Also known as baatezu, the outsiders residing in the Lawful Evil plane of Baator. These are the guys who usually make deals with mortals. Devils are part of a strict hierarchy, each individual subservient to the ones above it, but also constantly scheming to ascend the ranks themselves. At the top of the hierarchy are the Archdukes of the Nine Hells, and at their head is Asmodeus, god of vice.

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Devils in General

Ambition Is Evil: Every devil is an ambitious social climber who wants to claw their way up the infernal hierarchy of the Nine Hells. The ones who don't have such ambitions end up as nupperibos, the diabolical equivalent of a dead-end job.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Due to devils' inherent rank and caste system, wherein all promotions involves a transformation into a higher caste of devil, the devils at the top of the hierarchy are also the strongest. Pit Fiends, the generals of Hell, are the mightiest of the rank and file devils. Unique archdevils above that are even more powerful.
Celestial Bureaucracy: Or Infernal Bureaucracy, in this case. Baator's business of damning mortals involves a great deal of paperwork, requiring an army of devilish bureaucrats, and devils compete viciously with one another to fill their quotas and earn promotion. Throw in "soul futures" trading, spiritual loan sharks trading a few souls now to a desperate devil for the promise of more souls later, devils trying to win the rights to the most productive soul harvesting territory on the Material Plane, "lateral demotions" of dangerous underlings into forms of devil ill-suited for soul collection and thus further promotion, and archdevils trying to poach talent from each other, and the whole thing comes across as a dark satire of corporate politics.
Deal with the Devil: Devils are infamous for striking bargains with mortals willing to risk damnation for some benefit or prize, and are also famed for being crafty negotiators and ruthless at enforcing the terms of an agreement. Devils prefer to strike a Pact Certain with a foolish mortal willing to explicitly sell their soul to an archfiend, but more commonly use the Pact Insidious — this approach doesn't directly damn the mortal to Hell, but they must trade a service for the devil's offer of assistance, treasure or magical powers. Many mortals believe that they can reap the rewards of such devilish pacts without suffering the consequences, unaware that each corrupt act they perform in exchange is another step towards damnation. The devils, meanwhile, usually make arrangements for their "partner" to die as soon as their soul is marked for Hell, to avoid any chances of atonement or deathbed repentance.
Death of Personality: Souls arrive in the Nine Hells through the river Styx, which wipes them of their mortal memories. A lemure has no personality, but they usually develop more as they ascend through the ranks. The exception is powerful mortals who sell their souls, since they are usually more useful with their memories than without them.
Demon of Human Origin: When an evil soul is damned to the Nine Hells, the devils torture it until every shred of its humanity and sense of self has been expunged. What remains of the soul then becomes a lemure, the lowest form of devil, which can rise through the infernal ranks and attain more powerful forms.
Evil Is Sterile: With the exception of Erinys and Brachina, all female devils are sterile. Given that this isn't the case for most demons, it's implied this is meant as a punishment for devils, as in some versions of the game, they're Fallen Angels.
Fantastic Rank System: Devils combine this with Fantastic Caste System, as their rank system is innate, and each promotion comes with a physical transformation. Rank 1 are considered Least Devils, rank 2-though-7 are Lesser Devils, ranks 8-through-11 are Greater Devils and finally rank 12 and 13 are Archdevils. Most devils are capable of ascending the ranks as needed, while others are stuck in their current post based on their deeds in life. The system was somewhat simplified in 5e.
- Lemures and Nupperibo are both rank 1. Lemures just arose from the River Styx and are the start of the hierarchy, but have little chance of promotion unless a nearby general happens to need more advanced troops. Nupperibo are souls who lack the ambition to ascend in rank^note. Both are treated as cannon fodder.
- Imps are rank 2, capable of independent thought and making deals, but not really combatants.
- Spined devils, or spinagons, are rank 3, Hell's air superiority units.
- Bearded devils, or barbazu, and merregons (formed from the souls of mercenaries) are both rank 4, Hell's infantry.
- Barbed devils, or barbatu, are rank 5. Hell's guardians and watchers.
- Chain devils, or kytons, are rank 6. Hell's chief torturers.
- Bone devils, or osyluths, are rank 7. Hell's Internal Affairs.
- Horned devils, or cornugons/malebranche, and orthons are both rank 8. Horned devils are Hell's elite flying infantry, while orthons are a dead-end career path that serve Hell as trackers and hunters.
- Erinyes are rank 9. Hell's furies that bring vengeance and punishment. As fallen angels, they occupy a strange position in the hierarchy.
- Ice devils, or gelugons, and Narzugons are both rank 10. Ice devils are Hell's commanders, while Narzugon are made from corrupted paladins.
- Amnizu and pit fiends, both rank 11, are Hell's nobility and generals.
- Archdevils are unique beings and not part of lesser devil species. Dukes and duchesses are rank 12, and serve directly under the Archduke or Archduchess, rank 13, of each Hell.
- Abishai are an alternate career path for devils who are more loyal to Tiamat, the dragon goddess. They serve Tiamat rather than Asmodeus, and as such stand outside the hierarchy, but still have corresponding ranks. White Abishai are rank 5, Black Abishai are rank 6, Green and Blue Abishai are both rank 10, and Red Abishai are rank 11.
Great Offscreen War: The Reckoning, a civil war that split Baator into two factions attempting to unseat the Lord of the Ninth. Asmodeus being Asmodeus, he emerged from the conflict unscathed, and punished his underlings in various ways - Belial was supplanted by his daughter Fierna as official ruler of Phlegethos, Baalzebul was given a sluglike form, Moloch was exiled and replaced by the Hag Countess. Interestingly, Geryon was also exiled despite - or because of - his service to Asmodeus as a mole during the rebellion.
Heaven's Devils: The supplemental sourcebook Tyrants of the Nine Hells proposes the theory that devils are angels who were created by the heavens for the purpose of battling the Chaotic Evil demons, and who took on some of the fierce and terrible traits of the demons to better understand how to combat them. This caused the other angels and gods to shun them and eventually led to the devils being granted (or possibly being exiled to) the Nine Hells to ensure the conflict was kept away from the other realms of Law.
Immune to Fire: Devils are universally immune to fire, which gives them an important edge in the Blood War due to Avernus being plagued by volcanism and firestorms that severely hinder the merely fire-resistant demons while leaving devils unharmed.
Jackass Genie: Archdevils (and in some editions, pit fiends) have the power to grant wishes. Being Lawful Evil, they will stick to the letter of a wish but interpret that letter in a way that is harmful to the wisher.
Kangaroo Court: Defied. A sufficiently knowledgeable mortal can try to get out of a deal with a devil on the grounds that the mortal was coerced into the pact, or the devil didn't deliver the goods as promised. There is an entire infernal court system dedicated to handling such cases, and since devils are as Lawful as they are Evil, they will offer the plaintiff a fair trial, even providing an erinyes legal counsel as needed. A combination of Knowledge (the planes), Diplomacy and Perform (acting) checks can see a mortal's soul freed from a devilish contract... but even if the mortal wins their case on merit, it's possible that their other actions have damned them to the Nine Hells anyway. "Much diabolical laughter then ensues."
Legacy Character: The Dark Eight are a council of pit fiend generals - Baalzephon, Corin, Dagos, Furcas, Paerza, Zapan, Zaebos and Zimmimar - who lead the Blood War, so cunning and powerful that they have survived millennia of leading from the front lines, as well as the assassination attempts of ambitious underlings. At least, that's the official story, the truth is that the Dark Eight die regularly and are replaced by pit fiends who take up the names of their predecessors.
The Legions of Hell: Quite literally. The devils of the Nine Hells are organized into highly trained and disciplined legions, contrasting with the disorganized hordes of their demon enemies. Fortunately for everyone else in the multiverse, devil armies are usually tied up in the Blood War and rarely menace anyone but the demons.
No-Sell: All devils are immune to fire and poison damage. Several kinds of devil have additional immunities: ice devils are immune to cold damage, for instance.
Non-Promotion: Since advancement in Baator is based on bringing in damned souls, baatezu refer to promotion into a type of devil with little opportunity to tempt mortals as "lateral demotions."
Our Demons Are Different: Devils are Lawful Evil and from Hell, and want to rule and control everything. In 4E, they are Fallen Angels.
Resurrective Immortality: The only way to permanently kill a devil is by killing it within the Nine Hells. Kill it anywhere else, and it will immediately come back to life in Hell.
Sanity Has Advantages: One of the devils' greatest advantages in the Blood War is that, being lawful evil, they are capable of working together, using tactics, and making and sticking to plans. Demons waste a lot of their strength running into traps, fighting each other, and throwing themselves against the hardest parts of the devils' defenses, while the devils' armies are run a lot better. But to the devils' great frustration, their superior tactics and discipline are balanced by the demons' endless numbers, so that no matter how brilliant a baatezu commander is, the best they can hope for is to maintain the status quo.
Super-Senses: Devils can see perfectly in the dark. Even magical darkness, which would stymie any other creature's darkvision, is perfectly clear to their infernal eyes.
Winged Humanoid: Several kinds of devils are winged. Usually devil wings are batlike and leathery, but erinyes have feathered wings, a remnant of their celestial origins.

Types of Devil

Abishai

Red abishai (5e)

Challenge Rating: 5 (White, Black), 6 (Green), 7 (Blue), 8 (Red) (3E)
6 (White), 7 (Black), 15 (Green), 17 (Blue), 19 (Red) (5E)

Draconic fiends created by Tiamat, abishais sit outside the normal infernal hierarchy. They serve her as emissaries and envoys, and she occasionally loans them out to Asmodeus and the other archdevils.

The Berserker: 5E white abishais are fearless warriors who fight with reckless abandon on the battlefield.
Casting a Shadow: Black abishais can innately cast the darkness spell.
Charm Person: The 5E green abishai has an arsenal of innate spells including charm person, dominate person, and mass suggestion. 5e red abishai can invoke Tiamat's power to charm a dragon—any dragon, though chromatic ones are especially susceptible—for one hour.
Dual Wielding: 5E black abishais wield a pair of scimitars.
Draconic Humanoid: They have roughly humanoid bodies with the head, wings, scales and tails of dragons. This is downplayed in third edition, where for the most part they're non-draconic imps instead.
Dragons Are Demonic: They are draconic fiends who serve Tiamat, the goddess of evil dragons.
Evil Sorcerer: 5E blue abishais are powerful spellcasters who hoard magical relics and arcane lore.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: Abishais follow the same color scheme as the chromatic dragons. White abishais are the weakest, followed by black abishais, green abishais, blue abishais, and finally red abishais.
Manipulative Bastard: In 5th edition the green abishai is proficient in Deception and Persuasion and can innately cast many kinds of Charm Person spells. Accordingly, they serve Tiamat as her emissaries and diplomats, using their silver tongues and magical powers to manipulate people into doing their bidding.
Staff of Authority: The 5E red abishai wields an ornate gold morningstar as its weapon of choice.
Stealth Expert: 5E black abishais are proficient in Stealth and can take the Hide action as a bonus action while in dark or dimly lit areas. Combine this with their innate power to cast darkness and you get an excellent assassin.
Took a Level in Badass: 5th edition gives a massive power boost to the abishais. For example, a red abishai in 3.5 is an unexceptional creature, while a red abishai in 5E is a powerful devil on par with a pit fiend.

Advespa

Challenge Rating: 3 (3E)

All-female, wasp-like devils that serve as Hell's aerial patrols.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Their stingers deal Strength damage with their poison, and advespas are agile enough to jab with them overhead like a scorpion.
Law of Chromatic Superiority: Rank-and-file advespas are monochrome black, looking like carved obsidian, but more powerful unit leaders have striations of yellow or red on their bodies.
Wicked Wasp: Devil-wasps are about as wicked as you can get. The only humanoid-ish parts of them are their heads and torsos, complete with Non-Mammalian Mammaries.

