Bestiary of Air

[ Air ] [ Mapping Infinity | Pockets | Bestiary | Flora ]

Furious Storms and Invisible Assassins

A Bestiary of the Boundless Blue

The Plane of Air is less hospitable than its appearance might suggest. The endless sky stretches for miles without end, separating vital sources of drinkable water and solid ground. Few species of birds and insects can survive here—though certainly much more of them than in most other Inner Planes. Those, who can, survive by hunting smaller critters or flying plants, while absorbing moisture from the clouds.

At the same time, there are oft-invisible air elementals and their relatives. It is tricky to make any confident claims regarding the nature of true air elementals, even if you can find some who are willing to stop and chat. For elementals are creatures that do not need to breathe, eat, drink, sleep or even breed, that are never truly born or deceased, and are bound to exist in a completely different paradigm to plain old humanoids. But some sorts of conclusions can be drawn about them. Perhaps it would be helpful to observe elementaloid creatures—those, who combine two natures within themselves, like genies and mephits. Such beings sustain themselves on the magical energies of their plane, feasting both on fresh winds and regular food. The flesh of air elementaloid creatures is light and gives out a soft crackle when touched. Their tissues, including their blood, are full of tiny bubbles of gas. These creatures are very resistant to decompression sickness, which, curiously, makes them suited to surviving deep underwater and in Vacuum. Once they figure out how to acquire sufficient air, of course. This ties to another ability shared by many such creatures—they can survive without breathable air by transmuting fixed air [carbon dioxide] and mephitic air [nitrogen] from around them. However, this ability requires a lot of energy (in the form of food) and having enough actual suitable gases to breathe—all that to say, air elementaloids still can drown.

— Professor Crocosmia, a ghoran explorer and scholar of planar flora

Aerial Servant

Virtually invisible kin of air elementals who also roam the Ethereal and Astral. They are less intelligent than elementals and therefore easier for wizards bind and use as deadly assassins. While aerial servants have some differences in behavior, visually they are near-identical to common air elementals, except colored with a whiff of blue vapour. It is common belief among learned scholars that aerial servants are the descendants of the air elementals compelled into service by some forgotten magicians.

Stats: [ 2e | 5e ] [ PF 1e ] Guide to the Ethereal Plane [2e] p60; Inner Planes [2e] p16; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p27

Air Sentinel

Friendly spirits of Shurrock, who occasional visit djinni relatives in Air. They are noble creatures that protect travellers from bad weather, wheter in their home plane or in the Elemental Air.

Stats: [ 2e ] Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix [2e]; Planes of Conflict [2e] Liber Benevolentiae p34,41

Air Walker

The air walkers are enigmatic native creatures, perfectly suited to their boundless, ever-shifting home. They appear as faintly humanoid figures composed entirely of swirling, translucent air currents, their forms barely visible except for the subtle ripples they create as they move. Silent and almost imperceptible, they drift effortlessly through the skies, blending seamlessly with the winds around them. What makes them unique is their role as the plane’s unseen observers—watching, listening, and recording the endless stories carried on the breeze. Air walkers are thought to be born from the plane itself, manifestations of its consciousness or perhaps its curiosity. They are drawn to moments of significance: A djinn’s council, a clash of elementals, or even a mortal planewalker’s first ‘step’ into the plane. Their presence is often felt rather than seen—a sudden stillness in the air or a whisper that seems to come from nowhere. While they rarely interact directly, chant goes they can communicate through subtle shifts in wind patterns or fleeting images in the clouds. Their motives remain a mystery; are they guardians, spies, or simply wanderers?

Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8. Air walkers are mentioned in this books, but never given an official description. It seems possible that this was just another name for the wind walkers.

Ak’hali

Ak’hali or cloud-makers are giant flying creatures, resembling huge whale sharks—if the shark looked like a ghost and could fly. Ak’halis exist in the cloudbanks, where the environment is most comfortable for them. And if they can’t find a convenient loudbank, they create one—their skin evaporates water, giving them their signature ghostly appearance. Of course, this ability requires a lot of water. A single ak’hali can drink an entire pocket of Water, leaving with its gullet grotesquely bloated. Ruvoka tribes believe that ak’halis create the majestic clouds of the plane, and so they take care of these gentle giants, directing them towards water and food sources. Said food is anything sufficiently small to fit through ak’hali’s baleen-like teeth, including even air elementals. Sometimes they swallow entire flocks of birds—a terrible sight indeed. Fortunately, ak’hali’s throat is too narrow to swallow an adventurer. Of course, this doesn’t make these titanic creatures harmless, but you’ll probably be fine, so long as you keep your distance.

Homebrew

Anemo

Most elementals are disinterested in the affairs of other creatures, but it is not unknown for them to choose a side when a philosophical conflict of importance rears its ugly head. Those air elementals who choose the side of law are called anemos, and this choice changes their very form. They become distinctive by the net of tiny cloud-like tangling threads which manifests inside of them.

