In its element

[hcobb]

When is a Rock Elemental considered to be "in its element" and therefore recovering one hit per turn?

Is it either

A> When walking through any unfinished stone tunnel in the ground.

or

B> When flowing through the stone the same as a Water Elemental flows through water?

Choose your munchkinism please.

(Somebody is going to say something like "C> Only when walking through naturally formed tunnels in the ground" and I'll reply that these are only formed by wind, water, or lava and are therefore native only to the other elementals of course.)

[Skarg]

A> No, it seems clear to me that an unfinished stone tunnel would only work if, as their description says, it is "deep underground", "deep in caverns or high on mountaintops" where there is "virgin stone".

B> Earth elementals moving through earth as if they were insubstantial is not something they can do. Why would you think that earth elementals would have properties that make no sense for earth, just because water elementals have those properties? Why do you think water elementals can move through water? The nature of earth is that it is solid, not fluid or insubstantial.

[MikMod]

Originally Posted by Skarg

A> No, it seems clear to me that an unfinished stone tunnel would only work if, as their description says, it is "deep underground", "deep in caverns or high on mountaintops" where there is "virgin stone".

That's a bit of a shame. Makes them quite a bit weaker, or at least geographically limited, than other elementals.

B> Earth elementals moving through earth as if they were insubstantial is not something they can do. Why would you think that earth elementals would have properties that make no sense for earth, just because water elementals have those properties? Why do you think water elementals can move through water? The nature of earth is that it is solid, not fluid or insubstantial.

Kinda nice idea though. And all the other elemental can move through their own element. Great retreat-and-recover ability. Plus some sweet surprise attacks! :)

[larsdangly]

I really like the idea that an earth elemental gets its ST recovery any time it is in physical contact with stone or soil that extends continuously into the earth (so, including floor and walls of a bare stone tunnel). Certainly I would let a water elemental recover when standing in water, a fire elemental recover when standing in a fire.

The really interesting question is whether an air elemental gets to recover at all times, provided it hasn't been trapped in a vacuum!

[hcobb]

Air Elemental wouldn't be in its element in stale air.

[Skarg]

Elementals are magical beings so of course a GM can rule they exist and function in different ways in their own settings.

Having earth elementals "need" to be in contact with any earth (or air with any air) to heal 1/turn is almost just like saying they just regenerate 1/turn almost always. Which again, since they're magical beings... could certainly be the case as a house rule.

Logically speaking, if reinventing them a bit, I might tend to instead just make them harder to actually injure since they seem to be magical spirit energies and their matter doesn't really have organs or anything so hitting it with physical force isn't going to do much that I would think would affect them much if at all. However thinking of gameplay I'd tend not to do that unless they were very rare because making a monster which is immune to physical violence in TFT tends to mean they're invulnerable for many people, and "get the thing that can do anything to this monster" is not a form of gameplay I like very often.

If an earth elemental can pass through earth like it's not there, then my conception of it would be even more that the elemental is not the physical earth, but some insubstantial magic energy spirit. Unless it has some type of Insubstantiality magic I guess.

My reply above though is about RAW, and how I would rule particularly when faced with a player thinking they have found a RAW munchkin exploit, which is how the question was framed.

And RAW, there are specific places where different types of elementals can be created and where ST is regained by all of the elemental types, not just stone elementals. Air elementals have to go high in the air. Water elementals need running or very deep water, not just a pond.

[JimmyPlenty]

It should be themed and obvious I think. Not trivial like a small pool of water for elementals.

Air elemental = Up in the air quite a ways. High altitude.

Water Elemental = Sea or very large and deep lake.

Fire elemental = House on fire. Big flames. Heat is not enough (volcano)

Earth elemental = Deep earth. NOT rock, but dirt and soil. (To distinguish them from stone golems, which I think is what most people, myself included, always assume they are like.)

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by JimmyPlenty

...
Earth elemental = Deep earth. NOT rock, but dirt and soil. (To distinguish them from stone golems, which I think is what most people, myself included, always assume they are like.)

In the Earth Elemental sub-section, they break them down into three types, Normal (dirt), Rock and Metal, each of which have (increasingly deep) different requirements of place of origin and recharging.

I think in particular stone and metal elementals seem like they were given fairly low armor values for being stone (4) and metal (5), probably to avoid having almost no one being able to hurt them. In the past, I have jacked those up a lot, which compensates for being really hard to get anyplace they can recharge (unless they're hanging out there, which they prefer to...) but also made them a harder to create and control, so they're not munchkinable but instead something you (almost) never see except in really exceptional circumstances.

[hcobb]

I love how a ST 1 metal elemental only uses up two pounds of ore and still hits like a huge dragon. So create twenty and have these swarm over the target like rats.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by hcobb

I love how a ST 1 metal elemental only uses up two pounds of ore and still hits like a huge dragon. So create twenty and have these swarm over the target like rats.

I'm glad you're happy.

Is that "only uses up two pounds of ore" that you're relishing the silliness of, your own house rule, or is there some TFT rule you're referring to?