Monster of the Week: Hellhound

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Yay, Hellhounds! I’ve favoured them a little ever since DMing a solo game where the player used Handle Animal to tame one, and I let him keep it as his Animal Companion. Anyway, historically, Man has liked two things: dogs (“man’s best friend”), and fire. Well, how can you get better than DOGS… ON FIRE!!!???

Oh, you know, they’re also pretty good monsters, too.

Apart from being amusing pets, Hellhounds fit in nicely into a few roles. Basically, usage relies on the two factors that makeup their existance: being a dog, and being ON FIRE. Oh, and being from Hell helps too.

As a dog, a Hellhound (or many) make good companions for villains. Rather than having a traditional sidekick, they have a pet. They can also be used as uber guard dogs, which I have done before. Nothing like a dog ON FIRE to mix things up a little, and remind players that the world has such creatures, and is used to them.

As to the ON FIRE and Hell aspects, they fit in nicely with any situation that demands fiery creatures, or creatures from Hell. I recently ran an encounter involving a whole host of fire creatures summoned into a fire temple: Hellhounds were involved.

The neat thing about Hellhounds is you can use them believably either in packs (like wolves), or in an encounter with other creatures. It all depends what you’re trying to do.

For general random-encounter purposes, you’ll just want a pack of Hellhounds. If the terrain is appropriate (volcanic, Elemental Plane of Fire, Nine Hells, etc) it obviously makes more sense, but they can always have been summoned for some reason. Like wolves, Hellhounds are smart enough to use rudementary tactics against the party.

For companion purposes, it helps if the master is something that actually makes sense to have a Hellhound. Some sort of Demon obviously fits, but also any fire creature (Salamanders, say), or even something like a Cleric of an evil Fire god could do it. Maybe a familiar of an evil Wizard? Casters are obviously better than non-casters, because they have the ways to get a Hellhound and make it not eat them.

And then there’s the guard dog Hellhound. Just remember not to put it on a wooden floor, or near anything flammable. However, I believe it makes perfect sense for rich nobles to use Hellhounds as guard dogs: they are strong, aggressive, and smart. They’re certainly better than any real dog, assuming you can tame them. According to to 3.5 MM, Hellhounds have Int 6 and can understand the Infernal language, so negotiating may be more important than taming. Hmm. Next time someone in the party plays a Fighter or something with Int < 6, try to convince the DM to let you tame their character as a pet.

3.5 Edition

There’s two Hellhounds in the MM: a Hellhound, and a “Nessian Warhound”. Note that if you use the Nessian Warhound, it technically has +2 Chain Shirt barding. I let the Druid strap it onto his Wolf Animal Companion, but your milage may vary. If you don’t want it magical, subtract 2 AC, and if you don’t want it at all, subtract another 4 AC (total -6).

So what have these Hellpuppies got? Well, they’ve got very good damage for their level, and they have decent saves on all three types. They can also move fairly fast, and have VERY good bonuses for Hide and Move Silently. They can also track by scent. They also happen to have a Breath Weapon, but it has a low DC, so is only really useful against low level parties.

Assuming they have enough room to move around, you’re going to want the Hellhounds to sneak around and flank their prey. Then, they can rush in and gang up on a single target. Only use the Breath Weapon if you’ll catch at least 2 non-Rogues in it.

If the Hellhounds don’t have enough room to maneuver, then there’s not much you can do. They have low AC and HP (Nessian Warhound a bit better, for its level, due to much more Con), and can’t hold out in melee for long. Use the Breath Weapon if you can catch 2+ non-Rogues, but otherwise just try to use the Hellhound’s good damage to take down casters.

A note on the Nessian Warhound: like many advanced monster, the Feat choice is a bit lousy. Try swapping Alertness for Improved Natural Attack, for an extra +1d6 damage on its bite. For more cheese (particularly against cheesy parties), Hellhounds qualify for the Metabreath Feats in the Draconomicon, just like the Hydra from last week.

4th Edition

Firstly, before you ask: it’s under Hound. Two types of Hellhound, plus two other random Hounds.

Tactics are pretty similar to the 3.5 version, although they have more hitpoints, but can’t sneak.  They injure everyone who stands next to them, so exploit this: make sure the Hellhounds stand near the casters, if possible.

Using Fiery Breath, and, for the bigger Firebred Hellhounds, Fiery Burst, is basically reliant on how many people it can hit with the Area of Effect. The damage is similar to just attacking normally (bit better for Firebred), but hitting 2+ people really amplifies it. The Fiery Breath recharges on 4+ (50%), so spam it if there’s viable targets.

Other than that, there’s not much more to say. Hellhounds fit the same role in either edition, and there’s plenty of ways to use them. Have fun, and come back next week for another Monster of the Week.

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