October 6, 2025 • 11 mins
Today we break down the four core Elementals, how they fight, where they shine, and how to use them without derailing a session. I give table rulings that keep them scary and fair, plus quick hooks you can drop in tonight.
Things talked about on the podcast
- Support the show on Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/TheEvilDM
- Secondary Channel -- https://youtube.com/@soloquestsRPG
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
Hey, welcome back to the podcastEvil Dungeon Master Universe
Podcast. I'm your host, Evil Dungeon
Master Vince, It is Monday. It is time for another podcast
here in the AD and D universe ofwhatevers.
First, ask the DM at theevildm.com is my e-mail
address. Thank you to those that e-mail
(00:38):
me and comment on podcasts and give me advice and ideas.
I always appreciate those emails. theevildm.com is my
website and you can support me by going to patreon.com.
Theevildm was working this weekend on some things for my
solo game All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
(00:58):
Trying to get that up and running for my secondary channel
Solo Quest Party of One on YouTube that's doing pretty
well. It's up to almost 230
subscribers now, so it's slowly increasing.
If you want to join that, go ahead and head over to
youtube.com/solo Quest for one. I believe the actual URL is the,
(01:21):
Let's See youtube.com slash at Solo Quest RPG.
Anyway, today we're going to flip into the Monster Manual on
page 37 and we're going to talk about elementals.
We have four of them and we're going to talk about, you know,
ways they fight, the way they shine, and how to use them
without derailing. Your session is pretty much
(01:43):
today's topic of the podcast. Now I'm not going to go over
each elemental in like detail here as you could probably just
flip the book open and look at them and get the general idea of
them because they're generally the same as they're set up but
have their unique differences. Now the air elemental movement
is 36 and only flies. It has HD OP hit dice options of
(02:04):
812 and 16. It gains plus one to hit and +2
damage per dye while in the air and as a whirlwind form.
It lifts, it batters, it, wrecks, lines, anything.
You would expect a little mini tornado like creature looking
thing to do. Earth elemental.
You probably see that more common as you've seen that more
(02:25):
in movies and things like that. Its movement is rather slow at
six Burrows through the earth and stone.
It has 812 and 16 hit the dice option.
Smashes structures best against foes touching the ground.
Worst versus flying or levitating objects or targets,
obviously, because it's stuck onthe ground and not cross water
(02:46):
except by tulling under it, so remember that when you're
fighting against it. The fire elemental moves a
little bit faster at movement 12.
The same hit dice options, but ignite flamble on touch.
Less effective versus fire usingfoes checked by water cannot
(03:08):
Passover non flammable liquids. So again, it's like fire and
fire pretty much has its limits when it comes to moving around.
It literally looks like a giant fire just moving across the
other ground. Well finally we have the water
elemental on land and movement is 6 but in the water and
movement is 18. Same hit dice options, controls
(03:31):
and batters. Large in large bodies of water.
Can swamp, can swamp craft by tonnage.
Weaker away from water. Loses bite on each damage done
outside of its element. Now just kind of ways that you
can do this. The right terrain, the right
trick, right threat. Give each elemental its own home
(03:54):
playing field when you bring them in.
Air needs vertical space. Earth needs contact with the
ground. Fire needs something to burn,
like fuel, some type of fuel, and water needs volume.
Collateral is real. Let fire catch buildings on
fire. Let earth crack walls.
Let water sink boats. Use reaction roles to decide how
(04:18):
far they go once they're unleashed.
If conjured, keep control, rangeand concentration, check strict
distractions, break control and loose and loose elementals
follow its nature first and not its orders.
Water elementals attack by a ton.
(04:38):
Put a number on a vessel, track rounds to swamp it, give the
crew actions to cut free bail orram to shore.
Earth elementals move through earth and stone, not iron bars
or finished dungeon walls reinforced with metal so there
is a way that you could stop them.
Air needs ceiling height at least equal to its HD in inches.
(05:03):
Tight tunnels deny full whirlwinds.
So there's ways to get around these things.
