Smoke elementals fly through the air, appearing as dark clouds of smoke or soot with the hazy shape of grasping arms extending outward. A smoke elemental can often display a malevolent face for just a moment inside its billowing darkness.

The body of a smoke elemental, composed of fire and air, is still just as searing hot as if it had been born from a flame a moment ago. It is also noxious to all creatures that breathe. Even a whiff will bring most creatures to a debilitating fit of coughing and wheezing.

Smoke elementals are native to the border realm that sits between the Elemental Planes of Air and Fire, the Plane of Smoke, also called the Great Conflagration: an endless stretch of fire, smoke, and rising ash.

Hybrid Elementals

The elemental planes of water, earth, fire, and air align on planar borders where two elements combine to form a new dual-element, such as earth and fire creating lava. These border zones give rise to new hybrid elementals made of these combined elements.

Sometimes a hybrid elemental can be formed when an elemental journeys to an elemental plane that it isn't native to and absorbs its energy. Most elementals are harmed by extended exposure to the other elemental planes, but surviving in one can enable an elemental to absorb its energy. A dual-elemental can even fuse with a third element and be reborn as a more powerful hybrid elemental made of three elements.