Having nearly completed my primary goal of a good Racial Archetype (Magus) for the Sylphs, I've, purely for the same of completion, started working on the same thing for the other 3 races (Ifrit, Oread, Undine).
I have some, what I feel are, fantastic ideas, but wanted input from people who are particular into the element races like I am. Here are my thoughts so far...
Obviously Air isn't something I need any more help with, I'll put it in with the final work before publishing it to pdf. :P
: I see Earth as more warrior-like than the other elements, and even other Magi. Thematically, I want to make sure I include the most 'earthy' aspects available to character classes, including a climb speed, when on dirt or stone which improves to earth-glide (burrowing without the hole) at higher levels. To handle the more-combat, I'm thinking diminished spell casting and the ability to summon an improvable weapon. Since the weapon is so important, and having diminished magic, I figure one of the first things to do would be to increase the Arcane Pool for the Archetype to allow more weapon enhancements (level instead of half-level).
Magic being less important to them, I figure I'll work with the spell-improvements as a source of replacement for abilities. My initial thoughts are:
Spell Recall -> Climb Speed with limitations based on 'earth'/'rock'.
Improved Spell Recall -> Earth Glide at 1/2 movement rate.
Knowledge Pool -> 30' Tremorsense
Greater Spell Access -> Tremorsense 60'
I'm thinking that the initial weapon would require a 15 minute ritual to summon forth, and would last until he sleeps or loses consciousness. It would start out as a 1d6 19-20/x2 weapon. When he gains a Climb Speed it would increase o 1d8 (maybe move to 4th level instead of 3rd), when he gains Tremorsense, 1d10 (8th level), when he gains earth-glide, 2d6 (12th level), when he gains 60' Tremorsense 2d8. Maybe replace True Magus with something else to get the final 2d10.
Also... thinking StoneSkin kinda aspect of any Oread, maybe include "Defending" to what he can add with his Arcane Pool. And of course some Arcane Magus that let his weapon improve... One obvious one is a knock-out capability (Stunning Fist, but with the weapon), improving the Critical to 17-20 and another separate one to make it x3 (making it the only weapon capable of 17-20/x3 but requiring 2 Arcanus to do). Maybe some other options like the "double weapon" special as well?
: I see as pretty much the exact opposite of Earth in regards to magic and combat. The Fire I see as being more reliant on "fire" (magic) and less on combat. Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind for me is an equivalent to the Alchemist Bombs... but in a manner similar to how Breeze-Kissed works for Sylphs. Ie: he immolates in a gout of flame and can lose his immolation for X amount of time by throwing his fire at someone causing damage equal to an alchemist bomb of the same level. While immolating of course, damage would be caused to anyone within 5' (one square) of him, a progressively stronger amount of damage. And of course... a "free" flaming on all weapons he wields... oh... with the ability to do 2d6 instead of 1d6 but if he does this, the weapon lasts for X amount of minutes before melting into a pile of slag? (more thought required).
Now, this is huge, so his sacrifice needs to be huge, and I'm thinking having this cost the Magus Arcana. He doesn't need to enhance weapons or such, he is the enhancement...Additionally, likely lose the feats as well since he'll be picking up feat-equivalents with the weapon mods...
: While surely not set in stone, I'm thinking a more clerical/paladin type here. Water is the fountain of life. The ability to do things to the body with touch just screams spell combat and spellstrike to me. However, we don't want to make this a divine class with divine spells... so if we go this route, I'm thinking maybe not use spells at all. Remove spells/cantrips entirely from the archetype and replace it with the ability to cause/cure effects like Nauseated, Sickened, Fatigued, Entangled, Exhausted, Staggered, Stunned, Paralyzed, Unconscious, Petrified, Disabled. Plus some healing and/or buffs?
That being said, I'm not stuck on this idea, though I do like it... it's just what I did in my Elementalist class attempt years ago. I do though like the Drench thing that Water Elementals can do, and plan to see that in the class... Basically a dispel-magic solely against fire spells. Perhaps also a 1st level Amphibious special property.
I'm noticing I have, unintentionally, created 4 archetypes that use completely different replacements, meaning that if they weren't/aren't racial Archetypes, you could stack all 4 into a single character. That might make for an interesting "Elementalist" character... Or perhaps as a Sulis Racial Archetype... Allow a Sulis Racial Archetype that allows them to pick 1, 2 or 3 of the elements (or even all 4, but it makes sense that if they're strong in Fire, they could do Earth and Air, but not Water), perhaps even treat their level as 2 lower for their weaker elements (though that might be too weak).
Anyhows, just some rough thoughts I'm putting here, not only because I like community projects in gaming, but because I need to make notes somewhere since I'm on the road til Monday, and don't want to forget my ideas. :P