Editing Elementalist (section)

==In Pathfinder==
In [[Pathfinder]], elementalists are some of the earliest [[wizard]] archetypes added to the game. Advanced Player's Guide adding all four Western Elementalist archetypes, whilst Ultimate Magic allowed Eastern Elementalists by adding Wood and Metal archetypes.

Because Pathfinder isn't as strict as its 3e basis, whilst it preserves the basic idea of Opposition Schools, wizards can still learn spells from their opposed school; they just need to give up two spell slots of the same level to prepare an opposed school spell. In "classic" elementalism, opposed schools are based on the traditional rivalry handed down from D&D: Earth vs. Air, and Water vs. Fire. If using the Wu Xing (Chinese Five Elemental) style, your opposed school is based on the cycle of overcoming; whichever elemental school "overcomes" your own is your opposed school, with Wood overcoming Earth, Earth overcoming Water, Water overcoming Fire, Fire overcoming Metal and Metal overcoming Wood. Void Elementalists choose one element from the Earth/Air/Water/Fire group counts as their opposed school, whilst Aether Elementalists designate one of ANY of the other seven elemental schools. As elementalists only have one opposed school, they make good use of the Discovery (Wizard only feat) Opposition School Research, which effectively removes one opposition school (except for the obscure bit about a small penalty when crafting magic items). What spells were in each element wasn't expanded on past the initial list for many years until most of them got an update in ''Planes of Power''.

The '''Air''' School focuses on wind, sky, cloud and lightning to destroy their foes, and prizes mobility. Its Air Supremacy feature grants a bonus to Fly checks and the ability to cast differing flying spells (Feather Fall/Levitate/Fly) on themselves at will as they gain levels. Lightning Flash lets them produce a blast of electricity several times per day. Finally, at level 8, their Cyclone ability lets them generate aerial turbulence that really messes with the flying capabilities of others in their immediate area.

The '''Earth''' School is all about shaping the world around them and drawing strength from stone. Earth Supremacy makes them harder to move involuntarily, and ultimately lets them cast spells through stone barriers. Acid Cloud lets them create short-lived clouds of corrosive vapor. Finally, level 8's Earth Glide lets them move through stone as if it were air for a limited time each day.

The '''Fire''' School is all about burning shit. Fire Supremacy gives them Fire Resistance, which ultimately transforms into fire immunity & the ability to turn open flames into an impromptu shield. Fire Jet lets them throw blasts of flame every so often, and level 8's Dancing Flame lets them reshape existing flames and the area of effect for fire spells.

The '''Water''' School draws its power from the ocean depths. Water Supremacy gives them augmented breath-holding and swimming abilities. Cold Blast lets them unleash bitter cold as an attack several times per day. And finally, their 8th level archetype ability Wave lets them conjure a great magical tidal wave from nowhere that can douse flames and knock people off their feet.

The '''Metal''' School, being a non-classic element, is somewhat different. Symbolically, metal-as-element represents firmness, rigidity, persistence, strength, determination and electricity. As a physical element, traditionally, metal manipulating spells are actually found on the [[druid]]ic spell list, and thus wizards of this school get chill/heat metal, rusting grasp, and repel metal or stone as bonus spells. Their Metal Rending feature makes their attack spells better against armored opponents, whilst Iron Skin lets them boost their own AC by a level-based amount a certain number of times per day. Finally, 8th level gives them Shrapnel Burst, which basically lets them throw razor-sharp shrapnel everywhere in a 10ft radius, slicing up anyone close by and turning that spot into temporary difficult terrain.

The '''Wood''' School is symbolically associated with flexibility, warmth, wind, generosity, cooperation and idealism. As physical plant-control is, again, traditionally the [[druid]] thing, this school gets a motherload of bonus spells: entangle, tree shape, plant growth, command plants, tree stride, liveoak, transmute metal to wood, and control plants, plus Sirocco (already a good spell) '''2''' levels early. Flexible Enhancement gives the wizard a level based "floating" ability score bonus, which they can apply to one of Dexterity, Constitution or Wisdom whenever they prepare spells (two at once at level 20). Splintered Spear lets them fling an enchanted spear at a target which inflicts bleeding several times per day. Finally, level 8 gives them Cooperative Defense, where you can grant allies your saving throw bonus if you are within 30 feet of each other and being targeted by the same attack.

The '''Void''' School is based on the Japanese 5 Elemental Style, which makes it analogous to the oft-forgotten Grecian "Ether/Ather/Aether" Element, as it's paired up with the more recognizable quartet of Air/Earth/Fire/Water. It is the "mental" element, in contrast to the more physical quartet, being associated with thought, space, spiritualism and insight. Void Elementalists gain control over energies that bind the earth to the heavens and the planes to their mysterious and eternal alignments, as well as the powers that stitch living beings to their spirits. This gives them several bonus spells (keen senses, twilight knife, wandering star motes, true seeing, moment of prescience) and the features Void Awareness (increased resilience against spells), Reveal Weakness (curse an enemy with lowered defense & penalized saving throws) and Aura of Prescience (emit a temporary aura that grants allies a bonus to all checks/throws/saves).

