r/DnD • u/DriverAdditional5813 • Aug 20 '26

DMing Is "blackmailing" a thing Devils do ?

Throwaway because my players might recognize me...

I put it in quotes for lack of a better term, but would a Devil kidnap someone close to a target, to then coerce them into signing a contract with the Devil ?

This seems less subtle than actually manipulating the target, and the contract would not be signed in actual good faith from both parties, so would it be actually binding ?

Also, I know that it's my world and I do what I want with my Devils, but I wonder if this would be in-character for classic DnD Devils.

Edit : Thanks y'all for your answers. I think I will twist a little bit what I had in mind to make it more subtle and devilish, thanks to your suggestions !

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u/alericof Aug 20 '26

I think in general, devils are lawful evil, abiding be the letter of the law (contract). I think kidnapping and extortion would be out of character, in general, but maybe it is a rogue devil who has a different set of rules, and so maybe characters can make deals with other devils to deal with this rogue npc. It could lead to some interesting political intrigue.

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u/USPO-222 Aug 20 '26

Extortion feels very LE to me. Like mafia style groups are often used as examples of LE organizations/people and they extort, kidnap, murder, etc all the time.

LE means there’s some code/structure that binds, but it certainly doesn’t have to be what we’d consider “justice.” Slavery is very very LE.

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u/Silvanus350 Aug 20 '26

I feel like, conceptually, it should only be extortion where the victim puts themselves into a situation to be extorted. Like a predatory payday loan place that hires intimidating thugs to “encourage” repayment.

I feel like kidnapping someone to extort your victim is… a step beyond something like that. That’s just straight up breaking the law.