Earth Elemental Familiar?

[Jhaelen]

Sort of. It specifies what to do with things that lack fingers... but it doesn't say what constitutes a finger, and doesn't list all creatures as whether or not they have fingers. Which amounts to "Check the picture: Does it look like it would fit?" - which I don't consider a "hard and fast rule", primarily because you'll get dissenting opinions with multiple people attempting to interpret the same critter.

Are we looking at the same page in MIC? Here's how the second column on page 219 starts:

As a default rule, treat creatures of any shape as having all the normal body slots available. Creatures never gain extra slots for having extra body parts [...]. For unusual cases here are some guidelines to help a DM particularly dedicated to details:

Then we get paragraphs for amorphous, armless, fingerless, headless, legless, and multilegged creatures along with examples.

Since you mentioned fingerless, here's the definition that is provided:

Creatures without flexible digits or extremities, such as horses, lack the rings body slot. A creature need not be able to manipulate objects to wear rings - a hell hound can wear a ring on a toe of its forelimbs.

That's pretty comprehensive, imho. The only way they could improve on that would be a table listing every slot available to every monster which I'd definitely consider overkill.

 

[Jack Simth]

Are we looking at the same page in MIC? Here's how the second column on page 219 starts:
Then we get paragraphs for amorphous, armless, fingerless, headless, legless, and multilegged creatures along with examples.

Since you mentioned fingerless, here's the definition that is provided:


That's pretty comprehensive, imho. The only way they could improve on that would be a table listing every slot available to every monster which I'd definitely consider overkill.

Yes, we are looking at the same page. The rules aren't hard. They boil down to "Check the picture: Does it look like it would fit?" - but it's not a hard rule because different DM's will conclude differently. It's got a bunch of protrusions... but are those all spikes? Are some of them fingers? How can you tell? Can you see a different DM ruling differently? The description of earth elementals doesn't mention fingers, nor a lack thereof. The rule pretends to be hard and fast... but it's not, because it's ambiguous.

 

[Jhaelen]

The rule pretends to be hard and fast... but it's not, because it's ambiguous.

I guess everything's ambigous, then. See, if you aren't sure, apply the default rule - that's what it's there for!

 

[Jack Simth]

I guess everything's ambigous, then. See, if you aren't sure, apply the default rule - that's what it's there for!

Not everything - without other factors, an NPC human Fighter-1 with a Con score of 10 has 1d10 hp, for instance. That's non-ambiguous.

 

[Jhaelen]

Not everything - without other factors, an NPC human Fighter-1 with a Con score of 10 has 1d10 hp, for instance.

Indeed, note the bolded part

Edit: Isn't 1d10 also ambiguous? How many hp does he have now? It could be one it could be ten... how should I know?!

I wonder how many ring slots an NPC human Fighter-1 has... could it be something other than 2? I think so.

 

[LuckyBoneDice]

So, according to MIC and LoM, ect. your Earth Elemental could have something like a Prince Albert of Protection?