Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Quicklings have been around since AD&D 1st Edition, where they appeared in the Monster Manual II. Here, they appear only in the Monster Manual.

The Lore

Quicklings are wicked fast and just plain wicked. They’re little serial killers who like to knife others for food, loot and sport. The last two mean they definitely don’t restrict themselves to hunting animals.

Their preferred tactics are clever ambushes, and they do their best to never stand still in a fight. Quicklings often ally with fey and other creatures that share their proclivities, and I imagine they’re not above working as mercenaries.

The 4e illustration is a lot more monstrous than the one in the AD&D Monster Manual II, which was just a little foppish dude. One interesting bit of lore in 1e is that quicklings might be brownies who delved too deep into forbidden magics. You can certainly use that explanation if you want to, but it’s also entirely appropriate for them to be their own species of Feywild nightmare creature.

Speaking of that, Quicklings often leave the Feywild and stalk the world looking for good “opportunities”. They’re highly intelligent and so might be down for whatever evil scheme your villains are hatching this week even if they’re not the main opposition.

The Numbers

We get two stat blocks for quicklings here. Both are Small Fey Humanoids with low-light vision and a fantastic land speed of 12. Their AC and Reflex are also notably higher than the expected for their level.

Quickling Runner

This Level 9 Skirmisher has 96 HP and all common quickling traits. It also gains a further +4 bonus to AC against opportunity attacks.

The runner’s basic attack is a short sword, which it can also use in a maneuver called Quick Cuts. This allows the runner to move its speed (12) and make two basic attacks at a -2 penalty at any two points during the move. This is an at-will attack, but it cannot be used while the quickling is immobilized or slowed.

To bring the runner’s damage up to the new baseline, you need to either update its base sword damage or remove the -2 penalty from the Quick Cuts attacks. Quick Cuts is going to be its most frequent attack, and you should be trying to move past the party’s front line and into the ranged squishies to apply it. That +4 against OAs sure helps.

Once per encounter the quickling can perform a Fey Shift, shifting 10 squares as a standard action. It’s likely to use this to escape when it sees the fight isn’t going in its favor. If this was a move action instead, it would be a good initial maneuver to get to those squishies from ambush.

As a minor action, it can also Maintain Mobility (recharge 4-6), which automatically ends any immobilization applied upon it.

Quickling Zephyr

Not just a higher level runner, the Zephyr is a bit more subtle. It’s a level 14 lurker with 82 HP and all common quickling traits. It also fights with a short sword which is even more in need of a damage update than the runner’s.

As a move action, the quickling can use Blinding Speed (recharge 4-6) move its speed and become invisible, which lasts for a turn or until it attacks. It’s a cheap way of getting combat advantage, despite not being always available. The zephyr’s Unstoppable trait allows it to ignore all difficult terrain and to run across any solid or liquid surface, so it can be safely employed in the gnarliest of maps.

If it attacks with combat advantage, the zephyr deals some additional sneak attack damage, though that would also need a boost to be in line with the new math.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

We get a single level 9 sample encounter: 1 quickling runner, 1 eladrin twilight incanter, and a feymire crocodile.

Going by lore and level, quicklings should also be able to work well with banshrae, lamias, hags, and the occasional ogre, troll, or oni.

The stat blocks we’re given do roughly half the damage the new math says they should, but once you update them they’re quite usable. The quickling’s speed can certainly be played up for a bit of horror. “You see a quickling in the distance. You blink and it’s right next to you, its sword already in your spleen.”