You know, I gotta say, whenever you talk about this game, you're really *_"In your element."_*

You overlooked something about the Genasi: According to the Elemental Evil Player's Companion, Genasi can be formed through magical experimentation with the Elemental magics, gone wrong. So you can just be a Wizard who was practicing an improved Conjure Elemental spell, and then you accidentally, blast yourself in the face with pure energy from the Plane of Air, becoming an Air Genasi.

Fun house rule gargoyles have an aura causing undead to struggle to get get close to them, take less damage from undead, and deal more damage to them

Imprisonment. It's a ninth level Spell. That's how players put genies in bottles.

"...Well, gargoyles were originally created to scare and ward off evil spirits... so I suppose they accomplish what they were intended for..." *scrawls in notes* Esper; Evil, possibility is likely.

The Elder Elementals The fearsome Leviathan The magnificent Phoenix The dreadful Tempest And finally, Derp Turtle

I really thought you were going to say that Gargoyles should be Constructs, rather than Elementals. I've never considered them being Monstrosities or Fiends.

"Genasi can make it in most animes" Insert Berserk

I'm actually homebrewing a Warlock Patron pact of the Genie. Its still a work in progress. But the general idea is a subversion of The Genie serves me, and is now I serve the Genie.

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony...

Now I wanna see an elder elemental fighting a tarrasque. Probably not gonna survive the encounter but it would look cool until I get crush by a flying reptile.

I’ve always interpreted the “hold their breath” rule to be based off them getting the chance to take a breath. A sudden surprise choking/drowning would be just the number of turns equal to Con Mod

Ah Elementals the purest form of "Nature is pissed!" also with those genies what did I say before about humanity's greatest power in fantasy? Genasi are further proof.

I would’ve thought that Gargoyles would be constructs

When you were listing all those 4th edition mixed elementals, all I could think of was: The Sash-Ringing, the Trash-Singing, Mash-Flinging, th-th-the Flash-Springing, Ringing, the Cr-Crash-Dinging, daa. THE HASH-SLINGING SLASHER!

Personally, my favorite elementals are the ones specially made for a setting, like 2e ravenloft's Grave, Pyre, Blood, and Mist. They still represent the 4 basic elements, but with a simple twist to make them fit into their surroundings better.

I once decided to hunt the flail snail while wearing my scale mail. I was lucky that I did not fail but that didn’t keep me from turning pale, I heard a ghostly wail and decided to bail. I am glad I escaped, even if it did hail.

Gargoyles are construct in my books they are guardians of temple or magical building created by powerful mage

Elementals in general are among my favorite enemies, the regular box elementals are also my favorite among them

Fun fact, in pathfinder you can actually cook and eat invisible stalker "flesh", it's apparently like fluffy cloud cotton candy

The word Myrmidon always reminds me of Fire Emblem

For the air Genie, I feel like doing a lore explanation for why they would be in lamps. While the other 3 are bound to them as a sort of punishment, air Genies purposefully enslave themselves so they may understand and respect their servants better. Prehaps even as a trial to become a genie leader/noble.

I look forward to, one day, seeing tiers for things like weapons or magical items

"Invisible Stalkers are conjured through rare magic rituals" I wasn't aware that casting conjure elemental at 6th lvl was particularly rare

Gnome- earth Undyne- water Salamander- fire Slyph- air I see the inspiration for the elemental spirits in black clover my man Tabata made such a great story.

Now, all we need is the Fey list. Oh sweet christ.

No one: If there was a firenewt bard he could spit fire 2 different ways.

0:01 ohhh...now I get where that line from “I’ll make a man out of you” cane from

1:00 Gnome Undyne Sylph and Salamander I remember my first time seeing those 4 together too... wasn't secret of mana tho horahora

I could see a cult of Sahuagin summoning Leviathan.

You can actually bind a genie to a bottle as a player, it requires the level 9 spell imprisonment. If you want to bind it to your service you can use the spell planar binding to make it serve you. If you want to go the extra mile, you can use them both and force it to function like a classical genie for a year and a day.

