Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Devourer 

So...the devourer is when a corpse is animated with the ego being the motivating force and not a soul? I am trying to comprehend how it can even be since it doesn't have a soul of any kind. It isn't a puppet animated by an necromancer nor does it have a negitive energy spirit making it get up. It just...is. Almost like an elemental but without an element. Still feel like that is a flawed understanding :s

@@jacobfreeman5444 not just the ego, it's possible that an entity replicates it's memory and sustains it via negative energy. We don't know what the mysterious third factor is in their creation.

@@AJPickett hmmmm...souls are born on thr positive energy plain... Could this be a sort of reflection? A kind of negative energy soul that desires to cancel itself out by reuniting with thr original? Ah, well, that is a good idea to use but there is no canon, right? Guess we can make up whatever sounds cool.

@@AJPickett what happens when he has a soule,not his own from dont know, adventurer xy and the devourer meets a demilich,the demilich dosent like the devourer(dont know why maybe he ows him money) and he snatches the soule from the devourer, filling a soul gem can the devourer snatch it back,would it be a game of soul snatch?

Basically the base for the nameless one imortality ritual made by Havel.

Perhaps the same force that Zon Kuthon met before he turned into the horror god he is now

Brilliant

@@AJPickett I actually heard that as alternative lyrics to Bullet with Butterfly Wings playing in my head.

@@AJPickett :)

Yes, but what is Mordenkainen's excuse for the travesty that is the pheonix?

Most likely, a case of mistaken identity. If you were to see a flame elemental in the shape of a great bird, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a phoenix before you had a chance to interact with it. After all; if it looks like a fish, and swims like a fish, it might be a dolphin.

Seriously. The 5th edition version doesn't even work well with the other demons it would presumably be allied with. For goodness sake Mearls, once adventurers get north of 5th level you can start throwing crazy monsters at them. Nobody will bat an eye when the gloves come off at 10+ CR. Urrgh.

That sounds awesome, so yes.

The Bodak already does that, to some extent. Bodak apocalypse are terrifying.

Sad smashing pumpkin noises

True

@@AJPickett Maybe they'll give the Devourer the succubus treatment in the future by giving them different subtypes or do what they did for orcs and Ondontis, similiar creatures but with differences. Speaking of the Ondontis, I'm surprised that they haven't been brought back to D&D. I may not be a player race yet. They may look like orcs, but I think to make them stand out is to give them blue skin and yellow eyes and reintroducing their history of pacifism, but note that after being enslaved and one tribe being protected by their goddess that they developed a thirst for justice and rebel against their slavers. Not to mention an extended backstory that mentions that Gruumsh ditched the Ondontis to add some flair. Not to mention they could be the best of both worlds when it comes between racial abilities derived from orcs and half orcs: Dark Vision, larger builf ability, has a chance to be dropped to 1hp, multiattack ability, and a unique ability to unnerve and confuse enemies since they would be confused by what they consider a blue orc spouting fighting for justice and killing anyone who owns slaves while being a good buddy outside of combat.

That sounds like a great situation to explore through a roleplaying game.

Sounds like the classic thug in a movie that steals a suitcase, containing an "insurance" payoff to a crime lord... The amount of collateral damage could be reason enough for a full on battle that could only stop if that devourer is found in time and handed over.

I'm sure he believes all life is a mockery.

It’s a pro level “Counter Trolling” maneuver. Turn the troll into your servant. Well played Orcus, well played.

no, he hates AJ for mocking him. but he hates every living thing, so it doesn't matter.

JoaoG R Orcus is like the opposite of Jesus. He hates everyone equally. And that’s just fine.

I just had a party messing with a orb of annihilation trap. Spent 30 minutes real time and just emptied the junk from there packs into it before moving on. (Barby broke a wall down instead of spending a high level dispel magic) Fun trap. :)

Agreed, on all counts.

I'm just gonna call the new one a demonic devourer for my games.

Nah, check the monster manual; Nightmares eat rotten meat. (joke)

Do not forget the bodaks! Perhaps one of the greatest dangers in Abyss, becoming one is possible for pretty much anyone who sees too much mind-rending horror, made into another undead in service of Orcus. The stats are roughly similar, but 5e is seriously lacking in lore department.

That’s fine, you can change the lore however you want. That’s the beauty of D&D and especially 5e, you can change whatever you like and really don’t have to worry about how it’s going to interact.

Still, good lore inspires you to use it, as you can see interesting options and ideas that can work with it. And even if you do not want to use it immediatelly you still get inspired by it, while lackluster lore does not make you want to do anything with the monster except just for their mechanical value. To each their own, I guess.

I think that might be why they changed it. The most versatile of monster types would weaken the versatility of other monster types, and make them subsequently the most-used of monster types

Does anyone else think they may be holding a campaign book about orcus back from us? Just a thought reading this thread. They kind of did the same thing with giants at the beginning of 5e

The undead are much more tragic, but unlike most tragic monsters in DnD these guys actually have a chance of a happy ending if they find their old soul. I think that and the fact that they are intelligent makes them so much more compelling.

How the ef have I not thought of this?

It’s fng perfect the the Barovian citizens

Anime hammer space I guess? Lol

You can give it whatever weapons you want.

Lotta ways ethereal undead can get mucked up.

@@johnandjessicapage1777 Gotta die faithful to something. Really sucks to be an atheist in D&D.

I think that’s the thing about the lich as to why it is so powerful. Something with so much power must be very difficult to obtain. I kinda like it because you can use so many would be characters to become “almost made it” to lich monsters.