Amnizu

Challenge Rating: 7 (3E), 18 (5E)

Amnizus are the corpulent functionaries, politicians and gatekeepers of the Nine Hells.

Charm Person: 5th edition amnizus can innately cast the dominate person and dominate monster spells. They can also use their reaction to charm a creature attacking them, forcing the charmed creature to attack someone else instead.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: 5th edition amnizus can use their Forgetfulness ability to stun a creature for 1 minute. If the creature doesn't shake off the effect before it runs its course, it will forget everything that happened over the last five hours.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: The amnizus that man the checkpoints along the River Styx take sadistic glee in being as unpleasant as possible, subjecting visitors to intensive questioning about the reason for their travels and a humiliating strip search for contraband, then collecting their entrance fee and sending the visitors off to repeat the process at the next waystation ten miles along.
Pig Man: Their earlier art gave them porcine snouts and piggish eyes, but nowadays they're more generally corpulent.
Playing with Fire: They can innately cast the fireball spell in 3rd and 5th edition.
Retcon: Prior to 5th edition, amnizus were classified as lesser devils. This edition promoted them to the highest ranks of the greater devils after they Took a Level in Badass.
Stupidity-Inducing Attack: 3rd edition amnizus have a Stupefying Touch attack that reduces its target's Intelligence score in addition to inflicting damage. 5th edition amnizus lack this power, instead being able to innately cast the feeblemind spell and put their enemies into a temporary stupor.
Took a Level in Badass: Amnizus were mid-tier devils in 3rd edition, having few offensive options and not that many hit points. 5th edition greatly increased their hit points and gave them a much greater damage output along with more varied combat abilities. As a result, their Challenge Rating jumped from 7 in 3rd edition to 18 in 5th edition, and they are now considered greater devils of the same rank as pit fiends in the social hierarchy of the Nine Hells.
Whip of Dominance: Starting from 5e, the Amnizu devils wield whips in combat, to symbolize their status as sadistic taskmasters who enjoy humiliating and asserting their authority over their "lessers".

Araton (Desert Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_araton_3e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 6 (3E)

Flayed baatezu surrounded by a perpetual sandstorm.

Deadly Dust Storm: The abrasive dust swirling around them deals damage to anything within 10 feet of them.
Dual Wielding: Desert devils prefer to fight with a pair of Sinister Scimitars.
Flaying Alive: Their signature sandstorm constantly flays aratons' bodies, but the devils' Healing Factor prevents them from suffering more than cosmetic damage.

Ayperobos Swarm

Challenge Rating: 12 (3E)

A cloud of diminutive winged devils that work in concert to defeat larger creatures.

Big Red Devil: An almost perfect example - red skin, horns, bat wings, hooved feet - save for the fact that each ayperobos is only six inches tall.
The Dog Bites Back: Larger fiends consider ayperobos delicacies (due to the squeal and rush of blood when bitten into), but the little devils eventually realized that they could be quite dangerous as a group. Now they stalk any larger fiends that enter their territories to show them what it's like to be helpless victims.
Puppeteer Parasite: An ayperobos swarm can burrow into a creature's body and take control of it, as per the dominate monster spell.
The Swarm: A cloud of sparrow-sized fiends using telepathy to coordinate their actions.

Barbazu (Bearded Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_barbazu_5e.png

Challenge Rating: 5 (3E), 13 (4E), 3 (5E)

The shock troops and vanguards of Hell's armies, barbazus are typically used as guards on those rare occasions when the devils aren't fighting somebody.

Anti-Regeneration: In 5th edition, any creature poisoned by the lashing of a bearded devil's beard cannot regain hit points until the poison wears off.
Art Evolution: Bearded devils had a consistent design in the first three editions: lanky, hunchbacked creatures with green skin, digitigrade legs, tails, and filthy, disease-ridden beards. Then 4th edition straightened their posture, gave them a muscular build, recolored them red, gave them horns, and turned their beards into biting snakelike tentacles. 5th edition then ditched the horns, turned their skin purple, gave them more humanlike legs, and made those tentacles spinier and less snakelike.
Big Red Devil: 4th edition redesigned the bearded devils to have horns and red skin◊, giving them a more classically diabolical appearance. 5th edition ditched the horns and made them purple instead.
Blood Knight: Barbazu are noted to be among the most violent of devils, looking for any excuse to attack something, and in AD&D they're also prone to going into a "battle frenzy" upon entering combat. These borderline chaotic traits have given them a bad reputation among other baatezu, and barbazu are never trusted with leadership positions.
Damage Over Time: A bearded devil's glaive can inflict lingering "infernal wounds" which cause constant health loss until treated.
Weird Beard: Bearded devils are named after the snakelike growths that adorn their chins, which they use to lash and infect or poison enemies.

Bezekira (Hellcat)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_bezekira_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 7 (3E)

Hellish lions that are undetectable even while attacking in broad daylight. Though devils native to the Nine Hells, they are not true baatezu.

Deadly Lunge: Like most big cats, they can make a special pounce and rake attack on the charge.
Invisibility: Bezekiras are totally invisible in any area with enough light for a human to see. Only in the dark do they appear as a faintly-visible glowing outline, and then only if the viewer is within 30 feet of them (or 60 feet if the spectator has low-light vision). In magical darkness, this outline is smothered along with all other light.
Stealth Expert: Beyond their unique type of invisibility, they have a ton of ranks in Hide and Move Silently.
Telepathy Their method of communication among themselves and with those they encounter.

Brachina (Pleasure Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_brachina_3e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 11 (3E)

These promoted erinyes specialize in seducing mortals into evil, especially good clerics and paladins.

Abhorrent Admirer: In Hell, pit fiends and archdevils (most of which cannot assume a less monstrous form) tend to treat brachinas as playthings to be enjoyed and quickly discarded. As such, pleasure devils prefer to stay out on assignment on the Material Plane, well away from the attentions of their masters.
Charm Person: Beyond being able to use spells like charm monster or enthrall at will, brachinas can also attempt to beguile foes, taking full control of them for a short time.
The Corrupter: They specifically are out to turn good divine spellcasters to evil.
Hot as Hell: The only baatezu to truly specialize in sex and seduction.
Poisonous Person: Their mere touch delivers a potent contact poison that erodes a victim's Wisdom, leaving them easy prey for the devil's mind-bending.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: They can polymorph at will into whatever form they think a target finds most attractive.

Bueroza (Steel Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_bueroza_3e.jpg

Challenge Rating: 6 (3E)

Devils equipped with all-concealing steel armor, further wrapped in dust and cobwebs. They're either standing guard in Hell's citadels, training, or fighting on the front lines of the Blood War.

Extra Turn: They can cast haste on themselves at will.
Hell Is That Noise: Steel devils can "chant" during combat, which is actually a horrific metallic screeching that interferes with spellcasters' concentration.
Knockback: Despite being only Medium-sized fiends, steel devils hit hard enough that they can push opponents around, which they ruthlessly exploit to break up enemy formations and go after any Squishy Wizards hiding behind the front line.
Tin Tyrant: A bueroza wears steel armor whose every gap and hole is sealed shut, and when slain, collapses into a pile of warped lead. While their artwork depicts them bareheaded, going by their descriptive text, it's unclear if they have a real body.
Unfriendly Fire: Steel devils are loyal to each other, but have little use for other devils, particularly orthons. If both types are present on the same battlefield, the steel devils might cut through a unit of orthons to more directly attack a foe beyond their "allies."

Cornugon/Malebranche (Horned Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_cornugon_5e.png

Challenge Rating: 11 (5E), 22 (4E), 16 (3E)

The most elite of Hell's soldiers, the horned devils serve as Hell's flying infantry.

Big Red Devil: Other than being more tan than red, they fit the classical European image of a devil to a T.
Composite Character: Traditionally, cornugons and malebranches were distinct (but quite similar) types of devil, the former also known as horned devils, the latter as war devils. 5th Edition conflates the two, calling its malebranches horned devils.
Dirty Coward: 5E malebranches are noted to be as warmongering and cruel as any other devil, but also surprisingly cowardly, rarely betraying their superiors not out of loyalty but out of fear of superior power.
Undying Loyalty: Cornugons in prior editions are noted for their unusual loyalty, rarely if ever betraying their masters. Though their AD&D entry notes "Whether this is due to genuine loyalty or fear of the pit fiends is unknown."

Dogai (Assassin Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_dogai_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 11 (3E), 24 (4E)

Hell's hitmen, employed in Baator's cutthroat politics or dispatched to eliminate problematic mortals.

Enemy Summoner: Distinctly averted. Dogai are explicitly barred by infernal law from summoning other baatezu to aid them, but are given some potent supernatural abilities to compensate.
Even Evil Has Standards: Dogai are considered baatezu and their skills are in high demand in the Nine Hells, but they are trusted even less than other devils, in part because they are so good at their jobs. That, their non-baatezu origins, and their special priveleges, all make the rest of Hell detest them, no matter how useful dogai may be.
Invisibility: They have the supernatural ability to turn invisible at will until the end of their turn, an effect that persists even if they attack.
Living Relic: Dogai actually predate the baatezu, and were encountered as shadowy beings of "vaguely sentient, malicious will" when the baatezu arrived in the Nine Hells. Asmodeus ordered them collected, melted down, and reforged into their current forms.
Living Shadow: They can revert to an insubstantial, shadowy form to avoid attacks and detection.
Professional Killer: Their sole purpose, to the extent that they are legally allowed to kill other devils without (official) consequences. That said, rumors persist that some dogai are acting independently of Baator's leadership.

Erinyes

Challenge Rating: 8 (3E), 13 (4E), 12 (5E)

Angelic in appearance and as twisted and evil inside as any other devil, erinyes typically serve as scouts for infernal armies and concubines for the powers of Hell. Occasionally, they will impersonate the celestials they resemble.

Amoral Attorney: Subverted. If a mortal attempts to win their soul back in an infernal court, an erinyes assigned to their case will do anything possible within the law to help their client, rather than just trying to help the devils.
Even Evil Has Standards: They may be evil, but erinyes will not let clients (in their authority as lawyers of the damned) have anything less than the best possible legal efforts in their favor.
Evil Is Sterile: Uniquely Averted among devils in the setting — while devils are normally created from the souls of the damned and are biologically (or whatever passes for that with regards to devils) sterile, most editions explicitly state that erinyes are fertile and can have offspring.
Fallen Angel: Erinyes certainly look the part, resembling beautiful humans with blood-red wings, and legend says that the first of their kind were indeed angels cast out or lured away from the heavens and into Hell's service. Whatever their origins, Erinyes are happy to exploit being mistaken for actual celestials.
Hot as Hell: Erinyes were originally presented as devilish counterparts to demonic succubi, but their most recent lore abandons this aspect of them and makes them much, much better fighters than succubi and incubi.
Lust Object: Other devils alternately envy, idolize and lust over erinyes for their dark beauty and special status in Hell's hierarchy.
One-Gender Race: Traditionally, erinyes have been exclusively female, and the only rank-and-file baatezu capable of becoming pregnant. 5th Edition explicitly states that there are male and female erinyes, however.
Poisoned Weapons: Their swords and arrows inflict poison damage. At least in 5th edition, this is implied to extend to any weapons they wield, which are defined as "hellish".
Smug Snake: As former celestials, erinyes hold themselves apart from normal baatezu, who resent them right back. It's not uncommon for erinyes and "lesser" devils to come to blows, despite their superiors' orders.

