Elemental Beast Overview [Dark Sun]

Elemental beasts are low-intelligence natives of the four elemental planes, their bodies made of one element in its purest form with nothing else mixed in. Only magic has ever reliably brought one across, whether a spell, rod, staff or wand. Legends tell of beasts appearing amid extreme natural upheavals, such as a water beast at the heart of a whirlpool, and some researchers suggest that a hurricane, tornado, firestorm or earthquake at its peak can briefly tear open a rift that lets them through.

Only a beast's essence crosses over, so it must build a body from whatever of its element the new plane offers. Every prime world contains all four elements, but always in mixtures, so a summoned beast is less pure, and less powerful, than at home. The impurity also hurts it, more or less depending on how contaminated its element is: a water beast called beside a swamp may be in agony, while one called at a spring-fed lake merely aches. Severe pain sends it into a rage that, unchecked, may turn it against its summoner.

On their own planes, genies seek them out as pets, guardians and above all hunting companions. Their keen sense for impure matter makes them superb trackers, able even to follow natives of their plane whose bodies contain anything but the pure element, but prime worlds are too muddled with mixed elements for that sense to work.

Because only its essence is present, a beast ignores all nonmagical physical attacks; breath weapons, gazes, poison, paralysis and other innate powers count as magical. A creature of fewer than 4 HD cannot harm one without magical help. Spells and items that affect elementals affect the beasts too. Protection from evil and devices with the same effect keep a beast from touching or entering the warded space, though it can still cause harm without contact, as when an air beast whips up a whirlwind that pelts a protected target with debris.

Its mind is profoundly alien. A psionicist who tries to contact or control one falls into a trance for 3d6 (3-18) rounds, babbling, screaming and wailing without forming words, then lapses into a coma for 3d10 (3-30) hours and remembers nothing of the episode upon waking.

Most spells able to contact and summon an elemental have variants that call elemental beasts, and any item that calls or influences elementals works on the matching beasts unless noted. A censer controlling air elementals governs air beasts, and a ring of elemental command for air works on them because it affects that plane's natives other than elementals.

Each caster or device leaves a unique signature that the inner planes answer only once per day. There are three methods: spell, staff and device. One person may use different methods to call several beasts from the same plane, such as a summon elemental spell for one air beast and a staff for another, but all of that person's devices together, even of different types, can bring only one beast of a given kind per day.

Control is usually built into the summoning, but the summoner must concentrate for the whole duration or until the beast has been given its task, and any distraction carries a 75% chance of losing it. Each round a beast spends on the Prime Material Plane adds a cumulative 1% chance that it breaks free. A free-willed beast has a 50% chance to attack its summoner, his party or the nearest creature; otherwise it wanders off to find surroundings that suit it. This can happen even after it has been sent off on a task. A beast that breaks loose while on a mission cannot be reclaimed and rampages until sent home, destroyed, or 24 hours pass.

At other times the summoner can regain it with charm monster, or with speak with monster followed at once by a charm. Hold monster and imprisonment halt a rampage temporarily, and banishment sends a free-willed beast home.

Using the purest possible material eases its pain. Ten cubic feet of pure element, from which it builds its new body, halves (rounded up) its chance of going free-willed. If the material comes from the beast's own plane, five cubic feet suffices, and its chance of escaping control drops to just 25%.

A rival can steal a beast by casting dispel magic at its summoner; success breaks the bond and hands control to the dispeller, who is then obeyed as if he had summoned it, though a natural 20 on the dispel sets the beast free instead. If the attempt fails, the beast's hit points rise to the maximum of 8 per die, the bond strengthens and no later attempt can succeed. A beast that slips its summoner's control remembers the would-be thief and attacks him before the summoner.

A summoned beast can be asked for one service per summoning. It understands only orders of a few words, but needs no control while on its task; it pursues it single-mindedly until the job is done, it goes free-willed, it is destroyed or sent home, or the spell ends. To strike the bargain the caster must cast charm monster, have a way to talk with it such as speak with monster or a helm of telepathy, and present a gift gem of 1,000 gp value or more, then make a Charisma check on 1d20. Success seals the deal; failure brings a 25% chance that the beast breaks free.

Elemental beasts cannot return to their planes on their own, and their dread of being marooned on an alien world may be why they are easier and safer to control than elementals. After its task, a beast comes back expecting its master to send it home. If that master cannot or will not send it home, it attacks at once as if berserk, at +1 to hit but with a -1 penalty to AC. Stranded beasts look for friendlier surroundings until some way home turns up, which may account for many tales of wild elemental beasts on prime worlds.

Priests of the desert world often prefer calling elemental beasts to calling elementals, since the beasts are a bit easier to control and can be sent on missions with little oversight, and the danger they pose to psionicists probing them works in the controller's favor. An elemental priest or wizard who can speak with a beast and also send it home can often bargain with it, but ideas must be kept simple and plain or the beast grows confused and may attack (25% chance).

The harsh land is cruel to them. Water beasts find few places to survive for long, and frequent dust and sand storms torment air beasts into fury. All are rare here, but fire beasts have been reported near volcanic areas and earth beasts in mountains and rocky badlands.