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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 2009616" data-attributes="member: 2013">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 SigilOctober 24, 2002</blockquote>

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