Excruciarch (Pain Devil)

Challenge Rating: 7 (3E), 8 (4E)

Pale, red-eyed fiends that exist to torture mortal soul shells, captured enemies, or their fellow devils. They can produce lemures by practicing their craft on damned souls, or reduce devils to gibbering nupperibos.

Agony Beam: Beyond their torture tools, excruciarchs can send crackling energy into their melee attacks to cause those they strike debilitating pain.
Brown Note: They generate an aura of such pain and misery that other creatures spontaneously receive cuts and other wounds from coming near them, dealing damage.
Chain Pain: They can magically generate an enchanted cold iron spiked chain, which only functions in a pain devil's hands.
Even Evil Has Standards: As vital as the pain devils' work may be, other baatezu fear and despise them, and commonly dispose of any excruciarch caught alone and without a powerful patron.
Hope Crusher: As much as they enjoy causing pain, what excruciarchs relish the most is extinguishing the last spark of hope in a victim. They'll thus feign weakness in battle and let their enemy think victory is possible for as long as the devil can.
Knowledge Broker: They often extract secrets from their victims, which the pain devils can be persuaded to share for the right price.
Malevolent Masked Men: Apart from their red eyes, excruciarchs are remarkably human-looking, and thus wear black, spiked masks along with their leather armor and aprons to properly menace their victims.
The Rival: They share a mutual hatred with kytons, some of Hell's other torturers, and the two types of fiend plot endlessly against each other.
Sadist: They gain a morale bonus on rolls based on how much damage they dealt the previous round.
Spin Attack: Pain devils can whirl their scourges overhead to damage anyone who gets close.
Torture Technician: It's right there in the name.

Falxugon (Harvester Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_falxugon_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 7 (3E)

Charming schemers, these devils are dispatched to the Material Plane to tilt societies toward tyranny and tempt individual souls into damnation.

Curse: Their poisoned daggers deliver a potent curse that gives victims a penalty on rolls that lasts for a full day, unless it's dispelled by magic... or until the victim deals damage to a good-aligned creature.
Deal with the Devil: Their bread and butter. It's mentioned that they can often be found At the Crossroads at midnight, waiting for mortal customers.
Heaven's Devils: A particularly potent example among the baatezu. Falxugons are protected from non-outsiders' attacks by a bizarre clause in the Pact Primeval signed between Asmodeus and the deities of Law. They're continuously under a sanctuary effect, and even if an enemy makes a Will save to overcome it, they're hit with a penalty on saving throws as a cosmic price for breaking the clause. Should a falxugon make an attack, however, that sanctuary effect ends for a minute.
Manipulative Bastard: Experts at getting what they want through intrigue, persuasion, or outright trickery.
The Tell: If interacting with others in its natural form, a falxugon's tail will sway gracefully if they're content, or start swishing about erratically if they're unable to hide their agitation.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: In their natural forms they have hooves, little horns, and a short, scaly tail, but they usually do business in the guise of portly merchants or seductive women.

Fire Hellion

Challenge Rating: 11 (5E)

Demon of Human Origin: Fire giants that grow fascinated with the Blood War and strike a pact with a powerful devil are corrupted over time, eventually becoming devils themselves. The fire hellion takes on fiendish features, including horns, cloven hooves and a forked tail.
Flaming Sword: A fire hellion's morningstar is forged with infernal iron and hellfire, which deals fire damage and funnels the souls of the slain to Avernus.
Playing with Fire: The fire hellion can hurl a magical ball of fire that explodes in a 20-foot-radius sphere.

Gelugon (Ice Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_gelugon_5e.png

Challenge Rating: 13 (3E), 20 (4E), 14 (5E)

Towering insectoid fiends who lead regiments of soldiers in the legions of the devils.

Big Creepy-Crawlies: Gelugons resemble insects taller than a man.
Elemental Weapon: If an ice devil isn't tearing you to pieces with its claws and mandibles, it's stabbing you with a numbingly cold magic spear.
An Ice Person: While the specifics vary from one edition to the next, ice devils always have innate magical powers that let them control ice and kill you with coldness.

Ghargatula

Challenge Rating: 16 (3E)

Huge, saurian fiends that serve as guard animals or beasts of war, but are just as happy to wander Baator's warmer layers, killing everything they come across.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Ghargatulas' tails also deliver a Dexterity-damaging poison.
Hunter of Their Own Kind: Perfectly willing to prey upon other baatezu.
Smash Mook: While other fiends possess tricky spell-like abilities or other magic, ghargatulas just charge in to bite, claw or sting opponents.
Swallowed Whole: Anything human-sized or smaller is in danger of ending up in their gullet.

Gulthir

Challenge Rating: 6 (3E)

Tall, emaciated creatures with blazing crimson eyes and wound-like mouths, these devils exist to punish lesser baatezu.

Lean and Mean: Gulthirs resemble ten-foot-tall skeletons draped in ruddy skin.
Soul Eating: Their most fearsome ability is being able to "digest" any evil outsider they swallow, absorbing its essence into itself and dooming its victim to oblivion.
Swallowed Whole: They can unhinge their jaws to swallow anything smaller than them. Fiends can either be digested or converted into another gulthir, while mortals can be vomitted up, Covered in Gunge that mimics a dominate monster effect until the gulthir is killed or the slime is cleaned with holy water.
Villainous Demotivator: Turning one failed minion into a gulthir is a good way to "encourage" the rest.

Hamatula (Barbed Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hamatula.png

Challenge Rating: 11 (3E), 18 (4E), 5 (5E)

Greedy and covetous devils who serve as the guards of Hell's vaults and treasures.

Dimensional Traveler: Averted; AD&D notes that hamatula aren't even allowed to travel between the layers of Baator, much less other planes. It's speculated that this is meant to ensure the hamatula don't go wandering away from their posts.
Fantastic Medicinal Bodily Product: Their 2nd Edition entry also explains that hamatula secrete a powerful hallucinogen from a gland behind each ear. Normally this substance is harvested by other baatezu and used to interrogate and torment prisoners, but sages speculate it could also be used to brew superior potions of illusion.
Greed: Hamatulas are intensely covetous of physical wealth. They are constantly on the lookout for prizes to claim as their own, and will enter any fight if there's a material reward in it for them.
Playing with Fire: They can hurl flames from their hands.
The Spiny: A hamatula's skin is covered in wicked spines, which will damage any beings that try to grapple them or engage them with short-range melee weapons.

Hellfire Engine

Classification: Construct (3E, 5E)
Challenge Rating: 19 (3E), 16 (5E)

Hellfire engines are hellish automatons used by the devils as mobile artillery and siege engines.

Cold Iron: 3rd edition hellfire engines are made of the stuff, making their melee attacks oddly effective against fey creatures.
Defeat Equals Explosion: In 3rd edition, a hellfire engine goes up in a giant fireball once it has been reduced to 0 hit points.
Hellfire: 3rd edition hellfire engines live up to their name by spewing torrents of hellfire, which is hot enough to burn even creatures which are normally resistant or immune to fire. This same energy suffuses the hellfire engine's entire body, making it extremely hot to the touch.
Mechanical Abomination: They are magical, semi-autonomous war machines built by the literal forces of Hell. Their hideously destructive weapons damn the souls of their victims to the Nine Hells to be reborn as devils, regardless of their alignment.
Retcon: While their nature as infernal war machines has remained constant between editions, their appearance and abilities have not. 3E hellfire engines are humanoid Humongous Mecha that attack by exhaling gouts of hellfire and punching things with their flaming cold iron fists. 5E hellfire engines, by contrast, are more akin to giant tanks with enormous steamroller wheels in place of treads and an arsenal of esoteric weapons that literally damn the souls of their victims to Hell.

Hellforged Devil

From left to right, top to bottom: coal, lead, glass, obsidian, spiked and sand devils (3e)

Challenge Rating: 3 (sand), 4 (glass), 6 (obsidian, spiked), 7 (coal), 13 (lead) (3E)

Fiends of living obsidian, steel, or similar substances, who serve Hell as perfectly law-abiding enforcers and executioners. As former constructs given a spark of life by the magic of the Nine Hells, they are not true baatezu.

Blood Is the New Black: Obsidian devils are usually covered in "a greasy patina of torn skin, gore, and other remains of previous victims."
Elemental Shapeshifting: Sand devils can become a patch of sand as a move action, which they use to slip through small gaps, or scatter themselves over a wide area to spy on other creatures.
Deadly Gas: Coal devils have a variant, as their constantly-burning bodies emanate a 10-foot radius of choking ash and cinders, which obscures vision and can deal damage to other creatures within it.
Invisible Monsters: Glass devils' transparent bodies give them a natural improved invisibility effect, making them excellent spies and skulkers, though they have a tendency to cut and run if someone cancels it through mundane or magical means.
Killer Bear Hug: Obsidian devils like to hug foes and press them against the razor-sharp spines and ridges covering their bodies, while spiked devils similarly like to impale grappled victims upon their spiny forms.
Killer Cop: Obsidian devils primarily serve as enforcers, going after devils who break one of Hell's laws, mortals who renege on devilish pacts, or anyone else their superiors sics them on. While sometimes they're ordered to bring the offender back alive, obsidian devils' main goal is to tear other creatures to pieces.
Mighty Glacier: Lead devils are slow, but exceptionally tough, and their fists can punch through even stone walls.
No-Sell: While they're classified as Outsiders rather than Constructs, hellforged devils aren't subject to critical hits or subdual damage.
Playing with Fire: Every few rounds, a coal devil can focus the flames surrounding its body into a 30-foot cone of fire.
Sand Blaster: Sand devils can breathe a 20-foot cone of sand that does a bit of damage and obscures vision.
Spike Shooter: Spiked devils can fire a cone of iron spines from their bodies, which deals immediate and ongoing damage as the living spikes continue to burrow deeper into the victim's body over the next three rounds. Since they tend to catch other devils in these attacks, spiked devils are usually utilized as sentries and guardians.
Teleportation Rescue: Inverted; a lead devil's "hell's embrace" ability lets them use dimension door on both themselves and a grappled opponent, magically abducting them.

Hellwasp

Classification: Fiend (5E)
Challenge Rating: 5 (5E)
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Large, wasp-like devils that were converted from defeated demons.

The Paralyzer: The hellwasp's venom carries a paralytic enzyme that renders the victim helpless long enough for the hellwasp to grab its prey and flee.
Wicked Wasps: They're literally wasps from Hell, so yes.
You Kill It, You Bought It: They're former demons who joined the Archduchess Glasya after she killed their demon lord. After being reforged into devils, they were accepted as part of the Nine Hells.

Imp

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imp_5e.png

Challenge Rating: 2 (Standard, Filth), 3 (Bloodbag, Euphoric) (3E); 3 (4E); 1 (5E)

Tiny, wicked beings who serve as advisors and spies for both mortal spellcasters and their greater kin.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Imps have scorpion tails that end in poisonous stingers.
The Corrupter: When bound as familiars to a mortal wizard, an imp's primary mission is to foster lust for power and callousness towards others, in order to get their erstwhile master to eventually damn themselves to Hell.
Familiar: Imps sometimes serve as familiars for evil wizards.
Heal It with Blood: Bloodbag imps are a variant created by the baatezu to get around their lack of cure spells, and are essentially sloshing bloodbags that other devils can drink from to heal themselves slightly faster.
Invisibility: Imps can turn themselves invisible, and prefer to fight like this.
Master Forger: Filth imps are experts at forging documents, which makes other baatezu despise them, leaving the imps to seek employment with Material Plane thieves guilds.
Our Imps Are Different: Small, winged and weak devils that take on jobs as familiars for evil wizard in the hope of carrying their master's soul off to Hell. Until then, they supply aid as a lab assistant, gopher, and irritant.
The Pig-Pen: Filth imps are predictably covered in reeking refuge, and can emit clouds of sickening gas when threatened.
Power Up Letdown: Subverted. Going from a powerful bearded devil to a tiny, weak imp may seem like a demotion rather than a step up the devilish ladder, but baatezu actually look forward to gaining an imp form because it's the first that lets the devil earn direct credit for any souls it damns.
The Stoner: Euphoric imps are emaciated little scamps whose stinger tails inject their victims (or customers) with hallucinogenic slime, and they frequently inject themselves.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Imps can polymorph themselves at will, and typically take the form of stealthy or unobtrusive animals.

