I'm assuming that water spirits have the ability to generate ideal, super-awesome magical soap, because when engulfing, air spirits, rather than generating ginormous amounts of air pressure, kill their victims with magic poison that maybe occupies, like, 2% of the world's total volume of air. What force spirit would you need in order to get perfectly clean under, say, 5 minutes? And would it have to engulf you?

It's up to the GM in question, but I would rule that a force one would be able to do it, that you'd have to get engulfed (damage under such a planned situation being non-existant) and that the element might even be able to dry you by taking all the water it provided with it when it left.

You'd also get a cookie.

This begs the question, though: would the elemental be able to take the water in your body with it, and would this work in combat?

Dude, you could run a business like this, cleaning off gangers for 10 a pop. You'd just have to send the spirit on a remote task or something outside of line of sight. Unless they're female.

I think the logic chain works something like this:

Air spirits engulf and deal damage. This damage is not the result of air pressure. (cannon? I dunno)

Therefore: The damage is the result of some toxin normally present in the air, but not in large enough quantities to do harm normally.

Therefore: Air spirits are able to generate 'air' the contains something that the earth's air contains, but in quantaties out of proportion to the earth's atmosphere.

Supposition: If Air spirits can do it, so can Water spirits.

Therefore: There have to be some great detergents dissolved in the earth's water supply, so Water spirits should be able to engulf someone and generate those great detergents in quantaties out of proportion to the earth's water supply.

Therefore: Water spirits are great at cleaning things that they can engulf.

Air spirits can obviously produce chemicals that aren't common in air but are dissolvable in it. Therefore, I'm assuming that water spirits can, too.

That's kind of a big leap to take. It says that it uses the same mechanism as an inhalation poison, but it doesn't say that it is actually using said toxin. I could easily see it being a mechanism of pressure or lack thereof, with things like respirators helping to mitigate damage.

As for the summoning of water spirits to clean things off, you'd be better off using a homebrew spell or something. Or better yet, using chemicals that don't have a chance of going rogue on you and killing you and your family.

Heck, I'd go so far as to say you could use oxygenate on a body of water in order to produce a supersaturated solution that lifts stains out of water.

I'd let you do it--heck, just water can clean things fairly well--but I don't think your logic's justified. First, gases aren't "dissolved" in air. Second, air spirits can't produce any kind of gas they feel like, just a sort of generic poison. Third, if water spirits could do it, you'd think they would do it when they engulfed someone, but there's no mention of it.

Still, not a big deal. I'd have the spirit make a test of Force*2 vs. a threshold based on how dirty the target is.

Right, Az. Considering that oxygen isn't even the majority component in air, I'd be entirely willing to call the damage from air elemental engulfation 'oxygen deprivation' or somesuch.

Go Go Nitrogen!

But those methods of killing people with air engulfing don't even resemble inhalation vector toxins. Air elementals don't need to actually make cyanide or something; they just imitate its effects on a more conceptual level. Water spirits should be able to do the same. If air elementals can create generic poison within the confines of their materialized forms, there is no reason water can't create generic soap.

Honestly, you do whatever you want in your game. You're the GM, it's your call, so on, so forth. You could rule that beast spirits crap out nutritious beef jerky. However, your musings on elemental capabilites are likely going to be in the minority.

Let's look at some factors.

1) Atmospheric air consists of several components. Nitrogen gas is in the majority, with a 78% comp rate. Oxygen comes next with a 20.9% comp rate. There are trace components of other elements.

( http://www.physlink.com/reference/AirComposition.cfm )

Of all the elements available, pretty much any of them can kill you in excess. Nitrogen can do all sorts of nasty things by manifesting itself in your bloodstream. The Bends, and all that. At any rate, an air elemental can certainly pick from a myriad of things to ruin your day. Since there doesn't seem to be any mechanic for suffocation, they likely use the same thing as the toxic rules.

Now, some air spirits at higher level have access to the noxious breath. This is likely your strongest argument point, right here. This produces "A nauseating stench to incapacitate victims". This is treated "like" a toxin attack. It's not specifically claiming that it's an honest-to-God toxin.

However, water elementals do not have any powers as listed to produce toxins. Toxic water spirits, on the other hand, would be a safer bet.

2) Okay, so I'm weird, but as a hobby, I make soap with my father. Water isn't an ingredient in the process, directly. The actual process of making natural soap is basically the combination of sodium hydroxide with animal or vegetable fat. Water, in a pure state, contains neither. And since the idea of summoning an elemental spirit (that _isn't_ toxic) would likely involve summoning an elemental in its purest form?

Outlook not good.

Again. Do what you want. It's just that I don't think most people will agree with you.

After your explanation, I have no real scientific disputes. I'm just sure that few, if anyone, would really allow it to interfere with the flow of the game and force me to buy soap or something.