Fire Elemental

Fire elementals, also called ifrits, are created through complex magic rituals for one purpose: destruction. They attack with fireballs and jets of flame that turn anything in their path to ash in an instant. Even standing near one is dangerous, since they give off heat like a furnace. Poison doesn’t affect them, they don’t bleed, and fire-based spells don’t just fail to hurt them, they actually make them stronger. That makes them one of the few foes where a witcher’s favorite sign works against him.

Getting close is the hard part. The heat they radiate burns anyone within sword’s reach, so a fire elemental punishes the usual approach of standing in front of a monster and trading blows.

In The Witcher 3 you face one at the lowest level of Philippa Eilhart’s hidden lair near Oxenfurt in Redania’s Most Wanted. Another rises from the old forge near Kaer Morhen in The Witchers’ Forge, and an ifrit also appears during Tedd Deireadh, The Final Age.

Across the games

In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, fire elementals are creatures summoned by skilled sorcerers, who can open portals to the elemental planes and compel their inhabitants to serve them. The journal notes that Herbert Stammelford, a member of the first Conclave, once commanded a d’ao that moved a mountain blocking the view from his window.

Modern mages are far weaker than those of old, but the most capable of them can still call forth fire elementals, which serve as completely obedient guards and protectors.

Combat strategy

The fire elemental’s own heat protects it in melee, and simply standing near it burns you. Keep your distance when you can. Close in only to strike, then pull back. Forget Igni here: fire spells feed it instead of hurting it.

Frost and anti-magic work best. Freeze it, weaken it with dimeritium, then do your sword work while it’s slowed. Since poison and bleeding don’t affect it, skip builds that rely on those effects and bring raw damage instead. Expect to take some burn damage over the fight and bring healing potions or food.