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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Elemental, Wood

Source Rage of Elements pg. 204
At first glance, wood elementals might not seem to have the same destructive potential as their cousins from the Planes of Fire, Water, or Air, but don't be fooled. The woods can be a dangerous place.

Though some resemble animals, the elemental beasts presented here are still plants, and their life cycles reflect it. Vegetable lambs grow on rooted stalks, from which they can't be removed until they've matured (or perhaps ripened), leaving them dependent on their immediate surroundings for food. Moss sloths are little more than lumps of green fluff for the first century of their existence, only gaining limited mobility once they can grow their defensive wooden claws.

Members

Carved Beast (Creature 6), Elemental Thicket (Creature 11), Living Grove (Creature 5), Moss Sloth (Creature 2), Nursery Crawler (Creature 3), Painted Stag (Creature 9), Pine Pangolin (Creature 7), Snapdrake (Creature 8), Twins of Rowan (Creature 13), Vegetable Lamb (Creature 1), Whipping Willow (Creature 4)

Sidebar - Additional Lore A Brain By Any Other Name

Even if Lady Shumunue taught the wood elementals' ancestors to mimic animals, a wood elemental's consciousness is contained not in a brain but in its root system. Entities like nursery crawlers, living groves, and carved beasts use this to their advantage. That an elemental's wooden body can be carved and crafted, apparently without lasting harm, implies that they might not feel pain so long as their roots remain undamaged.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Wild But Unwild

Many wood elementals are created by kizidhar and other powerful creatures on the Plane of Wood and placed in rote roles. Populating nature preserves and sprawling estates, they can be unsure how to behave if released into the wild. They're essentially born domesticated and will likely act far differently than the wild creatures they mimic, even in natural environments. Their natural predators are few, putting the elementals at less risk, although they're still sometimes eaten by giant termites or captured by some as pets.

Elemental

Related Groups Elemental, Air, Elemental, Air, Elemental, Earth, Elemental, Earth, Elemental, Fire, Elemental, Fire, Elemental, Mephit, Elemental, Metal, Elemental, Scamp, Elemental, Water, Elemental, Water, Elemental, Wisp
The Elemental Planes—primordial realms defined by aspects of air, earth, fire, or water—are home to a diverse group of beings known as elementals. Spellcasters on the Material Plane call upon elementals for aid, though these enigmatic creatures can also travel to the world of mortals via interplanar gateways and rifts. The elementals on these pages exemplify the creatures of the Elemental Planes, but this list is by no means exhaustive.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Elemental Beings

The Elemental Planes—primordial realms defined by aspects of air, earth, fire, metal, water, or wood—are home to a diverse group of beings known as elementals. Spellcasters in the mortal Universe call upon elementals for aid, though these enigmatic creatures can also travel to the world of mortals via interplanar gateways and rifts. The elementals on these pages exemplify the creatures of the four best-known Elemental Planes, but this list is by no means exhaustive.

Sidebar - Related Creatures Elemental Connections

Many creatures from the mortal Universe, although not technically elementals, take on the essences of the elements and often work together with elementals or struggle against them for territory. Some of these include giants, oni, and phoenixes.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Elemental Fauna

Not all elementals are lumbering, humanoid-shaped creatures. Some take on the forms and natures of animals and beasts from the mortal Universe. These creatures often behave in ways similar to their animal counterparts, even though as elementals they lack the animalistic instincts mortal creatures have when it comes to hunting, reproducing, and the like. Elemental fauna are favorites of conjurers due to their small size, relative ease of summoning, and varied abilities.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Elemental Lords

The most powerful elementals are demigods known as elemental lords. In ages past, a conspiracy of four vicious lords imprisoned their counterparts. However, during recent events, their prisoners were able to escape, along with the reappearance of the long-lost lords of metal and wood.

Sidebar - Locations Elemental Vortexes

Where the boundary between planes wears thin, elementals manifest in the world through churning vortexes. Such gateways might lie at the heart of a volcano, a deep ocean trench, in regions beset with earthquakes, or within great storms

Sidebar - Related Creatures Other Elementals

In addition to the four elements described here, the planes of Metal and Wood are in the process of returning from their long absence, along with their own elementals and genies. The churning mixture of elements where planar borders blur only rarely produces hybrid elementals, but the jann cherish such strange and beautiful regions.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Primal Elementals

The most well-known of all elementals are the primal elementals, creatures composed entirely of air, earth, fire, or water with roughly humanoid shapes. Many primal elementals are named after natural disasters, ranging from those relatively small in scale (roughly the size of Medium humanoids) to much larger ones (often the size of small buildings). Primal elementals can often be found in areas where their namesake disasters have recently struck.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Sanctified Elements

As long as gods have existed, they have worked their influence over the elements. Along with holy water and unholy water, for example, celestials and fiends often fight with sanctified fire. Elementals experience this divine influence as an unpleasant but generally harmless contaminant, although many acquire a taste for the influence of the elemental lords.