No Strength and No Fine Manipulators

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Poonbahbah

In regards to body of air.
They shouldn't be able to push a button. At least I don't think they can exert pressure beyond what their body weighs, and they fly by being lighter than air. Technically a pencil is infinite times heavier then they're basic lift of zero, never mind the no manipulators thing. I could see them having sign language though as they contort their body in various shapes a non-defuse creature would have trouble emulating.

They can push a button if their Slam damage is enough to push the button. So, they can crash into the button on an elevator, but, there's no way they can accurately use a keyboard.

[Poonbahbah]

Most creatures can't slam or grapple with a diffuse creature (GM's decision.) I imagine the reverse is true. A body of air doing a slam attack would be about as effective as a strong gust of wind I think. Which actually could be pretty effective I think.

Edit:
So they can't push a button but they could slam it. And in slamming it they might hurt themselves. Fun.

[the_matrix_walker]

On the matter of Diffuse and Grappling,

The bold is mine, rather than chop up Kromm's quote for the relevant bit.

Originally Posted by Kromm

I'd handle this as a grapple. Simply add a perk to the racial template: Attribute Substitution (Break Free based on DX). Now you have a being for whom all rolls to break free are DX-based. This isn't a huge advantage, really; it circumvents some of the weaknesses of having low ST, sure, but most delvers have rather high DX scores. If the elemental has low ST, though, it will be dragged around by its victim: "If you grapple a foe of more than twice your ST, you do not prevent him from moving away – you're just extra encumbrance for him!" (p. B370). Shaking off the creature means breaking free vs. its DX, not merely walking away. Now give it a suitable Aura (p. B102) and you're done.

Note that in the above ruling:

1. Grappling and being grappled aren't symmetric. Diffuse creatures can grapple; only being insubstantial prevents you from grappling. Diffuse creatures just can't be grappled back. This makes narrative sense here, too: A foul odor can cling to you, but you can't very well cling to it.

2. ST is used two separate ways for grappling: To rate the ST of the grapple, which is what the perk moves to DX, and to rate the grappler's mass, which is where the "more than twice your ST" part comes in, and which isn't changed by the perk.

[cacosta]

I guess it would be easier to mentalize the idea using another elemental body, because the body of air gives the impression of weight, because air is material... So, instead, think on body of fire, weigthless, but with the same ST 0... It wouldn't be able to push absolutely nothing, nor grab anything (putting aside for a moment its capacity to burn things)