Perhaps a silly question, but can water elementals "stand" on the surface of water?
If those pesky adventurers try to hover over the surface, can my huge elemental take full advantage of his reach and swat them?
By RAW, no. It does not have any ability to cast or otherwise use "Water Walking". Just because it has a swim speed does not mean it can stand on water (or else fish and octopi and all other swimmers could - I don't want to see a giant crocodile scurrying over the surface of the water any time soon...).
That said, I think it would be totally cool and not really game breaking to do this.
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Keep in mind that elementals may be shaped like snakes, bipedal, quadrapedal, etc. While a water elemental cannot water walk, if the water is deep enough, I don't think it is unreasonable for it to be able to swim/charge out of the water straight up at a flying character for a slam attack. That slam should force it to have to make a fly check or drop 10 feet.
Water can serve as good camouflage for a water elemental, though not perfect (I would think that movement can set off eddies that may give away it's location). While they are not super intelligent, taking advantage of environment should be instinctive.
