Chapter 3 - Elemental Magic (start here)

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Elemental Magic


Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. From these four base elements, all the world is made. A learned few understand this better than all others, and use their knowledge to pull the aether at their fingertips apart, yielding elements that they can then react together in a unique type of magic. Critically, the aether is in constant flux, and the elements drawn out are completely random.

This system is all about playing around randomness, choosing which magical effects to learn so that you'll almost always have a useful option, regardless of how the dice fall. For players that relish character building but get paralyzed if they have too many options in combat, or who get bored of casting the same spell every turn, elemental magic gives you a few options every round that get shuffled randomly to keep things interesting.

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Using Elements

Up to once per round as a free action, an elemental magic user, or elemancer, can call elements from the aether around them. It is impossible to know which elements will be generated in this way - this is represented by rolling a number of d4 (for instance, 4, for a 1st-level Elementalist). Each 1 rolled represents air, each 2 is earth, each 3 is fire, and each 4 is water. The order of the results doesn't matter. Thus, for instance, the elemancer could end up with a result of EFWW, meaning 0 air elements, 1 earth element, 1 fire, and 2 water. During that round, she can use any elements she has in order to cast elemental magic effects, called formulas. For instance, if she knows the formula Viscous Slime (with component elements EWW) on the round that she rolls EFWW, she could cast that formula, typically as a standard action.

Just before the start of her next turn, all unspent elements - in this case a single F element - are lost, so she must roll new elements each round in order to cast new formulas. She can also use her unspent elements to cast swift-action or immediate-action formulas if she knows any. Formulas with a production time of 1 full round or longer use the formulas that the elemancer had access to on the turn they began casting them.

An elemancer can roll elements in this way a number of times per day equal to 5 + her elemancer level + her primary modifier (Wisdom for Elementalists, Charisma for Alchemagi and Elemental Blades, and Intelligence for Chemoturges).

As an elemancer gains levels, the number of dice she rolls when generating elements increases. Since higher-level formulas require increasingly uncommon combinations of elements, this allows her to cast more powerful effects with increasing reliability as she gains class levels. The dice progressions differ by class, and are given both in the class entries and in the table below:

Table: Dice Progression By Class
Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Elementalist 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9	Alchemagus 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8	Elemental Blade 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7	Chemoturge 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8

A 20th-level Elementalist rolls 9d4 each turn, so she might roll something like AAAEEFFWW. In this case, she could still cast Viscous Slime if she knows it (her other 6 elements would be wasted), but it would usually be far more useful to cast a high-level formula like Creation (AAEEFFWW).


Formulas

Formulas are spell-like abilities whose levels range from 0 to 7. Unlike other spell-like abilities, they require verbal and somatic components to marshal the elements into the correct configuration unless specified otherwise in the reaction description. Casting a formula generally provokes attacks of opportunity, though an elemancer who is threatened can cast a formula defensively to avoid this with a Concentration check (DC 15 + formula level). The DC for a formula is 10 + the formula level + the elemancer's primary modifier. The list of formulas can be found here.

Unlike spellcasters, elemancers don't learn their formulas according to any fixed progression. Instead, elemancers learn any 6 formulas at level 1, and then an additional formula at every subsequent level. Their chosen formulas may be of any level, as long as they never know more formulas of one level than they do of the level directly below it. For instance, an elemancer can have formulas known of levels 5/5/4 (5 0th and 1st level formulas, and 4 2nd-level formulas), but not 5/4/5. Formulas of level less than or equal to 1/3 elemancer level, rounded up, are called basic formulas, while formulas of higher level are called complex formulas. Typically, whenever an elemancer can learn a new formula, she can choose between learning 1 complex formula or 2 basic formulas (i.e. she chooses between learning a single, more powerful formula or 2 weaker ones).

For example, a 1st-level Elementalist can learn 6 complex formulas at level 1 or trade any of them for 2 basic formulas. At 1st level, 0th and 1st-level formulas are considered basic (1/3 rounded up is 1). Thus, she could, for instance, learn 3/3/3 - 3 formulas each of 0th, 1st, and 2nd level. Her 3 2nd-level formulas are complex, while her 6 other formulas are basic.

