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http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/eleme ntal-air/large-air-elemental
In our last game, we wanted a large air elemental to suck up a huge creature, as well as a number of medium sized creatures.
We could not find out if it was possible.
Bumping in hope of an answer :-)
This cropped up for me because I have an air elemental familiar for my current character. Here are the relevant parts of the Whirlwind ability:
The whirlwind is always 5 feet wide at its base, but its height and width at the top vary from creature to creature (minimum 10 feet high). A whirlwind’s width at its peak is always equal to half its height. The creature controls the exact height, but it must be at least 10 feet high.
A creature that comes in contact with the whirlwind must succeed at a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 the monster’s HD + the monster’s Strength modifier) or take damage as if it were hit by the whirlwind creature’s slam attack. It must also succeed on a second Reflex save or be picked up bodily and held suspended in the powerful winds, automatically taking the indicated damage each round. A creature that can fly is allowed a Reflex save each round on its turn to escape the whirlwind. The creature still takes damage that round but can leave if the save is successful.
Creatures trapped in the whirlwind cannot move except to go where the whirlwind carries them or to escape the whirlwind. Trapped creatures can otherwise act normally, but must succeed at a concentration check (DC 15 + spell level) to cast a spell. Creatures caught in the whirlwind take a –4 penalty to Dexterity and a –2 penalty on attack rolls. The whirlwind can have only as many creatures trapped inside at one time as will fit inside the whirlwind’s volume. As a free action, the whirlwind can eject any carried creatures whenever it wishes, depositing them in its space.
Ok.... The Large Air Elemental whirlwind can have a height from 10-40 ft. If it is 40 ft. tall then it is 20 ft. wide at the top, covering a total of 400' sq ft (or 16 5' squares in a 4x4 box). Since it tapers down to 5' at the base, you can figure that the first 10' of height are about 5' wide, the second 10' are 10' wide, the 3rd 10' is 15' wide and the last 10' are 20' wide. That gives us a volume of 60 5'x5'x5' boxes.
Now, RAW don't really take height into account from what I have seen as maps are only assumed in 2 dimensions. However, since creature descriptions include height, we can assume that a Med (tall) creature takes up 1 5' box (rounding down). A Huge (tall) creature takes up 9 boxes per 5' of height and they are 16'-32' tall. The smallest of which would take up 27 of our cubes (rounding 16' down to 15'). However, it's 3x3 space fills up most of the volume at the top (widest) part of the whirlwind, so even though we have enough cubic feet of volume, we simply can't stick more than 1 Huge creature inside it (unless they are disassembled in some fashion). However, there is still space for 32 or so Med (tall) creatures left over.
If the Huge creature is on the upper end of the spectrum, I think he can still be picked up, but his feet will be sticking out the narrow part at the bottom. he will also only leave room for about 18 Med (tall) creatures.
If this is unclear in any way, I can attempt to show you on a grid.
Hope it helps!
That would work, thanks!
The image of a swirling huge demon with its feet sticking out is quite funny.
I am FAQ'ing it, the description from Paizo could be improved I believe.