Wind Walker [Elemental]

A wind walker is barely visible in clear air. Fog, dust or a sandstorm reveals it as a churning mass of twisting serpent shapes, always throwing off streamers of breeze and shedding wisps of vapor and grit. Where it brushes the ground, small dust devils spin away. Its coming can be heard 100 to 300 yards off, a whistle for a single walker that swells into a howl or a roar as more join in.

Wind walkers are telepaths who read thoughts within 100 yards, and several linked together can push that range to 300 yards. Their attack is raw wind: every creature within 10 feet of a walker takes 3d6 points of damage each round. Against a target in gaseous form the damage doubles to 6d6. A walker can also scatter any cloud or gas attack in one round, though it suffers that attack's full effect for the round. If it chooses, the din of its passage drowns out a battle completely, so that onlookers hear nothing but gusting wind while screams are swept away.

Because they are partly ethereal, ethereal beings such as genies, invisible stalkers and aerial servants can fight them directly. Anyone else needs a weapon of +1 or better enchantment to hit one.

Most spells do nothing to a wind walker, with notable exceptions. Control weather kills one outright unless it succeeds at a save vs. spell. Slow hurts it as much as a fireball would. Ice storm drives walkers off for 1d4 melee rounds. Haste deals half of a fireball's damage but also doubles the damage the walkers then inflict. Protection from evil, wall of force and prismatic wall hold them back, though blade barrier does not. They are vulnerable to telepathic attack. Once roused, they chase their quarry for at least 1d4+1 rounds.

By gentling their winds, wind walkers can cast ride the wind four times per day as 12th-level casters.

On their own plane they work for the djinn, shaping clouds. In the Prime Material world they favor high mountain peaks and deep caverns. Others employ them to drive rain clouds toward thirsty lands, or to steer the rain away from rivals. Djinn, storm giants, cloud giants and other powers of the windswept heights sometimes press them into service. Desert nomads take care never to mock a wind walker as a mere djinni's servant, reasoning that anything the genies keep deserves respect. Walkers keep their own company and willingly mix only with air elementals; sages argue over whether they are simply young air elementals or a separate kind.

Wind walkers live on water vapor and fine dust carried in the air, grazing in the clouds when no master feeds them. Oddly, they are drawn to strong scents, and perfumed oils or essences can lure them into traps or binding circles.