Elder Earth Elementals are BRUTAL!!!

[Utrecht]

Couple of things.

First I think that people are dismissing the reach of the elemental. Sure you could spring attack in - but the elemental WILL get its pound of flesh out of you - IIRC reach is 15ft. So the first person that attacks it will take an average 27 hp of damage and at 228hp (avg) it is going to stand awhile.

Second, we do not know what type of terrain the battle occured in. If it is at all enclosed, the fly approach does not work beucause the flier simply cant escape that reach.

IMO, the key when fighting an elder earth elemental is to simply ensure that it can not take a full attack!!! It is not unreasonable to expect it to do 81hp of damage a turn - enought to pulp just about any 10th level char!!!! And if you have any dwarves, gnomes or halflings, look out - they have difficulty moving out of its reach!!!!

So yes, the party was less than efficient in its tactics - but against an intelligently played elemental - bad things should happen!!!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Three words...

Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

My party used this on an elder water elemental (and I rolled a 1 for the save). For some reason (probably sleep deprivation), I had to stop the game to regain my composure. The thought of an elder water elemental helpless in the throes of laughter was just..it was too much..

I mean, there was this big, what, 40 foot tall wall of living water just cracking up while the rest of the party was just whacking away. Sure, they didn't defeat it in the 3 rounds it lasted, but they got enough good licks in that they were able to take it down pretty easily after that.

I begin to giggle now.....

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Ah yes, never ever underestimate the power of Greater Magic Weapon. A bit ago our roughtly 10/11th level party ran into an iron golem-type construct. Now, these have a DR of 50/+3, and no one in the party had a +3 magic weapon aside from the cleric (me) and our party archer (both courtesy of GMW).

Our party is magic heavy (two wizards, one chaos mage, and one sorcerer/psion in a party of eight), and they were having fits because of the magic immunity. Our usually badass half-dragon fighter couldn't even scratch it due to a lack of a +3 weapon, and he's a combat monster.

A couple of the magic-users stumbled upon its lightning weakness (it made it slower), but otherwise it was just two party members against an iron golem. If our archer hadn't had such good die rolls with his Rapid Shot, and the golem hadn't been more interested in trying to smash our fighter than trying to kill the cleric, we would have been a smear on the floor. Since our fighter acted as the damage sponge long enouch for the archer and the cleric to unload into him, we did managed to put it down, but our fighter was massively hurt afterwards. (Our fighter was closer, for those who were curious).

GMW is one of those lifesaver spells at mid-levels. There are a few critters in the CR range for your party that have DR higher than any magic weapon you probably own at that level. Spells are the best way to make up for that, so never neglect to memorize as many as you can and cast them early and often!

 

[MerakSpielman]

I tried casting Tasha's Hideous Laughter on a Purple Worm once... Pity it made the save.

 

[Nail]

Yeah I'm sure my brother and one of my closest friends were going to tell me they don't like me anymore becuase I told them they should have put some thought into the fight.


Reach between your legs, grab your ears, and pull.

Ah yes, there's that "tact" I was talking about......

 

[drnuncheon]

First I think that people are dismissing the reach of the elemental. Sure you could spring attack in - but the elemental WILL get its pound of flesh out of you - IIRC reach is 15ft.

...except for the fact that Spring Attack negates all AoOs from your target due to movement...

J

 

[MerakSpielman]

Yup. The way to beat a spring attack is with readied actions - and the elemental's too dumb for that.

 

[Henry]

Let's be nice, ladies and gentlemen...

No need to insult others we don't know in person.

Insulting close friends off the boards, of course, feel free.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Nobody has Spring Attack anyway. The party is just going to have to learn that you can't just charge everything. It had the drop on them actually as they were ambushed but they had plenty of chances to escape.

 

[Utrecht]

...except for the fact that Spring Attack negates all AoOs from your target due to movement...

J

where there is that

However, think about the tactics here. If an average human fighter starts the round outside the reach of the elemental, this means that they are at least 20ft from it. They move 15ft whack the elemental and then move the remaining 15ft to get outside the reach - again placing it 20ft away - nice and safe.

Now it is the elementals turn. It takes a 5ft step and proceeds to take its 4(5?) meele attacks against the character - hitting with at least 2 if not 3 attacks.

Now granted Barbarians and Monks can dance further away, but dwarves, and small chars regardless are in a tight spot. Additionally, there may be other targest running around as well.

Finally, an elemental has a 6 int - which does not preclude it from utilizing tactics - after all if we are going to let our PC's with a 6 int do it - the DM's monsters get the same break!!!