After posting in another thread about the Idea, I'm fairly sure we have enough PF only class options to be able to make the four Element Benders from the T.V. Show Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra.
Earth-benders: Oread Qinggong Monks, from the ARG allow you to swap abilities for Mighty Fist of Earth and Stone Shield.
Water-Benders: Undine Watersinger Bard, Allows the creation of "water-whip" attacks and a Pseudo-bloodbending ability as well as the ability to control ever increasing amounts of water.
Air-bender: This one is tricky and nothing comes to mind that fits specifically. The problem is Air is usually seen as synonymous with lightning which is used for damage.
Fire-Bender: Closest I can think is Fire-Elementalist wizard.
I like the idea of using the Plane-Touched races in this way. :D I wish I had something to add, but I don't. If you could pull it off, that would be cool.
The problem with the fire-elementalist Wizard is that Wizards have terrible BAB and Fire Benders are top-notch at fighting (given the very offensively-oriented nature of fire and lightning). I'd probably say a fire and electricity focused Magus instead of Wizard.
Another possiblity is an oracle (APG), straight out of the box it seems to fit (specifically Fire,Stone,Wave and Wind Obviously) , not bad combat skills allows for armour and has abilities as well as spells that are spontanious not memorised and air is not lightning based and earth is not acid based. It's even got the blind curse for an earthbender.
The elemental style feats (Shaitan, Marid, Djinn, Efreet) are my favorite path to bending mastery. In a game going all the way to twenty, it's entirely possible to create the Avatar using these feats with a Master of Many Styles Monk. If your DM will let you combine that archetype with Monk of the Four Winds (the only ability replacement conflict occurs with the 20th level ability), it works even better.
I think for firebenders, the psionic pyrokineticist class may serve fairly well. In 3.5, there were variant classes for it in the Mind's Eye articles. Some abilities may have to be reworked, but I can certainly imagine a psychic warrior or wilder-based build doing most things you see in the movies.
I know a lot of people frown on psionics, but the flavor is quite mutable - at heart it is simply a point-based magic system, and the pyrokineticist isn't exactly a manifesting-heavy class. Some
I'm playing a monk of the 4 winds in the next campaign, and w/ DM permission I am also crossing it with a Quingong monk archetype (not swapping the 4 winds stuff), plus the efreeti style feats and the concept should be good to go.
Oracle of Stone with the Clouded Vision curse and the Eldritch Heritage (Deep Earth) line of feat is pretty much Toph incarnate. Blindsense/sight coupled with the ability to trip people with the Tremor ability, and all sorts of stone-related powers and spells later on.
Also, being a fangirl and pointing out that even if you exclude everything with the air descriptor that also has the electricity descriptor (since that's a fire thing in the Avatarverse), that still leaves you with quite a bit to play with (flight and so on).
The elemental style feats (Shaitan, Marid, Djinn, Efreet) are my favorite path to bending mastery. In a game going all the way to twenty, it's entirely possible to create the Avatar using these feats with a Master of Many Styles Monk. If your DM will let you combine that archetype with Monk of the Four Winds (the only ability replacement conflict occurs with the 20th level ability), it works even better.
This^
Maybe take a few caster levels to get some themed spells, but mostly that.^
Suli Oracles (with the focused element racial traits) with the Flames, Wind, Waves, and Earth mysteries. They have a Monk's BAB and hit die and access to a number of spells that reflect elemental powers, plus Elemental Assault, which is always fun.
On an off note: hubby is writing up the original Team Avatar for Atomic Sock Monkey's PDQ system. (And I told him that if he leaves Suki out, I will be disappointed.)