What core spells would best allow my sorcerer to emulate earth benders from Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Off of the top of my head, I was thinking of...
- black tentacles (tentacles could be described as animate stone)
- blade barrier (described as shards of stone rather than blades)
- earthquake (as is)
- elemental body (to emulate covering one's body with stone and moving through the earth)
- elemental swarm (need an an army of rock hard soldiers?)
- fabricate (great for transforming rock into rock items/formations)
- fist spells (magically reinforced animate stone rather than force, a low rock wall that slides along the ground after you, for example)
- flesh to stone (not really an earthbender trick, but still in theme to an earth sorcerer)
- fog cloud and similar spells (kicking up a cloud of dust from the earth to confound foes)
- magic stone (throwing small rocks with great force)
- move earth (as is)
- passwall (create a door in a rock wall like Toph does)
- phase door (as above, but more like earth gliding in appearance)
- repel metal or stone (protection from those using earth against you)
- shatter (destroy any manner of stone obstructions or objects)
- soften earth and stone (as is)
- spike stones (as is)
- statue (as is, but described as a covering rather than transmutation)
- stone shape (your bread and butter, weaponize it to trap or impale your foes with spear of stone; a singe casting can create hundreds of thin cylinder spikes 5 ft. long)
- stone tell (cause you just know things)
- stoneskin (yet another way of describing having "rock armor")
- Telekinesis (for throwing rocks of all kinds with real force)
- Transmute mud to rock/rock to mud (as is)
- Wall of stone (as is)
...but those seemed like the obvious spells. I was hoping for other suggestions as well that might not be so obvious (I'm fine with flavor changes, but not mechanic changes).
You might consider taking a look at the spells on the appropriate Wu Jen list as a good start.
Since our group only uses core rules, I was hoping to stick to that (it forces us to get creative and promotes better roleplay).
Since our group only uses core rules, I was hoping to stick to that (it forces us to get creative and promotes better roleplay).
What
What?
Yes.
What core spells would best allow my sorcerer to emulate earth benders from Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Off of the top of my head, I was thinking of...
- black tentacles (tentacles could be described as animate stone)
- blade barrier (described as shards of stone rather than blades)
- earthquake (as is)
- elemental body (to emulate covering one's body with stone and moving through the earth)
- elemental swarm (need an an army of rock hard soldiers?)
- fabricate (great for transforming rock into rock items/formations)
- fist spells (magically reinforced animate stone rather than force, a low rock wall that slides along the ground after you, for example)
- flesh to stone (not really an earthbender trick, but still in theme to an earth sorcerer)
- fog cloud and similar spells (kicking up a cloud of dust from the earth to confound foes)
- magic stone (throwing small rocks with great force)
- move earth (as is)
- passwall (create a door in a rock wall like Toph does)
- phase door (as above, but more like earth gliding in appearance)
- repel metal or stone (protection from those using earth against you)
- shatter (destroy any manner of stone obstructions or objects)
- soften earth and stone (as is)
- spike stones (as is)
- statue (as is, but described as a covering rather than transmutation)
- stone shape (your bread and butter, weaponize it to trap or impale your foes with spear of stone; a singe casting can create hundreds of thin cylinder spikes 5 ft. long)
- stone tell (cause you just know things)
- stoneskin (yet another way of describing having "rock armor")
- Telekinesis (for throwing rocks of all kinds with real force)
- Transmute mud to rock/rock to mud (as is)
- Wall of stone (as is)...but those seemed like the obvious spells. I was hoping for other suggestions as well that might not be so obvious (I'm fine with flavor changes, but not mechanic changes).
grease >> slippery mud
hold portal >> using earth and stone to jam a doormage armor >> stone plates cover your body
floating disc >> if blade barrier goes.. (shield spell if vertical)
magic missile >> stone shards
secure shelter >> stone shelter
solid fog >> sandstorm
resilient sphere >> sphere of near indestructible stone
grease >> slippery mud
hold portal >> using earth and stone to jam a door
mage armor >>...
Can't believe I missed grease!
Thanks for the ideas!
promotes better roleplay.
[Citation Required]
In your opinion, it does.
In your opinion, it does.
The observable FACT that is DOES promote better roleplay in OUR group is NOT an opinion. Had I said "it promotes better roleplay for EVERYONE," then it most certainly would have been an opinion, yes. The members of our play group simply tend to get lazy when there is a class, feat, and prestige class to represent everything (which was one of the chief reasons why we switched to Pathfinder).
Now, please stay on topic everyone.
Flaming Sphere -> Big Ball of Dirt that rolls around doing damage
Fire Seeds -> Balls of earth fly out and explode into stone shrapnel
Basically, any elemental spell since elemental sorcerers can change the element of an evokation spell. Just rework the special effects to make sense.
