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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreyICE" data-source="post: 6045236" data-attributes="member: 6684526">I think this summarizes a lot of the difference.  Also, I'd like to link to the 2E entry on elementals for a second:<a href="http://mmadnd.chat.ru/MM00086.htm" target="_blank">http://mmadnd.chat.ru/MM00086.htm</a>Elementals are sentient beings that can possess bodies made of one of the four basic elements that make up the Prime Material plane -- air, earth, fire, or water. They normally reside on an elemental Inner Plane and will only be encountered on the Prime Material plane if they are summoned by magical means. (See Manual of the Planes for more information on the nature of the various elemental planes.) Each elemental must adopt a shell in the Prime Material composed of the basic element it represents. and once this shell is destroyed, the elemental will return to its native plane. While there are many more powerful and more intelligent residents of the elemental planes, the common elemental is the easiest to contact, and therefore the most frequently summoned. Their magical nature gives elementals great protection from attacks on the Prime Material plane. Elementals are not harmed by any nonmagical weapons or magical weapons of less than +2 bonus. Creatures with under four Hit Dice and without any magical abilities cannot harm an elemental either. (Magical abilities include such characteristics as breath weapons, poisons, paralysis, or even being immune to normal weapon attacks.) Orcs, for example, are powerless against a conjured elemental unless one happens to possess a weapon with +2 or better bonus to hit. Though elementals do enjoy protection from many nonmagical attacks in the Prime Material plane, like all extraplanar and conjured creatures, elementals are affected by protection from evil spells. An elemental cannot strike a creature protected by this spell and must recoil from the spell's boundaries. However, the elemental can attack creatures protected by the spell as long as it doesn't touch them. For example, a fire elemental could set the ground on fire around the creature and wait for the blaze to spread. Each of the four types of common elemental has its own particular strengths and weaknesses, attack modes and method of movement, depending on its plane of origin. These will be covered individually, by elemental type, in the next few pages. All common elementals share one major characteristic, however. They are basically stupid. This low intelligence makes it difficult for the elemental to resist a magical summons. But even the common elemental is bright enough to know it does not like being taken off of its home plane and held in the Prime Material plane. It's just so... dry.  It's not 1E dry, but it's pretty matter of fact and blase.  Here's this amazing thing.  It's... uh... kinda stupid.  And it's elemental so it acts like its element.  The 4E description is much cleaner and much more exciting.  It makes me want to include elementals in my campaign, not make me want to skip to the next page.  Here's 2E being mythic.  Perhaps you can grasp my problems with this:Habitat/Society: Titans are livers of life, creators of fate. These benevolent giants are closer to the well springs of life than mere mortals and, as such, revel in their gigantic existences. Titans are wild and chaotic. They are prone to more pronounced emotions that humans and can experience godlike fits of rage. They are, however, basically good and benevolent, so they tend not to take life. They are very powerful creatures and will fight with ferocity when necessary. To some, titans seem like gods. With their powers they can cause things to happen that, surely, only a god could. They are fiery and passionate, displaying emotions with greater purity and less reservation than mortal beings. Titans are quick to anger, but quicker still to forgive. In fits of rage they destroy mountains and in moments of passion will create empires. They are in all ways godlike and in all ways larger than life. And yet is should be noted that titans are not gods. They are beings that make their home in Olympus and walk among the gods. Yet they are not omnipotent, omniscient rulers of the planes. Sometimes their godlike passions and godlike rages make them seem like deities, however, and it is common for whole civilizations to mistake them for deities. In one society, Jeuron, a titan with dominion over knowledge, was revered as a god for centuries. Those mortals built their whole civilization around him and Jeuron revelled in the worship. He even walked among them occasionally to see their love and admiration. But Odin, of the Norse mythos, discovered his deception and punished Jeuron by shackling him to the bottom of the deepest sea for 100 years. Titans have a natural affinity for storm giants. Those giants are the closest beings the titans have found to peers and they will readily befriend them. In any group of titans, there is a 35% chance that they will be accompanied by one or more storm giants. Although titans can sometimes be condescending by nature, they never treat the storm giants as subordinates or inferiors. On Olympus, titans have developed a culture similar to what they found there. They wear similar clothing, eat similar foods, play similar music, etc. It is unclear why this has occurred. Perhaps the titans, in a godlike whim, adopted their favorite mortal lifestyle. Such would not be unusual for these great beings. Titans primarily dwell in great palaces and mansions in Olympus where they live their lives whimsically. There they will dance, sing, study, debate and engage in all other manner of activities with titanic proportion. If a titan finds something that interests him, it would not be unusual for him to study it in great detail for many weeks, only to leave it when his interest has waned. They may also engage in debates or arguments that last literally for weeks at a time. These debates might end in a jovial laughter and good spirits or in thunder and rage. Such are the whims of titans. Maybe X.  But maybe Y.  35% chance of Z (why are there percentages in my mythology?  QQ).  They sing they dance, but what do they do in a campaign?  No idea.  It's just uninspiring.</blockquote>

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