Diabolist

Cackling with glee as the villagers flee from her terrifying servants, the tiefling commands her ghoul and lemure to hold down the town’s priest and draws forth her sickle. She grabs him by the hair and savagely cuts it away, nicking his scalp and washing his face in red blood, blinding him as she retreats before the shouting of the local guards—this is only the beginning of the holy man’s tormented path to corruption before her infernal allies claim his soul.

As expected, the allure of the succubus the dwarf summoned is more than enough to entice the merchant quarry to drop his guard, leaving the tavern like a fool. The man’s bodyguards follow but the will-o’-wisps bent to Virrdio’s will distract their simple minds and by the time the swords of any defenders can react to the dying trader’s screams, the dwarf and his fiendish servant are long gone.

Diabolists are not typical mages or priests and devote themselves not to study or prayer, only to finding and taking the fastest pursuits to power— through dark pacts with evil creatures hungering for the foolish souls of bargainers. These greedy and despicable individuals wager everything to make fell bargains with not just one creature from beyond the Material Plane but many entities, calling on the malevolent powers of the Abyss or Hell to do their bidding.

Any and all dark arts are the purview of diabolists and there is no depth to which they will not sink as they seek to conjure ever more powerful allies. The compacts one must strike in order to summon evil entities with a whim are dire indeed however, and the further along the corrupted path one travels the greater they find the demands of their otherworldly partners.

Contents

Forbidden Secrets

The path of the diabolist is rarely lauded or promoted within society and the very nature of their art requires one to have a taste for taboo knowledge. Only the strong of will and spirit can endure the trials required to learn the secrets of diabolism, and though master summoners frequently take on many apprentices most of these deluded fools are merely pawns used for sacrifice. Devious, foul, and wily as they are, diabolists are ever keen to acquire relics, tokens of power, or forbidden lore whenever the opportunity arises and they can be trusted to do whatever they must in their relentless pursuits.

Unyielding Avarice Greed is what inspires most diabolists to take up the darkest arts of conjuration but they are never sated—the need for more power and wealth drives them ever forward the further they fall toward depravity in a vicious cycle that ends in eternal torment. The aid of demons and devils does not come without a cost however, and either divine relics, great treasures, or the souls of the living must be sacrificed in order for diabolists to forge new unholy alliances.

Creating a Diabolist The first thing to decide when making a diabolist are the circumstances that led your character to seek out unholy alliances: are they destined to bring balance to the forces of good and evil, driven to do whatever they must to become rich, or tricked to stray into the depths of depravity? Have they any remorse for the horrendous acts they perform in exchange for power? While your diabolist is undoubtedly evil, is there any good still within the corruption overtaking their soul? Are they totally consumed with achieving their goals and willing to go to any lengths to do so? Does your character impose their will on lawful servants, or are they an enslaver of chaotic entities, or devoted only to their goals and working with whatever allies they can conjure? Do they seek to inspire fear or attempt to blend in with the sheep of society? Perhaps most importantly, how will they save their soul from the end of their bargains with the powerful creatures that act as their lackeys—or have they fallen too far to care?

Class Features

As a diabolist, you gain the following class features.

Alignment. Diabolists cannot be of good alignment. If your group uses alignment, a diabolist whose alignment becomes good cannot level in this class again until their alignment changes from good.

Multiclassing Prerequisite: Wisdom 15

Proficiencies Gained: Ceremonial Relics, Religion

Equipment

You begin play with the following equipment, in addition to any gear acquired through your background: • ceremonial relics

  • (a) a dagger or (b) a sickle
  • a light crossbow and 20 bolts
  • (a) an arcane focus or (b) a holy symbol
  • (a) a priest’s pack or (b) a scholar’s pack

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per diabolist level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per diabolist level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: None
Weapons: Simple weapons
Tools: Ceremonial Relics
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose three from Arcana, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, Persuasion, and Religion

Table: Diabolist
Level Proficiency Bonus Conjuring Points Necromantic Touch Features
1st +2 1 1d8 Diabolist spellcasting, masterful presence, necromantic touch
2nd +2 2 1d8 Diabolic resistance, diabolic strike
3rd +2 2 1d8 Summoning, Unholy Familiar
4th +2 3 1d8 Ability Score Improvement
5th +3 4 2d8 Telepathic
6th +3 4 2d8 Dark Path
7th +3 5 2d8 Banisher, Voodoo
8th +3 6 2d8 Ability Score Improvement
9th +4 6 3d8 Dark Path
10th +4 7 3d8 Breathless, Diabolic Blood
11th +4 8 3d8 Expanded Mind
12th +4 8 3d8 Ability Score Improvement, Dark Path
13th +5 9 4d8 Scion of Evil
14th +5 10 4d8 Diabolic Essence
15th +5 10 4d8 Dark Path
16th +5 11 4d8 Ability Score Improvement
17th +6 12 5d8 Unbound Soul
18th +6 12 5d8 Dark Path
19th +6 13 5d8 Ability Score Improvement
20th +6 14 5d8 Master of Evil

Diabolist Spellcasting

At 1st level, you know three cantrips of your choice from the cleric and wizard spell lists or the vile school of magic. You learn one additional cantrip at 5th level, 10th level, 15th level, and 20th level.

