D&D Monster Spotlight: Bone Devils
Bone devils occupy an interesting place in the hellish princedoms of D&D, serving as secret task masters and arbiters. This week they take center stage.
Bone Devils have always been a part of the background operation in the Nine Hells, from their days in 1st Edition as humble functionaries, to their expanded role and power-behind-the-thrones roles in 2nd Edition. These scorpion-tailed bony buddies have always been taskmasters, but through the years their role has changed, taking them from lesser threat to a terror on the tabletop. Let’s take a look.
In 1st Edition, bone devils look amazing. So called because they make use of bony appendages and hooks to capture their prey. These devils exist to torment creatures and are one of the rare creatures to have ultravision instead of infravision, for all that that makes any difference. According to their stats, they do a decent amount of damage, though the biggest threat they have are their bone hooks that can pin a foe fast so they can strike with their venomous tail and damage strength and hit points at the same time.
And if that’s not enough, they have spells they can use, including the ability to fly, become or see invisible creatures, and of course they cause supernatural fear, and can create a magical wall of ice.
2nd Edition Bone Devils are called Osyluths, owing to the movement away from the whole demon/devil dichotomy. These are lesser baatzeu, but that doesn’t mean they’re a lesser threat. Osyluths, like most extraplanar creatures get considerably expanded in this edition. Osyluths are the “police” of the Baatezu, and given the task of overseeing the nine hells.
In 1st edition they were confined mostly to the 5th layer of hells, but in 2nd Edition, Bone Devils are the only ones to have power over higher stationed baatezu. They roam the various layers, watching and waiting–sending devils that break their code of conduct to the Pit of Flame for 101 days of torment.
And, once a century, 100 osyluths assemble along with the Dark Eight to promote Gelugons to Pit Fiend status. Called the Ring of Cantrum, this devilsmoot brins together powerful creatures to deliver reports on what the devils are up to, including information on promising pit fiend candidates, major campaigns, and compliance with Baator’s policies and procedures. But advancement isn’t the only thing that happens here–there are exactly 1,000 Osyluths at any time, and once a century, they are promoted to hamatulas, while other devils are bumped up to fill their place.
Personally I love the bureaucracy of the nine hells, it’s such an interesting cosmological entanglement for adventurers to get swept up in.
This detail gets elided over in 3rd Edition, but Bone Devils are a much deadlier threat, owing to the significant revamp of 3rd Edition’s rules. Their fear aura no longer takes their action, and their poison is significantly deadlier–one or two stings is enough to drop an opponent if you roll even decently well. Add to that the ability of Bone Devils to lock down targets, and you have a powerful attacker that must keep attacking to be effective, but they can shrug off a lot of damage as they do so.
In 4th Edition, Bone Devils are clever, patient hunters who motivate the other devils–again marking them as middle management, the worst kind of evil, apart from billionaires, but they function as controllers in this edition. Their poison saps their target wills, making them more susceptible to their fearsome debuffs. Meanwhile they attack with the intent to hold enemies close, but work at their best when backing up other devils so that their aura of obedience can spur their devilish allies to do more and more damage.
Finally in 5th Edition, Bone Devils get radical. Look at those wings. They also see the return of their beloved 1st edition polearm, a weapon that they briefly held, then lost for nigh on 40 years. These cruel taskmasters are given the same sort of middle management role, but they hit that much harder. Their claws and sting will disable potential prey, leaving them vulnerable. But demons with hooked polearms are eve more to be feared, as they ot only do damage, but they’ll grapple creatures at range.
All of this makes Bone Devils suitable as either a fantastic high-level minion or a great mini-boss fight to bust out when dealing with devils. With their hit points and resistances, they make a fight challenging for players without being too overwhelming.
Happy Adventuring!
