“By the eight names of Lolth, I invoke thee. By the eight curses of the Flesh-Carver, I command thee. By the eight dooms of the Spider Queen, I summon thee. Fill my empty vessel with your profane might, your limitless power, and your inexhaustible wisdom. Let us become one and show the world your true power!”

—Olarae Quavein, demonbinder

The demonbinder draws the essence of demons into herself to acquire their power. Such acts are forbidden, and doing so condemns the mortal to eternity in the deepest pits of the Abyss. However, the demonbinder cares little for her fate, being wholly concerned with power in the here and now. It is from this doom that she is able to invest herself with the power of fiends, and the farther she travels down the road of corruption, the more potent are the demons she binds.

BECOMING A DEMONBINDER

Demonbinders all have at least four levels of warlock, but not all are pure warlocks. Many dabble in other classes, especially those who seek to augment their combat capabilities. Class levels in ranger, fighter, and especially barbarian are all common choices for demonbinder candidates.

PLAYING A DEMONBINDER

By becoming a demonbinder, you sacrifice your immortal soul for the instant power granted by the Abyss. You draw demonic agencies inside yourself, triggering a vile transformation that bestows not only a sampling of a fiend’s power, but also a resemblance to that fiend. Constant exposure to these creatures leaves a stain on your soul so foul that no act of restitution will ever cleanse it.

For obvious reasons, most demonbinders find little acceptance in most civilized lands and are forced to make do in remote places: dark lands filled with goblinoids, giants, and other creatures that care little for the interests of one depraved mortal. This, however, is not the case with the drow. Thanks to Lolth’s association with the Abyss, particularly with regard to her personal domain (the Demonweb Pits), female demonbinders are valued members of the Spider Queen’s clergy. Called the Daughters of the Demon, they treat regularly with fiends. Lending special insights into the nature of demons, they aid priestesses in a particularly terrifying ritual—one in which these otherworldly beings are called up to take part in depraved couplings, hoping to gain the favor of the Queen of Spiders.

Combat

The demonbinder prestige class offers an incredible selection of abilities, granting you uncommon versatility. With the infusion of temporary hit points acquired from your demonbind, you have a greater ability to withstand attacks before you have to withdraw from combat.

Demonbinds also give you ways to improve your eldritch blast. However, they require additional expenditures of damnation points, which limits your options at lower levels but provides even greater flexibility with the use of your eldritch blast as you grow more powerful.

Advancement

The Abyss and the creatures that dwell within its endless depths contain enormous power that you have stolen and molded to serve your purposes. You turned to the forbidden knowledge of the demonologists, scouring tomes of the most profane knowledge to unlock the secrets of demonbinding. You learned how to open yourself to these spirits and invite them to reside within you. The depth of their wickedness shocked you at first, but each time you bound one, you found your reluctance slipping away until the process felt almost natural.

Unless you are ensconced in a church of Lolth, odds are that you are an exile, cast out of society for your terrible arts. You might surround yourself with minions for the protection they afford. If you are not an exile, and you are female, then you are a part of the esteemed Daughters of the Demon, a coven of female drow warlocks who advise and support the priestesses, helping them to exert their absolute control over the community. Though most of your time is spent in these endeavors, you occasionally use your magical talents to thwart your most ambitious competitors.

As you advance, you should invest in feats that improve your eldritch blast ability. Since the demonbinder class does not improve the amount of damage you deal, feats such as Ability Focus (eldritch blast) and Weapon Focus (eldritch blast), as well as Maximize Spell-Like Ability and Heighten Spell-Like Ability, make it harder for foes to resist this vital component of your arsenal.

Resources

The Daughters of the Demon receive assistance from the clerics of Lolth, who regard them as valuable tools for maintaining their status and control. In exchange for your support, the priestesses provide you with lodging, food, clothing, and all of life’s necessities. In addition, they also offer free healing, if it lies within their power, as well as discounted spellcasting services. Though the rewards are considerable, make no mistake: You are their servant.

