Jumping and Falling Monsters

[Creat]

Well if you wanna make him jump on his enemies, you can of course do that, but his 'targets' would have to be completely in the space the elemental occupies after landing (taken from trample, see MM glossary, probabl not an issue since most characters only occupy a 5-foot-square) and could attempt a reflex save for no damage or at least half damage (trample allows a save for half damage if no attack of opportunity is made). I would allow the save for no damage since trample is an explicit special attack, which the elemental does not have. Also you might want to allow attacks of opportunity either instead or before the save. I would also not use the slam damage on all opponents as the trample does but maybe treat this as an automatic critical or something of one slam, or just set a different amount of damage (like 10d10+1.5 str.). Also it has to jump high and far enough to get above the characters it wants to hit of course... But overall sounds doable, still it would be a house rule.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

those weird high level characters and their dude factor

heh

 

[the Jester]

I can't imagine an earth elemental intentionally leaving the ground.

 

[Corlon]

It's just that those weird high level characters and their dude factor allows them to survive leaps from tall buildings and blows from 30 ton earth elementals. You are comparing the effect 66000 lbs. would have falling on a normal human to the effect it would have on a D&D hero, which is an invalid comparison.

Yeah, the slam sort of is the earth elemental falling on him. Just think of hit points as vitality from SW RPG. Each "hit" is actually just a small cut or slight miss, but it represents the character getting worn out and tired. The character being plunked by 20 arrows a round for 10 rounds doesn't actually have 200 arrows sticking out of him, it's just that dodging that many arrows wore him down, and so the last five or so killed him just as they would have a normal human.

 

[Pinotage]

Thanks for all the thoughts!

Pinotage

 

[iwatt]

Yeah, the slam sort of is the earth elemental falling on him. Just think of hit points as vitality from SW RPG. Each "hit" is actually just a small cut or slight miss, but it represents the character getting worn out and tired. The character being plunked by 20 arrows a round for 10 rounds doesn't actually have 200 arrows sticking out of him, it's just that dodging that many arrows wore him down, and so the last five or so killed him just as they would have a normal human.

This is the only valid way to describe combat, IMNSHO. If not, your PC would not be able to move after two-three encounters due to all the scar tissue.

 

[cmanos]

The only "roleplaying" reason I could think of for the low damage is that the earth elemental is made of dirt, not rocks. So it's the difference between being hit by a rock and a clod of dirt. It's still pretty puny damage.

getting hit with #66K of dirt and getting hit with #66k of rock makes no difference. It hits with the same amount of force. ( F=ma, where F = Force, m = mass and a = acceleration) Also, IMHO, an earth elemental DOES have rock in it's composition.

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

- SRD

So if you conjure an earth elemental from granite...it's gonna be made of granite....if you conjure it from sand it'll be made of sand.....if you want to go through and break it down and figure out different damage for each specific material, you are either a much better man than I, or have way too much time on your hands.

but 2d10+11 does seem like puny damage for something that big.

 

[Piratecat]

but 2d10+11 does seem like pun-y damage for something that big.

That's gneiss, but I think you're mica-ing too great a distinction and taking the elemental for granite. Let's say you brought in the elemental through agate spell. If it's going to pumice you with its fists, who gives a schist what it's made of? You're slated to get crushed anyways, even if it does mineral damage.

 

[Pinotage]

LOL! That's great Piratecat!

Pinotage

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I need to introduce PC to a friend of mine on the NWN boards ... He's known for doing that sort of thing, with generally the same results ...