Fire Elemental 5e: Stats, Burning Damage and Water Weakness

A fire elemental is a CR 5 Large elemental with AC 13, 102 hit points, a 50-foot walking speed and two +6 Touch attacks that deal 10 fire damage each and set the target on fire. Its damage comes in layers: the hits, the burning that follows, and (in 2014) the 1d10 every attacker takes for hitting it in melee. It's immune to fire and poison, resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, and lights up everything within 60 feet. Water is its one real weakness. The 2024 version (SRD 5.2.1) has 93 hit points, swaps the burn-the-attacker trait for a Fire Aura that scorches everyone within 10 feet at the end of each of its turns, and takes 1d6 cold damage per gallon of water instead of 1.

Table of Contents

• •Fire Elemental Stat Block (2014)
• •Fire Elemental in the 2024 Rules
• •How Fire Elementals Fight
• •Water Susceptibility: How Much Water Hurts It
• •Running a Fire Elemental Encounter
• •How Players Beat Fire Elementals
• •Fire Elemental Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Fire Elemental Stat Block (2014)

This is SRD 5.1's fire elemental, the 2014 Monster Manual stat block.

How the 2014 fire damage stacks up:

• •Touch (two per turn, +6): 10 (2d6 + 3) fire. A creature or flammable object it hits ignites, taking 5 (1d10) fire damage at the start of each of its turns until a creature takes an action to douse the fire.
• •Fire Form, part one: any creature that touches the elemental or hits it with a melee attack from within 5 feet takes 5 (1d10) fire damage. Every sword stroke costs the swordsman.
• •Fire Form, part two: it can enter a hostile creature's space and stop there. The first time on a turn it enters a creature's space, that creature takes 5 (1d10) fire damage and catches fire, with the same 1d10-per-turn burn as Touch.
• •Fire Form also lets it slip through a 1-inch gap without squeezing.
• •Illumination: bright light out to 30 feet and dim light for 30 more. It can never sneak up on anyone.
• •Water Susceptibility: 1 cold damage for every 5 feet it moves through water or every gallon splashed on it.

Its defenses: immune to fire and poison damage, resistant to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, and immune to eight conditions (exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious).

Fire Elemental in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 rebuilt how the fire spreads. The attacks are the same; the traits around them are not.

Burning in 2024 is a rules-glossary hazard: a burning creature takes 1d4 fire damage at the start of each of its turns. It can spend an action to put itself out by dropping Prone and rolling, and the fire also goes out if it's doused, submerged or smothered. The 2014 ignite deals 1d10 per turn and goes out when any creature spends an action to douse it.

What the rewrite means:

• •The 2014 elemental punishes attackers; the 2024 one punishes neighbors. In 2014, staying in melee and not attacking is safe. In 2024, just being within 10 feet at the end of its turn costs 1d10 and sets you Burning, whether you attacked or not.
• •Putting yourself out is a trap in 2024. Rolling on the ground leaves you Prone, and a Prone creature within 5 feet of the elemental gives it Advantage on its Burn attacks. If you're still inside its aura, you'll be Burning again at the end of its next turn anyway.
• •Water hurts a lot more. At 1d6 per gallon, a 2024 fire elemental doused with a bucket takes real damage. In 2014 the same bucket deals 3.
• •Weapons stop mattering. As with the 2024 air elemental, magic weapons no longer get past its resistance. Every weapon hit is halved.

How Fire Elementals Fight

The fire elemental is an attrition monster: modest attacks, plus damage that keeps landing across several characters and several rounds.

Baseline attacks. Two +6 Touches against AC 16 hit on a 10 or higher, 55% each: 2 × 10 × 0.55 = 11 damage a round. The chance that at least one hits is 80%, and in 2014 that sets the target on fire for 1d10 a round until someone spends an action. In practice, a 2014 fire elemental adds about 5.5 damage per round per burning creature, or eats one action per round per creature to stop it.

Run through the party (2014). Fire Form lets it enter hostile creatures' spaces, and each first entry per turn deals 1d10 and ignites. With 50 feet of movement, it can pass through two or three characters standing near each other, setting each of them on fire, then end its turn next to the wizard and Touch twice. Leaving each character's reach provokes opportunity attacks, but each opportunity attack that hits costs the attacker 1d10 fire from Fire Form. Expected damage for that turn against three targets: 3 × 5.5 from entering, plus 11 from Touches, plus three burns starting next round. That's 27 now and up to 16.5 more over the next round.

Stand in the middle (2024). The 2024 elemental's best spot is wherever the most enemies are within 10 feet. At the end of every one of its turns, each of them takes 1d10 (5.5) and starts Burning (1d4, 2.5, at the start of their turns). Against a fighter, a paladin and a cleric all within 10 feet:

The aura and burning out-damage its attacks, and none of it needs an attack roll. Front-liners who stay in its aura for three rounds will each have taken around 24 from the passive effects alone.

Use the environment. It ignites flammable objects. Fight it in a wooden building, a library, a ship or a dry forest and the fire spreads beyond the elemental. Smoke and spreading flames are good reasons for the party to want the fight over fast.

Avoid water. It knows what water does to it. A fire elemental doesn't cross streams, doesn't fight in the rain if it can help it, and goes around a flooded room. Players who notice that can steer the fight.

Water Susceptibility: How Much Water Hurts It

This trait can decide a 2024 fight and barely matters in 2014.

