5e DnD has dozens of different demons and fiends for players to come across throughout their D&D campaigns. Most demons are occupied with an eternal Blood War that keeps them fighting one another instead of focusing on the mortal races of the material plane.
This makes Quasits very interesting because they care very little for the Blood War and instead prefer to spend their time corrupting and manipulating mortals. So, here is a Quasit 5e guide with everything you need to know about Quasits, a tremendous first demon for any party of adventurers to face.
Key Info Up Front
- Book: Monster Manual
- Editions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Challenge Rating: 1
- Planes: Pandemonium, Abyss
Quasit History in DnD
Quasits have been around since the very first official DnD release, but they have seen some monumental changes throughout the editions. When Quasits were first introduced, they were positioned as chaotic-natured counterparts of the common imp. In the first edition, Quasits were summoned as familiars and used to battle other low-level creatures.
In DnD 1e, Quasits are surprisingly hardy despite their small size and stature because of regeneration abilities and attacks that leech Dexterity away from their targets.
When 2e rolled around, Quasits were mostly combined with Imps to the degree that their stat blocks are even condensed to one page. This continued into 3e as well, with the only discernible differences between them being the chaotic nature of Quasits and a few stronger abilities such as their regeneration and Dexterity-sapping attacks.
This had them mechanically functioning like a slightly more robust version of the Imp for Dungeon Masters to use once their players out-leveled the regular Imp.
This changed dramatically with the release of 4e. In 3e, they were classified with a challenge rating of only 1/4, but in 4e, they were boosted to a challenge rating of 7. This made them much more of a threat on the battlefield.
Their roles as demons were expanded in this edition to introduce their ability to corrupt and manipulate mortal spellcasters that dared to summon them, and their powers were expanded to include dazing enemies, various damage resistances, and the ability to turn invisible whenever they want.
The current Quasit in 5e has its challenge rating lowered to only one, but it is one of the more formidable creatures at that challenge rating in 5e if played correctly, through hit-and-run tactics.
This makes them an excellent enemy type to challenge a low-level party with, especially as a first introduction to the more varied mechanics that they can expect to come across in future combat encounters.
Quasit 5e Lore
Quasits are low-level chaotic demons of mischief and corruption. They usually grow to be around two feet tall at most and have warty green skin with bug-like eyes. They often have large ears on both sides of their head, as well as talons, large horns, and tiny bat-like wings.
They delight in the art of mischief. They interact with mortals much more than other types of demons and fiends, as they spend their time messing with others and trying to corrupt mortals.
While Quasits may not be regarded to be as dangerous as their demon peers, they should not be underestimated. Quasits are known to have intelligence comparable to the average human.
For Quasits, this knowledge is used for pure cunning. They will curdle milk just before a mortal drinks it or may even try to put a large scheme together to effectively ruin their life. While these actions are enjoyable to a Quasit in their own right, they are also motivated by an insatiable hunger for power that motivates most forms of demons and fiends.
Interestingly, Quasits are rare among demons because they have a sense of self-preservation, similar to mortals. They will even keep tabs on the locations of other demons so that they can run to them if they are ever in danger.
Role in Demon Society
While Quasits originated in the infernal planes of Abyss and Pandemonium, they have spread to nearly all demonic realms with a disposition toward chaos and lawlessness.
This is because of how useful they are for the more powerful demons in control of those planes. Their main roles depend on which greater demon they serve. Sometimes they are used to act as cooks or servants in demonic palaces or can be used as spies and messengers.
It is scarce to find a Quasit that isn’t in the service of a greater demon or fiend because they are created with soul larvae, so they have so they are usually indentured from birth.
The ruthless nature of demons also makes the existence of Quasits a dangerous one, as they are frequently punished with death or torture for failure, or they will be tortured and killed for the simple amusement of their masters.
Most Quasits that mortals come in contact with are those summoned by Wizards, Warlocks, and Sorcerers that summoned a familiar to serve them. While working under them they obey commands to the best of their abilities. However, they only do so in service of their greater demon or fiend within their home plane.
Then, as the Quasit serves their mortal master, they collect the souls of their victims and deliver them to their true master. At the same time, they work to morally corrupt and influence the mortal they serve to indulge all of their evil impulses.
They do so to spread their demonic influence over the mortal plane and drive the caster that summoned them toward more evil actions to grow their power and diminish their morality.
They do this until the Quasit believes that the mortal cannot grow in power any further, after which they use their influence to push the mortal toward their destruction. Once the mortal is dead, often through consequences of their actions, they take their previous master’s soul back to their true demonic ruler.
