[3.5 Base Class] The Elementalist

[Nivellios]

Hello, i'm a bit new to this forum. I am, however, currently running a campaign that is set in a world based on elemental magic, instead of Divine or Arcane sources, and I thought I'd share the class I have that replaces Divine or Arcane spell casters.


Elementalist

Elementalists are the combination of sorcerers and wizards, except for being elemental specific. They are to be used as a supplement, or in a campaign without arcane and/or divine influence. An Elementalist can cast their “techniques” using pure willpower, without preparing. Elementalists specify in one of the four classical elements – Fire, Air, Earth, or Water – but can cast techniques from the other domains. Some techniques also belong to more than one domain.

Adventurers: This may differ per campaign, but an Elementalist may choose to venture to enhance his/her techniques, or maybe s/he is an outcast. Most Elementalists, however, are drawn by a want to visit the elemental planes.

Characteristics: Elementalists cast techniques innately, but can learn from others’ spellbooks. As such, they generally learn a little less than sorcerers naturally. Elementalists also specialize in a certain element, and gain bonuses in that element.

Alignment: Elementalists tend to go with the elements’ choice; chaos. They can be either good or evil.

Religion: Elementalists do not favor a religion, as they are meant for campaigns that generally don’t have Divine powers.

Background: Elementalists’ powers innately show themselves at the age of a young adult. As such, Elementalists can have widely varied background. Elementalists generally stick together, and learn from each other, as well as discover new techniques themselves.

Races: Elementalists can be any race.

Other Classes: Elementalists do not like to travel with the weak minded, but neither do they like to travel with the disciplined, because of their chaotic nature. As such, Rogues and such are good companions.

Role: An Elementalist is generally a magic specific powerhouse. As such, they may want to learn to fight with standard weapons as well, in case their magic fails them at any point.

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+2|Elemental Bending

2nd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|

3rd|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+3|Elemental Affinity 1

4th|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+4|

5th|
+2|
+2|
+2|
+4|Elemental Manipulation

6th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|Elemental Affinity 2

7th|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+5|

8th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|

9th|
+4|
+3|
+3|
+6|Elemental Affinity 3

10th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+7|Partial Elemental Mastery

11th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+7|

12th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8|Elemental Affinity 4

13th|
+6/+1|
+4|
+4|
+8|

14th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+9|

15th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+9|Elemental Affinity 5, Elemental Mastery

16th|
+8/+3|
+5|
+5|
+10|

17th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+10|

18th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11|Elemental Affinity 6

19th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+11|

20th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+12|One with the Elements[/table]

Game Rule Information

Abilities: Wisdom determines spell power. An Elementalist may also want Dexterity and Constitution to benefit their AC and Health.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d4

Class Skills
Concentration (CON), Craft (INT), Knowledge(The Elements(replaces Arcana))(Nature)(The Planes) (INT), Listen (WIS), Profession (WIS), Sense Motive (WIS), Spellcraft (INT), Spot (WIS), Use Magic Device (CHA)

Skill Points at First: (2 + INT) x 4 Additional: 2 + INT

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: All simple.

Element Affinity: At 3rd level an Elementalist chooses an element from the four classical elements – Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. S/he gains resist 5 to that element. At every 3 levels after, an Elementalist gains additional Affinity to his/her chosen element, and adds another resist 5 to it. Techniques gain specific bonuses.

Elemental Bending: An Elementalist has the natural ability to bend the elements, in addition to his/her specific techniques. An Elementalist can manipulate his/her chosen element a number of rounds equal to his/her level per day. This manipulation has to be something the element would naturally do (You can’t make water float, or make fire spontaneously in the air. Enlarging an existing fire is OK, but you can't make air lift anything off the ground.), and requires a Concentration check with a DC equal to 10 + the # of rounds it has been manipulated per round.

Elemental Manipulation: At 5th level, an Elementalist can manipulate other elements in the same way s/he manipulated his/her chosen element. Neither the chosen element or the other elements need Concentration checks anymore, but still have the round limitations. Additionally, s/he can manipulate his/her chosen element non-naturally(Such as make fire appear in midair, make water and earth float, and lift things into midair with wind), with the same Concentration check and round limitations.

Elemental Mastery, Partial: At 10th level, the round limitations for naturally manipulating elements is gone, and Elementalist can non-naturally manipulate the other elements without a Concentration check, but still with round limitations. Also s/he can manipulate his/her chosen element non-naturally permanently (s/he can leave an orb of water floating in the air indefinitely, or do things like an ever burning flame). In order to do this, an Elementalist must make a Concentration check with a DC equal to 10 + the # of 5 cubic feet sections affected.

Elemental Mastery: At 15th level, an Elementalist can non-naturally manipulate the other elements permanently, but still with the Concentration check.

One with the Elements: An Elementalist to attains 20th level is attuned with the Elements perfectly. Techniques now cost half as much (round down, except level 9 techniques, which are rounded up). Also, an Elementalist can non-naturally manipulate the elements without any Concentration checks.

