Elemantist Class

This is my take on a sorcerer class, I'm working with some fundamental assumptions in place but I by no means think the numbers represented here are fixed. One of the primary mechanics of the 5th Edition Sorcerer is their ability to use sorcery points to be more flexible casters.  In this class I want to embrace the idea behind 5th Editions Sorcery Points while shedding the vancian spell slots system entirely.



The Elements
There are 4 primary elements, Earth, Fire, Air, and Water but elementalists have specialized in any countless sub-elements, from Ice or Lightning Elementalists to Light, Sand, and Metal Elementalists, rumor has it there was once an Elementalist who specialized in wielding a liquid metal similar to Galium.

Elementalists are unlike other classes in that they choose their path at first level instead of third. Each path has it's own minor drawback. Elementalists gain +3 to their saves vs any spell that involves their element. (Pyromancers get +3 to their dex save vs fireball, the Air Bender gains +3 to his save against lightning bolt spell because lightning is a subdomain of Air)

Pools of power 

Elementalists draw on a wellspring of elemental power within themselves in order to manifest different effects. This wellspring of power is represented by a pool of Affinity Points as laid out below. When creating a spell effect the Elementalist describes what they are doing and the GM will determine how many Affinity points the effect would cost. An Elementalist can also cast any spell from the traditional sorcerer spell list that contains their element for a number of points equal to the level of the spell.

1 point damage moves are usually maxed at 2d6 on a single target or  1d8 in an AoE, in practice I would want to let players describe their actions and about how much damage/AOE they are aiming for before the DM determines the cost/viability of such a manifestation. Keeping in mind that the math of how the DM chooses to ration points directly relates to how powerful the class is.

The Elementalist Class

Level 1 - 2 Affinity Points - Choose Primary Element 

Level 2 - 3 Affinity Points

Level 3 - 8 Affinity Points - Signature Move
Level 4 - 10 Affinity Points -  Ability Score Improvement
Level 5 - 16 Affinity Points
Level 6 - 19 Affinity Points - Elemental Bonus
Level 7 - 23 Affinity Points
Level 8 - 27 Affinity Points - Ability Score Improvement
Level 9 - 36 Affinity Points
Level 10 - 41 Affinity Points - 2nd Signature Move
Level 11 - 47 Affinity Points 
Level 12 - 47 Affinity Points 
Level 13 - 54 Affinity Points 
Level 14 - 54 Affinity Points 
Level 15 62 Affinity Points 
Level 16 62 Affinity Points 
Level 17 71 Affinity Points 
Level 18 77 Affinity Points 
Level 19 - 84 Affinity Points 
Level 20 - 90 Affinity Points 

Element List- 

- Earth: +3 Saves vs  Acid and Poison, Constitution Casting Stat, Cannot Cast if not on the ground or in a stone building that is touching ground. 

- Water: +3 Saves vs Ice and Forced Movement effects, Wisdom Casting Stat, Cannot cast while dehydrated

 - Fire: +3 Saves vs Fire Effects, Charisma Casting Stat, Cannot cast while soaking wet or in water.

- Air: +3 Save vs Lightning effects, Dexterity Casting Stat, Cannot cast without access to the sky (defined by whether or not a crow could fly from their mouth to the sky unimpeded)

Signature Move - 
At 3rd, 5th and 10th level you have developed habits in your interaction with your chosen element. Choose a particular manifestation you have been favoring and reduce its AP cost by 1, this is the only way Elementalists can manifest cantrips, however a pyromancer elementalist could also make a 3 point fireball type spell his signature move and reduce its AP cost to 2, making it much more spammable.
Design Note - This is also a way to reward players for creating a distinct style in combat, allowing for smoother combat interactions and to solidify a players arsenal, however, the sheer amount of points at higher levels should assure that players will continue to find ways to creatively use their points without feeling pinched. 



Elemental Bonus
Earth: Earthen Defenses- Your default AC Becomes - 10 + Con + Dex. In addition you may spend an action during combat to pull earth and dirt towards you, increasing your armor class by +1, this can stack to a maximum of +3

Water: Water Healing - You can spend a minute and a point of AP to grant someone (1d4 + Wis) temporary HP. This consumes a full rations worth of water and works best in lakes, rivers, ponds, wells, oceans, etc. (3d4+Wis/AP over the course of a minute in such places)

Air: Airmasters Acrobatics - You gain resistance to all falling damage. In addition you can spend a single AP to gain 10 feet of movement and not invoke attacks of opportunity until end of turn.

