Elementalism

[Messageboard Golem]

Inside You Will Find:

Elementalism - An Overview:
Discover the true primordial force that is elementalism.

The School of Elementalism:
A whole new school of magic is fully detailed - one guaranteed to put other practitioners to shame.

Elemental Mastery:
Channel elemental energy in ways never seen before.

Elemental Invocation:
Penetrate the deepest mysteries of the elemental arts, and allow the very forces of nature to do your bidding.

Elemental Magic:
New spells to harness your new found magical power.

The Elemental Courts:
The elemental rulers are some of the most powerful beings in existence. Influence their energies for your own ends.

Elemental Creatures:
All new elemental creatures ready to be summoned and launched into a campaign, from the Royal Salamander to the mighty Phoenix.

Help for Games Masters:
Games Masters are not forgotten either, and a whole chapter is presented to allow them to introduce elementalism into their own campaigns.

 

[GameWyrd]

I almost didn’t notice at first. It occurred to me just as I closed the book. I had to go back and flick through the pages - twice! It’s true though.

There are no new feats. There are no new prestige classes.

The Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism is a 64-paged book about those specialised wizards and sorcerers with a special understanding and mastery over elements and those magics influenced by them. There’s a great expansion to the standard magic rules. There is text of the Elemental Planes and the creatures who live there. There’s all this and yet nothing in the way of feats or prestige. Does this omission adversely affect the book? Hell no! It’s a boon. It’s a blessing.

It would have been easy for an author to set about creating the prestige class "Elementalist" or even jotting down a couple of magic feats which describe a special relationship between the character and an element. Pick up your copy of the Player’s Handbook, turn to page 172 and start to flick through the reams of spells there. Loads of these spells have elemental descriptors; fire and ice damage are especially common. On reflection though it would have been ludicrous to claim that arcane spell casters didn’t already have a good understanding and capability with elemental magic.

The solution that this Encyclopaedia Arcane puts forward is an elemental magic system which "normal" spell-casters can use but which elemental specialised wizards can use more effectively. This means that you don’t have to introduce a brand new class just to make use of the new magic in the encyclopaedia, you don’t need to swap out a player’s current character or even fall into the trap of being one of those DMs who’s latest villain just happens to be of a prestige class from the last book they’ve bought. You don’t even need to shake up the current magic system too. The elemental powers in the book are in addition to the basic magic system, an extra level that fits on top of what you’re likely to be using already.

An Elementalist is a mage who has an elemental speciality: fire, water, earth or air. This can be in addition to the School of Magic speciality common to the standard rules. The advantages and disadvantages of all these specialities stack up. The book explains how all this works in a way that even I can understand.

The general principle behind the extra elemental level of standing in magic is that spell slots can be sacrificed on the fly in exchange for raw elemental magical energy. This energy can then be used in a number of ways. You can increase the presence of an appropriate element, form a barrier, move it around, shape it, change it or use it to counter the effects of a rival element. There’s an example where a wizard manages to change the damage descriptor of fireball from fire to ice so it’s effective against the fire giant he’s currently fighting. This conversion process is something that those mages with special elemental training are more efficient at; they’re able to produce more of this energy more quickly.

The training of elemental mages is represented by actual in-gaming teaching that takes time, gold for tuition costs and suitable skill and ability prerequisites before the student is able to progress into the next circle. As the Elementalist progresses through the circles she’ll gain more power and even start to change slightly until they’re plane touched. For example, those specialised in water magic end up with blue skin and may have webbed hands.

I have mixed feelings about in-game training like this. All to often it’s a headache for those campaigns that don’t have the mechanisms of guilds or colleges. It’s a headache but not an insurmountable problem. In this case, given how nicely the suggested rules in the Encyclopaedia can slide into a currently running game I think the in-game moderated level of progression makes sense.

I’ve said that there are neither new prestige classes nor new feats (did you notice?) but there are new spells. There are seven new pages of spells and these are usable even if the GM doesn’t want to make use of the extra spell casting rules in the book.

In addition to the new spells there is a chunk of new text on elementals and the Elemental Planes. For Elementalism: The Primordial Force (I tell you, RPG books these days have about three different titles) the Elemental Planes are populated with a whole range of creatures, some sentient, some not, some trifling, some amazingly powerful and further enriched by having the resident population ordered into official Courts and hierarchies. I’m not so keen on this; despite the nudging from the core rules, I always like to think of the elemental planes as almost purely primal in nature, certainly nowhere near the civilised heights of a society based on rank and not power. Still, this extra information is presented in such a way that it can be used or ignored at will and it’ll not adversely affect other bits of the book.

