Catalogue of Demons

I find the traditional and 5e versions of 'monster types' to be a little cumbersome. It's un-intuitive. What actually links a slaad, mind flayer, and a beholder as 'abberations?' They're not from the same place. They're all otherworldly, but if a ranger, say, devoted themselves to the study of otherworldly creatures, wouldn't that also include demons?

Add to that 5e's reduced emphasis on creature types defining stat blocks (remember in 3.x type would determine everything from saving throws to hit dice), and this feels like an exercise in futility. And even worse, under-utilized design space!

So for a long time I've been using my own world-specific creature types. They're based on where the creatures are from, including geographically, historically, and dimensionally. They're supposed to be more akin to natural groupings. This has the benefit of allowing me to come up with unique looks and behaviors consistent to each group, which means when it comes up during games, players are more likely to be able to intuit what kind of creature they're dealing with, even if they've never seen this specimen before.

I've included examples of creatures after each entry. These are suggestions of statblocks to use to represent those creatures, not always a 1:1 ratio (for example, a tweaked lycanthrope might work for either a Raksha or a Xibalban).

Here are the first few: The Catalogue of Demons.

Utukku

From BEFORE. Chaos demons, holdovers from an early universe. Of the same age or older than the gods- in terms of species, not necessarily individuals. Because the world as we know it hadn't been built yet, their forms tend to be extremely alien- not just tentacles and insect parts, but WEIRD tentacles and insect parts. Their design almost never references the human form, unless they're some sort of possessing demon, parasite, or shapeshifter (like a mimic, probably the first Uktukku most adventurers encounter.) Their abilities should be powerful, but idiosyncratic, like they're optimized for a different environment than this one.

Utukku are weak to salt, silver, and certain runes of making and binding.

Example Uktukku: Mezzoloths, Beholders, Aboleths, Slaadi, Oblexes, Carrion Crawlers, Chuul, Cloakers, Darkmantle, Ettercap, Gibbering Mouthers, Hook Horror, Otyugh, Piercer, Purple Worm, Roper, Rust Monster, Stirge, Astral Dreadnought, Balhannoth, Alkalith, Dybbuk, Sibriex, Wastrilith, Dhergoloth, Deep Scion, Maw Demon, Morkoth, Flumph, Sea Spawn, Trapper,

Slaad are a great exasmple, because even thought they're more 'normal' looking, they're perfect chaos avatars. Total chaos isn't always random- slaad are the multiverse insisting on answering every question with 'giant toad!'

Giant Toaaaad

Also:

Doesn't get much more Utukku than that.

Raksha

From OUTSIDE. Raksha are energy/conceptual beings from 'beyond' the multiverse, taken on physical form through the act of entering reality. They commonly access reality through people's dreams, or appear in areas of nature and pure natural energy, but they can arise anywhere. Many creatures that would be categorized as 'elementals' are Raksha who have not taken on a fully material form. Others incarnate themselves more fully, and appear as fey or demonic creatures, often in impossible shapes or strange animal-human or part-object hybrids. Almost all Raksha retain some ability to shapeshift.

Examples: Animated Objects, Bugbears, Drow, Displacer Beasts, Faerie Dragon, Yochlol, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Green Hags, Harpies, Lamia, Manticore, Peryton, Pixie, Rakshasa, Satyr, Sprite, Blink Dog, Eladrin, Meazel, Nagpa, Sorrowsworn, Banderhob, Boggle, Darklings, Shusoova, Draegloth, Annis Hag, Bheur Hag, Korred, Leucrotta, Meenlock, Nilbog, Quickling, Red Cap, Yeth Hound, 

Raksha are unable to lie. As conceptual beings, they are their thoughts, their self conception. They can no more lie than a regular person can turn themselves purple or grow donkey ears.

Grigori

Of the DIVINE. Servants set up by the gods to tend to creation. Dragons, giants, many elementals, even primordial dwarves. They are less mutable than the Raksha, and almost all have some human-like aspect. I had some trouble finding the 'visual line' to separate Grigori from Raksha, or Raksha from Xibalban for that matter, but in this case the behavior should give a boost. Grigori are a lot more solid than Raksha, being fully of this universe, perhaps more so than anything else.

Another key difference: Grigori are in some way spirits of the land, tied very closely with a sense of place. Raksha are never localized in this way, unless they have been bound by powerful magic, or unless the 'landscape' they're associated with it itself some otherworld pulled from the land of dreams.

