Sorry dude. I gotta side with the main peoples here.

When I throw one of my super evil Lightning Trolls at my players, they aren't surprised when, big surprise, his weapons aren't Lightning weapons, they are weapons he coated in lighting.

When I throw a human at them, they see a flaming sword (unless its green) they expect a flaming sword. They see the golden armor, they expect golden armor. They see a big flaming demon with a flaming sword, they don't expect to get that. He's made of fire, so is his sword. They expect a firebending sorta deal.

However... sometimes they will be thrown for a loop. And I actually have had a dragon have a ring of fire breathing, but to be fair, he was a black dragon I made specifically to mess with them (mutant drow blooded steampunk cyborg prismatic ancient black dragon with demonic heritor feats and good items and metabreath feats and spells. Oh acid breath fused with negative levels and searing light... such a fun breath...)