Dungeons and Dragons Monster Lore: Nabassu
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- The Nabassu are demons even other demons fear and hate. They have been a part of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game since the early 1980's and have reappeared in the 5E suppliment, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.
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3:16 - 6:28 Origin, biology and psychology of Demons, in a nutshell.
*imagines a black dragon psychically projecting images of this process to an adventurer and a vampire in it's dungeon* You've insipred me with that snipit of lore on ego cannibalism, being the inevitable result of an living abomination created by a portal gone wrong. This has to be one of your best vids. 👍
TheNewyorkdragon Try re subscribing and cuting off a tenticle or two. XD
TheNewyorkdragon UA-cam is chaotic evil, in DnD terms. this "issue" has plagued this site, amoung many others.
What is the demon that after it kills you you appear as a soul in its belly and people can see image of twisted eaten souls in its belly
Soo... can Nabassu potentially kill Rakshasa or Aboleth for good?
Nabassu have one major weakness: they have a head. This may not seem that bad for them, but it means a critical hit from a Vorpal weapon is an instant kill. A party member in one of my sessions killed one that way on their first turn.
Intersting knowing that there are lines even _Demons_ won't cross.
Most demons*
Sounds like it's more a matter of practicality than morality, I imagine most demons are aware that there are always bigger fish. If they just ate each other forever they'd never get anything done. Ironic that this suggests that demons are better at setting aside differences than humanoids
Not really. It is a matter of distinction. Most demons just take the power of the being, maybe enjoying the torment of the spirit as it loses the strength to even feebly fight back. Nabassu just take everything. It is hunger and greed to the point they can't even be trusted to work towards mutual self interest. That is causing as much mayhem as possible. Nabassu would consume all even if this doesn't benefit it.
AJ - your older videos are also a goldmine.
I’m planning to use a Nabassu demon in my campaign in service of a were-Gnoll/ hyena priest who, of course, worships Yeenoghu. Your research and treatment here really helps.
Your take on the psychology of demons in D&D makes them far more interesting than I had thought before finding your channel. You're adding a lot of value, my good man.
Tomorrow my players will be fighting a Nabassu who represents the sin Gluttony in their quest to defeat the 7 deadly sins. I’m excited to play an utter insane monster. So far they’ve made peace with the Medusa, Sloth. Killed the elder oblex Envy.
After that there will The Succubus Lust, the Bagman Greed, the very nerfed Lord of Blades Wrath. And a elf elf using a Beholder stat sheet for Pride. They’ve been having a blast so far and I want to keep it going. So I’m doing a last minute lore read up on Nabassu so I make this monster hunt through a dark and dirty city as cool as possible to set the tone for the rest of the campaign.
Homebrew creature: Slimera (play on words of slime and chimera) its basically a chimera of different oozes.
That's actually a pretty good idea.
I found a video of an evil wizard actually creating one.#
ua-cam.com/video/GnZeovtt2BI/v-deo.html
thnx
This sounds like a great demon for the start of vampires
Indeed
*cough* molag bal *cough*
@@kingmasterlord already made my own demon lord for em now! Got an amazing vampire origin and even all these different sub strains!
Good stuff, as always. Best D&D content in UA-cam.
This is the perfect long term, repeating enemy for a group of players. They encounter them freshly spawned, fight it and it escapes, the campaign could even be about tracking down the Nabasu. With each encounter it just gets stronger and stronger and more vindictive and cunning. I'm definitely going to be using this to keep my players wary of abandoned places and ghost towns.
Can you imagine that? A demon that just tore your Fighter and Paladin in half summons MORE demons just to tear them apart itself? Infinite layers of fucked.
Make a simulacrum of the nabassu.
Have the nabassu consume the copy, increasing its hit points by 1/2 it's own hit dice.
