Alam al-Rashidun: Elemental Renaissance

[howandwhy99]

MMMmmmm... This looks good. It reminds me I need to get back to a project on the backburner.

BTW: I think if D&D is going to stay true to its medieval and dark ages roots, only persian (re: middle eastern) stylings will truly fit the high-level magic, peak civilization paradigm.

 

[jasin]

Very cool. Of course my first thoughts are about mechanics.
I would think that the Wu Jen from Complete arcane, with a diff name of course, would also be a great primary spell casting class.

I want renamed shugenja as the elementalist priests of al-Rashidun, with battle shugenja (based off the battle sorcerer: like shugenja, but medium BAB, better HD, slightly weaker spellcasting) for the warlike Fedayeen.

I was actually thinking of making bards (renamed sha'ir, which is an arabic word for "poet" and so a better fit for bards than wizards) the only arcane spellcasting class available, but wu jen would be worth looking into, yes. If a ritual, formulaic approach to wizardry is emphasized, they could be a sort of stepping stone between the religious magic of the priests and the "dirty", hands-on, do-what-works style of the artificer.

What to do with Metal, though? Just dump it and move the spells over into the general list, or make it indicative of some difference in paradigm between the shugenja and wu jen...?

Artificers are obvioulsy appropriate, and the elemental bound items from Magic of Eberron. You would need to include dragonshards or a variant in that case.

Not necessarily, really. I know you need dragonshards to do elemental binding in Eberron, but you might as well say that it's enough to just take a sword, an elemental, and start binding, if you know the appropriate techniques.

But making it so that you need to harvest the desert for melang^H^H^H^H^H^Helemental focuses might be interesting too...

What about the Paladin variants from Dragon - IIRC there are some that can turn elementals.

I think I'd like to keep the paladin, but I think it would need serious reworking. Rebuke/command elementals instead of turn/destroy undead, a different spell list, more similar to the shugenja's than the cleric's (probably different lists for different elements)...

You might also want to add in the racial variants of Unearthed Arcana for either monsters or desert tribes.

Which reminds me: another area I haven't put much thought into are non-humans. I'd definitely like to use genasi somehow, but I'm not sure how. The PHB demihumans are probably out (except maybe dwarves, in the mountains "at the edge of the map" somewhere). Beyond that, I don't really have anything.

 

[Stormborn]

What to do with Metal, though? Just dump it and move the spells over into the general list, or make it indicative of some difference in paradigm between the shugenja and wu jen...?

I think the larger concern with the Wu Jen is the lack of Air. Metal could just be a sub discipline of Earth.

I think I'd like to keep the paladin, but I think it would need serious reworking. Rebuke/command elementals instead of turn/destroy undead, a different spell list, more similar to the shugenja's than the cleric's (probably different lists for different elements)...

One thing you might want to consider, in addition to a variant turning, is variants for the Summon Mount ability. An elemental servant, summonable for a number of hours per day equal to the Paladin's level could work. Another possibilty is a bonded weapon appropriate to the element such as Warhammer for Earth, Long Bow for Air, Scimitar for Fire...not sure about Water, maybe they could get the summon elemental servant ability instead. The bonded weapon could grant various bonuses as the Paladin went up in levels, but compensate for it by requiring the Paladins to return an appropriate amount of treasure per level to the Temple. You could make the smite bonus damage elemental too.

Which reminds me: another area I haven't put much thought into are non-humans. I'd definitely like to use genasi somehow, but I'm not sure how. The PHB demihumans are probably out (except maybe dwarves, in the mountains "at the edge of the map" somewhere). Beyond that, I don't really have anything.

Do you want to keep the elemental theme with the nonhumans? If so there are a couple of possibilites. Faen from Arcana Evolved, with their ability to eventually become flying sprytes might work for Air, or the flying race from Races of the Wild. Dwarves might be your best bet for Earth, or a slightly boosted Kobold for the perfect races of burrowing lizards. A water race could be very limited in your setting, something only found along the coast. No guesses there. Goblins from WoW or IK would work as a fire loving race with a strong bent toward alchemy and chaos.

Or just rid yourself of nonhumans entirelly as PC races. Planetouched seem to fit the setting perfectly, maybe come up with some racial levels for those who want to get more intune with their elemental side, but others may just be superfulous.

 

[jasin]

I think the larger concern with the Wu Jen is the lack of Air. Metal could just be a sub discipline of Earth.

Ah, right, wu jen don't get the classical four + Metal, but Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Metal, right? Oh well. It's probably too much trouble trying to shoehorn them in, then.

Also, good suggestions on other topics, thanks.

 

[Stormborn]

The Dragon Compendium has a great arabian flavored spell caster called the Sha'ir which originally appeared in Dragon #315 if you don't want to shell out the money for the Compendium.