The suggested hierarchy within in the Elemental Planes are not the only thing I have small complaints about. It might have been wishful thinking but I was hoping for a rather more academic study on the symbolic nature of the elements and perhaps even some help for people not wishing to confine themselves to the pan-European view of the four elements. Why have fire, earth, water and air? Why not fire, earth, water, metal and wood as some Asian cultures describe the elements as? I suppose it’s because D&D traditionally take the first four as the base elements. It’s not to say that there is no discussion on some of the insidious problems in the simple elemental definitions; the book offers the examples of acid (as water which burns) or sonic energy (solid air) and the front cover itself shows a wizard dealing with some sort of lava (fire and yet earth) creature.

This is another book from Mongoose in which the inside cover has been blessed with a full colour illustration. I really do take this as an excellent bit of free art; it’s certainly not standard for other RPG publishers. Well. Not yet.

On the topic of "standards" its my opinion that the Encyclopaedia series (Arcane and Divine) really has pushed aside the smaller and cheaper Slayer’s Guides as the popular core of the company.

The Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism may sound as the least exotic of the series but I’ve found it to be the most approachable and the one which is clearly the most easy to build into any game. On a last note, I’ll mention the two sides of rules summaries right at the end of the book. It sounds mundane enough but its this sort of thing which can sometimes decide whether the book stays on the shelf or makes it to the sacred space behind the GM screen.

This GameWyrd review can be found here.

 

[Psion]

Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism

The Encyclodaedia Arcane series of books by Mongoose Publishing provide new options for arcane spellcaster characters in the d20 system. The Elementalism book presents new options for arcane spellcasters that wish to focus on one of the four classical elements: air, earth, fire, and water.

A First Look

Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism shares the same format as the other Mongoose Encyclopaedia books: a 64-page perfect bound book priced at $14.95 US.

The cover depicts a wizard controlling, summoning, or confronting creatures rising from a flow of lava.

The interior is black-and-white. The quality of the interior art is mixed. Danilo Moretti and Renato Guedes provide some nicely detailed illustrations, but most of the remaining illustrations don't measure up to those two artists.

The body text in the book is moderately sized and the paragraphs are single spaced.

A Deeper Look

Unlike many of the Encyclopaedia books, Elementalism does not introduce any new classes. Instead, the new mechanics of the book are introduced though circles. Each circle requires the expenditure of experience points, money, and training time, and represents successive training in the character's element of specialty.

There are five circles in all. Each circle has its own entry requirements in terms of skill ranks, attributes, spellcasting abilities, and in-game requirements. These requirements slant the circles primarily to wizards, since sorcerers do not have in-class access to some of the knowledge skills required. For example, the first circle requires the character have 5 ranks in knowledge (nature). Thus a single classed wizard would have to be 2nd level to enter the first circle, but a sorcerer would have to be 7th level. The author is apparently to this fact, as early on an example is given of a sorcerer contemplating entering the first circle at 2nd level.

Each circle has different benefits. For example, a first circle elementalist gains a +2 bonus to the DC of all spells related to her specific element and a bonus spell of that element, but cannot cast spells of the opposing element. A second circle elementalist gains an elemental version of their familiar and a bonus when dealing with creatures of his element with conjuration, summoning, or abjuration spells.

At the lowest circles, the elementalist's specialization pertains to only spells that directly correspond to the elementalist's specialty. For example, a first circle fire elementalist would have access to and be able to apply her bonuses towards spells like fireball and fire shield. At higher circles, the elementalist can obtain access and benefits relating to spells that have more tenuous relationships to the element of choice. For example, a third circle fire elementalist can use spells designated as having a "subtle correspondence" like light and lightning bolt. Fifth circle elementalists have access to spells designated as having a "higher correspondence"; in the case of fire, this would be spells like emotion and polymorph other. In many cases, this gives the spellcaster access to divine spells.

A second option that the book provides for mastering the elements is called elemental mastery. Characters with elemental circles are best at it, but all arcane spellcasters with some knowledge of elemental spells can use these rules.

The elemental mastery rules allow the character to convert spell slots into energy. Once this is done, the caster can use that energy to manipulate an element in various ways. For example, a character may sacrifice spell slots to add elemental damage to a spell, enhance an elemental spell, move his self and others by moving elements, and to imprison creatures in an element.

These seem like an interesting variant to spellcasting, but I am a little dismayed that the author allows this flexible option to characters without so much as the expenditure of a feat.

The Elemental Invocation section provides an alternate means by which the character can summon and barter with intelligent elemental creatures (which are described later in the book.), or to coerce or force summoned creatures into receptacles to create magic items. This section seems fairly balanced, and as the GM will have to roleplay the part of elemental courts that the character deals with, creates some interesting roleplaying inroads.

The Elemental Magic section introduces some new spells. Many spells can relate to any of the elements, such as the Magic Circle against Elements spell. Other spells relate to specific elements. Most of these spells relate to air or water, in order to make up for the lack of such spells in the core rules.

The Elemental Courts discusses the political structure that exist among intelligent elementals. Elemental nobles, in addition to their political position, have additional powers (applied much as a template). They can use the elemental mastery abilities as described earlier in the book, as well as the ability to summon elementals and use other spell like abilities. The section also discusses some particulars of each of the elemental courts.

