"Crystalline Creatures"? [3.5]

[Scarey Nerd]

I was just reading the description of the spell Shatter, and it mentioned that it can do sonic damage to crystalline creatures. Just what exactly is a crystalline creature? I know skeletons count, and I assume animated objects do, but what else?

[Yuki Akuma]

...What makes you think skeletons count? Bones aren't crystalline at all.

As for actual crystalline monsters... iron golems and earth elementals?

[RndmNumGen]

There's a couple of monsters in the XPH that are made out of crystal... it would work on those just fine. Actually a good way to ruin a Metapsionic/Vigor Psion's day - cast it on their Psicrystal, suddenly they're deprived of their familiar and their primary casting trick.

[Draconi Redfir]

Glass gollems.

[Scarey Nerd]

...What makes you think skeletons count? Bones aren't crystalline at all.

As for actual crystalline monsters... iron golems and earth elementals?

I asked about Warlock Invocations a while back and someone said that Baleful Utterance (Shatter) affects skeletons, I assume because of their brittle bones.

[Gorfang113]

Crystalline Trolls from MM3 as well.

[Yorrin]

I asked about Warlock Invocations a while back and someone said that Baleful Utterance (Shatter) affects skeletons, I assume because of their brittle bones.

You've been misinformed, sir. Unless it's a houserule with your DM skeletons don't qualify as crystalline. There are a limited number of creatures that are actually made of crystal (most of which are in monster manuals other than MM1). In fact, crystalline foes are pretty rare unless you play with a lot of psionics.

[Thurbane]

AFAIK, "crystalline" is not actually a defined monster trait in 3.5, so the DM and players have to use a bit of discretion. If you try to go for an exact scientific definition of crystalline, you can end up with some wonky (in game) results.

[tyckspoon]

If it has 'crystal', 'gem', 'glass', or 'ice' in the name, it is most likely the kind of crystalline the writer had in mind. Anything else, probably not.

Edit: Additionally or alternatively, anything you could imagine shattering apart when you give it a nice hefty whack with a bludgeoning weapon or would describe damage as 'fractures spread out from the point of impact'. Which would qualify skeletons, usually.

[LansXero]

If it has 'crystal', 'gem', 'glass', or 'ice' in the name, it is most likely the kind of crystalline the writer had in mind. Anything else, probably not.

Edit: Additionally or alternatively, anything you could imagine shattering apart when you give it a nice hefty whack with a bludgeoning weapon or would describe damage as 'fractures spread out from the point of impact'. Which would qualify skeletons, usually.

So anything from the summon Ice beast line, right?

[Scarey Nerd]

When the spell talks about the area effect, it mentions that it can destroy anything that is brittle. I assume therefore that if a creature is brittle, it counts as having a crystalline structure. Obviously something like a skeleton is not made of crystal, but there are very few creatures that are, and I don't think a 2nd level spell would have been made to allow tackling creatures like ice-golems and their ilk only, as that particular part of the spell wouldn't be useful for a long time, until the party is of a high enough level to encounter such things.

[Serpentine]

That... sussaruss? thingy looks like it could be, and there's crystal dragons maybe.

[KillianHawkeye]

and there's crystal dragons maybe.

Gem Dragons. I think they were in a web enhancement for the XPH Psionics Handbook.

EDIT: Were gem dragons ever updated for 3.5?

EDIT2: Nevermind, they were also in Monster Manual 2, which received a 3.5 update.

[Prime32]

When the spell talks about the area effect, it mentions that it can destroy anything that is brittle. I assume therefore that if a creature is brittle, it counts as having a crystalline structure. Obviously something like a skeleton is not made of crystal, but there are very few creatures that are, and I don't think a 2nd level spell would have been made to allow tackling creatures like ice-golems and their ilk only, as that particular part of the spell wouldn't be useful for a long time, until the party is of a high enough level to encounter such things.

That's not what the spell was made for. It was made for destroying items, damaging crystalline creatures is just a side-bonus.

[Yorrin]

That's not what the spell was made for. It was made for destroying items, damaging crystalline creatures is just a side-bonus.

This. I use it to break swords/locks/windows/etc more than anything else. It's insanely useful if you do a lot of breaking and entering (which I always do as a Warlock).

[noparlpf]

We fought some kind of frozen version of a gargoyle once and it was crystalline. I don't know if that's a real thing or a homebrew critter. Maybe normal gargoyles would count as crystalline?

[Togath]

Normal gargoyle are flesh and blood I think, so it wouldn't deal extra damage to them, though it would probably work on the fozen gargoyle(which I think is the sample creature for the ice beast template in frostburn)