Airbending

[BiblioRook]

So, I have a brother. Completely new to the concept of D&D and seems intent on jumping in feet first without looking, he likes to send me hypothetical character concepts to see how possible they would be in the actual game.

One thing he seems to want more then anything else is to Airbend.

I honestly never realized just how few air based spell are even in D&D, but even then I knew it wouldn't be easy.

Basically, what he wants is to play as a Ranger and be able to cast some sort of air-based spell (he said he honestly didn't care what) at will.
So Playgrounders, would it be able to fanangle this?

[Abaddon87]

Force Mage and the spells for Grasping/Pushing/Crushing Fist come to mind first... But those are "force" effects....

Perhaps some kind of air elemental or half-elemental race?

[hiryuu]

Reflavor the telekinesis spells and Master of the Unseen Hand? Look at the Shugenja and reflavor/rework it? Raptorans get a neat sorcerer replacement level thing. Try this thing (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11341.0)?

Gust of Wind is cool. You could look at the mark of storm from Eberron.

[BiblioRook]

Yeah, I mentioned that best he probably had to look forward to was Gust of Wind or Wind Wall. Surprisingly he liked Wind Wall better out of the two.

What he really wanted was Control Winds, not realizing it was so high level a spell, so he could 'change the direction of the wind and a whim, like Wind Waker'. Unfortunately that one is kinda outside what Rangers can aspire too spellwise (barring Mystics, but I don't think he would be interested in that route).

[marcielle]

AIRBEND? PAH! Become the Avatar, master of all the elements!
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a

Take Ardent class form Comp Psi, use the ACF to get Air, Water, Fire, but not Earth, we'll cover that later. Take Freedom Mantle at first level though, every Ardent has Freedom.

Take this to 10th level and get Dominant Ideal ACF for whatever mantle you Metapsionic most(Freedom if you have no preference) and then start going into Metaming PrC from Expanded Psionics Handbook. At level 20, YOU GAIN AVATAR STATE. No kidding. Go over to SRD and just LOOK at the capstone.

About Earth mantle: ONLY ONE worthwhile power. Just use Expanded Knowledge feat to get it.(Major Creation)

Note, if you take practiced manifester, you only lose those five powers because of Ardents wonky power selection criteria. The powers you CAN use wil be all the more powerful though.

Note, the last power in the Water Mantle is basically Katara's healing water.

[BiblioRook]

Psionics? Not sure that would work out.
My brother is very outdoorsy and largely the only reason he's been interested up to this point seems to be due to the idea of playing something Nature-y. I think his being a Ranger would take precedence over being able to 'airbend'.

[Gotterdammerung]

If i was going to try to recreate an airbender, the easiest way i see is:

Enlightened Fist.
+
Spell Thematics (Players guide to faerun)


Basically, you aren't going to be able to make an air bender without spellcasting. And Most the Airbenders were monks anyway. So monk sorcerer enlightened fist just makes sense to me.


And then Spell Thematics lets you change how a spell looks when it is cast. So when you cast telekinesis and knock somebody down, there is now a rush of wind as the theme. Spell thematics will allow you to increase the number of existing spells that fit your theme of air bender without having to bother the GM about letting you create 50 new "Air" spells.

And later on if you feel the need to become the AVATAR, you can just use the same trick to flavor more of your spells as earth air fire and water spells.

[Vladislav]

Try Hurricane Breath (Complete Mage)

[Stormageddon]

Psionics? Not sure that would work out.
My brother is very outdoorsy and largely the only reason he's been interested up to this point seems to be due to the idea of playing something Nature-y. I think his being a Ranger would take precedence over being able to 'airbend'.

Why not Druid? That seems like it would get him the flavor he is looking for? Maybe with the feat that allows you sub out the type of damage the spell produces.

[marcielle]

Spell Compendium should present more air spells. Sword of the Arcane order. Now you can learn all the (very few) Air spells out there while being a full ranger.
Handbook to the arcane order:http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10830.0

Go wildshape ranger if you can. Nothing says outdoors more than a rampaging bear.

[Gotterdammerung]

Being a nature lover is really more a roleplay thing and can be applied to almost any class. Some classes have built in nature fluff, and some prestige classes will give a class nature fluff. But at the end of the day a wizard can like bunnies just as much as a druid.

[Kobold-Bard]

Avatar d20 (https://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/) (homebrew 3.5 supplement)

Specifically the Airbender Class (https://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/airbender2.0)

At Will Air Blast and some other at will simple airbending, one skill check controls more impressive Bending, you get Evasion & a wind-bonus to your Climb, Tumble, and Jump checks, and you can fly.

Mix and match with Ranger as you see fit. What more could you want?

[BiblioRook]

Go wildshape ranger if you can. Nothing says outdoors more than a rampaging bear.

Funny you should say that, because that's exactly what he intended to go for, down to the bear. Plus the air spells (which were more just for fun).
I though that was hilarious because he came up with it before I even mentioned Rangers had that as an option.