Repeat for infinite bonus hp/damage
For some reason this monster puts me in the mindset of an adventure exploring what they think is an abandoned old fortress in the wilderness and they discover that there are lots of undead and demonic residual energies and then suddenly they gaze down one very long hall and see this shadowey figure gazing back at them
Nabassu are the perfect gift to snobby, vindictive dowager mother in laws. Actually, Nabassu are perfect for any in laws.
I absolutely love your explanation about the true nature of abyssal demons. And how these beings behave the way they do. They just want this version of reality to be remade again. To start anew or back to whatever it was before.
That's a cool one. "What if the demons had a bogeyman?"
What is doomguy for two hundred.
I never used these demons. Before this video, I thought of them as wasted imagination. You did give a little note that is new to me, but probably not new to most of your viewers.
Orcus.
I thought Orcus was destroyed... dead... gone from AD&D multiverse history. If Orcus still exists, then these demons you covered still have a purpose other than the occasional demons' demon.
I have many magical items in my campaigns that are evil and-or chaos aligned that have a vampiric effect of reflection and-or healing. Most use "Abyssal blood" and-or "Abyssal soil" for their creation. New inspirations ensue.
Orcus is most certainly still around. He seems very difficult to actually destroy.
AJ Pickett, I will add to my next campaign "Orcus lives" and a flood of chaos related undead, which the forces of Asmodeus seem to bee the good guys. Thank you.
In my d&d, Nabassu are actually the result of Barghest (which aren’t goblins in my world) eating over 1000 souls, they also looking like winged Barghests.
Lol, i love it when i am warned to get a drink or a snack because of how nerdy things are about to get!! When the day comes that i get warned to get a full blown meal ready i am going to be excited out of my mind for whatever is going to happen next (and WILL get a meal ready)!!
I threw 10 of these demons at my party while they were adventuring in Avernus. Heck of a fight. Nabassu are deadly, really put a scare into them.
I love this channel, thank you AJ.
Back in Planescape days, nabassu's purpose was said to be spreading fear of demons. As Abyss is an Outer Plane, shaped by belief, thus the more mortals feared tanar'ri's power, the more powerful tanar'ri grew as whole. It is quite important to remember that in Great Wheel cosmology what is abstract to mortals, for creatures of Outer Planes, be they celestials, fiends, or in between, is material.
Just when I was getting bored, perfect timing.
Demons seem much scarier than devils in D&D! 😱
Individual demons vs devils, yeah. Id much rather piss of a demon tho cuz devils work together better
Demons are ultimately driven to destroy, period. Even the ones that will make deals with you are certainly going to reneg on that deal once they get what they want. Even Demons that fancy themselves intellectuals or controllers are inevitably driven to rip and tear.
Devils will do the long con, because they're basically trying to enlist every mortal into the Blood War. They'll still drag you to ruin, treat you as a plaything, and all that Evil, but at least they're not trying to burn reality itself to the ground, permanently.
@@rylog8 Of course, Ahriman may think diffrently
@@lorekeeper685 More like he wishes utter subjugation. Not the end of creation, but having it serve his every need and desire. That would be creation's only meaning under that one. Being the tormented servants of an evil god. Demons wish to destroy and corrupt everything, returning it all to the raw stuff of the begining, including themselves.
Great Father Juiblex will envelop and absorb these Popinjay's !!!
AJ: Nabasu
Me: bless you.
Nabasu: fug.
What a horror. You could have one as a major villain that lost an eye that is mistaken for a will o wisp in the dark
Just let you know thanks so much. You are my new entertainment on my boring night shifts
AJ, I revisit your videos quite often and I find this one particularly inspiring. One of the villains of my upcoming campaign will be one of these beasties, and I have you to thank for it.
Excellent.
My favorite demon. I thought it disappeared. This video made my day! Thanks!
2:31 That picture... NO JUST NO
Can you review some D&D Eldritch beings? Something that predates the existence of God's and demons or something along those lines 😍
Also Dagon and Pale Night, worth a watch, and yes, that Aboleth video is in dire need of an update.
