Thursday, April 11, 2013

J is for Jann/Jinn

Yesterday I talked about Iblis and the demons he rules, the Shayṭān  Today I want to talk about the lesser races of the Shayṭān, the Jann or Jinn.  Now Jann have appeared in games before (and still) but they felt a little watered down to me. So if the Baalseraph are the fallen Angels or forces of good, then the Shayṭān are the fallen forces of the d'Jinn and other elemental creatures.
Jann are the weakest, being made of all the elements.  Jann are also one of the most common of the lesser demons.

Jann look human, and that is also their greatest strength. They can move about human society without anyone being the wiser.  They are not human and are quick to remind anyone that knows them that they are not.  The purpose of Jann is sow discord in human lives.  They do this through lies, theft, seduction and murder.  Their methods are very human, but they can also use magic as if they were a magic-user of 5th level.
Their demonic natures though show up in their propensity for quick anger and violence.
When Jann reach 0 hp their bodies are consumed in smokeless fire leaving only ashes.

Jann
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: 60'
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 5 (20 hp)
Attacks: sword or by spell
Damage: 1d8
Special: Elemental protection (+1 to saves against all elemental magic)
Save: W5
MORALE: 7
XP: 300

Jann have elemental protection. Any attack that is connected with an element (fireball, lighting bolt, breath weapon) they gain a +1 bonus on their saves. This includes poison, but not gaze attacks.

Jann fill a niche for me.  Let's call them the Charmed demon-niche.  Many of the demons on Charmed looked human. They did this because it allows demons to move around in the human world easier (since there were no real restrictions on demons getting out of the Underworld) and it is cheaper on special effects.
I also like the idea of a low-level demon that can move about in society AND look completely human till you fight them.

Want to read more about Jinn?  Head over to Clare Dugmore's blog.  She is doing them today too!
http://claredugmorewrites.blogspot.com/2013/04/j-is-for-jinn.html#more

7 comments:

Jeremy [Retro] said...

i so wish i had a skill set/level... other than eat, sleep... eat some more... damn you boring life.

Jolie du Pre said...

Jann/Jinn reminds me of the monster I invented in my novella series - Zxxtergins. They look human too, but they are sinister and far from human.

Rhonda Parrish said...

Ahhh I miss playing tabletop RPGs :) Also, I'm in the midst of (slowly) outlining a novel which deals with djinn, so this was a fun post to read.

Pun Isaac said...

I almost did my post about Jann/Jinn today. I think they're an underutilized monster in gaming.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Yeah, but you did Jackalope and that is every bit as cool.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

That they appear human is a dangerous thing.

Valerie said...

This one sounds hella interesting. I'll have to google more about it!

Hugs!

Valerie Nunez and the Flying Platypi