… is better than the demon you don’t.

Then again, the demon you know is also better than the devil you don’t, so basically the more you know about demons and devils, the safer you are. It’s just simple logic.

So, want to dive into the dark arts in the School of Damnation?

Wizard-SchoolDamnation-v2

Or view the PDF here!

 

Fiends are a dangerous business. Many a warlock has lost their life, or worse, due to a fiendish encounter gone wrong. But they are simpletons, pleading supplicants coming to the demons and devils like beggars and paupers. No wonder they end up losing their souls – they never had very impressive ones to begin with. But not you, no… not you. Learn the right sigils and say the right incantations, and it will be the demons and devils who come to you, dragged into our world by your magic like beggars and thieves caught by the guard. Their lives, and power, yours to do with as you wish…

Features:

• A new name! Yes it is that important, apparently!
• An evil advisor to help in all your wicked, scholarly deeds! What could go wrong?
• More prevalent use of fiendish summons! You are a demonologist (and/or diabolist) after all!
• Advanced wards and barriers perfect for staying on top of that ravenous demonic horde you summoned! It’s fine, just trust me!
• And even more, including yugoloths! No, no one asked for that, I’m well aware and do not care!

Design:

• Firstly I would just like to say that my opinion on the whole demons vs. devils naming scheme catastrophe remains unchanged. I hate that demons isn’t the catchall, because who the hell ever heard of a fiendologist. Or a fiendographer. Or whatever.
• But, to bow to the (not unreasonable) whims of the populace, I’ve changed the name. Now its simply the School of Damnation, reflecting the one (cool sounding) word that demons and devils have in common. Call your character a demonologist or diabolist or whatever, because this subclass does them both.
• Other than that, I’ve tried to get back to the original core of the idea, which is summoning demons fiends. To reflect that, every single feature now relates to summoning in some way.
• I decided to create a mechanical interplay to the whole demons vs. devils thing as well. The way the class is formatted currently, demons are the “cheap and dangerous” option, while devils are the “safe and expensive” variant. Later, once you specialize, demons also gain a measure of quantity over quality, while devils focus more on individual strength. I also added yugoloths, just for fun.
• And what would you even call that, huh? A yugologist? That sounds like an anthropologist who strictly studies Yugi-oh and I’m not about that.
• Ultimately, I like this version. The name sounds cool and isn’t specifically misleading/confusing anymore, and I think the contrasts between demons and devils is good as well. It still suffers from having to use spells from the “That Old Black Magic” UA, or the most recent “Spells and Magic Tattoos” UA, neither of which I like a whole lot. But they’re usable, and being an evil subclass this is likely best suited for NPCs anyway, so I think its fine.

Let me know what you think!