Elemental Body...keep class abilities?


Rules Questions


If you cast Elemental Body IV, it says (for Water)...

Water elemental: As elemental body I except that you gain a +4 size bonus to your Strength, a -2 penalty on your Dexterity, a +8 size bonus to your Constitution, and a +6 natural armor bonus. You also gain swim 120 feet.

My question is, do you keep all your normal attacks, spell casting abilities, etc, etc when you do this? I have a player who just gained this with his "cleric who thinks he's a fighter" character and it seems like a really good ability for him IF he still keeps his regular attacks, spells and abilities.

If I'm reading this right, he could become Huge, gain reach, have his weapon increase two size classes, gain a +2 to Hit/Daamage, a whole mess of HP, and a whopping +6 to his AC. That's pretty badass.

Which makes me think, there's gotta be a downside...:)

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Elemental body is much like any other polymorph effect, your held and worn equipment melds into your form.. which includes things like components, armor, weapon, spell foci, etc.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

elementals also come in humanoid forms... so no worries about what exactly happens to his anatomy in relation to what he can do.


Polymorph spells don't remove class abilities.

If he can work around the equipment melding (really as simple as removing them, casting the spell, and re-equipping, though he'd likely have to ditch any armor he had) he's gold.


Bandw2 wrote:
elementals also come in humanoid forms... so no worries about what exactly happens to his anatomy in relation to what he can do.

They also have the ability to speak a language, so that also takes care of verbal components as well.

The only real downside here is that, if he wants to use his a weapon, he can't use his usual one.

I don't mean any of that 'melding into the body' stuff. That can be solved by dropping things and picking them back up. No, the problem here is that this form is huge. So that means a medium weapon is not usually going to work (I think 2 handed ones might work as light weapons, but that is still a -4 to attack due to size categories). So he has to buy/find a huge sized weapon.

He might also have problems with his armmor. The natural armor gained is nice, but it doesn't entirely beat well enhanced medium armor. So yeah, another huge item (which might not even really work with the spell, due to how long it might take to put on. Huge Armored coat?)

A druid could pull some of this stuff off more easily, since their wildshape lasts for hours per level. I quite like the idea of a druid that just BECOMES a large sized earth elemental, and just buys armor and weapons for that form. He would just go about his day like that, all the time.


Ah, okay, so his gear is gone, which is a big deal.

I was thinking, "Wow, he'll use this every time there's a big fight that will be melee heavy, 6 more AC, weapon does more damage, etc, etc". Thanks for clarifying this, now its not so overwhelming!

Scarab Sages

Yup. Polymorph effects only affect equipment. You keep spellcasting, BAB, etc. It's pretty darn sweet.


Davor wrote:
Yup. Polymorph effects only affect equipment. You keep spellcasting, BAB, etc. It's pretty darn sweet.

Well, polymorph could take away the parts you use for spell casting.

I mean, only experienced druids can cast spells as a cat, since you need hands and a voice for that normally. It wouldn't necessarily stop you from using nonspell abilities, like from a domain, unless those also call for hands or a voice.

But if you have all the important humanoid-shaped parts and a voice (and elementals can have all of that according to their bestiary entries and subtype details), then yeah, you are fine.

Scarab Sages

True. I said that because the character in question was becoming an elemental, and elementals can take on a variety of viable spellcasting forms and retain the ability to speak.


You might want to pick up some spell components arftr changing, though.

Alternative Eschew Materials is your friend here.


Xavram5 wrote:

Ah, okay, so his gear is gone, which is a big deal.

I was thinking, "Wow, he'll use this every time there's a big fight that will be melee heavy, 6 more AC, weapon does more damage, etc, etc". Thanks for clarifying this, now its not so overwhelming!

If you want a polymorph that let you retain your equipment, there are already the giant, undead and monstrous humanoid ones

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