Rare are the the matings between mephits living between the boundaries of the elemental planes. The results of these couplings are new species of mephits, who belong to both two elemental planes, and neither at the same time. Sulfur and glass mephits are uncommon enough on their own, but occasionally, they produce a mephling child. These mephlings, weaker than their parents, are often abandoned. Sometimes however, they are left in a place where they can grow up and find a life of their own.
Personality: Since most mephlings are not raised by their parents, they are often inwardly confused. They might feel kinship with their adopted families, but they are undeniably different than them. Their strong personalities and friendly natures nevertheless make them liked by many.
Physical Description: Mephlings appear like much like their mephit parents. They have about the same height and weight as a halfling, with females being slightly taller and heavier than the males. Glass mephlings appear like stunted dwarves with sharp, angular features. Sulfur mephlings resemble stony goblins with yellow-orange skin.
Mephlings reach adulthood at around 50 years of age and some can live to be well over the age of 200.
Relations: Mephlings are seen as something of a curiosity where ever they choose to live. Often, their unique, often fiendish appearances can arouse suspicion, or even hatred in those unaware of their elemental heritage. Mephlings get along best with other mephlings, aasimar and tieflings, who all often receive the same reception. They also work well with halflings who share their travelling natures. Glass and sulfur mephlings generally find themselves more welcome in desert communities, where their elemental parentage is seen as an asset, especially by sha'ir.
Alignment: Mephlings tend towards neutrality, but very often they adopt the alignment of their foster parents or the general population of the lands they live in.
Religion: Gods of travel and magic appeal to the wandering and often-sorcerous mephling. Deities like Boccob, Wee Jas and Fharlanghn are popular. In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, Mystra and Azuth are both commonly worshipped by mephlings.
Language: Mephlings speak the language used by their foster parents, which is usually Common. They also know the elemental language of their birth parents, a product of their outsider heritage. Glass mephlings speak Terran, while sulfur mephlings speak Auran.
Names: While their foster parents give mephlings a name appropriate to the culture they grow up in, most choose a name later in life that better represents their elemental nature.
Glass: Crystal, Glass, Shard, Shatter.
Sulfur: Mud, Steam, Stinky, Sulfur.
Adventurers: Young mephlings, feeling out of place in their adoptive homelands, often take to the path of the adventurer. Their elemental heritage calls them to explore new lands, and meet new people, within the Material Plane and far beyond.
Glass: Glass mephlings tend to be loners who stick to the fringes of society, deep in the desert. They live in the wastelands and are natural rangers.
Sulfur: Sulfur mephlings are loners by nature and enjoy living underground. They often sneak around in shadows to avoid predators and excel as rogues.
Mephling Racial Traits
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-2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma. Although many are considered to be rather dim, mephlings are self-assured and make friends easily. In addition, both glass and sulfur mephlings have one more ability modifier specific to them.
Glass: +2 Constitution. Glass mephlings are extremely hardy.
Sulfur: +2 Dexterity. Sulfur mephlings are light on their feet. -
Humanoid (Extraplanar): Mephlings are native to the Elemental Planes, regardless of where they grew up. They have the humanoid type and gain the extraplanar subtype when not on their respective ancestral planes. They do not have an elemental subtype.
Since glass and sulfur mephlings are the products of two elemental planes, they treat two as their ancestral planes, instead of the one that other mephlings do. Glass mephlings are native to the elemental planes of Earth and Fire. Sulfur mephlings are native to the elemental planes of Air and Earth. - Small: As Small creatures, mephlings have a +1 bonus to Armor Class, a +1 bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 bonus on Hide checks. They use smaller weapons than Medium-size characters use, and their lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium-size character.
- A mephling's base land speed is 30 feet.
- Each mephling has a breath weapon, the effect of which varies by the mephling's heritage. A glass mephling's breath weapon is a cone of hot glass shards (fire damage) and a sulfur mephling's breath weapon is a cone of caustic mud (acid damage). Regardless of the effect, a mephling's breath weapon fills a 15-foot cone, deals 1d8 points of damage to each target, and allows a Reflex save (10 + 1/2 mephling's Hit Dice + mephling's Con modifier) for half damage. A 1st-level mephling can use his breath weapon once per day; a higher level mephling gains one additional use per day for every four levels he has attained. If a mephling can use his breath weapon more than once per day, 1d4 rounds must pass between consecutive uses of the breath weapon.
- Mephlings cast spells with a specific elemental descriptor at a +1 caster level. For glass mephlings, this is the fire descriptor. For sulfur mephlings, it is the earth descriptor.
- Automatic Languages: Mephlings speak Common. Glass mephlings also speak Terran, while sulfur mephlings can also speak Auran. Bonus Languages: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Terran.
- Favored Class: Each kind of mephling has its own favored class, reflecting its racial tendencies. The glass mephling's favored class is ranger, as they tend to live as loners on the edge of wastelands. The sulfur mephling's favored class is rogue, representing its tendency to skulk and hide in the shadows.
- Level Adjustment: +1.
More Mephlings
Mephlings were first introduced in the Planar Handbook. These mephlings consist of the more traditional elements: earth, air, fire and water. The two mephlings detailed above are descended from the mephits introduced in the Sandstorm supplement.