Kalabon

Challenge Rating: 1/2 (singular), 4 (colony), 8 (cancer) (3E)

Walking tumors found on the layer of Malbolge, formed from the remnants of the Hag Countess but enslaved to the layer's current ruler, Glasya. Though devils, they are not true baatezu.

Body Horror: Individually, kalabons are heaps of glistening flesh on three stumpy legs, shiny with blood and pus, and capped by a feeler tentacle. In their fused forms, they aren't any better-looking.
Combat Tentacles: Their tentacle attack delivers acid damage as well, and the more kalabons that fuse together, the more attacks they can make and the more they hurt.
Evil Smells Bad: So foul that anything that gets close enough may become sickened.
Fusion Dance: Their signature trait is being able to fuse together, forming a single entity that is both larger and much more dangerous than a lone kalabon. This colony splits apart when hunting for food, reforms for combat, and splits again to escape a losing fight.
Roar Before Beating: If an individual kalabon encounters prey, its first action is usually to let loose a shrill screech to call the rest of its colony to the location, where they fuse for combat.
Weakened by the Light: They're dazzled in sunlight, or the effect of the daylight spell.

Kocrachon

Challenge Rating: 6 (3E)

Experts in agony, these insectoid devils serve as elite torturers in hellish citadels.

Academy of Evil: Kocrachons don't immediately know the art of torture upon being promoted to their new rank, and thus attend the School of Pain on Dis to hone their craft.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: A beetle-like body with a proboscised head.
Poisonous Person: Their proboscis can inject victims with a lethal disease that painfully kills them over several days... and they can also inject an antitode, extending the ordeal for as long as they wish.
Sadist: Kocrachons actually get a morale bonus on rolls for every ten points of damage they deal in combat.
Torture Technician: One of several devil types dedicated to inflicting pain.

Kyton (Chain Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ChainDevil.jpg

Challenge Rating: 6 (3E), 11 (4E), 8 (5E)

The jailors and torturers of the Nine Hells, 'chain devils' describes their duties, powers, and fashion sense.

Chained by Fashion: They take this to an illogical extreme: chains are the only thing a chain devil wears.
Chain Pain: Their weapon of choice. Chain devils attack by whipping and ensnaring people with the chains wrapped around their arms, and they can also magically animate nearby chains and make them attack people.
Healing Factor: In Third Edition, chain devils can regrow any severed body part within a few rounds.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: A chain devil can frighten its enemies by using illusions to morph its face into that of someone they knew, such as a dead loved one or a personal nemesis.
Variable-Length Chain: They can increase a chain's length by fifteen feet as part of a supernatural ability.

Lemure

Challenge Rating: 1 (3E), 0 (5E)

The near-mindless lemures are the lowest form of devil, created from Lawful Evil mortal souls. These wretched blobs are tormented and used as cannon fodder by other devils until they manage to get promoted to a higher form of devil.

Body Horror: Mortal souls that are tortured in hell until they turn into mindless, nearly liquid and foul-smelling blobs of flesh that ooze around to move, with a face in perpetual anguish.
Cannon Fodder: They're slow, weak, relatively fragile, and easy to hit. All these traits make them easy to kill individually, but they always come in massive groups. Higher-ranking devils often organize lemures into legions which serve no other purpose than to blunt demonic incursions from the Abyss, as the lemures's Resurrective Immortality makes any casualties they take meaningless.
Resurrective Immortality: To an even greater extent than other devils in 5th edition. A lemure that is killed in the Nine Hells comes back to life within 10 days. There are only two ways to prevent this: have a blessed creature of good alignment slay the lemure or sprinkle holy water on the lemure’s remains.

Logokron

Challenge Rating: 14 (3E)

Horned, four-armed devils notable for their long, tattooed tongues and skill at truename magic.

Brown Note: Each logokron's tongue has a symbol of pain tattooed on it, though baatezu are immune to its effect.
I Know Your True Name: In combat, logokrons use utterances of truespeech to harm foes and bolster themselves, and they spend the rest of their time researching powerful beings' truenames to either torment or enslave them.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: This allows them to dual-wield halberds, normally two-handed weapons.
Overly-Long Tongue: Their tongues are several feet long, and often lolling out of their fanged mouths.

Merregon (Legion Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_merregon_5e.png

Challenge Rating: 3 (3E), 6 (4E), 4 (5E)

Also known as legion devils, merregons are the foot soldiers of the Nine Hells.

Art Evolution: 4th edition legion devils had a fairly generic design: horned humanoids wearing black armor. 5th edition redesigned them as stooped, hunchbacked creatures that wear creepy babyface masks and disturbing, intricately detailed armor.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: Inverted in 3rd edition. Merregons are individually weak but become stronger and more difficult to kill when fighting alongside each other in groups. The more merregons are in a group, the tougher each member of that group becomes.
Demon of Human Origin: Merregons are often born from the souls of soldiers, mercenaries, and bodyguards who willingly served evil masters.
Faceless Mooks: Taken to a literal extreme. Every merregon has a face-covering mask bolted to its skull, reflecting their lack of individuality.
Just Following Orders: By their nature, merregons exist to subvert this. In life, these souls served their evil masters without question, despite knowing their actions were evil. It doesn't matter that their evil deeds were done on behalf of someone else, they still committed them willingly and knowingly.
Only in It for the Money: Infernal law requires that each legion devil receive a payment in coin regularly for their service. Never mind that there's nothing to spend it on in Baator, the law demands it. It's believed this clause was put in place to keep any one devil from just building up a massive army of legion devils, as they wouldn't be able to afford it.
Shared Life-Meter: 3rd edition merregons combine their hit points into a shared pool while fighting in a group. Once the pool runs out, all the merregons in the group drop dead simultaneously.
Taking the Bullet: Merregons can force an attack which hit an adjacent ally to hit them instead.

Mezzikim

Not so much a type of devil as a state of being, mezzikim are the tortured essences of baatezu sent to the Material Plane to wreak havoc.

An Astral Projection, Not a Ghost: While mezzikim share many ghost-like traits — invisibility, intangibility, a habit of spooking mortals — they're actually living baatezu who have spent 666 nights subjected to Cold-Blooded Torture for some crime or failure, until their spirits flee their ruined bodies. Those spirits are then sent to the Material Plane to spread suffering until the offending baatezu's sentences are complete.
Demonic Possession: Mezzikim can attempt to possess a mortal, gaining full control over their body while the mortal's soul watches helplessly. The devilish spirit can be dislodged by dealing sufficient damage to the host body (which often kills it), applications of Holy Water, or magic like exorcise.
Plaguemaster: Once it has possessed a mortal, a mezzikim can cast disease on its hijacked body, which has a 25% chance of being contagious. In this way, a mezzikim can start a pandemic.

Narzugon

Challenge Rating: 5 (3E), 15 (4E), 13 (5E)

Also known as hell knights, narzugons are diabolical cavalrymen who ride into battle astride nightmares.

Being Evil Sucks: Narzugons' eyes are filled with "incomparible sadness," though this is dangerous as in some rules, hell knights have a gaze attack that can cause foes to become shaken.
Demon of Human Origin:
- In 3rd Edition, they were mortals who followed the letter of their commands no matter what suffering they caused, and now continue to do so in Hell.
- In 5th edition, narzugons are specifically born from the souls of paladins who made pacts with devils. They retain some of a paladin's powers in their infernal new form, including the ability to lay on hands.
Evil Virtues: Narzugons are, as they were in life, unquestionably loyal to their superiors, no matter how despicable those masters are, and regardless of whether the narzugons think their orders are clearly wrong. The tragic irony is that there's nothing actually forcing narzugons to obey their fiendish masters, but if they were capable of deciding otherwise, they wouldn't be in Hell in the first place.
Evil Weapon: A narzugon's lance was forged in literal hellfire. It sends the souls of its victims straight to Hell to be converted into lemures.
Fallen Hero: They are made from the souls of fallen paladins.
Hellish Horse: Most of them ride nightmares, but narzugon champions might ride more exotic beasts like fiendish chimeras or dire boars, greater barghests, or even evil dragons.
Jousting Lance: These knightlike devils wield hellish lances as they try to run down their victims.
Noble Demon: Stories persist of these devils allowing opponents to surrender, or letting a disarmed opponent retrieve their weapon before continuing a fight.
Smoke Out: Some are smart enough to make a ride-by attack, have their nightmare mount snort out a cloud of sulfurous smoke to inhibit opponents, and escape while their enemies are trapped in a noxious cloud.

Nergaliid

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_nerg.png

Origin: Critical Role
Challenge Rating: 3 (5E)

Batrachian devils that lurk on the fringes of mortal society, feeding on life force.

Demonic Vampires: They're classified as fiends and devils, and they feed by siphoning life energy from unfortunate mortals.
Frog Men: Nergaliids are devils who vaguely resemble corpulent humanoid toads. As such, they are exceptional jumpers and can attack foes with their Overly-Long Tongue from 20 feet away.
Life Drain: They can siphon the life from a living target within 40 feet, gaining temporary hit points equal to the damage dealt to their victim. Nergaliids prefer to feed on sleeping victims, who suffer terrible nightmares, and if discovered will usually try to buy the victim's silence before moving on.
Zombify the Living: Those who die as a result of a nergaliid feeding on them are reborn as husk zombies.

Nupperibo

Challenge Rating: 2 (3E), 1/2 (5E)

Malformed abominations, bloated with corruption, and barely higher than lemures in the baatezu's hierarchy. They are herded into battle by their betters or used as beasts of burden, when they aren't living like vermin in Hell's gutters.