@@AJPickett ah yeah I would love to see a new Aboleth video!
I will never get tired of that intro.
I've used these demons before! It took me a while to remember, but I had like 5 of them swarm an NPC sportscaster during my Orcus campaign a year back. Great vid A.J. I wish you had mentioned them in the Orcus vid, but you can't list everything in one vid.
It sounds like Nabassu could have spawned the first Vampires by fateful encounter with a Fomorian or Highelf.
They could be spawn of the Yawning Hunger and the physical rules here might make fighting that possible.
If Nabassu are hurt by sunlight we wouldn't know, on account of their Demonic Shadows.
I imagine Gods don't fight the Yawning Hunger because that adds to the forces's numbers; like fighting a flood with water.
Yawning... Hunger?
Great, thanks, I'm about to go get lost in the wikis.
This thing is terrifying!!!!
😊 Man, I would love to become one One of these demons they have so much potential based on how many souls they can absorb
I've got a freshly summoned Nabasu waiting in a dark corner of the map, my players ended our last session on.
These seem thematically like a cross between demons and vampires. One of these would be a perfect fit for a small village stalked by a stealthy killer that preys on isolated farmers and anyone who wanders too far from the safety of town. They can't even find the bodies, just pools of putrid goo. Very creepy. 😈
Do Sorrowsworn demons next : )
Putting a nabausu alongside maurezhi's and a ghoul/ghast pack would be devestating
It certainly would be.
10:09-10:32 (instantly writes down an idea for a weapon)
So, the lore has it that the tanari are souls from this universe mixed up with abyssal energy, which you say is made by Obyriths souls that want to become individuals again... 1 tanari = 1 soul + 1 soul = demons are Venom.
So imagine the soul of an evil bastard who is rejected by the other planes and ends up plunging into the Abyss, they basically get consumed by the rabid insanity of all those other souls, many of which are completely alien Obyrith minds, the doomed soul has it's memories ripped away from it, has horrific memories that are not it's own, not even native to the D&D multiverse, completely mixed in with it's own shattered recollections, it doesn't know what it is any more, was it always like this? All sense of time and space is lost, there is nothing but rage, madness and pain, until somehow, it claws it's way into some shivering, disgusting, squealing body, disgorged from a fetid mass of mutation and decay, where is scrabbles around, barely remembering what it was like to have a mind of it's own, before it is most likely savagely tortured and eaten alive by another demon... lather, rinse, repeat, for centuries.
@@AJPickett and this is why it's the responsibility of some Mad Wizard to try and create the perfect Tanari as a possible solution to this conflict. First, one must find a procedure to select a single Obyrith soul from the mess of abyssal energy. Then, make it meet a willing human soul of great resolve who prepared himself for the merger. Third: contain in the material plane, where the stabilizing effect of the plane favours the human, whereas the corruption of the abyss would likely destroy everything at once.
@Fabius Maximus Why not successfully 😀😍
Mr L You'd get a psychotic flesh genie, if i'm not mistaken, which wouldn't be much better than the rest of them. The abyss itself is chaotic evil, so it would warp the alignment of the soul.
I think that a party of characters on a quest to gather soul drinking swords to lock them away in a vault so they dont fall into the wrong hands or the hands of those who would errantly destroy them would be a good idea for a campaign
Great one, AJ. Thanks.
Introduced one of these a couple sessions ago!
Good video AJ
old edition ones seem terrifying to fight
Always love learning more, all hail D&d !
great video! those demons are brutal!
One of your best, buddy!
They sound like Barghests. Can you do a video on them?
I honestly thought I already had.. sure thing!
Yeah, Barghests, i've wanted more lore on them.
Barghests are one of my favorite things. Guess I should add Nabassu to the list, now.
Im running a solo spelljammer campain where my player deals with devils commonly, think il throw this guy at him for his first challange seeming how its a nice opposing force to him.
if a Nabassu became a demon lord i wonder what its layer of the Abyss would look like ?
