Pathfinder 1E Countermeasures against PC Earth Elemental

[radich]

I DM a group of 5, who are currently working their way through War of the Burning Sky. And one of my players is a druid with a customized prestige class focused on wildshaping. And his favorite form is currently that of a Large Earth Elemental. When it is possible for him, he tends to stand partially sunken into the ground (leaving everything from the waist down, emerged into the ground). Thereby gaining some partial cover to AC, which in itself is not a problem - but I am still looking for some interesting countermeasures.

The focus of these countermeasures is: to hit him more often, or from time to time - take him more out of the fight.Currently I have thought:

• More opponents that are flying. Thereby countering alot of his attack bonus, due to the penalty towards his Earth Mastery (Ex).
• Banishment, because in his elemental form - he might risk being sent to the Elemental Plane of Earth if he fails his Will save.
• Stone to Flesh. Would this cause the PC to be half emerged in the ground, while in the flesh? Could he simply wild shape again, to counter the counter that I set up?

I am not looking so much to single this player out, but he is the last PC - that I do not have good ideas for countermeasures against. And since the opponents that my group will be facing shortly are very well aware of the standard fighting techniques, I figured that they might have thought of something clever.

 

[RangerWickett]

Burning Sky's inquisitors should be able to righteously mess him up. What adventure are you on?

They make it sound like Move Earth is an option, but it takes 10 minutes or more to cast: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules#TOC-Earth-Glide-Ex-

The obvious go-to is dispel magic. Lower level than stone to flesh, and every inquisitor can fire off a few with their rebuke magic ability. You'd suddenly have a PC restrained by solid rock -- perhaps not enough to coup de grace, but certainly sufficient to count as entangled. And if the PC tries to just wild shape again to get out, counterspell it.

For something more precisely-targeted, . . . I wish stone to flesh wasn't so precisely worded about having to affect a cylinder, otherwise it'd be a hoot to transmute a few inches of the ground into flesh, over a large area, in order to trap the earth elemental underground beneath a disgusting flesh tarp. Still, I'd say that if you transmute him into a flesh elemental, he'd have to spend an action ending the original wild shape so he can revert to his normal human form before he can try to change back into an earth elemental. Or maybe give him a new save each time he re-activates wild-shape?

Telekinesis also has that silly restriction on weight, so no pulling the PC out of the ground and leaving him to flail helplessly in the air.

Hrm, damn. All of the earth spells in the core rules make a point to say they don't affect earth creatures. You can't soften earth and stone to make him vulnerable to attacks. You can't stone shape him to cause damage. You can't transmute him to mud to make him more like a jello elemental. Dear whoever wrote these spells back in 3rd edition, where's the fun in creative spell use? Depending on how comfortable you and your players are with bending the rules, maybe try some of those tactics. Barring that, it looks like flying opponents really are about the limit to tailored countermeasures.

Oh, how about some friendly wraiths? Touch attacks, and they can go chase the elemental underground.

(Finally, if you think it's abusive and want to stop the player, its probably justifiable to say that, since he's an earth elemental, any attack that hits the earth in the square he's occupying hurts him. Unlike 'incorporeal,' neither earth glide nor burrow makes mention of attacking from the ground. So if you just want to stop the tactic, you might rule that he either has to take a miss chance by attacking blindly from inside the stone -- which will just motivate him to get tremorsense *grin* -- or has to end his movement fully exposed in order to attack. But I think it's fair to let the PC have his fun, getting maybe a +2 cover bonus to AC as long as he's in an area with rocky terrain.)

 

[radich]

We are just about to start Chapter 6 and about to round the final bend coming up to Castle Korstull.

I don't think Dispel magic will work against him, seeing as Wild Shape (Su) is a supernatural ability.

[h=6]Supernatural Ability (Su)
These can't be disrupted in combat and generally don't provoke attacks of opportunity. They aren't subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or dispel magic, and don't function in antimagic areas.[/h]

But a few more incorporeal enemies is a good option, and naturally AoE spells will work excellently as well. And Anti-Magic Field would be interesting as well.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Maybe making a wildshaped PrC wasn't a good idea... It's the law of unintended consequences.

The focus of these countermeasures is: to hit him more often, or from time to time - take him more out of the fight.Currently I have thought:
[*]More opponents that are flying. Thereby countering alot of his attack bonus, due to the penalty towards his Earth Mastery (Ex).

That would depend on the party level, I would think.

[*]Banishment, because in his elemental form - he might risk being sent to the Elemental Plane of Earth if he fails his Will save.

I don't think that's legal. He's still not an extraplanar creature. Also, he has a good Will save, even if that is legal.

[*]Stone to Flesh. Would this cause the PC to be half emerged in the ground, while in the flesh? Could he simply wild shape again, to counter the counter that I set up?

I think he would lose his earth mastery, but would still get the cover and other bonuses.

I think you need enemies that are mobile or spellcasters (or both)! An earth elemental isn't fast, and you can't move more than 5 feet as a move action while submerged. Enemies with Spring Attack could move in, hit, and move out. If there's no one nearby, the druid will have to emerge from the ground. And, of course, spellcasters can simply burn him from range.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I would be applying a penalty to his AC for being unable to dodge. Simply being stuck in the ground basically reduced his effective Dex to 0 - that's a -5 penalty to AC right there.

 

[MarkB]

I would be applying a penalty to his AC for being unable to dodge. Simply being stuck in the ground basically reduced his effective Dex to 0 - that's a -5 penalty to AC right there.

He's not stuck. His Earth Glide ability allows him to move freely through the ground.

 

[Starfox]

Cover IMO applies to each square of your space. A Large earth elemental is a 10 ft. cube space-wise. If he submerges halfway, his upper parts have no cover. If he submerges more than halfway, he really ought not to be able to attack. (Don't quote me on this rule, it might be a misread. Also, this was in 3.5).

I had a druid that loved to summon earth elementals, simply because they took so little space on the battlefield (as a complement to her two enlarged dire tigers, who tended to eat up most of the free space). My ruling was that they could move trough the rock and sop save sapce, but of they wanted to attack, they were also vulnerable to attack. Earth Glide only allows movement, there is nothing about being able to attack trough the rock.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

He's not stuck. His Earth Glide ability allows him to move freely through the ground.

Yeah, I see where you are coming from... and yet I would still apply my ruling - as would my players for fear of otherwise being exposed to the same tactic in reverse.

That said, I think you are right and I am clearly wrong.

 

[Lugh Kahal]

He's not stuck. His Earth Glide ability allows him to move freely through the ground.

You may want to use outside influences, such as a water fall trap that, in essence, washes away the player into a steel lined pit making him useless for a turn or two or (for more indoor purposes for the prepared) after 1 1/2 ft of marble or stone the player will find super heated steam pipes that would keep the floors warm but also do minor "fire" damage to an elemental who would try and set himself in assuming he doesn't have resistance or immunity to fire. then again if he does you could put a layer of metal an inch under the stone to prevent the use of earth glide. That or have them come up against a fetching opponent(s) who can use "move earth" spell and do so while still posing a threat to the other players. As from my source it says "A burrowing earth elemental can pass through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water." so a little metal can dampen his movement a bit.