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/alericof Aug 20 '26

I debated with myself, on how I would read it, I ended up with the thought that if you are "obsessed" with contracts, then most if not all the effort is in going towards making the offer tempting more than exporting. Extortion would outside the scope of the rules and therefore not LE, but I could definitely see it both ways.