What kind of abilities should a race of demons have?

They are ex humans who through transhuman science and magic became black goo driving artificial bodies.
They are hedonistic and slaves of their own passions so not inherently evil but might as well be. But I'd rather focus on just general abilities that feel demonic and infernal

choke on shit broth I fucking specified which setting
Manipulate emotions or even mindcontrol as other user said, shapeshifting (sly humanoid / terrifying beast / ghostly shape), something to do with heat manipulation (torturing hellfire to imprisoning frost)

Lost potential life for beings which have souls. Basically "what could have been" people, souls and all, condemned to oblivion and miserable or enraged at their would-be parents because of it.

>tl;dr wasted gametes (DON'T FAP OR YOU'LL BE TORMENTED BY MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DEMONS)

Perform: Smug

"Demon" is an umbrella term for a lot of things, so that really doesn't work for a race as a whole, unless all your demons look alike and have the same traits.

However, you can have Demons all be born looking very human-like (except skin colour, horns, and a tail, for example) and lack many commonly associated Demonic properties. But as they grow older and stronger they would gather points we'll just call "Demonic Trait Points" which they can spend on a list of things that will make them more demon-like, and grow their strength. Players would, of course, start with a few points to spend, and get more as they level up.

Demonic Traits would include things such as:
-Wings
-Innate spellcasting
-Shapeshifting
-Improved physical abilities
-Improved mental abilities
-Improved senses (hearing, sight, smell)
-Increased size
-Elemental affinity (resistances and weakness packaged together)
-Status resistance
-Elemental resistance (counteracts weaknesses)
-Physical resistance
-Natural weapons (claws, fangs, venom)

To list a few examples. When players unlock something, they aren't very good at it, and will need to commit more points to make it stronger. Wings might start off as a simple glide before they can start flying properly. And without increased physical abilities, they might not be any stronger/better than a normal human in that category. And they need several levels in innate spellcasting to get stronger spells. Also, it goes without saying all of these things would gradually change the appearance of the demon and make them easier to discern for what they are. Lesser demons can pass off as humanoid, but greater demons simply cannot.

This would allow demons to come in all flavours, and still be related to one another under the term "demon". It's kind of like the Zerg in a way. They adapt and change as they need to, so even siblings may look completely different.

I honestly think demons are best as vampires.

Parasitical, banished by holy things, wields strange magic, etc.

True demons are the invisible forces of evil that they have always been.

A demon doesn't have a form by which it recognizes itself and as such demons can take on pretty much any form they desire upon entering the world and will do so in such a way that helps accomplish whatever goal they had it mind. They are also more than willing to play the long game in order to put fear, sin, and suffering into peoples lives.

That crow over there? Demon
That big scary dog that Mr Peterson owns? Demon
That stranger walking through town that you think you saw stealing stuff? Demon
Your long lost childhood friend who has grown into a beautiful woman after you took the cloth and is being really sexually forward? Oh you better believe that is a Demon

This is why you get priest training ladies and gents.

yeah, that sounds pretty good

I'm thinking maybe compound these Traits into seven progressions themed around classical sins

>Physical power - Wraith
>Effect emotions & mind - Lust
>Shape shifting - Envy
>Elemental Powers - Pride
not sure about Greed and Gluttony tho

Best way to identify a demon is drowning. If the alleged person dies, it wasn't a demon. If it survives, it is a demon and should be burnt.

That is one hot Census Succubus.

Unatural aura: the hellbeast's presence here is disrupting, thoes naturally attuned to magic or the heavens will feel uneasy in their presence. However those already corupted will feel more at ease, and more easy to suggest...

They are kinky.

Extremely

weaponized diamond dicks

>a race of demons
What race? Demons are a kingdom, like mammals.

Pretty dang sure mammals aren’t a kingdom user.

That would be animals.

Well the picture reminds me of the deal making kind, which I really enjoy. I guess in DnD lore they're devils.
Of course you have warlocks that get their powers that way, but other things can be granted too. The resurrection of a lost love, the rule over a kingdom, some kind of cure or physical boon. The demons in question would have the power to plant some part of themselves in an individual or object both to channel their power through and to enforce their will upon. Because, you know, you're going to have to repay your benefactor.
This essence planting actually takes away some of the power (levels?) of the demon, to put in the subject. So they can't just keep doing it for an endless warlock army.

Well, you're correct. Mammals are a class. Outsiders would probably be the kingdom with demons, devils, celestials, youkai, etc. acting as classes within this kingdom, and if we're going by D&D rules we have Obyrith, Tanar'ri, Yuguloths, Loumura and more as orders, and eventually we come down to the Hezrou, which may act as family, genus or species.

It's a pet peeve of mine when people use "demon" to describe a very specific species, such as succubus (whom are no longer demons according to D&D).

With that backstory in mind, I think that demons would have a theme of self-indulgence. They would have supernatural senses that allow them to detect what others cannot. A warrior demon's flesh would not be covered by scales or an armored carapace, so as not to reduce their sense of touch, but it would be resilient and capable of healing from great injury, so that they may experience exquisitely painful sensation. They would be capable of possessing other beings, and as their host indulges in their primal instincts they would grow more attuned to the demon and have access to more of their powers.

Absolutely, if you wanted to go with a classical interpretation. Could lend itself well to role playing your demon better.

