Earth Elementals

[fading]

Is there ever any reason to use one of these? From what I've noticed they are substantially weaker than the other streams. I find it particularly amusing, and ironic, that they're actually the worst elemental for tanking.

Have you, reader, ever made use out of these elementals? Why summon an earth elemental when a fire elemental does more damage and is substantially more resilient due to higher AC? Are they useful against a very niche enemy type that I'm unaware of?

(Suggestions are closed, however I would personally be interested in hearing ideas to make them on-par with the other elementals, for the sake of discussing. Higher AC feels somewhat wrong, earth and all.)

[Party in the forest at midnight]

The only thing earth elementals are good at is getting caught in doorways and terrain.

[LovelyLightningWitch]

The only thing earth elementals are good at is getting caught in doorways and terrain.

This could potentially be useful for a wizard + archer duo, theoretically, no?

Send earth elemental in, it blocks hallway and shoot past it. Works, since other elementals cannot -guard.


To note, I have not played an archer in any capacity beyond using bows to snipe caster NPCs.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

No, it's really detrimental, because your elemental gets hung up on everything when you're trying to do writs. You will die to monsters because it can't reach things. It isn't a useful kind of blocking.

[Hazard]

No, I never use them. They're useless.

[KnifeParty]

25% chance of !@#$%&* when you don´t have access to stream books yet.

[fading]

Would you feel intimidated if you had to face one? They are rather large, after all. Very threatening. You'd surely feel small in comparison.

[Fava Beans]

They are dmg sponges, nothing else, they dont last, their DR is negligible and their ac is terrible.

that being said, running around with a monolithic earth elemental is fun, solely because they are huge.

the monolith has a great function with its earthquake spell, but otherwise, every other element is preferred.

[Deryliss]

Ironic as well since the defining feature of earth elementals in pen and paper is being able to pass through earth and rock as if it wasn't there (Earth Glide).

The earth elementals here really are just the dummy prize that makes the others look better. They don't have any useful niche outside of 'they look big and impressive'.

I'm not sure how they could be changed without stepping into the boundaries of the other elementals.

[chris a gogo]

It's a major feature of NWN that AC is king.
As earth elementals lack the AC it makes them worthless as a tank and even with regen cast on it is worse than the rest, unfortunately there is no way around this while maintaining them as earth elementals.
You could up the DI to massive numbers but as they will still be getting hit and not doing a great deal of damage in return it will just make them a slow and boring way to fight spawns.

[fading]

If they were given AC comparable to water elementals, and had their DR/DI amped to a more meaningful number, would that make them viable and perhaps on par with the rest? Maybe a bit more damage (acid perhaps?)

[Scylon]

Could just add an extra +10 damage, give the ma dash of damage resistance, a little more damage immunity, and maybe +4 or 5 reduction. Make them a king physical pet.

[Glowing Mushroom]

Despite their supposed greater DR and high HP, it seems to make no difference at all. Even as a Totem they easily take damage and their low AC makes it even worse. The other elementals are far superior, especially considering the aforementioned size issues.

Ancient Earth is such a cool summon and I wouldn't mind the size, but it's just a bad idea to try and use it anywhere, even buffed.

Maybe some higher damage and KD, better DR, and some natural regen would be nice. Just so it could at least try to compete with any of the other streams that all have incredible benefits and applications.

[Fava Beans]

ive got it, just nerf the other 3 down to earth elemental levels.

*is joke*