Has anyone seen an elemental with class levels?


Advice


If you have, what was it?

If you haven't how would you do it?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Elemental Sorcerers who played to 20th level would qualify.

Regular elementals, I can't see it. They're not that much different than beasts in outlook.


Sure the smaller ones maybe, but the larger ones can have intelligence 10...


You'd need an Elder Elemental to get Int 10, based on the ones I happened to be looking at (Lightning, others might be different).

Casting is a no-go by the time you get to a CR of that size; you'd be so far behind the curve it's a non-entity. Bloodrager could be amusing though?

Actually, instead of the Bloodrager I think I'd just go Barbarian. The reduced Int for using a smaller Elemental kind of fits, as does the general philosophy. And you could get some cool stuff out of the deal.

Sovereign Court

Invisible Stalker with assassin levels.


Some things to think about

first, you can advance an elemental

AdvancedMagmaElemental:
Huge Magma Elemental ( Advanced ) CR 8
XP 4800
N Huge outsider (earth, elemental, extraplanar, fire)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15
DEFENSE
AC 21, touch 9, flat-footed 19 (+1 Dex, +12 natural, -2 size)
hp 105 (10d10+50)
Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +5;
DR 5/-; Immune fire, elemental traits;
Weaknesses vulnerable to cold
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft. earth glide
Melee 2 slams +16 (2d6+8 plus burn)
Space 15 ft.Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks burn (1d8, DC 18), lava puddle
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 15;
Base Atk 10; CMB 20; CMD 31
Feats Cleave, Greater Bull Rush, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Initiative, Power Attack
Skills Climb +21, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +13, Perception +15, Stealth +6
Languages Ignan
SQ earth glide
ECOLOGY
Environment any (Plane of Fire)
Organization solitary, pair, or gang (3-8)
Treasure none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Burn (Ex) A magma elemental's burn DC 2 a -2 racial penalty, as their fires don't burn quite as hot as true elemental flames.

Earth Glide (Ex) A burrowing magma elemental can pass through stone, dirt, lava, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water. Its burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple, though the area it passes through feels warm for 1 round afterward and often retains a strangely smooth texture, as if the stone had been polished. A move earth spell cast on an area containing a burrowing magma elemental flings the elemental back 30 feet, stunning the creature for 1 round unless it succeeds on a DC 17 Fortitude save.

You can then add levels of sorcerer. Whatever kind of spell you want to throw, think in terms of heavy hot rocks or fire.

second, what is the purpose of a spell casting elemental?
Does the elemental have to have a high strength? A sorceressesess magma elemental might add 1 CR for every 2 levels of sauceness till double its original CR of 8. Realistically, 8 levels of sauciness might be CR 12 or CR16 or somewhere in between, depending upon design.

Determine Challenge Rating
Just some thoughts. . . . . here are some notes I had on one battle.
One huge magma that has sorcerer levels (evocation admixture, magma balls instead of fire balls; 10d10+40 +10d6 +40: -15/181 hp) currently exhausted (ie no spells left)


If you want to borrow from 4e, the archons were elementals with fighter or wizard-like feel (and the mud archons felt like elemental rogues)


LazarX wrote:

Elemental Sorcerers who played to 20th level would qualify.

Regular elementals, I can't see it. They're not that much different than beasts in outlook.

Eh, orcs get by though with their mental stats.

Most elementals tend not to go into classes and equipment, since they usually have rather powerful bodies that allow them to fight without picking up weapons, but nothing particularly stops them from doing so. The elemental subtype allows for simple weapon proficiency if they are humanoid shaped, and nothing particularly stops them from using armor (except for little things like 'I'd burn leather' or 'I'd rust steel')

So why not take some large elementals and give them some simple martial classes. Barbarians or fighters....heck, maybe make it an elemental colony with a feudal system with cavaliers/samurai. I kind of want to see a huge fire elemental bursting out of a set of samurai armor while swinging a katana....


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'd think more martial class too. Look at that magma elemental with a +8 to str/con like a raging barbarian and that would be a melee beast. Or bloodrager of course.

And that visual above of a fiery warrior sheathed in flame and armor is pretty cool.

Dark Archive

Giving an elemental class levels gives it stat bonuses of +4/+4/+2/+2/+0/-2 in stats that benefit its chosen class, so the intelligence thing isn't a major issue.

Sovereign Court

There are always the four elemental races - Oread (earth), Undine (water), Sylph (air), Ifrit (fire). You could just use one of those and flavor it heavily towards its elemental heritage.

Alternately, while I'm having trouble imagining an elemental wizard or cleric, or something like gunslinger that relies heavily on gear, I could imagine them making pretty good spontaneous casters or melee types.


As a GM:

I had a couple CN crazed earth elementals with barbarian levels for the party to fight, +4 str/con, +2dex/cha, +0 int, -2 wis and +1 str or con for class level advancement.

I didn't give them equipment in this case, think I lowered CR by 1 for that but I am not sure.

A NG, medium (advanced) water elemental with 9 cleric levels I used as a local river spirit worshipped by a tribe living on it's banks. It usually takes a a female human-like shape and protects the village and the river from threats.nAn NPC that helped out the PCs as a source of information and magical aid.

I gave it some possessions but I believe it usually only had a staff of healing and some hidden items and wealth it could use to bargain or aid those she deems worthy. CR wasnt important much, probably CR 10 or 11.

I gave some invisible stalkers 3 rogue levels to make them more deadly, I must have added 2 or 3 CR depending on how nasty I estimated them to be, but no equipment again.

An advanced medium earth elemental in the shape of a dwarf, functioning as the avatar of an obscure dwarven nature deity. Cleric 20 I believe, it had the usual gear for the CR/lvl, imprisoned spirit set free by the NPCs to restore a power balance in the area and help them weaken their enemy.

Those are the ones I can recall at least..


Have some fun with it, a fire elemental rogue who laments never being able to sneak and who keeps getting caught by the authorities because he's leaving a burn trail everywhere he goes.

An air elemental wizard frustrated because every time he tries to memorize spells he can't keep the pages still enough to read, or he blows spell components everywhere and bungles his spell. To the party he looks like an average air elemental until they pass a spellcraft or knowledge arcana check to notice he's speaking verbal components.

An earth Elemental duelist who struggles to be graceful and can't find work at the local dockyards because captains won't let thousands of pounds of stone on the boat, and the few who do let him on board quickly find their ship sinking. The earth Elemental has gotten very good at swimming.

An invisible stalker bard who can't land any acting gigs on account of his invisibility.

Don't let rules get in the way of fun characters :)

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