Pech

Pech are subterranean humanoids with some Earth-working magical ability, especially in groups. They are four foot tall, jaundiced and scrawny, with pupil-less eyes. Pretty much what a D&D-playing nerd grows up as, after his inevitable descent into introversion and alcoholism.

Gygax introduced the pech in first edition module The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, thence the second Monster Manual. They haven't done much in the printed modules; the niche of not-awful Underdark critters was long-established in the svirfneblin. Laura French featured them in The Dragon's Ransom, Endless Quest #16.

2e classified the pech formally as "Elemental Kin", meaning they were residents of the Elemental Planes who weren't the "standard" style mass-of-appropriate-element-given-sentience. They were essentially the Plane of Earth's gnome analogue, similar to how Azers were the Plane of Fire's dwarves. Their most unique trait was being so low on the pecking order that they frequently left their planar home for the Prime Material because it was safer there.

Being left out of 3e's Manual, it was left to third-party Tome of Horrors to run Pech 3.0. 4e gave the pech an update in Heroes of the Elemental Chaos, where they are "elemental companions", akin to a familiar.

Meanwhile Paizo noticed that the pech were open-content so grabbed 'em for Pathfinder: earth elemental fey. They were transported to Golarion's Underdark in mass numbers by the Vault Keepers, alien bio-engineers who used them as slave laborers to construct the Hollow World-esque Vaults of Orv. After their masters went into slumber, a number of pech went for the surface, but exposure to sunlight and subsequently a madness-inducing fungus warped them into the first derro. This is a long way to saying that they're redundant in that setting / rulebook, too.

Gallery

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  S4

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  1e Monster Manual

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  Planescape

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  4e

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  Pathfinder