Stats: [ 2e ] Monstrous Compendium: Mystara Appendix [2e] p39

Anemos

Servants of the Greek Pantheon, anemoi are not quite elementals and not quite demigods, but exceptionally powerful shapechanging spirits, who shape wind currents to their whim.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Rage of Elements [PF2e] p78

Animental

Animentals are echoes of animal life reformed in the raw essence of the Inner Planes, creatures that carry the memory of their Prime Material forms but are reshaped by the elemental forces that claim them. On the Plane of Air, a wolf might return as a sleek, translucent predator made of whirling gusts, its howl a haunting whistle through the winds. A bird might become a shimmering silhouette of light and vapour, its wings trailing streams of mist as it soars. Animentals are not merely animals given new bodies however—they are living embodiments of their elements, their instincts and behaviours now infused with their new nature. Some say they retain faint recollections of their past lives—an air animental horse might still circle a traveller’s campfire out of habit. An air animental is weightless and untethered, moving with uncanny grace and speed, part of the wind itself. They are neither fully spirit nor fully elemental, existing in a liminal state where memory and raw elemental energy merge.

Stats:[ 2e ] Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p14

Arrowhawk

Arrowhawks are snake-like four-eyed and four-winged lightning-blasting creatures, chant goes originating from the Prime world of Eberron. They are well-adapted to the unique environment in Air and are known for spending their entire lives in flight.

Stats:[ 3e ] [ PF 1e ] Manual of the Planes [3e] p68-69

Blessed Breezes

Blessed Breezes are a rarely-encountered cult of radiant air elementals, who have been transformed over generations by their embrace of goodness into graceful beings of luminous beauty. While air elementals typically embody the raw and untamed force of the wind, blessed breezes appear as shimmering clouds that glow with golden light, casting warm sunbeams wherever they drift. They exuding a serene aura of calm scented air that soothes mortal and geniekind alike. They can cleanse the air of toxins, dispel darkness and despair, and heal wounds with their gentle breath, but they aren’t arrogant about it. Blessed breezes do good deeds without a fanfare simply because its a part of their nature, not because they are looking for thanks or praise. Some say an air elemental may be spontaneously transformed into a blessed breeze the first time they witness an act of profound kindness or sacrifice, forever altering their natural aphilosophical nature. And others scoff at this notion, saying there’s much more to it than that.

Homebrew

Blustering Gale

A lesser air elemental, often created accidentally by the downdraft from a mighty being of air. They can be bullies, especially when they band together to form a ‘gale’.

Rage of Elements [PF2e] p80

Bora/Windstriker

Bora is the name given to an airy elemental made from an ice-cold wind, born in the Mistral Reach. Like migratory animals, every cycle boras leave their region to travel far across Air to the Sirocco Straits. The touch of a bora covers objects in rime and drains heat from warm-blooded creatures. Rather like ice para-elementals, these frosty monsters just enjoy freezing things, no matter what harm that causes. Once they reach Sirocco Straits, boras fight dust devils—another kind of airy elemental embodying hot desert air, who loathe the cold. This intra-elemental war seems to have been blowing a storm for eternity, but so far no one managed to capitalise on it—this is more of a conflict between primal forces of Heat and Cold. Neither boras nor dust devils treat this “war” as something worth organising a complex philosophy around.

Stats: [ 4e ] Monster Manual 2 [4e] p103. The name and lore of boras are mostly homebrew (and was in fact conceived before I was aware of the 4e monster with a very similar concept). IRL ‘Bora’ is the cold wind that blows on the Adriatic coast.

Breathdrinker

A dreadful elemental that feeds on the air extracted from the lungs of living creatures. Shushed voices among the soldiers of the Elemental Good whisper that breathdrinkers were created by the Elder Elemental Eye cultists through merging evil air elementals with the unholy energies from the Far Realm. Despite being unholy, breathdrinkers are actually immune to radiant attacks of clerics and paladins, yet suffer from negative energy damage, which exacerbates emptiness within them.

Stats:[ 3e | 5e ] Monster Manual II [3e] p39; Book of Many Things [5e] p154

Camel, Flying

These winged domesticated livestock were created by the djinni, who needed strong and hardy beasts of burden. The creatures are prone to escaping however, and significant numbers of flying camels now fly wild. Herds can be found flocking together all throughout the Boundless Blue.

Homebrew

Cyclonic Ravager

Air elementals who side with Elemental Evil are reformed as cruel Cyclonic Ravagers. They are unforgiving and aggressive whirlwind storms who tend to attack planewalkers and other air elementals on sight, in a rage-like stage. Cyclonic Ravagers possess a figment of Yan-C-Bin‘s power that grants them the ability to perform a powerful move known as the ‘smite of seven winds’.

Stats: [ 3e ] Monster Manual IV [3e] p10

Despairing Pall

Despairing palls are small, dark clouds that float aimlessly through the Plane of Air, casting literal and emotional shadows wherever they go. Pranksters and mischievous elementalists often summon them to rain on a rival’s parade. Their true nature is a bit unclear, but many believe despairing palls actually come from the Demi-Elemental Realm of Rain.

