How can I (indirectly) play an air elemental?

[Harrow]

I have always liked air elementals. Fly 100 Perfect, lots of Dex, a little natural armor, and some synergistic racial bonus feats. The problem is that things like the perfect fly speed make them inappropriate for a player race ; they have no LA and I'm not sure I would want to play one that did.

However, there are more ways to play something than to use it as a base race. I'm here to ask what can be done to allow me access to an air elemental.

The group I play with generally does 3.5 and has access to most everything. Pathfinder, homebrew, and 3rd party have all been used with DM permission, in descending order of acceptability.

Ideas I've had on the subject include :

Becoming one
This includes wildshape, polymorph, and similar. The Druid's Elemental Wildshape is... lackluster. It does too little too late. Druid/MoMF gets it earlier and has a less restrictive wildshape, but still doesn't get any access until late in the game. There's some trick or another to get into MoMF earlier, but it's rather cheesy and still means you won't be an elemental until mid-late game. Earlier still is Polymorph, can be cast on yourself in combat, or you can pay for PAO , which, with Air Heritage, arguably has a permanent duration. Unfortunately, all of these won't let you be an air elemental of higher HD than your ECL, which is necessary to be effective after very early levels (except arguably PAO, but bringing that up is more likely to get PAO banned than it is allow me to play an Elder Air elemental at level 4.) They also don't allow access to the special qualities (except MoMF), which are nice and I would like them if I could get them

Acquiring one
This method I have more faith in. Basically, use class features to get an air elemental that I play, basically just reducing my "actual" PC to baggage. This includes elemental companions from Druids or bonded summoners, planar binding, or effigies. The elemental companion ACF of the druid is pretty nice, but there's no way to improve it. With some form of transparency houserule beastlord can improve it some, but that's about it. The Bonded Summoner also gets an Elemental Companions, but both of those and the Planar binding spells just don't scale up fast enough to be effective.

The last option I mentioned was building an effigy air elemental. This requires a work-around, because you can't build elemental effigies. However, some templates, like half dragon, could be stacked with it to make it possible. This leads to its own problem ; the cost and limits of an effigy are entirely HD based, disregarding LA and CR, which is something a lot of DMs don't like. However, I think many DMs would also agree on the middle ground of counting LA for HD.

Now that we have the technicalities out of the way, how does the effigy (half-dragon or whatever) air elemental hold up? Well, instead of the limit being at or lower than your HD, as most of these options are, it's based on your caster level. The effigy master prestige class alone adds +9 to maximum effigy HD over 5 levels, which is pretty good. Combining Practiced Spellcaster, fast casting progression PrCs, and Master Spellthief even allows you to tailor your power level to your campaign. This one seems like the best option to me.

Does anyone know of any other way to effectively (in both senses of the word) play an elemental? Maybe a method a bit less rules-tenuous than the one described?

Alternatively, now that I (maybe) have an elemental, what do I do with it? Presumably I can customize its feats. Do I go Shadow Hand? Archery? If there were some way to get an Air Elemental with class levels, which ones would be best? Fighter, Totemist, Ranger, and Swordsage come to mind as giving a lot to Air elementals in just a few levels. Or would advancing HD be better?

[EvilJames]

The easiest way to get one is Leadership. I believe the LA for leadership is in the DMG (I could be wrong about that but I'm certain I've seen it somewhere)

Druids also have an ACF that replaces the animal companion with an elemental.
The first Prc that comes to mind is the elemental master or something or other in the miniatures hand book you have to be a wizard or a sorcerer and it replaces your familiar with an elemental.
There are others but I'll have to look them up so I may do so later.
You already covered those and I didn't read you whole post apparently:smallyuk:


Effigy would lose you a lot of the elemental abilities so trying to build a templated elemental effigy will likely not get you what you want. It also wouldn't get any feats that aren't combat related, including bonus feats.

[Fouredged Sword]

I would play a cleric with the air domain. You can rebuke air elementals to work for you. Boost your turning level and you can get a good mount to ride around level 6-8 or so if you are small. Invest in lance prof and spirited charge for some nice damage.

[Harrow]

AFAIK you can't have a cohort with LA -

You are right, the effigy would lose a lot of its cool and useful abilities.

That... doesn't leave a lot.

