Belker — Smoke-Claw Predator of the Plane of Air
A column of soot rises against the wind. It halts in mid-air, unfolds a pair of broad black wings and looks back with two dull red eyes. The traveller who tries to scream only draws more smoke into his lungs.
The belker is a reclusive, predatory elemental of living smoke. Its form resembles a winged fiend, but it belongs to the Elemental Plane of Air, not the infernal courts. A belker usually wants strangers driven from its range, yet it can pursue a trespasser with personal malice. Its worst attack turns its own body to smoke, slips into a breathing victim and forms claws inside the chest.
At a Glance
| Creature | Belker; smoke-wing; living smoke predator |
|---|---|
| Nature | Intelligent, generally neutral evil air elemental; visually demonic, not a demon or devil |
| Size and type | Large Elemental in D&D; Large air/elemental outsider in Pathfinder 1e |
| Challenge by edition | D&D 2024 CR 3 (original, unplaytested); D&D 2014 CR 3 (credited third-party); Pathfinder 1e CR 6 (published); D&D 3.5e CR 6 (SRD) |
| Temperament | Territorial, hostile to intruders, able to speak Auran, especially resentful of djinn and jann |
| Signature danger | Smoke form and internal smoke claws; close-quarters attacks after swift flight |
| Usual habitat | Smoke-bearing currents, ember updrafts, storm margins, volcanic air and wind-scoured cloud passages |
| Established range | The Elemental Plane of Air, especially its Ember Updrafts and dangerous Dead Calms. On the Material Plane, it appears only where a suitable planar passage, summoning or prior incursion is established. |
| Encounter role | Mobile territorial ambusher, smoke infiltrator and dangerous opponent in confined airways |
Belker Game Statistics
Belker — D&D 2024
Large Elemental (Air), Neutral Evil
AC 15 (Natural Armor) Initiative +4 (14)
HP 75 (10d10 + 20) Speed 30 ft., Fly 50 ft. (Hover)
| Ability | Score | Modifier | Save |
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 14 | +2 | +2 |
| DEX | 19 | +4 | +6 |
| CON | 14 | +2 | +2 |
| INT | 6 | −2 | −2 |
| WIS | 11 | +0 | +0 |
| CHA | 9 | −1 | −1 |
Skills Acrobatics +6, Perception +2, Stealth +6
Immunities Fire, Poison; Exhaustion, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone and Unconscious conditions
Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Passive Perception 12
Languages Auran
CR 3 (700 XP; PB +2)
Traits
Smoke Form. The belker can enter another creature’s space and remain there while transformed. In smoke form, it can move through an opening as narrow as 1 inch, retains its Fly speed, has Resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage from nonmagical attacks, and cannot use its Bite, Claw or Multiattack actions. Its shape remains a winged cloud with red eyes. If incapacitated or if the form ends, it returns to its solid smoky form in the nearest unoccupied space.
Actions
Multiattack (Solid Form Only). The belker makes two Claw attacks and one Bite attack.
Claw (Solid Form Only). Melee Attack Roll: +6, reach 10 ft. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) Slashing damage.
Bite (Solid Form Only). Melee Attack Roll: +6, reach 5 ft. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) Piercing damage.
Smoke Claws (Smoke Form Only). Constitution Saving Throw: DC 14, one Medium or smaller creature whose space the belker occupies and that needs to breathe. Failure: 11 (2d6 + 4) Slashing damage, and part of the belker is inhaled. On subsequent turns, while the inhaled effect lasts, the belker can use Internal Rake. The affected creature repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, expelling the smoke on a success. If the belker leaves the creature’s space, the effect ends. An inhaled belker can move with that creature without spending its Speed, but cannot be inhaled by two creatures at once. Success: No damage; the belker is expelled into an adjacent unoccupied space.
Bonus Actions
Become Smoke (1/Day). The belker assumes or ends its Smoke Form. The transformation lasts for up to 1 minute, until the belker ends it as a Bonus Action, or until it is incapacitated.
