Can elementals alter the shape of squares they occupy?

[Goladar]

So a Huge elemental takes up 9 squares in a 3x3 square. The veteran of our group(been playing d&d for 35 years) says that a huge elemental can alter it's shape to wrap around the corner of a 5ft square(so it can provide a flanking bonus to creatures on 2 sides) forming an 'L' shape with it's body. Now this guy does a lot of stuff that's against the rules(summoning things in mid-air to drop on bad guys, using wild shape to gain the Su abilities of various creatures, healing to full HP every time he Wild Shapes) but I've never heard or read anything about changing the shape of the squares you take up. Is he right or wrong?

Thanks,
GE

[Necroticplague]

So a Huge elemental takes up 9 squares in a 3x3 square. The veteran of our group(been playing d&d for 35 years) says that a huge elemental can alter it's shape to wrap around the corner of a 5ft square(so it can provide a flanking bonus to creatures on 2 sides) forming an 'L' shape with it's body. Now this guy does a lot of stuff that's against the rules(summoning things in mid-air to drop on bad guys, using wild shape to gain the Su abilities of various creatures, healing to full HP every time he Wild Shapes) but I've never heard or read anything about changing the shape of the squares you take up. Is he right or wrong?

Thanks,
GE

There are creatures that can do as described. Elementals are not one of them. Swarms are capable of doing so, but bog-standard elementals can't.

[Goladar]

There are creatures that can do as described. Elementals are not one of them. Swarms are capable of doing so, but bog-standard elementals can't.

Thank you. Do we have a rule somewhere that says this?

ETA: Found this quote in the Swarm entry on d20srd.


Unlike other creatures with a 10-foot space, a swarm is shapeable. It can occupy any four contiguous squares, and it can squeeze through any space large enough to contain one of its component creatures.

[Professor Chimp]

Well, I once had my players fight a couple of large oozes. They were running short on supplies and even though they could still win, chose to retreat down a 5ft wide corridor, based on the idea that the small space would slow the oozes down enough for them to escape. I pointed out the oozes couldn't follow them because of their 10x10ft space. My players argued: "But they're made of slimy liquid, couldn't they just deform their bodies into a different shape?"

I thought about this for a second and decided to go along with their reasoning. So I houseruled that any creature made up up of liquids, gasses or other substances malleable enough to deform easily can squeeze themselves into narrower spaces than their own space so long as there is enough room to fit all their squares, but they need to do Escape Artist checks and take a speed penalty while moving through it. The larger the creature and/or more viscous its body and the narrower the space, the harder the DC and larger the speed penalty, and vice versa.

It made for a memorable encounter later when the PCs barricaded themselves into a room, only for the air elementals to get in anyway through grated vents in the ceiling. And yes, someone quoted Aliens.

[Vizzerdrix]

Sounds like you reinvented the squeezing rules.

[Segev]

Elementals are weird in certain respects. None of the basic "elemental" monsters (i.e. the Air Elemental, Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, and Water Elemental) are incorporeal or in any way immune to normal weapon attacks, which means that you can, in fact, shoot an air elemental to death with a bow and arrow, and stab a water elemental to death with a spear. You can even decapitate a fire elemental with a vorpal sword, since it doesn't have a "no head" clause in its rules. Never mind; they're not subject to critical hits by virtue of their Type, so that doesn't work (thankfully).

They aren't said to have malleable forms, either, so they are fixed in shape.

[Alcore]

Technically no.

They can't, or shouldn't, be able to. One can see the jump in logic concerning air elementals as an obvious one but the rules don't support that reasoning.

An earth element is however able to earth glide and, if big enough, can inhabit a wall with enough of it on either side to attack.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Air elementals probably can't occupy too-small spaces because wind speeds would get too high and mumble mumble vortices mumble mumble explosive decompression.

In any case, no, they can't provide flanking bonuses like that. I would suggest banhammering all the other things they do, because that's no way to play the game. Druids are strong enough without all that.

[Vizzerdrix]

Dude sounds like a cheater. If you DM is okay with cheating and you have some spare dice, I can show you a wonderful tutorial on how to modify them for more beneficial rolls.

[RedMage125]

The reason the answer to your question is no is simple:

The space a creature occupies in combat is meant to be an abstraction of the space a creature its size needs for basic maneuvering in combat.

A human being does not ACTUALLY take up a 5'x5' space. That is the space that he "takes up" in combat, so that he can move his limbs, dodge attacks, and so on.