The Elemental Monsters section introduces a variety of new elemental creatures. The most prominent among these are the higher elementals. These are four more intelligent version of elementals, gnomides, royal salamanders, sylphs, and undines. The lesser phoenix and ushkya are two other elemental creatures, native to the fire and water planes respectively. Finally the elemental native template allows the GM to create elemental versions of creatures.

As with many Mongoose books, there are sections entitled Help for Games Masters and Designer's Notes. Many GMs might skip past these sections or only give it a cursory read in many cases. In this book, the Help for Games Masters section has some good suggestions for using the material in the rest of the book if you have reservations about the nonstandard approach of some of the material (e.g., treating the circles as a prestige class.) The section also has some other good suggestions and implementations, such as adding creatures with the elemental native template to the summoned creatures list.

Conclusion

As mentioned, I dislike the approach of using circles as a means of creating elementalists. I find that jumping the hurdle of prerequisites even once for a prestige class can put players off; making a character face such hurdles five times would probably dissuade most players from taking advantage of elementalism. You are much better off taking advantage of the recommendations in the GM section.

Though I do have problems with the way the book is implemented in some cases, the book has some real strengths. The elemental mastery and invocation seem like neat variants, and the elemental spells, courts and creatures should be useful even if you forego using the rest of the rules in the book. Further, I really prefer the way that elemental spells are laid out here to the "energy association" method that many Wizards of the Coast products use.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[drnuncheon]

"The Elemental Invocation section provides an alternate means by which the character can summon and barter with intelligent elemental creatures (which are described later in the book.), or to coerce or force summoned creatures into receptacles to create magic items."

How close is this to the rules of this type in Demonology: The Dark Road? It sounds like it's got a similar effect.

 

[The Sigil]

Encyclopedia Arcane: Elementalism is a publication from Mongoose Publishing that deals with arcane spellcasters who wish to add options for dealing with the four "traditional" elements (Air, Earth, Fire, Water).

OGC Designation: Hazy ("all rules-related text") but likely covers between one-half and two-thirds of the book.

First Impressions: The cover is kind of cool - a magma/lava creature rising at the command of the mage on the cover (or perhaps rising to fight the mage). The interior of the book seems fairly well-organized, and in keeping with the Encyclopedia Arcane series, a series of gray "flavor text" boxes contains snapshots of the running story of an elementalist (and in the final box, his grandson). The illustrations are a little low on the quality side, but not awful and usually relevant to the material at hand.

Initial Annoyances: The OGC designation was fuzzy - which is bad, and the artwork was a little uneven in some places, and that was a bit annoying, but on the whole, nothing jumped out as obviously bad.

Breakdown:

Elementalism begins with some description of the elemental planes and of the spells that can be associated with each element. There are three "levels" of association - there is "direct" correspondence, and these are the spells that make obvious use of the element in question (for example, fireball and burning hands for Fire). There are also spells with a "subtle" correspondence to an element (spells that are related to, but not a direct use of, an element). Finally, there are spells with "higher" correspondence - these are usually spells that play on a classical aspect of an element but have no easy direct correlation (for instance, since fire can be thought of as representing passionate emotions, spells with a "higher" correspondence for fire are those that deal with emotion).

Elementalism is a departure from previous works at expanding the role of the mage in Third Edition D&D, as it was the first book (of which I am aware) to move away from the rigidly-defined "class/level" and Feats methods for giving characters' abilities and delve more into the "spend XP directly (and gold and time) for benefits" (a more or less classless) system. While the benefits are divided into levels ("circles"), I think it is good to show that not all benefits need to be strictly class/level related - and more importantly, that you don't always need Prestige Classes in the strictest sense of the word to accomplish the goal of giving out abilities to characters.

Each circle may be thought of as a one-level pseudo-prestige class - there is a set of requirements that must be met for entry into a circle (and entry into Circle X+1 has Circle X as a requirement). One of the benefits of being an elementalist is that the character gains a bonus spell per level, much like a specialist wizard. At first Circle, he gains access to direct correspondence spells, with subtle correspondence spells added at third Circle and higher correspondence spells added at fifth Circle (at the same time, he is barred from spells of the opposite school with a similar level of correspondence). Note also that a character may only reach the fifth Circle in the first element he chooses to study (his "Primary Way") and can never study the diametrically opposed element to that element (he is permitted to study both of the other elements, but must always maintain a higher Circle in his Primary Way) and the bonus spells only come from studying the "Primary Way." Other benefits (by Circle) include Elemental Focus (first Circle), which adds a +2 unnamed bonus to DC for spells from the element the character has specialized in (as far as I can tell, this applies to any spell that appears on his extra elementalist spell lists, whether it comes from a bonus slot or not), Elemental Familiar (second Circle) that allows the elementalist's familar to gain the Elemental Native template (provided in the book), Heightened Elemental Summoning (third Circle) that provides an effective +1 caster level for all conjuration spells dealing with the appropriate element), Minor Elemental Control (fourth Circle) which acts as turn/rebuke undead but works on elementals instead of undead, and Elemental Vortex (fifth Circle) wherein the elementalist can create a cone of pure element that does damage (and other things). These are only some of the abilities an elementalist gains. Based on the prerequisites for each circle, a character can achieve First Circle at level 2, Second Circle at level 5, Third Circle at level 8, Fourth Circle also at level 8, and Fifth Circle at level 12.

