Creatures with elemental subtypes and clerics with elemental domains

[TallerSpine]

What do suppose creatures think about clerics with domains that grant rebuke/command? For example, suppose an Air cleric commands a green dragon. Would this be seen as similar magic to an Orb of Dragonkind? Would the cleric using this power invoke the ire of all dragons? Is it possible for a cleric to use the power wisely and not incur the enmity of the commanded creature? Have you ever been in a game where this power was used to good effect?

[hamishspence]

Given how limited it is compared to an Orb, I can believe that it wouldn't be feared as much.

Clerics who command undead are painted as allied to undeath in general - it's similar here - - for the air domain, you're asserting your authority as a senior servant of Air, and green dragons are creatures of Air.


We see Hilgya doing something similar with the Fire domain:


https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0052.html


I would guess that young green dragons (to be Commanded, the dragon must have half your hit dice or less, just as Commanding Undead has the same requirement) who get Commanded, simply accept that being a "creature of Air" means that powerful Air clerics get to boss them around.

[Roninblack]

I would guess that young green dragons (to be Commanded, the dragon must have half your hit dice or less, just as Commanding Undead has the same requirement) who get Commanded, simply accept that being a "creature of Air" means that powerful Air clerics get to boss them around.

And I would disagree, saying it depends on the creature. No evil dragon will be happy with being bossed around and told what to do; they have to do it, thems the rules, but they may dislike you, quietly work against you, fear you to much, or even respect you to much. However I don't think any intelligent creature will ever simply accept being turned.

[Thurbane]

That's very interesting. I had always assumed elemental turning only worked on creatures of the elemental type...if it works on any creature with the right subtype, it opens up options I hadn't thought about!

[TallerSpine]

And I would disagree, saying it depends on the creature. No evil dragon will be happy with being bossed around and told what to do; they have to do it, thems the rules, but they may dislike you, quietly work against you, fear you to much, or even respect you to much. However I don't think any intelligent creature will ever simply accept being turned.

This is kind of what I was thinking, but maybe it depends on the creature's mentality. Perhaps if you treat it like a Planar Ally spell or something and make an agreement with the creature, it will be happy with the result. But, if you decide to exert the control as absolute, that is when it will start wishing for your destruction.

[hamishspence]

I don't think any intelligent creature will ever simply accept being turned.
Not turned, commanded.

Same principle applies to a powerful evil cleric who uses Rebuke/Command on a highly intelligent undead that is much less powerful.

Is a Commanded vampire going to be happy about being under the control of a cleric? Possibly not - especially if they have very different goals - a LE vampire Commanded by a CE cleric, for example.

But having them "quietly working against" the cleric that Commands them, may be giving them too much volition.

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm#evilClericsandUndead

Commanded
A commanded undead creature is under the mental control of the evil cleric. The cleric must take a standard action to give mental orders to a commanded undead. At any one time, the cleric may command any number of undead whose total Hit Dice do not exceed his level. He may voluntarily relinquish command on any commanded undead creature or creatures in order to command new ones.

[Roninblack]

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm#evilClericsandUndead[/url]

Commanded
A commanded undead creature is under the mental control of the evil cleric.

So this just asks the definition of under mental control, do you lose all faculty to think? Are you a flesh puppet until such time as the cleric relinquishes control? If that's so, then I don't think anyone will be too happy about it if they survive to realize what happened.

The same is also true imo if they can think while they are being controlled like a robot, who would want or like that? No one I can think of.


What about orbs of dragon kind as the OP pointed out. If Commanded works that way, then I don't think any dragon would like a human if its known they possess that ability. However I don't think it elicits the same reaction as an orb, because powerful dragons know they can't be affected the same way, and especially in the example of greens, they probably don't care if a weaker dragon is being controlled it shouldn't have ended up in that situation.