Ascending of PC's [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

felhanded

2012-10-22, 11:56 AM

Hi guys/gals.
Apart from d&d gm'ing im also a wow player, who mains shaman, and i really love the concept of the Ascendance spell (it transform the caster into an elemental improving combat capabilities) and was thinking if it was possible to do that in a d&d adventure, for instance transforming one of my players character who is a knight into an earth elemental, thus increasing his durability and tanking skills.

I picture it as a boss fight where the boss i scaled up to match the improved skills of the players, but the amount of scaling needed is to me unclear. It would be pretty sad if the fight turned out to be a total faceroll for the pc's.

Hope you guys can follow my thoughts and can give me some advice.

- Regards Felhanded

Grod_The_Giant

2012-10-22, 11:59 AM

The best way would probably be to write up the elemental forms as if they were templates (or, perhaps, find appropriate templates-- I'm sure there are stats for half-elementals somewhere). Figure out how much LA they're worth, and calculate the fight's difficulty by party level + template LA.

felhanded

2012-10-22, 12:00 PM

Never thought about making/finding templates, thanks alot good sir :)

Diarmuid

2012-10-22, 02:25 PM

Depending on how strong you want these effects to be, you could look to existing transformational spells as guides for power levels.

Divine Power
Righteous Might
Tenser's Transformation
Visage of the Diety (Lesser, Normal, Greater)
Bite of the Wear* Line of spells

jmelesky

2012-10-22, 02:50 PM

Also consider the PF "Elemental Body (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/elemental-body)" spell series.

Heliomance

2012-10-22, 06:56 PM

And Complete Mage's Transcend Mortality :smallbiggrin:

Venusaur

2012-10-22, 07:01 PM

Shapechange lets you transform into an actual elemental. A version of polymorph that allows transformation into elementals (maybe one level higher) probably wouldn't be OP.

Sith_Happens

2012-10-23, 03:57 AM

I'm sure there are stats for half-elementals somewhere

Manual of the Planes, page 188.

TypoNinja

2012-10-23, 04:03 PM

There is also a PrC that turns you into an elemental at the end of it, name escapes me.

Madara

2012-10-23, 04:38 PM

There is also a PrC that turns you into an elemental at the end of it, name escapes me.

Elemental Savant, which is.....yeah.

TypoNinja

2012-10-23, 09:09 PM

Elemental Savant, which is.....yeah.

Well yes, much like the dragon disciple, its terrible, but its the kind of flavor the OP is looking for.

Flavor can be fun too, I had a cleric who was a raging pyromaniac, gave him levels in that. I looked at it and thought "How could I not?"