I feel like Orcus is bio polar at this point. He claims he wants quite, but he came back from death. He should just go back to death.

Well, for a time he was. Thecnically he became Primus for a while

This is the problem with inconsistent designers playing havok with the character. Plus, WotC will never let an important character die for realz.

Warhammer has the same problem where they have cool concepts or ideas, but they never really do anything with them or say screw it and keep wrecking what isn't broken@@stephenclements6158

@Rich Dad Summit Why thank you sir :) I do have them from time to time. (edit) actually I was having a really crap day and this really put a smile back on my face. :D

I prefer to think of it's body expanding and warping in a horrifying manner where it envelops the target like a blob of living, putrid flesh.

They are usually different Vlaakith's

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. How dare you.

Bwuahahaha! *twirls mustache*

Tell them I said Hi

There is some unknown, third factor going on with the undead Devourer that is not described, on purpose. So yes, Devourers don't seem to make sense in their retention of their memory.

@@AJPickett It might we'll be a very complicated manifestation of the will of the negative energy plane itself. Either that, or some kind of soul like vessel that has many of the same functions of a natural soul, but lacks the spark of divine power that demons and devil's crave may be present. Something not unlike the petitioners in hell after they have been processed, but before they have become larva. Either way, where consciousness and free will are involved, whatever fits in the hole left behind by a soul begins to look and sound awful like one when you drill down to the details of what purpose it's serving.

@Khashon Haselrig It definitely could be something like that, but I am suspicious of separating the negative and positive sides of a soul into different things. A soul should be negative and positive mixed together, and unless explicitly stated, when the word soul is used, I assume that it has both. This model would imply that an evil warlock who became a devourer would become a saint while the evil parts of his spirit (IE the things that form most of his soul at this point) would be left behind in the devourer body. For an esspecialy evil person, the missing part of the soul would be very small, and you could effectively say that most if not all of their soul was still intact. The books call all Devourers souless, not just the ones who were good in life.

I hate bringing up a corny movie for it... But the brendan fraser movie, the mummy. When the chariot pulls out Imhotep's soul. You see him still 'alive' and conscious. He knows something vital was ripped from him, and he knows it was his soul. Yet he's still functional. Does it make sense, not really. Does it have to, nope. Are mortals even meant to comprehend the entirety of its soul?

@@Roadblock911 This is a bit complicated, it touches on the Egyptian concept of the soul, which is incompatible with the D&D model. The Egyptians believed that a person was constituted of 5 soul parts and their body. The Ren (Your birth name), the Ba (the personality that you develop over time), the Sheut (Your shadow, the impression your soul leaves on reality, and also the thing that affixes you to this world) the Ka (Your life force, or breath of life, literally your body heat, pulse and other basic vital signs) the Ib (Your heart, the thing that ties it all together) and your body, the actual vessel you pilot around. Being Dead Imhotep is missing his Ka. Although we see his shadow at several points in the movie, he is also likely to be missing his Sheut, which is why he can turn into sand and move around as he does, as he is no longer pinned down to this earth by his shadow. His Ren was likely taken from him by the Priest's who entombed him alive, but this was returned to him when the incantation was read in the Book of the Dead. He is going around devouring people, probably takeing their Ka's, and he does not revert to a skeleton after, so that cant have been what was taken. By process of elimination the thing in the Chariot was likely either his Ib, the only part of him unaffected at this point, or his Ren, the thing that allowed him to rise in the first place, and makes him able to be killed again now that it is gone. I'm especially inclined towards it being his Ren, because without his Ren or his Ka he is a motionless corpse. Now however, he has accumulated a good deal of Ka meaning he can still move, but without his Ren he can be injured like anyone else. The Ren is also the thing that was returned to him when the Book was read from at the beginning, and they get the chariot to come by reading from the book, so it makes sense that they were fixing what they did earlier, takeing his Ren back away from him. It is his accumulated Ka that he stole from his victims that is keeping him ambulatory past that point and necessitates injuring him to put him back in the ground. His Ba remains with him the entire time, which is why he carries the grudge of that incident into the next movies and remembers everything. Edit: PS: There is also a certain significance to the people he hypnotizes constantly chanting his Ren, Imhotep over and over again. Its probably something they just thought sounded cool, but it fits very well. His Ren is what is keeping him bound to this earth, and its the thing in jeopardy that he wants to protect at all cost. Having been without it for so long, im sure hearing it spoken gives him some degree of comfort or satisfaction. Even outside of Egypt, across almost all the near East having your name forgotten was considered to be a kind of soul death.

Technically, wasn't the Devourer given a different names as well as a weaker and stronger variant in 4e? Just use those guys, how different can their stat blocks in 4e be to 5e's stat blocks?

If it has any unfinished business it might live on as a Revenant perhaps, it might become a Lich, or it simply breaks whatever unholy force was animating it, crumbles to dust and the soul goes onto whatever afterlife fate has in store for it.

get an adblocker for your phone

RU-vid premium is well worth it, also great for us creators as it takes the power of censorship away from advertisers.

Legendary! Thanks James, it means a lot to me.

2023 is going to heavily feature the character of the Sage, I assure you.

@@AJPickett that's the best present I could have asked for, thank you for all you do in the world of our changing hobby.

Thanks Chris

Well that certainly counts as a massive win, thanks Joel!

change without reason or improvement is just vandalism

Its being edgy or quirky for the sake of being that. Its not even interesting and that's the worst part.

Reeeee.. moral panics, just batton down the hatches and ride it out.