Elementals?! Are Fey next Esper? Also, what happened to not including player races in monster ranking videos?

I'm surprised the Firenewts managed to jump up in ranking since their appearance in the beastfolk video. But i'm glad they did. i'd always found them pretty interesting and wished they'd be fleshed out some more. And I agree with your opinion on the gargoyles being odd picks for the elementals. I'd always viewed them more like constructs. And I was really disappointed with the elder elementals. Especially the phoenix. The older edition phoenix was so much more interesting.

"... come across a SECOND of these bulls...." Those 2 bulls used to face each other in front of the Kansas Coliseum , years ago. I still wish they were there they look really cool that way.

50:31 Who would like a fantasy harem anime whose harem is entirely made up of Genasi girls? Though, of course, the fire one would be the tsundere. Because fire is apparently the tsundere's element of choice.

21:28 THANK YOU for this!! I've been looking for this for so long, as I had just some vague image in my memory to the point I started wondering whether or not it was but a dream. Another benefit of subscribing. Exquisite content

I've been getting into the monsters of D&D a lot more, since I started watching your videos, all very good videos, very clear, and very easy to understand. thank you for the content, and please keep making more!

Had a Galeb Dhur as an NPC in a campaign I ran ages ago; little guy had an unfathomable sense of humor that did not align up with meat-brain thinking, and when something they did or said randomly struck he and his brethren as funny, a contagious (to them only) laugh spread through the stones. To other people, it was just a low rumble and vibrating rocks, but in galeb dhur terms, it was rolling on the floor laughing hysterically, and could take hours to pass. In short , it was my GM fiat of 'okay, enough information gleaned from the wise rocks for today';

i think gargoyles being chaotic works. they aren't bound by hyrachy or other similar manors for controlling populations. all they want to do it eat. this doesn't need to have any relation to how they achieve that goal. saying that a chaotic being can't lay a trap and wait for long times is probably just limiting your own options.

I'm really glad you came out with this video I've been trying to build a campaign around element in this video has helped me very much so I thank you for that

Man I love when I see an Esper video in my sub feed it get sot back for an hour and imagine all the encounters I can run. Thanks my guy!

Thank you! I've been waiting for this one and I was not disappointed! And thanks for telling me about the mixed elementals.

My day is saved, thanks as always. Ótimo trabalho!

Dinosaurs at some point maybe?

21:30 I loved this show! And that was the best episode. I used to tell those stories in my best John Hurt voice on campouts. Stone Soup was also a favorite

I have to say, I enjoy these vids on a nostalgic level. I love seeing the art from past editions, especially 1st ed.

The frost salamander seems so unlike the salamanders you're familiar with, because they were originally BECMI D&D monsters from the Known World / Mystara setting. Both flame and frost salamanders were non-sentient brutes in their original depictions, without any language, civilization, or history of their own. The illustration you show at 11:33 gives a good sense of how primitive they were, as well as how viciously and instinctively they hate each other. BECMI D&D treated elementals and their native planes rather differently. Essentially, each such plane had its own solar systems and habitable worlds, with all kinds of terrain, except everything would be made out of solid, liquid or gaseous versions of the appropriate element. Standard air/earth/fire/water elementals were simply "people" there, and both kinds of salamander were monsters lurking in the wild, same as any owlbear or giant lizard on the Material.

Honestly wanna see more of the para-elemental planes such as the plane of Ice or Ooze. I’ve been working on creating an Ooze/Mud Genie myself called the Wahali who share some similarities with Marisa and Dao

1:00:00 I like your style as it makes for others to add theirs to it with little to no effort. Well done, Sir Bard.

I'm really happy you gave a nod to the "normal elementals" and the mephits. This might be my favorite video of yours.

Awesome! I am planning a campaign in the Zakhara/Al-Quadim setting, this video came out perfectly timed :D Keep up the good work, you are one of the best D&D creators out there in my opinion!

"Before you drink from a fountain or pool, toss a copper coin into it. It’s a small price to pay for your life [In regards to Water Weirds]." X the Mystic.

As a fellow wichita local I wanted to say hi esper, and my your games be forever fruitful and full of whimsical delight.