This is not all, however. Elementalism presents a system for manipulating the raw elements themselves ("Elemental Mastery"). Any mage can do this - Elementalists are just much better at it. This includes things such as summoning an element out of thin air, "projecting" an element (think of jets of flame or water gouts directed at your opposition), or creating a construct of elemental matter (the matter must exist first). These abilities are powered by spell slots and levels - basically a caster "loses" his spells to create spontaneous elemental effects (elementalists are more efficient at doing this and can harness their spell slots in a greater variety of ways than conventional mages). This alone brings a huge amount of utility to the book, even if you don't plan on playing an elementalist.

"Elemental Invocation" is another contribution to spellcasters at large (though elementalists again have some inherent advantages in using the methods detailed here) that discusses the summoning of elementals - and more particularly, the process of "binding" them into receptacles (willing elementals) or prisons (unwilling elementals). Receptacles and prisons have the same basic utility and mechanics, with the difference that the elemental in a prison is constantly trying to escape (mechanics are given for this). I thought this was a cool touch as well... creatures in receptacles can cast spell-like abilities or provide special powers to the owner of the receptacle.

Also covered are a list of spells specifically designed for elementalists (though of course, "regular" mages can use them as well). These are not all exciting, but add a touch of extra power to elements like air and water (fire and earth have plenty in the PHB).

But wait, there's more... you get a treatment of the elemental planes, including the "higher elemental" denizens thereof (such as sylphs). It is the higher elemental creatures, more intelligent than the common elementals, that most elementalists will likely try to deal with in negotiations. The description also talks about factions and "courts" that exist in the elemental planes - a court is a rough organization of higher elementals of a single element, though human (and demihuman) spellcasters can gain entrance as well. This was a very simple yet effective way to involve planar politics in the study of elementalism, and introduces a "favor" system that smart characters can use to gain favors from powerful inner planar beings (of course, the character will have had to perform a great act of service or be indebted to return the favor). A few other "lesser creatures" are provided as well, as is the Elemental Native template (referred to earlier in the discussion on Elemental Familiars).

The book closes with a couple of pages of commentary, mostly directed at DMs.

Presentation: A tad disorganized and a bit plain (especially the gray tables with black text) but it was fairly easy to find things. The artwork is not great, but probably a slight step above most other Mongoose products I've seen. An index would have been really helpful, too.

Conclusion: The more time I spend with this book, the more impressed I am. There is a TON of material in here, and nearly all of it can be used by any mage - not just elementalists. The express intent of the author was to make it thusly, on the assumption that "mages already dabble with the elements, so they're already elementalists." I think it's an excellent assumption. Finding ways to execute abilities without resorting to new Feats or a Prestige Class is also a very good "trick" that very few other publishers have yet to pull off. It's not a perfect book, but the amount of "bang" for the buck is excellent and there are no obvious flaws (including, surprisingly, game balance flaws). Because of the excellent use of game mechanics and the near-universal utility for arcane casters (even non-elementalists), combined with the lack of any significant "bad points," I feel comfortable giving this a rating of "5" (when I began the review, I thought it was a solid "4" but in the course of writing the review, I realized I should probably bump it up to a "5"). The "target audience" is obviously players/DMs of arcane spellcasters and if you have any interest at all in using spells dealing with elements, this book is for you. It achieves its purpose superbly.

--The Sigil
October 24, 2002

 

[Nail]

*GameWyrd* wrote:
>"I was hoping for a rather more academic study on
>the symbolic nature of the elements and perhaps
>even some help for people not wishing to confine
>themselves to the pan-European view of the four
>elements. Why have fire, earth, water and air? Why
>not fire, earth, water, metal and wood as some Asian
>cultures describe the elements as?"

Indeed.

And why not a "modern" description of the elements? Perhaps as Solid (Earth), Liquid (Water), and Gas (Air)?
Or maybe expand that slightly to include the Energy/Matter dichotomy? Energy could be divided into Entropy (order), Enthalpy (heat), and Electromagnetism (light), for example.

If you think about it, this is true, and yet just far enough away from tru to be concidered fantastic.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer

Sizing Up the Target
Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism is written by Alejandro Melchor and published by Mongoose Publishing. Subtitled “The Primordial Force”, this 64-page softcover sourcebook retails for $14.95.