[Randomguy]

I also suggest druid if he wants something nature-y (rather than an avatar the last airbender style aribender), but a druid variant. For starters, the spontaneous caster version would be nice since it requires less bookkeeping. Also, if he doesn't want wildshape, he can trade it for either the at will shapeshifting variant from PHB2 or the one that gives some monk and ranger abilities in exchange for wildshape and heavy armour from Unearthed Arcana.

[nedz]

Two ideas :-
Cleric with Air/Weather/Nature type domains into Prestige Ranger.
Or Mystic Ranger into Stormlord.

[BiblioRook]

I actually did suggest both Druid and Cleric to my brother when he first started asking about D&D classes where he could do things with Wind. He seems to shy away from actual caster classes because he considers them 'squishy'. He's really a brawler at heart even if he wouldn't admit it and I still think he would be far happier as a Barbarian as anything else. Yes, I know Clerics are still pretty hardy and I even pointed this out to him, but he still liked Ranger option best in the end. The fact that he came to the Ranger class on his own too is important because it suggests he was looking into things on his own instead of just assuming I would dictate what he should or shouldn't do which is something I'm trying to encourage, but I digress.

I believe his original idea was to be some sort of mystical magic welding Barbarian. He likes the idea of having magic to use, but not enough to specialize or at the expense of most of his physical capabilities.
So yeah, Ranger was a compromise.

[AMFV]

Windwalker from Faiths and Pantheons, full BAB, full casting, it gets a ton of useful wind type abilities including flying. It's also designed for ranger entry.

[nedz]

Well there's nothing squidgy about clerics, however.

Mystic Ranger is a Ranger variant from the Dragon Magazine which gets more spells but looses some other abilities.

Maybe you could look at Divine Crusader in Complete Divine. This is a combat orientated PrC which gets a few spells from one, and only one, cleric domain. Obviously you would choose one of the air type domains for your concept. Earliest you could get into this class would be 8th level.

[Gotterdammerung]

I believe his original idea was to be some sort of mystical magic welding Barbarian. He likes the idea of having magic to use, but not enough to specialize or at the expense of most of his physical capabilities.
So yeah, Ranger was a compromise.


Barb going into champion of gwyn from BoED is a very rewarding "magic wielding barbarian".

[marcielle]

Clerics have like a 100% greater survival chance in melee than vanilla rangers, if you know what you are doing. It's like how wizards are more effective at melee after a certain point than fighter or barbarians.

[herrhauptmann]

Barb going into champion of gwyn from BoED is a very rewarding "magic wielding barbarian".

Runescarred berserker is a better magic wielding barbarian.

I've got a set of classes that could probably segue into the bender mentality. (Had the basic idea before I saw an episode of Avatar...) Just remove their fluff about protecting elemental nodes, maybe give them something else for their troubles.

It's not quite finished...
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177069

[Hiro Protagonest]

Avatar D20 made by people from GitP and BG. (http://theanteheroes.com/Avatar%20d20/BendingChapter.pdf)

The only problem is they don't have actual rules for the augment pools, just "For every X points you use from your augment pool" in the augmentation part of each bending seed without actually giving augment pools. Increase in the DC doesn't seem what they had in mind, but it might work.

[Zaq]

What he really wanted was Control Winds, not realizing it was so high level a spell, so he could 'change the direction of the wind and a whim, like Wind Waker'. Unfortunately that one is kinda outside what Rangers can aspire too spellwise (barring Mystics, but I don't think he would be interested in that route).

Check out the feat Windsinger, from Stormwrack. It lets you do pretty much exactly that. Like, exactly.

It's a Bard feat, but you might point him towards the Savage Bard, from UA (it's also on the SRD).

[Gotterdammerung]

Runescarred berserker is a better magic wielding barbarian.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177069


Except it's not. Runescarred Berserker doesn't even cast spells. He can carve 7 spells onto his body. They cost him exp like he was crafting them. He has a list of spells known but no actual spells per day and can only use the spells known to craft his 7 rune scars.

Not to mention the fluff which pretty much makes you a defender of rashemon. Even the wandering Runescarred berserkers still see themselves as defenders of the rasheman people. Can't exactly justify dungeon crawling halfway across the world as "defending Rasheman.

I'd take champion of Gwyn over Emo the Barbarian anyday.

[Urpriest]

Except it's not. Runescarred Berserker doesn't even cast spells. He can carve 7 spells onto his body. They cost him exp like he was crafting them. He has a list of spells known but no actual spells per day and can only use the spells known to craft his 7 rune scars.

Not to mention the fluff which pretty much makes you a defender of rashemon. Even the wandering Runescarred berserkers still see themselves as defenders of the rasheman people. Can't exactly justify dungeon crawling halfway across the world as "defending Rasheman.

I'd take champion of Gwyn over Emo the Barbarian anyday.

I'm a little curious how you can justify dungeoncrawling halfway across the world as service to the Court of Stars.

