Character 4: Infernum

Infernum breaks my heart. What we have here is a beautiful D20 setting made unplayable by shoddy, poorly thought out mechanics. The premise of playing a demon, mortal or fallen angel as they struggle through the political machinations and perils of hell is fantastic. But the designers seem to have little to no concept of balance.

The main problem here lies with the demon breeds, who are unfortunately more-or-less central to the game. Many of the mutations they recieve are either poor, debilitating or inconveniencing. What benefit is there really to being tiny (a mutation of the imp breed)? What gm wants to handle the headache of a Gargantuan sized PC (the hulk breed)?

Fortunately, there's enough material in the three core books that the setting can be easily poached to other systems. Heck, I wouldn't mind trying a game of this with the Mutants and Masterminds setting one day.


Rolls for the ability scores of my Infernum PC turned out as follows:
12,16,12,13,15,9

After a few random rolls (1d3 for race, 1d10 for breed, 1d12 for affiliation) I determined that my character was to be a Stalker demon of House Lictat. Stalker demons are the trackers and bounty hunters of hell, while House Lictat is a loosely aligned group of lesser demon houses. Interetingly, House Lictat's "House mutation" is random, playing nicely into my goal to make these characters as random as possible. Here's what I have:

Maggerai the Wingbound of House Lictat
Level 1 Stalker demon

Str 13 Dex 15 Con 18 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 7
HP 12, Ilaster reserve 7, Corruption 15
Fort +6 Ref+4 Wil +1
Speed 30ft, Fly 30ft (poor, only in alternate form)
AC 20, Touch 12 Flat-footed 18

+2 melee (1d6+1 bite)
+2 melee (1d6+1 claw)
+2 melee (1d8+1 alternate form bite)
+3 ranged (craft (hellfire) check), hellfire cannon)

Mutations: Chain of form, Animal aspect chain*, Chain of the winged*
Special Abilities: Alternate form, Fire resistance 5

*Only when in alternate form

Skills: Craft (hellfire)+9, Intimidate +5(physical threats)/+2(coercion), Listen+5 (+7 in alternate form), Spot +5 (+7 in alternate form), Survival +5
Feats: Skill focus (craft (hellfire)), Martial weapon proficiency

Equipment: Breastplate armour, Hellfire cannon, 1 round of ammo, 3 crowns


Maggerai is probably going to be spending a lot of time hunting for illaster as it fuels most of his abilities. He has to spend it every time he changes form and every time he fires his hellfire cannon. For a first level character he's pretty tough with a decent AC and good hit points. His attacks are a little crappy but those can be improved with feats and mutations over time.

Speaking of mutations, the dice gods appear to have taken notice of my quest to make this exercise as random as possible. The random mutation I picked up through House Lictat was the chain of form, giving Maggerai an alternate form with one random mutation and one of my choice. I got animal aspect, giving him a +2 on listen and spot and increased bite damage when he changes, and picked up chain of the winged, as it's always handy to be able to fly.

The sheer craziness of mutations in this game actually makes character cration for Infernum kinda fun. I suppose with the right characters it wouldn't be too bad. Maybe one day when I have the time I'll have a closer look and see if it can't be salvaged.