D&D 5E Elemental Bender "Subrace" for an Avatar Campaign

[Hriston]

I take it you haven't seen Incarnate: The Last of the Lacers on DMs Guild? It's functionally a 5e based Avatar campaign book with bending classes, though details have been changed. Honestly one of the best products I've seen on DMs Guild and it is PWYW. Might give you some ideas, if nothing else.

That looks like it's worth checking out. Thanks!

 

[Hriston]

Bending seems considerably more powerful and versatile than the options shown here as subclasses. I think banding-based classes might be a better approach.

Just for clarity, because I think this is what you meant to write, but the options here are subraces, not subclasses. I agree that bending should be potentially more powerful than what the character race brings to the table. My goal here, however, was to create subraces of human to represent bending at its most basic level as an innate racial trait, as it is in the cartoon. I'm somewhat averse to the idea of class as race, and I think the cartoon is full of examples of common benders who use their bending for mundane purposes. A bender with an adventuring class, just like a PC in any D&D game, should be something else entirely.

 

[Hriston]

These would be fine for benders who aren't really focusing on their talent, but I'd make a bender class and likely build it on the warlock chassis. @Fanaelialae , I'll have to check that book out!

That's what they're supposed to be, I think. It's what every member of the race has. Focusing on talent is really the purview of class rather than race. The sort of thing I'm interested in is seeing benders who are barbarians, fighters, monks, and rogues. Having to be a member of a "bending class" to be a true or effective bender doesn't interest me as much.

 

[Hriston]

Benders should be modeled as a class, not a subclass or race. They are both something you are born with, and something you spend your entire life mastering.

For people who are only dabblers, subclasses would work better than your racial abilities. It would let you customize them to using bending to enhance their main focus.

I wouldn't recommend hooking tightly to the Avatar fiction. You are using D&D, you should shape D&D to look like Avatar fiction, but don't tie strongly to it. (But in any case, most water benders cannot heal; having every water bender get a cure spell is not in line with Avatar's fiction.)

There are many, many benders in the world of Avatar that I wouldn't model as PCs or with an adventuring class. They're still benders, which is what the race is meant to represent.

I admit I had trouble finding suitable 1st and 2nd-level spells for water bending. I decided to go with Katara and Korra's healing ability as cure wounds and the evolution of that into the technique for cleansing spirits of negative energy that Unalaq taught Korra as calm emotions. Other contenders were hold person for blood bending and entangle for plant bending. And in defense of my decision, most water benders are not 3rd level.

 

[Hriston]

I thought the same thing. I also thought - wait, isn't the only character in Avatar that can actually bend multiple elements Ang - the titular Avatar himself?

So I might actually ban Way of 4 Elements as a subclass; or if someone picks it, they have to pick a specific element and are only limited to that element.

Also - my resident Avatar fan (my younger son) reminded me of the pseudo elemental bending - lightning, blood, and metal. Would be cool to somehow fold that in.

Otherwise, I really like the basis you have here. If my to-read list wasn't already stupid long, I'd DL that Incarnate book.

Actually, the entire purpose of this is that I have a player (my daughter actually) that wants to play an avatar. Not Ang, a different avatar that lives at some other point in the world's history. The idea of the campaign will be to discover this avatar's story. She will be the only player playing a Way of the Four Elements monk.

Your other idea of allowing the Four Elements subclass, but focusing on only one element has also occurred to me for benders in general, but I'd rather let the avatar play that subclass as is, and make other classes and subclasses workable as benders.

And yes, I've thought about how to incorporate the sub-types of bending. Unfortunately, the racial design space is fairly limited. I think custom feats might be good for some of the advanced bending techniques.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

No, I haven't. Are they substantially similar to the ones in the UA article?

No, they are significantly changed. Most notably for what you are trying to do, they now have a list of spells that become "class spells to you" if your dragonmarked character is a spellcaster. Greater Dragonmark feats are gone (for now).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Actually, the entire purpose of this is that I have a player (my daughter actually) that wants to play an avatar. Not Ang, a different avatar that lives at some other point in the world's history. The idea of the campaign will be to discover this avatar's story. She will be the only player playing a Way of the Four Elements monk.

Your other idea of allowing the Four Elements subclass, but focusing on only one element has also occurred to me for benders in general, but I'd rather let the avatar play that subclass as is, and make other classes and subclasses workable as benders.

And yes, I've thought about how to incorporate the sub-types of bending. Unfortunately, the racial design space is fairly limited. I think custom feats might be good for some of the advanced bending techniques.

Ah, that makes sense then. In general, I'd limit Wof4E to one element; but if someone wanted to play an Avatar (which I'd limit to a PC only), then would unlock that limit.

BTW, just like Ang had a bunch of people chasing him and he had to hide his true nature throughout the series, it seems like a cool narrative push to keep the story running. Every 2-3 sessions, one of the factions trying to capture the avatar for their own nefarious purposes shows up somehow. I like.

 

[Hriston]

I'm thinking of adding this rider to the "Bending" option:

You cast these spells using an unarmed strike, and your spellcasting ability for these spells is the same ability you use for your unarmed strikes. If the spell does no damage, it does your unarmed strike damage instead.​

​

I'm aware of the issues this causes for the spells I've chosen for the water bender (I might replace the 1st and 2nd-level spells with cold damage spells), but I was curious what the community might think about how something like this might synergize with the monk class and how it might be better worded. Too OP?

 

[Jester David]

This is basically the Magic Initiate feat with set spells, and trading one cantrip for +1 to an ability score and a 2nd level spell.
This is probably "broken" as a feat.

You'll also need to give the spellcasting modifier for these.

It might work well if you tweak the wording to "you know the xxx spell and can cast it once without expending a spell slot, regaining the ability to do so on a long rest." Which would allow them to cast it additional times if you allow them take a spellcasting class to focus on bending.

Sorcerers might work well reflavoured as a bender, with themed elemental spell lists. And arcane trickster and eldritch knight might also work well.
It might also be a neat idea to use the spell points variant from the DMG (on page 288).