For all the attention D&D writers and players alike give to them, the Elements are remarkably ill-defined in terms of what they do for the world. Writers, DMs, and players come to the games with certain expectations about the elements, but they rarely write their expectations down and declare how the elements work, or even what each element means. Add that to the weird matching games done between elements and damage types, which aren't even played consistently, and nobody even has any idea what a "Water Monster" actually does. The end result is that the elements themselves end up a confusing mess.
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rdfs:label
| - Book of Elements (3.5e Sourcebook)/What are Elements?
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rdfs:comment
| - For all the attention D&D writers and players alike give to them, the Elements are remarkably ill-defined in terms of what they do for the world. Writers, DMs, and players come to the games with certain expectations about the elements, but they rarely write their expectations down and declare how the elements work, or even what each element means. Add that to the weird matching games done between elements and damage types, which aren't even played consistently, and nobody even has any idea what a "Water Monster" actually does. The end result is that the elements themselves end up a confusing mess.
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abstract
| - For all the attention D&D writers and players alike give to them, the Elements are remarkably ill-defined in terms of what they do for the world. Writers, DMs, and players come to the games with certain expectations about the elements, but they rarely write their expectations down and declare how the elements work, or even what each element means. Add that to the weird matching games done between elements and damage types, which aren't even played consistently, and nobody even has any idea what a "Water Monster" actually does. The end result is that the elements themselves end up a confusing mess. This problem is compounded by the lack of real treatment of the way the Inner Planes actually function. There aren't any real answers in any publication if you want to find out what an elemental does when it's not on the end of someone's sword or ambushing you for mining their plane or running down a dungeon hallway to set off traps. Nor is it ever touched upon where they come from in any terms narrower than "that infinite space over there."
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