Fire elementals

[atomn]

Do fire elementals light anything combustable that they touch? The Monster Manual only mentions it burning after a slam attack. But if it's standing on a pile of paper, will the paper catch fire? Or is it by will?

Also, can fire elementals disguise itself as a normal fire (i.e., sit upon some logs and look like a bonfire instead of a fire elemental)? (Or could any elemental look like its element instead of an elemental, for that matter?)

Thanks!

 

[erf_beto]

I'd like to know that as well!
It seems there are a lot of PrC or class variants out there proposing an elemental companion or familiar...
what happens when a Wizard chooses a fire elemental as a familiar?
Does it burn all his spellbooks?

The SRD does say that "Creatures hitting a fire elemental with natural weapons or unarmed attacks take fire damage as though hit by the elemental’s attack, and also catch on fire unless they succeed on a Reflex save."

 

[Sejs]

Do fire elementals light anything combustable that they touch? The Monster Manual only mentions it burning after a slam attack. But if it's standing on a pile of paper, will the paper catch fire? Or is it by will?

Part of me says 'they're fire, they should light things by contact'. But that would be ... awkward. In the extreme. So my personal take would be - they're so fiery it blows your mind. They've got control over their own flaming body such that they don't light things on fire unless they want to. That means if they want to be subtle, they don't ignite their environment, and if they just want to let go and kick some ass then the gloves come off and they start burning everything.

Also, can fire elementals disguise itself as a normal fire (i.e., sit upon some logs and look like a bonfire instead of a fire elemental)? (Or could any elemental look like its element instead of an elemental, for that matter?)

Thanks!

They should be able to try to at least. I imagine a fire elemental curling up, tucking in its limbs, lowering its head-equivalent, etc could do a pretty good job looking like a big heaping mass of fire the same way an earth elemental could look like a big heap of rocks and dirt.

Call it a hide check with a +4 or +8 racial bonus and probably no size penalty.

 

[starwed]

Part of me says 'they're fire, they should light things by contact'. But that would be ... awkward.

Why would that be awkward?

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I agree. I think it should be awkward. One of the hazards of summoning them. Just like you wouldn't want to summon a water elemental into a donut factory. Talk about soggy!

 

[frankthedm]

A fire is the only place a fire elemental could hide IMHO.

If the fire is the same size as the elemental or larger, I'd say it gets concealment.

 

[Sejs]

Why would that be awkward?

Look around the room you're in.

Mentally break it up into roughly 5' sections.

Now imagine everything in a given 5' section (or 10' section, or 15' section) on fire. And that's just from a momentary contact as the elemental passed through that area. Like walking down a hallway and that hall becoming a tunnel of flames. And unless it's a small or medium fire elemental we're talking really hot fire. The kind that'll eat through a wooden door in about 18 seconds (assuming full hardness applies) and start to melt stone.

That kind of awkward.

 

[Tonguez]

Look around the room you're in.

Mentally break it up into roughly 5' sections.

Now imagine everything in a given 5' section (or 10' section, or 15' section) on fire. And that's just from a momentary contact as the elemental passed through that area. Like walking down a hallway and that hall becoming a tunnel of flames. And unless it's a small or medium fire elemental we're talking really hot fire. The kind that'll eat through a wooden door in about 18 seconds (assuming full hardness applies) and start to melt stone.

That kind of awkward.

But isn't that the whole point of fire elementals? In their Plane they survive just fine because the whole place is on fire, summon them to the Prime and well you end up with a room sized barbeque

 

[starwed]

...imagine everything in a given 5' section (or 10' section, or 15' section) on fire. And that's just from a momentary contact as the elemental passed through that area. Like walking down a hallway and that hall becoming a tunnel of flames.

I think you are confusing awkward and awesome.

 

[atomn]

A fire is the only place a fire elemental could hide IMHO.

If the fire is the same size as the elemental or larger, I'd say it gets concealment.

I was thinking more along the lines of disguising, not hiding. The Monster Manual says they have two arms made of flame that flicker in and out and have two blue flames that are presumably its eyes. So if it's sitting on a bunch of logs that have a circle of rocks around it at the center of the heroes' camp, would it look like a bonfire or a fire elemental sitting on a bunch of logs...