D&D MONSTER RANKINGS - FIENDS 

Great video, looking forward to more monster rankings. You actually inspired me to write a campaign around a Night Hag

Uhm Sir. A hippo with a monocle, rifle, and sharp military uniform is leagues more stylish than a loin cloth and whip

Neutral evil is arguably the most dangerous of the evil alignments because it’s pure evil without honor, variation, or inconsistency.

I agree, why couldn’t they have good names like: “Empty void like my soul” or “My parents don’t understand me”. You know, good names.

Rakshasa should be A tier in my opinion, up there with Oni in the "reoccurring villian" kinda thing, and they differ a lot from each other

9:40 "How does it speak without a mouth?" A parakeet speaks from a throat opening, not from the beak.

is it just me or dose his definition of "Cartoony" differ noticeably from what most would consider cartoony?

2:51 That hippo has a lot of style.

Everyone shed a tear for our fallen hippo friends. (Also owlbears)

The deal with Rakshasa is that they highly depend on the DM to play them in a realistic way. They have so many abilities to FLEE combat , that it will always meddle with the party but avoid combat at any cost for pretty much forever. Catching a Rakshasa and making sure it cannot just run away is a tremendous challenge already, as the Rakshasa will plot against the party way easier and a campaign that involves a powerful Rakshasa can easily mean its filled with traps that will mess with the party at any corner.

Under style examples a napoleanic hippo man wearing a monocle is low, but generic big demon is high?

Finally...one of your opinions I UTTERLY DISAGREE WITH! Though a little repetitive sounding, at least their names sound like proper 'names', giving then a taste of realism. If they were named 'Spearslayers of Doom' or 'Brainmasters of Pain' or whatever, they'd sound totally generic. Like DOOM-era 'first-person-shooter' cannon fodder...or worse, 90's era supervillains.

Very good job ranking the Arcanaloth in the A tier. They are cool as hell.

Nycaloth/Nycadaemon needs to have his second pair of arms back, and give him another greataxe too! Four armed green gargoyle looking daemon who dual wields two handed axes is metal af. The Yugoloth/Daemons are an interesting group of fiends, but unfortunately WotC rarely does anything interesting with them, and prefers to keep them as fence-sitting centrists of the whole Demons VS Devils conflict, which is probably the main reason why they're so easy to gloss over. I think Pathfinder fixed this problem by giving its daemons their own equivalent to the Archdevils and the Demon Lords in the form of the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse, and a bitter hatred towards the existence of all life as their motivation. In my own campaign setting's multiverse in regards to the Yugoloth/Daemons I'm combining elements of the 2E Planescape and Pathfinder lore by having some individual yugoloth, perhaps secretly, be one of the Four Horsemen (Anthraxus the Oinoloth is Pestilence, Charon the Marraenoloth is Death, General of Gehenna is War, and Famine's identity is unknown). The origin of them is that they have naturally spawned from the Plane of The Grey Waste/Hades/Abaddon ever since that plane has existed, the most ancient of them being the mysterious Baernaloth. Their ultimate goal is to end the existence of life on the multiverse, and it's a long term one that they hope to achieve by manipulating the Blood War towards inevitably expanding into apocalyptic proportions.

I remember reading the vargouille entry in 3.5e and imagining how horrifying it would be to slowly transform into that creature. There is some serious body horror potential in the Vargouille’s curse.

Not a fan of the Cambion bit. However, I do love these rankings and I tend to find myself agreeing with many of the rankings and suggestions for making the lower tier monsters better. Also, thanks for not making your tiers based on power, like so many other online rpg tiers are.

All I got out of this video is that Esper LOVES cambions. Oh man... talk about a successful insight check there!

No matter how many times I rewatch these, it's still lots of fun to hear your opinions.

a general rule of thumb: any 'joke' that involves drawing parallels to real-life people and giving them the "Nerdy Spit Voice" is a joke you should just strike from the script immediately after the first take if not before that. It's obnoxious and generally comes from a bad mindset of "I find this type of person annoying so I'm gonna make them sound annoying". Even the most harmless version where it's only based on obnoxious fan comments can get old fast just because it's a bit that always drags and distracts from any intelligent points made before and after.

Netherlasher is a name for... something all right. Just don’t think about it too much. I do love your videos. Nice to hear someone just being positive and having fun with something.

Here is a reason why the yoguloths remained obscure - there was no Fiendish Codex 3 that covered them.