So I remember in a game one of the players kind of wanted to
choose the rules. Well, try to choose a dragon, so
to speak, by dropping an air elemental whirlwind in a 10 foot
corridor, claiming it must form a full height.
(05:27):
We all know that a whirlwind needs clearance equal to its HD
in inches for it to actually form its full form, to actually
do what it's supposed to do. So there's no clearance, there's
no full form. So I had to rule that there was
not enough room for it to fully maintain its shape and actually
get in that hallway to fight andgo in there against this little
(05:51):
dragon that was in there. It wasn't a big dragon, it was a
little dragon, but still the group accepted the decision
because it made sense at the time and it still worked in
their favor. The elemental still fought, but
just at the smaller size. So the group jumped in and
fought alongside of it and they actually won the battle
(06:14):
eventually because they had thishelp from this little, I want to
say baby wind elemental. I shouldn't say wind air
elemental. So ways you can pretty much use
this in a combat as Adm. Let's see here.
(06:36):
So you can have like this fire elemental that's loose on the
city and we could say that and Ithink they did an episode of
this. The one example that reminds me
of a fire elemental is actually they did an episode of this on
Sliders. If you remember the TV show
Sliders with Jerry O'Connell, there was a world that they went
(07:00):
through that was just full of fire.
Now one of the fire elementals, which was legit a fire
elemental, jumped onto one of the sliders into the new
universe and jumped into and started walking around is this
little tiny flame. And any time it found something
to burn, it would use it to fuelitself.
(07:22):
Now the elemental basically justwanted to go back to its own
world because it didn't care forwhere it was and really wasn't
burning things on purpose, but it's fire.
So it legit just started burningthings and trying to, you know,
maintain its hunger. So the fire elemental would go
(07:43):
around, we'll just say there's afire out, there's random fires
happening in the city. The players have to investigate
who the arsonist is. After much investigation, they
can't figure it out. They just know these little
flames are are seen and then a big fire starts happening.
Maybe through some methods of, Idon't know, maybe you can have
(08:05):
some type of tool that they haveto investigate the scene and the
one of the players figures out that it's magic that's happening
or it's not natural. So they start looking into ways
to track this little fire elemental and how to get rid of
it. Because they it's a very small
thing that's going from place toplace and just feeding.
(08:27):
Maybe it just it, it's just naturally acting on its instinct
and it's not trying to kill people.
A fire needs to, you know, use things to sedate, sedate,
satiate its hunger so it's goingto burn things.
I mean, they're not naturally evil.
They're neutral. They're just doing what they do.
(08:49):
Fire will burn Earth elementals.Well, they're neutral too, but I
mean, they have to do what they have to do.
Water elementals will just do what water does.
I mean, but yeah, there's ways to actually, you know, take
these creatures and make them a little more interesting.
(09:10):
Like for example, the fire when I was telling you about you can
use that episode of Sliders as aperfect example.
And maybe the their intelligenceis low, but I wouldn't put it
past to like do a comprehend languages or some type of speak
languages or something with the fire and just for a one off, be
able to talk to them and find out what they're doing and why
(09:34):
they're doing it. And maybe it'd be a cool like
little back story of this littlefire creature.
And maybe it's just, it's reallynot trying to kill things.
It's just it's just hungry and it needs a place to go.
So you have to figure out what to do with it.
There's a lot of possibilities you could do as Adm It's your
game, your world, you just you do whatever you need to do when
it comes to these elementals. And I can think of a lot of
(09:55):
ideas that I've gone through here.
But you know, if they sit down and actually plan these things
out, that's what happens. How would you think about
elementals in the comments and how you use them in your
campaigns? I'd love to hear different ways.
It's just interesting how other DMS do things.
I like to read those comments. Don't forget, I read all
comments and I tried to reply. I tried to reply to all
(10:16):
comments. Unless I don't have anything to
add to the conversation, then I really won't reply.
I I don't think replying to everybody all the time, which is
nonsense is a great idea anyway.patreon.com/the Evil DM or you
can head over to youtube.com/theD the Evil DM or my solo quest
(10:39):
channel, youtube.com slash at Solo Quests.