Jump -> Shafts of earth propel you forward or up
True Seeing -> Vibration Radar, like Toph had, limited to things touching the ground
Earth Stride -> Tree Stride, but must step into boulders of specific types
Transmute Rock to mud, mud to rock (obviously)
Stone Walk -> Water walk, but with the special effect you pull up stone that is safe to walk on under your feet and let it return to normal after you pass.
Blindness/Deafness -> Wrap the target's head in dirt and stone
Clenched Fist -> Earth Fist instead of force
Contact Other Plane -> Earth Plane Only
Just a few examples.
Expeditious Retreat - you make the ground pick you up and carry you along.
Hold Portal - the stone surrounding the door rises up to hold it.
Mount - like Expeditious Retreat, but lasts longer and can carry your stuff.
Jump - your leap is assisted by the pillar of earth that rises up under you, pushing you off the ground as you leap
That's just a glance at the list. And as I preview this I see someone else had the same idea for Jump.
You could replace See Invisibility with Tremorsense.
That's just a glance at the list. And as I preview this I see someone else had the same idea for Jump.You could replace See Invisibility with Tremorsense.
LOL,
Yeah, I couldn't find Tremorsense as a spell, it really should be one. Maybe in the APG.But yeah, had a munchkin in with some friends who came to visit for the 4th, and we ended up watching Last Airbender in the theatre, and also at home on Netflix (series, not movie), so it's pretty fresh in my mind. I think Toph is my favorite character on the show.
in all honesty you could take almost any spell(with the obvious switching of non-earth force attacks switching to earth) towards earth bending... it is really just a matter of the player getting creative with it... personally i could see it working really well as a sorcerer, having a core group of spells and being really clever with them and the bending concept.. could be a lot of fun
The modified shugenja from oriental adventures from Alderac Entertainment (not the WOTC version) takes elemental specialized priests to the next level based on water, earth, fire, etc. it also changes the primary stat based on element you choose (like con/earth and intelligence/fire). You may use the spells lists as some guidance, although some of it is new, but it does open the opportunity from a domain specialization perspective as well, since arcane is not the only approach. But if you don't have the book, then hopefully you will recieve some better suggestions.
I removed a couple posts. It'd be nice to have a few threads that don't devolve into people telling people they're playing the game wrong.
(Apologies to the perfectly reasonable folk who were removed because they quoted the offending post.)
I removed a couple posts. It'd be nice to have a few threads that don't devolve into people telling people they're playing the game wrong.
(Apologies to the perfectly reasonable folk who were removed because they quoted the offending post.)
I resent being called perfectly reasonable.
It will tarnish my image.
I demand satisfaction.
I challenge you to a flame duel! My man will contact your man to set up the date and time, and determine what words are and are not allowed!
i would get the genious guide to earth magic. it has some really nice earth spells that do physical weapon damage instead of energy. came in handy for my earth elemental pc.
I love the idea behind this thread! Now do air bending! Go!
Please feel free to start a sister thread, but don't be so rude as to hijack mine.
If nobody has mentioned this yet...
When I saw the Oracle class from the playtest and noticed both the stone mystery and the clouded vision curse... I immediately thought of Toph.
I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought of making an earth bender.
Just one problem I see with this concept is that 'Earth' in D&D/Pathfinder as written seems to become 'Acid' damage.
Now, there's nothing wrong with us ignoring the 'acid' part and simply treating it as a form of elemental damage, ie 'Stone Element' rather than 'Acid', but in doing so the player must also be prepared to 'ignore' the special properties of acid. Acid Missile would probably be a serrated shard of stone that digs into the target, under the above examples, but the Earth-Bender could not then turn around and use it to melt locks like an 'Acid' spell would.
Also, remember that Earthbenders can also manipulate crystal, sand and mud, but only one was ever able to 'bend' metal, and that was because she was blind and had a form of Tremorsense that worked only on objects touching stone, dirt, mud or crystal. Toph was blind on wooden surfaces, while swimming or on ice and while in the air. Most Earthbending requires access to some form of 'Earth', either worked or unworked stone, dirt, sand, clay, mud, crystals, gemstones or variations of the above, so the 'Earthbender' should probably be carrying around some stones/gems/etc just in case they get pulled into the air or otherwise are denied their 'element' to bend, such as being locked inside a metal cage, trapped in a burning wooden house or some other, similar predicament.
Also, remember that Earthbenders can also manipulate crystal, sand and mud, but only one was ever able to 'bend' metal, and that was because she was blind and had a form of Tremorsense that worked only on objects touching stone, dirt, mud or crystal.
