Can an earth elemental grapple with a creature and then pull it underground and leave it there to die?
No. An earth elemental’s Earth Glide is meant to apply to itself only. The elemental doesn’t take other creatures with it when it moves in this way.
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Recently I was reading the Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A.Salvatore, and in the first book (Homeland) the Svirfneblin summon an earth elemental. It grapples Drizzt (I think. It might have been Guenhwyvar), and then pulls him underground, trying to kill him. As you can tell from the fact that this is the earliest in the chronology of the Legend of Drizzt, the elemental failed to kill him. I would have thought that to emulate this, maybe make the earth elemental make a Strength check contested by the grappled creature's Strength or Dexterity (their choice) check (the DM chooses what skills apply), if the elemental wins then the creature is pulled into the earth, but can repeat their check (with disadvantage) to fight their way out again.
Which one should I use in my personal campaign? And which one is correct in the sense of following the way the fictional universe is supposed to work (ignoring editions and other "metagame" content that the most knowledgeable sage/god in the universe couldn't know)?
So far this session, I have killed three pets, four teammates, and only hit the enemy once, and my fire bolt didn't work against a creature immune to fire. Trust me, you NEVER want to borrow my character or my dice.
I mean, you're trying to compare a 20+ year old novel snippet jive with the latest edition of D&D mechanically. I' d keep it RAW and not work. But, keep in mind, how things LOOK is up to you. Whenever I use earth elementals they move through the walls all the time and rarely every are just a humanoid lump of earth. Have it dive into the floor and then pop up just to grapple and kill someone.
It's important to remember that since that book was published (1990), the rules of D&D have changed several times. The game used Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition rules at the time, then went through D&D 3rd edition, The '3.5' revision, D&D 4th edition, which brings us to the current edition. Needless to say, rules change, authors have creative freedom and take artistic liberties and ultimately the books no more inform the rules than the rules inform the books.
Also, a stat block of a monster represents the average monster of that type, and they may vary wildly across the game world. There's nothing to stop you homebrewing an earth elemental that can do what the book describes.
As for which one is 'correct', well, it's the one that's published in the rules seeing as we're talking about the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons and that's what the rules say for an earth elemental in this edition of the game. If you're playing 'strictly' by RAW, what's written in a 30 year old novel doesn't override what's written in the current editions rule books, but as a DM you have the power to ignore what's written and make your own versions.
Also, a stat block of a monster represents the average monster of that type, and they may vary wildly across the game world. There's nothing to stop you homebrewing an earth elemental that can do what the book describes.
Thanks! That explains it. So basically going by 5e rules, the earth elemental there was an exceptionally powerful one. I was specifically looking for how it would be for the in-universe view, and that would make sense.
Why was I thinking all earth elementals were the same, when certainly not all humans are the same, even among non-adventurers...?
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So far this session, I have killed three pets, four teammates, and only hit the enemy once, and my fire bolt didn't work against a creature immune to fire. Trust me, you NEVER want to borrow my character or my dice.
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Recently I was reading the Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A.Salvatore, and in the first book (Homeland) the Svirfneblin summon an earth elemental. It grapples Drizzt (I think. It might have been Guenhwyvar), and then pulls him underground, trying to kill him. As you can tell from the fact that this is the earliest in the chronology of the Legend of Drizzt, the elemental failed to kill him. I would have thought that to emulate this, maybe make the earth elemental make a Strength check contested by the grappled creature's Strength or Dexterity (their choice) check (the DM chooses what skills apply), if the elemental wins then the creature is pulled into the earth, but can repeat their check (with disadvantage) to fight their way out again.
Which one should I use in my personal campaign? And which one is correct in the sense of following the way the fictional universe is supposed to work (ignoring editions and other "metagame" content that the most knowledgeable sage/god in the universe couldn't know)?
I mean, you're trying to compare a 20+ year old novel snippet jive with the latest edition of D&D mechanically. I' d keep it RAW and not work. But, keep in mind, how things LOOK is up to you. Whenever I use earth elementals they move through the walls all the time and rarely every are just a humanoid lump of earth. Have it dive into the floor and then pop up just to grapple and kill someone.
It's important to remember that since that book was published (1990), the rules of D&D have changed several times. The game used Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition rules at the time, then went through D&D 3rd edition, The '3.5' revision, D&D 4th edition, which brings us to the current edition. Needless to say, rules change, authors have creative freedom and take artistic liberties and ultimately the books no more inform the rules than the rules inform the books.
Also, a stat block of a monster represents the average monster of that type, and they may vary wildly across the game world. There's nothing to stop you homebrewing an earth elemental that can do what the book describes.
As for which one is 'correct', well, it's the one that's published in the rules seeing as we're talking about the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons and that's what the rules say for an earth elemental in this edition of the game. If you're playing 'strictly' by RAW, what's written in a 30 year old novel doesn't override what's written in the current editions rule books, but as a DM you have the power to ignore what's written and make your own versions.
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Thanks! That explains it. So basically going by 5e rules, the earth elemental there was an exceptionally powerful one. I was specifically looking for how it would be for the in-universe view, and that would make sense.
Why was I thinking all earth elementals were the same, when certainly not all humans are the same, even among non-adventurers...?