Planer handbook races surviving on there native planes

[something random]

From what I can see a number of races in the planer handbook lack essential traits for survival on there native planes.
Water mephlings have no ability to breath water
Fires mephlings have no resistance to fire damage
Shadowswyts have no resistance to negative energy damage

Am I wrong is this did the writers make a mistake or is there an explanation I have not considered

[bloodtide]

The races are not from their 'native' plane.  Mephlings come from a mephit + a humanoid, for example.  Often on a 'safe plane', like the Prime.  You might also figure mephlings comes from safe parts of the Elemental plane, so a fire mephling was born and raised in a 'cool pocket' town or near the border of Ash.  A water mephling could be from an 'glass bubble' town.

And why would shadowswyts need negative energy protection?  The Plane of Shadows is just full of shadows...not negative energy.  Sure there are undead there, but undead are everywhere.

[veekie]

The races are not from their 'native' plane.  Mephlings come from a mephit + a humanoid, for example.  Often on a 'safe plane', like the Prime.  You might also figure mephlings comes from safe parts of the Elemental plane, so a fire mephling was born and raised in a 'cool pocket' town or near the border of Ash.  A water mephling could be from an 'glass bubble' town.

It's still a little odd that they can't handle even mild sections of their parent's plane though. It's not like those fundamental protections are that powerful(well, the Fire dude would have to live in a cooler spot anyway, Resist 5-10 isn't out of possibility for a level 1 guy).

Considering even tieflings and aasimar have some (minor) resistance to elements...

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Mephlings aren't even outsiders.  So they're probably native to the material.

That said, the sidebar implies they should be getting some situational fast healing that they aren't.

[something random]

Mephlings aren't even outsiders.  So they're probably native to the material.

That said, the sidebar implies they should be getting some situational fast healing that they aren't.

Humanoid (Extraplaner): Mephlings are native to the Elemental Planes. They have the humanoid type and gain the extraplaner subtype when not on their respective ancestral plane. Unlike their mephit ancestors, mephlings do not have an elemental subtype.

Emphases added by me.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Ah, missed that part

[ksbsnowowl]

And why would shadowswyts need negative energy protection?  The Plane of Shadows is just full of shadows...not negative energy.  Sure there are undead there, but undead are everywhere.

There are pockets of the Shadow plane that have the minor negative energy trait.  There might even be a few pockets that have the major negative energy trait (I can't recall for sure).

... of course as I write this I cannot locate this info in the SRD...  I'll double-check the MotP when I get home tonight.

Mephlings aren't even outsiders.  So they're probably native to the material.

That said, the sidebar implies they should be getting some situational fast healing that they aren't.

Humanoid (Extraplaner): Mephlings are native to the Elemental Planes. They have the humanoid type and gain the extraplaner subtype when not on their respective ancestral plane. Unlike their mephit ancestors, mephlings do not have an elemental subtype.

Emphases added by me.

And being extraplanar, a banishment or dismissal could send them back to their home elemental plane, where they burn to death, or drown.

[PhaedrusXY]

And being extraplanar, a banishment or dismissal could send them back to their home elemental plane, where they burn to death, or drown.

[ksbsnowowl]

And being extraplanar, a banishment or dismissal could send them back to their home elemental plane, where they burn to death, or drown.

Anybody want to play a Mephling?

[ksbsnowowl]

And why would shadowswyts need negative energy protection?  The Plane of Shadows is just full of shadows...not negative energy.  Sure there are undead there, but undead are everywhere.

There are pockets of the Shadow plane that have the minor negative energy trait.  There might even be a few pockets that have the major negative energy trait (I can't recall for sure).

... of course as I write this I cannot locate this info in the SRD...  I'll double-check the MotP when I get home tonight.

Found it.  Manual of the Planes, p. 60.

No Elemental or Energy Traits:  Some small regions on the Plane of Shadow (called Darklands; see below) have the minor negative-dominant trait, however.

The Darklands are then described on page 63 of the same book.

[Littha]

It does make enough sense, there are a lot of places on the material plane that are lethal to its inhabitants and i cant see why that would be different elsewhere.

Now wondering if you can banish a human back into a volcano or the sea on the prime material... assuming its like earth and 70% of the landmass is water it would be hard not to.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

And being extraplanar, a banishment or dismissal could send them back to their home elemental plane, where they burn to death, or drown.

Anybody want to play a Mephling?

Well, if I can use stupid RAW and play a lesser mephling...

[Sinfire Titan]

Now wondering if you can banish a human back into a volcano or the sea on the prime material... assuming its like earth and 70% of the landmass is water it would be hard not to.

Well, somewhat correct. If it's like Earth, 70% of the surface is water. There's still more rock than water.

Then again, there's probably a clause in Banishment or Teleportation effects in general that prevents them from teleporting into solid rock. If so, the odds of them ending up underwater at all are higher than them ending up on solid ground.