Elemental classes and PrCs

I will be running an elemental campaign with heavy emphasis on air/earth/fire/water. I want to highlight some classes that have access to all the elements for my players. However, most of what I can think of is elemental specific, like frostrager or stormcaster. To give an idea of what I am looking for, Wu Jen is a nice fit. Broader, sorcerer/wizard is fine because they have lots of elemental spells. Psion is good for the elemental powers. Are there more classes and PrCs that have an elemental focus without being strictly one element?

Edit: no Pathfinder material, but dragon mag is fine

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike Miller

Are there more classes and PrCs that have an elemental focus without being strictly one element?

---

Look at the Shugenja.

There's Elemental Savant but it's pretty bad.

And usually direct damage elemental spells are also bad without metamagic abuse, so you'd only realistically have Earth/Air and maybe some Water casters being decent, with Fire being absolutely useless.

The Magus can enchant his weapon with flaming/freezing/shock/corrosive whenever he needs to, so that's elemental versatility.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Florian

Look at the Shugenja.

---

Good call. This is the sort of class I am looking for

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kurald Galain

The Magus can enchant his weapon with flaming/freezing/shock/corrosive whenever he needs to, so that's elemental versatility.

---

That's Pathfinder, and since OP mentioned Wu-Jen, the game is most likely 3.5.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MisterKaws

That's Pathfinder, and since OP mentioned Wu-Jen, the game is most likely 3.5.

---

Indeed. I added it to the OP

Elemental Archon, High Elemental Binder, Bonded Summoner, Elemental Savant (weak), Elemental Warrior (weak), Elemental Scion of Zilargo

Require clerics to take an elemental domain
Give paladins the Elemental Smite feat instead of their innate smiting
Druids all replace animal companion with elemental companion (perhaps even change wild shape into elemental forms instead, although that's powerful)
Planar versions of all the base classes

Ardent has elemental mantles, and Clerics have elemental domains.

There's a version of Pyrokineticist for each element, but Pyrokineticist is pretty bad.

In Dragon 326 starting on page 86 you can find three-level template classes for the Half-Elemental templates in Manual of the Planes. Those work like savage progressions where the benefits of the template are split out into levels that don't give any HD, just a point of level adjustment and some of the template's bonuses.

There's the Kineticist in Pathfinder, but it's generally regarded as one of the weakest PF classes.

Improved Familiar can get a small elemental familiar, and anyone who can cast arcane spells can take Obtain Familiar and even count their prestige class levels that advance their spellcasting toward its benefits.

There's the Elemental Companion ACF in CM which replaces an Animal Companion with an elemental.

The Summon Elemental reserve feat in CM would be thematically appropriate.

The Water Devotion feat lets anybody summon a water elemental. Making more elemental options would be homebrew, but pretty straightforward along the same lines. Manual of the Planes (3.0) has the para-elementals; ice, smoke, ooze, and magma. I always feel those guys don't get enough love.

Dragon #314 has prestige classes for each of the four elements.

The sha'ir has a strong connection to the elemental planes and, although not particularly versed at spells with an energy descriptor, they have some flavorful class features, including a mini-elemental as familiar.

There aren't many elemental martial classes, are there? I can think of frostrager...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike Miller

There aren't many elemental martial classes, are there? I can think of frostrager...

---

Swordsage with desert wind discipline can be a good analogue for fire, however it doesn't have much else for elemental strikes.

There's a bunch of wind and cold themed PrCs in Frostburn, someone in this thread called elemental Warrior weak, there was a good thread recently with its pros and cons, not saying it's high op, but it's not awful, and non-casters can qualify.
Hellfire Warlock, not sure if I saw that mentioned yet.

The Crystalsinger.

Dragon Samurai, p18, Miniatures Handbook.

Stonelord dwarf PrC is martial/Earth, and the Stone Dragon discipline has Earth-y effects too. EDIT: Pyrokineticist is a PrC that requires some psi to enter but adds only martial abilities.

Dragonborn can have a breath weapon or flight. Hm, come to think of it, dragon shaman or dragonfire adept might work too.

Warlocks can have fire or cold attacks, and some other invocations can be tied to an element, like spiderclimb/shatter for Earth or flight for Air. Consider using the warlock invocation style of ability for homebrew; you can make lots of elemental-themed spells into invocations.

Void Disciple PrC also springs to mind.

Binders have a smattering of effects, and as with the warlock, homebrew opens up worlds of options.

Dragon #310 has a number of class variants, including alignment variants for paladins. The True Neutral variant is the Incarnate, which has some element-themed abilities (including an Elemental Minion in place of a Special Mount).

The environmental books (Stormwrack, Sandstorm, Frostburn) have a lot of PrCs that, even if they aren't explicitly linked to one of the Inner Planes, can be pretty easily interpreted to fit the bill.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MisterKaws

There's Elemental Savant but it's pretty bad.

And usually direct damage elemental spells are also bad without metamagic abuse, so you'd only realistically have Earth/Air and maybe some Water casters being decent, with Fire being absolutely useless.

---

Elemental Savant also doesn't work well for the circumstances described. He's looking for classes that have a focus on specific elements without shutting the character out from other elements. Savant results in a complete devotion towards a single element, starting with a class feature that automatically changes the energy type and descriptor of all of your energy spells to match your chosen element.

Jade Phoenix Mage isn't quite melee, but it's at least gish.

I believe the Shaman (from OA), has a few different elemental spells and domains

Edit: The Pyrokineticist PRC someone mentioned earlier has slight variants for different elements here: http://archive.wizards.com/default.a.../psm/20040625e. You could just ignore the sonic one if you want. Oh, don't forget Dromites have a slight elemental inclination (again, ignoring sonic if you want)