Bralani [Lesser Eladrin]

In its natural shape a bralani looks like a short, thickset elf with broad shoulders and an easy, dancer's grace. Its hair is typically a gleaming silver-white, and its eyes never settle on one color, cycling through rainbow shades as its mood swings. At will it can dissolve into a spinning column of dust, sand or snow and race across the open land like a living gale.

A bralani in humanoid form hits far harder than its size suggests, with 18/76 Strength and all the bonuses that come with it. It likes the weapons of desert nomads, namely scimitar, spear and bow, and those weapons are frequently magical. Bralani are uncanny archers, gaining +4 to hit with bows thanks to their Dexterity and their instinct for the wind.

Just as often, though, a bralani drops its gear and fights as a whirlwind. In that shape it is AC -2 and lashes out twice per round with blasts of scouring sand or snow, each a 5-foot-wide cone reaching 20 feet and dealing 1d10. Anyone within 20 feet must save vs. paralyzation or take -2 to attack rolls from grit in the eyes. Any creature of man size or less that comes within 5 feet must save vs. paralyzation a second time or be lifted off its feet and flung 10 to 30 feet. Bralani adore spinning straight through an enemy line and bowling foes over as they go.

On top of the abilities every eladrin has, a bralani may call on wind wall, mirror image, cure disease, charm person, blur, gust of wind and control weather, any one of them each round. It may throw a lightning bolt for 8d8 twice daily, and twice daily it can also cast either neutralize poison or cure serious wounds. Weekly, it may heal someone else, though never itself. It is harmed only by cold-wrought iron or by weapons of +1 or greater enchantment, and its attempt to gate in 1d4 more of its kind works 40% of the time.

Bralani belong to a layer of snowy and sandy wastes in the plane of passion, though now and then one turns up whirling through a desert or a polar waste on another world, reveling in the freedom of empty country. They are the most feral and remote of the eladrins, and nobody can predict whether a newcomer will be swept into a wild celebration or into a storm of fury. Their rages, griefs and joys all run deeper than those of any other eladrin.

At home they roam in loose bands, covering hundreds of miles in a day, pausing only to prank travelers or drive off unwelcome guests. No bralani is ever acknowledged as leader; the whole band moves on whim, which makes negotiating with them a trial. Away from their plane they seldom number more than 3, and often travel alone. For all their play, they abandon the dance instantly when they find evil in their lands, and a few who wander other worlds have thrown in with local champions of good, such as a noble desert tribe or a clan of northern herders. On the rare occasions they march to war, bralani take the role of fast raiders and outriders who harry an enemy's flanks and rear.