Formulas do not require any minimum elemancer level or ability score to cast. Thus, a 1st-level Elementalist, for instance, could even learn and cast the 7th-level formula Tornado (AAAA), though the odds of her rolling the necessary combination of elements are 255:1. In this way, elemancers are constantly balancing risk and reward by choosing between learning lower-level but more reliable formulas and higher-level formulas that they may only rarely be able to cast.


Helpful Resources and Balance

For new players and those wondering how the system is balanced, a section about those topics can be found here. It includes:

• Tables with the probabilities of every formula for every number of dice
• An explanation of how and why the different combinations of elements got organized into 0th through 7th-level effects
• Different strategies for picking formulas of various levels, with example progressions
• A python script that can be run in the GUI to roll elements and tell you which formulas are available each round

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Elemental Magic Classes

There are four different elemental magic classes, as detailed below. Multiclassing between these classes is not allowed; once a character has taken a level in one of them, they may not take any levels in any of the others.


The Elementalist

The Elementalist is the standard elemental magic class, striving for a balance between the elements and establishing a close connection to the elemental planes. Their key class features are a limited ability to reroll their element dice, and a technique that animates spare elements from their rolls into Elementals under their control. The Elementalist's primary modifier is Wisdom.


The Alchemagus

An Alchemagus selects a signature element at level 1 and always adds 1 of it to the result of her rolls. For instance, if a Fire Magus rolls rolls EF, she adds F to the roll and can use the elements EFF to make formulas that turn. She has a slower die progression than the Elementalist (see the table above), but her power exceeds the Elementalist’s when it comes to formulas that involve her chosen element. She has more difficulty producing formulas that mostly contain other elements, however. The Alchemagus' primary modifier is Charisma.


The Elemental Blade

The Elemental Blade is a martial class that can discharge formulas through her weapon. Like the Alchemagus, the Elemental Blade chooses a signature element, though their dice progression is slower. Her martial prowess and their her to enhance their fighting style with her chosen element makes up for this shortcoming. The Elemental Blade's primary modifier is Charisma.


The Chemoturge

The Chemoturge, a scientifically-minded elemental magic class, gains fewer elements per turn than the Elementalist. However, she also gains a special technique: each turn, instead of rerolling elements, she can keep the previous turn's elements and change exactly 1 of them to another element of her choice (she can only cast each known formula at most once per chain. If she cannot reach another known formula by changing 1 element, the chain ends and she must reroll). This grants Chemoturges versatility and the ability to reliably make formulas that Elementalists can only rarely cast. To balance this, Chemoturges are also the only elemancers who are limited in the formulas they can choose: they are only allowed to learn formulas of level equal to or lower than their number of dice. The Chemoturge's primary modifier is Intelligence.


Prerequisites and Miscellaneous

Elemental magic classes can qualify for feats and prestige classes that have spell level requirements, whether divine or arcane, substituting 1/2 their elemancer level (rounded up) in place of the level of the required spell. Their elemancer level can be used in place of a caster level wherever applicable. However, they do not qualify for feats and prestige classes that specifically require spontaneous or prepared casting.

Prestige classes that progress casting can instead progress elemental magic. Each level that would progress casting instead continues the elemancer's dice progression, increases her elemancer level by 1, and allows her to learn an additional formula (including a potential bonus low-level formula). For dual-progression classes like the Mystic Theurge, an elemental magic class can only fulfill one of the spell level prerequisites, if any, and can only be progressed once per level.

Effects such as retraining or the psionic power Psychic Reformation that allow an elemancer to change her formulas known may only allow her to change formulas into other formulas of the same level.

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Feats

Elemental magic has a number of feats that can only be taken by elemancers and can improve their existing abilities or grant them new ones. Some of these feats are called meta-element feats, which function similarly to metamagic feats.

(click to show/hide)

• Alchemagus
• Elemental Blade
• Chemoturge
• Prestige Classes
• Items
• Monsters