| Demon | ||
|---|---|---|
| Realm |
 Death | |
| ||
| ||
| # of Figures |
 1 | |
| Moves |
 2 | |
| Melee Attack per figure |
 14 | |
| Defense per figure |
 5 | |
| Resistance |
 7 | |
| Hit Points per figure |
 12 | |
| ||
|
 Death Immunity | ||
|
Buggy Feature |
| As of Master of Magic v1.31, Demon is known to be malfunctioning in at least one way. Please read the Known Bugs section below. |
- This article is about the Fantastic Creature specifically called a "Demon". See also Shadow Demons for a different unit.
The Demon is a type of Fantastic Unit featured in Master of Magic. Demons belong to the Death Realm, but may not be directly summoned by Wizards. Instead, Demons are the minions of-, and may be gated in by Demon Lords during combat. Each such creature may summon up to 3 Demons in every battle, at the end of which these will automatically disappear.
The Demon is a relatively strong flying Melee Attack unit with no special abilities other than its wide array of immunities that make it difficult to kill.
The Fantastic Unit[]
Physical Description[]
The only visual representation of this creature in the game indicates that the Demon is a humanoid being, dark-pink in skin color, sporting two massive bat-like wings which allow it to fly. It is somewhat larger than a man. Little else is known about this creature, other than that it likely originates from the depths of hell itself.
The Demon is a Single-Figure Unit.
Attack Properties[]
The Demon is entirely a Melee Attack unit, and has a quite respectable Attack Strength of 14. It also enjoys a small 
+10% To Hit bonus, which gives it an average "raw" damage output of 
5.6 points per attack. This is rather threatening to low/mid-tier enemy units, and enough to do at least some damage even against well-armored opponents.
Defensive Properties[]
The Demon has a rather low Defense score for a Fantastic Unit, at 5. This allows it to block only 1.5 points on average from Conventional Damage attacks, making it fairly vulnerable to them. However, the Demon does possess 
Weapon Immunity, which will raise this score to 10 against most attacks made by Normal Units with Normal Weapons. It can trigger against Melee-, 
Ranged Missile-, and 
Ranged Boulder Attacks, but not for 
Ranged Magical-, 
Thrown-, or 
Breath Attacks. However, it is ignored by Heroes, Fantastic Units and, in the latest official game version, also "generic" units (Catapults, Triremes, Galleys and Warships) – as well as any unit with enchanted or enhanced quality weapons, such as those provided by a 
Flame Blade spell or an Alchemists' Guild.
In addition, the Demon also has an inherent 
Missile Immunity, granting it a nigh-impenetrable 50 whenever it is targeted by Ranged Missile Attacks. This makes it extremely difficult to damage the Demon with this Attack Type, although the ability has no effect against Ranged Magical- or Ranged Boulder Attacks. Due to a bug in the original game, it is also overridden by Weapon Immunity in cases where both would apply, which means that it is much less useful against Ranged Attack enemies that only have normal weapons.
The Demon has 12 Hit Points – it doesn't take too long to bring it down if its defenses can be bypassed, but then this creature is not meant to survive combat anyway. Like most other Fantastic Units from the Death Realm though, the Demon also possesses a variety of other immunities: 
Poison Immunity, 
Illusions Immunity, 
Cold Immunity and 
Death Immunity. These render it completely invulnerable to a wide array of Unit Curses and Special Damage attacks. However, in situations where they do not apply, the Demon only has a Resistance score of 7 which, while slightly above average, will not reliably protect the creature from ill effects.
Other Properties[]
The Demon is a Flying unit, though not a terribly fast one. Nonetheless, it can maneuver fairly well, which is useful both for picking good targets to attack, and for avoiding others. It also can't be voluntarily attacked by most 
Walking units.
Basic Tactics[]
Demons are summoned by a Demon Lord in combat to bolster its army's strength. They can serve two main functions: drawing fire away from other units, or trying to overwhelm the enemy directly. Since a Demon only survives until the end of combat, it is essentially a suicide unit. Nonetheless, it can charge at pretty much any target and will, at the very least, cause some damage to it. However, Ranged Attack enemies that are not using Missile Weapons may be a problem – if the Demon can't close the distance fast enough, it will likely be shot down. Then again, that does also mean that the opponent has wasted time and ammo on it instead of other targets.
Enemy Demons[]
Demons a quite rare as neutral monsters in the official game. They can only appear in Encounter Zones as secondary guardians to Ghouls, never alone, and not with any other creature either. Whether this is intentional or not is unknown. However, Demons can and do occasionally spawn as Rampaging Monsters and, naturally, can be expected to show up in any battle fought against a Demon Lord.