Examples: Dryads, Dragons, Azer, Angels, Blights, Centaurs, Coatl, Cyclops, Dragons, Dragon Turtle, Empyrean, Ettin, Fomorian, Galeb Duhr, Genies, Giants, Gorgons, Griffins, Hydra, Elementals, Minotaur, Nagas, Owlbear, Pegasus, Quaggoths, Roc, Tritons, Sphinx, Kraken, Tarrasque, Treant, Unicorn, Invisible Stalker, Water Weird, Xorn, Duergar, Eidolon, Elder Elementals, Modrons, Marut, Catoblepas, Flail Snail, Ki-Rin, Wood Woad, 

Xibalban

of the DEAD. These are the spirits of the underworld, formed of ghosts of mortals, fallen angels and demons, and so on. At the bottom of the underworld is an infinite void, from which nothing returns, and the spirits of the dead are inexorably pulled towards it. The Xibalbans are residents of the city built on its brink, holding themselves off from oblivion through a baroque commerce in souls- they send the lesser ghosts into the void in their stead.

Xibalba has six 'houses,' essentially overlapping dreamlike layers of the plane. There isn't always a clear line between which demons are part of which house, and many don't have a specific house, but here are some general themes.

-Umbral. Shadar-Kai, shadows, shadow demons, nightwalkers, banshees, shadow dragons, driders, Will-o'-wisp, Wraith, Shadow Mastiff, 

-Zoztnian. Bat-demons. Vargouilles, Nabassus, Nycaloths, Berbalang, 

-Balmoran. Barghests, were-tigers, barl-guras, goristros, arcanoloths, nalfeshnee, jackelwere, Bulezau, Orthon, Howler, Gnolls, Tannaruk,

-Cryoyek. Ice demons. Gelugon, Remorhaz, Yeti, 

-Chayim. Razor & metal. Mariliths, spinagons, kytons, hamatula, barbazu, Chasme, glabrezu, Osyluth, Boneclaw, Armanite, Merregon, Retriever, Canoloth, Babau, 

-Ignalti. Fire demons. Immolith, balors, cornugons, hell hounds, magmin, nightmare, salamanders, Narzugon, Firenewts,

General Xibalbans: Could use stats for imps, vampires, mummy lords, ghouls, medusas, erinyes, death knight, demilich, Dretch, manes, hezrou, vrock, dracolich, flameskull, night hag, Nothic, death dog, deathlock, Maurezhi, Molydeus, Rutterkin, Abishai, Amnizu, nupperibo, Skull Lord, Stone Cursed, Sword Wraith, Hydroloth, Merrenoloth, Oinoloth, Yagnoloth, Bodak, Devourer,  . In addition, any Grigori, Raksha, or Nephilim can fall to death, and become Xibalban.

Xibalbans are immune or resistant to fire, and they aren't undead- although about half of the 'affects undead' spells and weapons in my game are in fact 'affects Xibalbans.'

Devils are beings, often Xibalban, who have been bound by the church. As part of the many layers of enchantment and oath (same thing) they are unable to lie or break contracts. This is not like the physical inability of the Raksha- the devil may be able to get around the magic on it, or lie in a specific way. Vampires, and their inability to enter a house without permission, are a good example of this.

Nephilim

Of the MORTAL. The universes' early mortal species, mostly extinct, and their descendents/creations.
The five nephilim species are:

-Ether Gaunts

-Mind Flayers

-Spell Weavers

-Grave Worms

-Wind Dukes

Humans are kind of also nephilim, being descendents of the nephilim's creatures, but they're treated as separate for purposes of ranger abilities, and most spells. For spells, basically assume everything that affects nephilim affects humans, but not everything targeted at humans will harm a nephilim.

Example Servitors & Descendents: Behir, Bullywugs, Grell, Grick, Grimlocks, Intellect Devourer, Kuo-Toa, Merfolk, Merrow, Myconid, Ogre, Oni, Orcs, Neogi, Umber Hulk, Ultroloth, Yuan-Ti, Choker, Gith, Skulk, Star-Spawn, Steel Predator, Chitine, Froghemoth, Girallon, Grung, Neothelid, Vegepygmie,

Up next: Mutants and Robots and Dinosaurs!

Maybe: a player-facing aid, like a handout, mentioning various lore about demons?

How much of this is gameable? I don't know! Maybe it will be possible to make gameable material out of it... Still, gotta dump all this lore somewhere!