ECOLOGY

Environment any (Abyss)
Organization solitary or flock (2–12)
Treasure standard

The quasit is perhaps the least powerful demon, yet it is not the least respected—even quasits hold themselves above the dretch horde, and true to their natures, dretches lack the courage or drive to prove the quaits wrong. A quasit's first role in life is that of a familiar to a spellcasting master, but those quasits who escape from this humiliating servitude become free-willed and much more dangerous.

A typical quasit stands a foot and a half tall, and weighs only 8 pounds. 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 by making a DC 15 Will save. 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.

Rarely, a quasit elects to ignore its master's death and instead remains on the Material Plane to seek other ways to entertain itself—usually settling in an urban area where there are plenty of folk to torment.