Yes,
But all it takes is one metalbender to teach someone else. I always assumed it was a natural progression. Just like waterbenders can bend water and ice, and fire benders can bend fire and lightning. I think it's natural that sufficiently powerful earthbenders can bend earth and metal, provided someone teaches them how.Just not sure what an airbender could bend besides air. On the other hand, maybe they don't need a second element. Honestly I always thought air benders were the most powerful, you can't really take away their element for bending.
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Just not sure what an airbender could bend besides air.
<threadjack>
I decided the progression went like this:Basic Form <> Mastery
Fire <> Lightning
Water <> Bloodbending (because making ice and steam is basic)
Earth <> Metalbending (as you say, no one thought of it until Toph)
Air <> Some as-of-yet unknown form (I'm thinking of robbing a person of the air in their lungs, i.e. creating the absence of air)
</threadjack>
Did anyone mention shield - pulling a block of earth up to block an attack.
Just not sure what an airbender could bend besides air.<threadjack>
I decided the progression went like this:
Basic Form <> Mastery
Fire <> Lightning
Water <> Bloodbending (because making ice and steam is basic)
Earth <> Metalbending (as you say, no one thought of it until Toph)
Air <> Some as-of-yet unknown form (I'm thinking of robbing a person of the air in their lungs, i.e. creating the absence of air)
</threadjack>Did anyone mention shield - pulling a block of earth up to block an attack.
Emphasis mine. Toph is a special case because she can 'see' Earth Particles via her tremorsense. It's the reason why no Earthbender before her could bend metal, they still relied upon extremely mortal senses despite their extraordinary gifts.
Nothing is stopping the 'Earthbender' picking up the technique of Metalbending ... but it would be a high-level art, quite likely one of the best-kept secrets in the 'Bending' world on the actual method of how you do it, much like many mythical martial arts had specific Chi or Qi-training methods that were kept extremely close to the chest, so to speak, of the Master of the Dojo or Temple. That said, an Earthbender who learns to bend Metal as a 'purified' form of Earth would be almost instantly hailed as a Master and a Prodigy by her contemporaries ... and then badgered/assaulted/plied constantly to get her secrets on how to perform this supposedly impossible technique!
AH!
I forgot the bloodbending. Very good. Note, that's really related to 'cellbending' honestly. Remember the swamp guys bent plants by bending the water in the vines. Vitae bending?
Emphasis mine. Toph is a special case because she can 'see' Earth Particles via her tremorsense. It's the reason why no Earthbender before her could bend metal, they still relied upon extremely mortal senses despite their extraordinary gifts.Nothing is stopping the 'Earthbender' picking up the technique of Metalbending ... but it would be a high-level art, quite likely one of the best-kept secrets in the 'Bending' world on the actual method of how you do it, much like many mythical martial arts had specific Chi or Qi-training methods that were kept extremely close to the chest, so to speak, of the Master of the Dojo or Temple. That said, an Earthbender who learns to bend Metal as a 'purified' form of Earth would be almost instantly hailed as a Master and a Prodigy by her contemporaries ... and then badgered/assaulted/plied constantly to get her secrets on how to perform this supposedly impossible technique!
Never said Toph wasn't special. Just said that once she made the breakthrough, there's no reason she can't teach advanced earth benders to do the same. I'm sure the Earthbender king could pick it up quickly (assuming you could get him to be serious about it for more than 10 minutes, talk about ADHD).
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there's a fan made avatar the last airbender d20 game out there, there might be some inspiration in that file, particularly with the powers they describe/list that you can see if there's a pathfinder spell equivalent.
Just not sure what an airbender could bend besides air. On the other hand, maybe they don't need a second element. Honestly I always thought air benders were the most powerful, you can't really take away their element for bending.
I thought the reason Aang was able to take away their bending was because he was the avatar.
As for airbenders, I did think it was interesting they never tried to take someone's breath away. Basically suffocate them or something using airbending, maybe not in the ideals of airbenders to do that.
there's a fan made avatar the last airbender d20 game out there, there might be some inspiration in that file, particularly with the powers they describe/list that you can see if there's a pathfinder spell equivalent.
Just not sure what an airbender could bend besides air. On the other hand, maybe they don't need a second element. Honestly I always thought air benders were the most powerful, you can't really take away their element for bending.I thought the reason Aang was able to take away their bending was because he was the avatar.
As for airbenders, I did think it was interesting they never tried to take someone's breath away. Basically suffocate them or something using airbending, maybe not in the ideals of airbenders to do that.
1) Aang was able to take away the fire lords (phoenix kings) bending ability because he was taught how by the Lionturtle, not because he was the Avatar (granted, it may be that only the Avatar could have learned it from the Lionturtle). If it was because of being the Avatar alone, his past selves would have used it on their enemies.