The Demon is somewhat difficult to defeat, especially in the early game. Its flight gives it an advantage against many Melee Attackers, as they cannot engage the Demon voluntarily unles they also fly or possess short range attacks. At the same time, its Weapon- and Missile Immunity protect it quite well from low- and mid-tier Normal Units; while its Death creature immunities may be hard to overcome with certain Realms of spells.
On the other hand, Ranged Magical- and Ranged Boulder Attacks have no problems injuring the Demon and can usually destroy it quite quickly. Thrown- and Breath Attack units can also engage it without trouble and, if all else fails, it is often possible to lure the Demon into fighting a stronger melee unit – especially in the official game, where the AI will attack even if not doing so might be to its advantage.
Ability Overview[]
+10% To Hit[]
- This unit has an extra 10% chance to hit its target with every die of its Attack Rolls. This improves its statistical chance to inflict more Damage with each attack it makes.
Weapon Immunity[]
- This unit is considered to have a Defense score of 10 against attacks made by Normal Units with Normal Weapons.
Missile Immunity[]
- This unit is considered to have a Defense score of 50 against Ranged Missile Attacks, and will thus shrug off all but the most powerful ones.
- Ranged Magical- and Ranged Boulder Attacks do not trigger this effect, and will damage the unit as normal.
Poison Immunity[]
- This unit cannot be hurt by Poison Damage. It will automatically pass any Resistance roll to avert such damage.
Illusions Immunity[]
- Illusion Damage inflicted on this unit does not bypass its Armor. The unit gets to make its Defense Rolls as normal.
- During combat, this unit will spot all enemy Invisible creatures regardless of how close they are. Those creatures become semi-visible on the screen, and may be targeted by spells like any other unit.
- This unit may not be targeted by Mind Storm, Confusion, Creature Binding, or Vertigo.
Cold Immunity[]
- This unit is considered to have a Defense score of 50 against Cold Damage. It will almost never be hurt by the Ice Bolt and Ice Storm spells.
Death Immunity[]
Summoning Demons[]
There is no spell that summons Demons. The only way to acquire one is by commanding a Demon Lord during combat. Each such creature can call forth up to 3 Demons in each battle by performing its "Spell" action, which it can use only on its own turn, and only as long as it still has Movement Allowance remaining. This summons a Demon to a random tile within a 3-by-3 square, the location of which depends on whether the Demon Lord belongs to the attacking or defending army.
Once a Demon has appeared, it is independent of its summoner. Even if the Demon Lord is destroyed, any Demons it has already gated in may continue to fight as normal. However, Demons only remain until the end of the battle either way, at which point they will automatically disappear.
Permanent Summoning Trick[]
Disclaimer: This trick appears to violate the game designers' intent, and it cannot be guaranteed that its use won't destabilize the game.
A Demon summoned to your Summoning Circle using the 
Word of Recall spell.
If you MUST have a Demon for your army garrisoned in one of your Towns, you can enter a battle with the intention of losing (not winning). You will need a Demon Lord and the Word of Recall spell. Enter a battle and summon the Demon(s) that you want for your army. Use Word of Recall on the Demon(s). You can continue the battle to the maximum number of turns, flee the battle (with the risk of losing any units that you have in the battle), or recall any remaining units as well. This brings your units back to the Summoning Circle and you now have one or more Demon(s) that require a 
3 per turn Upkeep Cost. This does not work if you win the battle.
Known Bugs[]
Due to a bug in the way immunities are resolved in the latest official game version, if an attack would trigger both the Demon's Weapon- and Missile Immunity, the weaker effect will override the stronger one, and the Demon will only get 10 to defend with instead of 50. Insecticide fixes this problem, but introduces a new one instead, as Weapon Immunity will now grant 50 against any non- Melee attacks that trigger it. The bug is ultimately corrected in v1.51.
As noted above, human players can also summon Demons in combat even if doing so will raise their total count of units over the limit of 9. At the same time, if at any moment during combat the total count for the two players involved exceeds 18 units, the game will immediately crash, as the engine is not prepared to store drawing data for a 19th unit. The computer does not track the total units when summoning its own either, so the human player having 10 or more will not prevent it from doing so – and thereby crashing the game itself. This issue is resolved in the Unofficial Patch 1.50 by preventing the summon if the player already controls 9 units, although it may be worth noting that the game will not actually notify them when this happens.