Internal Rake (Smoke Form Only). Requirement: The belker is inhaled by a creature. Effect: That creature takes 11 (2d6 + 4) Slashing damage.
Original 2024 adaptation, CR 3 unplaytested. Its breathing restriction and action economy are specific to this version.
Belker — D&D 2014
Large elemental, neutral evil
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 60 (8d10 + 16)
Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft. (hover)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 (+2) | 19 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 6 (−2) | 11 (+0) | 9 (−1) |
Saving Throws Dex +6
Skills Acrobatics +6, Perception +2, Stealth +6
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, unconscious
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
Languages Auran
Challenge 3 (700 XP; proficiency bonus +2)
Actions
Multiattack (Normal Form Only). The belker makes one Bite attack and two Claw attacks.
Bite (Normal Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Claw (Normal Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Smoke Claws (Smoke Form Only). The belker attacks creatures whose spaces overlap its own. Each such creature must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. On a failure it takes 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage as claws briefly solidify inside the body; on a success it avoids the damage. The belker can move with an affected moving creature without spending movement so long as its smoke still overlaps that creature. This version expressly affects creatures even if they hold their breath or do not need to breathe.
Bonus Actions
Smoke Form (Recharge 6). The belker transforms into pure smoke for up to 1 minute. In this form it has the properties of the gaseous form spell but retains a fly speed of 50 feet, can pass through a 1-inch opening and occupy other creatures’ spaces, and has resistance to nonmagical damage. It may attack only with Smoke Claws. It can end the form as a bonus action.
Credited third-party D&D 5e interpretation from City of Brass (2018), preserved from the previous entry. It is not a Wizards of the Coast Monster Manual stat block.
Belker CR 6 — Pathfinder 1e
XP 2,400
NE Large outsider (air, elemental, evil)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11
DEFENSE
AC 20, touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+5 Dex, +6 natural, −1 size)
hp 68 (8d10+24)
Fort +9, Ref +11, Will +2
DR 5/—
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft. (perfect)
Melee bite +12 (1d6+2), 2 claws +12 (1d6+2), 2 wings +10 (1d6+1)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks smoke claws (DC 17)
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 21, Con 17, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 10
Base Atk +8; CMB +11; CMD 26 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Combat Reflexes, Flyby Attack, Multiattack, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +16, Fly +22, Perception +11, Stealth +16; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth
Languages Auran; SQ smoke form
ECOLOGY
Environment any (Plane of Air)
Organization solitary, pair, or clutch (3–4)
Treasure incidental
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Smoke Claws (Ex). While in smoke form, the belker can enter a target’s square as a standard action without provoking attacks of opportunity. That target must succeed at a DC 17 Fortitude save or inhale part of the belker. It can then deal 3d4 damage per round as a swift action by forming a claw inside the target. An affected target can attempt a fresh DC 17 Fortitude save each round to cough it out; success ends the attack and places the belker in an adjacent square. While the attack persists, the belker can move with the target without spending its own movement and without provoking. Creatures that do not need to breathe are immune. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Smoke Form (Su). The belker enters or leaves smoke form as a swift action and may spend a total of 20 rounds per day in this state. The state functions as gaseous form, except that it retains its 50-foot perfect fly speed and can use Smoke Claws as described. Its natural armor ceases to apply (AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 9); it gains DR 10/magic, immunity to critical hits and precision damage, and the usual gaseous-form restrictions on attacks, spellcasting, object use, movement through water and wind. Its intrinsic DR 5/— also applies when relevant, but separate damage reductions do not add together. Its normal natural-attack routine cannot be used in this form. Gust of wind can disperse vapor in its path, subject to that spell’s specific rules and without automatically killing the elemental.
Published Pathfinder 1e creature from Bestiary 2, with its original statistics and action costs retained. Pathfinder rules reference.
