Fiend
In D&D, a fiend is a negative supernatural entity.
The term is a bit weird, since D&D fiends are what we IRL would generally call a demon. D&D, however, makes a distinction between fiends and demons: fiends are the generic term for any evil spirit, whereas a demon is one specific type of fiend—specifically, a Chaotic Evil spirit.
Etymology
The word comes from the Middle English word for "enemy" or "demon," which comes from Old English feond ("enemy").
Main types
The three main types across both D&D and PF are devils, demons, and yugoloths (aka "daemons"). These three groups align with the three Evil alignments: devils are Lawful Evil, demons are Chaotic Evil, and yugoloths are Neutral Evil.
Basically, in ascending order of "how badly do you NOT want to run into one of these guys," it goes: devils, yugoloths, demons.
D&D
- Barghest (NE).
- Demodand
- Demon (CE).
- Devil (LE).
- Hordling
- Kython
- Night hag (NE).
- Rakshasa (LE).
- Yugoloth (NE).
Pathfinder
- Asura (LE).
- Daemon (NE).
- Demodand (CE).
- Demon (CE).
- Devil (LE).
- Div (NE).
- Velstrac (LE).
- Oni (E).
- Qlippoth (CE).
- Rakshasa (LE).
- Sahkil (NE).
