The fighter rose slowly to his feet, looking around at the blasted and barren landscape with dawning realization, his gaze slowly lifting to regard a sky of whirling flames. Distant shrieks drifted across the landscape and something within the wizened man twisted and squirmed at the feeling of something weighing on his soul. The screams seemed to rise in a crescendo before he felt something tugging at him. Suddenly he was hurtling backwards, swirling among an ocean of flames that roared with deafening intensity until he was impacting heavily with the dirt. He stirred as he distantly heard the screams echoing from the realm before, slowly fading into his companions calling for him. With a groan, he rose, as he always did and faced the immense creature menacing his comrades. Placing his shield in front of him, his gaze met the fiery sockets of a vast, sinuous creature. More flames licked from its maw, the portal to Hell in its gullet still flickering with baleful light.
Art for this creature is provided by Zaur.
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The hellmaw is an original creature based on real-life hellbenders, the ancient belief that the jaws of crocodiles were portals to Hell, and the existence of wildlife within the fiendish planes, such as bebilith. It had a rough fight when it came to the Monster Mash, requiring a total of three tests due to some particularly terrible rolls in its part and unusually great rolls on the party’s part. Its central ability allows it to send creatures to Hell, which influenced the decision to build it as a level sixteen creature, when the party could potentially have access to means to travel across planes. Influenced somewhat by the design provided by the artist, the hellmaw has a high Armor Class as it can twist its sinuous body out of the way of danger but only uses a moderate pool of Hit Points. Its Will and Reflex are both high, the former mostly to reference the resilience they have built up against the mental manipulations of devils, who often seek to dominate these creatures. Its offensive numbers use a high attack bonus with its tail dealing high damage but its jaws dealing only moderate damage as they come with both Improved Grab and its eponymous ability, Hell Maw.
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This ability lets it consign a creature to Hell if its jaws Strike is a critical success instead of requiring a multitude of saves or checks, which in turn leads into its Diabolic Demesne. This ability is based on the void of the riftstalker that I previously designed, which is why it takes only a single action to Escape and uses a moderate DC. A range of skills and Perception make it so that most creatures have a chance of getting free, but creatures that don’t Escape take unlimited use area damage with a moderate Will DC as it happens when creatures arrive and each time their turn ends there. The hellmaw has two other ways to send people to its demesne. Firstly, it can follow up its Improved Grab with Swallow Whole, sending them into the abyss rather than its belly. This is aided by Fast Swallow, potentially allowing it to snap up a creature in a single action if things work out for it, which can be pretty brutal.
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Alternatively, the hellmaw salamander can use Drag to Hell to force enemies to make a save against an extreme Fortitude DC. Enemies that are brought close enough get another save against a high DC and failing that sends them to the Diabolic Demesne. It really struggled to land this ability in its test, which led to the inclusion of the effect that when enemies stand too close, they take worse results on their save. Of course, the hellmaw isn’t limited to just sending creatures to Hell – it can regurgitate its home with Flames of Hell. This deals limited use area damage with a high saving throw DC and like its Diabolic Demesne, is split between fire and spirit damage, reflecting how Hell sears the very soul of its victims. Furthermore, this launches creatures in its demesne back onto the Material Plane with saves a bit worse as they get dragged through the portal alongside the hellfire. Finally, if the hellmaw can’t land a jaws Strike and use Fast Swallow, it has another reaction – Leak Hell. As a reaction that it can use every turn, this allows it to deal unlimited use area damage at a high DC, triggered by damage that splits its hide. This can hopefully discourage enemies from attacking it or at least punish them for doing so.
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Pathfinder 2e:
Like the bebilith, the hellmaw is an outsider as its creature type and otherwise follows a highly similar design to its 2e version. Without spirit damage existing as a type of damage in Pathfinder 1e, it deals pure fire damage with its diabolic demesne and unleash hell but half of it is based on the unholy powers of Hell, allowing it to bypass fire resistance. The exact wording of this is based on spells such as hellfire ray that work with a similar idea. Without the degrees of success found in 2e, its drag to hell is greatly simplified - it becomes a binary effect, with a single save determining whether they are sent to Hell or not, but using a lower save than its other abilities to compensate for the severity of this effect. This can be a little weird where it is only a Fortitude save but casting plane shift on an unwilling creature requires a Will save. However, I struggled to wrap my head around a creature being dragged forward like this ability does without requiring a Fortitude save. Between the availability of traveling between planes and the single move action required to escape the diabolic demesne, I felt safe simplifying its ability to send others to its realm.
Pathfinder 1e:
Blue's D&D 5e:
ENCOUNTER HOOKS
Lake of Fire: The heroes are approached by a nobleman who tells them that a threat has been plaguing a lake within his domain - whole ships have gone missing and fishing has all but stopped, endangering communities. He asks them to investigate but requests that if it is a beast of some sort, it not be slain and brought to him instead so that he can consult with local druids on what to do with it. The heroes must delve into the lake and stir up the hellmaw salamander that lurks within, which itself may prove a standard fight. But the concept can be expanded upon with by having the nobleman actually be a devil in disguise who is attempting to trick the heroes in delivering a hellmaw directly to him.
Enemies at the Gate: The heroes encounter a devil making its first foray onto the Material Plane after capturing and subduing a hellmaw salamander. This devil is establishing itself among the legions of Hell, and is able to force the salamander to use its gate to unleash the forces under its command as a full-round action. This can be dangerous, leading to the heroes getting overwhelmed, possibly acquiring these minions to be much lower-leveled to avoid overwhelming the heroes, but can lead to a memorable encounter.
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Have a monstrous Monday!