DEMONBINDERS IN THE WORLD

“How can you doubt the reasons behind the curse that banished the drow from the sun’s light? The demonbinders prove their wickedness. They earned their fate—and the day this world sees the end of the dark elves cannot come soon enough.”

—Estrella Montenegro, Knight of the Chalice

Demonbinders are a menace. They have no restraint. They eschew the good sense that keeps sane mortals from treating with demons. Demonbinders are too arrogant to recognize that they are the tools of the creatures they supposedly control, and the fact that they have not yet been bodily snatched into the Abyss to suffer incomprehensible tortures is only proof that these twisted individuals are immensely valuable to the demon princes.

Organization

From the very moment young drow exhibit a warlock’s unique powers, they are taken from their houses, stripped of their familial loyalties, and steeped in the dark arts of warlock magic. Few survive the arduous training and profoundly evil rites meant to usher them into their next stage of development. For most, their “education” stops when they achieve adulthood, whereupon they take their place in the priesthood as members of the church. A few go farther than this position, however.

Warlocks who display a special knack for dealing with fiends and who exhibit a deeper understanding of those creatures study under the tutelage of established demonbinders, learning a different, darker path to power. Again, the casualty rate from such instruction is high, and many would-be demonbinders simply disappear, with only an echoing scream to suggest where they went and what took them.

Once past the initial stages of training, the newly ordained demonbinder oversees and sometimes participates in summoning rituals, cackling as the acolytes shriek with pain and terror from the caress of a conjured fiend.

Although demonbinders have great power, the path is not without its drawbacks. No priestess fully trusts a demonbinder, and with good reason: These individuals are every bit as fickle and dangerous as Lolth herself. When infused with a demon’s essence, their capricious and violent tendencies become far worse.

NPC Reactions

Demonbinders are lumped together with demon worshipers, detestable in almost every circle and certainly by any civilized community. Those who learn of a demonbinder’s nature, abilities, and allegiance are hostile and attack on sight if at all possible.

Demonbinders find welcome only among evil outsiders and creatures that venerate demonic gods. To such individuals, demonbinders are kindred spirits, serving the same powers for the same ends. They are indifferent, or friendly if they happen to serve identical masters.

DEMONBINDER LORE

Characters who have ranks in Knowledge (the planes) can research demonbinders to learn more about them. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: There is little difference between demonbinders and the demons that possess them.

DC 15: Demonbinders, though they have much in common with other spirit sharers, are wholly in a class of their own. They transcend the limits of common sense, willingly giving their bodies to demons.

DC 20: A demonbinder uses his or her own corruption to open a gate inside himself or herself, allowing a malignant spirit to occupy his or her body for a brief time. From such unions, the demonbinder gains a variety of powers and resistances that vary with the demon or demons bound.

Outside drow cities, demonbinders are reclusive. Characters interested in tracking down a demonbinder have the best chances of doing so by using Gather Information in frontier villages at the edges of civilization.

DEMONBINDERS IN THE GAME

Demonbinders lurk at the fringes of society, so you should be able to incorporate them into an ongoing campaign with little to no work. Furthermore, demonbinders are blessedly rare, and unless the characters have been in a drow city for a long time, there’s no reason to assume the PCs have had previous encounters with these characters.

Best as adversaries, low-level demonbinders make excellent lieutenants: They are versatile, and the techniques they use are hard to predict. A higher-level demonbinder might lead a group of cultists, perhaps acting as a prophet.

Adaptation

Demonbinders are vile warlocks, utterly in thrall to the demons they bind. To make this class more useful to players, you could downplay some of darker elements to bring it more in line with other transformative prestige classes such as the dragon disciple (DMG 183) and the fiend-blooded (Heroes of Horror). Replace the chaotic evil alignment requirement with any non-good. In addition, apply the following changes to the damnation ability described above.