Stats:[ PF 2e ] Rage of Elements [PF2e] p82

Destiny Tempest

Destiny Tempests are giant centaur-like elemental creatures that ruled vast regions of Air millenia ago. They were defeated by the djinni and sealed into metallic temporal prisons. Parallelists consider destiny tempests to be reflections of three other powerful elemental rulers—tshala, well spirits and dharum suhn (though others vehemently disagree and point to other powerful air elementals such as storm lords). Destiny tempests were masters of the special kind of magic that merges illusions and emotional expression, and they were the original creators of the Pictures-in-the-Clouds. It is spoken by many detractors that the jaathoom genie cults have in fact stolen their signature manner of visual communication from their ancient foes.

Stats: [ PF 2e] Monster Core 2 [PF2e] p97

Draig, Air

Also known simply as air drakes, these gargantuan creatures resemble giant gliding lizards. They are much more stupid than true dragons, but still possess a frightening amount of physical and psionic power. Draigs maneuver through the air by summoning wind currents. They’ll hunt any smaller creature and resist any attempts to tame them.

Stats: [ 2e | 4e ] Monstrous Compendium: Dark Sun Appendix [2e]; Dark Sun Creature Catalog [4e] p36 (as elemental drakes)

Drake, Air

Long, lean and light dragon-kin who love to soar through the endless skies. They are the most numerous of many draconic creatures found on this plane, but also one of the weakest and less intellegent. Elemental drakes are thought to be ancient offshoots or creations of catastrophic dragons, who proved themselves to be too freedom-loving for the draconic tyrants. Air drakes are great fliers and can briefly transform themselves into small clouds.

Stats: [ 3e] [ PF 1e ] Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p3-8. Elemental Drakes from Mystara and Dark Sun are described in other entries.

Dust Devil/Dust Twister

A species of air elemental which embodies the hot desert air, who loathe the cold. The dust devils dwell in the Sirocco Straits and have an ancient enmity with the bora, another clade of air elemental. A dust devil has a vague mouth and eyes formed among the dust and debris swirling within it. Janni sometimes ally with and “domesticate” dust devils, turning them into more powerful cargo-carrying dust twisters.

Stats:[ 1e | 3e | 5e ] Dragon Magazine #45 [1e] p68; Sandstorm [3e] p162 (as dust twister); Monster Manual (2014) [5e] p91

Duster

Small, aardvark-like omnivores, who are among the few animals here who are don’t have wings and can’t fly for very long (yet nonetheless numerous). They are considered a pest by the djinni for despoiling crops and raising signature clouds of dust when startled. With their minor magical abilities, dusters can fly and become invisible, making exterminating them pretty hard.

Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8

Elemental, Air (Living Whirlwind/Elemental Hurricane)

Air elementals are beings of pure elemental air, invisible spirits that inhabit a shell of airy matter. They can have wildly different sizes, personalities and a level of intellegence, but as a rule, air elementals enjoy constant movement, and if they have to stop in one place, they will spin like tornadoes. Ironically, among elemental creatures they are the most often captured and transformed by spellcasters to serve their bidding, into forms like invisible stalkers or aerial servants. Thus, certain elementals can have a lot of disdain towards spellslingers.

They also like gaseous aromas—which is perplexing, as they don’t seem to have noses. Certain sages propose that elementals enjoy not the smell itself, but the shape of tiny particles constituting it. Imagine a toddler, who grabs every object in sight just to know how it feels to touch. This suggestion is supported by the fact that certain elementals seem to appreciate quite foul-smelling substances. Air elementals have been observed to “wear” the aromas inside of them as long as they can hold onto them—scents seem to be something akin to jewellery by their standards. If you catch a smell of roses (or guano, or anything that shouldn’t be there) while flying through the Boundless Blue, you can be certain you’ve attracted attention of interested elementals. And you know Auran, you can try to ask them for directions, perhaps in exchange for some interesting fragrance.

What many planewalkers don’t realise is that there are many castes of air elemental. To the untrained eye, one living whirlwind looks the same as another, but this ignorance can be dangerous. Several different castes of air elemental are described here—see the individual name for more details:

Anaemos—air elementals influences by law

Blessed Breeze—air elementals who have sided with goodness

Cyconic Ravager—air elementals tainted with evil

Elemental Beast—half-sentient elementals favoured by summoners

Elementite Swarm—volatile swarms of hundreds tiny elementals

Eolian—air elementals of the chaotic breezes

Monolith and Primal Elementals—especially large and powerful elementals that dwell within the hurricanes of the Deep Air

Necromental—monstrous quasi-undead elementals, whose presents despoils elemental matter itself

Stats:[ 2e | 3e | 4e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Manual of the Planes [3e] p68; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p27; Tales from the Infinite Staircase [2e] p74; Monster Core [PF2e] p140

Eolian

A clade of air elementals swayed by chaos, and these beings are always unpredictable and full of fog and debris. Unlike certain other chaotic elementals, eolians aren’t necessarily evil, but they have an intense rivalry with Wind Dukes of Aaqua and frequently attack their outposts.

Stats:[ 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p16; Monstrous Manual [2e]; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8

Fundamental, Air

The weakest of the true elementals, the fundamentals are small, bat-like creatures that flit around the plane.

Stats: [ 2e ] Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p46-47

Gen, Air

Small elemental genies who willingly serve as familiars to the sha’ir of the Land of Fate. Wind gen are small air sprites with bluish skin and white hair.

