The Quasit

A Quasit stands about 1-1/2 feet tall and weighs 8 pounds. They appear to be tiny gargoyle-like creatures with small leathery wings and a vicious fang-filled mouth that drips with poison. A Quasit's first role in life is that of a familiar. Quasits are the ultimate demonic familiar, the gleeful co-conspirator in the caster's worst schemes…the invisible friend who urges the child to burn down the house. If a chaotic evil caster is a ticking time bomb, a Quasit is the hand gleefully ripping out wires so it will go off sooner. Admittedly, the Quasit has to suborn its will to its master's commands. But you can be sure it is always waiting for the opportunity to claim its master's soul in a bid for advancement or freedom.

When a spellcaster seeks out a Quasit to serve him as a familiar, his soul brushes against the Abyss and it reacts, carving from itself a Quasit linked to that spellcaster's soul and forming a powerful bond between the two creating based on the essence of the bonded partner (such as a warlock, summoner, or evil spellcaster), their skills and abilities will naturally reflect the strengths, weaknesses, and specializations of that partner.
Core Abilities Based on Partner's Essence:

1. Mimicking the Partner's Magical Abilities:
   • Limited Spellcasting: A Quasit bonded to a spellcaster might gain access to low-level spells or mimicry of their partner's magic. The exact spells would depend on the class of the bonded partner.
   • For a Summoner, the Quasit could have minor summoning, binding, or control-related spells.
   • For a Necromancer, the Quasit could manipulate darkness, shadows, or minor undead.
   • For a Warlock, elemental magic fitting the Warlock's specialization (earth, fire, air, or water) could be within the Quasit's grasp.
2. Stealth and Espionage Skills: Since Quasits often serve as scouts or spies for their partners, they would excel in:
   • Prowl (Stealth): Excellent at sneaking into places unnoticed, especially in shadowy or dark environments.
   • Concealment: Skilled in hiding objects, particularly magical or cursed items, on their person or in nearby locations.
   • Disguise and Impersonation: A Quasit could potentially use shapechanging or illusion-based skills to mimic others, blending in and sowing discord.
3. Minor Psionics (Bonded from Psionic Masters): If the bonded partner is psionically inclined (such as a Mind Mage or Psi-Mystic), the Quasit might inherit:
   • Telepathy: To relay messages instantly to its master.
   • Sixth Sense: Able to detect danger, giving the bonded partner advanced warning.
   • Sense Magic and Sense Evil: Quasits could detect magical energies and the presence of other demonic or supernatural beings.
4. Regenerative and Defensive Abilities: Reflecting the need to serve their partner, Quasits could have enhanced resilience:
   • Minor Regeneration: Healing small wounds over time.
   • Resist Magic or Poison: Quasits bonded to powerful beings might gain resistance to the very magics they help wield.
   • Fear Resistance: Quasits who serve evil masters are often immune to fear or mind-affecting spells, or can spread fear among weaker foes.

Specific Skills by Bonded Class:

• Necromancer Partner:
  • Lore: Demons and Undead: As the servant of a necromancer, the Quasit might inherit a deep knowledge of the undead, demons, and spirits.
  • Animate Dead (Minor): While not as potent as its master, the Quasit could animate minor corpses to do its bidding.
• Warlock Partner:
  • Elemental Manipulation: If bonded to a Warlock, the Quasit might have rudimentary control over elemental forces (e.g., conjure small flames for fire warlocks, or manipulate small amounts of water for water warlocks).
  • Weather Sense: Warlock-bonded Quasits may instinctively sense shifts in the weather, especially if linked to air or water elements.
• Summoner Partner:
  • Summoning Familiarity: The Quasit might know intricate details about summoning rituals and magical circles.
  • Minor Banishment: The Quasit could aid its partner in banishing other lesser demons or extraplanar entities.
• Mind Mage Partner:
  • Psionic Abilities: Limited telepathy, empathy, and astral projection could be part of a Quasit's skill set.
  • Mental Defenses: Greater resistance to mental domination, illusions, and psionic attacks.

