Custom Spell: Create Elemental - Needs crtique

[Twin Dragons]

Create Elemental
School: Transmutation [Air, Earth, Fire, or Water]
Level: Druid 6 (7?)
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Components: V, S
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: One cubic area up to 20 ft. on a side
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

At the beginning of casting this spell, you must choose one element that has a physical form that ‘birth’ an elemental or para-elemental; air begets an air elemental, earth begets an earth elemental, fire begets a fire elemental and water begets a water elemental.

At the time of the manifestation of this spell the element is awakened and becomes 1d3+2 Large elementals, 1d3 Huge elementals or one Gargantuan elemental. For the duration of the spell, the element attacks as directed by your vocal commands.

At the end of the spell’s duration, the elemental dissipates into nothingness.

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This is something I worked up based on the animate fire/snow/water/wood spells presented in the Spell Compendium. It may need adjusting, so all input will be considered.

[ghettowedge]

First off, there are no Gargantuan elementals in the SRD. Second, based on the fact that druids get Summon Nature's Ally spells without having to prepare them, why would a druid prepare this instead?

[Paris Crenshaw]

Twin Dragons wrote:

This is something I worked up based on the animate fire/snow/water/wood spells presented in the Spell Compendium. It may need adjusting, so all input will be considered.

Hi, Twin Dragons.

I think your idea is nice, but ghettowedge is right. Druids can summon elementals from the moment they can cast 2nd level spells (Summon Nature's Ally II summons a small elemental of any variety, no matter what materials are available). By the time they could cast your create elemental spell, they'd have the ability to spontaneously summon a Huge elemental of any type.

The animate fire/water/snow/wood spells in Spell Compendium allow a 1st level druid to create an effect similar to summoning an elemental even though they wouldn't normally be able to do so with their signature summoning spell. Unfortunately, I don't see create elemental as a logical progression of those spells unless you make it a lower-level spell while allowing a larger elemental.

For example, you could make it a 5th level Druid spell and allow the creation of a construct that simulates a Huge elemental or several smaller ones, provided there is sufficient amounts of the proper element present.

Regardless, I'd change the name to something other than "create" elemental. Elementals are outsiders...they are sentient beings. Actually "creating" an elemental is something that only the most powerful deities should be able to do.

[Set]

Mechanically, the spell needs to conjure up elementals at a better rate than the Druid could already do with Summon Nature's Ally or Elemental Swarm. (Making them last minutes / level, or, in a Druid variant of Planar Ally / Planar Binding, be able to be conjured up for specific tasks or services, would be one route, instead of just making 'more, bigger' elementals.)

I do kind of like the idea that the elementals could actually be *created,* and not just summoned. In this case, the created elemental would be banished at the end of service to whatever plane is appropriate for it, to live out the rest of it's newly created existence.

Evil Druid - "Fire moves, consumes, and grows. Weapons cannot injure it. It knows neither mercy nor pity. Fire would be the perfect minion if only it possessed intelligence." Casts Awaken Fire. "Intelligence that I now bestow!"

[stolen from a list of evil magician quotes over on the Mutants & Masterminds boards]

[Paris Crenshaw]

Okay...in that context, I like the idea of creating elementals. And, stolen or not, that's a cool quote. ;)

[Celestial Healer]

Another option to distinguish this spell from others that druids can already cast would be to make the duration permanent. Naturally, the potency of the elemental would have to be reduced, and limits would have to be placed on the number of HD worth of elementals the druid could control - for both of these limitations, you could use Animate Dead as a guide, since it similarly creates permanent minions.

Edit: The downside of this approach is that once you introduce a spell like the one I described, it will become "mandatory" for every druid in your campaign, since they can cast it during their downtime and then have a little elemental companion from then on... You could incorporate it with the animal companion rules in order to give it a "cost". Anyway... I'm throwing around a lot of ideas here. Good gaming!