First Blood
Of all the myriad systems of magic, both fictional and mythological, by far the most common is one based on the four primary elemental forces: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. The d20 magic system only gives a perfunctory nod toward these most powerful of magics; Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism, the eighth book in Mongoose Publishing’s Encyclopaedia Arcane series, provides a system to incorporate a viable system of powerful elemental magic into your campaign.

Elementalism takes a unique approach to elemental magic. Each of the four elements is akin to a specialty school of magic, with an appropriate elemental opposition school (Earth for Air, Fire for Water). Spells of all varieties – wizard, cleric, and druid – are divided by elemental affinity, to a greater or lesser degree. Healing spells, for instance, fall into the Water element.

Elementalism could have stopped there, and applied that basic spell organization to the standard specialist wizard class. You could still take these rules and apply them that way, I suppose, but Elementalism’s system allows any type of caster to be an elementalist. The elementalist spells are also divided into five circles of power. These circles have rough parallels to prestige class levels, except they aren’t prestige classes. By sacrificing some spells and experience points, the elementalist gains access to a single element’s first circle of spells (essentially, one additional elemental spell per day). The first circle of elementalist spells is accessible at the second character level; a character with sufficient experience points to spend could gain additional elemental circles at third, fifth, eighth, and twelfth levels, if other prerequisites are met.

Each elementalist circle grants access to additional spells of increasing power, as well as additional elemental feats or abilities. The elementalist can gain the ability to transform spell slots into energy points, for example, which can then be applied and channeled into elemental spell effects. The elementalist could eventually gains arcane powers of elemental invocation, summoning, imprisonment, and the control of raw elemental energy. Elementalism also includes fifteen new elemental magic spells, which can be used with this system or simple incorporated into the core game system.

This supplement doesn’t neglect the Games Master, either. Every elementalist who summons a creature from the elemental planes must bargain for its service; it is important to know the hierarchy of these creatures and the powers they serve. Elementalism describes the elemental creatures themselves, their order – higher elementals, courts, outsiders, and others – as well as their politics and motivations. There is a GM section that provides some elementalist NPCs as well as ideas for elemental adventures. Five new creatures and a new elemental template are introduced for use either as encounters or as unique creatures summoned by the elementalist.

Critical Hits
Elementalism is more than just another magic expansion; more than just a list of new d20 spells. The elemental magic system is a different approach than standard d20, but one that can be used right along side it without any real changes to the game system as a whole. The elemental themes have stronger links to many of the traditional spells than the existing spell schools; a Fire Elementalist is a potentially more flavorful character than the standard Evoker.

The elemental courts and new elemental creatures are also a nice benefit. Any GM who’s ever wanted to take his players to the City of Brass, or wanted to add some new twists to the Elemental Evil campaign can find a host of useful ideas and game mechanics in this supplement.

Critical Misses
My biggest complaint about Elementalism is that it’s just too darn short! This deserves a treatment of 128 pages, not 64 – it needs coverage of the para- and quasi-elemental planes and creatures, for example. What if I want a Magma Elementalist, or a mage specializing in Ooze or Fog? Elementalism sets the stage, but there is a lot more that could still be covered. Many players, too, might balk at the price-to-page ratio, especially since Mongoose’s own Quintessential Wizard provides twice the page count for only $5 more (though, admittedly without the elemental focus and the great elemental art).

The GM should be a little careful with the elemental system. The sacrifices are reasonable for the power gained – except that fighter-types don’t have a way to exchange XP for feats, and rogues can’t trade in XP for better skills. The elementalists get something a little special – just make sure that the rest of your players will be happy with that.

Coup de Grace
Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism provides its game mechanics as Open Content, though the rest of its names and text are product identity material. The rules are a slight departure from traditional d20 mechanics, but should be able to be balanced with some GM care. The approach is certainly original and bound to make a number of players and GMs alike happy, if they’ve been looking for a new elemental approach.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to Fast Tracks at www.d20zines.com.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Publisher: Mongoose Publishing
Author: Alejandro Melchor

Pluses
+ Quality professional-level game supplement.
+ Provides a feature-rich rules system which overlaps all wizard and sorcerer classes.
+ Excellent rules for capturing and bargaining with elemental beings.
+ Excellent rules for elemental spell classification and manipulation of raw elements.
+ Nice price.

Minuses
- Highly detailed system reliant on conditional rule structures imbedded in text; use could require a good memory or pauses for reference during play.
- Additional statistical tracking: spell slots, energy points and combat modifiers; characters must also part with precious experience points.
- For advanced detail-oriented game masters and players.