Apparently Guybrush Threepwood's only skill isn't that unrealistic.

At one point I designed a dungeon created by a tainted shard of Imix created as he fought some demon (I was focused on fire elementals at the time so I didn't bother learning about demon lore). I had a lot of fun designing traps around elemental creatures whether they were underlings of my tainted Burning Emperor or other elemental creatures enslaved or captured to be put to use unknowingly/unwillingly, specifically the flail snails were locked in a chamber that once activated destroyed their heads turning the room into a death trap of screaming snails. That's the only time I've ever used flail snails.

i love your videos,they are very useful for my campaigns and worlds

Planar Binding, with a true name, some gifts, and a nat 20 might get you a wish granting genie. Great video! Love your stuff

Azers are just Torbjörn from Overwatch and Invisible Stalkers are just the monsters from The Bird Box.

wow a whole hour! nice work Esper also Elementals and golems are my two favorite creatures.

When I drown characters I use the rules of choking instead. You live for a number of rounds equal to your con modifier minimum of one then death.

The esoteric description of these rituals I believe is to give dm’s ways to develop their world and find their own ways to build upon why the creatures exist.

Way to use a flail snail(s) in a dungeon without kneecapping them: Hide them behind trap doors. Your unobservant rogue/oblivious Barb/preoccupied fighter steps on a floor tile, triggering the opening of several hidden doors in the walls around them. Behind the doors is/are your flail snail(s), which can easily move into reach in the limited space of a hallway or a trapped room where the door has closed. After all, it's hard to run away if there's no room to run

Another great video, one particular idea I got for possible encounters for a campaign would be the flail snail, but with some "homebrew tweaks" such as maybe bumping up the CR a bit, because such low level characters dont need that much gold so quickly, and bumping up its speed to maybe 20 feet simply because of how big it is. And maybe instead of just sheilds maybe have the shell be crafted into armor and instead of a 33% chance of the force blast or magic reflect failing, instead having it be a 50% chance that it would be one or the other.

44:15 I mean…being infuriated and miserable because someone murdered your pet is hardly what I’d call a “Tantrum”. If someone killed, say, my dog, even if it was attacking them, I’d feel that too. Pets are straight-up the best friends someone can ask for.

Another great and interesting video from you! Would you consider ranking the oozes at some point? I would appreciate that dearly. Keep up the great work

I was actually *almost* early to an Esper video. As opposed to 3 months later. lol

I'm really late to this but something fun I've noticed is some similarities between the Flail Snail and a being called "The Glus" from the Deltora quest series. The Glus resembles a gigantic blue snail with a large mouth full of needle-like teeth, and it lives in a giant cave system called "The Maze of the Beast"(you get one guess as to what the beast is, also the title of the book Glus shows up in, I believe the 5th or 6th book in the series but don't quote me on that) but even more interesting is not only is the Glus similar with the hardening slime (it shoots it out of its mouth in a more web-like fashion and the walls of its cave are absolutely covered in the stuff nearly trapping the main hero's when they stop to take a rest) but the Glus is also blind relying on sound and movement in the water(detected by tiny hairs on its skin) to find it's prey, and when push comes to shove it will prioritize fixing holes in its lair(its lair is underground bordered by the sea) over catching prey. Anyway I would like to make the statement to any Dungeon master who wants some interesting ideas for monsters and scenarios where your player's stabbing their way out isn't an option I would recommend the Deltora quest series (all 3 of them, Quest for Deltora, Deltora the Shadowlands, and Dragons of Deltora) Some other memorable ones include: a bird cursed to be in the form of a man guarding a bridge who gives riddles to the party and kills them if they answer wrongly, a gigantic poisonous frog who rules a bunch of gnomes and kills them if they question it, a cruel and sadistic man who makes offers to people in need of help and then asks for far more back then they can pay in a really short amount of time and then enslaves them with magic when they can't pay him back(he also had a cursed ship at one point but that one kind of needs to be read in the context of the story to understand), a young woman who makes a deal and gains large magical powers but can't woo the guy she's in love with (he liked her sister) so she traps him in a tower(this one I would recommend trying to work into a game as it flips the "save the damsel" trope on its head) and a couple of others who are just, way too complicated to explain here

This video gave me the idea of a campaign that's like the story from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, with 2 teams of cultists trying to raise their respective earth and water elementals.