Belker — D&D 3.5e
Large Elemental (Air, Extraplanar)
Hit Dice 7d8+7 (38 hp)
Initiative +5
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares), fly 50 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class 22 (−1 size, +5 Dex, +8 natural); touch 14, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple +5/+11
Attack wing +9 melee (1d6+2)
Full Attack 2 wings +9 melee (1d6+2), bite +7 melee (1d4+1), and 2 claws +7 melee (1d3+1)
Space/Reach 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks smoke claws
Special Qualities darkvision 60 ft., elemental traits, smoke form
Saves Fort +3, Ref +10, Will +2
Abilities Str 14, Dex 21, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 11
Skills Listen +7, Move Silently +9, Spot +7
Feats Alertness, Multiattack, Weapon Finesse
Environment Elemental Plane of Air
Organization solitary, pair, or clutch (3–4)
Challenge Rating 6
Treasure none
Alignment usually neutral evil
Advancement 8–10 HD (Large); 11–21 HD (Huge)
Level Adjustment —
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Smoke Claws (Ex). In smoke form, the belker may envelop one Medium or smaller breathing creature by moving into its space without provoking an attack of opportunity. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or inhale part of the belker. Solidifying claws deal 3d4 damage per round until the target succeeds on a new Fortitude save on a subsequent round and coughs the smoke out. The save is Constitution-based.
Smoke Form (Su). The belker changes between normal and smoke forms once per round as a free action and may spend up to 20 rounds per day in smoke form. Otherwise this works as gaseous form (caster level 7th), but it retains Fly 50 ft. (perfect) and its extraordinary Smoke Claws attack. Its natural armor ceases to apply (AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 9), and it gains DR 10/magic and immunity to critical hits. It cannot use its normal wing, bite or claw attacks, manipulate objects, enter liquid or ignore wind while gaseous. Gust of wind can move vapor as described in its own spell rules; it is not an automatic kill.
Skills and attack bonuses. The belker receives a +4 racial bonus on Move Silently checks. Its +7 secondary bite and claw attacks include the −2 secondary-weapon penalty granted by Multiattack, consistent with the published 3.5e SRD block.
Published D&D 3.5e System Reference Document creature; 3.5e Belker rules reference.
What Travellers Notice
Smoke that moves against the wind is the first sign. The column may hang in an empty sky, crawl downhill where an updraft should lift it, or bend away from a fire to follow someone who has disturbed its territory. The eyes appear late, dull red points in a body that never holds the same outline. A belker’s wings, talons and toothy mouth are more convincing when it thickens into a combat shape.
It is neither a campfire spirit nor a conventional fiend. In its ordinary state a belker is roughly seven feet long but exceedingly light, held together by living elemental air. Its enemies may mistake its retreat for smoke dispersing harmlessly; it can return through a crack or descend from above after the last torch goes out.
The creature speaks Auran, usually in short warnings or hostile demands to leave. It does not seek polite company. Its intelligence is limited, but it learns the trails intruders use and can recognise a repeated offence. A belker often breaks off once strangers escape its range; pursuit far outside that range is unusual unless it is wounded or has singled someone out.
Where Belkers Hunt
The belker belongs to the Elemental Plane of Air. Its preferred ground is not a constructed lair but a hazardous volume of sky: the smoke-drenched Ember Updrafts along the border with Fire, the windless wreck-fields of the Dead Calms, or the ash-dark margins of a thunder front. It rarely builds a nest. It chooses a recurring approach and strikes visitors who cross it.
Belkers react especially badly to djinn and jann, whom they treat as rivals and trespassers. Their tolerance for air elementals, dust and steam mephits is practical rather than friendly; small elementals may share a current until food or territory grows scarce. Belkers occasionally pass near an aerial servant but neither belongs to the other’s hierarchy. A belker is not automatically a follower of Yan-C-Bin.
On Midgard, smoke, wildfire or volcanic steam alone does not prove that a belker lives nearby. A visitor from Air must arrive through a gateway, a summoning or some other established crossing. A GM who wants one near a kiln, volcano or fire-scarred hillside should first establish that connection. The creature then uses the environment because it suits it, not because it materialises from every ordinary plume of soot.
