Are Mephlings worth the cost?

[Vizzerdrix]

Are they really worth the +1 LA? They get a crap breath weapon, and the air mephling gets a joke of a fly speed. The Fire Mephling gets nothing. What's everyone's thoughts on this race?

[RagnaroksChosen]

Are they really worth the +1 LA? They get a crap breath weapon, and the air mephling gets a joke of a fly speed. The Fire Mephling gets nothing. What's everyone's thoughts on this race?

there for people who realy realy wanted to play a mephit but there GM wouldn't let them.

[Grumman]

The only time I've considered playing one was when I had the idea of playing an Air Mephling Elemental Archon as a Mephit leading her own Mephit adventuring party, possibly to the amusement or confusion of the real party.

[Starbuck_II]

Well, they suck for Int stats.
I think Earth have it worst: they get a second negative ability modifier. Earth gets +2 Str, but favored Druid. The hell? Water makes a better choice +2 Con.

They get +1 caster to respective element.

A really weak Breath weapon that is limited in useage (why weak and limited?).

Water seems the best choice but Favored Class Monk.
Air is not bad, but Bards don't have that many [Air] spells even though they Favored Bard.

Really, I think Air and Water can be argued worth it. Water gets +2 Con and Air gets Perfect Flight (even if low).

Earth and Fire seems: LA +0.

[RagnaroksChosen]

The only time I've considered playing one was when I had the idea of playing an Air Mephling Elemental Archon as a Mephit leading her own Mephit adventuring party, possibly to the amusement or confusion of the real party.

thats actualy kinda amusing i may need to do this next time i play some FR.

[BenTheJester]

Sand and Salt work great as improved familiars

[Darrin]

Are they really worth the +1 LA? They get a crap breath weapon, and the air mephling gets a joke of a fly speed.

Not exactly a joke. If your DM doesn't allow Avariel (FR-specifc flying elves), I think the air mephling is the only humanoid in print with a natural fly speed. Yeah, ok, it's 10', but at least its perfect maneuverability. So... I guess I'd say mephlings are good if you're looking for movement modes with Alter Self.

[Thurbane]

The Air mephling can heavily benefit from the heritage feat in the same book that vastly increases their fly speed.

Worth +1 LA? Maybe not. But then, either is the poor old Hobgoblin...

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Not exactly a joke. If your DM doesn't allow Avariel (FR-specifc flying elves), I think the air mephling is the only humanoid in print with a natural fly speed. Yeah, ok, it's 10', but at least its perfect maneuverability. So... I guess I'd say mephlings are good if you're looking for movement modes with Alter Self.

Both Dragonborn (Races of the Dragon) and Raptoran (Races of the Wild) get a natural fly speed for no LA, albeit at around ~10 HD before it lasts all day.

[oxinabox]

earth mephling has a burrow speed,
bult wildren (Dwarfbadger from wildlands, planar handbook) has beter and for LA +0

[Evard]

what do you propose be done to fix these little buggers? keeping/making them a true +1 +0 LA race..

[Dexam]

I'm away from my books at the moment, but I vaguely recall that the side-bar text on the same page of The Planar Handbook as the Mephling stats seemed to suggest that they should get limited Fast Healing as per Mephits, but it never seemed to make it into the main stat text.

Would this make Mephlings LA+1, if they were to get Fast Healing 1 (Ex) with the following conditions:
Air: An air mephling heals only if exposed to moving air, be it a breeze, a draft, a spell effect, or even the mephling fanning itself.
Earth: An earth mephling heals only if it is underground or buried up to its waist in earth.
Fire: A fire mephling heals only if it is touching a flame at least as large as a torch.
Water: A water mephling heals only if it is exposed to rain or submerged up to its waist in water.

Thoughts? :smallconfused:

[Soranar]

small races with no strength penalties are pretty rare (1 even has a bonus)

but even then their favored classes make little sense considering their stat bonuses (+Con and Cha for a Monk, Str and Cha for a Druid, etc)

and for casters they definitely not worth it despite the casting bonus
LA+1 and INT -2 mean that skills are always going to be mediocre at best

but flying with perfect maneuverability (with no restriction) can be really powerful early on (and even later) for a melee/ranged class so I would think the air one has merit (and monk speed stacks with the flying too)

the earth one could make a decent Paladin, and burrowing gives weird options for dungeoneering and fighting

the other 2 look worthless though

[Starbuck_II]

I'm away from my books at the moment, but I vaguely recall that the side-bar text on the same page of The Planar Handbook as the Mephling stats seemed to suggest that they should get limited Fast Healing as per Mephits, but it never seemed to make it into the main stat text.

Would this make Mephlings LA+1, if they were to get Fast Healing 1 (Ex) with the following conditions:
Air: An air mephling heals only if exposed to moving air, be it a breeze, a draft, a spell effect, or even the mephling fanning itself.
Earth: An earth mephling heals only if it is underground or buried up to its waist in earth.
Fire: A fire mephling heals only if it is touching a flame at least as large as a torch.
Water: A water mephling heals only if it is exposed to rain or submerged up to its waist in water.

Thoughts? :smallconfused:

Air, Fire, and Water are the easiest to meet. So yeah it makes all them worth it. Poor Earth has to go underground/bury itself.

[oxinabox]

Air, Fire, and Water are the easiest to meet. So yeah it makes all them worth it. Poor Earth has to go underground/bury itself.

Burrow speeds are quiet hard to get, and since hte earth mephiling has one, he'll spend most of his time, under the ground>
also many (most?) dungeons take place in underground locations, eg... dungeons, caves.
Earths vaguly better than the others, cois a borrow speed is much more useful than a swim speed, and much harder to obtain through spells and magic items.

[RagnaroksChosen]

I belive with speed boosters earth and air are good.