The more powerful the caster, the more that the demon will get from the soul and the better rewards the Quasit can hope to receive in return. For most, they hoped to be turned into a stronger demon with more influence and station within their demonic hierarchy, such as a Hezrou or even a Vrock.
Some Quasits don’t want this path for their lives, and they take the first opportunity that they have to flee to the mortal realm to spend their time there hedonistically enjoying all of the mischief and chaos they can sow among the mortals.
These Quasits tend to believe that they are more powerful and capable than they are, which frequently leads to their ultimate downfall after they overstep their bounds.
Quasit 5e Stats
Quasits are tiny-sized Fiends with Chaotic Evil alignments. They only have a challenge rating of one, but they have multiple damage resistances and immunities and special abilities that make them very challenging for early parties.
They only have an armor class of 13 and seven hit points, but they have a speed of 40 feet to help them avoid enemies for as long as possible.
Their ability scores accurately reflect their speed and propensity for mischief alongside their deficiencies. Quasits sport a Dexterity of 17 with Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma of ten, followed by an Intelligence of seven and a Strength score of only five.
Their only skill proficiency is in Stealth, giving them a +7 in the skill, and they can speak both Abyssal and Common. Quasits also have Darkvision up to 120 feet, allowing them to go through anywhere to get the drop on their quarries.
While their physical stats are pitiful, Quasits can be difficult for low-level parties to deal with because of their range of damage immunities and resistances that can either half or outright negate damage.
They are resistant to Cold, Fire, Lightning, and any nonmagical attacks while being utterly immune to Poison damage and the Poisoned status effect.
These defenses are also supplemented by their Magic Resistance trait, which gives them advantage on saving throws against all spells and even magical effects.
This can make it very difficult for a low-level party to damage a Quasit at all. Their final trait is Shapechanger. This allows them to polymorph into either a bat, centipede, or toad, only being forced to revert to their standard form upon dying.
Quasit 5e Actions
Quasit actions in combat are relatively simple because of their low challenge rating. Their only form of attack is their Claw action, which acts as a Bite action if their Shapechanger ability is active.
These actions are made with a +4 to their attack rolls and have a standard reach of five feet. On a successful hit, it deals 1d4 + 3 piercing damage as well as forcing the target to make a Constitution saving throw.
The saving throw is made with a DC of only 10, but on a failure, they take an additional 2d4 poison damage and are poisoned for a full minute, giving them disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws.
Luckily, if a player is poisoned, they can attempt the saving throw again at the end of their turns, and the effect is ended with a success.
A pillar of the Quasit’s actions is Invisibility. This action allows them to turn themselves invisible, along with anything they are wearing or holding. The effect can last as long as they want it to and is only ended when they end it, use another action, or are damaged and fail a concentration check.
Their final action is called Scare and can only be used once per day. This ability allows the Quasit to force one creature within 20 feet of it to make a Wisdom saving throw with a DC of 10.
On a failure, the target is frightened for a full minute. They can try the saving throw again to end it early at the end of each of their turns, but they make the saving throw with disadvantage if they can see the Quasit while doing so.
Playing a Quasit
Roleplaying
When it comes to roleplaying a Quasit, I recommend highlighting their mischievous nature above all else. I usually advise against annoying your players because it tends not to be very fun for them to deal with, but the entire point of a Quasit is to be annoying at least a little bit.
So, have this Fiend have some fun with your party and tease them. Have it pull pranks on them that aren’t very mechanically impactful but maybe a tad embarrassing, like having the Quasit make their food taste disgusting just before they eat it.
Even outside of combat, you should also use Quasit’s invisibility to its utmost. Have it knock things over around them, try to trip them before running away, or even steal items from them while they’re sleeping.
If you have a Quasit, follow the party and bother them consistently and for long enough; it will help them remember the entire interaction more and can be fun for you and your players to roleplay.
An essential aspect of roleplaying a Quasit and having it mess with your party, however, is the cathartic release of your party being able to finally confront the Quasit. Annoying your players slightly will only work if they get to get back at the enemy annoying them, whether that be in combat or through diplomacy.
So, if you challenge a low-level party with a Quasit or two, make sure that they get to confront them at some point. Whether this ends up devolving into combat or not, your party should at least get the opportunity to talk to the Quasit for a short time.
While your party is interacting with the Quasit, there are some things that I’ve found to make the conversation a lot more fun for both sides. To make the conversation as fun and memorable as possible, I recommend highlighting the Quasit’s lowly nature for a demon.
You can have them start off cocky and mocking, but once it realizes that it is in danger, it should start groveling or trying to make deals with the party to escape.
I’ve even had a Quasit continue pulling small tricks on the party or twisting their words to grind their gears before leading into a climactic combat encounter where they can get their revenge. If you are comfortable doing voices, a whiny voice works very well while roleplaying a Quasit.