The now venerable Tome of Magic (AD&D 2nd Edition) once provided an arguably passable system of rules for specialist wizards that could cast spells from the four elements. This game supplement, while no doubt driven by a similar concept, far exceeds the idea and brings elemental play up to date with the new generation game system. In other words, this is where the parallel ends. Elementalism – the Primordial Force is so far removed as to be a unique product and fine update for d20 games. The author covers all the bases too, perhaps too well. While the work definitely contains a quality rules system with many advantages it is not for the faint of heart. The text is loaded with modifiers and a bit of mumbo-jumbo. Readers willing to look past that will be rewarded however. Players and game masters with an eye for detail and patience will find an exciting system of rules that allows for the manipulation of fire, water, earth and air without having to simply resort to lists of elementally segregated spells! The system also manages to accomplish this without creating new specialist classes; the system simply lays right over the existing wizard and sorcerer classes – even the existing specialist classes. Characters you rolled up yesterday will be good to go (once they have some experience points they are willing to part with). The work also closes with some good campaign-expansion material and suggestions for making the prospect of playing an elementalist very inviting.

Physical Details
As with the other books in the Encyclopedia Arcane series, the supplement is a standard 64 pages in length. The cover art bears an imposing red-robed fire elementalist in the midst of a volcanic landscape whilst controlling a pair of serpents composed of lava, a volcano spewing in the distance. It’s a perfect introduction to the topic. The work costs $14.95, a bargain since this one is packed tight. Inside the front cover is a nice seascape with a tall wave approaching a seawall; nice surprise. The black and white interior art is inspiring throughout most of the book; there are some excellent detailed pieces of line art as well. There are only a few ink washes, which are worth only a passing glance. The text and table layouts are up to the usual standards for the series. The layout of the monster stat blocks is disconcerting at first. The monster section opens with four stat blocks one right after another, followed by the four texts for each stat block. This of course differs from the usual format. The text is mostly error free and the font size is easy to read. The arrangement is attractive overall. This is a professional product.

Content Details
Elementalism is divided into several, variously detailed sections:

The Introduction is just that – an introduction to the subject at hand: air, earth, fire and water.

The Elementalism – An Overview section is actually more of an introduction, though the use of a lot of elemental jargon makes it somewhat confusing. In this and the next section the reader is introduced to about eight different elemental terms involving schools and circles and ways in groups of twos or fours. You will get the idea though it may take a couple of read throughs. Still, there is some interesting general background about the relationship of the elemental schools to the traditional ones, the elemental planes and elemental beings.

The School of Elementalism section contains some interesting material. It first divides the spells in Core Rulebook I into elementally-related categories called correspondences. This is a nice departure from simply providing lists of spells that have a fire component in them for instance. Using spell coorespondence the spells flare, light, and emotion are all fire spells. The diagram of the opposing elements in this section is a little insulting to the intelligence but sometimes it is best to spell these things out. Anyway the section continues with a master-student learning-based system of five circles; characters learn more in each circle and the rules detail all the requirements for eventually living and breathing the elements.

The Elemental Mastery section is a little long-winded but is also the core of the system. It does contain some exciting material. Energy points, obtained by converting spell slots, are first introduced. Unfortunately, here is one more thing for players and game masters to track. The effects in this section, which are not spells, might be worth it. Elemental channeling is also introduced which includes the elemental equivalent of counter-spelling which creates a nice picture in the mind of a fire mage and a water mage duking it out. Raw control techniques are also introduced - extensive generalized rules for bending the elements themselves, without spells! There are six detailed control techniques, with examples, and rules for mastering them.

The Elemental Invocation section expands the work further and introduces major elemental conjuration, an advance over conjuring a mindless elemental for a few rounds of combat then poof. Elemental lore and summoning rituals are also briefly described. The pacts and services section is interesting and features some great man-to-elemental role-playing possibilities: forming allegiances with elemental courts, expanding the character’s elemental knowledge, and requesting the temporary or extended services of elementals. The best part of this section covers receptacles – containers that can house elementals for later use! Player characters can let them out to fight or explore or just use their raw power – willingly or not. All the bases are covered from capture to escape to giving them their freedom. This cleverly explains how the genie (or efreet) came to be in the lamp which fits nicely with Arabian mythology.

The Elemental Magic section contains new elemental spells, a total of 14. The spells were written to be available to elementalists of the lowest skill level so you can use them right off the bat. Also, some of the spells are clerical in nature (elementalists can use clerical spells under this system) so they are suitable for clerics and druids as well. The spells are imaginative, detailed and well written.

The Elemental Courts section is fun to read and paints a picture of extra planar places and politics with a very broad brush. If you have no material explaining what the elemental planes are like this section is a nice place to start though the designer welcomes you to modify the scheme he has come up with.

The Elemental Creatures section features five new monsters, one higher elemental being for each element, plus an extra fire creature. These are likely to become instrumental at some point in an elemental campaign. The designer tried to follow classic mythological models and did a good job despite some obstacles – existing similarly-named monsters.

The Help For Games Masters section contains some good suggestions for introducing and integrating the work into your campaign, even inviting you to make some changes or throw out the things you may not like or find too difficult to use. Suggestions for what the most powerful elemental beings might actually be are also provided.

The Designer’s Notes section contains some interesting commentary on the development of the idea, some of the difficulties and the role of movies and fiction in writing the supplement, overall an inspiring close to a good, definitive product.

