Fire Elementals - Unique and Fun abilities

[smetzger]

I've been giving some thought to elementals and I think it would be nice to have some 'extra' abilities and drawbacks for them.

I am open to suggestions on how to make these balanced. First lets just brainstorm on some interesting abilities and drawbacks for fire elementals...

- Heal if 'fed' something flamable
- Can cast fire based spells
- Have +10 Hide when in fire
- Have +10 to disguise themselves as a fire
- Incorporeal (along with this would be no bludgeoning damage and only fire damage)
- cold vulnerability
- water vulnerability

Did I miss anything?

 

[Kerrick]

Heal by being "fed" something flammable: Not a bad idea, but I'm not sure how to implement it properly.

Fire-based SLAs: Could work, but I think there's a minimum Int score to have/use them (I'm running short on time, or I'd dig around).

+10 to Hide/Disguise in a fire: As with the water elementals, good call. I forgot to mention that they'd have to conceal themselves in a fire at least as big as they are (duh, but it should be mentioned anyway).

Incorporeal: No. They have weight, and being incorporeal means they'd have a) concealment; b) immunity to normal weapons; and c) the ability to move through solid objects. You could make them immaterial (half-incorporeal)... I'll go into more detail later, when I have time.

Cold vulnerability: They already have it.

Water vulnerability: Good call. A gallon of water can deal, say, 1d4 (they're really hot).

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Water vulnerability: Good call. A gallon of water can deal, say, 1d4 (they're really hot).

I'd use the following for water vulnerability...

* 1d6 points of damage by a mundane water attack (having a bucket of water tossed at it).
* 5d6 points of damage per round of being submerged in water (bull-rushed into a river).
* 1d6 points of damage per spell level by a water-based spell (wall of water).

 

[Michael Silverbane]

- Heal if 'fed' something flammable
- Can cast fire based spells
- Have +10 Hide when in fire
- Have +10 to disguise themselves as a fire
- Incorporeal (along with this would be no bludgeoning damage and only fire damage)
- cold vulnerability
- water vulnerability

For fire-based spells, I'd give them one per 'age category' And probably 3 times per day...

i.e. A small fire elemental would get burning hands three times per day. A medium fire elemental would get burning hands and gain scorching ray three times per day. A large fire elemental would gain fireball three times per day. A huge fire elemental would gain blast of flame three times per day.

You might need to be careful about this, because a summon monster to get a fire elemental might become much more useful by doing this...

The hide and disguise abilities seem just fine.

For my own fire elementals (as well as air and water elementals), I've given them an ability called insubstantial which grants benefits similar to the gaseous form spell, as well as DR 5/-.

 

[Kerrick]

I'd use the following for water vulnerability...

* 1d6 points of damage by a mundane water attack (having a bucket of water tossed at it).
* 5d6 points of damage per round of being submerged in water (bull-rushed into a river).
* 1d6 points of damage per spell level by a water-based spell (wall of water).

That sounds good. I reduced it to 1d4 so you couldn't douse a Small elemental with a single bucket of water.

For fire-based spells, I'd give them one per 'age category' And probably 3 times per day...
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You might need to be careful about this, because a summon monster to get a fire elemental might become much more useful by doing this...

Yeah, there is that. And, fire elementals would be more powerful than the others unless they ALL get SLAs.

For my own fire elementals (as well as air and water elementals), I've given them an ability called insubstantial which grants benefits similar to the gaseous form spell, as well as DR 5/-.

That's pretty close to what I have for immaterial - it's a 25% miss chance and chance to ignore physical attacks, but you can't pass through solid objects. Elementals already gain DR x/-... how does that work with your system? Does that just replace the existing DR?

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Okay, so I thought of something a little bit ago - a modification to the Burn ability. If you set an item on fire, it'll burn, but unless it's either really small or really flammable, it'll go out after a minute or two. So what I was thinking is this:

A fire elemental can set objects alight with its touch. Each round, the object takes a variable amount of damage, depending on the elemental's size, and it burns for 2d4 rounds. (The reasoning behind this is that the older and larger it is, the hotter its flame - hotter flames deal more damage.) If an object's hit points are reduced to 0 in this manner, it is destroyed, burned beyond repair. It can be extinguished normally (by casting a cold spell on it, dousing it in water, etc.)

A fire elemental can also deal ongoing fire damage to an object by maintaining contact. This is often used for nonflammable objects, like metal. Each round, the elemental deals damage according to its size (1d6 for Small-Medium, 2d4 for Large-Huge, and 2d6 for Greater-Elder). If the object is flammable, it continues to burn as noted above if the elemental ceases contact. If the object is metal, it is treated as being affected by a heat metal spell for 1 round per Hit Die of the elemental.

 

[smetzger]

For my own fire elementals (as well as air and water elementals), I've given them an ability called insubstantial which grants benefits similar to the gaseous form spell, as well as DR 5/-.

Yes, thats more inline with what I was thinking.

I wouldn't give summoned elementals these extra abilities, or if I did then you would summon the one from the lower list. Elementals are one of the most powerful creatures you can summon already.

 

[Runestar]

You could use the martial study feats to give elementals access to maneuvers and stances from the desert wind school. Or give them lvs in swordsage. Because elementals tend to have an inordinate amount of HD for their cr, they really don't suffer much.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I really like these sorts of house rules. Things that just seem to 'click', to make sense. Not sure exactly what form it'll take in my house rules document, but there will be something along these lines now (to add to some related things, actually). Great stuff!