Elementalist

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Elementalism is, to put it simply, basically the belief that the universe is comprised of a number of elemental forces that interact in various ways. The two most iconic forms recognized today are "Western" Elementalism (Earth, Air, Water and Fire, sometimes remembering Aether/Ether/Spirit) from Greek mythology and "Eastern" Elementalism (Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, Metal) from Chinese mythology. Naturally, the idea of a spellcaster who focuses on manipulating one or more elemental properties is a very old one, particularly on /tg/ and /vg/. This creates what is known as an Elementalist.

In D&D

Dungeons & Dragons has touched on elementalism multiple times throughout its life, although no Elementalist ever really caught on.

The first time an elementalist appeared was during the days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition. Here, in the Elementalist first appeared as a Specialist Wizard in the "Tome of Magic" splatbook, alongside its more famous sibling, the Wild Mage.

This AD&D specialist functioned much like its kin. The four elements of AD&D - Earth, Fire, Water and Air - were each treated as a distinctive sub-schools within an Elementalist school. As such, the first thing you did was pick which sub-school you specialized in; spells classified as belonging to the "rival" sub-school (Earth/Air, Water/Fire) were your prohibited spells, but otherwise you could learn any arcane spell. That said, you paid for this versatility with greater difficulties learning spells outside of your school; whilst you had a +25% chance to learn sub-school spells and a +15% chance to learn spells from the "adjacent" sub-schools, you suffered a -25% chance when trying to learn a spell that wasn't a member of the elemental school.

Other bonuses you gained from this specialization consisted of:

• +2 bonus to saving throws against elemental spells from your sub-school.
• Enemies take a -2 penalty to saving throws against elemental spells you cast that belong to your sub-school.
• You gain 1 bonus spell memorization slot per level, although these bonus spell-slots must be filled with elemental spells from your sub-school.
• Once per day, when casting a spell from your elemental sub-school, you can overcharge it, casting it with a level boost of +1d4.
• When creating spells, if the spell is from your elemental sub-school, treat its level as being 1 level lower to determine the difficulty of its creation (for example, a Water Elementalist trying to create an ice or water version of Fireball finds it only as hard as trying to invent a new 2nd level spell, rather than its actual 3rd level status).
• At 15th level, you don't need to concentrate in order to maintain control over summoned elementals from your sub-school.
• At 20th level, you no longer need to fear summoned elementals from your sub-school turning on you when you conjure them.

This specialization was later reprinted in "Domains of Dread", the first attempt at making a proper campaign setting out of Ravenloft. Here, they picked up one new unique bonus: if an elementalist provokes a Dark Powers Check by casting a spell from their sub-school, then that check's percentage is halved (rounding down) - however, the same mechanics that allow them to use their elemental magic to shield themselves from the gaze of the Dark Powers makes them especially vulnerable to attracting their attention through other forms of magic, meaning all other spells cast by an elementalist that provoke a Dark Powers Check increase that check's percentage by half (rounding up). This means that a fire elementalist who casts a spell to perform a deed that would normally provoke a 14% Dark Powers check drops it to a 7% check if they use a fire spell and raises it to a 21% check if they use any other kind of spell.

Perhaps not the most impressive class, but certainly better designed than the crock of steaming shit that was the Arcanist.

The next official D&D Elementalist appeared in Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition, in the sourcebook "Heroes of the Elemental Chaos". Whilst this sourcebook provided new elemental-themed powers for many classes, as well as elementalism character themes, it also featured the Elementalist: an Essentials sub-class for the Sorcerer.

Running on Essentials'... unique approach to 4e classes, the 4e Elementalist had a unique spell source (elemental magic), and also has no daily or encounter powers; they cast a range of metamagic enhanced at-will powers using their own Elemental Escalation ability. Elementalists pick a specific element and run with it, gaining a specific set of abilities depending on whether you favour earth, fire, air, water or heart.

Considering when Heroes of Elemental Chaos was released, any similarity to any characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender is almost certainly intentional. But that's OK.

A water elementalist, demonstrating dem hips.

However, another elementalism class had preceded the elementalist proper. In the pages of Dragon Magazine came the Pyromancy school for the Mage, a form of elementalist focused entirely on killing things with fire. Like all Mage schools, being a Pyromancer translated as a set of three class features gained at levels 1, 5 and 10, with the option to "dabble" in that school by gaining its first two features at levels 4 and 8.

• Pyromancy Apprentice: You gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with arcane fire attacks. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level. Additionally, your attacks ignore fire resistance.
• Pyromancy Expert: You gain a +2 bonus to Bluff checks and Intimidate checks.
• Pyromancy Master: When you use an area or close arcane fire attack power that is not already a zone, the area of the attack becomes a zone that lasts until the end of your next turn. Creatures that end their turns within the zone take fire damage equal to your Constitution modifier.

In Pathfinder

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In Pathfinder, elementalists are some of the earliest wizard archetypes added to the game. Advanced Player's Guide adding all four Western Elementalist archetypes, whilst Ultimate Magic allowed Eastern Elementalists by adding Wood and Metal archetypes.

