My pc a fire cleric communing with the element of fire asked these questions. His words in our discord. (They are preparing to besiege a fire Drake in a volcanic caldera.)
“Can I be effective vs a Fire Drake? What tools do those of us who take your path use to battle the element we embrace? Would another element lend me aid of their tools to change my use of fire for the purpose of the coming battle? In summary, how can I help keep balance vs an element which is the same as mine and will do no harm to it?”
Looking for options he may have using a 5e conversion. Was thinking of giving him a temp boon to allow him to use his channel divinity to stop immunity or turn imminity to resistance? That seems kinda basic. Any other thoughts, opinions?
He doesn’t have to directly affect the fire drake to be effective in the battle. He could be a more supportive role aiding the rest of the party or use spells that aren’t fire based against the drake.
Yeah i thought that. His cleric leans harder towards summons and direct damage. Don’t know if he would feel good about being a support role.
Another thought I had was maybe he could temporarily become a acolyte for another element say Earth or Magma then be forced to do a cleansing rutual to rejoin fire again.
Im just not sure what elements work in enough of a alignment with fire to make that realistic.
I remember that in 2e DS clerics can control and summon elementals, as a fire drake is of elemental nature, and the cleric is aligned with the element, he can have a chance of control or befriend the fire drake, provided his level is high enough to do that
He could fight in a creative way. First he could protect his mates from the elemental attack of the drake, by redirecting, manipulating or disrupting it. He could also melt the rock/ground under the Drakes feet, trapping it. He could also use the fire to blurr its vision, temporary blinding it or, even if it won’t hurt the drake, bind it with chains of fire. There is also a chance to overcome the resistance to fire.
First thing that came to mind was Elemental Adept. Its a feat that will allow you to ignore fire resistance, located in the core book. This would allow your cleric to at least try. Now if the drake has immunity, which it likely does, you could always try Flame Strike, which half the damage would be radiant. If you wanted to continue down that train of thought, there are a number of cleric spells that deal radiant or thunder damage instead of fire. Not a bad swap off for one fight.
Second option, which others have noted, was take a supportive role. Damage mitigation, healing, and support can really remove the threat of a fight. I recognize that this post was like last October, but hey I got a chance to ramble so I’m taking it. In general, mitigating damage is better than healing it. Protection from Energy is golden, especially if you have a way to prevent yourself from taking damage. Aid is a good precombat spell as it boosts survivability like casting a healing spell preemptively and lasts for hours (so you could Aid, up cast it, and raise everyone’s max HP without concentration, followed by Protection from Energy on the main aggro person). Depending on the books you guys are using, there are a lot of options.
Third option… diplomacy. Not impossible necessarily, but certainly challenging. Appealing to a drake’s nature could be something a priest of that element might be inclined to do. Could lead to interesting options. You would need to make sure to bring offerings!