Horned Demon [Lesser Tanar'ri]

A horned demon resembles a gaunt, skeletal minotaur with filthy, diseased flesh. It has no fur, only tufts of coarse bristle sprouting from scarred, boil-pocked hide. Its feet bear claws rather than hooves, a long serpentine tail ends in a cluster of iron-hard spines, and its head and horns are closer to a ram's than a bull's, with a mouth full of small needle fangs. Most carry huge tridents, polearms or vicious morning stars.

It speaks the planar trade tongue badly or uses a weak telepathy. Act as if you understand every grunt: a horned demon has no patience, and tearing someone's arms off may seem easier than talking.

Bred for the endless war between demons and devils, horned demons are second only to vrocks as the hardest shock troops of the hordes, serving as bodyguards, assault leaders and heavy infantry. Less mobile and magical than vrocks, they are strong, fearless and too stubborn and dim to quit, dealing damage to rival many greater fiends.

Like all tanar'ri they ignore nonmagical fire, electricity and poison, and take half damage from cold, magical fire and gas. Only cold iron or +1 or better weapons can harm them.

Unarmed, a horned demon claws with each forelimb (1d4+1), head-butts (2d8) and lashes with its tail (1d3). A natural 19 or 20 on the head-butt knocks a man-sized or smaller foe back d6+4 feet and stuns him for 1-3 rounds. An armed horned demon swaps its claws for its weapon but still butts and lashes in the same round; its size H weapons deal double damage plus 6 for Strength, so a morning star hits for 4d4+6.

Each round of a fight there is a 25% chance it goes berserk, rising to 75% in any round it takes damage without landing a hit of its own. Berserk, its AC drops to 1 as it abandons all defense, but it gains +2 to attack rolls and +4 to saves against fear, emotion and mind-affecting spells such as hold monster. It stays enraged until every opponent is dead or routed, or until it has gone 5 rounds or more unable to fight in melee.

In addition to the common tanar'ri powers it can use, at 7th level and at will unless noted, cause fear, command, detect invisibility, wall of fog and shout (once a day). Once a day it may attempt, with a 25% chance, to gate in either 1-3 twisted demons (40%) or 3-12 dretches (60%).

Quarrelsome bullies, horned demons often settle disputes lethally; only a mighty true or greater fiend restrains them, and only when battle is near. They make terrible sentries or scouts, unable to wait or sneak. A visible foe gets charged at once, and with none in sight the demon sets off to find one.

Once committed, they plunge into the thickest fighting and never retreat, a reliability rare in the Abyss even if it is bloodlust rather than discipline, so commanders keep them near the front. A strong, charismatic leader can just barely hold them in check, and some powerful fiends keep a fanatical guard of them despite the headaches.

Rumor holds that the bull-headed demon lord of minotaurs created them by crossbreeding his minotaur servants with tanar'ri in his service, though no one knows if that is true. He is also said to keep a guard of unusually disciplined horned demons.

Higher-ranking tanar'ri value them, since their zeal lets subtler fiends slip out of sight, but lesser fiends keep their distance from a creature that flies into murderous rages at the least provocation; in some battles horned demons have killed more dretches and twisted demons than the baatezu did. Vrocks are their bitter rivals, and the two nearly always come to blows unless baatezu are close enough to fight instead.