Stats: [ 2e ] Monstrous Compendium Al-Qadim Appendix; Dragon Magazine #315 p82

Genasi, Air (Sylph)

Sylphs, also known as air genasi, are mortal humanoid beings whose bloodlines have been touched by the Plane of Air. Sometimes this is from an ancestor in the family tree—although graybeards scratch their heads about how that might work, physically—but more often this is because planar energies infuse a developing baby in utero. Air genasi can appear in diverse forms, but are usually humanoids with blue or white translucent skin, wild white hair which has the consistency of mist and never stops moving even when the air is still.

Stats:[ 2e | 3e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Dragon Magazine #307 p23-24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p72

Genie, Djinn

The native genies to the plane of Air, the djinni dwell on floating islands of rock crammed with buildings, courtyards and gardens. The nobles of the race are able to grant wishes. Jaathoom is an unusual, but popular sect among the djinni, members of which forgo speaking in favour of magical illusions.

Stats:[ 2e | 3e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Dragon Magazine #350 p54; Inner Planes [2e] p24,27,29,45,55,86,89,94; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p6,8,10; Manual of the Planes [3e] p68-70,139; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p8,28,33-34; Sigil & Beyond p67; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p27,72; Tales from the Infinite Staircase [2e] p72-73. Delineation between djinn and jaathoom is homebrew.

Goose, Short-Winged

Short-winged geese are creatures bred from giant fey geese by cloud giants. They have shorter wings, that can only be used in no-gravity environment of the Plane of Air and such. Unlike their fey relatives, short-winged geese don’t lay eggs, they are ovoviviparous—their eggs incubate inside their bodies. Newborn geese are already well-developed, but they need to hold onto their parents until they can fly.

Homebrew

Gryphon; Griffon

The gryphons of Air are majestic creatures, perfectly adapted to the endless skies. They resemble their Material Plane counterparts—part eagle, part lion—but their forms are lighter, almost ethereal, with feathers that shimmer like sunlight on water and fur that ripples like clouds in a breeze. These gryphons are not bound by gravity of course; they soar effortlessly through the currents of air, often riding invisible streams of wind for days without rest. They are able to sense disturbances in the plane and navigate its invisible borders with uncanny precision, and therefore they are often employed by djinn as mounts or messengers. Gryphons are far from mere beasts of burden however—they are intelligent and proud, choosing their riders carefully and forming lifelong bonds with those they deem worthy.

Stats: [ 2e | 3e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p27; Well of Worlds [2e] p95

Guivre, Air

These lesser dragons are magically altered drakes of great cunning, who serve evil archomentals of Air. They possess diamond-like gems embedded in their foreheads, the magic of which lets them change their shape into any humanoid, giant or elemental form.

Stats: [ 2e ] Monstrous Compendium: Mystara Appendix [2e] (as elemental drakes)

Hgaun

The result of a barmy wizard’s experiments, hgaun possess the bodies of medium-sized dogs, birdlike heads with multifaceted eyes, and feathered wings just large enough to allow them to get airborne.

Tales from the Infinite Staircase [2e] p75 (inc. brief stats)

Hippogriff

The hippogriffs of Air are creatures of breathtaking grace, with majestic eagle-like heads, powerful wings, and equine hindquarters. Their feathers shimmer with an opalescent sheen, catching and refracting the light of distant storms and rainbows. These beings can glide effortlessly through the endless skies, using the plane’s natural air currents to travel great distances without ever flapping their wings. What truly sets them apart though is their uncanny ability to navigate even the most chaotic winds, and their ability to sense impending storms long before they arrive.

Stats:[ 2e | 3e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Manual of the Planes [3e] p68; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p27; Tales from the Infinite Staircase [2e] p81; Well of Worlds [2e] p95

Ildriss (Air Grue, Wind Terror)

Air grues or ildriss (in their own tongue) are something between scavengers and macrophages of their respective planes. Ildriss seek impurities like droplets of water or specks of dust and slowly devour them, producing clean air as a byproduct. They are invisible, yet very abrasive (the exact nature of their bodies is unclear, but it is definitely not just regular air). My readers may come to conclusion that ildriss must hate everything that isn’t air—but this is far from the truth. In fact, grues would love to consume more impurities and expand their numbers—and this is what brings them to side with the Princes of Elemental Evil. Ildriss, being more of a scavenger type, rarely attack groups of adventurers, but they may try and finish off wounded ones. If your friend is on their last legs or has been infected with the bloody fever, it is unwise to leave them unattended, even in a locked room. Remember, ildriss are air elementals and can seep through any crack, no matter how airtight you think a door may be.

Stats:[ 2e ] Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1 [2e] p52-53; Vol. 3 p8,101; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28

Invisible Stalker (Phade)

Invisible stalkers, also known as phades, are enigmatic and unwilling servants from Air, often mistaken for elementals by those unfamiliar with their true nature. Unlike their more tempestuous kin, invisible stalkers are purpose-driven beings summoned to the Material Plane through magic to fulfil specific tasks, usually as assassins or trackers. They are entirely composed of air, rendering them naturally invisible—even magical detection reveals only a faint outline. What makes them unique is their faultless tracking ability; they unerringly know the location of their target, so long as it remains on the same plane. However, their servitude is deeply resented—summoners must word commands with absolute precision, as stalkers will exploit any ambiguity to subvert their orders or twist them to their advantage. This simmering resentment stems from their forced removal from their home plane, where they exist as free and untethered entities. Unbound on the Plane of Air, they are elusive observers, blending seamlessly into the currents of wind, and known as air walkers.