Fire: Cloak of the Pheonix - You can ignite most flammable objects with a touch, requiring 0 AP. In addition you may spend 3AP to enter a stance with a duration of 10 minutes. This stance wreathes the user in flames, requiring concentration and granting the following benefits -

• The Elementalist sheds bright light out to 15 feet and dim light an additional 15 feet.  

•  Any creature which hits the Elementalist with a melee attack takes damage equal to double the Elementalists charisma modifier.  

•  Whenever the Elementalist spends AP to deal fire damage they may add their charisma modifier to the damage rolled

Sample Shenanigans --- 

Earth - 

The Door Maker - After taking a few deep breaths the Earth Elementalist shoves a section of stone wall aside, if nothing is behind the wall then a hole is blown through it wide enough for a medium sized creature to pass comfortably. - 4AP

Anklecrusher - Send a small tremor through the earth between you and an opponent, causing the earth to swallow and then crush their ankle. Dex save vs 2d8 bludgeoning and movement speed reduced to zero. Can either spend a full round action digging their ankle out or can yank it out, dealing an additional d8 of damage - 2AP (Single Target CC + 3d8 Damage)

Boulder Hurl - Sling a small boulder at a nearby enemy (floor tiles, large earthen clods, bricks and masonry) spell attack vs AC for 2d8 bludgeoning damage - 1AP

Hail of Stones - Sharp stones rain down in a 5 foot radius circle dealing 1d6 piercing damage Dex save for half - AP 1

Water - 

Phase Change - A water elementalist can change the phase of the water they are manipulating at will (free action, can occur on enemy turns etc.) - 1AP

Water Jet - A stream of water bludgeons and knocks enemies prone or backward (caster choice) 1AP/Round to pin enemies to the ground, hamper movement and generally create a bad time, an additional 1AP / round deals 2d6 bludgeoning per round. Concentration, combos nicely with phase change.

Water Cloak - Wielders use their water as a form of armor with tentacle-like arms. The Elementalist can use these arms to grab objects or enemies, blast enemies with water, etc. Depending on how much water they have very experienced water masters might have up to 8 water arms. (Bashing an enemy with an arm deals 1d8 damage. Creating the cloak with one are is 2AP a minute and an additional 2AP per extra attack up to 8 attacks / round, at 8AP/Minute. Concentration duh.)

Water Shield - Reaction vs Attack against caster or an adjacent ally, granting disadvantage on the attack. 2AP

Note - I avoided talking about ice manipulations because I feel like those are easier to think of than liquid water manipulations but this doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't use ice. 

This post is probably not useful

Just as the title says; this post is going to be a lot of rambling and will probably help no one. But that's okay because I'm here to rant about some shit that's in my brain, and if it happens to ever be useful to someone that's great.

5E is a combat rules system masquerading as a roleplaying system.  The main purpose of mechanics in roleplaying systems that I run is to inform the storytelling and to add an element of risk/reward to the interactions. The problem, of course, is that in order for that to be true or for such mechanics to be useful the DM must have a certain amount of foundational knowledge about gameplay etc. That makes it hard to market a product based on this assumption and so instead the rules are designed for simplest possible accessibility and there is nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day though, mechanics inform the gameplay experience for players and by designing more combat mechanics you inform the players that this game is about combat. Today I'm picking on Monks as an example of a few overarching 5E design critiques and then maybe somewhere in there I can produce useful ideas.

I Got Beef With Monks - 

So this isn't a fair title, monks themselves have done nothing to me or my family. (Unlike warlocks, who know EXACTLY what they've done!) I mean I do think they're a bit over tuned that's not really important here. I'm just using Monks as a punching bag because I was thinking about design and monks and what monks could be, but this same thing stands true for basically all classes.

You ever notice how much of a monks kit is combat oriented? I could replace "monk kit" with 5E and still feel comfortable making that accusation, but again, we're gang beating monks today. Monks have a variety of moves and styles and the like, but all of their abilities are essentially geared towards combat, (The open palm is an interesting exception) and almost universally these are boxed in by very specific rules. And those rules get in the way of the Cinematic Bullshit that I want to see out of my monk players.

Jackie Chan doing Cinematic Monk Bullshit

So, remember earlier I said this would be a discussion about how mechanics inform gameplay right? So what kind of gameplay do we want from monks and how can we inform the player what the monk class means in terms of gameplay through mechanics which encourage the type of play we want? (The idea of class decisions informing DMs about the type of gameplay a player wants is a whole other discussion, but for now, let's just assume that you know about that.) 

What 

I mean what the actual fuck is happening here? 

