A little while ago, I posted a question in the Paizo forums on whether or not there would ever be Focused Arcane School variants for the Elemental Arcane Schools in the Advanced Player Guide. There was even one poster who hoped that Paizo would include this idea in their latest Pathfinder accessory, the Elemental Master's Handbook.
And it looks like they did in a way because the handbook has four Focused Arcane Schools. There are four focused arcane schools for Ice, Magma, Mud and Smoke.
IMO, they look okay. They aren't quite what I was expecting though. Take the Water School in the Advanced Player's Guide. It has Water Supremacy, Cold Blast and Wave. I was expecting Paizo to create a Water School where the Cold Blast ability had been replaced with another water-related ability. And I was expecting an Ice School where the Water Supremacy and Wave abilities had been replaced with Ice-related abilities. Keeping the Air Supremacy or the Water Supremacy abilities for the Ice School while replacing the latter two abilities from either school didn't make much sense to me.
So I decided to do something about it. The two schools below aren't Focused Arcane School variants, but actual Elemental Arcane Schools that I cobbled together from various Pathfinder sources.
Ice School
The ice elementalist draws magic by taking in the ambient heat of his surroundings and producing a supernatural cold that can chill a person down to the bone, shatter stone and make metal brittle to the touch.
Ice Supremacy (Su): You gain resistance 5 to cold. At 10th level, this resistance increases to 10. At 20th level, you gain immunity to cold damage. In addition, you can move across snow and icy surfaces without penalty and without leaving tracks. At 9th level, you climb icy surfaces as if using spider climb.
Freezing Shards (Su): As a standard action, you can cause shards of ice to burst forth from the ground around you. The shards deal 1d4 points of piercing damage and 1d6 points of cold damage + 1 point for every 2 wizard levels you have to all creatures within 5 feet of you. A successful Reflex save (DC = 10 + half your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier) negates the piercing damage and halves the cold damage. The shards remain until the beginning of your next turn; during this time, the area is difficult terrain. You are not affected by your own freezing shards and can move through the area normally. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
Icy Shackles (Su): At 8th level, as a standard action, you can make a melee touch attack against a foe to conjure icy restraints around it's ankles, reducing its base speed to 5 feet and dealing it an amount of cold damage at the beginning of its turn equal to your Intelligence modifier. The manacles have AC 10, hardness 0 and 30 hit points, and a creature can destroy them with a successful Strength check (DC = 10 + half your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier) as a standard action. The icy shackles melt away after 1 minute. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier.
The latter two abilities are from the Elemental Master's Handbook.
Bonus Spells:
0-Ray of Frost
1-Icicle Dagger, Snowball
2-Elemental Touch, Flurry Of Snowballs, Frigid Touch, Frost Fall, Unshakable Chill
3-Draconic Reservoir, Elemental Aura, Ice Spears, Sleet Storm, Vengeful Comets (Lvl 3)
4-Creeping Ice, Detonate, Dragon's Breath, Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Wall Of Ice
5-Cone of Cold, Icy Prison
6-Cold Ice Strike, Elemental Assessor, Freezing Sphere, Ice Crystal Teleport
7-Frost Mammoth, Ice Body
8-Polar Ray
9-Icy Prison, Mass
Lightning School
The Lightning Elementalist harnesses the power of the storm to deal with his foes, and sense his environment beyond what his normal senses can tell him.
Lightning Supremacy (Su): You gain resistance 5 to electricity. . At 10th level, this resistance increases to 10. At 20th level, you gain immunity to electrical damage. In addition, you can cast Haste on yourself. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
Lightning Flash (Su): As a standard action, you can unleash a flash of electricity. This flash deals 1d6 points of electricity damage + 1 point for every two wizard levels you possess to all creatures within 5 feet of you and dazzles them for 1d4 rounds. A successful Reflex save negates the dazzled effect and halves the damage. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
This ability is from the Air School in the Advanced Player's Guide
Electrolocation (Su): At 8th level, you are constantly surrounded by a weak, electrical field, increasing your awareness of your surroundings. You are never denied your Dexterity bonus to AC against attacks made within 30 feet of you because you are flat-footed or because your assailant is unseen. In addition, you gain a bonus on Perception checks to avoid being surprised equal to half your wizard level.
With this ability, I tweaked the Aether Elementalist's Receptive Vibrations ability from the Elemental Master's Handbook to create a magical variant of the natural, real life ability possessed by sharks and some other animals.
Bonus Spells:
0-Jolt
1-Body Capacitance, Shock Shield, Shocking Grasp
2-Aggressive Thundercloud, Defensive Shock, Elemental Touch
3-Draconic Reservoir, Elemental Aura, Lightning Bolt, Sheet Lightning, Storm Step
4-Aggressive Thundercloud, Greater; Ball Lightning, Detonate, Dragon's Breath, Hellmouth Lash, Shocking Image
5-Lightning Arc
6-Chain Lightning, Elemental Assessor
8-Stormbolts
9-Ride the Lightning
Thoughts? I hope to do an Elemental Arcane School for Sound next.
