Earth elemental blind in earth: oversight?

[Mort]

Last game session and umber hulk retreated from the group by burrowing into the earth. The party druid, not willing to let it go, summoned an earth elemental to follow it. Then, looking at the earth elemental description, we realised that it has no actual method of seeing when in the earth . Other monsters of this type (Umberhulks, Xorn etc.) all have tremorsense or something similar. Am I just missing something in the earth elemental description?

I think this is obviously an oversight, as the alternative makes no sense - what do you guys think?

 

[Henry]

Last game session and umber hulk retreated from the group by burrowing into the earth. The party druid, not willing to let it go, summoned an earth elemental to follow it. Then, looking at the earth elemental description, we realised that it has no actual method of seeing when in the earth . Other monsters of this type (Umberhulks, Xorn etc.) all have tremorsense or something similar. Am I just missing something in the earth elemental description?

I think this is obviously an oversight, as the alternative makes no sense - what do you guys think?

Check the description and picture -- it has no freakin' EYES.

I'd tell the DM not to worry about it, and assume the EE can see through the earth he's in as easily as a fish sees through water. I would probably even give them tremorsense, too, with earth they're in contact with, but that's stretching it a bit.

 

[Mort]

Check the description and picture -- it has no freakin' EYES.

I'd tell the DM not to worry about it, and assume the EE can see through the earth he's in as easily as a fish sees through water. I would probably even give them tremorsense, too, with earth they're in contact with, but that's stretching it a bit.

That's another funny bit - it explicitly has darkvision 60' eyes or no, so can see just fine anywhere but in the earth. It's easy enough to assume it has ability to see in the earth, but it's a pretty dumb omission.

 

[darthkilmor]

I'd say that since it has Earth Glide then it should definately be able to know where its going in the earth, just like a fish in water. Definately an oversight imho.

 

[frankthedm]

Why is this an oversight? Just because PCs want a summon to do something it can't?

If a player came here kvetching about a DM killing their character because an elemental chased them down while the character was burrowing, there would be posters jumping on that DM’s case for that.

Heck even incorporeal only get sensory input from the adjacent square when in solid objects. Speaking of which, I suspect there is a reason earth elementals with odd skill point allotments, place the last point in “listen”…

INCORPOREALITY
…Incorporeal creatures hiding inside solid objects get a +2 circumstance bonus on Listen checks, because solid objects carry sound well. Pinpointing an opponent from inside a solid object uses the same rules as pinpointing invisible opponents

Are you ready for the TPKs that would be created by giving earth elementals tremorsence?

 

[Mort]

Why is this an oversight? Just because PCs want a summon to do something it can't?

If a player came here kvetching about a DM killing their character because an elemental chased them down while the character was burrowing, there would be posters jumping on that DM’s case for that.

Heck even incorporeal only get sensory input from the adjacent square when in solid objects. Speaking of which, I suspect there is a reason earth elementals with odd skill point allotments, place the last point in “listen”…

INCORPOREALITY
…Incorporeal creatures hiding inside solid objects get a +2 circumstance bonus on Listen checks, because solid objects carry sound well. Pinpointing an opponent from inside a solid object uses the same rules as pinpointing invisible opponents


Are you ready for the TPKs that would be created by giving earth elementals tremorsence?

The earth elemental is a native of the plane of earth and makes its home in the earth, just like fish do in water. It's conceivable that it can't see in it's home environment but a pretty far stretch, EVERY other monster of this type has a mechanism to "see" in the earth. If a player came to me and whined that an earth elemental was able to beat him in its home environment, my response would be "what exactly were you expecting?"

 

[Infiniti2000]

Are you ready for the TPKs that would be created by giving earth elementals tremorsence?

Yup. But, the fact is that a TPK certainly won't occur.

Mort, I houseruled them to have tremorsense equal to 30ft x 'age category', e.g. 30ft for Small, 60ft for Medium, etc.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

WoTC's "official" answer:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/ask

Q: I have a question about earth elementals. Nowhere in any description does it say that earth elementals have tremorsense, or any other ability for that matter, that lets them detect their surroundings without vision. My question is then how do earth elementals navigate around the using their earth glide ability, especially on the Elemental Plane of Earth, if they have no discernible way to navigate?--Ryan

A: This is a very good question, and certainly a mystery for our time. I’d rather like to think that they wander through the morass of their own plane like so many blind fish swimming in a pond. However, since we’ve no way to tell, and the earth elementals simply aren’t talking, it is nearly impossible to say.
--Chris Lindsay

 

[Quidam]

WoTC's "official" answer:

Shouldn't that be...?

WoTC's official "answer":

 

[Question]

I think they just couldnt be arsed making an errata where earth elementals can see while in the earth.