If you are using the demonologist legacy for a LARP character, reference the merits on this page instead of the core demonologist page. Though some merits are untouched, others are adjusted to better facilitate live-action play.
Player-assisted Demons
One of the core functions of a Demonologist relies on negotiations with multiple, summoned characters. Unlike a companion creature, the demons a Demonologists are separate entities that are almost always antagonistic to the character. As such, the player must rely on other players to briefly roleplay the summoned demons. Demons, and interacting with player summoned demons, should rarely overshadow a game’s story. The interactions should be fun and tense, but ultimately lean towards the demonologist’s favor and shouldn’t take too much of another player’s time. That all said, the following bullet points are here to guide player-demon interactions and keep things simple:
- The player playing the demon should decide on 1 simple “punishment” they want to inflict on the demonologist if the opportunity allows. They can write this on a card but don’t need to tell the demonologist player.
- Example: Inflict 1 harm to the demonologist or someone they care about
- Example: Reveal a secret the demonologist wanted to hide
- Example: Make one of the demonologist’s plans go awry.
- The player playing the demon should decide on 1 simple “desire” they are willing to tell the demonologist – something they want that they are willing to make a deal to get.
- Example: To eat a delicious burger, or a delicious pigeon.
- Example: To enact revenge on a specific character
- Example: To gain important information about werewolves.
- The player playing the demon needs to stick to the letter of any deal they make.
- Example: Agreeing to “not harm others” prevents the demon from attacking the summoner or any monsters, but doesn’t prevent them from paying someone else to harm the summoner.
- Both players should decide on the “terms of completion” at which the deal is considered complete and the demon disappears completely. Normally this is when the demon’s desire is fulfilled, or when they perform the task the summoner asks.
- Example: When the summoner puts a hamburger within the original summoning threshold.
- Example: 5 minutes after the demon distracts the nearby people, drawing them away from the summoner.
Merits
| Signature Merit | Effect | Track | Meta Slots |
| Threshold Summoning | Mark to touch a location or circle and establish a threshold, or commandeer an existing threshold. You can only maintain 1 threshold at a time, but doing so does not require your concentration. When a major effect attempts to force magic across the barrier make a Resolve action check to prevent it. Summoning: You can take a lengthy task to summon a demon of any rank into a threshold you maintain. |
2 | 2 |
| A large and complex series of hellish runes tattooed and burned upon the body. | |||
| Demonologist Merits | Effect | Track |
| Borrow Stone | Touch a creature and spend 1 esoteric to add a 2 box temporary merit version of a random one of that creature’s merits. If you already have a borrowed merit, you must mark this merit or discard the older borrowed merit |
3 |
| A black palm-sized stone with a faintly pulsing, red and runic gate carved into it. | ||
| Exorcist Salt | Mark to banish one creature within a threshold you are maintaining. The creature is shunted to an unoccupied location outside the threshold, teleporting if necessary. | 4 |
| Knuckle-sized chunks of salt that have marinated in your own blood. | ||
| Cursed Dusts | Mark to spread dusts around a nearby area, corrupting the ground for several days. Any esoteric used within that area acts as though it has the cursed tag. | 5 |
| Shifting dust of nauseating colors held in a small glass jar. | ||
| Observation Glass | Mark to learn a weakness or vulnerability of a creature within a threshold that you are maintaining. | 4 |
| A short telescope with layered lenses. When used a lens will crack in an image of the target’s weakness. | ||
| Hellfire Gauntlets | Summon hellish fire to attack foes at range. Deals an additional mark of flame harm. Add the blast side-effect AOE to your attack if you add the the cursed tag to one of your esoterics. | 4 |
| A pair of leathery, iron-covered gloves with sharpened ridges jutting out of its metallic palms. | ||
| Confession Injections | Mark to force a touched target to learn of and witness, with complete conviction, a tragic or antagonistic action you have performed. | 5 |
| Needled syringes covered in holy symbols and containing an unholy concoction mixed with your dried blood. | ||
| Slip up Eraser | Mark to retract a sentence or phrase you’ve said in the last few minutes, making anyone who heard it forget it. | 4 |
| An opalescent, rectangular slab of soft stone. | ||
META Merits
Meta Merits alter or enhance a legacy’s signature merit and automatically extend that merit’s track with their own. Meta merits are unique to their legacy and cannot enhance any merit other than the signature merit of the same legacy.
| Meta Demonologist Merits | Effect | Track |
| Sacrificial Thresholds | While maintaining a threshold barrier, you may spend 1 esoteric to automatically succeed a failed Resolve check that was needed to maintain the barrier. | – |
| Hold the Door | You may handoff maintenance of a threshold barrier to another individual who then takes responsibility for any Resolve checks needed to maintain the barrier. That barrier no longer counts against the number of barriers you are maintaining. | – |
| Homesteads | You can mark your threshold summoning merit to maintain an additional threshold. | 1 |
| Insightful Summoning | When you summon a demon you learn what merits and skills it has. | – |
| Offer a Friendly Escape | When you summon a rank 1 demon, spend 1 esoteric to mollify the demon’s hellish and antagonistic nature. The demon will not instinctively try to cause suffering. | – |
| At-Will Contracts | When you summon a demon you can choose to make any deal with it “At-Will.” The demon can choose to exit the deal and return to where it came from at any time. Likewise, you may mark your threshold summoning merit to cancel the deal and send the demon back wherever it currently is. | 1 |
| Blood Summoning | When establishing a threshold, instead of marking the merit you can choose to either give yourself a new severity 1 injury or increase the level of one of your injuries by 1. | – |
| Speedy Summoning | It takes you only a couple minutes to summon a demon within a threshold instead of a lengthy task. | – |
Alternative Concepts
Demons are classic antagonists, but not all antagonists have to be as inherently evil. Fae creatures can be tricky and whimsical, causing more trouble than their worth. Otherworldly entities may have desires that are so alien that to deal with them is maddening, if unintentionally so. Angels may seem opposite to demons, but through trials and the pursuit of justice, may be more demanding.