Azer Sentinel

A friendly azer sentinel is a hireling, not a friend. The dwarven clan or efreeti noble who actually owns the contract has lent the party one azer for one specific job: guard this gate while we sleep, hold this passage while we cross, stand inside this circle and burn anything that breaks through. Frame it as a service rendered, with a written tally of hours.

In play, the azer obeys post orders literally. It will stand in the chosen spot, light it (Illumination at 10 ft. bright), and use Fire Aura plus Burning Hammer on anything hostile that enters its 5-foot reach. It will not pursue. If the party tells it to charge forward, it shrugs in Primordial (Ignan) and stays put. This is a feature, not a bug. The azer's value is being unkillable in one square, not flanking with the rogue.

Use it to free a player. The cleric who is normally on healing duty can do something else for a fight if an azer is parked next to the unconscious paladin, since anything coming for the body has to walk into the aura. The fire and poison immunity also makes it the perfect handler for a captured demon, an unstable alchemical fire, or a poison-trapped corridor the party needs scouted.

Have the azer's contract specify a return time and a forfeit clause for damages. Players who borrow elemental labor remember the bill better than they remember the help.

An azer sentinel is a doorstop with a temper. The whole creature is built around standing in one spot, glowing, and punishing whatever steps inside reach. AC 17 and 39 HP let it absorb a round or two from a CR-2-appropriate party, and Fire Aura does the actual mathematical work: 5 fire damage at the end of each azer turn to every chosen creature inside the 5-foot emanation, on top of the Burning Hammer hit for about 8 bludgeoning plus 3 fire on a +5 attack.

Position the azer in chokepoints. A doorway, a bridge over a forge channel, the foot of a stair. The 30-foot walk speed and the lack of any movement abilities mean an azer that gets isolated in open ground is just a slow target, but an azer guarding a 5-foot-wide gap forces every melee PC to either eat aura damage every round or stay back and try to range it down. Pair two azers with their fire emanations overlapping for a 10-foot kill zone the rogue absolutely cannot tumble through. Remember Illumination: an azer is a 10-foot Bright Light source, so it cannot hide and the dim-light caster has nowhere to skulk inside a forge full of sentinels.

Fire and poison immunity protect the azer from the obvious problem-solving spells. A party with no cold, force, or radiant options is going to grind. The Poisoned condition immunity also closes off Stinking Cloud and most rogue poisons.

Azers do not retreat. They are bound to their post. If the party walks away the azer holds the line, and if the party comes back the azer is still there. Treat the corpse as a recovered piece of furniture, not a slain enemy. The smith who employed it will want it back.