Another great video. Esper is the GOAT

Awesome list, keep em' coming.

Great vid esper. I recently created a home brew magic item for specificly blood hunters. It's a long story and alot of lore. Long story short the item will be able to summon elementals after alot of blood sacrifices from the hunter. Starts off with the hunter trying to recreate this legendary item. So it gets more powerful over time. I'll let you know how overpowered this is. Lol keep up the great vids.

Another idea I had for an elemental monster: the Crystal Sentry. A floating, diamond-shaped crystal that hovers around and redirects light in offensive and defensive ways. The know Dancing Lights, have a ranged spell attack that deals radiant damage (a "laser"), and can cast Color Spray at will. Crystal Sentries work best in groups, where some sentries work to blind opponents while others pick them off one by one. That they can fly allows them to potentially remain high above attackers, and to duck behind odd cover (like stalactites). I see these guys being highly useful for many groups, but especially as a different sort of tool used by cultists of elemental earth. Maybe stationed in a crystal garden they've created or acquired, so intruders don't even realize the threat until it's too late. A variant on the "elemental earth cultist" idea is to have the Crystal Sentries serve a sect of that cult that follows a Medusa. As a consequence, the cultists have all willingly blinded themselves, so as to get more in touch with their other senses and to the lightless underground. They may employ a number of other blind creatures, like Grimlocks. The Crystal Sentries serve as guards over a chokepoint, using Color Spray on any creature who approaches. If the creatures don't react, obviously they were cultists and should be let through. If the Color Spray visibly affects the creatures, the Crystal Sentries attack. The Medusa cult leader might not have blinded themself, but they know about the Crystal Sentries and know to keep their eyes shut if they ever need to go through that part of the lair.

8:30 You'e undervaluing the drown option. A creature can hold it's breath for a number of minutes, yes, but are you really capable of holding your breath if you don't see this permanently invisible monster coming? No. You skip the "minutes until drowning" and go straight to suffocating, AKA "rounds before dropped to zero HP." And keep in mind: someone who drops to zero HP while suffocating CANNOT REGAIN HP **OR BE STABILIZED.** Even if you crit succeed, which would usually put you at 1 HP, you're still dying! Even if you get all 3 death saves, YOU'RE STILL DYING! Until someone manages to pull you out of the water, which is unlikely if you don't have a swim speed, you CANNOT BE RETURNED TO LIFE. This is what makes Gelatinous Cubes so scary!

8:16 if you use it right it is very viable. Almost killed a third level rogue snd third level cleric with just one of these things trying to drown it. Works especially well if the target is wearing heavy armor. The key word is tries to drown. I personaly rule this as they begin to drown, because it is mentioned in the attack and nit the creature description. So they can survive 1+con mod turns

This is why when a player is in combat and has to deal with holding its breath the rule I use is: They can hold their breath for a number of Rounds equal to 1+CON Mod, before they fall unconscious and cannot regain hit points until removed from the water and a successful medical check. Or other magic effect that makes sense to remove the water from their lunges.

Esper, on the thing of Water Elementals taking forever to lose their breath, there's actually an easy and obvious way to solve that problem. That would be, that when a character is holding their breath, they basically have to make a Concentration check anytime they're attacked while doing it. Like, if you're underwater and holding your breath, and then some big fish rams into your chest, you're probably going to lose your breath from that. I would just have it work the same as Concentration checks, with the DC equaling 10 or the damage they take from an attack (whichever's higher). That would make it actually a threat to PCs and actually make sense.

I remember seeing some more elemental fusions in guildmaster's guide to ravnica. Their called weirds though, to ad some confusion.

Xhorn's are a party's worst enemy at levels 5-6. Revivify, being the only way to bring people back and requiring 300gold worth of diamonds, would be a huge dinner for these foes. It also could be a way to get your wizard to not cast create flame or chromatic orb, which both require gem material components.