Cannon Fodder: Infernal generals sometimes gather up a horde of them and send them at the foe to cause some chaos. This is not a preferred tactic, however, since there is no honor in commanding nupperibos, and it won't get you promoted.
Eye Scream: Nupperibos don't have eyes, but they do have empty, stitched-up sockets where their eyes should be.
Fate Worse than Death: Being demoted into a nupperibo is one for devils, as unlike other demotions, this one is permanent, on account of the nupperibo lacking the mental capacity to advance itself through tempting mortals.
Horror Hunger: The 5E nupperibo is wracked with constant hunger and lives solely to sate its insatiable appetite.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: High-ranking devils who convert an underling into a nupperibo enjoy the irony of loaning out a once-powerful fiend to serve as a lackey for an amateur mortal diabolist. Even Asmodeus amuses himself by spreading rumors about which disgraced member of his court is now a mortal's waddling slave.
Magikarp Power: A particularly dark take on this. Earlier editions established that Nupperibo are actually the first stage of the lifecycle of ancient Baatorians, aka Maleficarem. The Maleficarem are shapeless things that breathe in light and breahte out darkness, sometimes breathing life instead. They are barely considered "living", and it's in the Hells' best interest that no Nupperibo is left to its own devices long enough to mature. There is no word yet if this is true in 5th edition.
Pest Controller: 5E nupperibos are surrounded by a constant swarm of infernal insects. These vermin ignore the nupperibo and other nearby devils, but will mercilessly sting and bite at anything else which comes too close.
Retcon: Their shape has remained largely constant, but why they are what they are has not.
- Older material suggests that nupperibos are spawned from souls that were left lying around the Nine Hells for too long without turning into lemures. Other devils loathed them and killed any they found, since if one is left to mature it will become a Maleficarem.
- In 3rd Edition, nupperibos are formed from devils who have failed their masters and undergone hideous torture that leaves them a blind, brainless wretch.
- In 5th Edition, nupperibos are formed from souls whose evil is more due to laziness and neglect than genuine malice or selfishness. Since they lack the ambition to actually ascend through the infernal hierarchy, they are stuck as they are, and are considered lesser than lemures in some ways, because at least a lemure may one day be promoted.
Super-Persistent Predator: There is no hiding from a nupperibo once it or its vermin have taken a bite out of you. It can track its victim flawlessly for the next 24 hours and will pursue them tirelessly until one of them is dead... or until it gets distracted by another potential meal.
You Have Failed Me: Their 3rd Edition lore casts nupperibos as devils that displeased their masters, who demoted them into a pathetic form as both a punishment and an example to their other minions. On the other hand, this means that any rival archdevil who rescues a nupperibo and promotes them back to their previous form now has both a loyal lackey and potentially useful intelligence on an adversary.

Orthon

Challenge Rating: 8 (3E), 10 (5E)

Hell's trackers and bounty hunters. The orthons are devastatingly effective trackers who can find their prey no matter where in the planes they may hide, and are sent out by their fiendish generals to track down individuals they want dead.

Action Bomb: 5E orthons have the ability to blow themselves up in response to being lowered to 15 hit points or less in order to pull a Taking You with Me on their foes.
Body Horror: In 3rd edition, the armor an orthon wears is literally nailed into its body, leaving the orthon with deep, maggot-infested wounds that cause it constant pain.
Bounty Hunter: An orthon not currently on assignement from the archduke will gladly work for pay just to have the chance at a good hunt.
Bow and Sword in Accord: Orthons wield crossbows and daggers.
Defeat Equals Explosion: 3E orthons have a gross variant, where when killed, the maggots constantly feasting on their festering wounds "explode" out of their corpses, dealing damage to anything nearby as they look for a new host.
Egomaniac Hunter: Orthons love the hunt, and track down dangerous prey just for the thrill.
Hellfire: The 3E orthon's crossbow fires bolts of concentrated hellfire rather than solid projectiles.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Their most common assignment.
Poisoned Weapons: 5E Orthons carry an Infernal Dagger which is coated in a deadly poison, inflicting both poison damage and the poisoned condition to its victims.
Retcon: 3rd edition depicts orthons as unintelligent but well-trained soldiers who wield polearms, excel at formation fighting, and have the power to see the invisible or shut down teleportation. By contrast, 5th edition depicts orthons as highly skilled trackers and bounty hunters who fight with poisoned daggers and can turn themselves invisible at will.
Scarily Competent Tracker: Once caught on to a prey, nothing will stop an orthon from pursuing it to the end. In 5th edition, they have monstrous +10 to both survival and perception; essentially, any survival or perception roll an Orthon makes that doesn't critically fail is going to succed..
Taking You with Me: 5E Orthons can blow themselves up as a reaction to being reduced to 15 hit points or less.
Teleport Interdiction: 3E orthons can emit a Dimensional Interference field which prevents all forms of teleportation and extradimensional movement.
A Thicket of Spears: 3rd edition orthons wield cold iron polearms called hellspears. They are characterized as the foot soldiers of the Nine Hells in this edition and are stated to form ranks when fighting as a group, the frontmost orthons brandishing their spears while the ones behind shoot over their shoulders with their crossbows. They even have a passive trait which gives them a stacking bonus to various rolls for each orthon in an adjacent space.
Trick Arrow: An orthon can load its crossbow with all kinds of special bolts, including (but not limited to) bolts containing phials of acid that shatter on impact, bolts that act as magical flashbangs, bolts that ensnare the target in sticky webbing, and a bolt which acts as a 24-hour interplanar tracking device.
Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- In 3E, an orthon's hellfire crossbow only works in the hands of a devil because only devils can concentrate the energies needed to create its hellfire bolts. In anyone else's hands, it's just a useless lump of metal.
- The 5E orthon's stat block specifically states that its Action Bomb ability destroys its weapons, to prevent them falling into enemy hands.

Osyluth (Bone Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_osyluth_5e.jpeg

Challenge Rating: 9 (3E, 5E), 17 (4E)

The inquisitors and secret police of Hell, osyluths keep tabs on other devils to keep watch for disloyalty and inefficiency.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Osyluths possess long, scorpion-like tails that arch over their backs and heads, and which they can use as weapons.
Dem Bones: Subverted. Osyluths look like walking skeletons covered in desiccated skin, but are living beings who simply happen to look bony.
Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Osyluths' status as Hell's Internal Affairs makes them particularly hated by other devils, and any baatezu who has an opportunity to kill an osyluth without being discovered will usually make an attempt. Those who get caught, however, will be immediately demoted to a lemure and marked to never receive promotion again, earning the scorn of other devils.
Secret Police: Bone devils serve this role for the hierarchy of Hell, scrutinizing other devils in secret in order to spot even the smallest hint of treachery, disloyalty or incompetence.
Winged Humanoid: 5th edition depicts them with tattered, insect-like wings.

Paeliryon

Challenge Rating: 18 (3E), 22 (4E)

Hell's spymasters, these bloated, winged devils style themselves as disgusting parodies of courtesans.

Blackmail: These devils' specialty is digging up dirt on mortals and using it to blackmail them into selling their souls for cheap.
I Shall Taunt You: They can belittle opponents in combat, causing non-baatezu to become shaken.
The Spymaster: Their role in hellish society.
Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Paeliryons' cloying, intoxicating perfume subjects those close to them to a mind fog effect, giving them a hefty -10 penalty to Will saves.
Uncanny Valley Makeup: Paeliryons love rouge, lip gloss, and eye shadow despite (or because of) how it clashes horribly with their toad-like, warty faces and too-wide, fanged mouths.
Wolverine Claws: Their painted talons are extendable and perfectly servicible weapons that deal Charisma damage as they deform those they slash.

Pit Fiend

Challenge Rating: 20 (3E, 5E), 26 (4E)

The nobility of Baator, and the highest rank one can have without becoming an unique devil.

Anti-Regeneration: In 5th edition, a creature that has been poisoned by a pit fiend's bite cannot heal until the poison is out of their system.
Beware My Stinger Tail: 4th edition pit fiends have a poisonous stinger in their tails. This is absent in all other editions, which have the poison come from the pit fiend's bite instead.
Big Red Devil: Pit fiends are towering, horned, winged, red-skinned creatures wreathed in flames, and rule over great domains of Hell where they brood over their evil designs.
Carry a Big Stick: A big, flanged mace has been the weapon of choice for pit fiends ever since 4th edition. In prior editions they didn't carry weapons at all, instead relying on their claws, fangs, and tails in physical combat.
Playing with Fire: Pit fiends can innately cast fireball in 3rd and 5th edition. In the former they can also cast meteor swarm, while in the latter they can cast wall of fire.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: Pit fiends project a constant magical aura which frightens nearby creatures.

Remmanon

Challenge Rating: 15 (3E)

Unassuming horned fiends who use greed, jealousy and lust to manipulate mortals, sowing discord and distrust.

Brown Note: They emanate a telepathic aura that can confuse nearby creatures, causing them to attack random targets - but never the remmanon.
Full-Frontal Assault: The only thing a remmanon wears is a tangle of barbs, hooks and chains decorated with scripts of paper bearing the names of mortals who have made bargains with it.
Hellfire: Their only direct attack is a hellfire touch, dealing mostly undefined damage with a hint of fire damage.
Horned Humanoid: That and their Black Eyes of Evil are about the only obvious signs of their devilish heritage.
Manipulative Bastard: They prefer to travel the planes, setting various powers against each other so the baatezu benefit. When no such conflicts exist, remmanons spark them.
No Biological Sex: Remmanons have a thin body resembling that of an adult human male, but no sexual characteristics.
Power Floats: They can fly without wings and prefer to hover over their minions on the battlefield.
Smug Snake: Remmanons are arrogant even for devils, and believe they personify the baatezu ideal. Other devils resent this, but are still willing to work for remmanons to advance themselves and learn some tricks for screwing over mortals.

Spinagon (Spined Devil)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spined_devil_5e.png

Challenge Rating: 4 (3E), 6 (4E), 2 (5E)

A small, spiky devil variety used as servants, spies, and minor annoyances.

Dirty Coward: Spined devils are naturally craven, and are quick to scatter and flee if the fight turns against them.
Shout-Out: The 5th Edition Monster Manual's entry on spinagons includes a quote by the archdevil Fierna as she commands her spited devil legions — "Fly, my pretties! Fly! Fly!"
Spike Shooter: Spined devils can launch their eponymous spines as projectiles, and often serve as flying artillery in infernal armies. If they run out, the missing spines will grow back in a few hours.
Zerg Rush: Spinagons are not especially powerful creatures, and make up for this by mobbing more powerful foes in large groups to overwhelm them with their numbers.

Stitched Devil

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_stitche_devil_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 9 (3E)

Creations of the night hags, these fiends are crudely assembled from the body parts of other devils to exist in constant torment. Though living creatures and Lawful Evil outsiders, they are not considered true baatezu.

Brown Note: They emanate an aura of pain intense enough to damage any creatures nearby, aside from devils and night hags.
Loophole Abuse: The essence of slain devils is supposed to be re-absorbed by the Nine Hells to eventually take a new form in its birthing pits, but some kocrachon torturers get around this by carving off and selling parts of their victims to trade to night hags.
Mix-and-Match Man: A fiendish example, a patchwork creature comprised of parts from multiple types of baatezu.
Undying Loyalty: Stitched devils never associate their tortured existence with their night hag creators, and are thus receptive to the hag's empty promises of relief and freedom so long as they prove obedient.

Xerfilstyx

Challenge Rating: 18 (3E)

These fiends resemble a "classic" horned, winged devil from the waist up, but their lower bodies are those of slugs. They are the keepers of memories stolen by the River Styx, but their constant immersion in its waters have driven them completely mad.

Breath Weapon: They can spray a cone of scalding blood mixed with the waters of the Styx, so victims take both physical and Intelligence damage. They can only use this attack after draining some Constitution from a victim, however.
Even Evil Has Standards: Other devils steer clear of the xerfilstyxes' waterways, as their insanity makes them only barely tolerable to a Lawful Evil society.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Any creature their tails attach to suffers a modify memory effect.
Our Centaurs Are Different: Half-devil, half-slug, more or less.
You Will Not Evade Me: Their tail attacks latch on to victims, reeling them in and draining both memories and Constitution.

Archdevils

Archdukes

Zariel, Lord of the First

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/637000102490312924.jpeg

^{Tome of Foes}

^{Before her fall from grace}

Challenge Rating: 26 (5E)

A fallen angel who became ruler of Avernus, the first layer of Baator. Avernus is a major battlefield in the Blood War, and Zariel is entirely focused on its defense and on taking the fight to the demons. She has no patience for politics, considering her duty more important. Zariel is behind the events of Descent into Avernus.