You receive a number of conjuring points determined by your diabolist level. You are able to cast the find familiar spell as an action by expending 1 conjuring point. Conjuring points are restored at the end of a short or long rest.

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your diabolist spells, since you draw your spells from a dark connection between your soul and things from the beyond. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a diabolist spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Masterful Presence

While you are not wearing any armor or using a shield, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Charisma modifier.

Necromantic Touch

Starting at 1st level, the fell pacts you’ve made have garnered you a measure of power that lets you manifest energy antithetical to life but one that revitalizes the forces of evil. As an action, you may make a melee spell attack, dealing 1d8 necrotic damage to a living creature on a hit. If you kill a creature using Necromantic Touch, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the damage you dealt with the killing blow. Unlike normal temporary hit points these stack and you may gain a maximum number of temporary hit points this way equal to twice your diabolist level. When you target one of your diaboli with this feature, you restore the creature’s hit points instead.

At 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level this feature increases by 1d8.

Diabolic Resistance

Beginning at 2nd level, you gain resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws to resist being poisoned.

Diabolic Strike

At 2nd level you channel more unholy power into your strikes, adding your Wisdom or Charisma modifier (whichever is higher) to your Necromantic Touch.

You may choose not to add your Charisma modifier to your Necromantic Touch to instead inflict a condition on your target, forcing them to make a saving throw against DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier. On a failed save, the target gains the blinded or deafened condition for a number of rounds equal to your diabolist level.

The target may repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the condition on a success.

You may attempt to inflict a condition a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, after which you must complete a long rest before you can do so again.

Summoning

Starting at 3rd level, you learn to summon lesser creatures to do your bidding. At first these minor diaboli are undead creatures as all diabolists dabble in necromancy, but inevitably acquaintances are made with daemons, demons, and devils.

Summoning a diabolus takes an entire turn during which you do not take any movement or other actions (including reactions) and expend conjuring points equal to the amount listed for the creature.

If you take damage while summoning a diabolus, a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration is required or the diabolus dies in transition. You summon diaboli that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Once summoned a diabolus remains on the Material Plane until it has taken an amount of damage equal to its hit points, you dismiss it as a reaction, or the diabolus travels more than 500 feet from you. If a diabolus suffers a critical hit you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw to concentrate and to maintain your connection to it or you lose control of the creature (at the GM’s discretion it may attack an ally, but never you). You may only have a number of summoned diaboli equal to your proficiency bonus.

Diaboli are friendly to you but not necessarily your companions—the further removed an ally’s alignment is from a diabolus, the less likely the diabolus is to be friendly when interacting with that companion. Roll initiative for your diaboli as a group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal (or telepathic) commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. Diaboli with innate spellcasting can cast a number of spells equal to the conjuring points you spent to summon the diabolus but afterward you must expend 1 conjuring point to have a diabolus use its innate spellcasting.

In addition, you are able to cast any spell with the ritual tag so long as the spell level is equal to or less than half your diabolist level. You may only cast a number of ritual spells equal to your proficiency bonus before requiring a long rest to cast more ritual spells. You may use either an arcane focus or a divine focus as a spellcasting focus for your diabolist spells.

Minor Diaboli (1 Conjuring Point): cacodaemon (CR ½, page 152), skeleton (CR ¼), zombie (CR ¼)

Unholy Familiar

Beginning at 3rd level, the familiar you summon is undead. It gains darkvision 60 ft., resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons, immunity to necrotic and poison damage, and immunity to the following conditions: charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Telepathic

Starting at 5th level, you gain telepathy to a range of 30 feet and darkvision 60 feet. When using telepathy with your diaboli, the range increases to 60 feet.

Dark Path

The evil pacts you’ve made with lesser creatures have their limitations and eventually you find their gifts lacking, leaving your lust for power to drive you to find darker entities to make your allies. At 6th level, you choose to focus your studies on either the summoning of ephemeral undead and demons or corporeal unlife and devils.

