Elemental Priests

[David]

[Inspired by a combination of the elemental priests of Darksun, the Shugenja of 3.0, and the Avatar animé series --DC]

[glow=purple,2,300]ELEMENTAL PRIEST[/glow]

These clerics have devoted themselves to a specific element rather than any anthropomorphized being or ethical structure. As a result, these clerics are able to call upon a wide variety of elemental spells and spheres, but are completely banned from others. The various elemental philosophies also restrict elemental priests in their choices of weapons, armor, and even magical items. Elemental forces have no real power over the undead thus elemental priests cannot turn or command them, but gain a special sensitivity to the elements instead as well as the ability to summon and control their element as they advance in level. In all ways not noted, elemental priests conform to the cleric class (q.v.).

Since the forces these priests serve are truly elemental, they are very unlikely to respond to calls for divine intervention or ever interact directly with the devotee in any way (same chance and results as a non-cleric). Similarly, since these characters lack the direct divine support other clerics enjoy, advancing in level is slightly more difficult; elemental priests use the experience table of witches instead of clerics.

At first level, an elemental priest can sense the presence of their element within 10’ as a full action, noting roughly the quantity/size (large, medium/man-sized, small, tiny, etc) and location (within a few feet). At fifth level this ability broadens to allow the priest to recognize if the element is natural or a spell affect and the range expands to 20’. Furthermore, non-opposed elements can also be sensed at the first level of ability within 5’. At tenth level the priest can determine whether their element is a creature or object within 40’. Non-opposed elements can now be sensed within 10’ at the fifth level of ability. Finally, at fifteenth level, the elemental priest can identify the exact nature of their element (if a creature is human, elven, or hobbit or if an object is gold, stone, or steel, etc) within 80’. Non-opposed elements can now be sensed within 20’ at the tenth level of ability (size, direction, natural or spell, living or object). In all cases, sensing an element is the only action an elemental priest can do in a round (c.f. a paladin’s detect evil).

Beginning at fifth level, an elemental priest may ignore the presence of their element and behave as if they were made of the element for their level in minutes, once per day. During this time the element and its effects simply do not exist for the priest. Thus an air priest can wander through a hurricane or fly through the air, an earth priest could walk through a mountain or stone prison, a fire priest could swim in a lava flow or withstand the greatest red dragon’s breath, a water priest could ignore a tsunami or breathe at the bottom of the deepest sea, etc. The priest gains another use of this ability at 9th, 13th, and 17th levels.

Starting at seventh level, an elemental priest may summon a quantity of their raw element to their location once per day. The amount of material is one cubic foot per level above sixth. The priest gains another use of this ability at 11th and 15th levels.

Air priests gain major access to the spheres of: elemental air, charm, divination, travelers, weather plus limited access (1st and 2nd lvl spells) to the spheres of Fire and Water. They may use any missile weapon as well as those weapons which are both melee and missile weapons (spear, javelin, hand axe, etc), but nothing flaming. Air priests are limited to woven armor (cloth) and may not use a shield. In exchange for this restriction, they enjoy access to the following spells: (1st) change self, control vapor, trance, ventriloquism, (2nd) affect normal winds, audible glamour, dream sight, sleep, (3rd) clairaudience, levitate, mirror image, phantasmal force, (4th) clairvoyance, dispel vapor, dream vision, invisibility, (5th) confusion, lightning bolt, remember, suggestion, (6th) dream voyage, legend lore, mass sleep, teleport, (7th) divine wind, eye of the eagle, mass charm, mass suggestion.

Earth priests gain major access to the spheres of: elemental earth, creation, guardian, protection, time plus limited access (1st and 2nd lvl spells) to the spheres of Fire and Water. They may use any weapon made of stone, metal, or wood (which grows from the earth), but nothing flaming or made of bone. Earth priests may use any metal armor or shield.

Fire priests gain major access to the spheres of: elemental fire, combat, sun, thought, war plus limited access (1st and 2nd lvl spells) to the spheres of Air and Earth. They may use any weapon made by fire, including flaming oil, forged metal, and volcanic glass. Fire priests may use any metal armor or shield.

