User:NtCarlson/Guide to Elementals

Elementals

 Conjure Elemental when used with a 5th level spell slot can summon one of four types of elementals: Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. All four types have the same general kit:

• A basic melee attack that inflicts a status effect without a save.
• A multiattack that is stronger when attacking targets inflicted with the above status effect.
• An area of effect attack that inflicts a different, often unique, status effect.
• A bonus action 18m teleport that can be used at will.

The air elemental deviates from this and winds up being the weakest type as a result.

Stats

Elemental	hit points	Armour Class (w/  Mage Armour)	Initiative	Attack ability	Spellcasting ability	Damage immunities	Damage resistances
Air Elemental	90	15 (18)	5	Strength (16)	Intelligence (6)	Poison	Physical (non-magical), Lightning, Thunder
Earth Elemental	126	17 (17)	-1	Strength (20)	Intelligence (5)	Poison	Physical (non-magical)
Fire Elemental	102	13 (16)	3	Dexterity (17)	Intelligence (6)	Fire	-
Water Elemental	114	14 (15)	2	Strength (18)	Strength (18)	-	Physical (non-magical), Acid

The reason for the different impact of  Mage Armour is that some elementals have more than 10 base AC. Earth Elemental has 18 (with a -1 Dexterity modifier) and Water Elemental has 12 (with a +2 Dexterity modifier). Mage Armour increases the base AC to 13 so it doesn't help the Earth Elemental at all, and only gives 1 AC to the Water Elemental.

The spellcasting ability is used to determine the save DC on the area of effect attack. This value defaults to Intelligence and only for the Water Elemental was this default changed. This means the AoE attacks for the other 3 elementals will have pitiful DCs.

Basic attacks

With the exception of the Air Elemental, all the elementals have a basic melee attack that inflicts a 2 turn status effect without a save, so long as the attack hits. This status effect is required to unlock the full power of the corresponding multiattack ability.

Elemental	Attack	Attack bonus	Damage	Inflicts	Additional properties
Earth Elemental	Soil-Clogged Slam	9	2d6 + 6Bludgeoning	Prone	Creates a small pool of mud centered around the target
Fire Elemental	Smouldering Touch	7	2d6Fire	Burning	-
Water Elemental	Slam	8	5Bludgeoning + 2d6Cold	Chilled	Creates a small puddle of water centered around the target

Instead of a melee attack, the Air Elemental gets  Gushing Air. This is a ranged attack with two projectiles that can be targeted separately like  Eldritch Blast. The damage per projectile is 2d6+1Thunder and is halved on a DC 15  Dexterity saving throw. This attack does not inflict the condition required for the improved multiattack damage.

Multiattack

All elementals have a 2-hit multiattack that doubles the damage dice when targeting enemies inflicted with certain conditions. These multiattacks have a once-per-turn cooldown, so if you opt to  Haste your elemental, it can still only multiattack once.

Elemental	Attack bonus	Target condition	Normal damage	Damage vs. targets inflicted with target condition
Air Elemental	6	Shocked	${\Big (}$2d4 + 3Slashing + 2d4Lightning ${\Big )}\times 2$	${\Big (}$4d4 + 3Slashing + 4d4Lightning ${\Big )}\times 2$
Earth Elemental	9	Prone	${\Big (}$2d4 + 5Bludgeoning ${\Big )}\times 2$	${\Big (}$4d4 + 5Bludgeoning ${\Big )}\times 2$
Fire Elemental	7	Burning	${\Big (}$2d4 + 3Bludgeoning + 2d4Fire ${\Big )}\times 2$	${\Big (}$4d4 + 3Bludgeoning + 4d4Fire ${\Big )}\times 2$
Water Elemental	8	Chilled	${\Big (}$2d4 + 4Bludgeoning + 2d4Cold ${\Big )}\times 2$	${\Big (}$4d4 + 4Bludgeoning + 4d4Cold ${\Big )}\times 2$

The Earth Elemental doesn't deal any elemental damage on its multiattack and doesn't receive additional physical damage to compensate. On paper, this makes its version of multiattack the weakest, but that title actually belongs to the Air Elemental.

Air Elemental's multiattack requires the  Shocked condition, which is extremely rare. Aside from Air Elemental's extremely unreliable area of effect attack, the only way for players to inflict the condition is with The Jolty Vest. This essentially locks Air Elementals out of receiving the improved damage on their multiattacks.

The other three conditions can be consistently applied in numerous ways, either by party members or by the elemental itself. This is particularly true of  Burning and  Prone which have a huge number of sources. If you plan for it, you can reliably get the improved multiattack damage with the other elementals.

Also note that  Chilled inflicts vulnerability to Cold damage, so Water Elemental's multiattack damage is even better.

Area of effect attacks

All four types of elementals have an area of effect attack that use saving throws instead of attack rolls. Unlike the basic and multiattacks, these attacks differ quite a bit between elemantal types.

Elemental	Attack	DC (Save)	Damage	Range	Area	Additional effect
Air Elemental	Primordial Gales	10 (STR)	2d6Lightning	Self	AoE: 4 m / 13 ft (Radius)	Inflict  Shocked for 2 turns
Earth Elemental	Seismic Strike	9 (CON)	4d6Bludgeoning	Self	AoE: 4 m / 13 ft (Radius)	Inflict  Trembling Legs for 3 turns and push back 3 m / 10 ft
Fire Elemental	Erupting Cinder	11 (DEX)	4d6Fire	18 m / 60 ft	AoE: 3 m / 10 ft (Radius)	Creates a  Fire for 1 turn that inflicts  Burning without a save
Water Elemental	Winter's Breath	16 (CON)	4d6Cold	Self	AoE: 6 m / 20 ft (Cone)	If the target was  Burning, inflict  Brittle for 3 turns

The Air and Fire Elementals have the two standout abilities here.  Winter's Breath is the only of these attacks that has a reasonable DC. The other three attacks use the wrong spellcasting ability modifier and have an artificially low DC as a result. It also applies the unique  Brittle condition that has no other source. This condition applies vulnerability to Thunder and Bludgeoning, neither of which have any other source of vulnerability (aside from  Frozen which only works for a single attack). Since  Burning is such a readily inflicted condition (for example by a Fire Elemental), setting up the combo to inflict  Brittle is very doable and has unique payoff.

 Erupting Cinder is also quite strong. It has a very long range and can still be useful despite its low saving throw DC. Standing in a  Fire surface always inflicts  Burning, so enemies will still burn even if they make their saving throws. Importantly, note that the burning surface created by this attack has a radius of 2 m / 7 ft which is smaller than the attack itself (3 m / 10 ft). Thus, you should try hit targets in the center of the area rather than the periphery.

 Seismic Strike also inflicts a unique condition,  Trembling Legs. Unlike  Brittle, however, the payoff of inflicting the condition is fairly minor. It gives a modest 2.5 m / 8 ft movement speed penalty and a -1 Dexterity penalty which may or may not translate to -1 AC.

The worst of the bunch is  Primordial Gales. Not only does it do half the damage of the other attacks, it is also the only way for the Air Elemental to inflict  Shocked necessary to use its full-powered multiattack. With a saving throw DC of 10, this means the Air Elemental will likely not be able to inflict it at all, severely crippling its damage potential.