Elemental Monk help

[jguy]

I have an idea for a group of fifteen elemental monks that are centered around the combination of 6 elements Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Wood, and Metal. I need help on the theme of a few and I'd like to see your guys' thoughts on the ones I've come up with so far. Some are obvious, others are not.

Spoiler: Elemental Combinations.

Show

1. Earth/Fire - Magma/Lava
2. Earth/Air - Sand
3. Earth/Wood
4. Earth/Metal - Steel (best I could come up with so far)
5. Earth/Water - Mud
6. Fire/Air - Lightning
7. Fire/Water - Steam
8. Fire/Wood - Coal
9. Fire/Metal - Slag (Very iffy on this one)
10. Water/Air - Mist (I feel like this is too similar to steam)
11. Water/Wood - Vine (Again iffy)
12. Water/Metal - Mercury
13. Air/Metal - Rust
14. Air/Wood
15. Metal/wood - Petrified Wood

As you can see, two are blank and several are very lackluster or don't feel like they fit. Steel is way too much like simple Metal, Slag and Petrified Wood feel like too similar to their base elements, and mist/steam are near identical. Any ideas forum goers?

[ewoods]

Could some of these be more vague or intangible? I feel like earth/wood and air/wood could be "life" or "creation" or some concept like that. Earth/metal could be "war" and fire/metal could be "death." Just throwing out ideas.

Mist and steam are two very distinct things, so no problem there, although I think fog instead of mist would distinguish it just a bit more.

[LibraryOgre]

Earth/Fire - Magma/Lava
Earth/Air - Sand
Earth/Wood - Stone (distinct from Earth)
Earth/Metal - Gems
Earth/Water - Mud
Fire/Air - Smoke
Fire/Water - Steam
Fire/Wood - Coal
Fire/Metal - Lightning
Water/Air - Rain
Water/Wood - Kelp
Water/Metal - Mercury
Air/Metal - Rust
Air/Wood - Flowers (pollen, things like mistletoe and other plants that live in trees)
Metal/wood - Petrified Wood

[jguy]

A lot of those could work but I am going for more tangible, solid elements. The idea is each monk has an two elemental bands around each of their limbs that can transform them into the element. So Earth/Fire monk has lava fists with thematic powers while the Air/Metal has rust powers. If I went intangible then War and Life/Creation monk would be heads and shoulders above the rest.

[jguy]

Earth/Fire - Magma/Lava
Earth/Air - Sand
Earth/Wood - Stone (distinct from Earth)
Earth/Metal - Gems
Earth/Water - Mud
Fire/Air - Smoke
Fire/Water - Steam
Fire/Wood - Coal
Fire/Metal - Lightning
Water/Air - Rain
Water/Wood - Kelp
Water/Metal - Mercury
Air/Metal - Rust
Air/Wood - Flowers (pollen, things like mistletoe and other plants that live in trees)
Metal/wood - Petrified Wood

Wow a lot of these work. Thanks a ton

[Honest Tiefling]

Do you need a wood element? What if it was replaced with...Life? Sure, one monk has a self-heal, but a combination of Life and Air could possibly result in Speed, giving a passive speed boost or the like.

Or Air/Wood could be breath. Plants do need air after all.

[jguy]

The 6 elements are based off of eastern elements. Everyone knows the classical air, water, fire, earth, but they added metal and wood. I could add Void and Ether (if remembering correctly) but that would be even more complicated.

[AstralFire]

The 6 elements are based off of eastern elements. Everyone knows the classical air, water, fire, earth, but they added metal and wood. I could add Void and Ether (if remembering correctly) but that would be even more complicated.

The Greek Elements: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, with a fifth in Aether, or Quintessence. Aether is related to light, air, and fire.
The Hindu Elements: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, with a fifth in Void. Void is... related to sound and space.

These are extremely closely related concepts and centered around what the essential building blocks of nature were thought to be.

The Chinese Phases: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

This is an unrelated concept, centered around an object or person's essential qualities. They are phases through which all of reality goes.

And for kicks:

The D&D Elemental Energies: Electricity, Fire, Cold, Acid, Positive, and Negative.

These are called elements, but they don't have anything to do with essential building blocks of reality OR essential qualities of reality. Instead, they're primal catalysts, they enact change in that which they interact with. It also maps okay-ish to a combination of the Greek and Hindu elements.

I'd be careful about mixing these overmuch, personally.

[Joe the Rat]

Air/Water - Ice is another option.

[jguy]

Air/Water - Ice is another option.

Funny that you should mention that because I just remembered that option in the shower this morning and wondered why that seemed so hard at first!

[goto124]

Funny that you should mention that because I just remembered that option in the shower this morning and wondered why that seemed so hard at first!

I took it to mean your shower threw out icy-cold Air/Water instead of nice warm Fire/Water.