Air Elemental

[Eltern]

Alright, my 8th level, four person (and a cohort) party encountered a CR 7 Huge Air elemental last session, and it ate them for breakfast. Well, first they had blown some of the cleric's spells awhile before with some healing from a trap, then they had to deal with two of these elementals, right after each other. This amounted to the first one charging and missing a slam attack, then turning into a whirlwind and dealing continuous damage to 3/4 of the party. Right after they killed it another showed up (they activated this door opening trigger again), promptly whirlwinded and picked up everyone other than the party rogue, who was incapable of dealing sufficient damage to it to beat DR (normal shortsword d6-1 for strength. DR is 5) so she ran away, leaving the other guys to beat it up from the inside. Wizard died, the cleric with diehard got into negatives, the cohort went to 0 then was healed back up, the fighter was down to one more round to live, then the cleric (with no ranks in concentration, for some reason) got off a Sound Burst, and the fighter power attacked the crap out of it. El Fin.

Was the double whammy why it was so bad, the concentration checks, the rogue being useless, or did I do something wrong? Can the elemental pick them all up (if they fail their saves) in one round if it whirlwinds? Yes, they were all next to each other in a hall.

Thanks,
Eltern

 

[jgsugden]

The rules are unclear.

The creature has only a fly movement as a speed, so if it can not fly, it can not move. Creatures carrying more than a light load can not fly. If the whirlwinding elemental uses normal encumberance rules, it can not move after it picks up a few heavily armored PCs.

OTOH, the rules hint that the only limit on how a whirlwinding elemental can hold is the volume of the elemental - which could hold a few hundred medium sized creatures.

It is currently up to the DM. I asked custserv and their response was that normal encumberance rules have full effect on a whirlwinding elemental, so only a couple PCs may be lifted at a time ... but custserv is not exactly perfect.

 

[Ferox4]

Why, in his god's name, wouldn't a Cleric have any ranks in Concentration.?

I've used Air Elementals only a few times, but they were very troublesome to the party. I believe someone burned up a scroll of Antimagic Field to deal with the last one. Not that it makes it correct, but I tried to have it pick up everyone in its whirlwind.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Why, in his god's name, wouldn't a Cleric have any ranks in Concentration.?

I've used Air Elementals only a few times, but they were very troublesome to the party. I believe someone burned up a scroll of Antimagic Field to deal with the last one. Not that it makes it correct, but I tried to have it pick up everyone in its whirlwind.

Were the elementals summoned? If so, protection from evil and magic circle against evil would have protected the character(s) from the whirlwind (the MM states the elemental transforms into the whirlwind, so the whirlwind is not an effect, but the actual creature).

BTW, as a player I feel whirlwind is a bit overpowered. The save DC can be a bit high for parties of the same level as the elemental, and the only way to escape is to be able to fly. If, OTOH, a party can avoid the whirlwind effect, air elementals aren't much of a threat. It's avoiding the whirlwind that seems to be the problem.

 

[Ferox4]

One was summoned, the other was actually a supernatural ability of a homebrewed undead frost giant. The players did not have any PfE or McvE running. Good point, though.

 

[Shadowdweller]

The creature has only a fly movement as a speed, so if it can not fly, it can not move. Creatures carrying more than a light load can not fly. If the whirlwinding elemental uses normal encumberance rules, it can not move after it picks up a few heavily armored PCs.

This assumes that the air elemental is actually, physically, carrying said creatures while whirlwinding. And I'm rather of the opinion that the language used implies they are not.

In any event, these things can be NASTY. Consider for instance, that a whirlwinding air elemental can fly down over enemies, pick up those who fail their reflex saves, fly 100 ft up (double move), drop them...causing 10d6 damage to those without flight/levitation/featherfall, and repeat next turn. The air elemental remains out of reach, so opponents can only use the full attack action with ranged weapons or prepare single melee attacks against said elemental.

In other words, Eltern, it sounds to me like your party was in fact very LUCKY.

 

[smetzger]

In any event, these things can be NASTY. ...

My favorite is casting silence on an Air Elemental and then sending it after the Wizard.