Quasit

Quasits are the ultimate demonic familiar—the Abyss’s answer to the imp.  The difference is that the imp is a subtle manipulator leading the caster to damnation, whereas the quasit is the id unbound…the gleeful co-conspirator in the caster’s worst schemes…the invisible friend who urges the child to burn down the house.  Think Ralph Wiggum’s leprechaun with horns.  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.

Finally, don’t forget the quasit’s weekly commune ability.  Putting this expensive (500 gp), relatively high-level (5th) spell in the hands of a comparatively green spellcaster is quite a boon, and likely the reason many casters who should know better give in to the temptation to summon the demon in the first place.  But since the quasit is the conduit through which these questions must be asked and answers received…and since the Abyssal powers are not reliable truth-tellers in any case…the opportunities for leading the caster astray are boundless.

An adventuring spellcaster unknowingly tries to bond a familiar in an area corrupted by Abyssal magic.  As a result, a quasit manifests, despite the difference in the caster’s alignment.  Now the caster has a problem—a chaotic evil, invisible at-will demonic menace has a claim on her soul.  Moreover, the caster is not sure what is worse—the occasional pranks, crimes, and mutilations the quasit causes, or the unerringly good advice it gives…

A spellcasting prodigy has drawn the attention of a free quasit and a lyrakien.  The lyrakien knows she needs to get the boy to resist the demon’s urgings.  But her own flightiness and independent streak have left her ill-prepared to out-argue the cunning tempter.

When a party of adventurers kills an evil sorcerer, his quasit familiar hares off in search of his soul.  Unfortunately, the adventurers are standing too close and get dragged along in the plane shift.  The good news is that they are not taken to the Abyss itself, but to a swampy netherplane whose rivers all lead demonward.  They need to escape before the region’s fiendish boggards catch them or before they are washed toward the Abyss proper.  Ideally they can dispatch the problematic quasit and the vile sorcerer’s soul larva as well.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 66

Since I played “basic” D&D instead of AD&D (e.g. 1e and 2e) my first exposure to the quasit (and the slaad) was this Yamara during spring of sixth grade.

Also, a quick perusal of the Paizo messageboards indicates that the quasit in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path gave people a lot of trouble.

Man!  There are posts I know y’all are going to like.  There are posts I think you all are going to like if I write them just right.  And then there are posts I just go, “Bwuhhhhh?  I…not know…for why I…good did?”  Thanks, guys!

Finally: Admit it, Mr. F. Wesley Schneider—if that’s your REAL name—you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?

(Actually, Schneider has sent me two very nice emails in the past, so he is guilty only of killing me with kindness.  Kindness and monsters.)