Conjure Elemental

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

vamp70

May 09, 2015 18:58:04

Do you need to speak primordial to command a elemental you summon with Conjure Elemnetal?

 

 

#2

Ath-kethin

May 10, 2015 5:40:46 		The spell says that the elemental "obeys any verbal commands" you give it, and the Monster Manual entries list each elemental type's language as the one native to their element (auran, terrain, ignan, etc). There is no indication that they understand primordial. On the other hand, they won't understand elvish or Common or whatever, either.
(Reply to #2)

vamp70

Ath-kethin wrote:
#4

jaelis

May 10, 2015 6:18:04

I would say that they magically understand your commands, no matter what language you use.

 

Also, auran, terran etc are all dialects of primordial.

(Reply to #4)

Mechatarrasque

jaelis wrote:
(Reply to #4)

Ath-kethin

jaelis wrote:
#7

reddaemon

May 10, 2015 21:38:25

Ath-kethin wrote:
(Reply to #7)

Ath-kethin

reddaemon wrote:
#9

FarBeyondC

May 11, 2015 6:13:04

Ath-kethin wrote:
#10

Mechatarrasque

May 11, 2015 6:55:17

My take is that the spirit of 5e is low system mastery.  Part of that is you don't need "super killer combos" to be effective (and thanks to concentration it is hard to get them), but the other part is that you don't need onerous prerequisites (like feat chains or needing to speak terran to summon an earth elemental) to balance the "super killer combos" out.  

 

Conjure elementals isn't just a wizard spell.  Druids, warlocks (technically an invocation for warlocks), and storm sorcerers also get it.  Druids and warlocks also get some spells that involve conjuring "fey spirits" that take the form of animals.  I have never seen a "fey spirit" statblock, so what language would you use?  Is there any reason to assume that "fey spirits" don't understand common?

(Reply to #10)

Ath-kethin

Mechatarrasque wrote:
#12

Saeviomagy

May 11, 2015 20:07:23

Given that it only takes, what? 200 days to speak a language fluently, I would rule that you can get enough of a language to command elementals in non-delicate tasks pretty quickly. If you want to use them to spy for you, it's going to take the whole 200 days (or whatever it is).