2) I'm sure they could, it's basic airbending. But, the air nomads are all monks (and I never did understand how if everyone's a monk you ever had a next generation of airbenders, unless they allow monks to marry, but even then, where are all the non-airbenders? every other nation has 99% non-bender 1% bender populations, but the nomads were 100% bender, wierd), and all of them are very much 'life is sacred' so it would be next to impossible for them to force themselves to do this. Probably the only reason fire managed to wipe them out.
Toph's ability to metalbend was specifically tied to her tremorsense-esque vision. She could pick up the vibrations that echoed off of the impurities in the metal. The only way to teach others how to do metal bending would be to first teach them how to see with earthbending, which is...iffy at best, since she herself learned it from the badgermoles, and even then only because she was blind.
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there's a fan made avatar the last airbender d20 game out there, there might be some inspiration in that file, particularly with the powers they describe/list that you can see if there's a pathfinder spell equivalent.
Non-linked link of one I found that I thought was well done: http://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/
I'm sure they could, it's basic airbending. But, the air nomads are all monks (and I never did understand how if everyone's a monk you ever had a next generation of airbenders, unless they allow monks to marry, but even then, where are all the non-airbenders?
All the views of the air nomads are through Aang's eyes (memories); he was a young monk who lived with monks, so that's how the audience sees them. Even then, the concept of monks being celibate is hardly universal (even Christian monks were at one time frequently married). I imagine all airbending air nomads went to 'monk school', which were the temples. They were called air NOMADS for a reason, right? Most of them are probably wandering from place to place with their bison.
Just idle speculation...
Firstly I think we're reading way too much into it. Regardless of how one interprets how whatever-bending works that interpretation can be built into the setting. I'm more interested in emulating earth bender effects mechanically than explaining it fluff-wise. I think that was the point of the thread.
Second point, why does earth-bending have to equal acid all the time? What about spells like: stoneskin, elemental body (earth), stone shape, summoning earth elementals, magic stone, spike stones, wall of stone, transmute mud to rock/rock to mud, passwall (stone only), move earth, meld into stone, imprisonment (beneath the earth, makes sense), earthquake, repel metal or stone (either/or depending)?
Iffy ones can be grease (flavor it as mud), secure shelter (as Toph often made a little cottage out of rock), wall of iron (if we're going with the whole metal bending thing), iron body, flesh to stone, stone tell, and statue.
None of those use acid specifically and nobody said we couldn't use it as a damage type. I know these are from different spell lists normally but I'm just throwing out ideas here. Other spells could make sense too if we just change the flavor, an example of interposing hand could just be made of rock. I know a lot of these are high level spells but I think most would agree that bending on any real scale is pretty high level/impressive.
Also, if we're curious about a 'secondary' power for air benders to bend... how about pressure?
Also also, if I recall correctly weren't water benders able to heal to some degree?
Water benders can heal/harm.
Airbenders can suffocate and or purify the air.
An earth bender could entomb someone to kill them.
Probably there was a time of evil benders who were wiped out by the good benders led by the first Avatars.
Airbenders are specially trained and tatooed in a monkly fasion so they do not accidently discover the forbidden use. By trying to destroy the airbenders, the fire nation might have caused occasional sports who discover they can kill with their mind. Thankfully, most turn away from their gift in horror. I saw something on TV where some skeptic proved a telekinetic was faking it by sealing some pieces of paper in a plastic box. Perhaps all poltergeists are the result of developing airbenders. There was a saint who could fly.
In any case, in a convention module there was a symbol of entombment.
A character made his save and was just imprisoned up to his neck.
How about exploding runes that do piercing damage when they shatter the stone they are on.
I think the tremore sense should function only when they cannot see(blind fold?) and at least one extremity touches the ground. That would be the bonus ability for specializing in that school. Avatar should be an epic prestige class.
Magic missle always hits so it cannot be converted. My opinion.
Actually King Boomy could also bend metal so I do not think it is tied to Toph's "tremorsense" that may be just how she learned it.
No, he couldn't. He could bend without the elaborate stances.
Actually King Boomy could also bend metal so I do not think it is tied to Toph's "tremorsense" that may be just how she learned it.Where do you get that? (I'm not saying you're wrong, I just want the proof.)
I suspect that he means the episode where he is caught by the Fire Nation and they mean to capture Aang by having him offer himself in trade.
actually it was the episode " day of the black sun " when he bends his way out of the metal box he is in and destroys the metal bridge the fire nation is using in Omashu.
No, he used rocks to destroy everything.
Yep, he pulled rocks up and used them to crack open the steel case. With the metal buildings/etc he used sheets of stone.
Boomy was able to bend by using his facial muscle to do the gestures (usually resulting in his eyes bugging out), but he didn't metal bend.
The only character besides Toph to use stone radar was Aang, but that shows it can be taught, and since it is required to metalbend, that implies metal bending can be taught as well.
Aang is a bit of a special case, though ;p