort, or familiar must attack its master, and a called, charmed, dominated, or summoned creature must attack the creature controlling it. If a creature has no leader, it instead attacks a random ally. This is a mindaffecting compulsion effect, and the save DC is Charisma-based.
Disrupt Coordination (Su) Whenever a creature threatened by a thoxel demon uses the aid another action, the thoxel can, as an immediate action, attempt to interrupt and negate that action. The thoxel demon must make an attack roll. The attack roll of the creature performing the aid another action must equal or exceed the thoxel demon’s attack roll; otherwise, the aid another action is negated.DescriptionAble to take the shape of rank-and-file soldiers and infect military ranks like a cancer, thoxels—also known as insubordination demons—spend every drop of their malice to break down the cooperative spirit of those who fight together. Among mortal soldiers, thoxels whisper disparaging words about commanders, talk in hushed tones about the danger of upcoming battles, or belittle other soldiers’ accomplishments. Many great battles are said to have been lost because of the presence of these subtle but murderous demons within an army’s ranks. They represent a passion to kill as they please without caring about order, control, or their allies. Despite their skill at martial exploits, thoxels are lazy and untrustworthy creatures. Thoxel demons are 6 feet tall and weigh 200 pounds.EcologyThoxel demons form from the souls of deserters and traitors, those who abandoned their posts and their erstwhile allies to their fates while they sought glory elsewhere on the battlefield, or safety far from it. These cowardly demons delight in breaking the spirits of those they hide among, disguised as typical soldiers. Their defining sin is the ruin, pain, and death they brought to others by failing to follow orders, keep discipline, and stand firm in face of adversity. It is not just that they failed private tests of character, but also that their moral disintegration led to great suffering in others who trusted them and depended on them. Those betrayers who sought to expiate their guilt through reconciliation and reparations to those they abandoned still earned their shame but preserved their eternal souls, but the unrepentant souls who callously disregarded the tragedies left in their wake, hewing to their own path again and again despite the havoc they left behind, often find their way to the Abyss.
Thoxel demons are lazy in the extreme, prone to shirking labor and sleeping whenever they have the chance—despite not needing to do so. Thoxels usually have to be herded into work details and closely supervised by more powerful demons. When closely directed, they can perform impressively in battlefield maneuvers and move with tight precision, coordinating their attacks between one another in order to bring down lone prey too strong for a single thoxel to defeat on its own. Once their prey is taken or the enemy’s resolve is broken, their temporary alliances fracture quickly and they resort to squabbling and fighting among themselves over the spoils, with the strongest taking the lion’s share and the rest settling for scraps.Habitat & SocietyThoxel demons are instruments of spiritual torture, in that they represent the advent of hope followed by its shattering destruction. They appear to be strong and steadfast warriors who march in precise formation and keep their armaments perpetually polished to a parade ground shine, yet at precisely the wrong moment they break and run, or disrupt careful formations with sudden and unexpected maneuvers aimed at self-aggrandizement or self-preservation. They corrode discipline and morale, turning troops against commanders and allies against friends. Thoxels are agents of dissension and disruption, whether working alone or using magical or mundane disguises to infiltrate existing units.
Thoxels are reborn into bodies very much like the ones they possessed in life, though they are scarred and physically tormented for their cowardice and treachery in life before being reborn into an eternity of spreading their sin to others. They are formed up into squads and platoons and set to patrol the endless realms of the Abyss when not sent to break armies on the Material Plane. These groups of thoxels form fluid ranks, gathering together for short periods of time interspersed with long periods of lazy rest.
Though thoxels willingly fight for any demons more powerful than themselves, they are common within the Abyssal realm of Charnelhome, where the psychic implements of Shax dissect and dismember soul and spirit as surely as they do flesh and bone. There, thoxels spar continuously with the babaus and chokers who lurk in every shadowy corner of Charnelhome, fighting a guerrilla war to show who are the fittest servants of the Blood Marquis.