Overall Comments
There is nothing this supplement sets out to do and fails to accomplish. It is packed with rules, ideas, suggestions and plenty of inspiration for a single exciting elemental detour or the basis of an entire campaign. Interestingly enough game masters with a dislike for the ultimate evil represented by demons or devils in their games now have an alternative in this work. As the work suggests elementals like to haggle and do not necessarily kill on sight. Requests for service are built into their political system. What can this mean to an elemental campaign? It means there are alternatives to fighting so this work is not about just combat or leveling-up. It is about expanding the possibilities for creative, mind-blowing role-play which after all is the name of the game. The game master can enjoy playing and wielding powerful, ancient beings with a wide variety of personalities. This is far more exciting than playing the usual destructive, evil demon or devil. The players in turn are not necessarily faced with certain death and, if wise, can even rub elbows and/or learn something from or about the awesome beings the game master has the good fortune to portray.

 

[Li Shenron]

Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism

What this book is and what is not

The book offers several different options for elemental-oriented characters, and it does so with different approaches: new spells, specialization options, summoning rituals, and other special abilities.
The result is that the material presented is very modular, giving some key benefits: more than one chance to develop an elemental concept, possibility to combine the different approach, and overall easiness of dropping the book into any existing game at any time.
Being part of the Encyclopaedia Arcane series, it is clear that the material is definitely intended for arcane casters, but a few ideas could be adopted for other characters as well.
Most of the content is targeted at characters, and as such the book is useful for both players and DMs. The last 3 chapters are for DMs only, but players could also get some background information on the Courts for roleplay purposes.


Rules compliancy

This book is compliant with the 3.0 ruleset. Some adaptation may be useful if playing in 3.5 (particularly in case of spells DC and monsters DR), but it is not strictly necessary.
I didn't spot any clear mistake, but in a few circumstances I stumbled upon a design choice which at least raised my brows, such as requiring a Knowledge(Arcana) check when Spellcraft seemed a better choice.
The credits mention only 2 playtesters which is scarily few, and indeed it doesn't make one believe that the material was really playtested to the last bit.

Setting adaptivity

The book is presented as generic enough to be used in any setting which recognizes the elements as a source of primordial power, as is the case with nearly every popular setting.
There are cases of settings, mostly homebrew, which don't follow the classic D&D elemental scheme of earth, fire, water and air; if you are playing in such a setting, you should know that this book only supports those four elements, and doesn't provide material for other possible elements, such as cold or electricity.
While the material is very much neutral in this regard, two ideas require the DM to decide if they fit with the current campaign without adjustments: the elemental schools and the elemental courts.

Editing notes

Generally speaking, the book is written and organized well enough, with the exception of the Elemental Mastery chapter which I found difficult to comprehend. In a couple of places, the titles used a wrong-sized font that slightly impaired the visibility of different sections.
The print is black and white, and the artwork is fine but definitely not at the level of WotC standard.

Content walkthrough

Elementalism, an Overview (4 pages)

The introduction sets the fundamental ideas around which the book is built: the mortal world is shaped by the four elements, and nearly all arcane magic evolved from them in some way.
Therefore every spellcaster is at least partially an elementalist, and specializing to the extreme in an element is by no way restricted to summoning and controlling it, but rather to understand and master all magic originally derived from the its phylosophical meaning. Effectively, this "specialization" is indeed the opposite of focusing on a narrow area, and insted it is rather about following a phylosophical path as a guiding principle to cover every practical subject.

Air is associated with knowledge, movement, flexibility and thought.
Earth is associated with strength, endurance, responsibility and patience.
Fire is associated with change and energy, both on a physical and mental level.
Water is associated with life, adaptation and wisdom.

It is nice how the book does not pretend to provide a strict explanation about how elements work, but suggests that the matter is open to different interpretation by scholars. It handles superpositions and contraddictions very well, without falling into a common mistake of attempting a full correspondence between elements and energy types.


The School of Elementalism (9 pages)

This part of the book provides the first option for characters, which is that of the five circles in each elemental school.

By spending a certain amount of time, gold and Xp, a scholar can advance to the next circle in a chosen element specialization.
This can be done at any time during the character's career, but each circle also asks for some requirement to meet, which in practice set a minimum level for a PC to qualify.
The whole process of advancement in a circle is described as being part of a school or similar institution which provides the knowledge and the training. It is trivial however to modify this if it doesn't fit the DM's taste, as long as the costs and requirements are kept unchanged.
An arcane caster can advance in the schools of up to three elements, although he can reach the highest circle only in his one primary element, and has a barred element opposite to the primary. This last idea (of complete forbiddance) is in my opinion very outdated, but it seems to be a staple of every system for elemental focus.

