air elemental + call lightning = better lightning?

[evilbob]

The call lightning (and call lightning storm) spell says that it does more damage when in an area with rain, a tornado, or an air elemental's whirlwind. Does this mean inside the area of the whirlwind only, or does this mean an air elemental just needs to be on the field, and as long as it is within some sort of range it increases the power of the spell? The way it's worded, it seems to be the latter, but without any sort of specific guidelines, I wondered if it may just be the former?

 

[James McMurray]

It has to be actually inside the area of the elemental's whirlwind.

 

[moritheil]

It has to be actually inside the area of the elemental's whirlwind.

Is that your interpretation, or do you have an unambiguous source? I ask because all the rules text I've seen has been pretty vague about it.

 

[Ruslanchik]

Seems to me like the bonus applies over an area. You don't have to be INSIDE a thunderstorm to get the bonus. The lightning originates in the whirlwind and shoots out. It's the clouds that produce it.

 

[James McMurray]

The word area is a very specific defined term when describing effects in D&D. If you're standing 30 feet away from an air elemental you're no more in his whilrwind's area then you are in the area of a fireball if you're 30' from the centerpoint.

 

[evilbob]

So, are you saying that the druid has to be inside the whirlwind, or that the spell targets must be? I think just about any interpretation could be made from the text...

Personally I'm inclined to believe as others have stated: that it only applies to targets inside the whilrwind's effect.

 

[James McMurray]

I'd definitely say it means targets inside the whirlwind, not druid inside.

 

[moritheil]

The word area is a very specific defined term when describing effects in D&D. If you're standing 30 feet away from an air elemental you're no more in his whilrwind's area then you are in the area of a fireball if you're 30' from the centerpoint.

But the area can be "stormy" outside the actual whirlwind itself. So while you are not in the area of the whirlwind, you might still be in a vaguely defined, generally stormy area.

(My point is not that your interpretation is not valid, but that it is not unambiguous.)

 

[James McMurray]

It seems very unambiguous to me, but obviously YMMV.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The call lightning (and call lightning storm) spell says that it does more damage when in an area with rain, a tornado, or an air elemental's whirlwind. Does this mean inside the area of the whirlwind only, or does this mean an air elemental just needs to be on the field, and as long as it is within some sort of range it increases the power of the spell? The way it's worded, it seems to be the latter, but without any sort of specific guidelines, I wondered if it may just be the former?

There just has to be a whirlwind 'around'. We assume that if it is within the range of the call lightning/lightning storm spell then it is fine.

(n.b. if it meant you had to be inside a whirlwind, it would say 'more damage when within a tornado or an air elements whirlwind'. As it stands, it just requires that the whirlwind is part of the composition of the area).

My druid used to use SNA to get lots of small air elementals and then run them in shifts to give the call lightning boost.