[herrhauptmann]

Emo the barb: There's a lot of reasons to scar/tattoo your body. Being depressed and whiny is just one. Others include invoking a totem animal and hoping it will aid you (definitely not emo).

How does grubbing in a bunch of old and sealed tombs benefit any other city/country?
Generally, it doesn't. But the defender of the city is there because his friends are going and he doesn't want to risk them dying without his aid.
And since the Runescarred is a Faerun PrC, it would need some work to adapt it to any other world already. So the fluff of "protecting the motherland" doesn't even matter. (Of course, the Court of the Stars seems a little ridiculous for a barbarian too, but hey, whatever) Unless the OP is planning to put airbenders in Faerun of course.

Besides what's wrong with the 7 runes inscribed on the body? The champ of qwyn only gets 7 spells per day of 1st to 4th level, unless he's got a high wisdom. While the available scars are much better. Nor does it matter that they cost XP, because that small amount will rarely actually leave you behind the party in level. And when it does, you'll compensate by getting more XP (same reason why it's okay for a wizard to take crafting feats).
**************************
Anyway, Champ of Gwyn is your favorite PrC, that's pretty obvious (You bring it up in almost every thread I've seen you post in). Have fun with it. I'll keep my opinions and options open for a wider variety of barbaric prestige classes. And who wins? Not the one who gets last word, but the one who has the most fun. In other words, I'm not going to drag this into debate over two barbaric PrC's.

[Zagaroth]

As a thought, unarmed variant sword sage, re-flavoring Desert Wind to just 'wind' works rather well, change damage type to sonic, and focus on that and Setting Sun maneuvers.

[Gotterdammerung]

I'm a little curious how you can justify dungeoncrawling halfway across the world as service to the Court of Stars.

Probably the exact quote "Most Champions of Gwynharwif are wondering adventurers of some sort. Some are guerilla fighters in evil kingdoms, working to overthrow tyrants and liberate oppressed peoples. Others are dungeon delvers, seeking to exterminate monstrous aberrations and vile creations from the face of the earth."

Yeh i would probably use that quote if i wanted to justify it.


Emo the barb: There's a lot of reasons to scar/tattoo your body. Being depressed and whiny is just one. Others include invoking a totem animal and hoping it will aid you (definitely not emo).

How does grubbing in a bunch of old and sealed tombs benefit any other city/country?
Generally, it doesn't. But the defender of the city is there because his friends are going and he doesn't want to risk them dying without his aid.
And since the Runescarred is a Faerun PrC, it would need some work to adapt it to any other world already. So the fluff of "protecting the motherland" doesn't even matter. (Of course, the Court of the Stars seems a little ridiculous for a barbarian too, but hey, whatever) Unless the OP is planning to put airbenders in Faerun of course.

Besides what's wrong with the 7 runes inscribed on the body? The champ of qwyn only gets 7 spells per day of 1st to 4th level, unless he's got a high wisdom. While the available scars are much better. Nor does it matter that they cost XP, because that small amount will rarely actually leave you behind the party in level. And when it does, you'll compensate by getting more XP (same reason why it's okay for a wizard to take crafting feats).
**************************
Anyway, Champ of Gwyn is your favorite PrC, that's pretty obvious (You bring it up in almost every thread I've seen you post in). Have fun with it. I'll keep my opinions and options open for a wider variety of barbaric prestige classes. And who wins? Not the one who gets last word, but the one who has the most fun. In other words, I'm not going to drag this into debate over two barbaric PrC's.

Champ of Gwyn isn't my favorite prestige class. Just brought it up here because he talked about a barb with spells. And if i brought it up somewhere else it was probably because it is relevant.

As to which is better. I am entitled to my opinion. I personally think taking 7 hours and wasting exp and gold and taking around 29d6 damage just to carve my spells on my body. Also not being able to easily switch what i have prepared and restrictive fluff is not that enticing.

Whereas, tactical thought while raging, a pretty decent spell list that can be adapted easily from day to day, Divine grace, some smites, and some cool other goodies, and fluff that lets me easily slide into any heroic plot is all pretty tempting.



But whatever to both of ya.

[erikun]

Funny you should say that, because that's exactly what he intended to go for, down to the bear. Plus the air spells (which were more just for fun).
I though that was hilarious because he came up with it before I even mentioned Rangers had that as an option.
Perhaps you could allow him to use the Aspect of Nature (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#wildShapeVariantAspectOfN ature) variant (or perhaps in addition to) for the wildshape of the Ranger? I'd think that gaining flight or turning into wind might fit his idea of an Airbender well, not to mention that +30 base movement.

Other than that, how about just giving him a simple "Airbender" ability? Ranger is hardly a gamebreaking class, and a simple Gust of Wind (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/gustOfWind.htm) ability useable once a minute (or requiring Standard-action concentration, but useable at will) would likely end up just fine.

[Socratov]

hwo a bout a lot of magic and physical capability? look here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195049)