BX Monsters A to Z: Efreeti

 From the Expert Rules, it's the malevolent counterpart of the djinni, the efreeti. Just like the djinni, this efreeti is listed as the "lesser" sort, though the "greater" version never made its appearance in this edition of the game.

You've got your good genies, and you've got your evil genies, and the efreet are the evil ones. Efreet are a type of free-willed fire elementals, appearing as giant, demonic-faced humanoids wreathed in flames and smoke. 

An efreeti is a daunting opponent for all but the most capable parties. They have a robust Armor Class of 3 and a full 10 Hit Dice, a punishing physical attack for 2-16 points of damage, and a flying movement rate of 240'(80'). With a never-give-up Morale score of 12, the efreeti is not a monster to pick a fight with unless you're really sure you can beat it, because there's not much chance of escape if things go pear-shaped. 

Efreet have magical powers similar to those of their djinni cousins; to wit, creating food and water, creating metal items up to 1,000 coins in weight with variable durations, creating soft and wooden goods up to 1,000 coins in weight of permanent duration, turning invisible, and creating illusions. They can also create a wall of fire three times per day, and can transform themselves into a pillar of flame that will ignite all flammable materials within 5' and adds 1-8 points of damage to the efreeti's attacks. The pillar of flame form can be maintained for 3 rounds at a time, though no information is given as to how often it can repeat the process. Finally, an efreeti can carry up to 10,000 coins of weight (that's 1,000 pounds, or half a ton!) while flying. 

Efreet may be summoned to serve for 101 days; apparently magic-users may do so by means of special spells. These spells are not in the standard lists, implying a need for research and adventuring to discover or re-create them. Efreet may also be summoned by the efreeti bottle from the Magic Items section of the book. While djinn can be imagined as somewhat mischievous servants, efreet are outright resentful of their servitude, and will always attempt to twist the meaning of a command to cause trouble for their masters while adhering to the exact words.

Such a spiteful servant could be a lot of fun to role-play, an attitude full of sarcasm, contempt, and thinly veiled loathing toward its master, and maybe even less civil to its master's associates. Ordering it to be nice or respectful would likely result in cold or acidic politeness, backhanded compliments, or flippant remarks just short of blatant rudeness. 

All in all, there's not much of use that an efreet can do for you that a djinn couldn't do with a lot less attitude, unless you specifically need fire. Nonetheless, if you find the magic item that summons an efreeti instead of that for a djinni, you just have to work with what you've got. Also, no mention is made of those special spells for summoning djinn, so perhaps if a magic-user is going to summon a genie without use of a magical device, it's an efreeti or nothing.  Whatever you do, though, don't summon both at once, because the final sentence of the entry states that efreet hate djinn and will attack them on sight.

The efreeti works well enough as it is, but it would have been nice if it had some powers other than a slightly different attack form to distinguish it from the djinni, to provide a reason why particular characters might prefer it over a djinni. Perhaps allow it the power to cast curse and polymorph other three times per day each, giving it potential to grant some more malevolent "wishes."