Art Evolution: In the same edition, no less. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes depicts Zariel◊ as a typical Big Red Devil, with horns, cracked dark skin, glowing red eyes, cloven hooves, and batlike wings with membranes of fire. This is a serviceable design, but it does nothing to convey her nature as a Fallen Angel. She receives a drastic redesign◊ in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, which removes the horns and hooves while giving her pale skin, a halo made of fire, and angelic wings made of magma.
Ascended Demon: One potential outcome of Descent into Avernus has the players redeem her into being an angel again.
Bald of Evil: Zariel had a head of long hair as an angel, but lost it all when she turned into a devil and is now completely bald.
Big Bad: She's the main antagonist of the Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus module, having set into motion Elturel falling into Avernus, and her plan to do so for Baldurs Gate.
Blood Knight: Zariel is always eager to kill some demons.
Deal with the Devil: While Zariel herself is too concerned with the Blood War to make deals, her servants teach martial skills in exchange for service in the Blood War after their deaths.
Didn't Think This Through: Zariel's charge into the Blood War when she was still an angel was a shortsighted plan that had disastrous results. She underestimated the power of the fiendish forces involved, and didn't consider the possibility of her forces being mentally unprepared to see the horrors of the conflict. When many of them deserted and fled back to the material plane by locking the portal back, it was too late.
Elemental Weapon: Sometime prior to Descent into Avernus, she bested the demon lord Kostchtchie and claimed his warhammer, Matalotok the Frost Father. Since it was crafted by the frost giant god Thrym, it has powerful enchantments relating to ice and upgrades Zariel's cold resistance to cold immunity.
Fallen Angel: Zariel was once a solar angel before she became too interested in fighting the Blood War.
Fallen Hero: Zariel used to be a heroic angel who put the lives of others before her own. After becoming an archdevil, she's become a ruthless leader who cares not for the lives of others, and exploits those for her own desire to win the Blood War. Deep down, part of her regrets her fall, but she's convinced herself of the importance of her actions, and without outside factors reminding her, remains dedicated to her infernal position.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: As an angel, she had two pairs of feathered wings. When she became an archedevil, these were replaced by a single pair made out of magma.
Redemption Rejection: If the players in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus fail to convince her to turn back to goodness, she violently rejects the idea of rejoining the hosts of heaven and shatters her sword, putting herself forever beyond redemption.
Start of Darkness: The earliest known event involving her was the Trial of Asmodeus, when she got impatient and pushed past the scores of angels waiting to give testimony. This started a fight, causing Primus to end the trial early without delivering final judgement over Asmodeus. Knowing Asmodeus, this may have been his intention all along. This event was the first recorded instance of her invoking Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!, the same mindset she took when she lead her charge into the Blood War.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sees it as her duty to fight the Blood War so demons don't spill out of the Lower Planes and take over the rest of the Multiverse. To do so, she's willing to condemn the lives of many innocent people, or resort to evil deeds in what she sees as her duty. She's had just enough Motive Decay to become a Fallen Angel, but still remembers part of her reasons for doing so.

Dispater, Lord of the Second

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dispater_4e.png

Challenge Rating: 26 (3E), 28 (4E)

An exceptionally paranoid devil who rules the Iron City of Dis, Archduke Dispater acts as an information broker and arms dealer, working almost entirely through proxies because he's just that paranoid about usurpers. Of course, since this is Baator, one can't say his paranoia is entirely unjustified.

Arms Dealer: Between Dis' forges and foundries and Dispater's access to military secrets, he can provide a lot of nifty artifacts and weapons to those who go to him for help.
Beard of Evil: 1st and 4th edition artwork gave him a villainous goatee.
Deal with the Devil: His prefers to offer secrets for service. Nobles wanting blackmail on rivals, spies, traders who want to game the market, and even outcast Mind Flayers who want to escape the Elder Brains are people who might seek pacts with Dispater.
Horrible Judge of Character: He trusts his nuncio, Titivilus, to handle most of the ruling in Dis. This has resulted in Titivilus, a Manipulative Bastard, more or less taking over as Lord of the Second in all but name.
Knowledge Broker: His greatest trade is in secrets, offering mortals anything from powerful lost magic to the name of a peasant's secret admirer.
Mooks Ate My Equipment: Any metal weapon that strikes Dispater will crumble to rust upon contact.
Neutrality Backlash: Following Glasya's surprise elevation to archdevil, Dispater has altered his plans, distancing himself from former allies and making friendly overtures towards former enemies. "None of his counselors dare point out that making peace with everyone is impossible in Baator."
The Paranoiac: He's overly paranoid even by devil standards, in which everyone being out to get you is an established fact.
Properly Paranoid: Say what you will about Dispater's paranoia, but it's probably the reason he's stayed in power so long.
Taken for Granite: With a touch, Dispater can cause his victims to turn to iron. This comboes dangerously with his other touch attack option, which causes metal to corrode and crumble.
Unholy Matrimony: With his consort Lilis, the only consort he's ever had throughout his existence, who is his chief spymaster and the head of his intelligence network.

Mammon, Lord of the Third

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_mammon_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 25 (3E)

The greedy lord of Minauros, Viscount Mammon has dedicated his life to amassing material wealth. He has few allies due to his frequent betrayals, but a lot of cultists in the Prime Material. Wealth is and always has been a great motivator, and people tend to underestimate the true cost of loans.

Bad Boss: Mammon promotes more devils to higher ranks than any other archdevil, because he demotes them just as quickly.
Deal with the Devil: His deals are usually of the monetary variety; see Morally Bankrupt Banker.
Fiction 500: Mordenkainen specifically calls him one of, if not the richest individual on all the Planes.
Greed: His defining character trait. Notably, Mammon is the only archdevil who'll accept money in place of a soul, but the amount of money it would take to buy out of a deal with him would ruin dragons multiple times over.
The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the archdevils like each other, but Mammon is especially disliked due to his particularily treacherous nature, as he was the first to dump his allies and grovel for mercy when the Reckoning failed. The other archdukes refuse to work with him because of this, leading Mammon to focus on turning mortals to his cause.
Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Mammon's current strategy to increase his power in Baator is to focus on the Material Plane, using his cultists and minions to destabilize economies and spark financial crises so that mortals have no choice but to turn to him to survive.
Lust: Mammon gets in on this vice too since it's not too different from greed. As such, entering his service brings access to wealth and power beyond imagining, at the cost of having to endure Mammon's "vile attentions."
Mammon: Mammon represents is one of the Lords of the Nine and the richest and most tight-fisted archdevil in the Nine Hells. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes specifies that deals with him can be made over gold rather than souls, but you'd need more wealth than a dozen kingdoms' worth to make a deal that doesn't involve selling your soul.
Morally Bankrupt Banker: This is his entire shtick. He loans out money in exchange for service, and he gets his money back when the cultist dies and Mammon claims his soul.
The Scrooge: Mammon is the wealthiest being of all the planes, yet his realm of Minauros is constantly sinking into the muck of the swamp because he refuses to spend anything on maintenance.
Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: With a mere touch, Mammon can make a creature attack its allies in an effort to steal their valuables.
Snake People: His current form is that of a Huge half-serpent, though it's an open question whether Asmodeus gave it to him as punishment or out of recognition that Mammon had changed his ways and would not fail again. He can assume the form of a pit fiend at will, however.

Belial and Fierna, Co-Lords of the Fourth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_belial_and_fierna_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 24 (3E)

Phlegethos is uniquely ruled by a pair of archdevils, alternately described as father and daughter, lord and consort, lovers and/or rivals. Archduke Belial runs the bureaucracy of Phlegethos, while Lady Fierna is its diplomatic leader and handles interactions with cultists on the Material Plane. The two are locked in a constant struggle for control of the layer, but Belial's caution and scheming allows him to set up contingency plans for any of Fierna's plots, while her silver tongue allows Fierna to talk her way out of any consequences. But the surest way to make the two put aside this conflict is for some outside force to threaten their joint control of Phlegethos.

The Chessmaster: Belial favors intricate plans that cover all the bases.
Charm Person: Both can cast the spell at will, and Fierna's cults often make use of it as well.
Deal with the Devil: Belial is notable as the the only archdevil that doesn't make these deals, sending even people who directly contact him to Fierna. Anyone who seeks a loyal following (or just the love of another) might be drawn into her fold.
Hot as Hell: Besides being devils with horns, both Fierna and Belial are infamous for their carnal appetites. They're both extremely sensual and very attractive devils.
Manipulative Bastard: Fierna's specialty lies in manipulating others.
Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: In Faces of Evil: the Fiends, it was pretty much stated that Belial and Fierna are just the male and female forms of the same Sex Shifter hermaphroditic Archdevil, with their consort Naome being similar. This was retconned by the Guide to Hell to them being father and daughter, and it stayed this way until Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes introduced ambiguity about the true nature of their relationship (as well as noting the seeming impossibility of there being two rulers of one layer of Hell), as a probable callback to the old lore.
Playing with Fire: Both of them can use spells like fireball, fire shield, and wall of fire at will.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Belial is the blue, favoring planning and control, while Fierna is the red, ruled by passion and defying order. This extends from how they split up their duties as co-rulers to their approaches to combat, with Fierna charging in to blast as many foes with fire spells as possible, while Belial's first response to danger is always to summon reinforcements, then play the role of support spellcaster while his minions take the hits.
Talker and Doer: Fierna is the "face" of their partnership, while Belial does the bulk of the behind-the-scenes paperwork, such as overseeing Phlegethos' devil promotion proceedings.
Took a Level in Badass: Fierna's first 3rd Edition write-up was as a puppet ruler who was the official head of Phlegethos, but spent her time amusing herself while her father did the work of running the layer. In a later supplement that elevated Glasya to an archdevil, Fierna became fast friends with Asmodeus' daughter and started taking an active role in Phlegethos' affairs, even setting up her own cultist networks "just in case" anything happened to her dear father (making Belial very, very nervous). As of 5th Edition, Fierna is an equal partner in Phlegethos' rulership, and now in sole control of its Material Plane operations, which brings her closer to her original 2nd Edition characterization.
Undying Loyalty: Fierna helps instill this in cultists, to the point where they have bonuses on saving throws and have a chance to simply not die when they're killed if their leader is near.
Villainous Incest: Belial and Fierna are alternatively described as lord and consort (who's who varies), father and daugther, and lovers. The exact nature of their relationship is unknown and probably inexplicable to mortals, but it is likely some combination of the three. The fact that Fierna's late mother Naome was once Belial's consort and that he never took another one after her demise further fuels the speculations around them.

Levistus, Lord of the Fifth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_levistus_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 25 (3E)

"Prince" Levistus, the ancient Lord of Stygia, ruled his layer for eons until he attempted to ravish Bensozia, the consort of Asmodeus himself, and killed her when she spurned him. An enraged Asmodeus stripped Levistus of his lordship and trapped him in an unmeltable iceberg, giving his mantle to Geryon, who ruled Stygia for many centuries. After the Reckoning, Geryon was in turn deposed, and Asmodeus unexpectedly re-appointed Levistus as ruler of Stygia... without unfreezing him, or giving Levistus the power that usually comes with archdevilhood. Levistus thus must use telepathy to control his minions from his icy prison, and schemes to both free himself and get his revenge on Asmodeus, all while defending his fief from Geryon's insurgency.