Water priests gain major access to the spheres of: elemental water, death, healing, numbers, summoning plus limited access (1st and 2nd lvl spells) to the spheres of Air and Earth. They may use any weapon made of organic materials, such as bone, wood, horn, etc (since all life springs from water), but not metal or stone. Water priests are limited to organic armor (woven, leather, hide) and similar shields (leather or wood). In exchange for this restriction, they enjoy access to the following spells: (1st) calm, change self, (2nd) create spring, mending, (3rd) alter self, control fluids, (4th) plant growth, polymorph self, (5th) animal growth, polymorph other, (6th) force shapechange, longevity, (7th) restore spirit, shape change.

Elemental priests are not only banned from casting spells from their opposite element, but all spheres associated with that element. This is a religious/philosophical injunction, similar to a paladin not committing an evil act or a cleric of Bast being required to aid felines. As a result, were a water priest to find a scroll of flame strike (fire) or even thought capture (the thought sphere is part of the fire “group”), she still wound not be able to make use of the scroll. This restriction even extends to the use of magical items which duplicate these effects. Thus a fire priest could not use a staff of curing (since healing is a water spell), while an earth priest could not wear a ring of invisibility (since this is an air spell), nor could a water priest use a continual light stone (since this is from a sun spell associated with fire). The only exception to this would be persistent items without a visible manifestation, such as rings or cloaks of protection, enchanted weapon, etc, but NOT bracers of defense.

In addition, since they are tied to elemental philosophies instead of anthropomorphized divine beings, elemental priests are banned from the use of any spells from the four alignment spheres of good, evil, law, and chaos. The only exception to this would be those spells which overlap into other, allowed spheres, such as detect evil (divination) or protection from chaos (protection). Like the restriction on opposed spheres, elemental priests cannot use magical items which duplicate these alignment-associated effects either.

Finally, elemental priests are allowed to learn mage spells of their elemental specialty at plus one level. These additional spells are NOT granted automatically; the priest must locate and learn a copy of the spell without any divine aid, usually from a scroll, but possibly through mentorship from a mage or even a cleric of another god who also grants the spell. The chance of a priest learning a spell in this manner is the same as for a mage of the same intelligence minus 25%. If the check is failed, the cleric may make another attempt after gaining a level.

[Jeff]

Wierd.

I always imagined them as more of the benders in Avatar. They can move and manipulate their element at will. I could also see this represented in a combat turn. A fire bender, for example, could throw a fireball at an enemy. This fireball does a d4 damage, and you need to roll to hit. For each round you charge up you get +1 to hit and +1d4 to damage cumulative. So if a firebender was first level with a dex of 16, and if he charged up for 3 rounds before firing his fireball, then he would have +4 to hit and do 4d4 damage.

[David]

Hey Jeff,

I think that's interesting. In fact I kinda like it. I'm not sure if it should be a basic class ability, but perhaps a spell? I'm trying not just to match the benders of Avatar, but also the shugenja of Rokugan as well as the elemental priests of DarkSun. My goal is to broaden and better define each of these three sources.

I started with DarkSun's priests. The problem was the only elements that don't totally suck were fire and earth; no one in their right mind would choose air or water. Partly this is because the spells available to all the priests were pretty much the same, except fire got fire (blow up) spells and earth got earth (move, escape, and craft) spells. Air and Water got the shaft. This was further enhanced (or shafted) by the selection of weapons and armor each type of priest got.

Now, in Rokugan, each element is likened to a philosophy. Therefore, different elemental priests are good at very different things. Air is about insight and travel. Earth is about defense and stability. Fire is about destruction and war. Water is about healing and transformation. Using these definitions allowed me to split out the universal list and create elemental priests of each element who could stand on their own, especially when I added the LIMITED ability to use spells of non-opposed elements (everyone but fire can heal, but they can REALLY cause damage now!). And adding the ability to sense elements also came from Rokugan.

I tacked on the ability to poach mage spells because I dislike the idea of a priest of Geb (Egyptian Earth God) or Zeus (Greek Sky God) having a number of elemental spells unavailable to priests who ONLY do these elements. Using the logic from the witch class (elemental priests can be thought of as a former-witch-class-gone-orthodox), I crafted those rules.

