Earth Glide and Attacking


Rules Questions


So, one of my PC's is playing a Stone Lord and has an earth elemental pet. As a group we are curious how attacking works for the earth elemental when it comes out of the ground.

1. Can it just come partially out of the earth and attack, and if so does it have cover when it does so?

2. Does it have to make a perception check when it comes out of the earth to figure out where enemies are and the state of the battle, or can it rely solely on its tremor sense and not worry about it?

3. When it comes out of the earth to attack, does it catch the NPC/Mob flat footed when it attacks, if he/she/it was unaware of it?

Any help would be appreciated.

Sovereign Court

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First, also read this for more perspective.

Second; there are not a lot of rules for earthglide, but the common opinion is to treat is mostly like an incorporeal creature hiding in the ground. Unlike an incorporeal creature, earthglide means you don't have to styay adjacent to the surface; it's more flexible.

1) Yes. While in the earth it has total cover; while attacking it has only normal cover. To attack it when it's somewhat out of the ground like this, you must use a Ready Action.

2) Tremorsense suffices for enemies touching the ground. Note that tremorsense only pinpoints people; the elemental still has the 50% miss chance because it can't see enemies without fully emerging from the stone and blowing its cover.

3) For the first attack, yeah. After that all enemies will probably be on their guard. A really clever elemental might resort to Stealth rules though to repeat the trick.

The Exchange Owner - D20 Hobbies

3rd thread this week on this subject.

General wisdom is:
You make 50% miss chances to attack.
Opponents can ready to attack you back.

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