Because Pathfinder isn't as strict as its 3e basis, whilst it preserves the basic idea of Opposition Schools, wizards can still learn spells from their opposed school; they just need to give up two spell slots of the same level to prepare an opposed school spell. In "classic" elementalism, opposed schools are based on the traditional rivalry handed down from D&D: Earth vs. Air, and Water vs. Fire. If using the Wu Xing (Chinese Five Elemental) style, your opposed school is based on the cycle of overcoming; whichever elemental school "overcomes" your own is your opposed school, with Wood overcoming Earth, Earth overcoming Water, Water overcoming Fire, Fire overcoming Metal and Metal overcoming Wood. Void Elementalists choose one element from the Earth/Air/Water/Fire group counts as their opposed school, whilst Aether Elementalists designate one of ANY of the other seven elemental schools.

The Air School focuses on wind, sky, cloud and lightning to destroy their foes, and prizes mobility. Its Air Supremacy feature grants a bonus to Fly checks and the ability to cast differing flying spells (Feather Fall/Levitate/Fly) on themselves at will as they gain levels. Lightning Flash lets them produce a blast of electricity several times per day. Finally, at level 8, their Cyclone ability lets them generate aerial turbulence that really messes with the flying capabilities of others in their immediate area.

The Earth School is all about shaping the world around them and drawing strength from stone. Earth Supremacy makes them harder to move involuntarily, and ultimately lets them cast spells through stone barriers. Acid Cloud lets them create short-lived clouds of corrosive vapor. Finally, level 8's Earth Glide lets them move through stone as if it were air for a limited time each day.

The Fire School is all about burning shit. Fire Supremacy gives them Fire Resistance, which ultimately transforms into fire immunity & the ability to turn open flames into an impromptu shield. Fire Jet lets them throw blasts of flame every so often, and level 8's Dancing Flame lets them reshape existing flames and the area of effect for fire spells.

The Water School draws its power from the ocean depths. Water Supremacy gives them augmented breath-holding and swimming abilities. Cold Blast lets them unleash bitter cold as an attack several times per day. And finally, their 8th level archetype ability Wave lets them conjure a great magical tidal wave from nowhere that can douse flames and knock people off their feet.

The Metal School, being a non-classic element, is somewhat different. Symbolically, metal-as-element represents firmness, rigidity, persistence, strength, determination and electricity. As a physical element, traditionally, metal manipulating spells are actually found on the druidic spell list, and thus wizards of this school get chill/heat metal, rusting grasp, and repel metal or stone as bonus spells. Their Metal Rending feature makes their attack spells better against armored opponents, whilst Iron Skin lets them boost their own AC by a level-based amount a certain number of times per day. Finally, 8th level gives them Shrapnel Burst, which basically lets them throw razor-sharp shrapnel everywhere in a 10ft radius, slicing up anyone close by and turning that spot into temporary difficult terrain.

The Wood School is symbolically associated with flexibility, warmth, wind, generosity, cooperation and idealism. As physical plant-control is, again, traditionally the druid thing, this school gets a motherload of bonus spells: entangle, tree shape, plant growth, command plants, tree stride, liveoak, transmute metal to wood, and control plants. Flexible Enhancement gives the wizard a level based "floating" ability score bonus, which they can apply to one of Dexterity, Constitution or Wisdom whenever they prepare spells (two at once at level 20). Splintered Spear lets them fling an enchanted spear at a target which inflicts bleeding several times per day. Finally, level 8 gives them Cooperative Defense, where you can grant allies your saving throw bonus if you are within 30 feet of each other and being targeted by the same attack.

The Void School is based on the Japanese 5 Elemental Style, which makes it analogous to the oft-forgotten Grecian "Ether/Ather/Aether" Element, as it's paired up with the more recognizable quartet of Air/Earth/Fire/Water. It is the "mental" element, in contrast to the more physical quartet, being associated with thought, space, spiritualism and insight. Void Elementalists gain control over energies that bind the earth to the heavens and the planes to their mysterious and eternal alignments, as well as the powers that stitch living beings to their spirits. This gives them several bonus spells (keen senses, twilight knife, wandering star motes, true seeing, moment of prescience) and the features Void Awareness (increased resilience against spells), Reveal Weakness (curse an enemy with lowered defense & penalized saving throws) and Aura of Prescience (emit a temporary aura that grants allies a bonus to all checks/throws/saves).

The Aether Element is based on the spiritual element from classic Greco-Roman thinking, which people tend to forget about. In the Pathfinder cosmology, Aether is a "spiritual elemental substance" that manifests itself predominantly in the form of raw motive force, hence the school's bonus spells (telekinetic projectil, spiritual weapon, spiritual ally, ethereal envelope, animate objects, ectoplasmic eruption, telekinetic storm) and its list of thematic spells. For features, it provides Aether Supremacy (bonus to Sleight of Hand, gain a level-strengthened at-will Mage Hand and, ultimately, telekinetic Sleight of Hand), Telekinetic Protection (grant yourself Damage Reduction 5/Magic for 1 round so many times per day), and Receptive Vibrations (your Dex bonus cannot be negated against attacks from any creature, visible or otherwise, within 30 feet, and add half your Wizard level as a bonus to Perception checks against surprise).

Smoke is a "Focused School" compatible with Air and Fire Elementalists.

Ice is a "Focused School" compatible with Air and Water Elementalists.

Oooze is a "Focused School" compatible with Earth and Water Elementalists.

Magma is a "Focused School" compatible with Earth and Fire Elementalists.

In Mage: The Awakening

In Mage: The Awakening, any mage can style themselves as an elementalist by using the Matter and Forces spheres. There are also several Elementalist-themed Legacies in the various splats.