Maybe If I went Elemental Companion Druid or Improved Familiar wizard/sorcerer/whatever and then into Bonded summoner and instead of spending feats and class levels to improve the elemental further I could just spend my turns buffing it. What buff spells would be good on an air elemental?

EDIT:

I would play a cleric with the air domain. You can rebuke air elementals to work for you. Boost your turning level and you can get a good mount to ride around level 6-8 or so if you are small. Invest in lance prof and spirited charge for some nice damage.

That's genius! I would still have to find an air elemental somehow, but at lower levels just paying a higher level wizard npc for planar binding, then greater planar binding, then finally gate, would allow a sort of scaling elemental. Not sure about using an elemental as a mount, but I think there are vague rules for "exotic" saddles somewhere.

[Karnith]

AFAIK you can't have a cohort with LA -
You can't, but there is an Air Elemental monster class in Savage Species, so you could have a cohort progressing through the class.

[Fouredged Sword]

If it is one size larger than you, and can carry your weight, you can use it as a mount. You can also rebuke a second air elemental as a spare and keep it in your bag of holding. They weight like 3 lbs.

[Segev]

You can't, but there is an Air Elemental monster class in Savage Species, so you could have a cohort progressing through the class.

At that rate, he could actually PLAY one.

[Karnith]

At that rate, he could actually PLAY one.
He could, but like most monster classes, it's not very good, especially past the first few levels. You end up as a Large Air Elemental with an ECL of 14 (LA +6). Fly 100 feet at level 1 is really strong, but you don't get much else.

[Segev]

This isn't fast by ANY stretch of the imagination, but the Elemental Savant's capstone transforms you into an Elemental of your chosen type.


If you can start with the Air subtype, by 5th CL you can have a Small Air Elemental familiar with the Improved Familiar feat.

[Harrow]

Well, the elemental turning sounded promising, but the highest HD you can command is half your HD. The savage progression was equally terrible :smalleek:

Almost all of the methods of gaining or becoming an elemental share the same problem. They don't kick in until mid-levels, when all but the strongest of elementals aren't much of a threat, and then fail to scale properly.

My best bet still seems to be either the Druid elemental companion or improved familiar->bonded summoner elemental companion.

Which of these two would be better? If I went bonded summoner, should my base class be wizard for better buffs or Duskblade for better general stats?

Edit:
Looked up Elemental Savant. For the most part, it's pretty good. Losing two caster levels isn't fun, but it's better than the Bonded Summoner. Losing the ability to do none-electricity energy damage kind of sucks, but there are worse things. Now if only you could get the capstone before level 15 :smallannoyed:

Let's see... I could start wizard. Find some way to qualify for the Permanent duration on PAO into the biggest air elemental I can until Large. Then, at level 15, the combination of the polymorph stats and Elemental Savant Capstone cover pretty much everything about being an air elemental. And I'd also be most of a wizard on the side. Sounds pretty promising.

[EvilJames]

AFAIK you can't have a cohort with LA -

You are right, the effigy would lose a lot of its cool and useful abilities.

That... doesn't leave a lot.

Maybe If I went Elemental Companion Druid or Improved Familiar wizard/sorcerer/whatever and then into Bonded summoner and instead of spending feats and class levels to improve the elemental further I could just spend my turns buffing it. What buff spells would be good on an air elemental?


That's genius! I would still have to find an air elemental somehow, but at lower levels just paying a higher level wizard npc for planar binding, then greater planar binding, then finally gate, would allow a sort of scaling elemental. Not sure about using an elemental as a mount, but I think there are vague rules for "exotic" saddles somewhere.

Races of stone gives the info for earth elementals as cohorts, presumably air would be the same. 5th, 8th, 13th level equivalent respectivly.

[ComposerSuzuran]

You said your DM's okay with homebrew, right?
A little digging turned up this monster class progression: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8927531&postcount=952 Does this look any better to you? (from here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182724 )

[EvilJames]

Savage species lists ECL for elementals It seems that air and fire elementals have an ECL one level hight than earth and water. :smallannoyed:

[Segev]

The Druid Elemental Companion actually doesn't look too bad. Pick the Druid's spells and feats to back you up, and be a party support caster. When he can wild shape, he can spend most of his time as something inncuous that follows you around.

Perhaps you're a kindly air elemental who, on a whim, picked up an orphan [insert race here] who has begun picking up magic based on their connection to you.

[Harrow]

Races of stone gives the info for earth elementals as cohorts, presumably air would be the same. 5th, 8th, 13th level equivalent respectivly.


