I don’t even have a clever title for this one. Christ, dude, these Elementals have taken everything out of me! *Sigh*… well, at least we’re finally done. Almost.
Again, there really isn’t any specific lore to speak of. Nor a unique design. Both boil down to ‘it’s water that moves and speaks’. Nothing to bite into. End of analysis. Moving on. How fun is it to kill?
Well, it isn’t especially hard. While it does have the highest HP out of any of the elementals (not by much, mind you), it also has the lowest AC. Once again, it has all the typical elemental resistances/immunities; non-magical weapons and acid (hey, that’s new) won’t do much to it, poison won’t do anything, and status effects are a no-go.
It does, however, have a unique weakness: ice. See, whenever the water elemental takes cold damage, it partially freezes, losing some movement speed until the end of its next turn. It isn’t much, but it opens up some fun possibilities for the players to explore.
In terms of attacks, it isn’t all that exciting. It has a slam move that it can use twice, which does 13(2d8+4) bludgeoning damage. So, if all you have it do is hit your players, it won’t make for a very exciting battle. Just a long and tedious one.
You can, however, use the Whelm ability to shake things up. With this, not only can it deal just as much damage as a slam, but it can also grapple large or smaller creatures, essentially trapping them underwater and leaving them to drown. Every turn they’re in there, they take the damage again. If they can’t break out (which shouldn’t be hard, it isn’t the highest strength DC), then a member of the party could help pull them out. It’s not much, but it can add an extra bit of stress and strategy to the fight.
Overall, this one isn’t the worst elemental of the bunch. Sure, it’s still a pretty weak monster overall. But out of the other four, it’s not all that bad.
With all that in mind, let’s put the Water Elemental on the Best of the Bestiary!
- Beholder
- Death Tyrant
- Dragon Turtle
- Green Dragons
- Red Dragons
- Blue Dragons
- Black Dragons
- White Dragons
- Silver Dragons
- Couatl
- Behir
- Aboleth
- Bronze Dragons
- Brass Dragons
- Copper Dragons
- Gold Dragons
- Chuul
- Chimera
- Death Knight
- Bone Devil
- Dracolich
- Ankheg
- Shadow Demon
- Marilith
- Drider
- Aarackockra
- Azer
- Demilich
- Spectator
- Cambion
- Animated Armor
- Banshee
- Basilisk
- Yochlol
- Bulette
- Cloaker
- Darkmantle
- Doppelganger
- Pit Fiend
- Erinyes
- Chain Devil
- Bearded Devil
- Barbed Devil
- Spined Devil
- Ice Devil
- Nalfeshnee
- Glabrezu
- Chasme
- Barlgura
- Horned Devil
- Balor
- Shadow Dragon
- Vrock
- Dretch
- Goristro
- Hezrou
- Manes
- Duergar
- Quasit
- Dryad
- Planetar
- Imp
- Displacer Beast
- Carrion Crawler
- Rug of Smothering
- Bugbear Chief
- Bugbear
- Vine Blight
- Twig Blight
- Needle Blight
- Bullywug
- Cockatrice
- Lemure
- Solar
- Deva
- Cyclops
- Centaur
- Fire Elemental
- Water Elemental <—————————-
- Air Elemental
- Dinosaurs (All six of them)
- Earth Elemental
- Flying Sword
- Crawling Claw
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