That leaves Avatar, which was, I will admit, my inspiration. But if you look at the series, Ang and Katara's abilities seem to grow (they level) during the show. I dunno about Toph, but even Prince Zuko seems to "run out of juice" after a while, and his sister's fire-bending is definitely tougher than his! It's more like spells combined with martial arts, especially since there is at least as much fighting (other than by Ang and Azula) as bending. So when Katara uses water bending as ice formation later in the series to break stuff, it's like she now has access to higher level spells (similar to the wu jen spell list).

So, with the addition of poaching mage spells, you can easily explain most of the fire bending tricks something like this: Zuko learned burning hands as a 2nd lvl spell and uses it when he does his martial arts. That's why he kicks and punches (he's got a limited number of spells each day!). Azula, however, is higher level and can toss of spell more like (limited) fireballs! I'll give you that this is NOT a perfect match for the Avatar series, but then they don't get to cast cure light, speak with animals, hold person, etc either. But it does allow a PC cleric-type with some SIMILAR abilities. To be a true bender, the DM would have to create (yet another) character class.

Finally, after some thought last night, I think I want to make one clarification and add two RESTRICTIONS to the Elemental Priest.

The clarification is that just as they cannot use spells on scrolls which come from opposed elemental spheres, so too are elemental priests banned from using magical items which duplicate such effect. So a fire priest could not use a staff of curing (healing is water) nor could an earth priest use a ring of invisibility (this spell falls into the air group).

The first restriction is that an elemental priest MAY NEVER use spells that fall into the alignment spheres of good, evil, law, and chaos (unless they overlap with another sphere, like divination or protection). This includes scrolls and items as well.

The second restriction is that elemental priest use the witch eep table instead of the cleric one.

Thoughts?

[aaronthecow]

you have WAYYYY to much time on your hands

also, I think that there should be ways that you can imbody diferent kinds of the element, (like if you want to do damge as air, you be com force) kinda like pristege classes. i don't know.

[David]

Et tu, Brute?

I prefer to think of myself as thorough...

As for making a set of bender-classes that perfectly fit Avatar, that would be tough in most systems; it's way beyond what I had in mind (so there!). If you want that level of conformity and detail, I hate to say it, but the only system that really works is Champions (or LOTS of kits and skills!).

Finally, even in Avatar, there seem to be very definite themes to the use of each element.

The fire-benders are the only industrialized nation and also the most destructive. They don't seem to have a soft-side and are really best at violence (and technology). As a side note, I'd be willing to wager the designers BEGAN with certain assumptions for each of the four elemental peoples, with the Fire Nation beginning with a Japanese model. This totally fits Monsoon Asian cultural patterns and perceptions.

In a similar vein, the Earth Kingdom doesn't do anything quickly and generally acts as a huge bulwark to the forces of the Fire Nation. The have a HUGE population and are obsessed with the status quo. Sounds like the "back-half" of every Chinese dynasty there ever was (plus the "front-half" even of the Sui and Qing!).

The Air Nomads seem to be Indians. The religious nature of their culture (theocracy), their spirituality, and even their vegetarianism totally fits this. They're good at getting around and conteplating the inner meaning of life.

That leaves the Water Tribe, who seem to be either Inuit or Ainu (I'd bet the later). And of course, drawing a parallel from the real-world between the Japanese and the Ainu, the Water Tribe is getting it's collective-butt kicked by the more martial and technologically advanced Fire Nation. The Water Tribe lives in harmony with nature, but not in reverence of it.

At least that's my take on it...

[Jeff]

¿Qien es el Ainu?

[charbidge]

The Ainu are Caucasians who live on the northern islands of Japan. how and when they got there is anybody's guess, but when the Japanese colonized the islands (arriving from korea, although they won't admit it), they pushed northward and eventually pretty muchdid to the Ainu what WE nearly did to the Indians... excuse me, Native Americans (Hey! I was born here, why doesn't that make ME a native? eveyone ELSE in the world is a native of where they were born, how come I get shafted?). Anyway: Ainu are or were aboriginal types found in the northernmost big Japanese island. THey may once have lived on ALL the islands, but their new neighbors took care of THAT over a couple thousand years.