Before you send a Quasit after your party, you should also consider why they are targeting them at all in the first place. For this, you mainly have two options. Either the Quasit is alone and just looking for entertainment, or they are serving some greater master.
If your Quasit is acting of their own volition, you should make that clear to the party and possibly even have him barter for his life with his services. It can also be fun to find a reason why the Quasit targeted the party.
It could be because they have a shiny bauble that the Quasit wants or because the party angered it by stopping it from messing with another mortal on accident.
If you decide to have the Quasit serve a greater master, you’ll also have to determine why that demon or magic user is targeting the party. However, this is a great way to tie in the encounter with the Quasit into a greater narrative that is revealed as you move forward through the campaign.
If you decide to have the Quasit following the orders of a Wizard or other mortal, you can even have a double-reveal where the players discover that only to find out that the Quasit is obeying a much more dangerous and nefarious force from another plane.
Roleplaying a Player’s Quasit Familiar
There is also a chance that one of your players will end up taking a Quasit as a familiar. This happening is a fantastic story-building opportunity for you to take advantage of, especially if your party is not aware of the nature or capabilities of a Quasit.
If your player does gain a Quasit as a familiar, make sure to have it obey them completely. At first, it should try to get into the player’s good graces by obeying all commands and maybe even giving the player’s character compliments and inflating their ego a bit.
Once the character is fond of the Quasit, you can have it start pushing them to accrue more power and loosen their morals. Perhaps the Quasit even starts trying to turn the player’s character against other members of the party ever so slightly.
You shouldn’t push the player to go against the party directly, but having the Quasit try to lessen the character’s opinions of their peers is a great start.
Your players will likely find this weird and push back against the Quasit, which is a great way to lead to the reveal of the Quasit’s betrayal. It is important to remember that a Quasit working for just the player is extremely rare, so it can be a great twist to reveal that they were manipulating the player in the service of another.
Or, if you want to mix things up, you could have the Quasit tell the player the truth and try to enlist their help to fight back against their ruler, solidifying their connection with the player character if the duo is successful.
Combat
If your player enters combat with a Quasit, it is imperative to play to its strengths and approach combat conservatively. Quasits can’t deal much damage with each hit, so you’ll want to focus on staying invisible as much as possible and striking players when they don’t see it coming.
The Quasit should also try and stay by martial characters without magic answers for its resistances as much as possible. Not only will this help keep it alive for longer, but it will also discourage magic users in the party from using area-of-effect spells that could spell disaster for a Quasit.
If it makes sense for your Quasit to know that one of the players has a short Constitution, maybe thanks to a previous prank that it pulled, you should use that to your advantage as well to shell out as much poison damage as possible.
However, if that character is already poisoned, try getting as many party members poisoned as possible to take full advantage of the disadvantage it afflicts their attack rolls with.
When it comes to the Quasit’s Scare ability, it can be a bit tricky to find the best time to use it, thanks to its restriction of only being used once a day.
If you throw a party or level two or three against a small group of Quasits, you can be a bit more liberal with how you use Scare, but with only one in the encounter, I recommend using it to give your Quasit some space during a fight.
You can use it to keep a tank off of it for a while or to shut down a spellcaster so that you can focus on dealing damage to a particularly vulnerable member of the party.
Finally, I think it is essential to recognize that a Quasit is very likely to run away if a battle stops going their way. With a movement speed of 40 feet, they should be able to outpace the majority of characters at this level, so don’t be afraid to take the Disengage action and run away only to turn invisible and disappear.
This will allow the Quasit to continue annoying the party later on or report back to their master on their doings and level of power. If you do have the Quasit flee, however, I recommend bringing it back later on so that the party gets another chance to take it down.
This will also help push them to think creatively and find a solution to keep it from getting away from them a second time.
FAQs
Question: What Book are Quasits in for 5e?
Answer: Quasits are found in the Monster Manual on page 273.
Question: Are Quasits Just Imps in DnD?
Answer: No, Quasits and Imps are thought to be very similar to one another, but they are two different species of Fiend. This is because Imps are more lawfully evil and reside in the associated planes, while Quasits are more chaotic.
Question: How Big is a Quasit 5e?
Answer: Quasits are usually only one to two feet tall and weigh up to a maximum of eight pounds.
Conclusion
Quasits are a great enemy to challenge your players with early on in a campaign. Their personalities lend themselves very well to being dropped into a campaign at any time.
At the same time, their unique defensive attributes and actions will challenge your players and make for a highly memorable encounter or side story for them to go through. To put a Quasit into your campaign successfully, though, you’ll have to play them just right to get as much out of them as possible.
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