Type Outsider | Image Wizards.com image | |
Stats Open Game License stats | ||
In the fictional world of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, mephits are extraplanar creatures similar to imps.
Contents
Publication history
These creatures first appeared in the first edition as "imps" in the magazine White Dwarf #13 (June 1979), including the fire imp, the molten imp, the smoke imp, and the steam imp. The fire mephit, the lava mephit, the smoke mephit, and the steam mephit appeared in the original Fiend Folio (1981). The ice mephit and the mist mephit first appeared in the adventure module Eye of the Serpent (1984). Dimwold the Mephit appeared in the module The Throne of Bloodstone (1988).
The fire mephit, the ice mephit, the lava mephit, the mist mephit, the smoke mephit, and the steam mephit appeared in the second edition for the Greyhawk setting in the adventure module Greyhawk Ruins (1990), and reprinted in the Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix (1992), and the Monstrous Manual (1993). The air mephit, the ash mephit, the dust mephit, the earth mephit, the fire mephit, the ice mephit, the lightning mephit, the magma mephit, the mineral mephit, the mist mephit, the ooze mephit, the radiant mephit, the salt mephit, smoke mephit, the steam mephit, and the water mephit appeared for the Planescape setting in the Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994).
The air mephit, the dust mephit, the earth mephit, the fire mephit, the ice mephit, the magma mephit, the ooze mephit, the salt mephit, the steam mephit, and the water mephit appeared in the third edition Monster Manual (2000), and in the 3.5 revised Monster Manual (2003). The ice mephit familiar appeared in Tome and Blood (2001), and reprinted in the 3.5 revised Dungeon Master's Guide (2003). The glass mephit and the sulfur mephit appeared in Sandstorm (2005).
Mephits originally served only as familiars in 4th edition, but most of the more common varieties of mephits were released as 4th edition monsters with complete stat blocks in Dragon 421 (March 2013).
Description
Mephits are roughly humanoid in appearance and somewhat small (approximately 4 feet in height). Their disposition depends on their plane of origin, though they are rarely endearing. Each type of mephit has some form of breath weapon, which can usually do minor elemental damage, though it is mostly intended (much as a skunk's spray) to ward off would-be attackers.
Mephits are not native to the material plane, and are usually only on the material plane when they have been summoned, as they are somewhat linked to various elemental or quasi-elemental planes of existence. Mephits are all extraplanar outsiders.