Last Updated on November 6, 2023
Spined Devil
Small Fiend (Devil), Lawful Evil
- Armor Class: 13 (natural armor)
- Hit Points: 22 (5d6+5)
- Speed: 20 ft., fly 40 ft.
- STR 10 (+0)
- DEX 15 (+2)
- CON 12 (+1)
- INT 11 (+0)
- WIS 14 (+2)
- CHA 8 (-1)
- Damage Resistances: Cold; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered
- Damage Immunites: Fire, poison
- Condition Immunities: Poisoned
- Senses: Darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 12
- Languages: Infernal, telepathy 120 ft.
- Challenge: 2 (450 XP)
- Devil’s Sight: Magical darkness doesn’t impede the devil’s darkvision.
- Flyby: The devil doesn’t provoke an opportunity attack when it flies out of an enemy’s reach.
- Limited Spines: The devil has 12 tail spines. Used spines regrow by the time the devil finishes a long rest.
- Magic Resistance: The devil has advantage on saving throws against spell and other magical effects.
- Multiattack: The devil makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its fork or two with its tail spines.
- Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (2d4) slashing damage.
- Fork: Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6) piercing damage.
- Tail Spine: Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 20/80 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) piercing plus 3 (1d6) fire damage.
To sum up the stats, a spined devil is a ranged attacker that uses its tail spines to deliver a combo of piercing and fire damage to targets.
While they don’t possess magic like the tougher devils out there, they have several features that make them a challenge, especially when encountered by low-level adventurers.
What Is a Spined Devil?
The spined devil is the messenger and ranged artillery for the legions of the Nine Hells. With their ability to fly and the fiery spines that grow from their tail, these devils are agile and can easily harass a foe from afar.
Spined devils receive respect from other devils not for their size and stature but for their utility to the legion.
Notable Features of Spined Devils
Spined devils earn respect from their peers for their flight, something most creatures don’t have in D&D. By gaining access to a fly speed, spined devils open up the rarely used third dimension.
Players will be used to dealing with threats at the same height as themselves, but a spined devil can use its flight to dip around tall cover like trees and walls.
Combined with its tail spines, the spined devil can play the part of ranged skirmishers, harassing foes from afar. This barrage could go to anyone in the party, including the spellcasters that usually sit in the backline of the party.
To make matters worse, spined devils get Flyby. With this trait, a spined devil can dip out of melee from a foe.
This keeps the spined devil from having to rely on its weaker melee attacks and helps the devil move to a smarter spot on the battle map.
To round out its defenses, spined devils have Magical Resistance, a trait common to many denizens of the Nine Hells. This trait makes it harder to land any saving throw-based spells on the fiend.
While this might not matter too much for some spells, the spells that force the creature to the ground, like magnify gravity and earthbind, rely on saves to bring creatures out of the sky.
With Magical Resistance, those spells have a much harder time sticking.
Rich is an avid D&D player and DM. He has been playing since the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st and 2nd editions. He has run campaigns of various editions with family and friends for over 20 years. Playing DnD 5th Edition in person at local game stores and online with VTT’s over the past 10 years has provided a consistent connection to how the game has grown. He strongly believes in understanding the source material, but catering the games to your individual players. Feel free to ask anything in the comments or drop him an email: [email protected].
