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<blockquote data-quote="Blue Orange" data-source="post: 8945972" data-attributes="member: 7025997"><p>The problem with the periodic table elements is there's over 100 of them. Even if you eliminate all the radioactive ones that disappear in under a second you still have too many. Of course, lots of them are metals with properties no preindustrial person could tell apart (they had a hard time even separating most of the rare earths), but even so you still have more visibly distinct elements than most people can remember.</p><p></p><p>4 elements are easy to remember, and you get all kinds of poetic associations with the sea, the ground, the sky, and fire. You've even got the antagonism between fire and water. Even the Japanese and Indians just add on void or spirit. Go over to China and you'll drop air and get wood and metal--but you're still only at 5. ('Cause 4 sounds like death, I'll bet.)</p><p></p><p>I agree: also, a lot of the damage electricity does to you is from burns, so technically it should do fire damage plus mind effects from messing with your nervous system. I think ice doesn't do bludgeoning, etc. because it lets them separate the elemental spells used by casters from the weapons used by martials, so it's a sort of class-balancing act as well--you can have monsters that are easier to damage by casters or martials by turning that 'dial', so to speak. </p><p></p><p>And, of course, there's inertia. What are the elemental types in Final Fantasy 15? Fire, Ice, and Lightning. What spells did damage by level to multiple targets in 1st ed D&D? Fireball, Cone of Cold, and Lightning Bolt. 50 years and 6000 miles and some things don't change.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue Orange, post: 8945972, member: 7025997"] The problem with the periodic table elements is there's over 100 of them. Even if you eliminate all the radioactive ones that disappear in under a second you still have too many. Of course, lots of them are metals with properties no preindustrial person could tell apart (they had a hard time even separating most of the rare earths), but even so you still have more visibly distinct elements than most people can remember. 4 elements are easy to remember, and you get all kinds of poetic associations with the sea, the ground, the sky, and fire. You've even got the antagonism between fire and water. Even the Japanese and Indians just add on void or spirit. Go over to China and you'll drop air and get wood and metal--but you're still only at 5. ('Cause 4 sounds like death, I'll bet.) I agree: also, a lot of the damage electricity does to you is from burns, so technically it should do fire damage plus mind effects from messing with your nervous system. I think ice doesn't do bludgeoning, etc. because it lets them separate the elemental spells used by casters from the weapons used by martials, so it's a sort of class-balancing act as well--you can have monsters that are easier to damage by casters or martials by turning that 'dial', so to speak. And, of course, there's inertia. What are the elemental types in Final Fantasy 15? Fire, Ice, and Lightning. What spells did damage by level to multiple targets in 1st ed D&D? Fireball, Cone of Cold, and Lightning Bolt. 50 years and 6000 miles and some things don't change. [/QUOTE]
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