[David]

That's pretty accurate, except that the Ainu of today are not really Caucasian, but a mix of (predominantly Asian) ethnic traits mostly found among the people of Tibet and certain islands of India. To the Japanese, the most crucial trait is that they're hairy (making them culturally "unclean" and/or "beastlike").

The Ainu appear to be culturally related to Kennewick man (thought to be a member of prehistoric, pseudo-Caucasian population with settlements from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, later wiped out by the Amerind population), but the Ainu have genetically shifted more toward the Asian genome over the last 5000 to 9000 years. There have been some theories that the Ainu represent part of a "lost" branch of pre-historic, pan-polar civilization whose descendents ultimately became the Finns and possibly the Scandinavians and Siberians, but the evidence for this has mostly not stood up to the scrutiny of modern linguistic and genetic data.

It's true that even today Ainu are often the target of discrimination and racism in Japan, similar to the way European Roma (Gypsies) are treated. They are viewed as "noble savages" and this has been used to validate the numerous attempts to exterminate them either physically or culturally. Since DNA testing reveals them to have genetic links to both Tibet and India, it is reasonable to conclude they represent an earlier human population which was displaced when the modern Japanese invaded Kyushu from Korea (this is a particularly difficult fact for many Japanese to accept due to cultural biases -- similar to how modern Americans can't grasp that we're the biggest cause of global warming). It was these new people who established the Yayoi period in Japan, thereby founding the later Japanese identity -- despite Japanese mythology and "historical literature" (which exists in a vacuum!), modern archeology clearly shows a break in the physcial traits of the population of Japan during the Yayoi as well as too many cultural links to mainland Korea to explain away as anything BUT invasion. You'll note that these proto-Japanese peoples also pulled a similar stunt on the Okinawans of the southern islands, suppressing them and their culture too.

Basically, the Ainu lived as hunter-gatherers in a manner similar to the Inuit. Men did not shave, wearing beards and moustaches as a result while women tatooed themselves. The Ainu did not work metal, but fished extensively (and always cooked the fish they caught). They are generally physically taller allowing them to excel in Western sports, such as baseball and soccer; this is a VERY current issue confronting Japanese cultural self-identity today in fact, since Ainu have begun to become very visible in pro-sports (compare to similar trends in the US!).

Note, I used the term Amerind before. Don't look at me for PC terms; I'd rather be accurate than PC. Remember, growing up I had a friend (Ricky) who was born in South Africa, raised in Kenya, and then lived in the US. He was truly an African-American (he knew the geography and way of life) but was whiter than a sheet (complete with freckles!) so would never use the label in the US. Ditto for a black woman (Edna) from Sierra Leon who had GREAT contempt for the term "African-American" since most of the "melanin-enhanced populations of the US with ethic forebearers from sub-Saharan Africa" have no clue about what life in Africa is like and usually couldn't find even the most important countries on a map, while she, a woman raised in a tribal environment in Africa, didn't really get covered by the social construction of the term as used today in America. The social construction of different human "races" is flimsy and inaccurate at best and generally pathetically-meaningless beyond superficial, cosmetic traits. And since cultural traits are all learned...

Hell, culturally and ethnically, I could CLAIM to be a Euro-American or even a German-American or Fraco-American, but despite speaking the language well enough to pass for a "nearly local", my ancestors have been in the US for at least three generations (except one Canadian grandfather). If you ask me, unless someone is either first-generation American (immigrant) or REALLY into their roots (speaks the language, gets the culture, knows the history), they're just "Americans" in my book (and probably would be to the folks "back home" anyway -- talk to me about the prevalent European perception of ethnicity and nationality some time, especially the jokes made about "Italian-Americans" in Italy!).

[Ghost of Bob]

Amerind still is a clarification much like using 'hindian' to refer to those from India as opposed to native americans. (Hindian is NOT PC.)

[David]

There are MANY terms for the people that Columbus and company encountered in the new world. No one has really blessed any one of them, which befits such a diverse group prone to infighting! I will use (fairly interchangibly) Amerind/Native American/First Nation/Indian and the literature does too, with no term winning out.

Hindian is new and sounds like a slur to me. There, I'd use Indian or East Indian or maybe Hindi (although that term has all sorts of religious and cultural overtones not suitable for modern audiences) or maybe South Asian (which is super vague and general and includes most of the surrounding countries too).