While advancing in the circles of an element, the wizard or sorcerer progressively gains several benefits, among which:
- the possibility to learn a few divine element-oriented spells as arcane spells
- extra spell slots per day (for this element's spells only)
- increased DC to the spells of this element
- an elemental familiar
- improvements to summoning/calling spells used to call elemental beings
- bonuses when interacting with elemental beings, and to some spells against them
- resistance to energy damage and other types of hazards

Note that some benefits, such as extra spell slots and DC bonus, apply at first only to direct elemental spell, but later broaden to include spells with a lesser correspondence to the element itself.

All in all the benefits of advancing in a school's circle are large indeed, but so are the cost associated. To reach the last stage of this development (in one element only) will cost as much as 17500Xp, 22500gp, more than 2 years of training, and the meeting of the prerequisites.
However the 1st circle is the most valuable indeed, for it also opens up to other options in following chapters of this book.

Elemental Mastery (9 pages)

This chapter details a technique called "Spell Energy Substitution", based on "burning" prepared spells (for wizards) or available spell slots (for sorcerers) and quickly convert them into raw elemental energy.
The energy unleashed can be used to achieve several possible effects: counterspelling elemental spells, converting another spell's energy type, adding energy damage to a spell, paying for level increase when metamagicking elemental spells.
Another further application (for elementalists only) of energy points is "raw elemental control", which is a spell-like ability that allows for direct manipulation of an element's mass, either moving it or shaping it, which can be used as a mean of transportation, to block or damage an opponent, and more.
The last part of this chapter opens up a final option, that of spending Xp to "master" a single use of raw control with fixed parameter, and from now on be able to use it as a spell-like ability for half the cost in spell slots burned.

Unfortunately there is no specific requirement or cost (for example, feats) to be able to use Spell Energy Substitution. This means that allowing this variant implies to automatically give this ability to all arcane casters in the game, and that does not seem a fair thing to do to me. An elementalist (someone at least at the 1st circle) have a more flexible and reliable use of this variant, but any arcane caster who knows at least one elemental spell can use it as well (and I think this should not be).
It is hard to evaluate how balanced is the material in this chapter, but at least the powers granted seem way too useful and flexible to be given lightly at no character cost. Plus, the extreme variance to these technique is surely going to slow the game down a lot, just to choose the effect and calculate its costs.
Furthermore this chapter has serious flaws in the description of the mechanics, requiring several readings before understanding how to use this variant.
A possible conclusion is that the real cost for a character to take advantage of these powers is... the effort her player has to learn how the powers work! This definitely doesn't fit with my standards of good RPG design.

Elemental Invocation (12 pages)

What is described here are rules for summoning rituals, called "major elemental conjurations", that stretch beyond the normal limits of summoning or binding spells. These rituals are available to elementalists of at least the 1st circle.
The rituals are not intended to be used for combat purposes, but to bargain for lengthy services. The description of the rituals goes very far with options, with the drawback of being perhaps more complicated than necessary; the bright side is that they are developed enough to be even used as a base system for summoning other creatures.

Elemental Magic (7 pages)

Here is a list of 15 new spells designed around the theme of elements, many of which are accessible to divine casters as well. Some ideas are very nice, particularly the air-based spells, and I think that with a bit more effort they could have offered at least twice the spells (but I also think that the choice of not going too far was intentional).

There are a few spell which I certainly think they should have been higher level. Elemental Shape for example can grant you flying ability, and like Fly it is a 3rd level spell, but it also grants minor DR and the ability to squeeze through narrow spaces, not to mention that this is only the Air application of the spell. Pass through Element allows to walk through a wall, and it's only a 1st level spells for Druids, and 2nd for others.

The Elemental Courts (5 pages)

This section of the book is rules-light and definitely aimed at providing the DM with campaign material, by briefly describing how a Court works and introducing a bunch of locations on the elemental planes.

Elemental Creatures (7 pages)

Seven new elemental monsters are provided: the higher elementals (Royal Salamander, Sylphs, Undines and Gnomides), the Lesser Phoenix and the Ushkya (powerful horses made of water).
There is also a template for Elemental Native creatures, which is slightly lessened compared to the one in Manual of the Planes, and could be used as an alternative.

Help for Game Masters (3 pages)

The books ends with some suggestions about introducing the schools and the courts into your campaign setting, or (partial) hints about turning school circles into prestige classes or updating the summon monster tables with elemental creatures.

Conclusions

I have found this book rather good, for mainly two reasons. The obvious reason is that the book is rich with material which can be used in as much amount as one likes: it can be as easy as picking a couple of new spells, or as complicated as building a character using all the options.
The second reason is that the general approach on elements is truly refreshing, without being entirely new: it just does not accept to get stuck into common problems such as finding an energy association to each element, which usually reduces elemental mages to combat artillery (which isn't bad, but can be done well enough within core rules).

The biggest turn off of this book is the Elemental Mastery chapter. The ideas there are very cool, but they are also too flexible, too difficult to understand, and too cumbersome to run in-game. I even have some suspect that the author didn't have enough time to reconsider carefully this chapter of the book, because at such it really features great potentials, but also carries practical problems.


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Li Shenron