Stats:[ 2e | 3e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Monster Core [PF2e] p140

Living Thunderclap

A living thunderclap is a humanoid-shaped storm cloud that cracks and booms with thunder. Some believe them to be runaway living spells.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p102

Locust, Giant

Insects are less numerous on the plane of Air than one might assume. There are too few water sources for dragonflies or mosquitoes to be prevalent. However, a body can still find many flying critters, such as grasshoppers, flies, botflies, sandflies, beetles and wasps. Some of them are enormous—like the giant Air-dwelling locust. Unlike Prime locusts, these doesn’t come in swarms (usually)—but when the locust is a size of a sheep, even one is a problem. They have one redeeming quality though—giant locusts are edible. Assuming they haven’t been eaten from the inside by giant hairworms, that is. Don’t worry, those worms are harmless (ignore the chant-mongers claiming otherwise), but seeing them tear their way out of poor insect is gnarly.

Homebrew

Melody on the Wind

This cloud of song and sound has been caught by the wind and carried across the air. While the melody on the wind (known by some as a song elemental, despite the fact that no such place as a plane of song exists in the known multiverse) might enjoy the beauty of music, it is by nature a destructive elemental force. Perhaps, these melodies are just air elementals, who prefer sounds over fragrances.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p107

Mephit, Air; Scamp, Air [PF2e]

Fickle, untrustworthy, and empty-headed, these small elemental troublemakers make excellent messengers and couriers—for their first mission. Thereafter they flee their creators to explore the planes, attach themselves to whomever looks interesting and make entertaining mischief. Air mephits are weird winged humanoids, known (like all mephits) for their unpleasant temperament—in this case it’s inability to control their own curiosity. Air mephits are interesting in that they breath in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. Having an air mephit around you while travelling through Gehenna or Baator can be quite helpful—so long as you have a way to keep it from wandering off. Just keep your mephit away from necromantic spells—those kinds of magic can permanently destroy archaea in its lungs, rendering the mephit unable to perform its helpful metabolism.

Stats:[ 2e | 3e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1 [2e] p70-71; Manual of the Planes [3e] p68; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p27

Mephling, Air

A playable race from 3e that was part mephit, part human. I don’t get the point of these when we already have genasi—I’ve included them here for completeness but I’d suggest using ‘mephling’ as rude name to call genasi if you want to offend them. I’m also not a fan of the original art for them, there was no consistency between the different elemental types.

Planar Handbook [3e] p6,10-12

Mihstu

Mihstu are malicious misty creatures, are often thought of as air elementals, corrupted by some dangerous force—perhaps the malign influence of the Negative Energy Plane. Unfortunately, there’s simply not much information on thse creatures, and mihstu are quite hostile to being researched.

Stats:[ 1e | 5e ] [ PF 1e ] Monster Manual II [1e] p84; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8

Nyth

Radiant creatures similar to the deadly will o’ wisp. Normally, these scintillating beings are solitary hunters that roam their domain looking for living prey.

Stats: [ 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p25-27

Para-Elemental Beast, Rain

Stranger elemental-kin can be found lurking near planar borders and around heterogeneus pockets. Para-Elemental beasts of Rain are born from mixture of water and air that isn’t cold enough to become an ice para-elemental or a snowfury. They dash through the plane with incredible speed. While rain beasts can be hazardous if they run into a berk, they are not at all intelligent and won’t attack unprovoked.

Stats: [ 2e ]

Pegasus, Tulpar

The tulpar is a breed of especially nimble pegasus, who can turn their wings invisible, when they land on ground. They were created on Air—their human herders claim that the mythical deific horse Akbuzat touched the first of the tulpar. Akbuzat and his twin Kukbuzat are believed to still prance somewhere in Deep Air, far from anyone who wants to take advantage of them.

Homebrew, based on the creatures from the Turkish mythology.

Pelin

Pelins are large and ridiculous creatures, vaguely resembling a sea cucumber covered in small flappy wings. They are peaceful and mostly eat plankton and tiny insects found among the clouds of the Plane of Air. Very few creatures attack pelins, since their bodies are nothing but skin, cartilage and an explosive and irritating mixture of gases that hold them afloat. However, some pelins can produce a substance that resembles ambergris and can be used in perfume-making. Unfortuantely for would-be hunters, djinni and ruvoka both heavily disapprove of hunting these strange and rare animals.

Dragon Magazine #52 [1e] p49

Peryton

Perytons are haunting creatures, ethereal hybrids of stag and bird appear with feathers which shimmer with hues of storm-cloud gray and sky-blue, while their antlers gleam like polished crystal. Unlike their terrestrial counterparts, these perytons are infused with the essence of air itself, making them faster, more agile, and eerily silent as they glide through the endless skies. Their humanoid shadows remain a chilling feature, cast unnaturally beneath them even in the absence of sunlight, a constant reminder of their cursed origins. Perytons are relentless hunters, preying on both physical and elemental beings, driven by an insatiable need to claim hearts to sustain their existence. They build nests near planar borders where chaos and strife draw potential prey. While they are solitary hunters by nature, some planewalkers whisper of flocks of perytons that gather during great planar storms, their eerie cries merging with the howling winds.

