Champions of the Elements

[Rapidghoul]

I'm DMing my first campaign with a party of five level 2's (fighter, rogue, cleric, sorcerer, bard). Right now the party is running through side quests leading up to the boss of the first chapter of the campaign, but I'm trying to sprinkle information about the second, more world-destruction-based chapter. Basically, the elements (earth, fire, wind, water, and life (or holy, or heart for Captain Planet fans)) of the world are going out of balance, so the gods of the elements find champions to restore the balance.

The main thing I'm doing to prepare for this revelation is to have them designated as the champions now without their knowing. There are five seemingly unrelated macguffins strewn about the land they they will collect. The items bind to the person that acquires them and grant them certain powers.

Last session, the bard picked up the heart of an earth elemental they killed, and just like that he's the champion of earth. They don't know the significance of the stone, but they'll find out soon enough.

I have ideas about how each item will show up, but I'm having trouble picking out all the powers they might get. As they level, the powers will get better or more frequent. At a certain plot development, the powers will be part of the character rather than the item. The problem is, I just don't quite know what to give them in terms of powers yet.

Here are a few ideas I've had:
Earth: acid resist, tremorsense, earthglide, damage reduction, earth mastery
Fire: fire resist, burn, breath weapon, heat, light / sight effects
Wind: electric resist, featherfall, airwalk times/day, fly times/day, air mastery
Water: cold resist, swim speed, waterwalk, waterbreathing, water mastery, see invisibility / true seeing (there are reasons in game for this)
Life: negative energy resistance, fast healing, regeneration, spell resistance, fortification, energy drain


What do people think? If you were to be a champion of one of the elements, what sort of powers would you expect or like to have?

[CodeRed]

Take a look at the Giant's "Elemental Infiltrator" under the gaming section. He's got some good ideas in there for the four classical elements that would give you something to work with. As to the Life one? Healing or anything with positive energy would seem to fit the bill pretty well. Instead of a resist maybe Fast Healing 1 that scales on par with the others resists?

[marcielle]

Easy way out- Just automatically give them a handful of free elemental grafts from Magic of Ebberon.

[Rapidghoul]

Take a look at the Giant's "Elemental Infiltrator" under the gaming section. He's got some good ideas in there for the four classical elements that would give you something to work with. As to the Life one? Healing or anything with positive energy would seem to fit the bill pretty well. Instead of a resist maybe Fast Healing 1 that scales on par with the others resists?

The Elemental Infiltrator is pretty neat. I might borrow a couple ideas from it, and it also fits a prestige class I built pretty well (a cross between Elemental Savant and the Elementalist job in Final Fantasy).
I want to steer away from giving them just straight elemental properties, but I do take bits and pieces from beings from the different planes (like the Elemental Transitions). For instance the earth hero bard will get tremorsense and earthglide like an earth elemental, and the fire hero (most likely the fighter) will get heat like an efreeti. You're right though, that's a great help in gauging how things will scale. Thanks!
The life/energy/light thing I'll have to be careful with. It's obviously the odd one out (but if the sorcerer in my group keeps acting the way he has been, I'm kicking him out, and that would solve the problem altogether). In any case, I'm spreading out the macguffins so they don't get too strong a hint yet, so I won't have to worry about that for a couple months probably.


Easy way out- Just automatically give them a handful of free elemental grafts from Magic of Ebberon.

Ah, never looked in Eberon for solutions. I only have Core, Complete, Races, and a few others like Spell Comendium, MIC, or Unearthed Arcana. I'll look into getting the Eberon books and checking that out.

EDIT: Poked around them a bit, and yeah, the elemental grafts look like a good source for inspiration as well. Thanks for the advice!

I should point out that my campaign is very Final Fantasy influenced. The party uses homebrew races (see my sig) and a few altered classes I came up with (white mage for cleric, blue mage for sorcerer). In case that helps clarify what I'm aiming for.

[Rapidghoul]

I've come to a few ideas with what to do.

Earth Hero
The Earth Hero is physically weak bard. The deity granting the power is Titan, essentially Atlas, god of earth, strength, and destruction. The item that originally gave him these powers is the heart of an earth elemental.1
Tremor Sense 30ft
Earthglide 3/day

5
Tremor Sense 60ft
Earthglide 5/day
DR 2 (half character level)

10
Tremor Sense 90ft
Earthglide at will
DR 5
Acid Resistance 5

15
Tremor Sense 120ft
Earthglide at will
DR 7
Heavy Fortification
Acid Resistance 10


Air / Lightning Hero
The Air / Lightning Hero will be the Air domain cleric focusing on summoning. The deity granting the power is Ramuh, god of lightning, knowledge, and magic. The item that will give her these powers is a feather from a roc / arrowhawk.5
Fly speed 20ft (clumsy)
Detect Magic 3/day
Evasion

10
Fly speed 30ft (average)
Detect Magic at Will
Improved Evasion
Electric Resistance 5

15
Fly speed 40ft (good)
Detect Magic at Will
Improved Evasion
Freedom of Movement
Electric Resistance 10


Water Hero
The Water Hero is the sneaky battle-rogue and the only neutral character (the rest are flavors of good). The deity granting the power is Shiva, goddess of ice, law, and magic. The item that originally gave him these powers is the eye of a giant squid.5
Swim Speed
Waterbreathing 3/day
See Invisible 3/day

10
Swim Speed, Water Walk
Waterbreathing
True Seeing 3/day
Cold Resistance 5

15
Swim Speed, Water Walk
Waterbreathing
True Seeing
(Greater?) Invisibilty 3/day (self only, caster level equal to character level)
Cold Resistance 10


Fire Hero
The Fire Hero will be the fighter training to be a dragoon (homebrew PrC). The deity granting the power is Ifrit, god of fire, power, and chaos. The item that will give him these powers is the fang or scale from a red dragon.5
Burn (as Small Fire Elemental)
Blindsense
Breath Weapon (as Very Young Red Dragon)

10
Burn (as Large Fire Elemental)
Blindsight
Breath Weapon (as Juvenile Red Dragon)
Fire Resistance 5

15
Burn (as Greater Fire Elemental)
Blindsight
Breath Weapon (as Adult Red Dragon)
Teleport 15ft / round (as Dimensional Jaunt feat, CMa 41)
Fire Resistance 10

I ended up using the Elemental Transitions and Elemental Grafts and various templates to find something I liked for the fifth.

The increments won't necessarily be "now that you're level X, you get these additional powers." There are plot developments and the like which will trigger them. The levels are just ballpark guesses when they will get the powers.

If one of them seems more / less powerful than the others or the progression feels off, please let me know how you would fix it.

Edit: The party is now at level 5. The bard has the Earth sign, and the Rogue just picked up the Water sign. I also had to kick the Sorcerer out of the party, so I'm back to just the four elements.

I've edited the spoiler to more accurately describe what I have in mind and explain who the characters are and more about their realm. I'm still debating on a few things though:

Earth - AC, Fortification, or DR? I have room to give him two, but which? I'm thinking Fortification because the guy already has light fortification (he's a Yuke, one of my homebrew races) and DR (because of the nature of Stoneskin).

Air - The spell-like ability is Detect Magic, but I thought about giving Blur on self instead, or maybe that instead of Freedom of Movement. All of that is a bit in the air (pun intended).

Water - I'm considering giving Water the Freedom of Movement ability instead, but only if Air doesn't get it. If I leave Invisibility, should I make it Greater Invisibility? And how many times per day?

Fire - Ethereal Jaunt works as a standard action, but I'm thinking of scaling it down to 5 or 10ft per round and make it a swift action so he can still attack.