Okay I promise this will be the last post about how devils look for a while

My man Shonuff over at the Basic Fantasy RPG forums agreed to take my request for devil designs, and I'm proud to report that three are already done.

There's the Barbed Devil:

9/22: The Bearded Devil

9/23: The Chain Devil. Man that looks metal.

The Ice Devil (which I showed you before:

And the Pit Fiend (with, apparently, a friend):

I'm extremely happy with them, and if he does the rest I'll add them to this post later.

On overcoming my problem with demons and devils Part two: Devils (this one is less heavy on the pictures)

Okay, so when last we left off I was gonna get into devils, yes?

Devil Overview
I think that in general devils should look more consistent and alike than demons do. That imp back in the other post, or the abishai from way back in the first post of the series? Those are my template for demonkind. Here they are again if you want a refresher.

So keep that in mind.

Barbed Devil
I actually have a really specific vision of what a barbed devil should look like in my head, and it comes down to this: Porcupine quills. This should be a devil with lots of porcupine quills. The illustrations are always this weird chupacabra guy and I hate 'im. Sadly I couldn't find an exact illustration of what I've always thought they should look like. Here's a couple of devils that do have nice quills though.

Bearded Devil
A lot of the old illustrations of bearded devils look...grubby. I don't like that, I think a devil should tend to look professional, I guess. This 4e Dragon Magazine cover does something interesting by making the beard out of snakes. That could work for me. Though actually... I also kind of dig the idea of the beard being a bunch of horn spikes, or having blades braided into it or something. I dunno.
UPDATE 9/16: Had a thought yesterday I quite like: The beard has burning strands of matchcord or embers in it like Blackbeard, wreathing the face in nasty, brimstoney smoke.

Bone Devils
Actually, not too bad either, though some old versions of them have insect wings that I thinktotally take the wind out of their sails. I'd like to see more typical horns and wings on one of these just to see how it goes. I think the name for them is kind of bad, something like "hunger devil" or something might have been cooler. Or else give them some better connection to bones than just being skeletally thin.

Chain Devils
My brother is really fond of these guys. I think they look like knockoff cenobites. But the idea of a "chain devil" works for me, I could see cool stuff happening with it. I hear pathfinder spun Kytons off into their own thing separate from devils. I don't know if that's an improvement or a detriment to them. I see them as having a couple of great big heavy piercings (one on each arm, one between the wings, one between the horns, et cetera) that they hang chains off of. Sometimes they're bound by nailing the chain to one. Maybe a bit like this?

Erinyes
Fallen angels are good. I like them more as punishers, as their name implies, than as the lawful equivalent of succubi. I think Pathfinder might have wrote them that way? They drag you to hell. They probably get a lot less pretty as they get more pissed. I don't think they're actual devils, but they are part of the forces of hell.

Horned Devil
Well... aren't they all? I like horned devils to have big, impressive ones, maybe unique. Antlers are a good look, but also those times Hellboy's horns have grown out all the way are good. Or maybe they have rhino or triceratops or styracosaurus horns? Lots of good possibilities here. I tend to see them as being more on the aristocratic, lordly side, but powerfully built.

Ice Devil
Actually, this pic was a factor in me thinking about the appearances of demons and devils in the first place. For some reason this picture totally says "ice devil" to me. I've never been huge on the insectoid appearance of the ice devil traditionally, because it seems so inconsistent with the rest. A beetle carapace on thisguy could be kind of interesting.

Lemures
Aren't lemures just damned souls? I dunno, they probably just look kind of ghosty. I can't remember the last time I thought too hard about it. Properly speaking I don't think they count as devils. Maybe they're all chained up like Jacob Marley?

Pit Fiend
These guys have a problem: They're just lawful balors. Solution, make them more princely, more Mephisto. They are men of wealth and taste. Probably wear robes.

On overcoming my problem with demons and devils Part one: Demons (Abnormally picture-heavy for my standards)

Okay, so last night's post was kind of a haze of exhaustion, but I hope it was still clear.

Anyway, I want to relate what's happened to me this afternoon. I was looking through the "more like this" page for this picture:

When I stumbled upon a glabrezu drawn by the same artist. And... it didn't look like a four-armed dog-crab-ape-guy, it looked like... well, a demon. So I decided to do a little experiment-- I'd look for demons and devils of a similar nature to the classic D&D ones.
And lo and behold: results!

Type I
I actually like Vrocks a lot. Something about a lanky, stooping vulture-man is Boschy enough to stand out, but seems classic enough to suit my sensibilities. In my mind they hardly need fixing at all, just a reminder that they should be less a person that is a vulture and more some kind of horrible vulture that walks like a man, so here's some that are just nice examples of awesome vulture demons:

Type II
Now Hezrou, them I don't like. D&D is littered with toad monsters, from slaads to bullywugs to froghemoths to just plain old giant frogs and toads. They need an angle. But starting from toad isn't too bad, toads are warty and gross and associated with witches sometimes. However the goal is less a toad-demon and more a demon that is sort of toadlike in execution. These three hit the spot for me:

Type III
Glabrezu are so absurdly specific in their design I thought I could never like one. But this is the pic that kicked this whole silly art show off. This doesn't look like a thrown-together mass of animal parts, it just looks like a demon to me.

I think being hulking and four armed works in general-- searching for "four armed demon" resulted in a couple other winners:

Type IV
I can't hate Nalfeshnee too much actually. I think boars work. But the standard of giving them tiny little angel wings is stupid-- I think maybe someone was trying to inject some sort of bathetic humor and failed. Still, the pig demon is a good concept. I always liked Ganon after all, and most of the pics here are of him

Type V
Actually Mariliths don't offend me so much either. I don't know that they look like demons to me but they look like they belong on a heavy metal album, which is good enough. Less convinced of the need for six arms, but I don't hate it either. They should not be as sexy as succubi, but there's no reason they can't have a sort of aggressive dominant sexuality about them-- nor is there any reason they have to be sexy.

Type VI
Balors are balrogs. And that just works, no need to reinvent the fucking wheel. Here's some nice balrogs. Downward curving horns are a must for me, on Balrogs and on black dragons alike.

Succubi
Well like I said before succubi are another one that I don't have an aesthetic problem with. Also, I'm not your fucking spank bank.
Well, okay, here's one.

 This is running a bit long so I'll put devils in their own post, up next.