Elementals and Petrification?

[gooeylouie]

How do you think elementals react to petrification? Do they turn into earth elementals? Would an Earth elemental even be affected?

 

[Cleon]

How do you think elementals react to petrification? Do they turn into earth elementals? Would an Earth elemental even be affected?

According to the Rules As Written, creatures with the Elemental Type and/or the Earth Subtype are affected normally by petrification attacks.

Personally I think that's silly, and they should be immune to petrification, but that's not what the rules say.

However, Elementals ARE immune to the flesh to stone spell in 3E, because that spell only affects flesh.

Only creatures made of flesh are affected by this spell.

Contrariwise, a stone to flesh spell could turn an earth elemental into flesh (a "flesh elemental"?) provided it is conjured out of stone, according to the following passages:

The spell also can convert a mass of stone into a fleshy substance. Such flesh is inert and lacking a vital life force unless a life force or magical energy is available. (For example, this spell would turn a stone golem into a flesh golem, but an ordinary statue would become a corpse.).

When summoned to the Material Plane, an earth elemental consists of whatever types of dirt, stones, precious metals, and gems it was conjured from.

 

[gooeylouie]

Wait, are you saying that what the earth elemental is made of depends on how you conjure it? I never knew that. Anyway, petrification effects are usually described as "turn to stone", so couldn't a DM rule that an earth elemental made of stone is unaffected and an elemental made of dirt or clay is simply changed to be made of rock? One more thing, if an earth elemental can (in theory) be changed to a flesh elemental, and live, couldn't a water elemental for example be changed to an earth elemental by a "turn to stone" effect? And would a flesh elemental still be flesh after returning to the plane of earth or would it go back to it's normal form?

 

[gooeylouie]

Another thing, all the archomentals are immune to petrification except Ogremoch. Do you think that might be saying he doesn't need the immunity because he is already stone?

 

[Cleon]

Do you think that might be saying he doesn't need the immunity because he is already stone?

Which edition of the Archomentals are you talking about?

I'm guessing you're referring to the 2nd edition AD&D versions in the Planescape Monstrous Compendium III (1998), since that's the only edition which give immunity to petrification to Cryonax, Imix, Olhydra and Yan-C-Bin.

The original 1st edition versions in the Fiend Folio (1981) give immunity to petrification to Cryonax and Imix, but not the other three.

Of the 3.0 Creature Catalog conversions, only Yan-C-Bin is statted with immunity to petrification.

The 3.5 versions in Dragon #347 all have immunity to petrification.

Do you think that might be saying he doesn't need the immunity because he is already stone?

Well that might be a reasonable assumption in AD&D, where the rules are rather loose and DM-determined, but in 3E it's a lot more nailed down as to how various special attacks affect different types of monster, so in 3E if Ogrémoch isn't listed as immune to petrification he'd be affected by such attacks according to the RAW.