Stats: [ 2e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Planes of Chaos [2e] Book of Chaos p33

Picture-in-Cloud

The shifting shapes of clouds in the sky have captivated the imaginations of mortal children for centuries. Pictures-in-clouds represent this pure possibility of air, transforming into anything the multiverse imagines them to be.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Rage of Elements [PF2e] p83

Plague Wind

Plague winds aren’t elementals, but constructs, animated by vengeful druids or dark cults to spread deadly diseases. Stribog is said to be the first creator of such abominations.

Polyhedron #147 [3e] p33

Plasm, Air

Renegades hated by air elementals, air plasms are transparent skeletons of solid ether and air whose forms are discernible only when they move.

Stats:[ 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Monstrous Compendium Mystara Appendix [2e]

Quasi-Elemental, Lightning; Storm

Storm elementals come to the Boundless Blue from Quasi-Elemental Lightning.

Stats: [ 2e | 3e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ]

Riven (Human culture of Blurophil)

Tales from the Infinite Staircase [2e] p75-76,79

Roc

Rocs of the Plane of Air are even more extraordinary than their Prime counterparts, embodying the boundless freedom and raw power of their elemental home. These gargantuan birds, the most ancient of whom with wingspans that can stretch miles, appear as living storms—feathers shimmering like polished silver or streaked with the colours of dawn and dusk. Unlike terrestrial rocs, they are weightless and glide effortlessly through the endless skies, often riding the chaotic winds and hurricanes that sweep across the plane. Their cries echo like thunderclaps, and their presence can stir air currents into violent turbulence. They nest within towering cloud formations, guarding their transparent eggs fiercely. Some djinn revere them as sacred creatures, while others attempt to tame them as mounts or guardians for their citadels—though such efforts rarely succeed. To encounter a roc on the Plane of Air is to witness the sky itself take form, vast and unconquerable.

Stats: [ 2e | 3e | 5e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p27; Monster Core [PF2e] p294

Ruvoka, Ethilum

The ethilum [ETH-ill-um] tribe of ruvoka are a famously musical people, dwelling in mobile cloud-camps which blow around the plane carried by the wind currents. Whether the ethilum steer their cloud homes or simply go wherever the breezes take them is not known, but they always seem to appear in time for festivals or celebrations. Their language has no written form, with history and laws passed on orally from one generation to the next in the form of songs. Their bodies are lean and unfeasibly light, with translucent skin that ripples like heat-haze and hair that refuses to lie flat. Their eyes are pale and clouded. Ethilum are also known for their fine perfumes, many of which have magical properties. Clouds are recognised by the ethilum tribe as a precious source of water in the Boundless Blue. As such, they tend to follow and protect ak’hali, the giant fish-like cloud makers of the plane.

Stats: [ 2e ] Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p90

Saasin

Saasin are weirder than even mephits. Medium-sized snakes with multiple little wings on their bodies, they zip around the Plane of Air, drifting on the winds. One can expect that such creatures would be predatory, and they are—but only in their youth. Once saasin are fully grown, their digestive system atrophies, yet they continue to exist, seemingly with no sustenance. Captured saasin die within hours, which has led many researchers to conclude that these creatures somehow feed on movement itself. Salel the Windbreaker (air genasi druid [he/him] / Fraternity of Order) offers generous payment to whoever is able to catch and bring him the xong-yong, mysterious energon of sound and movement, or finds a way to contain a living saasin. This is the only way to learn anything about how this species lives and reproduces.

Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p122

Sakina

Despite being very similar to air elementals in terms of shape and demeanor, sakinas aren’t actually elementals, but fey creatures. Despite this, they still visit the Elemental Planes to dine with their genie friends or assist the Elemental Good.

Stats: [ 2e ] MC13 Monstrous Compendium: Al-Qadim Appendix

Skriaxit; Blackstorm

Powerful and intelligent air elementals that take the dust of the desert and whirl it, to create their ten-foot-tall forms. It is as a pack that they create their greatest terror, generating huge winds and a fierce sandstorm that can render a human fleshless in minutes. While natives of the Boundless Blue, these days skriaxit are desert-dwellers—of the Prime, or Quasi-Elemental Dust, most of them having been driven out of the Plane of Air generations ago.

Stats:[ 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28

Sky Wyrm

One of the most powerful and rare species of the Plane of Air, sky wyrms are fearsome chimeric creatures with the head and forelimbs of the feline, eagle wings and serpentine tail. Despite being predators, they are noble and good-willed beasts, who ally with djinns to defend their plane’s freedom. Their only unpleasant quality is their irrational hatred of all canines.

Stats: [ 2e ] Champions of Mystara [2e] p94

Sislan

A shimmering whirlwind with whispy appendages, and a single eye in its cloudy centre. Even though they look like elementals, sislans are more akin to pulverized oozes, even if they have surprisingly complex intellegence. Saasin have three different sexes and thus are often encountered in families of three.