Badass in a Nice Suit: His aspect always appears in fine silk clothes, just sodden with water and bits of ice.
Black Eyes of Evil: Levistus' only inhuman trait is that his eyes are entirely black.
Deal with the Devil: Levistus reaches out to those in desperate straits and offers them a one-time-only save from the danger.
Humanoid Abomination: The most human looking of the Archdukes, save the Black Eyes of Evil above.
Master Swordsman: Before his imprisonment, Levistus was a veritable swashbuckler legendary for his skill with a blade, able to parry not just enemy sword strikes, but incoming spells. His aspect shares this trait, while his mortal cultists, particularly the so-called "Bladereavers," seek to imitate him, but are more or less a band of armed thugs that lack his panache.
Revenge Before Reason: Levistus is absolutely consumed by his need to get revenge on Asmodeus for his imprisonment and humiliation, to the point that he's likely to get involved in schemes that would be disastrous for Baator as a whole just to hurt Asmodeus. As a result, the other archdevils are content to leave Levistus where he is.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Even as an archdevil, Levistus can't get out of that iceberg, which really pisses him off. On the plus side, he's more or less invulnerable.
Unwitting Pawn: Since Glasya's elevation to an archdevil, Levistus has had to consider that all of the schemes he hatched since being restored to his position have been nothing more than a diversion Asmodeus allowed to go on to distract the rest of Hell from his plans for Glasya. Worse, this would mean that Levistus now has to be more careful with his scheming, since it no longer serves Asmodeus' purpose.

Glasya, Lord of the Sixth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/glasya_4e_1.jpg

^3e

Challenge Rating: 22 (3E)

Asmodeus's daughter, and Hell's resident criminal mastermind. Glasya is a master Rules Lawyer, Exact Words exploiter, and Loophole Abuser. While she's still Lawful Evil and never breaks the letter of the law, she loves to subvert its spirit, and has found ways to get away with all sorts of crimes. Asmodeus handed her the sixth layer of Hell, Malbolge, partially as a reward and partially to chain her down with actual responsibilities.

Daddy's Little Villain: She's Asmodeus's fiend daughter and just as evil as he is, if in different ways.
Deal with the Devil: Asmodeus has decreed that she can only make deals in matters of contracts and legalities, so she will actually write contracts for mortals and generally help them exploit the law. Wanna get rich off a Frivolous Lawsuit? Glasya can make the courts listen. Wanna inherit something now? Glasya's great at arranging "accidental" deaths. Wanna get out of a deal with another devil? Glasya will find some loophole to make the contract null and void... so long as you promise your soul to her instead.
The Don: Her (first) claim to fame was organizing the first organized crime syndicate in the Nine Hells.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She loves her father Asmodeus...in her own way.
Glasya: "Of course I love my father. Without him, whom would I have to strive against?"
Former Teen Rebel: Her 3rd Edition write-up explained that Glasya had ended a long rebellious phase before being awarded with stewardship of Malbolge, though 5th Edition casts doubt on the "former" part by having her organize her criminal organization while being introduced to the other archdukes.
Kicked Upstairs: Glasya's promotion to archdevil was partially an actual reward and partially so that she couldn't continue running her crime syndicate.
Loophole Abuse: Her criminal cartel was based around using counterfeit coins to buy souls then sell them for profit. While counterfeiting is obviously illegal in Hell, the law states that a coin has to be minted in Minauros from a specific alloy of gold. Glasya got around the law by setting up her operation in Minauros and having a transmuter turn ordinary metals into the alloy. Since the law only stated that the coins had to be minted from the alloy, they remained legal by technicality even after turning back into lesser metals.
Magical Counterfeiting: According to "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes", Glasya came to prominence as an archdevil through a scheme that involved coins minted from lead that had transmuted into gold via alchemy.
Monster Lord: She is Queen of the Erinyes, among her other titles.
Nepotism: Zigzagged. On one hand, she technically proved herself to be a cunning and intelligent devil before being promoted to lord of the Sixth, but there is little doubt that Asmodeus had always intended for her to be an Archdevil, and her cunning was simply an excuse.
Plaguemaster: She can cast contagion at will, while Glasya's touch can carry a virulent disease that damages both the Constitution and Charisma of her victims.
Rules Lawyer: She's a rules lawyer by the standards of an entire species of rules lawyers.
Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Glasya can surround herself with an aura that subjects other creatures to a confusion effect, or drain Wisdom with a touch.
The Vamp: Glasya is quite willing to have some fun on the side, but she's still a devil and will usually exploit her paramours.
You Killed My Mother: She particularly hates Levistus for killing her mother Bensozia.

Baalzebul, Lord of the Seventh

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_baalzebul_3e.jpg

Penitent form (3e)

^{Archdevil form (1e)}

Challenge Rating: 29 (3E)

The Archduke of Maladomini was once one of the most powerful archdevils in Baator, until his grand attempt to overthrow Asmodeus nearly led the tanar'ri to overrun Avernus entirely. Asmodeus' punishment was to transform Baalzebul into a hideous slug form until he'd spent a year like that for every lie he'd ever told another devil, applied retroactively, as well as decreeing that every deal Baalzebul struck would end in disaster for the other party. While Baalzebul has since finished the sentence related to his slug form, the second part of his punishment has crippled his scheming with his fellow devils... but mortals, who have little knowledge of Hellish politics, are still quick to turn to Baalzebul in their desperation.

Beelzebub: This guy is D&D's version of the Lord of the Flies.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: While Baalzebul was nearly catastrophically self-interested, his importance to Baator's bureaucracy was such that Asmodeus elected to harshly punish him instead of executing or exiling him.
The Chessmaster: He earned his epithet "The Lord of the Flies" from the saying that not even a fly could escape Baalzebul's webs of intrigue.
Deadly Gaze: His gaze attack acts as a simultaenous Supernatural Fear Inducer and ray of enfeeblement effect.
Deal with the Devil: Making any with him is guaranteed to not go well. For people who don't know about his curse, he offers a chance to regain personal honor by making themselves look good at the expense of a rival.
Fallen Angel: Once Baalzebul was an archon of Celestia named Triel, but his arrogance and ambition led to his fall from grace and transformation into a monster with a fly's compound eyes.
Forced Transformation: Asmodeus' punishment left Baalzebul a hideous and disgusting slug that could only move at a crawl and had arms to weak to even open doors or turn the pages of books, forcing the Archduke to rely on magic to survive in combat.
Make Them Rot: His touch can force other creatures to save or suffer a wither limb effect, leaving them permanently crippled with shriveled, shrunken arms or legs.
The Pig-Pen: His slug form constantly oozes filth and foulness, enough to bury Baalzebul's palace beneath a reeking pile of muck and sewage.
Polyamory: He has two consorts: Baftis, currently imprisoned, and Lilith, Moloch's former consort who is much more powerful and who owns many cults on the Prime Material Plane. Subverted in that both his consorts don't really interact with one another and there's apparently no Three-Way Sex between them.
Spanner in the Works: His plan to usurp Asmodeus was foiled because the Abyss happened to launch an offensive at the exact wrong time. Because Baalzebub had held his shield legions back to prepare for the coup, the demonic hordes managed to push all the way to the gates of Dis. Baalzebub was eventually forced to postpone his coup and return the legions, since Hell would be no good to him if it was overrun by demons. The ensuing investigation into how the demonic hordes managed to penetrate Avernus' defenses revealed Baalzebub's treachery.
Will Not Tell a Lie: But only if you're a devil, since he absolutely hates his slug form. He lies to mortals without compunction.

Mephistopheles, Lord of the Eighth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mephistopheles_d&d.png

Challenge Rating: 29 (3E)

The highest of the Archdukes rules Cania, Baator's eighth and second-lowest layer. Mephistopheles' magical research has created a unique form of energy called Hellfire, which can even burn creatures explicitly immune to normal flames. He constantly schemes against Asmodeus, who is his only superior in the hierarchy of devils.

Always a Bigger Fish: Mephistopheles embodies all of the virtues and vices of the archetypical archdevil. He is powerful, cunning, persuasive, and a master manipulator. He'd be a perfect candidate for supreme master of the Nine Hells, except that job is already taken by Asmodeus, who is even more of all those things.
The Archmage: He's one of the mightiest mages in all the planes, able to cast spells as a high-level wizard. His realm of Cania is essentially an enormous arcane laboratory.
Bad Boss: He is known to disintegrate any who annoy him. Coincidentally, his offices are always dusty.
Big Red Devil: He appears as the classic crimson-skinned devil with curling horns and great batlike wings, though in earlier editions he was axtually blue.
Deal with the Devil: He looks for particularly clever wizards and lures them into his service with the prospect of access to his magical knowledge. Those unfortunates eventually learn that thanks to Mephistopheles' cleverly-worded contracts, they've committed to an eternity of lonely drudge work in magical laboratories, with hideous punishments should they try to share what they learn with anyone else.
Inferiority Superiority Complex: Despite being the second most powerful devil of all time, being Always Second Best grates on him beyond belief. He tries to cultivate himself as the true ruler of devils, but this actually ends up with him being, in practice, mistaken for his boss more often than not.
Informed Attribute: He's supposedly a Badass Bookworm who possesses one of the largest repositories of knowledge in all the Nine Hells and is a consummate Archdevil schemer, but in many novels he acts more like an impatient Ax-Crazy megalomaniac with a Hair-Trigger Temper and is just as treacherous, short-sighted and opportunistic as any demon.
Large Ham: His scheming is more grandiose than subtle, such as the time he took on the guise of "Duke Molikroth," seemingly deposed himself, ruled as Molikroth for a time, then revealed the ruse and purged his court of conspirators.
Mephistopheles: Much like his Faustian namesake, he's particularly infamous for tricking overambitious mortals; he's especially fond of offering his considerable arcane knowledge to wizards, with the hidden stipulation that his contract partners doom themselves to an eternity of grunt work in his laboratories by accepting his deal. He is also obsessed with overthrowing Asmodeus and becoming ruler of Hell, and plots and schemes night and day to achieve this goal.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: All devils are by their nature plotters and backstabbers, but Mephistopheles is bold enough to tell Asmodeus, to his face, that he will be the one to topple and supplant him. Mephistopheles is so set on this that he'll interfere with his rival archdukes' own schemes to take over the Nine Hells. Who better, then, for Asmodeus to put on the layer between his capital of Nessus and the rest of Baator?
Playing with Fire: Mephistopheles invented Hellfire, and in combat is constantly surrounded by dark flames that deal unholy damage to anything around him. Ironically, Cania is the coldest layer of Baator, and all the fiery research is making Mephistopheles' palace of Mephistar start to melt, as well as causing disillusionment among his gelugon minions.
Rape Is A Special Kindof Evil: He is very fond of visiting the material plane, pulling Demonic Possession or Kill and Replace (or both) on some hapless male mortal, and violently raping their spouse or partner and implanting a cambion child within them, whose birth is typically agonising and fatal for the unfortunate victim as well (the half-fiend child themselves can then be little more than a glorified pawn in their father's schemes, if he pays them any mind at all). Even if he is on the material plane for some other business, he'll indulge in this depravity if he has some time to spare.
Removed Achilles' Heel: Baatezu are inherently resistant to cold damage, not immune to it. Mephistopheles, however, has exposed himself to enough of Cania's chill to gain full immunity to cold on top of his devilish immunity to fire and poison.
The Starscream: He's basically a fiendish version of the trope namer himself.

Asmodeus, Lord of the Nine

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_asmodeus_3e.png

Challenge Rating: 32 (3E)

The lord of all the nine hells. Originally an extremely powerful and cunning devil, he ascended to godhood in 4th edition after gorging himself on the god Azuth who conveniently happend to fall into his lair (or maybe he was always a god. We're not quite sure). Though Azuth is Back from the Dead in 5e, Asmodeus' godhood remains as the new Status Quo.

Tropes regarding Asmodeus can be found on the following pages:

Other Archdevils

The archdukes are not the only archdevils in the Nine Hells. Beneath them are lesser dukes and duchesses who serve them with varying degrees of faithfulness and loyalty. There are also archdevils who previously held the title of archduke but were demoted or exiled.

