Tips For How To Run An Elemental Cataclysm In DND

Summary

• Give the Elemental Cataclysm a reason it appeared. It doesn’t have to be your final boss.
• Set a health limit for the city instead of aiming to kill the creature.
• Let players see its weaknesses and create effects that linger after the Elemental Cataclysm’s presence.

In Dungeons & Dragons, Elemental Catacylsms are forces of nature, given form and unrepentant rage that tends to be directed at anything that “visibly mars nature.” Typically from the Elemental Chaos, these beings rarely visit the material planes, which means if one shows up, they’re typically summoned.

Chances are, they’ll be dropped in the middle of cities, where they can cause the most havoc and destruction, and where the aftershocks of their presence will most strongly be felt. They are far less likely to destroy a druidic grove, and a city of metal and innovation is most certainly a prime target for this destructive force taken form.

8

Decide Why It Appeared

A Cult? Druidic Revenge?

The chances of an Elemental Cataclysm appearing on the material plane by itself are slim to none, so you should probably have a reason before you toss one into your campaign. Despite this being one of the most powerful creatures in Dungeons & Dragons, the Elemental Cataclysm needn’t be your final boss.

Instead, this monster can function as the opening to your campaign – destroying the city and setting up a campaign where your players must hunt down the culprits behind this attack before it happens again. You just need to decide who summoned the Elemental Cataclysm and why.

7

Set Up ‘Health’ For The City

You’re Not Killing This Thing

Chances are, your players will not be able to kill an Elemental Cataclysm unless they’re really high-leveled and they have some good backup. Even with all that, there’s no way that your players are going to be able to kill this thing in one round, so set up a health limit or a destruction limit for your city.

With each attack your Elemental Cataclysm makes that affects the city and its buildings, it should knock off some health. When everything is good and destroyed, the fight is probably over and the Elemental Cataclysm should be satiated enough to leave on its own.

6

Consider Its Priorities

Swatting At Gnats Or Doing Its Job

To be completely honest, unless your players are high-leveled or there’s a strong force backing them up, they are going to be gnats to an Elemental Cataclysm. As such, when you’re calculating your moves and attacks with this beast, you need to consider what its priorities are.

Is it more set on exacting its destruction upon its most hated thing (the city) or does it want to swat at the mildly irksome gnats that keep flittering around it? It’s possible that you can get a two-for-one deal with some attacks, but taking out the gnats is probably just a bonus to wiping out swaths of buildings.

5

Give It, And Your Party, A Way Out

Mitigation Rather Than Annihilation

Rather than waiting for the Elemental Cataclysm to kill everyone or completely destroy the city, consider giving it (and subsequently your party) a way out. When its health has been knocked down to a certain point or your party has triggered a certain event, have the Elemental Cataclysm leave and return to its own plane of existence.

It doesn’t need to die for the fight to be over, nor does it need to destroy the entire city (though that could be entirely possible). Encourage your party to attack it to mitigate the damage done, or to try to save as many civilians as possible and, once a certain number has been saved, the Elemental Cataclysm makes its final attack and leaves, or something of the sort.

4

Vary Your Attacks

The Same One Over And Over Again Isn’t Fun

Yes, you could probably make your players regret their lives if you just utilized Rumbling Movement over and over again and constantly knocked them prone – but where’s the fun in that? It doesn’t give your players a chance to feel like they’re doing something and, frankly, being constantly prone is really frustrating.

Instead, vary your attacks and the moves that your Elemental Cataclysm makes so you can have an engaging fight. Go for the Cataclysm events, have it multiattack, and even have it shift the weather as it pleases (perhaps this even resolves one problem while making a swath of new problems).

3

Fudge Your Rolls

Create Different Experiences

One of the most alluring abilities for the Elemental Cataclysm is the Cataclysmic Event ability, which summons different natural disasters to wreak havoc. Of course, to determine which event happens, you need to roll a d4, which means there’s a chance that you cause the same event to happen over and over again.

In this case, there’s absolutely no shame in fudging your rolls a bit to vary what is happening and what destruction is sewed. If needs be, you can also fudge your rolls to give your players their ‘moment of hope’ or ‘cool moment’ so they don’t feel like all hope is lost in the fact of this force of nature.

2

Show Your Players Its Weaknesses

Show Don’t Tell

The Elemental Cataclysm is immune to a lot of things, which means that it’s really easy for your spellcasters to waste their magic before they even have an idea of what’s going on. So before they dive into a fight, take a moment to describe the scene to them so they have a better idea of what’s going on.

Describe wizards that are slinging spells, only for Melf’s Acid Arrow and high-level elemental spells to have no effect. Whereas the brave guard who runs up and stabs it seems to have drawn the smallest bit of ichor from its tough skin. Give them an idea of where to start, instead of letting them flounder or telling them outright what it is immune to.

1

Consider The Aftershocks

The Effects Should Be Lingering

The 2025 Monster Manual offers a table of Elemental Altercations that can randomly happen if you roll a 1d8 in the aftermath of the Elemental Cataclysm. However, feel free to pick and choose whatever works thematically or that you like the best – if you want, you can even make up something.

Whatever you do, the effect should be lingering and should dramatically change the landscape for better or for worse. The Elemental Cataclysm is a destructive force that irrevocably changes things in its wake – and that should be obvious.