Barbazu

Snake-bearded devil soldier. A divine servant.

Imagine a humanoid with blue or red skin, goat horns, a lizard tail, and, even more disturbingly, a beard made of hissing snakes. It holds a barbed glaive.

Barbazus (also known as bearded devils) conscript wayward souls to war against the enemies of the gods. When seen on the material plane, they are often on a punitive expedition.

Militaristic rigidity, Warmongering fanatics, esprit de corps.


 
HD: 2 Armor: chain
Hit it: normal Dodge it: normal
Move: normal  

It resists everything (because it’s a divine servant). It can see in the dark and speak telepathically.

Attacks (1/round)

Platinum Barbed Glaive. The barbazu makes a melee attack (1D8) with it’s platinum weapon. A living creature must then save or take (1D4) nonlethal damage at the beginning of each its turns. The effect can be ended with a successful medicinal skill roll or any other healing.

Snake Beard. The barbazu makes a melee attack (1D4) with its beard. On a hit, the target must make a save or be poisoned with Barbazu Beard Wax.

Spellcasting. Thaumaturgy, Control Flames, Cause Fear

Summon Lemures (recharge 2/6). The barbazu summons 1D4 lemures which appear in 1D4 turns.

Barbazu Beard Wax. In wound: Save or be poisoned, save again each day to cure. Prevents hit point recovery. On hair: animates them like snakes.



Random Encounter
  1. Monster: 1D6 barbazus & 1D10 lemures.
  2. Lair: An infernal armory with impaled sinners and lemures. They are alive and at various degrees of transforming into barbazus.
      OR
    Omen: Smell of sulfur and an ominous war horn.
  3. Spoor: A recently impaled person, still alive.
  4. Tracks: The sound of soldiers marching and the smell of sulfur.
  5. Trace: A crucified body used as a training dummy.
  6. Trace: Lemures impaled on glaives in agony.
Celestial Pact

Evil celestials give the reward and the quest at the same time, then try to make accomplishing the quest impossible within the decided time frame. Good celestials give a quest first and the reward upon completion. The price of breaking a pact is always your soul.

Reward:

  1. A barbazu barbed glaive.
  2. Snake hair or beard that allow you to produce one dose of barbazu beard juice per day.
  3. A lemure follower.
  4. An arsenal of hell-forged platinum weapons.
  5. Glistening red skin and the power to cast pyrokinesis with 1 Spell Dice once per day.
  6. Glistening blue skin and the power to cast dread manifestation with 1 Spell Dice once per day.

Quest:

  1. You must massacre every single member of an aberrant cult.
  2. You must herd 1D100 escaped lemures.
  3. You must participate in one battle in the holy war against the abyss.
  4. Discover and share the true name of 6 demon cultists.
  5. Rake the Styx for soul barnacles.
  6. Recruit 66 souls for the holy crusade.


DM Notes

Barbazus are very cool mechanically with their unique attacks, but also aesthetically, seamlessly fitting christian, Persian and Indian depictions of demons. Sadly, since their first introduction, they have lost most of their magical powers. Compared to the Monster Manual (5e), I brought back the spellcasting and tried to give them a sense of purpose besides being army grunts. — SaltyGoo

Written on November 14, 2020