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Hopefully you have a good day.
I'm going to say keep it original, keep it old school.
Goodnight and God bless everybody.
Hey, welcome back to the podcastEvil Dungeon Master Universe
Podcast. I'm your host, Evil Dungeon
Master Vince, It is Monday. It is time for another podcast
here in the AD and D universe ofwhatevers.
First, ask the DM at theevildm.com is my e-mail
address. Thank you to those that e-mail
(00:38):
me and comment on podcasts and give me advice and ideas.
I always appreciate those emails. theevildm.com is my
website and you can support me by going to patreon.com.
Theevildm was working this weekend on some things for my
solo game All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
(00:58):
Trying to get that up and running for my secondary channel
Solo Quest Party of One on YouTube that's doing pretty
well. It's up to almost 230
subscribers now, so it's slowly increasing.
If you want to join that, go ahead and head over to
youtube.com/solo Quest for one. I believe the actual URL is the,
(01:21):
Let's See youtube.com slash at Solo Quest RPG.
Anyway, today we're going to flip into the Monster Manual on
page 37 and we're going to talk about elementals.
We have four of them and we're going to talk about, you know,
ways they fight, the way they shine, and how to use them
without derailing. Your session is pretty much
(01:43):
today's topic of the podcast. Now I'm not going to go over
each elemental in like detail here as you could probably just
flip the book open and look at them and get the general idea of
them because they're generally the same as they're set up but
have their unique differences. Now the air elemental movement
is 36 and only flies. It has HD OP hit dice options of
(02:04):
812 and 16. It gains plus one to hit and +2
damage per dye while in the air and as a whirlwind form.
It lifts, it batters, it, wrecks, lines, anything.
You would expect a little mini tornado like creature looking
thing to do. Earth elemental.
You probably see that more common as you've seen that more
(02:25):
in movies and things like that. Its movement is rather slow at
six Burrows through the earth and stone.
It has 812 and 16 hit the dice option.
Smashes structures best against foes touching the ground.
Worst versus flying or levitating objects or targets,
obviously, because it's stuck onthe ground and not cross water
(02:46):
except by tulling under it, so remember that when you're
fighting against it. The fire elemental moves a
little bit faster at movement 12.
The same hit dice options, but ignite flamble on touch.
Less effective versus fire usingfoes checked by water cannot
(03:08):
Passover non flammable liquids. So again, it's like fire and
fire pretty much has its limits when it comes to moving around.
It literally looks like a giant fire just moving across the
other ground. Well finally we have the water
elemental on land and movement is 6 but in the water and
movement is 18. Same hit dice options, controls
(03:31):
and batters. Large in large bodies of water.
Can swamp, can swamp craft by tonnage.
Weaker away from water. Loses bite on each damage done
outside of its element. Now just kind of ways that you
can do this. The right terrain, the right
trick, right threat. Give each elemental its own home
(03:54):
playing field when you bring them in.
Air needs vertical space. Earth needs contact with the
ground. Fire needs something to burn,
like fuel, some type of fuel, and water needs volume.
Collateral is real. Let fire catch buildings on
fire. Let earth crack walls.
Let water sink boats. Use reaction roles to decide how
(04:18):
far they go once they're unleashed.
If conjured, keep control, rangeand concentration, check strict
distractions, break control and loose and loose elementals
follow its nature first and not its orders.
Water elementals attack by a ton.
(04:38):
Put a number on a vessel, track rounds to swamp it, give the
crew actions to cut free bail orram to shore.
Earth elementals move through earth and stone, not iron bars
or finished dungeon walls reinforced with metal so there
is a way that you could stop them.
Air needs ceiling height at least equal to its HD in inches.
(05:03):
Tight tunnels deny full whirlwinds.
So there's ways to get around these things.
So I remember in a game one of the players kind of wanted to
choose the rules. Well, try to choose a dragon, so
to speak, by dropping an air elemental whirlwind in a 10 foot
corridor, claiming it must form a full height.
