How do you grapple an elemental?

[Agent.0.Fortune]

I don't think it would be out of line to give them a +20 (or more) circumstance bonus to an escape artist or grapple check.

 

[Rasputin]

If a water elemental was solid, wouldn't it have to be made of ice?

 

[Plane Sailing]

I just looked elementals in the 3.5 MM, and I see that they're vulnerable to normal weapons, so that kinda biffs my theory. Does anyone think that implies some sort of solidity?

If you look a little more closely you see that elementals now have unbeatable damage reduction (rather than DR/magic), so it is actually the case in 3.5e that they are as hard to harm with magic weapons as they are with normal weapons, a slightly different slant on the issue.

I note that they all have grapple scores, and weights (even if very light for air and fire elementals), so this all suggests that they have enough substance to grapple and be grappled.

Cheers

 

[Pax]

Personally, I've always thought that Air and Fire elementals should generally have the (incorporeal) subtype, and that Water elementals should generally be like Oozes.

But that's just IMC. ^_^

 

[Privateer]

Oh? What about a beholder graveyard?

Whatever happened to that thread?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I've always taken elementals to be a pure form of the element, therefore you could not grapple a water, fire or air elemental. I could see a fire elemental being more like a lava creature giving it substance, but I cannot justify a solid core for air or water.

I've never had a problem justifying an Air or Water Elemental being grappled. Those both elements are fluid by nature, they have a substance which can be felt. Falling into water from a great height is like falling onto concrete. Strong winds attest to the "solid" aspect of Air. I've always imagined that Air and Water elementals are merely "solid" elemental constructs. Because they are "living" elements, they can control their substance and solidify it without outside help (such as freezing the water, or the air, actually.) When they choose to, they can become fluid (when they use a Vortex-like ability.)

Fire is harder, because without going the route of Lava, there seems little way to imagine a "solid" kind of fire. Fire is never solid, nor does it ever display solid characteristics.