Are Earth Elementals Blind in stone?

[Dimwhit]

From the SRD:

Earth Glide (Ex): An earth elemental can glide through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water. Its burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or other signs of its presence.

So now do elementals see when moving through earth? Darkvision doesn't seem to be the answer, does it? Are they blind?

I'm mostly curious for my Druid. When he does this, how does he know where he's going?

And suppose he's wearing a ring or something while in Earth Elemental form. Can he earth glide with it, or would the ring stop as soon as he entered the stone?

Thoughts?

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

By the RAW, they wouldn't. And I tend to agree with that statement. I can easily imagine an earth elemental burrowing blindly through rock. Afterall, the Elemental Plane of Earth is mostly rock so who cares where exactly they're burrowing to (and I don't see an Earth Elemental being that picky). I might house rule that EEs get some kind of "earthsense" that allows them to know the general direction they're going, or maybe just give them a racial bonus on Survival checks to determine direction when underground.

Not being able to see as you burrow is a great means of limiting the use of EEs (or wildshaped druids) from undermining everything.

Also, worms can't see through rock. Neither can umber hulks. Why should EEs or wildshaped druids?

 

[calypso15]

Just give 'em Tremorsense. *shrug* Granted, that means high level druids will also get it while WS'ed into an EE, but whatever.

Calypso

 

[werk]

Just give 'em Tremorsense. *shrug* Granted, that means high level druids will also get it while WS'ed into an EE, but whatever.

That's my advice. Or you could rule that Earth Mastery is an improved form of Tremorsense.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Really I would've thought Earth Elementals to have Tremorsense 60-feet rather than something like real vision (Darkvision 60-feet). Egads, it's an elemental for goodness sakes, does it really have such a conventional prime material aspect as eyes? Doh.

 

[scrubkai]

If I was DMing I'd house rule this and give Earth Elementals the same vision I give people when they turn into fish...

You can see as far as you have darkvision within Earth but going from earth to air makes things blurry.

Think of how it looks when you are underwater in a pool and you try to look around... You see fine within the water but when you look past the surface tension everything is blurry.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[Nail]

Really I would've thought Earth Elementals to have Tremorsense ....

It's an artifact of their type [Elemental].

 

[Dimwhit]

So would you all think a Druid in Earth Elemental form wearing a Ring of X-Ray vision would work? Or would the ring not pass through the rock?

I'm thinking it wouldn't work. Just trying to figure out some way, according to the RAW, that my Druid can walk through rock and have a clue where he's going.

 

[ThirdWizard]

A dwarf would have somewhat of an advantage in such a situation. He could at least tell how deep he is underground.

 

[Tonguez]

So would you all think a Druid in Earth Elemental form wearing a Ring of X-Ray vision would work? Or would the ring not pass through the rock?

I'm thinking it wouldn't work. Just trying to figure out some way, according to the RAW, that my Druid can walk through rock and have a clue where he's going.

I'd say no they wouldn't work because Elemnetals don't have eyes, they 'see' by touch not by vision (ie something like tremorsense but not quite)