I'm running a game now that has heavy focus on the elemental planes. Genasi are common in the communities, most have some genie blood in them. Playing off the half humanoid, half genie part, there's a wide assortment. One of my players in an Aarakrokra air genasi. Cloudy white feathers that turn to clouds in some areas. For encounters I've also made many variations of the elementals. From simple tier 1 to 5 for difficulty changes, to some that have taken on forms on wildlife. Adding unique characteristics to beasts. Wolves infused with fire. Dripping saliva like molten metal. Similar to hellhound in a way. Cats that can vanish into thin air. Move silently. Like displacer beasts, but resemble mountain lions. In the lore of my world, these types of creatures need a constant flow of energy to survive, or keep physical form. In the material plane they cannot exist in these forms, unless brought by other means; such has a conjuring spell. Due to elementals natures they are also captured, and imprisoned to run things in the cities. The heat from fire elementals is used for forges, water are used to move things through cities, from ships to sewage. An obedient earth elemental is great for mining, and air elementals used for simple flying machines. Most of the "lesser" elementals have little sentience. Their goal is to absorb more energy to grow. Eventually they will gain an identity, that ranges from the beasts, to even enjoying the work they're assigned.

I would like to mention as I am sure that another already has, that genasi are sometimes spontaneously created when spellcasters meddle with pure elemental energies, such as a wizard being twisted by mishap into, say, an air genasi. Similarly, Genasi can be born randomly to demi-human parents such as humans, elves, or sometimes dwarves, who live too near to a manifest zone, where an elemental plane overlaps the material plane, though I'm not sure if that is true for all world settings. In Eberron, for example, the Demon Wastes are full of plane-touched; tribes of genasi and tieflings are not an uncommon sight. While some can trace their lineage back to an outsider, such as a djinn or rakshasa, they are sometimes simply born different.

Just starting to DM Princes of Apocalypse next month, this was very welcome,

44:00 the kid had a pet basilisk and an invisible stalker!? WTF

When feeling a little lack luster by the drowing rules in 5e myself I usually refer back to pathfinder where you can hold your breath for double your con SCORE in turns in combat, but taking actions burns through this twice as quick. For a regular person slowly swimming along that's around 2 minutes (Con 10 x 2 = 20 rounds. with a move action every turn), some someone fighting or trying to break open a trap, it's 1 minute (Con 10 = 10 rounds of full active turns).

I've been watching you for some time now, and i must say you have peaked my interest little bard. I, Gaia, the Half Giant of Fire, will lend you my twin blades on your mission.

If you want to know where they came up with the elementals creatures, and geni types. Look into Elric of melnibone series. He frequently summon elementals, and even Djinn.

I actually made a gargoyle variant for my homebrew world of DnD. Though rather than being elementals, I have them as constructs made to guard castles and prisons. In addition to the ability to hide as statues, I made it so when they were “killed” it would cause them to revert to stone and freeze in place which could begin to restrict the players movements as more of them were defeated, making squares on the grid unusable without a strength check to move them out of the way. They also had spell resistance and anti-magic claws that had a chance to dispel magic on a hit (like Dispel Magic with no automatic success on low level spells).

I would say with the holding your breath rule. that a water elemental attempting to drown a target, can expand actions to buffet the target with concussive hits of water . causing them to need to make check to keep hold of their breath, or breath out an taking in water if they fail, but even if they succeed it might reduce the time they can hold their breath for. I actually have been working on the idea of the phoenix, an then expanding it into a archetype. So you could say a pheonix is a fire elemental given a bird form an represents rebirth. You could then create a earth elemental using a scarab for example that represents decay or undeath maybe. This than could be expanded further into different area an types.

@24:08 - for gargoyles I would give them Earth glide, the ability to cast Earthen Grasp and/or Earthbind as a spell-like ability and maybe a teleport when unobserved or in darkness Keeps the theme and allows for weeping-angel Dr Who jump scares

I would use the phoniex as a fire cult's goal to summon the phoniex to set the world ablaze,like an another fire plane.The phoniex would be a intelligence demon like fire birds.