Lots, and lots, of ghouls, and a big fortress with seemingly no way inside.
Wouldn't they be crushed and forced to bow to Orcus, Doresain Or Yeenoghu?
@@zacharyhawley1693 Abyss is a big place. Orcus, Demogorgan, and Yeenoghu can't cover every inch. Maybe eventually they may get crushed, but I can see one reigning for a century or more without any of those three even noticing if it plays its cards right.
@@danielkubicek1323 Yes, nascent Demon Lords might be overlooked for a time but the major players do not tolerate rivals. They might get a few centuries of being ignored however they're going to get swatted the moment they try to lay claim to an entire abyssal layer.
Hey @AJ Pickett, one thing you got wrong. Summoned things will wink out of reality once they die. So the tactic of eating what was summoned wouldn't work
"Once they die."... ... ... #DemonsFromHell. whew!
They can eat them while they are still alive (in earlier editions, they didn't wait around for the body to stop twitching before consuming the soul).
AJ Pickett 🔥🏆🔥 whew! I ❤it, don't think being an evil demon straight out of the abyss, is any measure of safety from your own personal room 101, whatsoever. *pictures orcus dancing* infact he'd probably figure away to draw the process out, as it's a true victory for him.
Hey AJ love the channel look forward to becoming a patron soon was wondering if you could cover the Fey'ri they're one of my favorite protagonists to use or just have one meddle in a storey line I only have used them in 3.5 don't know if they got carried over to 5the edition
I think thats what attacked Tazi in the Sembia series. Even though it was called a “shadow demon”.
Thanks.
Love these guys, I’m gonna reflavor this into a night gaunt enemy
These things remind me of the gargoyles and the Vampire Lord form from Skyrim. But they are almost feral and very lanky or thin by comparison.
Love this
Smart enough to use magic huh? What if one of these things found a way to make it's supercharged benefits permanent? Started it's own cult and just got fed for a few centuries...
It would get collared by Orcus once it reached a certain point. He does not suffer rivals within his sphere.
@@jacobfreeman5444 That makes sense, but It also could introduce a new magic item into a campaign, "The collar of Orcus". Killing a sufficiently powerful Nabassu could gain his direct attention. Esspesailly if you try to identify the collar/necklace dropped from one if Orcus's important lieutenant. DM's can invent their own effects for such an item.
molag bal from elder scrolls?
SPOOKY
Do you plan on doing class videos again? If so please do monk or barbarian.
I was wondering if you would offer a suggestion for my character's backstory.
He got saved by a unicorn as a child, has spent his whole life trying to find that particular one to repay its kindness or thank it or something.
What could fight a unicorn to a stalemate that could also cause an irremovable (magic, I imagine) scar on both my character and the unicorn?
justin fwibber
My moderately above average dick.
I'd be interested to know how you ended up resolving this. Makes for a great Celestial Warlock.
Have you done a video on the Devourer yet?
Not yet :)
And this is only cr 15?!?
Do you have any vids on the Loumara?
Yes
Out of curiosity have you ever done one on strahd from Ravens Loft
not yet
Why isn't there a lawful energy of sort? I imagine some kind of "arcane" music, that forces everything to follow the same set of behaviours and rules, per se grants harmony throughout the multiverse, but if "listened to" for far too long or in too great quantities it shall drain any form of identity or uniqueness from all things, returning reality to pure nothingness. I don't need to say that it is like poison to demons.
You mean Physics?
Maybe the noises made by the machine beings on Mechanus combine to create a Lawful harmony "song".
Isn't there a creeping influence of whatever plane you are on anyway? Slowly getting more lawful on Mechanus, more chaotic in Limbo etc.
