[Magic] Would You Summon This Elemental?

[scc]

OK, for some time I've been tinkering with Magic. One of the ideas that crawled into my head was to create Elementals for every Body Of spell in Magic, that hit a snag when trying to figure out Damage Resistance for Air Elemental's, they're made of AIR, how does a sword hurt them? Well I've figured that out and now want to forums opinion of what I've come up with.

This Air Elemental is built on 30 points and thus requires a 3 energy casting of Summon Air Elemental to summon one.

Attribute Modifiers: DX-1 [-20]; -2 IQ [-40].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM -1; HP+4 [8].
Advantages: Doesn’t Breathe [20]; Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10]; Flight (Lighter Than Air, -10%; Low Ceiling, 5-foot, -25%, PM:Magic, -10%;) [22]; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]; Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) [100]; Unkillabkle 3 (Elemental (Air), -10%; Energy Being, -20%; Mortal, -20%; PM:Magic, -10%) [60].
Disadvantages: Cannot Learn [-30]; No Fine Manipulators [-30]; Numb [-20]; Reprogrammable [-10]; Social Stigma (Subjugated) [-20]; Unhealing (Total) [-30]; Vulnerability (Vacuum and wind-based attacks x2) [-20].

Now for some explanation of some of the traits present.
Unkillable. The Energy Being Limitation is a custom one and probably the questionable part of this build, the actual value of the Limitation is just a guess, but it's very close to an Achilles’ Heel for energy drain attacks, you run out of FP and you die. The PM:Magic and Elemental (Air) Limitations describe make it comprised of Magical energies and that it can only work with Air, I'm still working on writing that part out.

Cannot Learn and Reprogrammable come from the fact that wizards can just create them out of nothing, so it logical follow that using the same spell allows you to make them stronger. Social Stigma (Subjugated) comes from the fact that it's perfectly acceptable for wizards to enslave them. And Unhealing, well this isn't the sort of thing that can heal naturally, being as how it has no self-repair mechanisms

[Nereidalbel]

Unhealing just doesn't fit for me. A sentient mass of air should have no trouble accumulating more air to repair itself, and may even qualify for Regeneration, possibly with Bane: Vacuum Attacks.

As a conjured minion, I'd skip the Unkillable entirely, and replace it with Fragile: Unnatural. Since they're poofed out of (almost) nothing, they're easily dispatched back into being (almost) nothing.

Also, I'd see air elementals as having the highest DX score among elementals, what with the being air and all.

[scc]

That's the thing, how does a sword damage a mass of AIR? The answer I came up is that the Elemental isn't a mass of air, but rather a self-sustaining packet of magical energy that is generating/controlling a mass of air to use as a body. When hit with a sword the sword disrupts the energy field, allowing some of the air to escape and that's how damage is done.

[Nereidalbel]

You either build the mass of air as being Diffuse, with attacks disrupting the magic that binds it together, or, as Insubstantial with Affects Substantial. The increased cost is probably worth the improved survivability.

[whswhs]

There is a full definition of Body of Air in the templates and metatraits chapter of volume 1 of the Basic Set. This is canonically what an air elemental has in Magic. I don't see an obvious need to come up with a different build.

[scc]

Originally Posted by whswhs

There is a full definition of Body of Air in the templates and metatraits chapter of volume 1 of the Basic Set. This is canonically what an air elemental has in Magic. I don't see an obvious need to come up with a different build.

None of the existing Elemental templates use those Meta-traits, and this one includes everything that's on the existing Air Elemental

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by scc

how does a sword damage a mass of AIR

How does a fan wave away a bad smell, with no magic involved?

The individual particles of a Diffuse creature aren't self-aware and with internal locomotion; they don't self-assemble. There's no reason that slashing a sword through one couldn't knock bits away and mix in ordinary air. Feel free to call that "disrupting the magic" if you prefer, but it could also simply be physical.

If swords disrupt magic, then you get the reverse awkwardness of having to explain why those same swords don't dispel the magic field of every other ongoing spell you wave them around in. The elementals are a special case either way.

[GodBeastX]

Originally Posted by scc

That's the thing, how does a sword damage a mass of AIR?

Rule of Cool! No need for science explanations! Swords inside elements disrupt them! They shoulda thought twice before upsetting our Barbarian!

[Varyon]

Unkillable 2/3 and Unhealing (Total) probably aren't compatible - an Unkillable 2/3 character who dies stays that way until he heals himself back up to full, and a character with Unhealing (Total) cannot heal himself, so a character with both traits is indistinguishable from one who just has Unhealing (Total). You might be able to justify a "Not While Dead" Limitation for Unhealing; it would be worth around -60%.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Unkillable 2/3 and Unhealing (Total) probably aren't compatible - an Unkillable 2/3 character who dies stays that way until he heals himself back up to full, and a character with Unhealing (Total) cannot heal himself, so a character with both traits is indistinguishable from one who just has Unhealing (Total). You might be able to justify a "Not While Dead" Limitation for Unhealing; it would be worth around -60%.

Unhealing (Total) just prevents natural recovery of HP, healing spells, repairs for machine and lots of other recovery methods steal work fine. In this case the being can directly convert FP into HP and the reverse to regain FP if it needs them in an emergancy