[Monster] Bookash Elemental

[Finerty]

{table]|Bookash Elemental, Tiny
Size/Type: |Tiny Elemental
|(Fire, Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: |1d8(5 hp)
Initiative: | +7
Speed: |Fly 50 ft. (perfect), 15 ft.
Armor Class: |18 (+2 size, +5 Dex, +1 natural), flat-footed
Base Attack/Grapple: |+0/-7
Attack: |Slam +3 melee (1d4 + 1d4 -2 fire)
Space/Reach: |5 ft. / 5ft.
Special Attacks: |Reduced Burn, Spell Effect
Special Qualities: |Darkvision 60ft., elemental traits, immunity to fire, vulnerability to cold, quirky magic
Saves: |For +0, Ref +3, Will +0
Abilities: |Str 10, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 3, Wis 11, Cha 11
Skills: |Knowledge (arcana) +3
Feats: |Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse
Environment: |Material Plane, Urban
Challenge Rating: |1/2
Alignment: |Usually neutral
[/table]

Rustling out of the shadows is a sooty looking ball of ash. The pile of dust, ashes, and bits of parchment moves swiftly in the wind, its movement accompanied by a whispering sussurrus of faroff low voices speaking in Draconic. A few sparks of flame still smolder in the center of the little mass.

Combat
A Bookash Elemental's main purpose is to keep its flames going. To this end, it seeks out paper as unobtrusively as possible, but will unleash spell effects and attack those who attack it.

Reduced Burn (Ex)
Much of the life force of a fire elemental is lost when it becomes a bookash elemental, and as such, its fires burn weaker. A bookash elemental's slam attack does bludgeoning damage and a small amount of fire damage. An opponent need never worry about catching fire from a bookash elemental - it can only light and consume still, nonattended objects. The bookash elemental is still hot, however, so creatures attacking it with natural weapons or unarmed attacks do still take the Reduced Burn damage, but still cannot catch fire.

Spell Effect (Su)
As a standard action, a bookash elemental can unleash a spell effect from the arcane energies in its consumed pages. This spell effect is in all ways similar to a spell cast by a wizard, as though prepared by a caster of the level indicated on the table. Each strength of bookash elemental casts spells from a different spell list, as also listed on the table. Each time a bookash elemental unleashes a spell effect, it loses the power to cast that spell ever again, unless that spell is restored (see below).
{table]Elemental|Spell-level|CL
Tiny|0-th level|1st
Small|1st-level|2nd
Medium|2nd-level|4th
Large|3rd-level|7th
[/table]

Quirky Magic
A bookash elemental contains magical power, which is not entirely lost upon immolation. A mending spell restores a spell consumed by a a bookash elemental's using it as a spell effect (see above), and a make whole spell cast on the elemental, while it is still alive, separates it into a fire elemental of the appropriate size and the book(s) consumed in immolation. A make whole spell cast on the dead ashes has no effect.

Description
A small fire elemental is a fairly common sight in the homes and workplaces of great wizards. Some are made as familiars, others as pets - some are flames enchanted on purpose, others develop unexpectedly in the presence of great magics. One way or another, where the practice of magic is frequent, tiny fire elementals or animated, intelligent flames are common enough.
A bookash elemental is the result of such a fire elemental setting afire a book of magic, be it a wizard's spellbook, a wondrous item of some sort, or perhaps simply an animated book, brought to life in just the same sort of arcane quirk as the fire itself. There have also been incidences where spellcasters were ostracized or purged, and their implements burned in greate piles.
In any case, the two magics usually meet with a strange reaction: the formation of a new, separate creature, the bookash elemental. Rising like the phoenix from the ashes of the extinguished burning book, a bookash elemental is a mishmash of magical energies - the smoldering burn of fire, and the papyrus-bound lore of magic. It acts in many ways as a weakened fire elemental, but is capable of unleashing strange effects stored in its pages.
Interestingly, these creatures are much sought after by wizards, for they retain, in a strange way, the magical power and lore that has been burnt into their ashes, and even the smallest of bookash elementals can be a valuable resource, if approached properly. In a bizarre twist of irony, these creatures are sometimes so friendly to spellcasters that they are, in turn, kept as familiars or pets.

[The Neoclassic]

Cute. No, really, I love tiny stuff and elementals; both are underused.

Its stats, however, are at least as good as a human warrior, so I'd give it a CR of 1/2 or even 1. The Strength is rather high for its size; if you want 1/3 CR, toning this score down could help.

Now, my favorite part- semantics. Why not call "Reduced Burn" something more concise, such as "Smoulder"? Also, you state "The pile of dust, ashes, and bits of parchment moves swiftly in the wind, it's movement accompanied by a whispering sussurrus of faroff low voices speaking in Draconic." While this could be construed as an eloquent metaphor, in which the bookash is movement with the whispering sussurus of sound, I think you meant that its movement (the movement which belongs to the elemental) goes along with the sound.

Now, to the best part for you- I love the description, and I like how you incorporated magic into their abilities. Overall, I honestly think this is a great idea and I'm a bit jealous I didn't think of it first! Please excuse my brutal but constructive criticism; feel free to ignore it if you so wish, but I do hope some helped.

[DracoDei]

Some of the comments on the intensional creation of creatures, or of there place as respected members of the community would be similar between this and The Grimoire.