Outline for an Elementalist class. Thoughts?
Your base damage is d4.
Your maximum HP is 4+Constitution.
POWER SOURCE
Divine Blessing
Choose an additional element to master: this element is sacred to your religion and can never cause you harm. You must also choose two elements that are opposed to your religion: you can never master them, and they will deal +1d4 damage to you if they harm you.
A Gift from the Spirits
You can interact (and parley) with elemental spirits as if they were people.
Magical Knowledge
There are no spirits, only words of power and the will to use them. You may roll with INT instead of WIS for Master of the Elements and Touching the Firmament, and a 10+ for Eye of the Storm always purifies you.
STARTING MOVES
Eye of the Storm
When you exert your will to calm the elements around you, roll+CON. On a hit, the world calms around you (the earth below your feet stops breaking apart, fires you touch go out, storms break around you, etc), but on a 7-9, this calmness affects only what you touch, and only as long as you are touching it. This affects all the natural elements, not just those you have mastered.
Master of the Elements
When you command the elements, roll+WIS. You may only issue commands you have mastered upon elements you have mastered. On a 10+, you may command what is generally considered a large amount of this element. On a 7-9, the same but choose one:
·The elements you command also run wild, out of your control.
·You can only affect what is generally considered a small amount of this element.
·You take an additional -1 ongoing to command the elements until you purify yourself.
If you maintain an unnatural effect, take -1 ongoing to command the elements until you release those still in your power.
The Roots of Creation
You start with mastery over one command, one element, and one additional mastery from either list. Each time you level up, choose either another command or another element to master.
Commands: Banish, Create, Destroy, Enhance, Move, Shape, Summon, Transmute.
Elements: Air, Crystals, Darkness, Fire, Ice, Light, Magic, Metal, Plants, Stone, Storms, and Water.
Touching the Firmament
When you examine an element you have mastery over, roll+WIS. On a 10+, you learn something interesting and useful. On a 7-9, you learn something interesting, but it’s on you to make it useful. On a miss, you have disturbed the elements with your meddling.
The GM may also tell you something this element wants. If you give it what it wants, it will answer one question you ask of it, to the best of its abilities.
ADVANCED MOVES 2-5
Born of Fire
You are no longer harmed by the touch of fire, nor are you vulnerable to heat.
Gift of Power
When you purify yourself amongst the elements, you gain one use of a command or element you have not mastered. Also, choose one that you have mastered: you cannot use this one until you use your new gift.
Nature’s Fury
When you use an element you have mastered to deal damage, your damage die is d10 instead of d4.
Shield of Thorns
When you use the elements to defend, on a hit, you may also deal your damage die, in addition to spending hold. You only deal your damage once, even if you have more than one hold.
ADVANCED MOVES 6-10
The Breadth of Creation
When you command the elements, on a 10-11, you may choose one option from the 7-9 list in order to command a huge amount of this element. On a 12+, you can command a huge amount with no consequences.
Spirit Friend
Choose two elements you have mastered: spirits of those elements will always recognize you as a friend and try to help you, until you prove yourself to be an enemy.
I very much like the look of this. Only concern thus far – born of fire is a whole move related to one element. Maybe have a general version?
I was going to add a few other moves for other elements where it makes sense, like ice/cold and water/drowning. My concern with doing a general move is that you would have to be able to pick any element, which makes Divine Blessing less special and, well, you could pick magic to be immune to.
Is there one in particular that you would pick if that option was available?
Ah, well, that makes sense.
Love it!
I love how this doesn’t have and need a damage dealing move!
First: its cool! ^^
I needed 5 minutes to undestand Gift of Power, but maybe its because its not my mother language.
How this class and moves interact whit The Druid move Elemental Mastery?
The “source” are “setting exclusive” or can blur? Can I be a “lore”/”scientific” elementalist but maybe spirits still exist? Can I be a “spirit gifted” elementalist, but there are elemental gods too?
Tim Franzke Yeah, it’s pretty much all in the fiction. I’m gonna add a note that says if you do damage directly with elements, you deal your damage die, but once you release the elements (or elemental spirits), they do whatever damage is appropriate.
Iacopo Benigni Yeah, it’s not the best wording and I need to find something a bit better.
Elemental “Mastery” is kind of this whole class in one move, but it should really be called Elemental Fuckery, because you always have consequences! I think I will allow the Elementalist to multiclass, but it’s not really worth taking that move, when you can use the Elementalist moves and have no drawbacks (on a 10+).
You can have all the setting stuff at the same time. It says “there are no spirits” but Summon only summons elemental spirits, so if you master that Command then there are spirits. It is all up to the player! There is nothing in the moves that says something does not exist.
I suggest tweaking the “sacred to your religion” language slightly, since that’s not how people talk about their own beliefs and practices. Depending on the flavor you want, it could be like: “This element is the highest truth, the gateway to understanding…” whereas the others are “false and misleading paths that you have forsworn” or something like that.
So I get it right the “there are no spirits” part is more an elementalist opionion/point of view than a fact. Cool.
I dont want to say one more time it need rewording, but it need rewording. Its too cool to be spolied by misenderstood reading. ^^
When I wrote “intereacting” I was daydreaming about an Elementalist allied whit a Druid not thinking about multiclassig; but the answer is obvious.
Do you have any idea how much I was wishing for an elementalist, Johnstone? 🙂 Good work!
/sub
Awkward Demeanor, Haughty Demeanor, or Serene Demeanor.
Clear Eyes, Eyes Like Deep Pools, or Fiery Eyes.
Covered Head, Strangely-Coloured Hair, or Wild Hair.
Musical Voice, Rumbling Voice, or Sharp Tongue.
Divine Blessing (reworded)
You have been given a gift by a higher power. Choose an additional element to master: this element is sacred to you and can never cause you harm. You must also choose two elements that are proscribed—they symbolize a false path. You can never master them, and they will deal +1d4 damage to you if they harm you.
Also:
(Possible optional rule: You may choose a more specific element than what is on the list for all three of these. For example, you could choose lakes and rivers to be sacred, then choose the sea and sunlight to be proscribed. Or trees could be sacred and iron and lightning proscribed.)
Gift of Power (reworded)
When you purify yourself amongst the elements, you may temporarily replace one of your masteries with a command or element you have not mastered. After you use this new command or element once, you lose it and regain the original mastery it replaced.
(how’s that?)
They are more clear now. ^^