Bel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bel_5e.png

^3e

Challenge Rating: 20 (3E)

Bel was the lord of Avernus until Zariel ousted him from power. Now he serves under her while scheming to take back his former position.

Battle Trophy: He wears the severed heads of a dozen angels on his belt. These heads are still alive and screaming.
Big Red Devil: As a glorified pit fiend, he has the classic look down.
Bling of War: 5th edition artwork depicts him as wearing a golden breastplate, gold bracers, and gold caps for his horns.
Enemy Mine: In Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, he can become one of the party's most powerful allies. He holds no love for mortals, but he hopes that the adventurers will ruin Zariel's operations.
Flaming Sword: His weapon of choice is an unholy greatsword which burns with hellish fire.
Retcon: 5th edition paints Bel as being the original ruler of Avernus before Zariel usurped him, but in previous editions it was the other way around: Zariel was the original ruler of Avernus, and Bel served under her for millennia before overthrowing her in a coup. This is explained by Bel having committed some major fuckup recently, causing Asmodeus to hand the reins back to Zariel.
The Starscream: As of 5th edition he patiently serves under his usurper Zariel, waiting for the right moment to stab her in the back and reclaim his throne.
The Strategist: He’s described as one of the greatest military minds in the Nine Hells, and it is his tactics which keep the Nine Hells from being overrun by the numberless hordes of the Abyss.
Ultimate Forge: While he's not a blacksmith himself, Zariel put him in charge of Avernus' forges so he could provide for the war effort while still being out of her (figurative) hair.

Bael

Challenge Rating: 19 (5E)

A warlord in service to Mammon, Bael is more interested in fighting the Blood War than in playing the game of infernal politics. He should not be confused with the similarly named Bel.

Achilles' Heel: Like all devils, he's weak to the sacred and divine (represented by Radiant damage in 5e). He's also, strangely enough, weak to cold damage.
Blood Knight: He is much more interested in killing demons than in playing politics or fostering cults. This actually works against him, as his lack of political savvy keeps him from rising further up the ranks, and he is forced to recruit cunning mortals to do his politicking for him.
Carry a Big Stick: His weapon of choice is a hellish morningstar.
Frontline General: Bael leads his soldiers from the front.
Join or Die: When he defeats someone in battle, he offers them a stark choice: pledge their souls to his service or die. The only exception is if you're a demon, in which case he'll just kill you.
Our Minotaurs Are Different: He resembles a minotaur.
Red Baron: The Bronze General, a title awarded to him for both his many victories over the demons and his bronze skin.
Small Name, Big Ego: In a roundabout way. The few mortals who worship Bael believe him to be the King of Hell and the supreme ruler of all devils. He isn't; that's Asmodeus. Bael himself has no illusions about his place in the devilish heirarchy, but he's happy to play along with their misconceptions if it gets him worship.
The Strategist: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes describes Bael as a tactical genius who has never lost a battle.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: He can make himself look dreadful, frightening nearby non-devils for a short time unless they succeed on a Wisdom saving throw.

Gargauth

An exiled pit fiend worshipped in Faerûn as a demigod of corruption and betrayal. A victim of Infernal politics, he now seeks to pull Toril into Hell to become its tenth layer, which has earned him the nickname "The Tenth Lord of the Nine". As of 5e, he has, somewhat embarrassingly, been trapped in a shield and stripped of most of his power.

Adaptational Wimp: 5th edition was not kind to poor Gargauth. Not only has he been stuck in the shield for a good while now, but his imprisonment and lack of worship has apparently reduced him to a mere pit fiend, with no divine power to speak of. If the players hand him over to Zariel, she'll make sure he comes out of the shield crippled and weakened enough for adventurers to finish him of.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: One notable aversion. By being a deity, he packs some serious power, more than enough to rival other archdevils. However, he lacks any sort of political clout and is thus stuck outside the Infernal hierarchy.
Deal with the Devil: Like all of them. He'll offer anything to adventurers in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus if they can get him out of the shield, even offering to work together to take down Zariel. He doesn't actually ask anything in return, only planning to kill the adventurers once he's done with them..
Evil Plan: Gargauth's ultimate ambition is to drag Toril into the Nine Hells, creating a tenth layer which he would rule with impunity in the process. Considering the many different factions with an interest in preventing this from happening, including almost every single god worshipped on Toril, this is unlikely to happen.
Evil vs. Evil: Obviously the case for all devils, but he notably opposes other evil Faerûnian deities.
God of Evil: He is legitimately a demigod, with a portfolio including Betrayal, Cruelty and Corruption.
Loophole Abuse: The deal he'll offer adventurers in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus states that he'll cooperate with the adventurers until Zariel is destroyed, but if any party attacks or betrays the other, the contract is void. There are two exploitable loopholes there; First, the deal only lasts until Zariel is destroyed. After that, he's free to kill the puny mortals. Secondly, the consequences of breaking the deal is only that it is voided, so he has an easy out. Adventurers can invoke this too, by capturing Zariel rather than destroy her.
Sealed Evil in a Can: As of 5th edition, he's been stuck in The Shield of the Hidden Lord for a while and is not at all happy about it.
Small Name, Big Ego: Even at his strongest, Gargauth is a small fish in a big pond. His ambition to drag Toril into hell would never succeed, considering the many, and much more powerful, gods who would work to prevent this.

Geryon

Challenge Rating: 22 (5E)

The former ruler of Stygia. He constantly struggles with Levistus for control of their frozen hellhole, usually (but not always) coming off worst.

Beware My Stinger Tail: His tail ends in a scorpion's stinger.
Deal with the Devil: He grants extra brute strength, and a lot of monstrous races are drawn into his fold.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: 4th edition depicted him as having four arms, whereas all other editions give him only two.
Multiple Head Case: He has three heads in 4th edition.
Snake People: He is a muscular humanoid from the waist up and a gigantic snake from the waist down.
Summon Magic: He can summon minotaurs to do his bidding by blowing into a magical horn.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: He can strike fear into his opponents with an infernal glare in 5th edition.

Hutijin

Challenge Rating: 21 (5E)

An ascended pit fiend and a powerful retainer to Mephistopheles. He's actually quite obscure in diabolist circles, for a simple reason: Hutijin hates mortals. He does all he can to erase mentions of his name or how to summon him from the mortal world, and when he is summoned, he rewards the unlucky sod with a torturous death. Other archdevils endeavor to spread knowledge on how to summon him, for the simple reason that all time Hutijin spends on the Prime Material is time Mephistopheles spends without his greatest servant.

Balking Summoned Spirit: He hates mortals, and he especially hates being summoned away from his tasks and his master's court to fulfill whatever inane service they want him to do. As a result, he has worked hard to erase all knowledge of himself from mortal knowledge; if someone should summon him anyway, he just tortures them to death.
Fantastic Racism: This guy absolutely hates non-devils and especially mortals. Anyone trying to summon him gains his ire both for taking him away from his master and forcing him to spend time in mortal company.
Deal with the Devil: Making one with him is an even worse idea than usual; while Hutijin is eager to close bargains and offers generous terms, when the dealmaking is over, he tortures the poor berk who summoned him to death.
Inconvenient Summons: He regards all mortal summonings as inconvenient.
Shock and Awe: He can discharge electricity from himself to blast nearby opponents.
Undying Loyalty: He's unfailingly loyal to Mephistopheles. Other devils think Mephistopheles has some major blackmail on Hutijin, but there's nothing known for certain.

Malagard

Challenge Rating: 22 (3E)

Also called the Hag Countess, Malagard was a powerful and ambitious night hag who served as Moloch's consort and advisor. She betrayed her lover and was granted lordship of Malbolge for a time, only to suffer a gruesome fate which paved the way for Glasya to succeed her.

Cruel and Unusual Death: She swelled to impossibly vast proportions and burst open like a balloon. If her screams were any indication, she was in excruciating pain the entire time, and she did not actually expire until long after her ribs had exploded out of her chest and her innards became lakes and caverns.
Fantastic Racism: A lot of Hell's inhabitants were not happy that one of the Hells was ruled by a night hag rather than a devil. This may be why Asmodeus chose her to dispose of when he needed a free Archdevil position for his daughter.
Giant Corpse World: Her titanic corpse makes up the entirety of Malbolge in 3rd edition, with her ribs forming mountains, her innards forming subterranean tunnels, and her skull being the fortress from which Glasya rules the plane, amongst other things. Prior and subsequent editions instead have Malbolge as an infinite rocky slope with enormous boulders tumbling down it endlessly.
Gonk: Unusual for an archdevil's lover, she was incredibly ugly and decrepit.
Inconsistent Spelling: Some sourcebooks spell her name as Malagarde, and at one point she was called Lamagard.
The Mistress: She was Moloch's lover, though not his official consort.
Posthumous Character: She is quite dead and has been since 3rd edition.
Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: In 3rd edition, the forests that were once Malagard's hair are home to infernal lice the size of bears.
Red Baron: She had a variety of titles, including Lord of the Sixth, the Hag Countess of Malbolge, and Hag Queen of the Crushing Land.
Winged Humanoid: She had a pair of wings with tattered black feathers.

Moloch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6d5f7e598af9d15479e432386278b9c3.png

Challenge Rating: 21 (5E)

The former ruler of Malbolge, Moloch was exiled from the Nine Hells after a failed attempt to overthrow Asmodeus. He spends his time and effort trying to reclaim his former power, without success.

Arc Villain: He plays a major antagonistic role in the middle portion of The Apocalypse Stone.
Big Red Devil: He is big, red-skinned, horned, and hooved.
Breath Weapon: He can exhale the Breath of Despair, inflicting fear and psychic damage to anyone caught in it.
Curse: As part of his punishment, he has been cursed to transform into a powerless imp whenever he slips back into the Nine Hells. He returns to his true archdevil form only once he leaves the place.
The Exile: He was banished from the Nine Hells long ago.
For the Evulz: In The Apocalypse Stone, the players accidentally trap him in that plane when he was just about to reconquer Malbolge. He spends a fair portion of the adventure making sure they suffer for it, which includes turning their loved ones into flesh golems.
Horrible Judge of Character: He placed his trust in Malagard, a night hag whom he took as his advisor and consort. Unfortunately for Moloch, Malagard was actually in league with his rival Geryon, and her poisonous advice would lead to Moloch's downfall and exile.
Lightning Lash: His weapon of choice is an electrified scourge.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: His breath strikes terror into the hearts of his enemies, making them flee from him in a blind panic.

Tiamat

The five-headed goddess of chromatic dragons, Tiamat is a permanent resident of Avernus and is sometimes depicted as both its ruler and as an archdevil. Even when she isn't treated as such, she always has some influence on infernal activities and politics.

See Dungeons And Dragons Scalykind Deities for more information about her.

Titivilus

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/70d613048004e3fc7d39c1c8464ef04f.png

Challenge Rating: 16 (5E)

A powerful archdevil in the service of Dispater, lord of the Second, who uses his knack for manipulation to slowly steal power from right under Dispater's nose.

Engineered Heroics: He sometimes hires parties of adventurers to create "complications" in Dis that he can then be seen to solve, reinforcing his usefulness in Dispater's eyes.
Mouth of Sauron: In more ways than one, he's seen as this in Baator. Although it seems he's only playing that role for his own personal gain.
The Social Expert: Titivilus gained his position by saying the right things to the right people at the right time, and he is an expert at reading people and manipulating them into doing what he wants. Accordingly, he has a sky-high Charisma score and tremendous bonuses to Deception, Insight, Intimidation and Persuasion rolls.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: He can strike terror into the heart of a nearby enemy by uttering a Frightful Word.

Characters / Dungeons And Dragons Fiends Devils

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