OWL BEARS ARE GREAT YOU MONSTER

Awww yeah, Merrenoloths, when you really need to get somewhere despite whatever is in the water. Just say a Merrenoloths name, your destination and your offer of riches while standing on a boat. In my campaign I gave it the ability to control all the rope on a ship, so it can use the ship without any crew and can entangle and crush enemies who dare board its vessel. I thought it was kind of ridiculous that the only damage it can deal comes from whacking someone with an oar.

"Hell hounds have low lore." * ahem * Cerberus, Orthrus, Black Shuck, Black Dog, Yeth Hound, Cadejo

So the thing about yogoloths is that originally they were called daemons but to avoid satanic panic they and their fiend cousins were renamed. Only when 3x babe along and restored the names of demons and devil's these guys got forgotten. The things is, it turns out that the pattern for their naming convention wasn't actually a new pattern that emerged with the satanic panic name change. Their old names sill had that pattern. It just went from nycadaemons and mezzodaemons to nycaloths and mezzoloths. They also first appeared as a random encounter in the "vault of the drow" module. Not so fun fact: Ironically, (especially since they first appeared in a drow module) that while the drow goddess Lloth is both a goddess and a fiend (at least at one point) and whose name (depending on accent) sounds like these fiends, she is actually a demon not a daemon/yugoloth.

A fun fact about the succubus is that their roleplay is so strong that in lore it can even reward players for good enough roleplay. At least, reward depending on your perspective. You see if a succubus actually falls in love with you and doesn’t want to kill you when they give their draining kiss, and you survive it, then you become an extremely powerful vampire. Like up there with the higher vampires in the witcher series.

Do an angel/celestial tiers.

I'm a fiend for monster rankings

Gehenna? *Vampirism intensifies*

Esper: Confirmed Edgelord. Throw some flames on a dog and a horse, give it a tortured backstory, and what do you get? The epitome of generic fantasy hell monster. Seriously, Esper... these AREN'T the laziest, most unoriginal fiend designs?

I am not the only one who actually likes Cambions right...? qwq

The howler is terrifying

Wizards currently creates many Names by translating random words back and forth until its unrecognizable. By the Way: The Yagnoloth looks so innocent and friendly, you really can imagine him sitting with his grandma and drinking some Tea. Just Cute!!

The arcanaloth was always one of my favorite fiends

I love how the "A through F" is matallica songs, lol

Rakshasa is a cunning manipulator that is like the evil mastermind in a James Bond movies. He does not show his face except to gloat. He has underlings take all the risks. They do not need to do much damage They are not supposed to get into combat.

Hey we've got most of the four horsemen there in Yugoloths Oinoloth-Pestilence Merrenoloth-Death Ultraloth-War Nycanoloth-Famine

Hey, glad you did this Edit: I love how you use songs for the names of each letter tier

Best tier scale i've ever seen.

I have been thinking about a campaign with a Rakshasa as a main lackey to the main villain. He holds a a high political "office" in a kingdom as he is a wealthy merchant that controls the trade along the river that crosses the whole kingdom. It is well known he have been "cursed" with a bestial form and tries to hide it. What his job really is is to spread confusion and stir up trouble with nearby nations so no one notice that a Lich is trying to find a way to resurrect all evil dragons from the Ancient Dragon War which he and a Dracolich is the only remaining members of. The Rakshasa is going to play a vital role in security the players a guild location (hoping they die in clearing it out from the demons and fiends he sent there) and getting well paying jobs (hoping they die trying to do them). He is going to become a schemer and when/if he is confronted he start to actively going after the players guild as well as summoning fiend/demon minions to defend himself with.

Do you mean to tell us... that you think that an Alien wearing a Wizard robe and carrying a scimitar is not awesome...?

You left out my favorite - the Baernaloth. Its a close associate of the hags, and it has the creepiest backstory. One of them is even given credit for spawning the gehreleths.

Oh how exciting! I love your ranking videos!

I understand that you try to keep your lore consistent with the 5e, but yugoloths cannot go without mention how important they were in AD&D Second Edition's Planescape. Back then, they were heavily implied to manipulate the Blood War, having mostly abandoned their actual home plane of Gray Waste of Hades for Gehenna. They have still controled the tower of Khin-Oin on Hades, of which the Tower of Arcanoloths on Gehenna is weaker analogue, and worked to finish their third, secret Tower of Incarnate Pain on Carceri to extend their influnce there. Even more importantly, the most powerful form of yugoloths, baernaloths, were said to actually predate both devils and demons, and rumored to even have created both races in first place. As baernaloths are not described in 5e yet, one is free to implement this story into their game.

