Paraelemental Beast, Rain

Paraelemental beasts of rain are the rarest of all the paraelemental beasts because they can only be conjured where it is currently raining. Also, rain paraelemental beasts usually find the Athasian climate too intolerable and return to the elemental inner plane shortly after gaining free will.

Paraelemental beasts of rain appear to be free-floating waterfalls. They are composed of heavy rain drops that fall down and then up again, over and over in a circular pattern. They draw what little humidity they can from Athas’ atmosphere to sustain themselves.

They speak their own language that is formed from the sound of falling rain drops, but only they can understand it.

Combat: Rain paraelemental beasts appear to be harmless, but they have a number of powerful attacks. Their attacks, combined with their great speed, make them difficult and unpredictable opponents.

Rain paraelemental beasts can direct blasts of rain toward their opponents. These blasts are so focused that they cause 3-18 (3d6) points of damage and knock down the victims unless the opponent makes a successful Dexterity roll at -4. Those who attempt to walk through the creature suffer great internal damage as the water within their own bodies begins following the same circular pattern as the water that makes up the creature. For each round a victim spends inside the paraelemental beast, it suffers 4-32 (4d8) points of damage unless it makes a successful save vs. death magic, in which case it suffers half damage. Rain paraelemental beasts often force others inside themselves for this effect.

Rain paraelemental beasts can also cause damage to all living beings within a radius equal in feet to their current hit points by draining the moisture from their bodies to add to its own rain. Rain paraelementals cannot use this attack while taking any other action and remain motionless while doing so. All living victims must make a successful save vs. spells or suffer 1-6 (1d6) points of damage from dehydration. Rain paraelemental beasts gain half as many hit points as their victims lose.

Magical fire causes full damage to rain paraelementals, but they easily extinguish nonmagical fire smaller than a bonfire without suffering damage.

Habitat/Society: Rain paraelemental beasts often rest over oases, wells, small lakes, and other sources of water, gathering moisture from them in order to retain their forms. They seldom remain on the Prime Material Plane for more than a few weeks before returning to the Elemental Inner Plane. In rare cases, rain paraelemental beasts have been known to hover over entire city-states, gathering moisture from the local water supply and from the inhabitants themselves. The templars must dispatch them quickly before they kill all the local inhabitants and become too powerful to dismiss.

Ecology: Rain paraelemental beasts have no natural place on Athas.