Stats:[ 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p29; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8,100-101

Soarwhale (Gon-evauth)

Giant baleen creatures glide through the plane, feeding on tiny creatures that live in the clouds. These beings are, in fact, organic automatons, artificial creations of life-shaping mages, though they turned out to be independent enough to live on their own. Despite this, soarwhales are still used by merchants and travellers as giant living skyships that can carry unbelievable loads of cargo. Other similar artificial creatures that are used as transport in the plane are insectoid breeze sprites (ber-ethern) and hawkish gust climbers (yihn-eflan).

Stats: [ 2e | 3e ] Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three [2e]; Arms and Equipment Guide [3e] p89

Spark Bat/Spark Butterfly

Spark bats congregate around volatile weather in the Plane of Air. They can form arc lightning sparks to jump between nearby pieces of metal. Spark butterflies are very similar to spark bats, but are smaller and often serve as prey for their larger kin. It is likely that both of these creatures migrated to the broader Multiverse from the Plane of Metal.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Bestiary 2 [PF2e] p106

Spirit of the Air

Huge winged monkeys who serve the powers of the wind and the sky.

Stats:[ 2e | 3e ] Fiend Folio [3e] p160-161; Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Planes of Chaos [2e] Book of Chaos p107; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] Monstrous Supplement p26-27; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p72

Stormflying Fox

Bats and bat-like creatures are not unknown on Air. Stormflying foxes have nothing in common with regular foxes. They belong to the family of flying foxes—also known as fruit bats. Stormflying foxes are large (up to 8 feet in wingspan), but mostly harmless, as they prefer to eat nectar and fruits of dire baobabs. These mammals are a delicacy, and many hunters catch them by setting up areas of magical darkness—Inner-planar cheiropteras love places where they can sleep and seem to have a knack for locating such regions. However, there’s a huge risk involved. Stormflying foxes carry many diseases (to which they are immune themselves), but the most horrible of them all is the bloody fever.

Disease: Bloody Fever. After coming into contact with the blood or bodily secretions of an infected stormflying fox (such as during butchering it) or another infected creature, a creature (only humanoids, genies and gen are susceptible) must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or become infected. After an incubation period of 2d10 days symptoms surface: the creature is wracked with a headache, muscle pains, coughing and vomiting. In gameplay terms, this creature is poisoned (cannot get rid of this condition until the disease is cured), requires two times more water to survive (due to vomiting and diarrhea), and its speed (both regular and travel distance) is halved. This goes on for 1d4 days, after which the creature must make another saving throw, this time with the DC of 20. On success, the sickness lasts for 1d4 days more, slowly fading away. On a failure, however, the condition worsens. The virus ravages blood vessels, and the poor sod starts bleeding. Internal hemorrhage makes them lose 2d8 hit points each day (and their maximum HP is reduced by the same amount) until the victim reaches 0 hit points and dies. Only spells of 6th level and higher, such as heal can get rid of the bloody fever—less powerful spells only grant another DC 18 Constitution save to try and shake it off. Moreover, the purify food and drink spell can’t destroy the virus in meat (but throughout boiling or searing can).

Storm Lord

Storm lords wage battles to claim important territory within the plane of Air.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Bestiary [PF2e] p145

Sylph

Sylphs are small beautiful, humanoid women with wings like dragonflies. NB: In Pathfinder terminology, ‘sylph’ is the term for the air genasi heritage.

Stats:[ 2e ] [ PF 1e | 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p16; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Monster Manual II [3e] p192-193; On Hallowed Ground [2e] p175; Planes of Chaos [2e] Book of Chaos p36,45-46; Monstrous Supplement p20; Travelogue p17,20; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Planewalker’s Handbook [2e] p16,27,72

Tempest

A tempest is a chaotic living storm which appears as a dark storm cloud of comparatively small size. Human or bestial features can often be seen in the roiling vapours.

Stats:[ 2e | 5e ] [ PF 1e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] DM’s Guide to the Planes p28; Bestiary 3 [PF1e]

Tempest Wisp

These tempestous elemental monsters are cunning generals of the Primordials, who are known for their inclination to reposition their allies and enemies alike to protect themselves from attacks targeted at them.

Stats: [ 4e ] Monster Manual 2 [4e] p102

Uranesia

Uranesias are cyan butterflies, who live in the moister parts of the plane. They subsist on nectar, especially from sky lotuses. A canny planewalker will understand that such a diet makes those beautiful insects poisonous—even touching their wings can cause mild irritation. This is one of the reasons inhabitants of Air view these creatures as vermin. Another one is their larvae—they are large and voracious caterpillars, covered in tiny venomous spikes. [Handling them with bare hands causes the sod to take 1d4 poison damage.]

Homebrew

Vaati; Wind Duke

A race of statuesque humanoid immortals dedicated to Law. They are tall, muscular and androgynous.