I’ve used a Xorn to pounce on the artificer’s mechanical familiar before. Turning around to see their helper bot halfway on the mouth of a Xorn was a fun experience.

Alright, Esper, I have a video suggestion for you. A tear ranking, like you do for the monsters, but with all the enchanted gear from the DMs guide. (or at least all the really popular ones)

In 4th edition and elemental Myrmidons were called Achrons

Djinn, Ifrit, Marid, etc are the primary races in Chakraborty’s books called City of Brass, and Kingdom of Copper. Empire of Gold is due out next year. I would recommend these books as a good take on the politics of elemental creatures living half hidden in a world of people.

With the Gargoyles, I like to imagine that spellcasters - Wizards, elemental cultists, etc. - carve stone into various forms, and then use magic to bind an elemental spirit of earth into the shell. The different forms lending themselves to different functions. Gargoyles are good multi-purpose servants, able to fly and take punishment, and to sit on structures and wait for patiently for intruders or those the Master has need of killing. Another idea for an elemental monster in this vein is what I call the Rolling Stone. A spherical rock, carved decoratively so it can blend in with masonry, or left unadorned so it can hide in wilderness environments. They roll around, using tremorsense to find and bowl over foes. I see these as being low CR mobs, meant to be summoned by the handful with spells like Conjure Minor Elementals (when they haven't been prepared in advance), but I also considered a higher CR variant. A creature called the Assassin Stone, that is bigger and stronger, and has bonuses to track specific targets. Even casting Hunter's Mark, so it can keep following an opponent, no matter where they run. (Yes, this IS a Jojo reference). Returning to the matter of rocks being inhabited by elemental spirits, it's worth considering that not all such creatures might have been deliberate creations. Stonework that is done near a portal to the plane of elemental earth could come alive as stray spirits settle into them. Or alternatively, a sufficiently excellent bit of stonecraft could attract the attention of earth spirits, who find something appealing to a masterwork of such caliber. Such things might be found in the tombs of ancient and renowned masons or sculptors, whose gargoyles or statues or base reliefs might be fine enough to gain a Galatean life of their own. Elemental creatures who continue to protect their maker long after his bones become dust and his name is forgotten.

Check out the Planescape Monstrous Compendium 3 and Planescape Inner Planes, These two AD&D books get deeper into the elemental lore and what you can expect to see in the elemental planes, It talks about Imix and his son Zaman Rul and how they fought each other for dominion over the Plane of Fire, tells of Good Aligned Elemental Lords as well as the Evil ones, It makes it seem more like the elemental alignment depends upon the elemental Lord they follow, meaning it is possible to find a Good Aligned Fire Elemental but its extremely rare, because Zaman Rul lost the war against his farther Imix, Im just bringing this up because I feel like you might be interested in these second addition rule books

8:56 I use the hold breath two ways one the con mod = min you can hold when a target is willingly submerging itself and the con = rounds when the hold breath is forced upon it.

Oh by the way I have found a home brew supplement for lots of elemental things,including subclasses,spells,monsters,player races and even weaknesses by being in different environments or taking specific types of damage Some things can even have a weakness following the “the larger they are,the harder they fall.” Where they can literally take damage from face planting on the ground because they are literal WALKING MOUNTAINS

I love that the categories are a different classic rock reference every episode. Makes me wonder if you’re a fan of a certain anime series for referencing classic rock......

It’s a grey area on the water weird trying to drown the player. You definitely can’t hold your breath while fighting but I’d say save dc 13 or die - be drowned. I would allot death saves though. Also it’s not clear, but the water weird deals 3-18 +3 damage per round to those they have grappled, of course, advantage on to hit. No need to wait 20 rounds as you indicated.

About the breath holding thing, I consider it like this: - If you had the time to fill your lungs and hold your breath, you're gonna last the 30s / 1min / more thing - If you were caught unprepared (mostly in the middle of a combat etc.), then you're immediately suffocating and going to last a number of turns equal to your con modifier (if I remember correctly, anyway, I might allow one extra turn for the reactive breath-in right before being submerged)