Ha! I like the part about the Nightmare. It's interesting how people learned about different creatures in general and in D&D. I learned about it when my cool aunt bought it for me in 83? from the toy line so my Warduke could ride. No articulation but a really menacing toy with accessories. I remember my dad commenting, "What happened? Why is everything for kids demonic now?" This was also a couple of years after the moral panic though.

Can you do Aberrations list, please?

Love how all tiers are heavy/thrash song names.

I use a bit of Pathfinder lore for the yugoloths personally, referring to them as daemons, and having their rulers not be some stupid general, but the actual 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. It makes them stand out more from demons and devils. For me succubi aren't neutral evil, but there are two sects of them, belonging to the demons and devils. There is a queen of succubi on both sides. Lillith of the Devils, and Malcanthet of the Demons.

"Why couldn't they have better names" BECAUSE THEY ARE SECRET KNOWN ONLY TO THE BOOKS OF KEEPING

The pronunciation for the D&D Beyond entry of Vargouille is "var-GWEEL"

Khajit, what are you doing on the front of the Fiend DND list? What about your wares?

DM in one of our campaigns gave Ultroloths "ventriloquism" ability. It solved some issues mentioned in the video while adding a roleplay "point" to ranking.

Just subscribed! I've never had a chance to play D&D unfortunately, but the lore is truly fascinating

You mean, with renaming and reskinning, they'd improve, aLOTH? Eh? Eh?

16:06 -" Hey! Is the rakshasa artwork done?" -" Yes indeed!" -" Awesome, lemme see it... You drew the hands wrong." -" What?" -" Yeah, they're completely opposite of what they should be!" -" Holy crap I totally fucked u - PFFFFTTHFF... I meant to do that!" -" Really?" -" Y... Yeah! Totally, do you honestly think I, an experienced and pronounced artist, could make such a trivial mistake? It was all on purpose and most definitely intentional!" -"... Well, we do need to set it apart more from the devils so I'll just work it in the lore..." -" I insist!"

fiends/devils etc and dragons are probably my favorite mosnter groups in dnd and i like your listings one reason i subbed to you

and it all falls apart at the 12 minute mark, great.

EDUCATION TIME The ACTUAL first horseman is Conquest, who rides a white horse. Now, I get it. Conquest is the horseman that most often gets replaced by Pestilence, and white is a very similar color to pale. Fair enough, fair enough. But... 1: In every version of the horsemen I've seen that included Pestilence, the list goes "War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death", therefore placing Pestilence as the Third Horseman, which makes sense: War leads to shortage, shortage leads to Famine, Famine leads to weakness, weakness leads to disease, which leads to Pestilence, and then Death. Nice logical progression. 2: You know which one of them is actually described as the Pale Horseman? *DEATH*. You know, the most well known of the Horsemen? Are you just trying to piss people off with this video?

Lmao i love Cambions. One of my players is unintentionally one cuz they tried to make a tiefling but their mother is a succubus so,,oopsies

I really appreciate all the effort you put into these rankings. They help me see monsters' potential for use in my campaign and gives me inspiration for new stories. There are a few points of critique which I feel are which are holding this series back a bit: - The speed of talking is extremely slow. I don't think I've ever had someone speak so slowly in a RU-vid video before. Especially because it's not a conversation, but an informational video. I have to put the speed at 1.25 to watch a bit comfortably. Speaking faster would also make these videos a bit shorter as 25 minutes is a big investment relative to other videos on the site. - The bit about the Cambion felt insensitive to actual real world issues people have. I wasn't personally offended, and I know you meant it to be a joke, but it felt really tone deaf and childish to me. I like these videos because of the excellent analysis, not for cheap jokes that target low hanging fruit. Don't let these points take away from the fact that I love the actual content and would love to see more of it.

11:46 did you really need to get politics involved?

As yugoloths are so desperate to get as much coin as they can, I always thought it would be cool if they "leveled up" to more advanced forms based on how much wealth they had. For example, going to a coven of night hags and giving them some huge amount of GP (or an equivalent amount in souls) in exchange for the hags performing a ritual upon them which bumps them up to the next tier. It would explain why they're so greedy and grasping, and why they'll work for whoever is paying them the most.