Two notes on the table:

• •Splashing is your DM's call. The trait doesn't say what a splash costs. A reasonable ruling: throwing a bucket is an action (Utilize in 2024) that hits automatically within 5 feet or needs a ranged attack beyond that.
• •Create or Destroy Water creates up to 10 gallons in an open container, or rain in a 30-foot cube that puts out exposed flames. The SRD doesn't say how many gallons the rain is. Using the container version and then tipping or throwing it is the more reliable play: it creates 10 more gallons per slot level above 1st.

Control Water can flood an area or redirect a stream into the elemental's path, and forcing it to move through 5 feet of water at a time adds up quickly in 2024.

Running a Fire Elemental Encounter

A fire elemental is worth 1,800 XP. For four level 6 characters, the 2024 SRD budget is 2,400 XP (Low), 4,000 (Moderate) and 5,600 (High). One fire elemental is Low. Two (3,600) are Moderate, and adding a pair of magmins (100 XP each) brings it to 3,800, still Moderate and just under the 4,000 line. At level 8 (4,000 / 6,800 / 8,400), three fire elementals make 5,400 XP: Moderate.

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), a single fire elemental is Easy for four level 6 characters (1,800 XP against a 1,200 Easy and 2,400 Medium threshold). Two of them count as 5,400 XP with the ×1.5 multiplier, which is Hard at level 6 (3,600 Hard, 5,600 Deadly).

The 2024 version is harder than its XP suggests against melee-heavy parties, because its Fire Aura hits everyone around it every round. The 2014 version is harder against parties without magic weapons, since it halves every nonmagical weapon hit. Adjust by party, not just by level.

Classic pairings: a salamander or an efreeti as its master, magmins as fire-starting minions, or a fire giant forge where elementals stoke the furnaces.

How Players Beat Fire Elementals

• •Cold damage first. It's immune to fire, so cold is the natural answer. Cone of Cold deals 8d8 (36 on average) against its Constitution +3 save. Ray of Frost and other cold cantrips do steady full damage.
• •Water, especially in 2024. See the table above. A party that brings two full buckets and a cleric with Create or Destroy Water can deal 50+ damage to a 2024 fire elemental without rolling an attack.
• •Stay 15 feet away from a 2024 elemental. The Fire Aura reaches 10 feet. Reach weapons at 10 feet are still inside it. Ranged attackers and casters at 15 feet or more take nothing from it.
• •Use reach weapons against a 2014 elemental. Fire Form only burns attackers who hit it in melee from within 5 feet. A glaive or halberd from 10 feet away avoids the 1d10 entirely.
• •Douse each other (2014). One character spending an action to douse a burning ally is often better than letting them take 1d10 a round for the rest of the fight.
• •Send it home. Its Charisma is 7 (−2). Banishment at DC 15 sticks four times in five, and an Elemental banished for the full minute doesn't return to the Material Plane.
• •Don't cast fire spells. Fireball, Burning Hands, Fire Bolt and Scorching Ray do nothing to it.

Fire Elemental Encounter Ideas

The foundry fire. A dwarven foundry's furnace has been "running hot" for a week. The forge-master bound a fire elemental to the furnace to keep up with an arms order and the binding is slipping. Each night the elemental pushes a little further out of the furnace mouth. The party arrives as it breaks free in a building full of coal, oil and wooden scaffolding, with a water tower on the roof that someone has to reach and tip.

The burning bridge. Bandits with a hired wizard use a fire elemental (summoned with the 2014 Conjure Elemental, which can pull one from any bonfire) to burn a wooden toll bridge and the caravan on it. The party can fight the elemental on the bridge as it burns, or lure it toward the river below, where every 5 feet it moves through water hurts it.

The salamander's pet. Deep in a volcanic cave, a salamander keeps a fire elemental as a guard at a lava-lit crossing. The room has a single cold spring bubbling up in one corner, and the elemental never goes near it. Players who notice that can make their stand in the spring.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a fire elemental in 5e?

A fire elemental is CR 5 and worth 1,800 XP in both editions. The 2014 version has AC 13 and 102 hit points; the 2024 version has AC 13 and 93 hit points.

What is a fire elemental weak to?

Water. In 2014 it takes 1 cold damage for every gallon splashed on it or every 5 feet it moves through water. In 2024 it takes 3 (1d6) cold damage for each. It has no listed vulnerability, so cold spells deal normal damage, but it's immune to fire.

How does fire elemental Fire Form work?

In 2014, Fire Form lets it pass through 1-inch gaps, burns any creature that touches it or hits it in melee from within 5 feet for 1d10, and lets it move into a hostile creature's space, dealing 1d10 and setting it on fire. In 2024, Fire Form keeps the 1-inch gaps and the 1d10 for entering a creature's space, but no longer burns attackers or sets the creature on fire.

How do you put out a fire elemental's fire?

In 2014, any creature can spend an action to douse a creature the elemental ignited. In 2024, a Burning creature can spend an action to drop Prone and roll to put itself out, or the fire ends if the creature is doused, submerged or smothered.

Can you summon a fire elemental with Conjure Elemental?

Under the 2014 Conjure Elemental, yes: the spell calls an elemental of CR 5 or lower from a 10-foot cube of fire, such as a bonfire. If the caster loses Concentration, the elemental turns hostile and stays for up to an hour. The 2024 Conjure Elemental summons an intangible spirit instead and doesn't use this stat block. If a summoned elemental torched half a town in your campaign, Loreify records the session so nobody forgets who's paying for the repairs.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.