Monolithic Druid Shapes

[God In Action]

Quick one:

Tweak the water line for druid elemental shapes to remove the regeneration (or, rather, reduce it to +1 and +3 for thematic purposes) and replace it with something else water appropriate. With druids getting Regenerate (and a level 28 druid getting a very very healthy regeneration per round!) the natural regeneration of the water line is redundant and doesn't offer a reason to take it over Earth.

Alternatively maybe it would still be worthwhile as is if they were an Aura to buff allies.

[Cortex]

They stack, making for quite a hefty Regen effect.

[WanderingPoet]

Out of curiosity, why the cold vulnerability on Air Elementals? Seems an odd choice given that they don't really freeze, and air is often cold (mountains etc). Seems like Acid would be more fitting, as a more 'earthy' substance.

[Irongron]

Out of curiosity, why the cold vulnerability on Air Elementals? Seems an odd choice given that they don't really freeze, and air is often cold (mountains etc). Seems like Acid would be more fitting, as a more 'earthy' substance.

Science maybe? When elements are below the boiling point they stop being gasses. Nitrogen for example 'boils' at -195.8 °C, so to turn gas, into liquid, or even solid (the freezing point) one only has to cool them.

[gilescorey]

druid used elemental shape!

irongron used science!

it's super effective!

[WanderingPoet]

Haha that's perfect, thanks Irongron!

[Lorkas]

A level 28 druid can now have 22 regeneration per round in water elemental shape. I'd say that's not redundant!

[susitsu]

Regen is more useful for long-term sustaining on trips, that is really redundant. Diminishing returns are a thing. It kind of loses power in that way, where it could have something more offensively valuable or utility based.

[Lorkas]

More useful yes, but when we're talking about 22 per round, that even adds a lot of staying power within a combat, especially when you're in a shape that's immune to sneak attacks and critical hits, has 25% slashing/piercing immunity, and deals 2d10 damage per round just for being close to it.

If nothing else, it's a form that's absolutely free to take since you have unlimited elemental shape starting at level 26. Pop in when you're low on HP, heal up, and then pop back out.

Initially I was concerned about AC since it seems a little low on the chart, for the DR and regen values they've been given. For water, though, we're looking at 33 + 5 (barkskin) + 3 (merged addy helm or enchanted fine silk shirt) + 5 (DEX buff from a wand, Aura of Vitality, and a skleen) = 46, which isn't amazing but is not bad for the effects given on a build that didn't put essentially any effort into building for AC, apart from picking up a few items. The other forms would have 49 (fire), 38 (earth), and 60 (air).

That 60 AC air form in particular makes the druid have a nice little tank option between the AC (70 if you take IE), crit/sneak immunity, and 25% physical DI.

[ActionReplay]

The Shapes might get tweaked if necessary. We have so many systems now on Arelith and you can go pretty wild with certain stuff, like the regeneration here along with the Water Elemental Summon. Thematically the regeneration fits for the Elemental Shape, though we could tone it down or replace it with something else.

[Nitro]

Any plans on letting shifters in on this new elemental shape goodness? They'd stand to gain a lot from some actually useful shapes outside of rakshasa and dragonshapes.

[ActionReplay]

Any plans on letting shifters in on this new elemental shape goodness? They'd stand to gain a lot from some actually useful shapes outside of rakshasa and dragonshapes.

Personally I would not mind giving this to Shifters. They could use a boon. The whole class needs a look at to be honest.

[Jagel]

I love regen for water elementals. Pls keep eet!

Might be necessary to look at how it stacks with certain other abilities.

[Astral]

Another question. Why all the Monolithic elementals Medium size, while the lower level forms are mostly large/huge? developer limitations?

[ActionReplay]

Another question. Why all the Monolithic elementals Medium size, while the lower level forms are mostly large/huge? developer limitations?

Correct. I wanted the Monoliths to use the bigger model using the scaled invisible creature model. These are Medium Sized by default by NWN and can not be changed without Haks. So I took the aesthetic approach here instead. Though it can probably be fixed with NWNX scripting much like the Ogre race but Polymorph is kind of wonky with all the Saving character switching areas and requires some work I figured it was not worth it.

[God In Action]

Stacking regen, oh wow okay! That's pretty neat. Would it further stack with the Regen Aura provided by an Ancient Water Elemental?

[Lorkas]

Stacking regen, oh wow okay! That's pretty neat. Would it further stack with the Regen Aura provided by an Ancient Water Elemental?

Yes. All sources of regen stack. Exception: multiple castings of regenerate, and regenerate will not stack with monstrous regeneration (and vice versa).

[Hallibutthead]

Out of curiosity, why the cold vulnerability on Air Elementals? Seems an odd choice given that they don't really freeze, and air is often cold (mountains etc). Seems like Acid would be more fitting, as a more 'earthy' substance.

Science maybe? When elements are below the boiling point they stop being gasses. Nitrogen for example 'boils' at -195.8 °C, so to turn gas, into liquid, or even solid (the freezing point) one only has to cool them.

if a cold spell is able to instantly bring air down to -196 (or for oxygen, a more toasty -183) degrees celcius, shouldn't that mean instant death for humans, as it would cause the bronchioles to instantly burst, causing you to drown in your own blood?

[Peppermint]

Please don't bring logic into this scientific argument.

[Cortex]

He didn't talk about doing that though, it was a scientific fact rather than what happens :thinking emoji:

[Lorkas]

Out of curiosity, why the cold vulnerability on Air Elementals? Seems an odd choice given that they don't really freeze, and air is often cold (mountains etc). Seems like Acid would be more fitting, as a more 'earthy' substance.

Science maybe? When elements are below the boiling point they stop being gasses. Nitrogen for example 'boils' at -195.8 °C, so to turn gas, into liquid, or even solid (the freezing point) one only has to cool them.

if a cold spell is able to instantly bring air down to -196 (or for oxygen, a more toasty -183) degrees celcius, shouldn't that mean instant death for humans, as it would cause the bronchioles to instantly burst, causing you to drown in your own blood?

A living body obviously has a higher specific magic heat capacity than elemental air does.

Suggestion: air elemental model shrinks when hit with a cold spell and expands+rises up away from the battle when hit with a fire spell.

[Baron Saturday]

Hit an air elemental with enough cold damage and eventually it becomes a tiny water elemental?

[WanderingPoet]

And hit an air elemental with enough fire damage and it becomes monolithic!