Re: A couple of things.

[Wright Frazier <khelek@ns1.cioe.com>]

First, elementals don't have a 'body' as per the chart in the book.  There
	is nothing to cast the spell on to rework.  No muscles to improve,
	no synaps(sp?) goo to speed up the transfer rate of, no eyes to
	alter to gather more light, etc...  It is just sentient
	air molecules possessing life and spirit.  No body, no soul, except
	in this case where he kept his some how.

	So my first argument is that, by the book, he has no body to change.

Second, mutate has already been ruled to not beable to make 'magical' changes.
	i.e. you cannot mutate for resistance to charm, for magic shield,
	for silver shield, etc... and a elemental is a purely magical
	creature.  It does not exist on 1 plane(read the spirit armor
	monster ability), has magic shield, and all sorts of nifty
	other 'magical' abilities.  Since you cann't give a normal
	creature magical abilities, how can you change a magical
	creature further abilities with a spell that doesn't help
	with magical things?

Third, changing the fundamental makeup of a creature sounds like a
	hell of a lot of power to me.  Does that mean with 2 or so
	mutates I can make myself adamantite(1 for the change to
	adamantite, #2 to make it flexible so I can move)?  I
	don't think so, thats just a bad idea.  If we start letting
	people completely and utterly alter what they are fundamentally
	made of we are opening up a whole nasty ass can of worms.

I personally thing it should be limited to creatures with a) a physical
form. b) with DNA.  Otherwise I can easily forsee the changing of
every watermage into an indestructable adamantite golem.  Granted that'd
be kinda nifty, but not for long.

Wright


> The way I always saw mutate was that it couild only bring about changes
> that could occur in nature.  These would be non magical (natural), and
> seemed to be dependant on DNA.  If we expand our scope of mutate to be
> independant of DNA, then maybe whether the change is "natural" can still
> be adhered to.
> 
> If an air elemental's air is taken away, what happens?  Is it a spirit
> manifested as air, or a spirit that can only travel in air and manipulate
> it?  One means that his body can be consumed by a natural fire, and that
> he has a finite volume, the other means the spirit just moves through air
> and could exchange bodies with a cloud of poison at will. 
> 
> Instant death scenerio #1, the air elemental mutates to be pure nitrogen,
> and crawls down the windpipe of the target, suffocating him.
> Not poison, but deadly none the less.
> 
> > Given what you heard... no. But understand this... up until now everything 
> > that has been mutated has been
> > A living creature with DNA. We have never applied this spell to a spirit 
> > which manifests itself as air molecules, or rather a mix of  gas molecules 
> > which are in the proportions of air.
> > 
> > I believe given this... there would be 2 possibilities. If the spell really 
> > modified DNA, it would not work at all on him. If we broaden our internal 
> > definition to something more akin to what the spell might have been 
> > intended as, it can re-adjust the relationship and proportions of the 
> > molecules making up its target..... he could concentrate all the oxegen at 
> > one spot, and the nitrogen at another. Now, since our adventures do not 
> > have this concept of gases, at least this specifically, we could say they 
> > could not control this.......
> > 
> > Given this one might be inclined to say he could simply change the 
> > proportion of existing gases that make up his"body", as those more coporeal 
> > mutatee's are having changed the proportion of bone, blood, skin and other 
> > tissues making up their bodies.
> > 
> > I understand this action is pretty out in left field,,, so I am interested 
> > in hearing your opinions on the subject. At the moment I have already 
> > brought up the .... If you are going to start using poisons a lot, so are 
> > the actors... which is a legitimate convern, so he is not likely to even 
> > try this.... But I would rather make a more firm determination in this 
> > case.
> > 
> > 							Dan
> > 
> > 
> > Later,
> > 
> > Wright
> > 
> > 
> 
>