At 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level you learn to summon more creatures determined by your Dark Path.

Banisher

Starting at 7th level you can cast banishment or hallow (evil options only) by expending 2 conjuring points.

Voodoo

At 7th level you gain the Voodoo ritual feat (page 78).

Breathless

Starting at 10th level, you no longer need to breathe.

You gain advantage on saving throws against spells and effects that come from dangerous gases.

Diabolic Blood

At 10th level, you gain immunity to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

Expanded Mind

Beginning at 11th level, the range of your telepathy increases to 60 feet, or 120 feet if communicating with your diaboli. The range of your darkvision increases to 120 feet.

Scion of Evil

Starting at 13th level, you gain advantage on saving throws made to resist the spells and effects of undead.

You also gain advantage to saving throws made to the spells and effects of the type of fiends you can summon via your Dark Path (daemons and either demons or devils).

Diabolic Essence

At 14th level you gain resistance to necrotic damage.

Unbound Soul

Beginning at 17th level, the range of your telepathy increases to 120 feet. As long as a diabolus is on the same plane of existence, you can communicate with them using your telepathy. In addition, your darkvision can also see through magical darkness and you can cast plane shift or teleport by expending 4 conjuring points.

Planar Master of Evil

At 20th level you gain immunity to necrotic damage. You learn the true name of an extraplanar creature determined by your dark path, forcing it to become one of your diaboli: either a Hezrou demon (CR 8) or a Chain Devil (CR 8). You may spend 100 gp in materials throughout an hour long ritual to summon this diaboli, or you may expend 10 conjuring points to summon it. Once per month you can perform a ritual requiring 500 gp and 1d4 + 1 hours to summon a more powerful demon or devil, but this may be met with a celestial response by the powers of good (at the GM’s discretion).

In addition, for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus you do not take energy damage from an environmental effect of a plane that is not your own (usually the Material Plane). You may spend a conjuring point to increase the duration of this feature to a number of minutes equal to your proficiency bonus. Afterward it can be extended by 1 hour per additional spent conjuring point.

Demonic Dark Path

Your research into the entities of the beyond led you to the denizens of the Abyss, forging a pact with evil as rife with chaos as malevolence. As though you were one among them, you can call on demons to grant you aid, slay your enemies, and obey your every command.

At 6th level your unholy familiar becomes a demonic undead familiar. It gains resistance to cold, fire, lightning, and truesight to a range of 2 feet per diabolist level (round down to the nearest multiple of 5 feet).

You learn Abyssal and how to summon demons to do your bidding. At 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level you can summon more potent demons to serve as your diaboli.

6th level. Lesser diaboli (2 Conjuring Points): dretch (CR ¼), (shadow CR ½), quasit (CR 1), specter (CR 1)

9th level. Moderate diaboli (3 Conjuring Points): ghast (CR 2), imp-erosi (CR 2; page 158), coloxus (CR 3; page 156), will-o’-wisp (CR 2), wight (CR 3)

12th level. Dire diaboli (4 Conjuring Points): ghost (CR 4), incubus/succubus (CR 4)

15th level. Greater diaboli (5 Conjuring Points): abrikandilu (CR 5; page 155), wraith (CR 5)

18th level. Epic diaboli (6 Conjuring Points): hydrodaemon

Devilish Dark Path

You sought out the devils in Hell in your pursuit to power. Your agreement with infernal creatures allow you to call on them to do battle, practice guile, and otherwise serve you.

At 6th level your Unholy Familiar becomes a devilish undead familiar. It gains resistance to cold, resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren’t silvered, immunity to fire damage, and blindsight to a range of 5 feet per two diabolist levels.

You learn Infernal and how to summon devils to do your bidding. At 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level you can summon more potent devils to serve as your diaboli.

6th level. Lesser diaboli (2 Conjuring Points): lemure (CR 0), warhorse skeleton (CR ½), ghoul (CR 1), imp (CR 1)

9th level. Moderate diaboli (3 Conjuring Points): minotaur skeleton (CR 2), ogre zombie (CR 2), bearded devil (CR 3), cambion (CR 3; page 149)

12th level. Dire diaboli (4 Conjuring Points): accuser devil (CR 4; page 159), contract devil (CR 4; page 160)

15th level. Greater diaboli (5 Conjuring Points): barbed devil (CR 5), vampire spawn (CR 5)

18th level. Epic diaboli (6 Conjuring Points): bestiola devil (CR 6; page 159), thanadaemon (CR 6; page 154), warmonger devil (CR 6; page 161)

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Book of True Evil. © 2018 Mike Myler, published under license by Legendary Games

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