how to beat air elementals at low level (pathfinder)

[jlmdragon]

this is for a pathfinder game

the party has 5 people in at all at level 5,

a cleric with the death and healing domains that can Spontaneously heal.

a sorcerer who has the following spells:
Level 0:
Dancing Lights
Jolt
Root
Detect Magic
Read Magic
Light
Prestidigitation
Disrupt Undead
Detect Poison

Level 1:
Mage Armor
Protection from Evil/good/law/chaos
Magic Missile
Enlarge Person
Grease
Charm person
Silent image

Level 2 spells:
Scorching Ray
Resist energy

and the feats:
Spell focus: evocation
Spell Specialization: Scorching Ray

and a lesser rod of maximise

there is also a me-lee focused rogue

a ranged fighting ranger

and a warblade (yeah a 3.5 class i know but it was allowed by the GM)

so any advice how this party would fight air elemental, i had though of either have the cleric cast blindness on it, or have the cleric cast magic circle against alignment, but we don't yet know how this elemental was bought to the material plane so the magic circle might be a bust against it, also the cleric believes that "necromancy is and abomination and should not be practised" so they might be very unwilling to cast blindness

so anyone else has some advice that might be useful?

[Yora]

I assume the ultimate goal is not to kill the elemental, but to do something the elemental is trying to prevent them from doing.

Knowing what exactly that is might help answering you.

Should the elemental be kept unharmed at all cost?

[Doorhandle]

If you're trying to keep it alive: Have you considered talking to it?

If not, have the fighty-types stay near the casters/ranged party-members, and have them ready actions to hit it if it comes within reach or attacks the other party-members. Spread out in groups of about 2, so that whirlwind can't catch ALL of you.

[jlmdragon]

I assume the ultimate goal is not to kill the elemental, but to do something the elemental is trying to prevent them from doing.

Knowing what exactly that is might help answering you.

Should the elemental be kept unharmed at all cost?

actually we are meant to either kill or otherwise beat it, our GM is deliberately sending us to fight tougher creatures then we should be at our level: eg in the first fight of the campaign we had to fight, a swarm CR 4-5, a very big centerpeade CR 9 and a satyr with class levels CR 6, and this was when we are level 4.

so if thinking if we are fighting one elemental its likely to be CR 7-11, possibly lower if we are fighting more then one.

[Scow2]

this is for a pathfinder game

the party has 5 people in at all at level 5,

a cleric with the death and healing domains that can Spontaneously heal...

...the cleric believes that "necromancy is and abomination and should not be practised" so they might be very unwilling to cast blindness
Does not compute. Error. Does not Compute.

[The Glyphstone]

If you're level 5 and you get a CR11 enemy, the proper response is 'trip the slowest member of the party and run like hell'.

[Draken]

If you're level 5 and you get a CR11 enemy, the proper response is 'trip the slowest member of the party and run like hell'.

I think he means a large air elemental, which is CR 5, not an elder.

Anyway. The problem appears to be that they have no flight and few ranged options and their opponent flies. The answer, I would say, is for your meleers to ready (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialInitiativeActions.htm#ready)actions to hit the elemental when it comes close.

[JackRose]

What type of air elemental? IE small, large, huge, elder?

An air elemental's weakest save is Will, so anything targeting that is good. Ideally you're going to want to fight it somewhere with a low ceiling to take away the advantage of its flight, but that may well be impossible.

[Callin]

If you're level 5 and you get a CR11 enemy, the proper response is 'trip the slowest member of the party and run like hell'.

Followed by a swift kick to the DM's groin.

[jlmdragon]

I think he means a large air elemental, which is CR 5, not an elder.

Anyway. The problem appears to be that they have no flight and few ranged options and their opponent flies. The answer, I would say, is for your meleers to ready (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialInitiativeActions.htm#ready)actions to hit the elemental when it comes close.

hmm good point about the ready actions rules i had forgotten about them, now our rogue and warblade will be able to become effective again

as for how difficult the fights tend to be i think our GM is trying to make them exciting and brutal so we can level up faster, after the last fight which was against a sea serpent we levelled up to level 5 and now he says after this air elemental fight we should go up to level 6, if we survive that is, then again last session my character got a opportunity to get a custom made magic item with a budget of 32,000 gp, i got a ring that has a number of buff spells per day, so can have stoneskin, fly, pretection from energy, mirror image, invisibility, and aid, so i'm hopeful that i will survive.

[Bucky]

Anyway. The problem appears to be that they have no flight and few ranged options and their opponent flies. The answer, I would say, is for your meleers to ready (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialInitiativeActions.htm#ready)actions to hit the elemental when it comes close.

Ready action to move towards it when it comes within 10' of the ground. It will then take an attack of opportunity and/or end the turn within reach.

[137beth]

Does not compute. Error. Does not Compute.

PF has an alternate death domain without undead involved...
But that is to avoid dealing with undead, not everything which happens to be in the necromancy school. See what your party's cleric is willing to do...

[Humble Master]

i got a ring that has a number of buff spells per day, so can have stoneskin, fly, pretection from energy, mirror image, invisibility, and aid, so i'm hopeful that i will survive.

If you have fly then just have the Cleric cast his buffs on the Warblade, use fly on him and have your Warblade buzz saw the air elemental. Meanwhile have your Sorcerer spam scorching ray at the elemental. Also have the ranger shoot at the air elemental with his bow or whatever. The Cleric could also cast Blindness on the air elemental.

[ericgrau]

Given the DC on the whirlwind and its movement speed it's almost certain that the whole party will be caught in round 1, or shortly thereafter. Given its listen modifier, whether you blind it before or after the whirlwind it doesn't matter because he can still find you with a DC 20 listen check if you do anything. Once you're inside the whirlwind blindness is irrelevant. Now if you quietly sneak away while invisible without doing anything else, then you're ok.

Count on fighting it from the inside. If he weren't over-CR'd you could then beat him with damage from the inside like anything else.

Due to his "low" will and fort saves you have about a 1 in 4 chance of tagging him with a spell each round. I couldn't find any level 3 cleric spells that would stop the elemental though. The best I found was bestow curse for -6 con to remove 1/3rd of his hp, which isn't a bad contribution for 1/4th of the party but it may not be enough or you could get unlucky save rolls. And you'd need 4+ copies.

The one advantage you have is his low damage output, which means you have about 5 rounds or so to beat him. If you could somehow get the whole party some DR it would be amazingly effective and give you a lot more time. Then you could bring a couple minor damage wands and win a war of attrition. Unfortunately stoneskin is 4th level and I don't know what Pathfinder has at lower level, if anything. Plus it gives the elemental plenty of time to get away once he notices that he's slowly losing. EDIT: Oh you have stoneskin and invisibility. Well if you can stoneskin multiple times that helps, otherwise those 2 spells would at least protect 2 party members.

Due to the elemental's high touch AC the sorcerer would benefit from scrolls or a wand of true strike, so that at least 1 of his scorching rays hits. If the sorcerer has stoneskin to stay alive he could take out almost half the elemental's hp over 6 rounds unless he rolls low on his concentration checks.