Ki and Elemental - Whatever

[Sadrik]

Ki is soul :/
Elemental is what I thought primal or even arcane was.

The others are all good:
Arcane - training in magic (comes from the feywild)
Divine - training in the divine powers (comes from the astral)
Martial - training in the body
Psionic - training in the mind
Primal - training in wild (comes from elemental chaos)
Shadow - training in magic (comes from the shadowfell)

Interesting opposites:
Martial - Psionic
Arcane - Shadow

Elemental and Ki seem way too redundant.

Actually I like the concept of elemental as a power source more than primal. Berserkers can be martial and druids can be elemental.

 

[RandomCitizenX]

I can see how Elemental would be redundant, but I am failing to understand why you consider Ki to be so. I really don't see any other power source which covers the same niche. Divine is kinda close, but it is all about the power of your god not your personal power. I could see Ki being to Psionics what Divine was to Arcane in previous editions.

 

[Incenjucar]

I'm thinking that elemental will be in relation to raw elemental matter ala the Elemental Chaos, whereas Primal includes organic life forces and so forth.

An earth elemental and a treant or a bear don't have much in common.

Ki is probably the animus, frankly.

 

[ShadowyFigure]

... I see


Now I thought primal was more to do with it be in your blood... geuss I'm gonna have to make a new source for my sorcerer im making as I want him to be more unique

 

[Sadrik]

I can see how Elemental would be redundant, but I am failing to understand why you consider Ki to be so. I really don't see any other power source which covers the same niche. Divine is kinda close, but it is all about the power of your god not your personal power. I could see Ki being to Psionics what Divine was to Arcane in previous editions.

Despite being nearly entirely redundant Elemental at least has a very good visual thing to work with (The four elements), again I thought this is what primal was all about.
Elemental is training in primal forces (comes from elemental chaos)
//oh wait that is primal.

So, Ki is training in the soul?

Give me a break. What does that mean and how does that differ from any number of other power sources?

Give me some creative examples. I am at a loss. The only thing it inspires in me is what I thought the shadow power source might do --> undead souls and animating and crap like that.

 

[Incenjucar]

I envision Elemental abilities to involve summoning forth lakes of fire to engulf your foes.

I envision Primal abilities to make you fight like/as a gorilla.

Slight difference

--

Ki is the Wuxia power.

Go watch some Wire Fighting movies. Hero. Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon. Etc.

 

[Voss]

problem with elemental being 'the four elements' is that the four elements seemed to have vanished from D&D. Somewhere someone mentioned the elementals. They're... weird. And not water weird, weird. Weird as in wacky.

To me elemental seems redundant because well, arcane casters already do that. Toss fire and cold and lightning around? Yeah. Wizard.

Ki? Thats hard to distinguish from some of the martial abilities.

Hopefully they'll put those two together so I can just ignore that book. Shadow and Primal might please me.

 

[Grazzt]

problem with elemental being 'the four elements' is that the four elements seemed to have vanished from D&D. Somewhere someone mentioned the elementals. They're... weird. And not water weird, weird. Weird as in wacky.

Weird as in a combination of the elements (like earth + fire, or whatever). No "pure" elementals in the MM 4e (as in Elementals, not elemental creatures like Salamanders or whatever).

 

[Incenjucar]

The four elements are still in play, but only one of the four elements is harmful on contact, so you can't build that much around them all.

You'll probably be getting thunder damage from earth, water, AND wind powers, for instance.

 

[lutecius]

I can see how Elemental would be redundant, but I am failing to understand why you consider Ki to be so. I really don't see any other power source which covers the same niche. Divine is kinda close, but it is all about the power of your god not your personal power. I could see Ki being to Psionics what Divine was to Arcane in previous editions.

power of the soul, power of the mind, inner strength... they're pretty much the same thing to me. Isn't the monk's motto smoething like "control of the mind over the body".
I could perfectly see Monk (striker/defender), Telepath (leader) and TK (controller) with the same power source.

What are the power sources effects anyway?