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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010378" data-attributes="member: 18387">Publisher: Mongoose PublishingAuthor: Alejandro MelchorPluses+ 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 DetailsAs 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 DetailsElementalism 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 CommentsThere 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.</blockquote>

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