Why are demons the main supernatural threat in 99% of D&D settings?

Does... does nobody else see the katana copypasta, or is that just me?

>Nothing that really concerns or makes problems for PCs though.

>A civil war erupts in the middle of The Nine Hells of such ferocity that it makes The Dawn War look like children fighting in the school yard. The level of fiendish magic and might is so great that it causes the planes themselves to shake and put the very cosmos at risk. The Gods, due to the ancient compacts, can't do anything to directly interfere. Desperate to keep their realms from collapsing on them, the Gods reach out to the strongest mortals in existence, be they good of heart or back hearted, tasking them with either returning The Nine Hells to the status quo as fast as possible. Now it is up to the PCs to either support the civil war or help the layers of Hell's current rulers put down the rebellion.

Sounds like an epic-level campaign to me.

Sounds contrived to me.

The best campaigns are those that effect the player characters and what's theirs. There is a person stake in it then.

Political finagling in hell because epic reasons does not sound appealing to me as a player or as a DM.

The only way i'd do a Hell campaign is go entirely Dante's Inferno with it. You are either dead souls trapped here, or those come to hell to retrieve a soul of someone close to you. Go get it and get out.

>Implying I wasn't meaning a literal and bloody civil war.
>Implying the fate of the all of the Planes of Existence (except maybe limbo) aren't high enough stakes (your character lives in that universe after all, and it would suck to lose it).
>Implying that your group wouldn't want an excuse to reenact the DOOM and RIP AND TEAR some devil assholes.

It's almost as if there was a reason we weren't calling attention to it, user.

>Implying I wasn't meaning a literal and bloody civil war.

That's happening "over there"

The players shit is "here"

Players are incredibly selfish.

Unless there is something that they want "over there" they will likely stay "here"

Doom only works because there is ONLY Rip and Tear. That's also bad for D&D.

Not that guy but are you serious
Or just contrarian

>The gods are literally asking you to save their shit, and will most likely compensate you pretty well.

>"It's not affecting me right now, so fuck off."

You're a That Guy, aren't you?

Very serious. Every group i've played with were incredibly selfish and wanted to do their own thing, mostly get loot and kill shit. Any prepared story went out the window and I built a story and world around my players than building a world for my players to move around in. To get them to go anywhere I had to entice them with cool loot and enemies, and god forbid if their shit was threatened, they would come down like the wrath of gods to destroy the threat for even daring of harming or taking their shit.

Exactly
>hell has no cool loot and cool enemies
u wot m8
It's like saying gold isn't gold colored

My sessions final boss is a chimera dragon thing

Your sales pitch didn't say anything about cool loot and enemies, just political crap in a place that's not where they are.

Now if you mentioned a particular badass of an army, or say the warchests of the armies are bursting with loot and raids from across worlds, you'd have their attention. Or something like an epic item from the gods as a reward for doing shit in Hell.

Using this premise, i'd have their shit attacked by devil hordes, make sure they learn who the boss of this horde is, and let them know HIS shit is in Hell, along with him.

They'd go to Hell then.

They get used for different things

Demons are really easy to use though. They are impulsive violent and brutal. They can be intelligent and have goals but its a very straight forward kind of evil to use in a pinch

Devils can be every bit as brutal and evil but the whole Lawful aspect and hierarchy needs to get played up to use them properly

I had a campaign setting once based on a grand city that was the PCs hometown in an Ebberon style setting. It was shining beacon of civilization and trade that became even more famous after a portal to the Abyss was opened and a horde of demons ran roughshod over most of the continent. There was no real plan for the Demons just an opportunity to open up a large part of the prime up for some good old fashioned mayham and the demons that pulled it off scored big brownie points the new vacation spot.

The PCs city was strong enough to hold and keep the horde from overflowing absolutely everywhere while some heroes sealed the gate and sent 99.9% of them back from where they came from. The city becomes famous as a beacon of civilization that stood against overwhelming odds and fills the void left in the wake of all this destruction.

This causes Devils to take notice. These impressive mortals fended off the unseemly demon hordes and now is a beacon of order and reason. With the right guidance they could shape the entire continent in their lands image. The land could avoid ever falling into such chaos again so long as they learn to control everything with an iron fist and ensure this rebuilding and prosperity can continue

I never saw a PC sweat more than when a Devil told him "Just keep doing things the way you are and keep it up. We are watching and very proud of your progress"

You could do that story line with either devils or demons, though, wouldn't make much difference which.

Because devils are generally pretty affable about the whole affair while demons will just rape you with a giant spiky dick as soon as talk to you.

>didn't say anything about cool enemies
>literally invading hell and fighting devils
again wot

There are an infinite number of demons, and demons do not have an inherent hierarchy keeping their ambitions or power in check.

what's the difference between a demon and a daemon? I'm stupid as shit I thought they were just the same thing with a different spelling

They aren't. You fight devils all the time too.

Frankly I think it's fucking stupid to even make the distinction.

Demons are more personal.

With Devils, the intense hierarchical structure makes each devil's motivations ultimately secondary to that of Asmodeus. When you get destroyed by a Devil, there's an air of impersonal bureaucracy, like they were just doing their job. There's also no real way to stop the chain, so even if you want the main villain to be Dispater, it's hard to keep the mind from traveling down to Asmodeus.

With Demons, a Demon Lord from some deep layer of the abyss might have a personal agenda that none of the other Demon Lords even know about. Their cult and goals might be something grand or petty, and their personal power might even rival the Demon Princes. You can build a campaign around any demon or demon lord and not have to feel like you're just using a lower rung on a ladder.

There's simply more freedom to work with when it comes to Demons.

No one actually plays epic-level campaigns.

Why are devils the secondary supernatural threat in 99% of D&D settings?

Skeletons are better. Much, much better. They're well funded, very spooky, and rattle their bones to the best of their abilities. They're Evil with a capital E, just like devils, but unlike devils they always have numeric superiority and grow stronger with each army they slay.

Skeletons are scarier, spookier, more chill, and better able to send meddling kids and their dog back to their hippie van screaming. And they're no slouches in the physical department, either. Which is scarier -- a twelve foot tall flaming scaly monster from the Nine Hells that has the charisma of a 1930s dictator or thousands, if not millions, of six foot calcium golems with no organs whatsoever?

Anything devils can do, skeletons can do better. Why aren't Chaotic Evil Undead featured heavily in your setting?

Daemons are not necessarily evil.

so I could potentially chill out with a daemon and be bros whereas a demon will try to eat and/or copulate with my face?

in D&D, Daemons are a group of neutral evil outsiders. It's another name for Yugoloths.

thanks dudes/dudettes

Sort of. In the greek, it refers to a divine being, not quite god and not quite human. However, I believe daemon is just an archaic spelling of demon

He mentioned D&D in his post. This thread is about D&D devils. Read the OP.

Daemon is an old-timey word for (good or eveil) nature spirits that hide in the background, they're supposedly responsible for physics.
The only real use of that word these days are for Disk And Execution MONitors, computer programs that manage crap in the background.
>It's pronounced like "Day muhn"

Demon is a christian term. The word comes from Daemon, but the meaning is pretty different.
That said, they are somewhat similar concepts. They both manipulate and control the outcomes of events.
But demons are strictly evil. And unlike daemons, not all events are the product of demons.
>It's pronounced like "Dee muhn"