Additional Skills:

• Regardless of the partner, Quasits might have some universal abilities, such as:
  • Horror Factor: Quasits are fearsome beings, and their presence can inspire terror in the weak-willed (Horror Factor 10-12).
  • Lore: Magic and Demons: Knowledge of the demon world, arcane rituals, and forbidden magics passed down from their demonic heritage.
  • Pick Locks/Pick Pockets: Useful for sneaky and mischievous tasks assigned by their masters.
  • Seduction/Deception: For infiltration or manipulation of mortal beings in service to their partner's goals.

In short, the essence of the bonded partner would significantly influence the Quasit's abilities and skills. The more specialized the master, the more the Quasit would reflect and amplify those traits, albeit in a limited and subservient manner.

Combat: Although Quasits thirst for victory and power as other demons do, they are cowards at heart. They typically attack from ambush, using their alternate form ability and invisibility to get within reach, then try to scuttle away. When retreating, they use their cause fear ability to deter pursuit.

Combat Abilities: While Quasits aren't physically powerful, a bonded Quasit could reflect its partner's combat style:

• Claws & Venom: Their claws may be imbued with poison, paralyzing or weakening foes, reflecting the nature of their master's dark magic.
• Shapechanging and Escape: Their ability to shapeshift into small creatures like rats or insects could allow them to escape danger or gather intelligence for their partner.
• Levitation and Wall-Crawling: If their master deals with dark, shadowy forces, the Quasit could inherit powers like levitation or clinging to walls.

  A Quasit's natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as chaotic-aligned and evil-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

  • Venomous Bite: Save vs poison or 1d4 P.P. are drained away.
  • Poisonous Tail Sting: Save vs poison or paralysis sets in for 1D8 hours.
  • Spell-Like Abilities: Can cast at will: acid arrow, cause fear, detect good, detect magic, invisibility (self only), greater teleport (self only), poison, 1/day - commune, contact other plane as a 6th level caster.
  • Once per week a Quasit can use commune to ask six questions. The ability otherwise works as the spell (caster level 12th).
  • Alternate Form: A Quasit can assume other forms at will as a standard action. This ability functions as a polymorph spell cast on itself (caster level 12th), except that a Quasit does not regain hit points for changing form, and any individual Quasit can assume only one or two forms no larger than Medium. Common forms include bat, monstrous centipede, toad, wolf, and humanoid (though this is a very uncommon form for the Quasit to take). A Quasit in alternate form loses its poison attack.

Habitat/Society: Quasits serving as familiars have no society of their own and serve at the whim of their masters. When the master dies, the Quasit has the opportunity to try and seize its master's soul, transform it into a larvae, and take it to the Abyss. Quasit familiars can be found wherever there are reckless and unscrupulous spellcasters willing to risk trafficking with demons. "Free" Quasits are usually encountered in the Abyss. However, those who fail to capture their master's soul are forced to remain on the Material Plane; and sometimes they may even choose to remain there. In such cases they delight in tormenting mortals, so are typically found in urban areas where there are more targets to choose from. The Quasit can serve another creature as a familiar, forming a Telepathic Bond with its willing master. While the two are bonded, the master can sense what the Quasit senses as long as they are within 1 mile of each other. While the Quasit is within 10 feet of its master, the master shares the Quasit's Magic Resistance trait. At any time and for any reason, the Quasit can end its service as a familiar, ending the Telepathic Bond.

Ecology: Alone among the demonic horde, Quasits do not form from the dead souls of evil mortals. Instead, they form from living souls, when a spellcaster seeks out a Quasit to serve him as a familiar, his soul brushes against the Abyss and it reacts, carving from itself a Quasit linked to that spellcaster's soul and forming a powerful bond between the two. Newly created Quasits are birthed directly into the Material Plane, where they become familiars, and while bonded to their masters' wills, all Quasits hate and loathe their lieges, as they can feel the pulse of their lords' souls and know that they could have been more. A Quasit serves, yet it watches and waits for mistakes that might cost its master's life, or even better, an error that might let the Quasit turn against its master. When a Quasit's master dies, the Quasit can attempt to follow the master's soul into the Great Beyond. This functions as plane shift but affects only the Quasit and transports it into the Abyss and places its master's soul in the Quasit's possession as a writhing larvae rather than using the evil master's soul to create new demonic life. In this manner, a Quasit can use its newly captured soul to bargain with more powerful denizens of the lower planes, and perhaps secure a vile transformative "promotion" to a more powerful form of life in the process.