Answer: Cinematic Monk Bullshit

Okay okay, at this point you're really irritated and you want me to just make my point and shut up already so here it is. Monks should be able to use their Ki points to just will things into existence. Or, more accurately the Monks should be able to will thematic (shadow monks have different abilities than open palm monks have different abilities than a kensei) bullshit into existence. 

You're fighting an Ogre, it misses you with an attack and you go "I use a ki point to slip inside his attack and try to land a blow to make him drop the club" and yeah dude, fuckin roll an attack and make that dude drop his club.

Your party is facing an adult red dragon and you know it's going poorly. You're front lining but you know you're hit dice aren't exactly huge so you'll need to find ways to introduce some Cinematic Bullshit to save yourself. The dragon lands a bite but only barely, you burn a few Ki points to boost your AC by doing the classic "grab the teeth" cinematic bullshit move. This creates an absurd tug of war between you and the dragon that can reduce it's DPS significantly or be rendered useless after around, either way, it's cinematic and simple. 

So how do you write rules for this? To be honest, I don't think you write the rules for this, I think you just put a big label of "Cinematic Cutscene Fights" and explain to your players what monks look like in your world. (Jackie Chan is a level 20 monk in my example characters list)  I love the cinematic bullshit, and I love the idea of using Ki as a resource that can be spent to do various cinematic bullshits. 

Minotaur Lore and History Part 1

The Minotaur race is a nomadic people, they seldom build long term structures, preferring yurts and longships converted to temporary shelters.  They herded small herds of oxen but relied heavily on raiding to sustain their numbers. For this reason, they often determined their leadership through combat and for a long age only the strongest minotaur could lead the tribes.

According to the vague histories that have survived the ages, the first traces of the clan split started when some great hero of the minotaur race returned as an ally to the other races of the world after facing a grave threat which threatened to destroy the entire realm. This seems to be a recurring pattern with adventuring parties, something about them unites races in ways that seem illogical. More research is required on this topic.

 This split inevitably turned violent, but the violence escalated far beyond any skirmish or internal feud that had been seen before, after a decade of fighting the war had cost nearly a quarter of the minotaur population, millions lay dead on burnt battlefields. These mass battlefield graves are a favorite lairing place for necromancers who favor minotaur skeletons for their denser bone structure and larger size.

Finally a hero emerged, at the head of another adventuring party and gathered every clan behind his banner in ritual combat. The wise hero, knowing that the ideological differences of the clans could not be resolved split the minotaur race into 4 nations. He then set a yearly time and place for the 4 Minotaur nations to meet and trade goods and information. This gathering became known as the Gathering of Asterion, after the hero who founded it.

These four nations each set out in search of their own lands to roam across.  One clan went into the Badlands where they lived as conquerers and slavers, they became known as the Bonehorn clan. Another settled in the vast forests of the Life Cradle to live and hunt the living plants and great behemoths that live there. They became known as the Clan of the Green Axe, after the unique axes they forged from rare materials found only in the Life Cradle. The third, the Stonehoof clan settled in the plains to live a simple life of farming and grazing, the clans' warriors herd great oxen across the central steppe to be sold at the Gathering of Asterion. These herds are one of the few things in the central steppe which are considered above the rule of the Orcish warlords. The final tribe, the Fellhide tribe, went to the Mountains of Madness where they were bent to cruelty and violence. The tribe conquered the local goblins, creating vast mountainside temples to minotaur might on the backs of goblin slave labor. They dwell now in these massive stone temples, raiding the villages below for supplies. Every few years a warlord will lead an army of goblins and minotaurs down to reave through the countryside, returning fat with meat and plunder.  

Minotaur Clans Part 2

A History of Minotaur Clans Written By The Great Archeologist and Anthropologist Endiara Cavendish

The Bonehorn Clan

Any Desert Traveler will tell you to avoid the maze-like canyons that bisect the Badlands. Everyone knows that is the Domain of the Bonehorn clan and their slave army. The Bonehorn clan are brutal minotaur slavers, famous for raiding unwary caravans and Orcish war parties alike, often selling their captives off to the Gnoll Druids of the central desert in exchange for harvested water fruits and stolen waterskins.

The Bonehorn clan are excellent glass smiths and frequently wield elegant glass bladed weaponry. These glass weapons are extraordinarily keen cutting blades and leave wounds that often bleed profusely. The few Bonehorn representatives who travel to the annual gathering Gathering of Asterion bring glass trading goods such as flasks, glass weapons, and various glass containers and jars. They primarily trade for water and slaves.