Techniques: An Elementalist gets 5 + WIS modifier technique points per day at first level, and 1 + WIS modifier at each additional level. Techniques come in levels 1 to 9, and in order to learn/use them, an Elementalist needs a WIS score of 10 + technique level. A technique costs an amount of technique points equal to its level to use, which recharge after an extended rest.
An Elementalist learns 2 techniques per level, but must have a level of twice the spell to learn it, except for level 1 techniques.

{table=head]{colsp=2}Techniques:
Level | Techniques
1 | Bolt (Acid, Fire, Lightning, Ice, Wind), Natural Mending, Endure Elements, Slippery, Summon Elemental I, Servant of Wind, Burning Hands, Silent Iris Image, Chill Touch, Feather Fall, Boost, Unstable, Bullet, Open/Close
2 | Fog Cloud, Flaming Sphere, Stunning Arrow, Summon Elemental II, Air Snare, Continual Flame, Gust of Wind, Scorching Ray, Minor Iris Image, Fluid Doppelgangers, Levitate, Spider Climb, Reactive Wall
3 | Explosive Runes, Minor Stone Weapon, Summon Elemental III, Fly, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Ripple, Major Iris Image, Water Breathing, Immobile Prison, Sleet Storm
4 | Fire Trap, Stoneskin, Summon Element IV, Shout, Shield (Fire, Ice, Wind, Rock), Wall (Fire, Ice, Wind, Stone), Liquid Shape
5 | Lesser Elemental Binding, Summon Elemental V, Cone of Cold, Wall of Force, Sky Launch, Stone Weapon, Overland Flight, Passwall, Water Walk, Current Control, Flameburst, Desert Sun
6 | Repulsion Sphere, Acid Fog, Summon Elemental VI, Bigby’s Forceful Hand, Chain Lightning, Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere, Symbol of Burning, Control Water, Move Earth, Flesh/Stone Transmutation, Symbol of Trapping
7 | Illusionary Wall, Summon Elemental VII, Shallow sand, Symbol of Stunning, Delayed Blast Fireball, Aircage, Greater Stone Weapon, Control Weather, Reverse Gravity, Soulburn, Create Water, Hydro Blast, High Pressure, Liquify
8 | Elemental Wall, Incendiary Cloud, Summon Elemental VIII, Polar Ray, Greater Shout, Sunburst, Iron Body, Quicksand, Vortex, Whirlpool
9 | Elemental Sphere, Elemental Maw, Summon Elemental IX, Meteor Swarm, Maelstrom, Earthquake
[/table]
(Some of these are pulled from the lists of Sorcerer and Wizard spells in the player handbook. You are encouraged to make your own, however. Just remember to pass 'em by the DM.)

I will post a detailed listing of Techniques later.

So, what do you think?

[Tebryn]

This really shouldn't be a class on it's own. A PrC would work a ton better imho.

[Welknair]

1. Usually ability descriptions come after the class table

2. Your Will Saves are a bit off. 1 off, actually. They should go from +2 to +12, not +1 to +11.

I'll need to give it a more thorough read through before I can say more.

[Hanuman]

I'd use this as an ACF, use elemental spheres (obscure dragon mag sorc rule) and remove the rest of sorc features-- perhaps houserule a few feats to qualify for the PRC later if you need to have the res earlier on.

[Welknair]

The ability to just come up with your own spells on the spot is ridiculously powerful, especially without any sort of guidelines. May I suggest you take a look at the elemental seed system employed in the Avatar d20 (http://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/bending-version2.0)? Though still free-form, more or less, it has enough restraints to stop players from running amok with it.


And what is the spellbook used for? You cite that an Elementalist must have room in their spellbook, but what for? They don't seem to prepare spells or use the spellbook in any way. And if you can cast any Technique contained in your spellbook, and you can inscribe additional techniques in, with no limit, then all you need is a bunch of writing materials and a library and you can spontaneously cast any spell you have access to, as long as that number doesn't exceed 75. And why can they only have one spellbook? That seems like a very arbitrary decision.

Edit: You neglect to specify what ability the DC is keyed off of. Your entry under Abilities would indicate that it's Wisdom. That would be very, very weird. It's difficult to imagine a character who's expertise comes from force of personality and power from their ability to take their time and think things through. Usually it would be the other way around.

And in any case, I dislike MAD casters. They're kinda odd. I'd suggest stick just with Cha or just with Wis.

[Nivellios]

This really shouldn't be a class on it's own. A PrC would work a ton better imho.

This was meant to replace the other spellcasting classes in a campaign of mine that doesn't have them. Hence, the base class.


1. Usually ability descriptions come after the class table

2. Your Will Saves are a bit off. 1 off, actually. They should go from +2 to +12, not +1 to +11.

Thanks for that info.


The ability to just come up with your own spells on the spot is ridiculously powerful, especially without any sort of guidelines. May I suggest you take a look at the elemental seed system employed in the Avatar d20? Though still free-form, more or less, it has enough restraints to stop players from running amok with it.


