Arcania of Legend: The Four Elemental Ways

[alex_greene]

the picture of the cycle doesn't have water opposing fire, it is adjacent. In the image, Earth opposes Fire. Indeed, instead of the traditional Fire vs Water, Air vs Earth the model shows Fire vs Earth and Air vs Water.

The text. It's an art department thing, out of the author's control.

included element specific wrack spells. I can see them for Fire and Air, the easy ones to imagine. earth is listed as teaching Wrack, but with no energy form associated, and where is Water's? Why offer Form/Set to only earth and Water? Form/Set (fire) and Form/Set (air) would be very effective spells.

Wrack based on the Earth element is easy - "Rocks fall. Everybody dies." Ditto for Water: the character's own body's water content rebels against him. Most people are mostly water, after all.

Where's the Desiccate spell?

Air Propulsion is such a good weapon, denying its targets a resist roll, I would ban it immediately. Pick your targets, cast the skill, and lift them up to your maximum height before cutting off the ability and allowing them to fall to Earth. With a skill of 41-50% that would inflict 3d6 damage on 3 random locations on each target, with no opportunity to resist!

DamonJynx, the players always hate it when the bad guys get to play with the cool tools first, don't they? :twisted:

The book is definitely a neat idea, but may I suggest if updating it, you consider and include discussions of the tactical uses of all 4 element's Form/Set and Animate spells, along with an exploration of how different energies and concepts could be used to apply Wrack to all of the elements?

I have an image of a Fire Elementalist striding onto a battlefield inside a SIZ 30+ man-shaped colossus of pure fire, sort of like the X-Man Armor.

 

[The Wolf]

Good stuff, alex (as always you hit those nails on the head)

 

[Harshlax]

Another brief thought connected to the Animate(substance), Form/Set(substance) combination. Maybe include the skill Craft(element) as a cult skill for those orders teaching those spell combinations, as the Form/Set spell includes references to having an appropriate craft skill.

Elemental mastery also struck me as very expensive in magic points compared to other options, but I suppose the raw flexibility of the power explains the cost.

 

[DamonJynx]

Another brief thought connected to the Animate(substance), Form/Set(substance) combination. Maybe include the skill Craft(element) as a cult skill for those orders teaching those spell combinations, as the Form/Set spell includes references to having an appropriate craft skill.

Elemental mastery also struck me as very expensive in magic points compared to other options, but I suppose the raw flexibility of the power explains the cost.

You could, if you chose, add whatever Craft skill is appropriate, however I felt that for basic uses, i.e. a protective barrier, bridge or similar simple structures it would not be necessary. For me the Craft skill stipulation in the Form/Set substance is more related to craftsmen/tradesmen which is why I left it out of the orders skill list. Regarding your PP suggesting adding Form/Set substance to ALL the elemental ways, I deliberately chose not to do that as I wanted there to be some differentiation between grimoires and also to provide opportunities for Elementalists to use the Elemental Mastery skill.
Speaking of which, you are correct; Elemental Mastery is fairly expensive in terms of MP cost when compared to Sorcery spells. The flexibility of the skill is part of the reason the other part is becasue to me at least, Sorcery (and to a lesser extent Common Magic) as per the core rules and Arcania of Legend: Blood Magic are more suited to the Swords and Sorcery/Sandal genre than the epic High Fantasy genre. Elementalism bridges the gap between genres somewhat and I thought the MP cost wouldn't be as much of a burden if GM's allowed practitioners to gain extra MP either via the rules presented in Blood Magic or MP storing Power Crystals from Arms of Legend.

By the way, I've spoken to Matt (via email) and there will be some minor errors corrected. I'll see if I can get the Earth and Water versions of Wrack in- I can't make any promises though as extra material may play around with the layout too much. As for your other suggestions; great ideas but it's been my experience as a GM over the last decade or so, that players will find unique uses for any rules put before them, intended or not, so a discussion on how to best use the material in the book is kind of moot really.

Thanks for the feedback, Harshalax. Appreciate it.

 

[DamonJynx]

Hi Folks,

Update is now available. Some minor errata fixed and the Crush and Desiccate spells added (Earth & Water versions of Wrack).

 

[The Wolf]

Good to hear mate, this is why I love pdfs!

 

[Bifford]

I needed a pick-me-up, so bought this yesterday.

Looks lovely all the way through except for the diagram showing the four ways, which as already pointed out is wrong, but also looks hideously amateurish compared to the rest of the book. Garish block colours. I think this could have been made to look a lot nicer.

Also, there's an awful lot of white space scattered throughout the book....

But content wise I can't fault it

Well done folks!

 

[alex_greene]

About the pic art - I'd love to see someone attempt a diagram where the elemental poles are arranged in a tetrahedron.

 

[DamonJynx]

But content wise I can't fault it

Well done folks!

Thanks Sam! Glad you like it.

 

[DamonJynx]

About the pic art - I'd love to see someone attempt a diagram where the elemental poles are arranged in a tetrahedron.

I had a look at that Alex but it would be difficult regarding the opposing elements as there aren't any directly opposite sides on a D4!