Yeah, I still can't think of Gluttony and Greed powers tho
Trying to think of something more abstract and symbolic

Maybe something involving draining strength or power. Could be spun as either hunger for more or desire to control all

So I've got the in-game cosmology that has to do with time dilation. At the core of the multiverse is ultimate power, like a magical black hole, it's a singularity that is beyond explaination. Presumably, someone is at that cosmic leyline and... is the ultimate god. Or maybe they made this whole place. It's an unknown because:

Time dilates with magical power just like it does with speed and mass. If there's anyone at the central point, they don't know it because they're frozen in time. The almost supreamly power mega deities, while being able to do god-damned near anything, see the universes spinning by them at light-speed and their actions are cosmically slow.

The patheon of "good" exist slightly further away and are the gods we all typically know and love. They mostly exist as a force of order and good and like establishment. Most of them are trying to get political backing to get all their peers to help them use a divine prybar to remove a mega deity and put themselves in it's place. Thanks to the joys of democracy and politics, everyone is kinda sorta playing nice. At least on the surface.

At some distance from the cosmic core, our dimension/universe/material plane exists. Yay! But the distance means that we go by too quickly for the gods to care too much except in a general sense.

Further away is the land of demons and chaos. While their realm has less magical power, less umph, dimmer stars, and weaker chemical reactions, they have TIME. Given enough time and exceptional people arise. Every demonic invasion you see is a 1 in a million chance of some crazy bastard harvesting all the power possible to break the planar surface to get to the richer more luxurious lands of milk, honey, and more magic than they know what to do with.

So what's terrifying about demons? They're always new. They're everything that's possible out in the rim with enough time. And every one of them is desperate.

I guess it really depends on whenever or not there's a sort of demonic caste system or a categorization. If we go off of a caste system then i'd like to think that each caste would have powers that would retain to a certain job that was given to the caste. For example, a demon at the very top of the hierarchy would be in charge of organizing and dictating the other castes below them or managing some form of government and thus would gain some kind of power that helps keep them in charge, while the lower castes would be more so used for manual labor and have much weaker powers then the demons that are in higher castes.

If we go off of a categorization, then what said would work pretty well, different kinds of demons that have their powers based on different kinds of sins.

Kneesocks a best

They might be able to possess corpses and sleeping or unconscious mortals.

Veeky Forums is honestly worse than /trash/ at this point.

Well then they'd have mechanical body horror themes probably like shit like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsuo:_The_Iron_Man

Man, it's almost like demon is a very broad concept that derives from the Greek word daimon, a general term for spirits.

So I'm thinking

Luxuria - Demon Art of effecting passions of men
Gula - Demon Art of rapidly restoring the body
Avaritia - Demon Art of controlling shadows and using them to hide.
Acedia - Demon Art of instantly transporting the body.
Ira - Demon Art of strengthening the body to an inhuman degree.
Invidia - Demon Art of shape-shifting the body.
Superbia - Demon Art of creating Fire, Lightning and Wind

Any given Demon could have a combination of 2 or 3 arts or specialize exclusively in one. That should give players some space to play around.

luxuria doesn't need to be specific to men.

well, what I really meant is any humanoid sapient creature capable of passions

was trying to make it sound gud

Sorry for getting all patriarchal on you but men/man is a valid and common word for the human race.

my bad. just with the pic i has assumed a succubus specific angle.

you know, better question is

Could you turn classical virtues into abilities like that, for Angels to have?

Chastity (Castitas)
Temperance (Temperantia)
Charity (Caritas)
Diligence (Industria)
Patience (Patientia)
Kindness (Humanitas)
Humility (Humilitas)

I'll just leave this here

They should be naturally inclined and talented at clerical and legal work. Eeveryone wants to have a demonic barrister on their side of the case

Inability to go back on a promise, oath or contract.

What kind of abilities do other magic users in the setting have? How do they work? It's easier to create powers that fit with the theme if we keep that in mind.

Also, why do demons have their own specific abilities that are different from standard magic? Have they simply developed them in a different direction? What happens if a "normal" magic user creates an effect that works like demon magic?

Greed > minor lichdom, immortality, wish granting

Gluttony > ?

Gluttony,

>Party is sent to hell
>first room is waiting in queue for 300 years
>at the front of the queue is the desks of the oldest, ugliest, most broke-down demons hell has to offer
>constantly wheezing, extremely slow, and tells players they need form 32X-B, not 32X or 32X-B1
>will sent players on an endless hunt from clerk to clerk for documents that no one seems to have, or you need to fill out ANOTHER form first before you can get it
>the deeper you get into hell, the more legal hoops you have to jump through
>Deeper levels are endless courtrooms, filled with sharp-looking demons in tailored suits and sexy succubi proscecutors
>the damned are dragged up to the witness stand for every minute sin they committed during life

I like this idea!

Which made me instantly desire to shitpost in your thread

Hi r*ddit transplant

Okay, see, in the beginning, the demons rebelled against God. So God cast ‘em into Hell. He hates it when anyone questions His authority. Anyway, they got to Hell and wound up being ruled by some dude named.... Lucifer? I think? And things stayed that way for a really long time, until the demons got fed up with Lucifer— who was kind of a dick, in all fairness— and rebelled against HIM. So now they’re here. They, uh... they claimed they were “done with oppressive hierarchies” and now they all live in a commune or something. Well, not an AGRICULTURAL commune, more of a...you’ll understand when you see it.

I think the tails are cute.