Converting Monsters from D&D Official Video Games

[freyar]

I think we should add back the bonus feats the Small elementals possess in most cases (Improved Init and Weapon Finesse for the air elemental). This gives it one feat back. The Small has Flyby Attack, which still seems appropriate for the mini.

Sounds good.

Should we retaing the whirlwind ability, downsized to Tiny?

How about air mastery? Keep or discard?

Hmmm, I suppose it depends if we really are just making tiny elementals or not. (These should also be different than the fundamentals, I guess.) My thought from the original text is that they are really just blobs of elemental matter that fly, hop, or swim around but don't really have any other abilities. That would make them even weaker than the fundamentals and something a bit different than normal elementals.

But I don't have an objection just to downsizing the Small elementals, either.

 

[dhaga]

My thought from the original text is that they are really just blobs of elemental matter that fly, hop, or swim around but don't really have any other abilities.

This was my impression, as well.

But I don't have an objection just to downsizing the Small elementals, either.

Neither do I; we're already moving down that track, anyhow

 

[Shade]

The fundamentals seem more like flocks of elemental "birds", whereas these are tiny chunks of elementals.

We can certainly leave off most, if not all, the special abilities of the greater elementals.

I'd keep the bonus feats, though, as they help differentiate them a bit from one another, without burn, drench, vortex, etc.

 

[freyar]

We can certainly leave off most, if not all, the special abilities of the greater elementals.

I'd keep the bonus feats, though, as they help differentiate them a bit from one another, without burn, drench, vortex, etc.

That sounds reasonable.

 

[Shade]

In that case, we just have a few things to address:

As of the date of this writing, no mage has been able to purposely conjure a miniature
elemental. Perhaps they are too small to be grabbed from their respective elemental planes
by magical snares.

Should we give them a "resist summons" ability, or simply leave this as flavor text?

Combat: All miniature elementals attack by launching their body at their targets. In addition, earth elementals launch bits of stone at the target.

We need to writeup this ability.

Water-based spells do 1 point less of damage per die (minimum 1 point per die) against miniature water elementals.

Since next to no spells deal water-based damage, should we extend this to cold? Or maybe make it a +X bonus on saving throws against spells with the water descriptor?

 

[dhaga]

Should we give them a "resist summons" ability, or simply leave this as flavor text?

Resist Summons (Ex): Miniature Elementals may make a Will save to avoid being summoned. The Will save has the DC of the spell being used to summon the miniature elemental. If the save is successful, the spell fails.

We need to writeup this ability.

We could just give the earth variant a ranged attack. If you want it written up as a separate ability, we could call it "Pebbles".

Pebbles (Ex): a miniature earth elemental can launch bits of stone at its opponents. These small stones have a maximum range of 30 feet and deal 1d3+1 points of damage on a successful hit.

Since next to no spells deal water-based damage, should we extend this to cold? Or maybe make it a +X bonus on saving throws against spells with the water descriptor?

I vote for the +X bonus on saving throws against spells with the water descriptor.
Say +2?

 

[freyar]

Should we give them a "resist summons" ability, or simply leave this as flavor text?

Uhoh, I actually prefer leaving this as flavor text. I don't see that ability as really "making sense" for these to have.

We need to writeup this ability.

Dhaga's writeup is ok, just add no range increment.

Since next to no spells deal water-based damage, should we extend this to cold? Or maybe make it a +X bonus on saving throws against spells with the water descriptor?

I also agree to give a save bonus vs water descriptor spells. +2 is ok for me.

 

[Shade]

On review, I think I agree that we should keep the unsummonable nature of them to flavor text.

How's this revison?

Pebbles (Ex): A miniature earth elemental can launch bits of stone at its opponents. These small stones have a maximum range of 30 feet (no range increment) and deal 1d3+1 points of bludgeoning damage on a successful hit.

I also think the mini earth elemental needs either earth glide or a burrow speed (even a really slow one) to explain how it can get around on the Elemental Plane of Earth.

How's this for the water elemental?

Water Resiliency (Ex): A miniature water elemental has a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and effects with the water descriptor or originating from a creature with the water subtype.

 

[dhaga]

Keeping the unsummonable nature as flavor text is fine with me

The Pebbles revision looks good.

I agree the miniature earth elemental needs a way to move through the earth. Earth Glide would make more sense than burrow, I think.

Water Resiliency looks good.

 

[Mortis]

The Pebbles revision looks good.

Phew! I was expecting to read that she was no longer the daughter of Fred and Wilma.

Actually everything looks good.

Regards
Mortis