The Bonehorn Clan select their leader once every few years, Any minotaur who wishes may attempt the challenge and the first to return is crowned the Chieftain for 3 years. The challenge is simple but dangerous. Each contestant walks into the desert with nothing but a glass dagger and small glass water flask. The first to return riding a Bullete is the new chief. The Bonehorn Clan use Bulletes as raiding beasts as well as pulling heavy loads such as slave carts and sand loads. Rumor has it a great Bonehorn chief once constructed a great temple made of glass, but no outsider has ever seen it and lived.

Stonehoof Clan 

The Stonehoof clan is by far the most peaceful of the 4 Minotaur nation. Settled in the Northern Steppes the Stonehoof clan has traded swords for plow blades. Their size assures that no wandering bandit would care to attack a Stonehoof village. The warriors of the clan drive cattle south through orcish territories with impunity. The Oxen of the Stonehoof clan grow to be nearly 9 feet tall at the shoulder and make some of the finest jerky and leather goods on the market. (Stonehoof leather armor grants +1 AC vs Slashing damage)

The clans elders are greatly adept at the creation of traveling foods that last for weeks on end but do not go stale. Aside from the great drying racks of ox jerky, Rodrigez the explorer once recorded a Stonehoof Travel Biscuit (made from almond flour and mixed with ox fat) lasting well over a year without growing stale. The clan typically trades these food goods for whatever their needs may be, typically tools and wood.

The Stonehoof are not great smiths, and they prefer to purchase tools and utensils from traveling merchants rather than forge things themselves. They also rely on trade at the Gathering of Asterion where they bring Oxen and Prepared Travel foods to trade for tools and containers of various sorts. Though less of a tradecraft the Stonehoof clan typically makes most of their clothing from shaved Ox fur.

Clan Green Axe 

This clan was near impossible to track down, but when I finally made contact they agreed to let me follow them a brief time. They've taken isolationism to extremes, migrating in some permanent pilgrimage through the massive living forests of the Life Cradle from one great temple to another, arriving at each temple in time to conduct a great ritual to waken the sun from his slumber that the world might live again. There are several family groups who seldom interact with one another during their travels, except when a few families will gather at a hidden outpost made from carved hollows in the trunks of small world trees. As far as I can tell these family groups have no heirarchal structure and when multiple groups meet up they gather in what appears to be some kind of general assembly to address family needs and spread news.

The temples of the Green Axe clan are sacred territory, and at each clan meet up one family group is selected to stay behind and guard the temple. The remaining groups will bring offerings of slain beasts and foraged fruits upon their return for this great service. The Green Axe clan are highly protective of their temples, I once witnessed the family group guarding the southern temple, wipe out 3 dozen high elven water dancers that strayed too close to their temple. The Minotaur took a single casualty and he was given a funeral pyre the same night.

The Green Axe clans are great beast hunters, priding themselves on killing beasts like giant otters and the hulking nameless behemoths of the ancient forest alike. Their weapons are made from a deep green mineral called Malachanium, it holds a sharp edge and rumors of a deeper latent magic abound but the minotaur that I spoke with were coldly silent on the topic.

The Fellhide Clan

It Has been many years since my last entry in this book. Much has happened in the time of my travels but that lies beyond the scope of this tome. I have finally reached the ancient fortress of
the mountain clan and discovered their historical records. The entry that follows is my interpretation
of that history. I believe the Mountain clan to be lost to history, their existence stomped out by a powerful sorcerer king.

The Minotaurs that moved into the mountains were arguably the most warlike of the clans. They came to conquer, viewing themselves as the rightful rulers of the meek in a very nietzsche-esque "Powerful always dominate the weak" way. They held to the old traditions of ritual combat for leadership and were highly militaristic. It seems they grew very little of there own food, and didn't trade for it either. By all accounts, much of their diet consisted of plundered food, and jerky from the Gathering of Asterion. (Minotaur are equals and therefore worth trading with)


 When the four nations of the Minotaur tribes split their separate ways the Fellhide clan, already the most bloodthirsty of the clans retreated to the Mountains of Madness where the dark energies of that land warped them into cruel creatures, long bereft of any humanity. It did not take long for them to enslave the many goblin clans that inhabited the area, the great chieftain known only as Duuvera Fellhide built a fortress of iron on the backs of goblin slave labor. He had the mountain stripped of its resources quickly for this fortress, and it stands to this day. The walls are rusted over and the great spike battlement lays devoid of life, inside nothing but empty halls and dust.

It is hard to imagine this fortress would have been like in its hay day. This is my final entry regarding the culture of the majestic Minotaur species. None of this work would have been possible without help from my kind friend and fellow researcher Ernesto LaVenta.