Thoxel demons are skilled artisans, able to forge and maintain weapons and armor of excellent quality, and they take a certain pride in ensuring their personal armaments are always sharp and in good repair. When closely supervised, thoxel demons can be tasked with forge duty, turning out weapons for demonic legions in great numbers. However, their selfishness and laziness impairs their usefulness as foundry smiths for demon armies, as they frequently take shortcuts to get through their quotas and care little for the fate of demonic soldiers whose weapons shatter in battle or whose armor is ill-fitting or missing key fasteners. Anyone who relies on an insubordination demon’s craftsmanship takes a great risk, for thoxels rarely put much care and attention to detail into the armor or weapons that are intended for anyone but themselves.Creatures in "Demon" CategorySource Pathfinder RPG Bestiary pg. 57
Demons exist for one reason—to destroy. Where their more lawful counterparts, the devils of Hell, seek to twist mortal minds and values to remake and reshape them into reflections of their own evil, demons seek only to maim, ruin, and feed. They recruit mortal life only if such cohorts speed along the eventual destruction of hope and goodness. Death is, in some ways, their enemy—for a mortal who dies can often escape a demon's depredations and flee to his just reward in the afterlife. It is the prolonging of mortal pain and suffering that fuels a demon's lusts and desires, for it is partially from mortal sin and cruelty that these monstrous fiends were born.
Demons are the most prolific and among the most destructive of the fiendish races, yet despite what some lore might preach, they were not the first forms of life to rise in the stinking pits of ruin and cruelty known across the multiverse as the Abyss. Before the first fledgling deity gazed upon reality, before mortal life drew its breath, before even the Material Plane itself had fully formed, the Abyss was infested with life.
Known to many scholars as “proto-demons,” these wretched and deadly beings were the qlippoth. Today, because of the influence of sinful mortal souls upon the Abyss, mixed with unholy tamperings at the hands of the daemonic keepers of Abaddon and the cruel whims of fate and evolution, the rule of the qlippoth has receded. The proto-demons dwell now in the noxious and forgotten corners of the Abyss, and the far more fecund and prolific demons rule now in their stead. With each evil mortal soul that finds its way into the Abyss, the ranks of the demonic hordes grows—a single soul can fuel the manifestation of dozens or even hundreds of demons, with the exact nature of the sins carried by the soul guiding the shapes and roles of the newly formed fiends.
The Abyss is a vast (some say infinite) realm, far larger than any other plane save possibly the primal chaos of the Maelstrom itself. As befits such a vast and varied realm, the demonic host is likewise diverse. Some carry in their frames humanoid shapes, while others are twisted beasts. Some flop on land while others flap in air or sea. Some are schemers and manipulators of emotion and politics, others are destructive engines of ruin. Yet all demons work to the same goal—pain and suffering for mortal life in all its forms.
Yet despite this, mortals have sought demonic aid since the start. Be it an instinctual draw to self-destruction or a misguided lust for power, conjurers to this day continue to draw forth demons with forbidden magic. Some conjure demons for lore, while others call upon them to serve as assassins or guards. Demons view such summoners with a mix of hatred and thanks, for most demons lack the ability to come to the Material Plane to wreak havoc on their own. They depend on the mad to call them up from the Abyss, and while they gnash their fangs and rail against the commands and strictures enforced, most demons find ways to twist their summoners' demands so that even the most tightly controlled demonic slave leaves a trace of ruin and despair in its wake. More often than not, a foolish spellcaster makes a fatal mistake in the conjuring and pays for it with blood, unwittingly releasing a terrible blight upon the world as his conjuration breaks free of his control.
The truly mad call upon demons to offer themselves, both body and soul, in the misguided belief that alliance with the demonic can buy salvation and protection when the demonic apocalypse finally comes to call. Tales of desperate kings who sought to engage demons to serve as generals for their armies or of lunatics who seek demonic sires to gift them with horrific children are common enough, yet worst are those mortals who worship the most powerful demons as gods, and who pledge their lives in support of that which would bring destruction to all. Demon SubtypeDemons are chaotic evil outsiders that call the Abyss their home. Demons possess a particular suite of traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry) as summarized here.- Immunity to electricity and poison.
- Resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10.
- Summon (Sp) Demons share the ability to summon others of their kind, typically another of their type or a small number of less powerful demons.
- Telepathy.
- Except where otherwise noted, demons speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Draconic.
- A demon's natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, is treated as chaotic and evil for the purpose of resolving damage reduction
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