(05:27):
We all know that a whirlwind needs clearance equal to its HD
in inches for it to actually form its full form, to actually
do what it's supposed to do. So there's no clearance, there's
no full form. So I had to rule that there was
not enough room for it to fully maintain its shape and actually
get in that hallway to fight andgo in there against this little
(05:51):
dragon that was in there. It wasn't a big dragon, it was a
little dragon, but still the group accepted the decision
because it made sense at the time and it still worked in
their favor. The elemental still fought, but
just at the smaller size. So the group jumped in and
fought alongside of it and they actually won the battle
(06:14):
eventually because they had thishelp from this little, I want to
say baby wind elemental. I shouldn't say wind air
elemental. So ways you can pretty much use
this in a combat as Adm. Let's see here.
(06:36):
So you can have like this fire elemental that's loose on the
city and we could say that and Ithink they did an episode of
this. The one example that reminds me
of a fire elemental is actually they did an episode of this on
Sliders. If you remember the TV show
Sliders with Jerry O'Connell, there was a world that they went
(07:00):
through that was just full of fire.
Now one of the fire elementals, which was legit a fire
elemental, jumped onto one of the sliders into the new
universe and jumped into and started walking around is this
little tiny flame. And any time it found something
to burn, it would use it to fuelitself.
(07:22):
Now the elemental basically justwanted to go back to its own
world because it didn't care forwhere it was and really wasn't
burning things on purpose, but it's fire.
So it legit just started burningthings and trying to, you know,
maintain its hunger. So the fire elemental would go
(07:43):
around, we'll just say there's afire out, there's random fires
happening in the city. The players have to investigate
who the arsonist is. After much investigation, they
can't figure it out. They just know these little
flames are are seen and then a big fire starts happening.
Maybe through some methods of, Idon't know, maybe you can have
(08:05):
some type of tool that they haveto investigate the scene and the
one of the players figures out that it's magic that's happening
or it's not natural. So they start looking into ways
to track this little fire elemental and how to get rid of
it. Because they it's a very small
thing that's going from place toplace and just feeding.
(08:27):
Maybe it just it, it's just naturally acting on its instinct
and it's not trying to kill people.
A fire needs to, you know, use things to sedate, sedate,
satiate its hunger so it's goingto burn things.
I mean, they're not naturally evil.
They're neutral. They're just doing what they do.
(08:49):
Fire will burn Earth elementals.Well, they're neutral too, but I
mean, they have to do what they have to do.
Water elementals will just do what water does.
I mean, but yeah, there's ways to actually, you know, take
these creatures and make them a little more interesting.
(09:10):
Like for example, the fire when I was telling you about you can
use that episode of Sliders as aperfect example.
And maybe the their intelligenceis low, but I wouldn't put it
past to like do a comprehend languages or some type of speak
languages or something with the fire and just for a one off, be
able to talk to them and find out what they're doing and why
(09:34):
they're doing it. And maybe it'd be a cool like
little back story of this littlefire creature.
And maybe it's just, it's reallynot trying to kill things.
It's just it's just hungry and it needs a place to go.
So you have to figure out what to do with it.
There's a lot of possibilities you could do as Adm It's your
game, your world, you just you do whatever you need to do when
it comes to these elementals. And I can think of a lot of
(09:55):
ideas that I've gone through here.
But you know, if they sit down and actually plan these things
out, that's what happens. How would you think about
elementals in the comments and how you use them in your
campaigns? I'd love to hear different ways.
It's just interesting how other DMS do things.
I like to read those comments. Don't forget, I read all
comments and I tried to reply. I tried to reply to all
(10:16):
comments. Unless I don't have anything to
add to the conversation, then I really won't reply.
I I don't think replying to everybody all the time, which is
nonsense is a great idea anyway.patreon.com/the Evil DM or you
can head over to youtube.com/theD the Evil DM or my solo quest
(10:39):
channel, youtube.com slash at Solo Quests.
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Hopefully you have a good day.
I'm going to say keep it original, keep it old school.
Goodnight and God bless everybody.
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