The '''Aether''' Element is based on the spiritual element from classic Greco-Roman thinking, which people tend to forget about. In the Pathfinder cosmology, Aether is a "spiritual elemental substance" that manifests itself predominantly in the form of raw motive force, hence the school's bonus spells (telekinetic projectil, spiritual weapon, spiritual ally, ethereal envelope, animate objects, ectoplasmic eruption, telekinetic storm) and its list of thematic spells. For features, it provides Aether Supremacy (bonus to Sleight of Hand, gain a level-strengthened at-will Mage Hand and, ultimately, telekinetic Sleight of Hand), Telekinetic Protection (grant yourself Damage Reduction 5/Magic for 1 round so many times per day), and Receptive Vibrations (your Dex bonus cannot be negated against attacks from any creature, visible or otherwise, within 30 feet, and add half your Wizard level as a bonus to Perception checks against surprise).

'''Smoke''' is a "Focused School" compatible with Air and Fire Elementalists.

'''Ice''' is a "Focused School" compatible with Air and Water Elementalists.

'''Oooze''' is a "Focused School" compatible with Earth and Water Elementalists.

'''Magma''' is a "Focused School" compatible with Earth and Fire Elementalists.

{{Pathfinder-Classes}}

===Spheres of Power===
In [[Spheres of Power]], Elementalist is a mid-BAB mid-caster that functions as a full-caster when using the destruction sphere, which generally focuses on making explosions of various shapes and varieties. This preference in the Destruction sphere goes rather deep, as they gain increasing bonuses to caster level for focusing on specific elements as well as elemental resistance.

Due to their rather obvious elemental theming, there were some very obvious elemental-themed [[archetype]]s as well as a few more unique ones.
*Admixture Savant: Loses elemental focus, but instead gains a special pool of talents to cut down the time extensions given when using either metamagic or admixture (a special Destruction talent that lets you split the damage of your blasts between two types). Though not as defensive, it does allow access to casting and metamagic feats instead of combat feats so you can go mix-crazy.
*Elemontalist: No, that is not a typo, this was part of an entire gag-filled book that Drop Dead released. This also focuses on dealing with acid blasts, (because citric ''acid'', geddit?) which isn't terrible but is rather easily resisted by fiends. Fortunately comes with natural armor as a bonus instead of a dodge bonus to Reflex saves as well as access to [[Alchemist]] discoveries, which...is a bit of a surprise. Surprisingly rather amenable to changing damage type, allowing you to instead change the acid focus to fire, electric or cold focus depending on the particular fruit of focus.
*Electrokinetic: At the cost of limiting them to electric blasts (easily the best of the three primary elemental damage types, as it is far less resisted than fire and ice), they get telekinesis at full CL, albeit limited to metal objects. They also gain Electrokinetic Stunts as an option to spend feats on, and these are actually pretty nice things like treating living creatures as metal objects (removing one of the big limiters on its telekinesis), blindsense, and longer range attacks.
*Flame Warrior/Metal Warrior/Natural Warrior/Water Warrior/Wind Warrior: Restrictive focus to a specific element (Fire, electric, acid, cold, air in that order), including a perk if using a matching package from the Nature sphere. Not quite as recommended due to not providing the most standout features.
*Geokinetic: Not the earth-focus, but instead replaces the Elementalists' focus on the Destruction sphere to a focus on the Nature sphere - particularly, in it's various packages for controlling the various aspects of nature.
*Soul Adept: Blends the Elementalist with the Death sphere for some spooky effects, leading to temporarily turning into a ghost.

====5e====
Of course, the Elementalist was ported over to 5e alongside with the rest of the Spheres system. Their purpose here is relatively unchanged, relying on the Destructive sphere for damage and gaining a bonus to damage of a specific type. Rather than unique movement modes, they do gain the ability to spend a bonus action on either making themselves faster or on protection beyond the AC bonus given for not wearing armor.

Rather than elemental foci, the subclasses of the 5e Elementalist are more on the fun parts of the archetype list.
*'''Path of the Aspirant''' is more akin to the original PF class with multiple favored elements.
*'''Path of the Doomblade''' gives access to Spheres of Might as well as allowing them to more conveniently bind blasts to their weapons using the Blade blast shape.
*'''Path of the Geomancer''' gives access to the Nature or Weather spheres, including the ability to tie their activations to blasts.
*'''Path of the Inspired Kineticist''' grants floating Destruction talents and favored elements as well as the ability to radically change blasts the Elementalist concentrates on.
*'''Path of the Primordial''' gives access to the Alteration sphere, transforming into elementals while also blasting enemies.

{{PF-3PP-Classes}}

===Pathfinder 2e===

{{dnd-stub}}
Rather than being only wizard focused on one type of damage type, the Elementalist archetype lets any Arcane or Primal caster (which now includes Magus and flexible spell tradition casters like Sorcerer, Witch, and summoners) hyper-focus on spell of the four classical elements (Fire, Water, Earth, and air). Getting a unique Elementalist Spell list that hyper focus on those kinds of spells (to the exclusion of most utility, and risk of not getting updated) along with Elemental-themed metamagics (which don't have any restriction outside the normally only one metamagics per spell, so fine to have your Hydrolic push spell also to set a person on fire or Levitate spell putting it out.

{{Pathfinder-2nd-Edition-Classes}}