Taint Elemental (Large or larger)


Taint elementals ask and answer a lot of questions about what taint really is, since they litterally are a physical manifestation of it. First, they speak Abyssal and have the [Evil] subtype, which would mean that Taint is probably linked to the Abyss in some way, shape, or form. However, they don't have the Chaotic subtype, even though they're usually chaotic. So it's probably either some part of the Abyss using a place of great evil to leak into our world in order to corrupt it (and since it can only appear in places of evil and not chaos, it loses some of its chaos), or it's from a more moderately chaotic plane like Carceri. Anyway, Taint Elemental are what would an elemental be if it was created by the substance of an Outer Plane instead of an Inner Plane. Its dimension door ability is also very interesting. The same way a fire elemental summoned in the Material Plane forms from a nearby fire and "animates" it, the Taint Elemental doesn't have a substance of its own. It "animates" the evil around it and concentrates it into a solid form. That means that, since there is evil everywhere, it can dissipate its own body then animate the taint existing afar. That's how it seems to teleport, it's the same creature with the same conscience, but not the same body.


Taint Elementals are really close to regular elementals. Decent starting ability scores, but failing to scale with its RHD doubling with each size category. Only slam attacks, but two of them starting with the Large size, and a DR/- scaling slowly with its category. It, however has a few abilities taking it apart from the others. Instead of Vortex/Whirlwind/Earthglide, the Taint Elemental has a 3/day dimension door as a move action, which doesn't prevent it from taking action afterwards. Really good. Shadowpouncer, anybody? Instead of gaining +1 or inflicting -1 on a few rolls when they are close to their element, the Taint Elemental gains Surge of Malevolence as a bonus feat, which gives them a pretty substantial bonus on one roll (+9, if you play your cards well), but only 1/day. Overall, I feel like I prefer that to an Element Mastery, since you are sure to have access to it when needed, and it opens access to Debilitating Strike (2/day your attack deals 4 Wisdom damage or 2 Con damage, no save). It also gets better ability scores than most elementals, with notably no intelligence penalty. It also deals corruption with its Slam attacks, which may give your party bonus feats but is expectedly useless in combat.

That makes for an above average elemental, but still slightly weaker than Air at low levels. Teleporting 400ft is nice, but that's not 100ft (perfect) flying. However, the difference in pure ability scores makes the Taint Elemental better later on. Their role are also different. The air elemental is more of a rogue or unarmed swordsage, while the Taint Elemental would be a much more standard Warblade, or Cleric. It could be anything, really, with those balanced stats. Maybe Duskblade or psychic warrior, but you'll suffer the loss of many caster levels.


Large, 8 RHD: +10 Str, +4 Dex, +10 Con, +2 Int, +4 Wis, +4 Cha. +9 Natural Armor. As always, becoming Large is a boon for an elemental, with DR 5/-, 2 slams, and overall excellent stats. This would be almost playable as-is, really. You get some utility with Dimension Door, and you're overall almost as tough as the Earth Elemental, but with decent mental stats and more dexterity and mobility. A pretty good 7 RHD, DLA-1.

Huge, 16 RHD: And, expectedly, you don't get 8 ECL worth of abilities. You now have 40ft movement speed, +14 Str, +8 Dex, +12 Con, +2 Int, +4 Wis, +4 Cha, +9 NA. Yeah, that should be worth 2 RHD more than Large. 9 RHD, DLA-3, like Air.

Greater, 20 RHD: You double your DR, and gain +2 Dex, Str, and Int. Nothing worth more than 10 RHD, and DLA-5.

Elder, 24 RHD: Once again, +2 Str, Dex, and Int. It's weird that you don't increase your natural armor with these categories. 11 RHD, DLA-8


It's interesting to see how WotC revisited the elemental chassis with these ones. I feel like if they had to rewrite the monster manual with the knowledge from 3.5, to make some sort of new edition, they would give elementals stats scaling more like that, with more than one stat increasing with each size category, and more weird abilities like Touch of Taint. *looks at the 5e air elemental statblock, which is almost a carbon copy of the Large 3.5 Air Elemental* ... Nevermind.