Any other people love elementalists? A player of mine asked me to design a class for him based around the elementalist. what started as a quick class write-up is actually turning into a full fledged book! we started play testing the class and it's turning out to be truely unique with a very strong flavor.
The class was asked to be created for one of my players and he is in the middle of play testing right now. Overall there was some issues making a spellcaster class focused around one element and still keeping it viable. After all, energy immunity can easily shut down a mage built around one type of energy. So after designing the overall theme the next important thing to work on was making the class playable even if his energy type was nulified for an encounter.
The class has access to only one element and a lot of spells from the transmutation school. while the class only has access to 1 element (his specialty) this makes him a lot more limited and less versatile, but my player is happy as the class was built for flavor and not munchkin power playing. i got the the name copywrote and may seek an outside publisher and have it published. here's a general idea and teaser.
Transmentalist- an ancient order of sorcers focused so strongly on tranmutation and elemental magic that it changed there very being. over centuries it altered there form and gave them powers over one of the four elements. They have magic abilities that give them mastery over there specialty element and make spells of that element harder to resist. Over time as they grow in power they can alter ther forms into para-elemental beings and fight with devistating force.
In game terms they have up to 6th level spells, access to almost any elemental spell of there specialty(including arcane and divine, they have there own spell list for each element.this is what is still taking the most of my time finishing. while most are energy spells many are not and are themed around an element. ex earth= stoneshape, summon earth elemental, fist of stone etc. they also have a large selection of transmutation spells. this gives them decent buffing spells to make use of to aid the party and not be worthless when they can't blast there energy on foes. they also have a unique shapechange similar but stronger than elemental body spells. this makes them good front rank fighters if there elemental energy is ineffective, and because there spell focus is so less diverse. so while a lot of there spells are "blaster" energy type spells, when there energy is ineffective they can still use buffs,weapons, and there elemental form to fight.
overall the class is proving very interesting and unique in play. though very specialized this also gives the class a strong flavor. The making of the class was inspired by Avatar:the last airbender meets dragon ball Z. Think going super saiyan with elemental power ;)Once i'm finished i while be willing to share the class with everyone. it may just be the the class make-up part though as i mentioned earlier it's turning into a book-new spells,feats, equipment keyed to the transmentalist, history, and story. does this sound like a class anyone would be interested in? or willing to playtest?
Actually, it could be quite an interesting concept. You'd have your standard '4' Primary Elemental Forces, Fire(Fire), Air(Electrical), Water(Ice), Earth(Sonic or Acid, take your pick), and the 4 'Corrupted' Elemental Forces, Ooze (Water and Earth), Smoke (Fire and Air), Magma (Fire and Earth) and Fog/Mist (Air and Water).
Elemental Form should be one of the class's primary combat abilities, since I'd doubt such casters would have access to heavy armor or full BAB progression. Furthermore, Depending upon the Element or Corrupted Element the Class/PC takes on, they should gain movement modes or abilities based upon their Element.
Fire should gain a bonus to land-speed.
Air should gain the ability to fly.
Earth should gain a limited form of Earth Glide.
Water should gain the ability to breath water.
Ooze should gain the ability to squeeze through nearly any opening, effectively becoming fluid and/or maleable enough to squeeze through cracks in the wall or under doors.
Smoke and Fog should gain the ability to assume Gaseous Form and a slow fly speed.
Magma is a little more difficult, but perhaps a corrupted form of Earth Glide that causes whatever earth they move through to become dangerously hot?
I'd really like to see an Elementalist class. I actually tried to write up an Elementalist a while back, you can find it here, if you want to take anything from it feel free. I had done the air, darkness, earth, fire, light, and water thing, but I like HalfOrcHeavyMetal's idea about combining elements for added effects. Anyway, I'd really like to see this whenever it's ready :)
You know in the APG they are bringing all 4 of the elemental schools of magic