Savage species lists ECL for elementals It seems that air and fire elementals have an ECL one level hight than earth and water. :smallannoyed:

I've looked it up and you are indeed correct. Still scales a little slowly, but leadership allowing me to add class levels on top after a couple levels helps too. Still not especially useful, although I do understand the extra LA for air elementals.


You said your DM's okay with homebrew, right?
A little digging turned up this monster class progression: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8927531&postcount=952 Does this look any better to you? (from here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182724 )

That... actually looks pretty balanced. I'll have to run this by my group :smallbiggrin:

It doesn't get quite at massive DEX as an air elemental, and none of the NA, but a quick PAO every couple of levels fixes that up nicely. Maybe? I'll have to work out with my group how the two work with each other, but it should all work out.


The Druid Elemental Companion actually doesn't look too bad. Pick the Druid's spells and feats to back you up, and be a party support caster. When he can wild shape, he can spend most of his time as something inncuous that follows you around.

Perhaps you're a kindly air elemental who, on a whim, picked up an orphan [insert race here] who has begun picking up magic based on their connection to you.

That does sound like a pretty interesting character, but what druid spells and feats would really 'back up' an air elemental? I guess they get some battlefield control spells, and from second level spells onward they get some decent buffs. Not necessarily amazing, but he's just my humanoid companion, how good do you expect him to be :smallwink:

[SimonMoon6]

If you don't like the savage species option (I played an air elemental using the Savage Species rules and he worked fine), here's an option for higher level characters:

(1) Get your UMD up really high. Get someone to cast all those spells that boost a skill check.
(2) Buy a psionic-scroll (I forget if they're called dorjes or power stones or whatever) of True Mind Switch.
(3) Get an elemental that you want to become through some calling spell (planar binding)... or plane shift to the plane of air and find one.
(4) Use your UMD skill to use the psionic-scroll of True Mind Switch on the air elemental. You are now an elemental.

Or, of course, you could just be playing a psion which reduces some of the steps to:

(1) Be a psion. Get the True Mindswitch power.
(2) Switch with an air elemental.

But that assumes you wouldn't mind being a psion.

[Fouredged Sword]

You can turn control an elemental of half your LEVEL, not your HD. You can control up to your HD in elementals total.

This is important because you can ask your DM to allow you to make or have made for you an Phylactery of elemental Turning or allow a Phylactery of Undead Turning to apply to elemental turning. The latter has some RAW support given a favorable reading of the air domain.

The language of "Rebuke, command, or bolster air creatures as an evil cleric rebukes undead" would suggest that a item that boosts rebuke undead also would increase rebuke elemental.

This increases the MAX HD you can control by 2, but does not increase the HD total you can control.

Look for other ways to boost your cleric level for turning and rebuking. If you apply a penalty to turn resistance to the elemental, those are even better. I think you can swing a +7 or so to your rebuke level and maybe apply another -7 or so to the turning resistance.

You should reach parity between your elemental and your character HD for most of your level progression, with some low points as you seek out or craft items you need. You should be able to have a 20HD advanced huge air elemental at level 20 without too much trouble. You count as level 27 or so for rebuking and can control a creature with 13 HD, and it counts as 7 levels lower or so, so 20 HD becomes 13.

Remember, if it's the point of your build, you can sink considerable resources into making it happen.

[erikun]

The Druid Elemental Companion actually doesn't look too bad. Pick the Druid's spells and feats to back you up, and be a party support caster. When he can wild shape, he can spend most of his time as something inncuous that follows you around.

Perhaps you're a kindly air elemental who, on a whim, picked up an orphan [insert race here] who has begun picking up magic based on their connection to you.
Good find (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20061010a). This gives you a small air elemental at 1st level, and the option to grow up to huge by 16th. Improved Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#improvedFamiliar) will allow you to take a small elemental as a familiar as well, although you need to wait until 5th level to do so.

Arcane Hierophant also gives you the benefit of applying both Wizard familiar bonuses and Druid animal companion bonuses to the same creature. It may not technically (by RAW) be allowed, but most DMs would probably allow an Arcane Hierophant with the Druid variant and the Improved Familiar feat to apply both to the same elemental.

At that point, you can pretty much play the Air Elemental itself, with a bunch of nice boosts and your own pet Druid/Wizard. :smallbiggrin: