How do we make demons interesting in D&D?

How do we make demons interesting in D&D?
How would you make a demon BBEG?
Hard mode: no succubi, no incubi, no making them sexy

Bikini Balors

In this same vein what odd prices might a demon extract from someone in a bargain? Things like their voice, a hand, part of their history or a bond with a friend.

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You remember that super-good, morally invincible paladin in the party? Turns out, he used to just be averagely good. He had his leftover evil extracted. That evil became the demon lord. The party meets with the BBEG face to face only to see that it is a copy of the paladin.
If you want to avoid inserting uncontrollable nonsense into a PC's backstory, have them meet an aspiring mage that is willing to use his experimental purification technique for free (giving a buff to grant immunity to magical changes to worsen moral alignment). The evil essence will just eventually escape the hapless wizard's holding tank.
For extra drama, the demon lord cannot ever be killed; the paladin acts more-or-less like a phylactery. In the end, the paladin will either have to end himself or accept his sins, reassimilate his evil half, and learn that there are no shortcuts to righteousness.

Dude, demons are already wicked interesting in D&D. They have a huge list of BBEG options too. There's no real need to refresh or reinvent them. Demogorgon or Pazuzu or Pale Mother or Grazz't already make cool archenemies. The Abyss is a cool place to go to.

>the daemon is an infective idea being passed by and growing within the players as they reach the inner sanctum of the BBEG's minions lair containing the key for the final act.

You forgot that 99% of the time if a demons shows up it will be a succubus. Same problem with the devils. If one shows up it will be Mephisto. And then they bitch and moan about "try and make demons/devils interesting again"

>99% of the time it will be a succubus
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Who are you playing with, user?

I'm talking in general. every time someone talked about a campaign and demon showed up it was a succubus. Everytime people met a devil it was Mephisto. Planar travel? welcome to Cania. Same thing about forums and threads.

Only one time did I see this break mold. My friend (who is one of best gms - but also prone to quitting campaigns or scrapping entire plot lines) made devils opposite of angels. So they were ugly instead of fair, cowardly and skulking in shadows instead of being in light of day. Told half-truths, lies and used illusions instead of telling the truth.

I honestly don't think that Demons and Devils need to be changed to be interesting. The D&D entries for them are pretty alright (especially in the Book of Vile Darkness).

DM's just got to use them right. Build adventures and environments around them that accentuate their personality and abilities. A Vrock is a lot more interesting when it's hunting you like a hawk relentlessly over the mountain path to the Warlock's tower. Maybe have a Vrock's Shriek echo across the mountain causing horrible ear damage from far away, or cause an avalanche.

And for Devils, just use some other Devils. Mephy is too fucking busy to deal with your world's bullshit, so have some no name servant, or another named Devil be the pain in your ass.

This is pure gold. Im stealing this... with your permission of course

>make demon like pic-related
>have him be rare demon who actually has more intelligence and ambition than his brethren, who are content to be the same old chaotic-fucktarded dickheads they always were
>Give him calm, professional demeanor and appearance,
>But also give him quirks and slip ups that show the he still doesn't really "get" people that well
>Smart enough to realize that making deals that only fulfill the word of the contract and not the spirit of it reduces his contacts and his chances of making more deals, and getting his plans done
>This makes him dangerous. It because he himself is particularly strong but because he has loyal business partners that he doesn't cheat, and actually gives them the power they want.
>His goal is invade the mortal realm, usurp a king, and conduct horrible procedures upon the population to make an army capable of conquering the multiverse,
>His first target, his home realm

...actually now that I typed this out l, This guy sounds a hell of a lot like Quan-Chi.

I actually must make deals that will bite my players in the ass. If not they are willing to make deals with everyone as long as the price to pay will be in distant future. Unless I make those deals rotten, they would make deals with demons on daily basis and not see anything wrong with that approach. Hell, even now they don't see anything wrong with that approach, they bitch about "wtf is this bullshit" for 5 minutes and then make another deal. Never ending circle of making deals.

Have the deals be more oriented to providing a series of seemingly unrelated or purposeless items or serviceS to the demon that would further his plans, rather than just deals that bite them in the ass because "fuck you I'm a demon". The Demon's ultimate plan and goal can be counter to their interest, or could completely leave them unaffected, but they won't know until he's already started it. That work to create an sort of atmosphere of distrust and "is this really worth it" better than the typical "I eat your soul for five dorra, but you have to give me back the money after I finish" attitude that most demons seem to have.

Sure thing. Glad you liked it. I hope it turns out well for you.

>How do we make X interesting?

I want this meme to stop.

How do we make 'How do we make X interesting?' interesting?

Mephistopheles is actually pretty good as a warlock patron.
What I like to do with devils is that I focus on the lawful in lawful evil and make them all industrialised, with concentration camps that double as factories for processing souls. They probably already have that in canon though.

This is a good point, look at series like SMT where they routinely just pull random named demons out of the goetia to fuck with characters.

A good example being Adramelech in the most recent game, they even stayed 100% faithful to his depiction in the infernal dictionary.

Main, Sailor Nothing was a fun read.