It looks like Elementals in 4th edition are going to be little more interesting than in previous editions, at least story wise. So I was wondering how Elementals would be handled in Pathfinder.
Also, I have a suggestion. One thing that has always bothered me about elementals, all but Fire Elementals are rather benign in their natural state. I suggest shaking the Elementals up by have them be Earth, Air, Water, and Light, instead of Fire. This way all Elementals exsist in a benign state but when angered or on the attack then the elemental could bring forth the damaging energy associated with that element. Light elementals burst into searing flame, Air elementals crackle with lightning, Water elementals eminate with freezing cold, and Earth elementals corrde with an acidic touch. Any way just a suggestion
Fire isn't just harmful. It's a giver of life and warmth. I can see conjurers summoning up fire elementals when they venture into colder regions.
Air can also kill you - look how much damage hurricanes do. And earth: an earth elemental could probably kill you with an arm and not even notice it. And as for water: Nice stuff, but try to breathe it.
And Light isn't an element, and thus a light elemental wouldn't make sense.
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Fire isn't just harmful. It's a giver of life and warmth. I can see conjurers summoning up fire elementals when they venture into colder regions.
Air can also kill you - look how much damage hurricanes do. And earth: an earth elemental could probably kill you with an arm and not even notice it. And as for water: Nice stuff, but try to breathe it.
And Light isn't an element, and thus a light elemental wouldn't make sense.
Just to be pedantic, neither earth, air, water, nor fire are elements. They are, rather, what the ancient Greeks identified as elements - they were wrong, of course.
D&D uses elements in the sense of the classical elements. They'll probably stick with it. But it's not like it's impossible to muck around with them.
Just to be pedantic, neither earth, air, water, nor fire are elements. They are, rather, what the ancient Greeks identified as elements - they were wrong, of course.
Although they do neatly correspond to the states of matter: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), plasma (fire)... so maybe those Greeks weren't totally off their collective rocker.
Although they do neatly correspond to the states of matter: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), plasma (fire)... so maybe those Greeks weren't totally off their collective rocker.
This made me want to stat up neutronium and degenerate elementals.
This made me want to stat up neutronium and degenerate elementals.
Please post them when you do!
Just to be pedantic
Why be pedantic? No one likes a smart-alek :P.
neither earth, air, water, nor fire are elements. They are, rather, what the ancient Greeks identified as elements - they were wrong, of course.
They are in D&D - and many other fantasy worlds (and even more use some of them as elements)
And since we're talking D&D and Golarion, not real life and our universe, I think I'm still right.
And, by the way, I can be pedantic, too: Light's not an element, either.
Although they do neatly correspond to the states of matter: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), plasma (fire)... so maybe those Greeks weren't totally off their collective rocker.
Nice catch. That could be worked into something!
Fire isn't just harmful. It's a giver of life and warmth. I can see conjurers summoning up fire elementals when they venture into colder regions.
Air can also kill you - look how much damage hurricanes do. And earth: an earth elemental could probably kill you with an arm and not even notice it. And as for water: Nice stuff, but try to breathe it.
And Light isn't an element, and thus a light elemental wouldn't make sense.
Actually Fire is not a giver of life, warmth yes, life no. Light provides the sustaining energy of life especially sun light. As for the destructive power of Air, Earth, and Water, I agree with you completely but you seem to have missed my point. Yes Earth can crush you but I don't walk around worried about the ground falling on me. Yes, Air can obliterate but I am not concerned that I might inhale a hurricane. Yes, Water can drown you but I am not afraid that my bath water is going to flood the neighborhood. All three of these "elements" are only damaging in extreme occurances. Fire burns all the time not just in extreme situations. Light like Earth, Air, and Water, has a destructive side as well. To much light can cause radiation burn, however most of the time this is not a concern.
My suggestion in changing Fire elemental to Light elemental allows all for elementals to exsist in a naturally benign state thus emphisizing the energy type most often associated with that element if the elemental should find cause to inflict energy damage.Anyway it was just a suggestion nothing more.
On the Light Elemental issue. I think it'd be fine to add in light elementals but replacing fire with light is not exactly like potato po-taw-to. Light elementals could be from the positive energy plane. But perhaps inserting benign fire elementals in your campaign would be an easier 'gm magic' option. Just a frumpy geezer's suggestion.
I've never thought that the "ecology of the elemental" in D&D needed an overhaul. If you want to come up with more elemental type monsters, that's fine.
But I think you could consider the standard elementals as something of an artifact of human wizards desires as anything else.
The wizard thinks:
"calling beings from the outer planes to fight for me is great and all, but it can be risky because they have free will. What if I call forth the raw power of air/earth/water/fire from one of the elemental planes to do my bidding?"
You don't have to assume that there are millions of fire elementals of various sizes sitting around the plane of fire being bored until they get called up by a wizard. Just assume that the plane is mostly "essence of fire", and when a wizard casts a summoning spell, he calls forth a chunk of it and imbues it with a bit of will. The efreets and whatnot are still chillin' on the plane of fire, but there doesn't have to be that many of them.
You don't have to assume that there are millions of fire elementals of various sizes sitting around the plane of fire being bored until they get called up by a wizard. Just assume that the plane is mostly "essence of fire", and when a wizard casts a summoning spell, he calls forth a chunk of it and imbues it with a bit of will. The efreets and whatnot are still chillin' on the plane of fire, but there doesn't have to be that many of them.
That's pretty close to how a lot of magic systems in games and literature treat elementals. You could even go a step further and consider elementals as part of the "essence of nature," restricting their summons to druids (and the summon nature's ally spell). Clerics and sorcerers/wizards could still summon beings from the elemental planes (mephits, etc.), but not true elementals.