Icedaemon
2013-07-28, 03:24 AM
I do believe there are probably some homebrewn stats for the elementals of true elements who have shown up in the comic before, but what about the elements insofar not used? The aim of this thread is postulating on their unique traits and building mechanics around them.
Insofar we have seen.
Titanium elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0423.html)
Chlorine elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0457.html)
Osmium elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0825.html)
and now Silicon elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0901.html)
A titanium elemental would probably be similar to a hypothetical baseline of metal elementals, but with abilities tied to titanium's special traits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium) - high resistance to corrosion and superb strength-to-weight ratio. Thus, unlike many other metal elementals to whom acid damage would be a severe weakness, titanium elementals would be relatively resistant (though not immune). The strength-to-weight ratio could best be displayed by these elementals having abilities based around speed, be they limited-use supernatural Haste similar to a clay golem, a somewhat higher movement speed than other similarly sized golems or a +X to all strenght checks based on movement (jump, climb ect)
A chlorine elemental is based on Chlorine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine)in its standard gaseous form. Elemental chlorine is poisonous, which was its role in the comic itself - the elemental chlorine itself has a chance of turning into acid when intruding on a mortal's mouth and nostrils. Chloric acid is renowned as the most active acid and it could thus have abilities and weaknesses based around that - able to corrode metallic items and enemies, at the expense of taking 1/Xth of the acid damage itself as 'reaction damage'.
Osmium is the densest non-radioactive metal, known for being hard but brittle. Resistance or immunity to slashing and piercing attacks thus makes sense. Being so dense, a non-elder osmium elemental would typically be one size category smaller than the baseline metal elementals though still retaining comparable HD. The one Redcloak used was thus a greater elemental (or a huge-elemental-equivalent) despite being large-sized. An osmium elemental should probably be covered in Osmium tetroxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmium_tetroxide) crystals which can shatter when it takes damage and create brief clouds of poisonous dust in the square the hit landed in.
Silicaon elementals are obviously based around the properties of silicate.
Of the other elements, Magnesium strikes me as interesting. A magnesium elemental's exterior would be covered in magnesium oxide similar to what it is like in the real world. The elemental would probably not be particularily strong or deadly in terms of its own attacks. However, any slashing or piercing attacks would penetrate and remove some of the oxide, causing the bare magnesium to react with oxygen and create a brief plume of hot fire, dealing Xd6 (where X is significantly more than 1 due to the heat of a magnesium torch being very severe) fire damage in an adjacent square or a small cone. This fire damage would somewhat affect the elemental itself. Thus, while meleeing a magnesium elemental can quickly lead to death due to taking damage from both the elemental's slams and the fiery retaliations, an archer would do extra damage on every hit and take one down fairly quickly and safely as long as the elemental cannot get into melee range.
An Oxygen elemental is probably one's best bet in taking on the role and abilities of a fire elemental, save for the fact that the elemental itself would take constant damage from being on fire itself and thus last very briefly. Phosporous elementals would be an another good candidate for functioning like this, with an always burning exterior, but solid and ground-walking instead of aerial.
Aluminium elementals might be equipped with wings and able to glide to reference the metal's use in aviation.
h
Carbon elementals would probably be diamond-based monsters, nigh-on immune to slashing and piercing attacks but weak to blunt weapons and with seriously deadly slashing attacks on their own.
Iridium elementals would be the most tanky of the lot, immune or nearly so to acid, fire, piercing and slashing attacks. Low temperatures merely turn it into a superconductor and it has less electrical resistivity than iron in standard conditions anyway, while being unaffected by electrolysis. Thus, lightning and cold damage would likewise be insignificant threats at the most. Even blunt weapons would probably be hindered by a high damage resistance (/-). The only weaknesses ought to be the elementals themselves being a size category smaller like the Osmium ones and their utter lack of special attacks. Still, getting rid of them without dismissal or somesuch spell is nigh-on-impossible.
Insofar we have seen.
Titanium elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0423.html)
Chlorine elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0457.html)
Osmium elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0825.html)
and now Silicon elementals (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0901.html)
A titanium elemental would probably be similar to a hypothetical baseline of metal elementals, but with abilities tied to titanium's special traits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium) - high resistance to corrosion and superb strength-to-weight ratio. Thus, unlike many other metal elementals to whom acid damage would be a severe weakness, titanium elementals would be relatively resistant (though not immune). The strength-to-weight ratio could best be displayed by these elementals having abilities based around speed, be they limited-use supernatural Haste similar to a clay golem, a somewhat higher movement speed than other similarly sized golems or a +X to all strenght checks based on movement (jump, climb ect)
A chlorine elemental is based on Chlorine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine)in its standard gaseous form. Elemental chlorine is poisonous, which was its role in the comic itself - the elemental chlorine itself has a chance of turning into acid when intruding on a mortal's mouth and nostrils. Chloric acid is renowned as the most active acid and it could thus have abilities and weaknesses based around that - able to corrode metallic items and enemies, at the expense of taking 1/Xth of the acid damage itself as 'reaction damage'.
Osmium is the densest non-radioactive metal, known for being hard but brittle. Resistance or immunity to slashing and piercing attacks thus makes sense. Being so dense, a non-elder osmium elemental would typically be one size category smaller than the baseline metal elementals though still retaining comparable HD. The one Redcloak used was thus a greater elemental (or a huge-elemental-equivalent) despite being large-sized. An osmium elemental should probably be covered in Osmium tetroxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmium_tetroxide) crystals which can shatter when it takes damage and create brief clouds of poisonous dust in the square the hit landed in.
Silicaon elementals are obviously based around the properties of silicate.
Of the other elements, Magnesium strikes me as interesting. A magnesium elemental's exterior would be covered in magnesium oxide similar to what it is like in the real world. The elemental would probably not be particularily strong or deadly in terms of its own attacks. However, any slashing or piercing attacks would penetrate and remove some of the oxide, causing the bare magnesium to react with oxygen and create a brief plume of hot fire, dealing Xd6 (where X is significantly more than 1 due to the heat of a magnesium torch being very severe) fire damage in an adjacent square or a small cone. This fire damage would somewhat affect the elemental itself. Thus, while meleeing a magnesium elemental can quickly lead to death due to taking damage from both the elemental's slams and the fiery retaliations, an archer would do extra damage on every hit and take one down fairly quickly and safely as long as the elemental cannot get into melee range.
An Oxygen elemental is probably one's best bet in taking on the role and abilities of a fire elemental, save for the fact that the elemental itself would take constant damage from being on fire itself and thus last very briefly. Phosporous elementals would be an another good candidate for functioning like this, with an always burning exterior, but solid and ground-walking instead of aerial.
Aluminium elementals might be equipped with wings and able to glide to reference the metal's use in aviation.
h
Carbon elementals would probably be diamond-based monsters, nigh-on immune to slashing and piercing attacks but weak to blunt weapons and with seriously deadly slashing attacks on their own.
Iridium elementals would be the most tanky of the lot, immune or nearly so to acid, fire, piercing and slashing attacks. Low temperatures merely turn it into a superconductor and it has less electrical resistivity than iron in standard conditions anyway, while being unaffected by electrolysis. Thus, lightning and cold damage would likewise be insignificant threats at the most. Even blunt weapons would probably be hindered by a high damage resistance (/-). The only weaknesses ought to be the elementals themselves being a size category smaller like the Osmium ones and their utter lack of special attacks. Still, getting rid of them without dismissal or somesuch spell is nigh-on-impossible.