Horrid Wilting

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

So...let me get this straight. You're using 'flavor text' as an argument AGAINST using 'flavor text'?

No. There are four elements on the D&D periodic table: Fire, Air, Earth, and Water.

Something that isn't made up [primarily] of those things isn't an elemental.

Therefore, to take something and make it an elemental when it doesn't fulfill the requirements of being an elemental is cheating, especially when you're doing so to prove a point.

 

[anon]

You're evading the point of the posted (invented) Vacuum creature.

If you don't like the Elemental type, change it to Aberration.

Now there's a "living creature" (aberrations are living as far as I can tell) which explicitly has no moisture in it.

Is it effected or not?

The point of this, in my opinion, is to show that "living creature" is not only only limitation on the spell. If it is clear that there is no moisture in a specific creature, even one that is living, then the spell should not be effective, IMHO.

 

[Shadowdweller]

Deleted: Irrelevant tangent

 

[glass]

I'd just like to point something out here:

Lots of people are making M:tG comparisions. In M:tG, flavour text is clearly denoted by a different type style. In D&D, there is no such differentiation: there is just text in the rule book. Therefore, there is no way to say for certain whether a given phrase is flavour text or rules, but given the fact that it's in a rules book, I'd say rules should be the default assumption.

In other words, the answer to the argument, 'that's just flavour text', is 'says who?'


glass.

 

[hazmat]

Err, no.
Fire in our world is a particular expression of the release of chemical energy.
Fire in D&D is a fundamental building block of nature. It may be considered roughly analogous to carbon, or oxygen, or hydrogen.
Fire is matter in D&D.
Any arguments based on assumptions to the contrary are based solely in real-world physics, and as such are not applicable to D&D physics.

So to paraphrase:
Fire is an "element". Elements in the real world are matter. Thus Fire in D&D is matter.

Any argument made like mine using solely real-world physics that doesn't come to my conclusion is wrong. (Sarcasm should be evident).

From what book are you getting the rules of D&D physics? How is your interpretation any more right than mine?

 

[akbearfoot]

Houserules

If you changed HW to not affect fire elementals....did you also make air/earth/non-water elementals immune too? How about other creatures that live in the EPoF? Or the shadow plane, or wherever. How about Warforged?

-Moisture- isn't a defined term in D&D, and thus any mention of it in flavor text should be ignored.

This thread very much reminds me of the Troll vs. Disentegrate argument. It makes sense that it should work, but it doesen't because thats the rules. House rule it if you want to, but your players should know before they waste an action.

 

[Staffan]

If you changed HW to not affect fire elementals....did you also make air/earth/non-water elementals immune too?

If they're the Elemental monster, sure. If they're just of the Elemental type (e.g. Thoquaa), probably. (As an aside, it's bloody annoying to have Elemental mean both a specific monster and a whole category of them)

How about other creatures that live in the EPoF?

Probably not, unless they're elementals and thus composed entirely of that element.

Or the shadow plane, or wherever.

Again, probably not.

How about Warforged?

Definitely not. There's a lot of wood and leather and alchemical fluids in a warforged.

 

[Voadam]

-Moisture- isn't a defined term in D&D, and thus any mention of it in flavor text should be ignored.

Because the best way to run a roleplaying game is to stick solely to the explicitly defined terms and pretend all other descriptions in the rules and game do not matter.

 

[werk]

Plus, once it sucked air in from a creature it would seize to be composed of nothing, defying it's exisitence.

Good luck trying to use that

Nature abhors your vacuum.

 

[ThirdWizard]

You're evading the point of the posted (invented) Vacuum creature.

You seem to be evading my counter-point. Your elemental has no mass or makeup yet it is vulnerable to a mundane everyday sword wielded by a 1st level commoner, and a magic missile spell does full damage as well. If this is the case, why are you so worried about horrid wilting? Logic doesn't work too good in D&D; if you keep trying to make it work, you'll just end up with a migrane.