half-water elemental

[Baby Gary]

Hi All,
in MotP under half elemental it says
Half-elementals are immune to disease and effects from their own elements does this mean that half water elementals are immune to drowning?

[Fouredged Sword]

As a DM I would read that as a half water elemental being immune to drowning in water. You would still need to breathe though. For example, drown in oil or suffocate if buried alive.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Drowning is tricky because technically it's not the water that kills you at all, it's the lack of air. But yes, I would agree with that ruling. Either you can breathe water like a fish (or someone with a ring of water breathing) or you subconsciously create a stream of air through it or something that has the exact same effect. Water would not get in the way of you getting air.

Similarly I would not make a half earth elemental suffocate underground and a half fire elemental would do just fine in smoke.

[Andezzar]

Similarly I would not make a half earth elemental suffocate underground and a half fire elemental would do just fine in smoke.While I agree on the earth half-elemental, smoke is not fire, so smoke should affect a half fire elemental normally. In fact smoke elementals exist and they are an amalgam of fire and earth forces. As far as D&D is concerned there are no hybrids of humanoids and paraelementals.

The feature of half-elementals is interesting though. Are earth half-elementals crushed by the weight of the eatrth above them? What about water helf-elementals in sufficient depth?