Efreeti

An efreeti ally is almost always a wish-bargain. The party found a brass lamp, freed a bound noble, or completed a task in the City of Brass, and now the efreeti owes them. Note the 30 percent chance of knowing Wish: roll it once at the table and stick with the result. If the answer is no, the efreeti can still cast everything else (Plane Shift to anywhere, Wall of Fire, Major Image), which is plenty of value. If the answer is yes, the efreeti can grant up to three wishes for the freer, with no stress to itself, and then nothing for 365 days. That is a campaign-shaping gift and you should treat it like one.

Run the efreeti as a haughty contractor. It performs the agreed favor, and only that favor. In combat, it Multiattacks with three Heated Blade at +10 if the party wants something killed in melee, or three Hurl Flame at +8 from 60 ft. up if they want a building or a battle line burned out. It will not coordinate with the party's caster, it will not flank, and it will not soak hits for anyone. Fire immunity makes it the obvious choice to walk into the burning ship.

Out of combat, the efreeti is a transit network. Plane Shift moves up to eight willing creatures to any plane. The catch: it picks the arrival point loosely, and if the destination is the City of Brass, the party arrives in chains until the efreeti vouches for them. Tongues lets it translate any conversation. Invisibility lets it scout without being seen by mortal guards.

Pin down the wording of the wishes before the session. An efreeti grants exactly what the freer says, not what they meant.

An efreeti is a noble tyrant from the City of Brass who hates being interrupted. Whatever the party did to provoke this fight (broke a binding, plundered a brass-walled tomb, refused to bow), the efreeti expects to win and expects to be addressed properly while doing it. Open with a sentence of contempt in Primordial. The fight is the second-rate option, and the efreeti will tell them so.

The opening turn priority depends on positioning. If the party is clustered, hover at 60 ft. and Multiattack with three Hurl Flame at +8 (24 average fire each, 120 ft. range). 72 average damage spread across three targets ruins a level 8 party's first round. If a single tank closed in, drop into reach and Multiattack with three Heated Blade at +10 (26 average per hit, slashing plus fire). Mix freely. The Multiattack text lets you swap any combination of Heated Blade and Hurl Flame, so use the blade on grappled or low-HP targets and the flame on the back line. Fire immunity means you can stand in the wizard's Wall of Fire and not care.

Spellcasting is the adversary's flex tool. Wall of Fire (level 7 version) once per day shapes the battlefield and forces the party to walk through 5d8 fire to reach you. Invisibility once per day breaks line of sight after a bad round, and Major Image once per day fakes a duplicate so the party wastes a turn on the wrong target. Plane Shift is the panic button: at Bloodied or after a Counterspell humiliation, the efreeti steps to the Plane of Fire mid-sentence and the encounter ends. Magic Resistance gives advantage on every save against spells, so Banishment is unreliable.

Efreeti do not die for ego, they die for honor, and those are different. If the party has not insulted the efreeti's house or lord, it leaves once the fight is clearly lost. If they have, it stays to zero and curses them with its last words. Elemental Restoration brings it back in 1d4 days. Note the date.