Stats:[ 2e ] The Rod of Seven Parts [2e]; Monstrous Compendium Annual Vol. 4; Dragon Magazine #224

Veiled Current

Often considered cousins of phades, veiled currents are loose veils of wind who catch prey within their folds.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Rage of Elements [PF2e] p82

Veldenar

Giant elementaloid amphibians floating in the Mistral Reach. Not unlike fish or whales, they hunt by quickly opening their mouths and swallowing prey with the force of the resulting vacuum. Strangely, however, they are well-adapted to cold and even use it to subdue swallowed prey.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Rage of Elements [PF2e] p85

Vortex

Those few who have seen them usually think vortices are miniature whirlwinds, little dust devils about the size of a small jug, but what they see is not the vortex itself. Rather, it’s the air wrapped like a second skin around the being within.

Stats:[ 2e ] Inner Planes [2e] p24; Planescape Monstrous Compendium Vol. 3 [2e] p8; Planescape Campaign Setting [2e] Monstrous Supplement p28-29

Weird, Air; Weird, Lesser Air

Elemental weirds exist as guardians of their home planes, and will attack anyone who they believe is despoiling their home. Weirds are a xenophobic bunch, and don’t really like any cutters who aren’t air elementals—but as the planes become more and more interconnected, they have learned to put up with them begrudgingly. Moreover, they’ve ended up being aligned with the Princes of Elemental Good, who profess a similar philosophy of having all elements stay in balance right where they are. Air weirds fight by enveloping their opponents and bombarding them with sound. They vibrate so intensely that they can rend flesh and erode metal.

Greater air weirds, unlike their smaller cousins, are visible. They appear as blobs of cracking cyan energy that can take humanoid shape if they desire. These weirds are intelligent enough to communicate with other creatures (in fact, it is thought that greater weirds were the first to invent elemental languages like Auran, or at least to teach them to outsiders) and often appear as feminine ethereal humanoids when they do. Moreover, they have the gift of prophecy—although this is not without its quirks—weirds rarely predict anything definitely, and instead talk about events that might happen on your journey. To gain an audience with the greater weird the first challenge is to actually find them—which may be very easy or very hard, depending on how hard to get the weird is feeling—and then offer something tempting. Air weirds prefer to deal in knowledge and stories.

Stats:[ 2e ] Dragon Magazine #347 p66-69,70-71; Monster Manual II [3e] p91-92

Windigo

These strange vampiric beings (perhaps more advanced mihstu?) feed on blood. They possess powerful magic and can control the temperature around them.

Dungeon Magazine #77 p31

Windghost

Windghosts are terrifying aberrations shaped like tentacled cones of flesh with a horrible mouth opening at the base. However, they are much more peaceful than their appearance suggests, and prefer to consume plants or carrion. But when the push comes to shove, windghosts can defend themselves with their powerful ability to control and redirect magic, as well as by creating a maddening drone known as the windsong.

Stats: [ 2e | 3e ] Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two [2e] p122; Monster Manual II [3e] p198

Windlouse

Windlice look a lot like a common woodlouse, except they reach up to 10 feet in length. Unlike most creatures, these crustaceans have managed adapt to travelling inside the hurricanes that ravage the plane of Air. Of course, they feed and mate during calmer times, but when they feel a storm approaching, they curl into a ball and wait till the wind picks them up and flings them somewhere else. Despite being incredibly dumb (so dumb, in fact, that they lack the concept of gravity and float instead of falling, periodically correcting their course by expunging air), these creatures have a knack for predicting even subtle weather changes. A canny airwalker knows to seek shelter whenever windlices start to roll. Windlice eat dead plant matter and are utterly harmless to anything else. If attacked, they just retreat into their shell. Some denizens of the plane hunt them for these shells, that can be made into armour or shields. Such items grant advantage on saving throws against pushing, but they aren’t durable at all.

Homebrew

Wind Walker

A roaring column of whistling wind, often summoned to serve as guards. Wind Walkers seem to be related to saasin—they too are serpents (although wingless ones), who cannot live without movement. However, unlike solitary saasin, wind walkers spend their lives intertwined in a single writhing ball. These creatures display telepathic abilities, and each group of wind walkers exhibits properties of a hive mind, not unlike hordes from the Plane of Earth. For the purposes of mind-affecting magic and psionics, treat the wind walker as a single creature in multiple bodies. Wind walkers were created by noble djinn as messengers and enforcers. They are surprisingly intelligent for a swarm of snakes, while maintaining saasin ability to subsist on motion. However, to maintain this motion wind walkers constantly surround themselves in a powerful roaring whirlwind. It isn’t a very convenient pet, even if you factor in the innate magic that many denizens of Air possess.

Stats: [ 2e | PF 1e] Tome of Horror Complete [PF1e]. A very different creature also named the Wind Walker also appears in the 4th set of AD&D 1e Monster Cards

Wind Warrior

Wind warriors are lesser air elementals, bound by the vaati into suits of ceramic armor.

Stats: [ 3e ] Dungeon Magazine #124 [3e] p47

Zephyr Hawk

Zephyr hawks drift among the currents of the plane of Air in great flocks. They delight in riding the air currents with no destination in mind. They seem to be self-propagating animentals very similar to fire bats.

Stats: [ PF 2e ] Monster Core [PF2e] p140

See Also: Flora of Air

Sources: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt. † Denotes additional elemental lore from the Pathfinder setting. ‡ Denotes a homebrew addition to the lore.