Air And Water Spells for Sorcerers and Wizards


Homebrew and House Rules


One thing I have noticed is the lack of Air and Water spells in 3.5 and Pathfinder. It seems that electricity and cold based spells kind of substitute for these two elements. Earth also has this kind of substitution with Acid, but I have noticed more Earth based spells than either Air or Water spells. I was thinking of making some myself, maybe a "Razor Wind" type spell that would do slashing damage, a tornado spell that would pick up enemies and throw them. For Water, there could be a spell that fires out bullets of water and does bludgeoning damage, and also one that created waterspouts.

I just think it is a shame that an Water Elemental Bloodline Sorcerer does not have any actual Water based spells to cast.

I may get around to making these types of spells eventually, but I am wondering what people here think?


Does no one care?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

It would be nice if elemental style sorc or wiz had spell list that fully reflected that. But it is not a major issue either. So if you ever do it i would take a look and it would be nice if someone did it.

Dark Archive

More elemental stuff that actually dealt with water, wind and stone would definitely be welcome.

For Air, Earth and Water Domain Clerics (and Elemental Bloodline Sorcerers with the Air, Earth and Water options), I came up with variant 1st level abilities.

Air Domain or Elemental Bloodline Sorcerer (replaces Lightning Arc or Elemental Ray (electricity))
Wind's Wrath (Sp): As a standard action, you can generate a sudden rush of wind to strike a single target within 30 ft. as a ranged touch attack inflicting 1d4 nonlethal bludgeoning damage +1 hit point per 2 class levels and affecting the target as a Bull Rush from a target with a CMB equal to 10 + your Wisdom modifier + ½ your Cleric class level. You can use this ability a number of times equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

Earth Domain or Elemental Bloodline Sorcerer (replaces Acid Dart or Elemental Ray (acid))
Flick Pebble (Sp): As a standard action, you can produce a boulder that launches from your hand to strike a single target within 30 ft. as a ranged attack inflicting 1d8 bludgeoning damage +1 hit point per 2 class levels. You get a bonus to your attack roll equal to your Wisdom modifier and you can use this ability a number of times equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier. The boulder created disappears at the end of the round.

Water Domain or Elemental Bloodline Sorcerer (replaces Icicle or Elemental Ray (cold))
Sudden Surge (Sp): As a standard action, you can generate a stinging spray of cold saltwater to batter a single target within 30 ft. as a ranged touch attack inflicting 1d4 nonlethal bludgeoning damage +1 hit point per 2 class levels and Blinding the target for one round. You can use this ability a number of times equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier. Water created in this manner disappears at the end of the round.

Either of these three starter abilities would make decent 1st level Air, Earth or Water spells, and line or cone or burst variations with names like Riptide or Downdraft could be neat. (Riptide would be a cone of seawater that bowls over foes, while Downdraft would be a burst which could be centered on oneself or at a range (not affecting oneself, if the center of the burst) hurling those within the area of effect backwards from the center point as a descending column of air fans out from the centerpoint and throws them back.)

A dust devil variation of Flaming Sphere that creates a Medium sized tornado that sweeps around and attempts a Trip attack on anyone it hits could be fun.

Or a different variation could function like Hold Person, with a tornado appearing in your square and spinning you around violently, leaving you nauseated and / or sickened (depending on your Fort check) and possibly causing you to fall (Acrobatics check at hefty penalty to not fall over), but, unlike Hold Person, also making you harder to gank while it's in effect, since the winds circling around you make you harder to hit (and nearly impossible to hit with missile weapons).

Weaker variations on Horrid Wilting could cause harm to living targets by manipulating the water in their tissues, causing them to go into hydrostatic shock or whatever (nauseated condition, nonlethal damage) or do suffer the effects of extreme thirst by dehydrating the foe (nonlethal damage and fatigued until able to both quench thirst with a days ration of water, and even then, the nonlethal damage must be healed or recovered naturally, once thirst is quenched).

A single target spell that animates water and makes it flow up over another person and attempt to drown them makes sense. 4th level or so, since it's less immediately deadly than Slay Living or Finger of Death type spells. As the water is animated and attempting to force it's way down the character's throat, he has to make a Reflex or Fortitude save each round to keep the water out, while the mage concentrates, and when he fails, he begins the three round process of being drowned, unless the mages concentration is disrupted before he dies...

The exact same sort of spell could involve the mage stealing the breath from a foe, causing suffocation to begin almost immediately, as the air forces it's way out of the lungs and the concentrating mage prevents new air from being inhaled.

A spell to manipulate air pressure and cause others to suffer from bends-like effects (treat as sickened at first, with chances to pass out each round, or just nonlethal damage accruing each round until they do pass out?).

Sonic spells make more sense for Air spells than Electrical spells do, so some thunderous / deafening effects or even silencing effects created through manipulation of Air could make sense. Deafening thunderclaps might fit the theme more than sonic damage spells like Shatter and Shout. While both Air and Water should have some damaging spells, the base effects would be more likely to throw people around, deprive them of breath, etc. than just do X damage. While not entirely wind-based, spells to call up frigid winds (or drench people in water that then freezes, entangling them like a web spell, but also doing nonlethal cold damage), or to create winds that carry sand or hot volcanic ash and cinders or similar blinding or scouring material to inflict slashing damage or fire damage, respectively, allowing someone to have a few different damage options available, despite using predominately 'Air' spells, by using bludgeoning winds, or winds carrying slashing sand, or winds from the heart of polar blizzards, or winds from the inside of a volcanic caldera. (The latter spells would have Air/Earth, Air/Cold and Air/Fire subtypes, but still fit the theme.) Similarly, freezing cold waters or scalding hot steam or differently shaped attacks of ice are possible, from bludgeoning hail to piercing icicles to giant razor-edged snowflake crystals that spin at foes like shuriken the size of dinner plates. (Granted, that's headed back into Cold/Ice territory, and not strictly water, but I'm okay with *some* cold/ice spells in the water sphere, just hopefully mixed in with some actual water/wave attacks and some scalding steam Water/Fire attacks.)

Various third-party products have 3.X spells of these sorts, to an extent.

I've seen some in Relics & Rituals 1 & 2 (dowsing, bouyancy net, swift water, downdraft, champion swimmer, pressure sphere, etc.) and Green Ronin's Advanced Player's Guide (precipitation, water jet, alter liquid, air bubble, ride winds, water shape, etc.), IIRC. Not a lot though. I vaguely recall that some 3rd party company (Fantasy Flight Games? Mongoose?) had a book on
Elementalism
that might have more options. I'm pretty sure that at least one of the compilation books put out by one of the 3PPs also had stuff, such as Occult Lore or Magic. Edit: Checked Magic, bupkiss for new Elementalist spells. Edit 2: Checked Occult Lore, 13 new elemental spells in just 0 and 1st level, plus it looks like quite a few more, all the way up to level 9.

I don't remember specifically if any of those latter books had any particularly relevant air or water spells, 'though.

You might find something to pillage here. I didn't see anything relevant at first glance (they have only the beginnings of the Chronomancer, from magic, for instance, not the Elementalism stuff).

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