Genies (Part 4): Efreeti **Number 100!**

This’ll be the #100th monster on the Best of the Bestiary! Oh my god! And we’re only one-third of the way through the Monster Manual! Which is only the first book!

Good god I’m gonna be doing this for the rest of my life, aren’t I?

The armies of the Grand Sultan are bolstered by legions of devils, his palace warded by the spells of a thousand archmagi, his treasures guarded by red dragons and fire elementals. No one has ever plundered the Efreeti’s fabled vaults and lived to tell the tale. By the grace of a thousand winds, you could be the first.

A djinni enticing adventurers to free her caliph from a magic lamp in the charcoal palace of the City of Brass

That’s a helluva tone setter, innit?

Lore: Tyrants of Flame

Ruthless is the best way to describe an efreeti. They are deceptive, cunning, and exceptionally cruel. Like the other genies, they despise being forced into servitude. Should someone enslave them, they’ll chase them to the ends of the universe to get their revenge. Though they don’t see themselves in a negative light; the only fault they’ll admit is their ego.

To an efreeti, all other creatures are either potential servants or potential enemies. They’ll raid the other planes, from the Material to the elemental, and capture whatever they find to make into slaves. Only the cruelest of their slaves are promoted into overseers, who keep the others in line by force.

The efreet live in heat and flame. Most reside within the Elemental Plane of Fire, dwelling within lakes of fire or the legendary City of Brass. They even have military outposts here. However, a good number of them live on the Material Plane, residing within deserts. This puts them in conflict with the djinni and the dao, both of whom live in the same area. At the same time, the efreet are natural enemies to the water-loving marids and battle frequently.

If you were gonna use a genie as your big bad, this would be the one to do it with. While most of them are at least a little malicious, these guys are full-on evil. And you could weave some pretty fun stories with them. They could attack while the party is busy dealing with another genie, allowing them to make a temporary alliance with their now former foe. Or they could delve into the lair of an efreeti to try and liberate an important NPC who’d been made a slave. The list of possibilities is short, but engaging and fun!

Design: That Ain’t No Genie

I’m pretty sure that’s an Oni. Y’know, like the demon?

I kinda love it, though! It’s visually distinct and intimidating. This is the only genie we’ve discussed so far that looks truly menacing rather than just malicious.

It certainly helps that this dude is stacked! Just look at those arms, dude! His bicep is bigger than my skull! Even without the big fuck-you scimitar, he looks like he can do some damage!

Also, odd little thing: I like the horns. They make it feel like a demon rather than a genie. This fits the creature perfectly, considering how much more evil it is than the other genies.

All in all, it’s a pretty sick looking monster. It isn’t as amazing as monsters like the Beholder, but it’s still pretty good. If there’s any issue, it’s that it looks a little too much like a demon, which might confuse someone skimming through the book to quickly find a cool monster.

Y’know. People like me.

Stats: The Dancing Flame

Surprisingly, this dude doesn’t go hurling fire around. In fact, he’s only got three moves that have anything to do with fire!

Defense wise, it’s a decently chunky monster. Its AC is just shy of 20 and its HP sits at a clean 200. Hope your wizard isn’t too attached to fire magic, because they have no effect. Surprise!

Spell wise, it’s got a few options. They are:

At will: detect magic
3/day: enlarge/reduce, tongues
1/day each: conjure elemental (fire only), gaseous form, invisibility, major image, plane shift, wall of fire

Not an extensive list, but certainly a dangerous and tricky one.

The rest is fairly simple. It’s got a scimitar that does decent damage and it can use a move called Hurl Flame to basically throw a firebolt for some decent damage. With multiattack, it can choose to do either one twice per turn. Certainly deadly, but not very complicated. It’s the spells where this guy gets tricky.

All in all, it makes for a pretty decent boss fight. It’s a tricky bastard capable of dishing out some dangerous moves. It doesn’t have anything especially incredible, but it’s still a very good fight.

Placement

The efreeti is a pretty good monster overall. The lore is good, the design is strong, and the stats are decent. No campaign would suffer for having one of these guys in there. A rock solid choice across the board.

With all that in mind, let’s put the Efreeti on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Dragon Turtle
4. Green Dragons
5. Red Dragons
6. Blue Dragons
7. Black Dragons
8. White Dragons
9. Silver Dragons
10. Couatl
11. Behir
12. Aboleth
13. Bronze Dragons
14. Brass Dragons
15. Copper Dragons
16. Gold Dragons
17. Chuul
18. Chimera
19. Death Knight
20. Fomorian
21. Bone Devil
22. Dracolich
23. Faerie Dragon
24. Ankheg
25. Empyrean
26. Efreeti <————————
27. Dao
28. Drow (all four of ’em)
29. Shadow Demon
30. Marilith
31. Drider
32. Aarackockra
33. Azer
34. Demilich
35. Spectator
36. Cambion
37. Animated Armor
38. Banshee
39. Basilisk
40. Yochlol
41. Bulette
42. Cloaker
43. Darkmantle
44. Doppelganger
45. Ettin
46. Pit Fiend
47. Erinyes
48. Chain Devil
49. Bearded Devil
50. Barbed Devil
51. Spined Devil
52. Ice Devil
53. Djinni
54. Nalfeshnee
55. Glabrezu
56. Chasme
57. Barlgura
58. Horned Devil
59. Balor
60. Shadow Dragon
61. Vrock
62. Dretch
63. Goristro
64. Hezrou
65. Manes
66. Duergar
67. Quasit
68. Dryad
69. Flumph
70. Planetar
71. Imp
72. Flameskull
73. Displacer Beast
74. Carrion Crawler
75. Rug of Smothering
76. Bugbear Chief
77. Bugbear
78. Vine Blight
79. Twig Blight
80. Needle Blight
81. Bullywug
82. Ettercap
83. Gas Spore
84. Cockatrice
85. Lemure
86. Solar
87. Deva
88. Cyclops
89. Centaur
90. Fire Elemental
91. Water Elemental
92. Air Elemental
93. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
94. Earth Elemental
95. Galeb Duhr
96. Flying Sword
97. Crawling Claw
98. Violet Fungus
99. Shrieker
100. Gargoyle

WHOO!! 100, BABY!!