Mephits
Made with Hero Forge
(from Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. I - 1994 - [credits])
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Mephits are nasty messengers created by powerful planar creatures to perform evil missions. The 16 known types of mephit draw their substance from the Elemental, Paraelemental, and Quasielemental Planes: fire, radiance, water, ice, magma, ash, mineral, steam, air, smoke, earth, ooze, dust, salt, lightning, and mist. (The Quasielemental Plane of Steam provides both steam and mist mephits. Alone among the Elemental Planes, the plane of Vacuum holds no life, not even mephits.
Mephits are thin, 5’ winged humanoids. Their faces have exaggerated features, including hooked noses, pointed ears, wide eyes, and protruding chins. Their skin continually oozes the stuff of their home plane: Fire mephits burn, magma mephits drip lava, and so on.
Mephits speak a common mephit tongue, and each speaks the language of its creator, if any. Most learn the common tongue to perform their duties.
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COMBAT: In battle, mephits attack with either their clawed hands or breath weapon. Damage varies by type of mephit encountered; see the following entries for details. Unless an attack lists a saving throw, no saving throw applies.
All mephits can gate in other mephits once per hour. The number and type gated vanes by mephit type, but all mephits have a 25% chance of success.
Mephits love tormenting helpless creatures and bragging about their latest evil accomplishments. They puff away at foul-smelling tobacco or pipeweed. They give themselves pompous, impossibly long names, such as “garbenaferthal, Sprite-slayer, Greatest of All Steam Mephits, Favorite of the Lower Planes.”
Mephits assume a groveling, craven, yes-master stance to their bosses, [and] an air of arrogant superiority toward victims and each other. Mephits of the same type usually maintain a polite camaraderie. Different types often settle disputes with a friendly game of tug-a-demihuman.
Mephits spend their time delivering messages, picking up packages on the Lower Planes, retrieving particular persons, delivering special magical items, or just spreading general mayhem (so folks don’t forget the Lower Planes are still there). Insufferable on missions, they fancy themselves important emissaries.