AJ Pickett
more like an actual lawful energy that binds all creation, the literal opposite of entropy and chaos made to counter the malice of the Abyss. Perhaps is a creation of the gods, or a natural reaction of the Universe to the creeping chaos, perhaps it was always there. I'd call it "the Song" as it works much like a vibration and is the source of the laws of physics and of all lawful lifeforms such as Modrons and Inevitables. It could also be controlled by mages and clerics, reducing their enemies into tiny cubes of their base components.
Yaldabaoth
yes, but in this case it's a literal energy that flows around and forces everything into an "orderly" fashion.
Demon reaper strain, sorta..... man these things are nasty :)=
"Demon Reaper strain" is a really good comparison.
A demon that feeds on mortals and fellow demons alike.
The only difference is, as far as we know from what was shown in the movie, the Reaper strain vampires don't feed on fellow Reapers.
@@Tengu125 still need to finish watching that series.... pretty dark
Gargoyles on steroids?!
Actually, AJ, this brings up a question:
If Abberations are the weapons of gods/primordials, probably without exception, what *is* a Gibbering Mouther?
Roomba gone bad.
I think you might be confusing Aberrations for the Abominations.
That I am.
Yay
if someone asks me to describe the oborith
ill just hand thenm the image at 4:41
XD
Believe it or not, that is a montage of the different angles of the Gibbering mouther I hand sculpted, feel free to use that image, it is not copyrighted.
Just say it's a HP lovecraft creature that is more demonic than usual
Somehow even worse than my cousin Ricky.
I might over use these... abit.
Even if the demons stopped coming i to existance, isn't the abyss infinite? If that is the case, then there already are infinite demons.
It is theoretically infinite as how many other dimensions it has corrupted is unknown. But if the tide of demons is stymied then so is the abyss. They are essentially the same thing. Think of demons as spores the abyss sheds to spread itself. So keeping the demonic hordes contained means the abyss itself is also contained. Perhaps even creating victory conditions against the abyss as now it is possible to starve the abyss of new souls and material, forcing it to cannibalize itself.
I don't think thaf spore analogy is a good one. Yes the Abyss made a coninient entrance into the multiverse for the obyrith, I think that if they got in they could set up shop just about anywhere and start compressing souls and demonic energy into globs of evil that are demons.
@@fishinatube9028 Yes and no. That is what the blood war is. Keeping the pathways open to demons from being used. Sure there are a few Obyrinth that can travel out but part of why they can do that is because of the greater problem of the infection known as the abyss. It takes a great amount of energy and time to constrain the collective of it from breaking free. And a big part of why that is so is because of the demons. And we are not talking the big baddies. Just lowly manes are a deadly threat to the cosmos. Now imagine the currently infinitely renewed tide of demons suddenly had the same problems with renewing their numbers as the devils. The abyss would have a much greater problem pulling in new souls and new worlds. The seemingly infinitely expanding abyss would come to a much more manageable crawl. No doubt demon lords would put aside their grievances so they can fight the armies of hell on better footing, but the damage would be done. The abyss would no longer be the same threat it was and all because there is no longer a threat of any portal to the abyss being the gateway for an unstoppable tide of corruption that will transform the corrupted world into just another layer of the abyss. Keep in mind that despite how vast the tide currently is...the armies of hell do keep it in check. So if that tide dwindled...the devils could begin to clean house.
it's not so much that there's already an infinite number it's that the shard of elemental evil is still sinking further into the elemental chaos creating new layers all the time
How many people does a nabassu have to eat to one-hit kill a tarrasque?
Many.
All of them.
so they are the demons of the demons lol
Grimm
Nabassu Litch?
Only if your DM hates you
'Pretty nerdy' lol. I guess this was before you came up with deeply nerdy heh.
Kracken video please
Are these the same as shadow demons?
no, those are different
Baldurs gate cacofiend spell :)
Even Aec'Letec you fight at the end of durlag's arc seems to be one
Nabassu bodak. 😵😈
Id call it somthing else if i was a d.m. and as a player id try to blind and dewing it and more
I like the nabasu demons lol I'm yummy
Are you a demon?
comment
you all are jokes