Of Elementals & Stink Clouds

[lukelightning]

Your PCs cast a spell that is dispersed by high winds on an air elemental? I would personally stop their argument right there, probably.

Even worse! The air elemental turns into a whirlwind which sucks up all the stinking cloud and becomes a tornado of stench!

 

[gnfnrf]

(Note that a swarm, for example, can induce Nausea with its Distraction [Ex] ability. It's a Fort save, so undead are immune, but I can certainly see Elementals being subject to Distraction [Ex] despite not having a stomach!)

Undead are immune also because swarms affect living creatures only.

Both of these questions (stinking cloud and swarms) boil down to "Is an elemental a living creature for this purpose?" For spells, PHB p. 176 defines "living creature" as "all creatures other than constructs and undead" so the question seems pretty clearly answered.

As this seems to be the only definition of living creature, it presumably applies to Ex abilities as well.

If you wish to limit the application of "living creature" to types such as elementals, how far do you go? Can they be cured by CLW and equivalent spells? Can they (water or not) be affected by Horrid Wilting? Can a monk speak with them?

Making decisions like these case-by-case is fine; the rules can't encompass every case. But it certainly seems clear that by strict application, elementals are living creatures for all of these situations.

--
gnfnrf

 

[lukelightning]

I could accept stinking cloud nauseating elementals. Perhaps the foul vapors disrupts the elemental's purity or something like that.

 

[mvincent]

Elementals aren't immune to nausea

Agreed

and there are cloud spells where you don't have to breathe to be effective.

Agreed. However, I cannot agree that the RAI implies that stinking cloud is one of those.

Note that troglodyte stench also does not say that one has to breathe to be affected. Same with Dust of Sneezing and Choking, or an iron golem's gas, etc.

Spell descriptions do not need to specify everything that is and is not affect. Instead, we typically look to the creature type. In this case, the creature type simply says "Elementals do not eat, sleep, or breathe" without noting what immunities that might confer.

However, the Gaseous Form ability reads:
"Gaseous creatures do not need to breathe and are immune to attacks involving breathing (troglodyte stench, poison gas, and the like)."

It seems reasonable to infer that this would apply to other creatures that don't breathe. It also seems reasonable to infer that stinking cloud is similar to troglodyte stench and poison gas and would thus fall into the "and the like" category.

The DM made a good call.