Abyssal Imps
While Devilish Imps are well-known and easily identified, their Abyssal counterparts are rarely recognised. With their penchant for chaos, and their pastime of murder and mayhem, Abyssal Imps are favoured by demons as contracted killers, though undead, fey, and even humanoids not too worried about the tidiness of the hit, or the collateral damage, are known to summon them from time to time, as well.
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Biology
Imps are literally living shadows, and it is speculated that they or their distant ancestors were the original inhabitants of the Abyss, predating Demons. As living shadows, they cannot crossbreed with any other non-elemental race, other than concubi, as their bodily fluids immediately turn into shadow upon emerging.
Those who end up with Abyssal Imps as familiars quickly find them to be similar to cats—they hiss, purr, and can be distracted by movement, as well as having a feline contrariness and taste for mischief.
Appearance
Abyssal Imps bear no resemblance to their Devilish counterparts on the surface, but they can be summoned and bonded as familiars just the same, and Chaotic-aligned Warlocks taking the Pact of the Chain are likely to get an Abyssal Imp, rather than a Hellish one.
All genders have hair ranging from black to grey to white, and can have white blotches, freckles, or stripes on their red skin. They have cloven hooves, claws, and pointed teeth, spade-tipped tails, and their large eyes are yellow with slit pupils. Boss Imps can have venomous spines along their spines and spade-tipped tails, usually in clusters of three.
Imps have horns, and this is their only sexual dimorphism. Black horns usually indicate a female, and striped ones usually indicate a male. Usually. Not always. They do not have teats unless actively nursing, and black-horned imps have hips that are wider than stripe-horned ones.
Imp Traits
Your Imp character has the following racial traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Imps reach adulthood by the end of their first year and rarely survive past 10; though if they aren’t blown up, shot, or otherwise killed they don’t actually die of old age nor disease.
Alignment. Chaotic Evil, though very occasionally a Neutral Evil or even Lawful Evil imp will crop up, usually treated with some amount of pity or derision by their peers.
Size. Imps average about 2-3 feet tall, with exception for Bosses. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in low light as though it were midday, and in total darkness you see using infrared, which means you can not only see any creature or object giving off heat, but also can see where it has been, up to 120ft and 6 hours (for heat traces).
Shadow Eyes. Magical darkness doesn’t impede your darkvision.
Nocturnal. You naturally want to sleep during the day and are more awake at night. Getting too much light or forcing yourself to be diurnal causes you to become sluggish and irritable, and incurs a -1 penalty to all rolls.
Languages. Abyssal, Common, and sometimes Infernal.
Subraces. Imps don't have subraces, but they do have physical changes when a stripe-horned imp is socially dominant within a group.
You know the two of us are superior to most of our kind; and you are so above sucking on overlords, when you could be slaying overlords.
Boss Imps
Bosses have ‘cuffs’ of stored fat on their pastern, wrist and palm area, and can have larger racks of horns, longer tails, and larger spades; but the most prominent sign is their eyes, which gain markings that set them apart from other imps: rings around the pupil and visible irises are some of the possible signs of this biological caste. They are also physically larger than other Abyssal Imps, reaching four feet tall, not including their usually impressively large horns and long, prehensile tails.
Ability Score Increase. Charisma increases by 1.
Pit Boss. To other Abyssal Imps, Bosses have advantage to all Charisma-based checks.
Prehensile Tail. Your tail is longer and stronger than other Imps and can be used not only to hold and manipulate things, but also to grapple.
Venomous Spines. Between your shoulder-blades or on your tail you have long spines or spikes that emit a painful paralysing venom. +5 to hit, one target. 1d4+3 piercing damage, and target must make DC11 saving throw, taking 3d6 poison damage and becoming Paralyzed on failure, half damage and no Paralysis on success.
Imp Names
Barb, Blitzo, Brander, Butch, Critter, Cutter, Dark, Ember, Havoc, Mayhem, Miasma, Millie, Misery, Moxxie, Pain, Panic, Pike, Poison, Rider, Sark, Shadow, Sharp, Singe, Slice, Smoke, Socks, Soot, Spiker, Striker, Thorn, Whip, Zorn