You complain about the Ugoloth names like devils aren’t “barbed devil, bearded devil, bone devil” I guess it’s universal.

Animal on fire "just plain old cool"

You seem to have issue with Cambions...

yugoloths are the best, mostly when a rival adventuring party hired a yugoloth or your party made the mistake of hiring one xD.

Yeah I fought an Arcanaloth recently and the only reason we figured out he was who we thought he was is because we had a lense of true sight.

I have a hatred for hellhounds because my first character, a Sorcerer that used mostly fire spells, was basically useless against them.

Loving these new Tier lists. Looking forward to seeing your take on Demons, Goblinoids, Monstrosities and Aberrations (my personal favourite subtype).

Well... Basic Rakshasa is not a big of a threat... But a Ak'chazad Rakshasa is real bussines

I like how the ultraloth looks

I’m okay with the -loth names, it (could) allow the monsters to be very different physically, while still showing that they’re all fiends born of night-hags; and not just devils/demons. I’m a little disappointed that wotc didn’t follow through with that and make their designs more distinctive, though. They really do look just like any other generic demon... Also: Mage: “I’m in need of greater arcane knowledge in order to face the fiends of Gehenna”. Bard: *eyeing the yagnoloth’s cod-piece* “I have the perfect gift for you, my mage friend!” Roll for seduction.

Your suggestions for alternate names are pretty awful. I suspect that were born out of irony tho haha

I've actually made cambian and succubus home-brew races. The resistances make them... kinda op, but I feel like taking those away just doesn't do the creatures justice.

I always pronounced it "var-ghoul", myself. Pretty cool freaky flying head. Pretty unsettling.

Pipe smoking space hippos do have lots of style, though.

Yeah @the 11:30 mark, things get really weird

If you want to be a dirty GM, give the Rakshasa a sneak attack bonus of 5d6. Makes it more potent in melee and fits the image of a target stalking its prey before lashing out with one devastating strike

Can’t wait for more ranking videos! Love these

I think that missing something in the Ugaloths is their connection to the lands of Hades. More accurately the Night market. And their strong association with night hags ties all three together

You forgot to add the fact that the Rakshasa can’t be affected by spells up to a specific level! That means if the caster aren’t strong enough then they are useless!!!

Now if a raksasha were to disguise itself as a taxibi then you would never know.

I've gotten into dungeons & dragons at a young age because of my older brother but after a while thousands of campaigns sometimes a brother like me would grow out of it but I want to get back into.

I thought the thumbnail said "D&D friend tiers"

Are Yugoloths like Daemons from Advanced 1st edition?

Yugoloths started as daemons, way back in the days. The magic resistance was scary for spellcasters.

Canoloth is just Wildmutt in armor, let's be real here.

I love the lyrical references in the grade ranks.

I agree that the randomsylables-loths all sound too similar. New players would have no idea what the different varients are, and even after reading the manuals, i still have trouble keeping them seperate in my head to where i have to look them up to keep track of which one is which when listening to other peoples dnd stories.

I wish you went into more detail on the Merrenoloth, I don't own MtoF :(

I would love to see a video ranking fey creatures. They aren’t as common and I’ve never played in a game with fey so I think it would be really interesting

Gonna be playin an arcanaloth character in an upcoming campaign :)

I love this series! keep it up!

if any yugoloths had the names you suggested they would literally be the most forgettable monsters in dnd.

You did the rakshasa dirty here. You're never going to fight one, because it's going to trick and manipulate you ahead of time, and you never knew what it was, even if you figured out you were tricked. If you do try to fight it, it's going to have a host of servants and guards to throw in your way while it escapes, because being sent back to hell is super inconvenient and unpleasant, and it will be plotting your death for the rest of the campaign.

20:25 You uh, forgot the chart for the Hydroloth

I always thought "Yugoloth" was more suited to Love Craftian mythos style beings.

since i'm expecting demons next, after them i would love to see giants, both the core giant races (Hill, Stone, Frost, Fire, Cloud, and Storm), and Giant like races (Oni, Ogres, Cyclops, Formorians, Trolls)

Yer nuts, Ultraloth looks rad as heck

I’m writing a campaign rn and the bbeg for the first leg of it was just gonna be a powerful caster but now I’m thinking an aracanaloth might be more interesting