Re: Characters as Air Elementals

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

I think I was the 1st Gm asked and said now.  The player then
went around asking others who also said no.  It finally ended in
a 45min or so debate after the game with all Gms present saying 'no'.

re: loosing the character?  I don't really agree with that.  The straight
	up elemental is not really that over powering, just...different.

re: going insane from such a dramatic shift of form.  *nod* I agree completely
	here.  Hell, he'd probably starve or suffocate(air elementals DO
	breath as per their writeup) and he has a few minutes to figure
	out how to breath in a completely alien form.  Further he might
	drift apart since he has no idea that he can/should keep his
	airy body together.  Regardless, its a moot point since the
	character has already become an elemental and played it as such,
	but I do agree that in future cases, this should happen.

As I stated in a previous letter, I'm all for the DNA thing, otherwise
	the number of adamantite characters turning up is gonna get
	ugly.  1 fully finessed mutate and there you go.

Also, if for some reason the elemental can be mutated, then
	make it just do a d8 damage, as per the monster writeup.  It
	has a 'damage' skill of 8.  Does this 8 come from clubbing
	someone with 'hardened' air?  Does it come from suffocation?
	Does it come from a really hard jet of air?  

	If he is allowed to change into a 'poisonous' air elemental then
	just make it a new 'damage' ability that can be bought up
	with mutates.  He gets 1 mutate it = 1 rank of damage skill and
	a 'suffocating/poisoning' sort of attack.  So then he'd have
	2 options of attacking.  The affore mentioned short blast of air
	that is at rank 8, and the rank 1 poison attack.

	Do it this way and you can explain it as he isn't changing himself
	into poison(no adamantite characters), he is just able to collect
	minor concentrations of poison gases and use those in an attack.
	With each successive mutate he can accumulate more of them, and
	his delivery system improves, i.e. he can do more damage, and
	he gets a higher 'damage' rank in the attack.

	Or, since elementals are composed of stock standard air in the norm
	and breath/sustain themselves off of it, if he gets chainged to
	poison gas, he will have to find a source of poison gas to exist
	off of.  Since that won't be readily or easily available, he 
	dies in short order.

Wright


Wright


> Hmmm, well, as regards the original question (should mutate 
> work on an Air Elemental), I would say that the  GM's who all 
> said "no" last Saturday were in the right; no DNA, no effect.
> 
> I also have to put forth this comment; shame on the player for 
> not excepting the answer of the GM who was directly adjudicating 
> the situation.  If a GM gives a reasonable and logical answer to a 
> question put forth by a player and the player doesn't like it; then 
> that player should then be directed to either a Senior GM, or Dan 
> himself (in the case where the GM in dispute is a Senior GM).  
> This protocol needs to be made apparent to the players and it 
> needs to be enforced.  We, as GM's, should not be encouraging 
> players to go from GM to GM until they find one who will support 
> them; doing so will only add to the munchkinism that is so rampant 
> already.  Now, if this was a case of all 10 GM's deciding to have 
> a little huddle to figure it out amongst themselves before giving the
> player an answer, then that is different; but I get the impression 
> that such is not the case.
> 
> Another interesting question comes to mind though, now that the
> character is an air elemental, should they become an actor?  I can
> see letting the player continue to play the character if they were, in
> fact, part of a plot device.  There are plenty of instances where a
> player (or players) was allowed to play a character that was well 
> outside the bounds of campaign balance because they served as
> a plot device.  The KVIN comes to mind, but I also recall instances
> where a player was asked to play a Hirudo for several games in
> order to set up a party, or a player was asked to play an avatar of
> a god, etc.  These are all legitimate plot devices.  However, unless
> there is a legitimate plot device for the air elemental, I seriously
> doubt they would fit into adventuring society any longer.  Actually,
> I'm having difficulty determining how they could even keep their
> sanity given the completely alien form they have assumed.  What
> I'm getting at is that I feel that the player should relinquish the
> character; what happens to it and what it does is no longer under 
> his control.  The alternative is that they either don't play that
> character anymore, or they take constant harassment from in-
> game groups who feel that Air Elementals belong on the plane
> of Air and they are just the ones to keep it that way.  Not to mention
> the small group of powerful mages who wouldn't mind harnessing 
> the power of a lone Air Elemental.  This player is in for all sorts of
> serious BOHEKAs (them, and anyone silly enough to defend them,
> that is).  But, since players who do munchkinny things do it for the
> attention, letting them keep the character and making them deal
> with the consequences in game will just feed that need for attention
> and in the end they will just feel that everyone is out to get them.  So,
> I would still opt for the, "Congratulations, you won; please give me
> your character card and start a new character to play" option.
> 
> Sorry this rambled overlong; I'm getting over a cold.
> 
> Lyle
> 
>