And what is the spellbook used for? You cite that an Elementalist must have room in their spellbook, but what for? They don't seem to prepare spells or use the spellbook in any way. And if you can cast any Technique contained in your spellbook, and you can inscribe additional techniques in, with no limit, then all you need is a bunch of writing materials and a library and you can spontaneously cast any spell you have access to, as long as that number doesn't exceed 75. And why can they only have one spellbook? That seems like a very arbitrary decision.

By come up with your own spells, I meant pass them by the DM first. I guess I forgot to mention that. I originally intended the spellbook to limit how many Techniques the Elementalist could learn, but I've been thinking more and more lately that I should just dump it and the copying thing.

[Welknair]

By come up with your own spells, I meant pass them by the DM first. I guess I forgot to mention that. I originally intended the spellbook to limit how many Techniques the Elementalist could learn, but I've been thinking more and more lately that I should just dump it and the copying thing.

I agree that the Spellbook should be scrapped. If you're basing the spells off of knowledge, you can simply use the same "Spells Known" limitation system that other spontaneous casters use.

And do note the bit in my previous post about the DC of the spells.

[Nivellios]

And do note the bit in my previous post about the DC of the spells.

I'll look into that.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

A few things. Firstly, your skill list seems very odd (and extremely small), and you need to specify WHICH Knowledge skills the class gets.

Secondly, you run out of choices for Elemental Affinity before you run out of instances where you gain the ability, and the elemental sources you indicated don't match all have exact mirrors in D&D (where the elements are acid, fire, cold, electricity, and sometimes sonic). Maybe put in an equivalency table there.

The elemental abilities should have a few more guidelines and/or examples on what constitutes natural and non-natural manipulation. It's non-natural, for example, for a small flame to erupt into a roaring inferno...but can I do that? What about turning water into magma? And so forth. For that matter, how do you calculate the size of a given area of fire or electricity, and how much manipulation am I still able to do to a given 5x5x5ft area while counting it as just one use? That whole ability needs to be seriously revised, and it might just be easier to put some clear restrictions on it and make it at-will up to X amount at once.

Moving on...


Techniques: An Elementalist gets 5 + CHA technique points per day at first level, and 1 + CHA at each additional level. Techniques come in levels 1 to 9, and in order to learn/use them, an Elementalist needs a CHA score of 10 + technique level. A technique costs an amount of technique points equal to its level to use, which recharge after an extended rest.
An Elementalist learns 2 techniques per level, but must have a level of twice the spell to learn it, except for level 1 techniques.

First off, does that CHA mean Charisma, or Charisma modifier? That's a hugely important difference. Secondly, have you crunched these numbers? If so, where do they end up (and do extra points scale retro-actively upon an increase in Charisma or not)? I'd love to see your math, so we can know what level of capability to expect at the higher levels.

[Nivellios]

A few things. Firstly, your skill list seems very odd (and extremely small), and you need to specify WHICH Knowledge skills the class gets.

Oh, sorry about that, I messed with that quickly once, but forgot to revisit it. I'll work on that.



Secondly, you run out of choices for Elemental Affinity before you run out of instances where you gain the ability, and the elemental sources you indicated don't match all have exact mirrors in D&D (where the elements are acid, fire, cold, electricity, and sometimes sonic). Maybe put in an equivalency table there.


Not quite sure what you mean by choices... Your supposed to pick one element in the very beginning and keep that throughout. Perhaps I failed to clarify that. Not sure what to say about the rest.



The elemental abilities should have a few more guidelines and/or examples on what constitutes natural and non-natural manipulation. It's non-natural, for example, for a small flame to erupt into a roaring inferno...but can I do that? What about turning water into magma? And so forth. For that matter, how do you calculate the size of a given area of fire or electricity, and how much manipulation am I still able to do to a given 5x5x5ft area while counting it as just one use? That whole ability needs to be seriously revised, and it might just be easier to put some clear restrictions on it and make it at-will up to X amount at once.


You have a lot of good points there. I probably should revise and clarify that a bit...



First off, does that CHA mean Charisma, or Charisma modifier? That's a hugely important difference. Secondly, have you crunched these numbers? If so, where do they end up (and do extra points scale retro-actively upon an increase in Charisma or not)? I'd love to see your math, so we can know what level of capability to expect at the higher levels.

Sorry about that, its supposed to be WIS, and the modifier. It originally started with CHA, and I apparently forgot to change that section. I'll do that and clarify the modifier bit right now. I probably should crunch those numbers though... At first glance, it appears that you end up with about 70 points at 20th level with an averagish modifier, so that would be something like 7 - 8 high powered techniques a day. Sounds about right to me, but I have never been known for good estimations. :/

As for the rest of all the concerns and stuff I either need to change or said I will, expect a large sized overhaul by the end of the weekend.

EDIT: Revised the Skill List and Elemental Manipulation. Also added a level 20 feature I forgot to add earlier.