Running a Belker
Before combat: smoke curls around an exit, the air goes still, and a cloud moves independently of any visible fire. The belker watches intruders briefly before threatening them in Auran. If they turn back, it may let them go; if they press forward, it chooses the last person in line or anyone struggling to breathe.
First exchange: in solid form it makes clawing wing passes from above, then shifts into smoke when a vulnerable target is separated. The creature chooses narrow passages and exposed ledges where its flight and ability to move through small gaps matter.
Smoke assault: it occupies the target’s space and uses its edition’s smoke-claw action. In Pathfinder 1e, entering is a standard action and later internal damage requires its swift action; in D&D 3.5e the target has repeated Fortitude saves. Do not allow a separate full natural-attack routine while it is gaseous. D&D 2024 and D&D 2014 use the complete mechanics stated in their own panels.
Counterplay: avoid entering thick smoke one at a time; clear a route of retreat; use distance, flight, watchful allies and the ability to force it away from a chosen victim. A creature that need not breathe is immune to the internal attack in Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e and in the original 2024 adaptation above; the credited 2014 version explicitly treats that differently. Ordinary breath-holding is not a universal defence. Natural wind may reveal a belker’s location, but it does not automatically destroy a supernatural elemental, and a wind spell needs to be adjudicated according to its own rules.
When losing: the belker prefers to disperse into smoke and escape through cracks or a rising current rather than die defending a worthless stone. A defeated belker leaves no hoard by default. A recovered travel token, broken cloud-skiff or carried message belongs to its victims and can point to the next encounter.
Three Encounters
Smoke Above the Wind-Sea
A cloud-skiff crossing the Ember Updrafts loses lift where the air turns grey and viscous. The lookout hears a beating wing but sees only ash. A belker has adopted the passage and is driving intruders toward a thermal drop. The party can change currents, cut loose cargo to gain speed, or confront it where the air is clear enough for everyone to help.
Breath Taken in the Dead Calm
A bound aerial servant has vanished while searching a still cloud-field. Its owner hires the party to recover a message case, not the servant. In the wreck-field of the Dead Calms, a belker waits among hanging sails and empty helms. Rescuing the servant, taking the message and driving away the predator demand different risks.
The Kiln That Breathes Back
A sealed furnace in a mortal town draws breath at night though no fire remains lit. The mason who bricked it shut is now coughing black dust. Behind the firebox lies a hairline breach to the Plane of Air; a stranded belker has claimed the passage. The party may seal the crossing, offer the monster a route home or force it out before it hunts another sleeper.
Sources, Rules and Artwork Credits
Creature origin: Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (v.3.5), Belker, with open 3.5e SRD entry. The 3.5e statistics reflect that open-game entry. Pathfinder 1e: Bestiary 2, with an accessible Pathfinder 1e creature reference. The D&D 2014 version is a third-party, OGL-published 5th Edition SRD Belker with the City of Brass (2018) copyright notice; it is not an official Wizards of the Coast 2014 Monster Manual creature. The D&D 2024 rules are newly written, unofficial and unplaytested.
Copyright notices retained: City of Brass © 2018 Frog God Games; authors Casey Christofferson and Scott Greene.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme Davis, Crystal Frasier, Joshua J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, Martin Mason, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Patrick Renie, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, and Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
Open Game Content designation: The Pathfinder 1e, D&D 3.5e, and credited 2014 mechanical treatments on this page use previously released Open Game Content only to the extent their sources designate it as such. For the full Open Game License v1.0a text and baseline notices see the site’s rules and licensing reference; source-specific copyright notices appear above. The painted artwork, campaign stories, original 2024 adaptation, site presentation and design are not designated Open Game Content here. These notices do not override any source’s Product Identity restrictions. The depiction of the Ember Updrafts and Dead Calms follows this campaign’s existing Plane of Air entry.
Art: Original painted hero, WordPress media 276607. Elemental family · Outsider Bestiary.
Keep this reference growing
If this page helped with your reading or game, you can support its upkeep or explore the curated books.
Explore the Bookshop — epics, classics and stories behind imagined worlds.