Pitlords

## Appearance

Pitlords are the generals of the army of Shadows. The are Darkness’ greatest soldiers (as apposed to assassins, rogues or spies etc). They tower above mere pitfiends and wield huge weapons that radiate evil and utter blackness from their dark heartstones.

## Roles

Pitlords are the generals of Darkness. They are physically intimidating and powerful in a way many of the dark demons are not.

## Traits

Pitfiends have all the basic traits of demons. They have all the abilities and strengths of their lesser brethren the Pitfiends. The only difference is in magnitude. Their physical prowess is much greater as is their resistance to magic. Only weapons that are blessed or holy have a hope of doing significant damage to one of these demonic overlords.

Pitlords have a much greater range of powerful abilities than the Pitfiends.

They are so powerful that their aura is palpable and even visible to those who are not magically aware. Good creatures who are not strong enough can be literally destoryed by the aura. Even mortals if heavily aligned with the powers of Light and Justice can be forced out of a Pitlord's aura unless they are strong enough to resist, even then it is likely to affect them powerfully. One of the only ways for good creatures to be unaffected by the aura of the pit is to have an equally powerful aura of their own. If this is the case the auras nullify each other denying both parties of their positive effects and sparing their enemies from the negative ones.

Pitlords almost always wield items of tremendous malignant power. Sometimes these are weapons and armour other times magical devices or demonic tools.

*Mechanics*

Modeled on the pitfiend(MM pg 57). They have all special qualities, EX and SU abilities, but not spells or spell like abilities. They have Shadow traits rather than demon traits. They are chaotic rather than lawful and huge rather than large in size. This of course affects their STR and CON significantly. Base STR 48, DEX 40 CON 37 INT 26 WIZ 26 CHA 26

Their weapon attacks have the same affect as those of a pitfiend though their higher HD makes the STUN save more difficult and the + on the weapon higher. In addition their weapons have embedded dark heartstones.

These weapons feed on the blood, weakness and fear of their opponents. When an enemy is struck with one, the heartstone will attempt to steal their soul… this does not cause death in an all or nothing fashion, but bit by bit. The save DC is CHA based (DC 29 standard) if the victim fails the CON save add the Infernal Wound effect from horned devil pg 54 except increase the spell level required by 1 and the DC heal check by 8 and the damage per round from 2 to 4) this is also the check for the stun effect so if failed they are also stunned 1d6 rounds (the stun is the blade, not the heart).

If a person is struck with a heartstone blade again after having already received an ‘infernal wound’ he must make the save again but this time +4 to the DC if this save is failed the Pitlord receives temporary hit points = to damage dealt and the stun affect is triggered again.

If a victim is still alive and is hit a third time by a blade holding a heartstone it will feed on their soul as well as their body. WIL save DC 27 if failed -1D6 WIZ INT and CHA. These statistics are transferred directly to the blades wielder and the stun affect is replied.

If a victim has already suffered soul loss (ie -1d6 WIZ INT and CHA) and is hit again, they must make a WIL save DC 31 and if they fail their soul is taken. All remaining hit points are transferred directly to the Pitlord as well as an additional 1d6 of each of the six statistics. They cannot be resurrected save by direct divine intervention as granted by miracle or a direct godly boon. Or of course by someone making a deal with the Pitlord to release the soul from the heartstone in which case normal rules apply.

Some Pitlords use their heartstones to become so powerful they can join the ranks of the Princes of the Night.