Maybe it's because I played a lot of SRPGS and JRPGs growing up, but when I think of the elemental forms of damage I tend more toward fire/cold/acid/lightning for fire/water/earth/air. PF2e is definitely taking a more literal, A:TLAB take on it. I'm a DM and I've got a player who is playing a blaster wizard and I was thinking of making these changes to the Elementalist Metamagic feats:
1.) They're all level 4, instead of 4, 6, 10, and 14. I think this is justified because these feats aren't actually all that strong, to be honest - especially considering they aren't 'free' metamagic and require an action. I reject that the level of these feats actually correspond to their power levels unless someone can justify to me why creating a small amount of difficult terrain is worth a 10th level feat.
2.) Allowing each of the metamagic feats to change the damage type/traits of the spells they affect. Therefor, a Dousing Spell Fireball would, (as per my example in the first paragraph), do cold damage instead of fire damage. Similarly, a Burning Spell Lightning Bolt would do fire damage instead of electricity.
My question for the community is: Do you think these changes will be noticeably imbalanced?
Adding to that, I always support for treating Air, Earth, Water as separate damage types (from Bludgeon, etc.), but it seems I'm a total minority in that problem...