Will a water elemental work this way?

[RustyArmor]

So the party is out in a desert and our one player is playing a water genasi (they get dehydrated quickly if hit with fire and the like), however he is also playing the ever dreadful tier 1 druid.

Desert travel which is suppose to be dangerous and life threatening is a joke with simple low level spells as endure elements and create water but at one point even he took his first 1d4 dehydration damage. Which he then summoned a water elemental to "Always keep him cool and hydrated". Naturally I said a water elemental would not work this since its more of a living water and just stabbing a straw in him and drink away would not work. Which made him slightly pissy and started one of them annoying game stopping debates with half the party.

I ruled it will not work but I was curious if there was a solid rule somewhere stating for or against this.

[Deophaun]

It could possibly work for as long as the duration of the summoning spell lasted. At that point, all the water he "drank" would disappear along with the summoned elemental, and he'd be in the same state as if he never summoned the water elemental at all.

[Con_Brio1993]

It could possibly work for as long as the duration of the summoning spell lasted. At that point, all the water he "drank" would disappear along with the summoned elemental, and he'd be in the same state as if he never summoned the water elemental at all.

Why though? If I get burnt by a fire elemental my burns don't vanish after the spell ends.

[KillianHawkeye]

While there's really no rules to cover this situation, I would say that you can't drink a water elemental without harming it. As such, the elemental would not go along with any plan that involved somebody drinking it. On the flipside, remind your player about the hazards that could be involved with having a living creature inside his digestive system.

[Deophaun]

Why though? If I get burnt by a fire elemental my burns don't vanish after the spell ends.
Because your burns were never a part of the fire elemental, unlike the water taken from the water elemental.

It's the exact same reason why you can't take equipment off summoned creatures, and why any effect granted by a summoned creature instantly vanishes once the duration runs out (such as the continual flame from a lantern archon).

[Malimar]

In China Miéville's Bas-Lag novels, some vodyanoi (frog-people) use undines (water elementals) in exactly this way. The vodyanoi don't drink the undines; the undines just slither all over the bodies, keeping them moist. That sounds like what this player wants to do, and I, for one, would allow it to work.

[JusticeZero]

Well the first thing that comes to mind is that summoning an elemental doesn't just appear it, rather, an existing source of the material that the elemental is made of becomes animated by said elemental. Earth and Air elementals are usually available anywhere you need, fire elementals are usually easy enough to arrange, Water elementals are usually used in water and need puddles or lakes or whatever.

[Psyren]

I would let them drink elementals, but have the elemental take 1d8 desiccation damage per round (Sandstorm 15) as well as an additional 1d8 every time someone in the party drinks a pint from it. There are 8 pints in a gallon, and per the DMG, each party member needs a gallon of water per day, with double that in a hot/dry environ like a desert; thus it would be 8d8 damage to the elemental, or 16d8 in a desert environment, to satisfy one person.

In other words, he would have a lot of summoning to do to keep the party hydrated that way.

[Fax Celestis]

I don't see why he needs to do this. Create water makes gallons/level. Gallons. He's at minimum 7th level, for summon nature's ally IV, so at least 7 gallons per casting, and he gets 6 cantrips a day. 42 gallons of water should be ludicrously more than the party needs per day.

[The Mentalist]

Well the first thing that comes to mind is that summoning an elemental doesn't just appear it, rather, an existing source of the material that the elemental is made of becomes animated by said elemental. Earth and Air elementals are usually available anywhere you need, fire elementals are usually easy enough to arrange, Water elementals are usually used in water and need puddles or lakes or whatever.

Actually summoned monsters do specifically appear from nothing(more specifically their elemental plane) with use of a [Summoning] spell, it's not like Animate Water which turns a pool of water into a water elemental, they do actually appear full formed from elsewhere by RAW. If it were a [Creation] spell you might have an argument and if it were a Transmutation spell I would cede the point completely.

More on point; if you rule that the water separated from the elemental is like cutting bits of flesh off a living creature (a reasonable argument), then it would vanish with the rest of the body at the end of the spell's duration and provide little to no hydration benefit. If it were Called it would work but all the parts of a Summoned creature disappear at the end of the spell's duration.

[Fax Celestis]

Actually summoned monsters do specifically appear from nothing(more specifically their elemental plane) with use of a [Summoning] spell, it's not like Animate Water which turns a pool of water into a water elemental, they do actually appear full formed from elsewhere by RAW. If it were a [Creation] spell you might have an argument and if it were a Transmutation spell I would cede the point completely.

...like extract water elemental?

[The Mentalist]

...like extract water elemental?

If it's a [Summoning] spell then yeah, isn't that the one that creates a Huge water elemental out of someone's body water? In that case it may use the water that's there (though by RAW it doesn't matter, summoning spells appear regardless of present materials) but the rest of the water for that Huge Elemental (most probably drawn from a medium body) is pulled direct from the Elemental Plane of Water.

Also, that shouldn't be summoning... at all, but Wizard's was never known for accurate school placement (I'm looking at you Conjuration [Healing])



A summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from

[eggynack]

I don't see why he needs to do this. Create water makes gallons/level. Gallons. He's at minimum 7th level, for summon nature's ally IV, so at least 7 gallons per casting, and he gets 6 cantrips a day. 42 gallons of water should be ludicrously more than the party needs per day.
He could actually be level three, for a small water elemental. That'd mean only three gallons of water per casting. On the other side of the equation, we have the small water elemental. Those weigh 34 pounds, and there're apparently about 8.3 pounds in a gallon, so that'd be about 4 gallons of water per casting at maximum. I agree with you though. This is just an inefficient use of resources in general. The player can just pop an extra couple of create waters where he'd ordinarily have detect magic and cure minor wounds.

[rot42]

The graft Breath of the Waves from Magic of Eberron (p. 130) bonds a character with a piece of a water elemental to avoid dehydration (among other things). Bringing in a whole elemental and striking a bargain or compelling it to provide this service could probably reasonably be done with a [Calling] effect like Planar Ally, but the [Summoning] arguments above agree with my reading. I think you may have a disconnect with the player regarding what kind of game you want to play: either he is looking for a more rules-light game where a summoning effect could be squodged into serving this purpose; or he is not interested in playing out the rigors of desert travel and wants to move on to aspects of the game he finds more interesting.