Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bewildered DM 04-08-08, 10:44 PM	Hello all, I did a quick thread search and found some info on "classical" elemental specialists. However, I'd like to discuss my particular "need" more pointedly. Does anyone have any ideas on how to convert a 2nd edition Elementalist (a la "Tome of Magic") to 3rd? I have an old 9th level Elementalist in 2nd edition and would love to see that character as an "honest" and close translation in 3rd. However, a quick look at the abilities given 2nd edition Elemental specialists seem a little difficult to duplicate in 3rd- especially at lower level. Any ideas on how to approach this problem? Should I just go with a specialist wizard from the 3rd edition PHB? One of the defining things I remember about 2nd edition is the 1d4 "level bump" for specialist spell casting per day. I don't see that replicated in 3rd. Could that be a "homemade" feat? Any ideas, direction or opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Tempest Stormwind 04-09-08, 12:22 AM	Consider looking at the shugenja in Complete Divine. It's technically a divine caster, but it's heavily element-based, and it uses divine writings. Note that its list is generally considered underpowered, but as a "base" it might serve the job well enough. Another potential option is the Ardent in Complete Psionic, depending on how physical you wanted it to be. The ardent is so flexible it can handle almost any role; here you'd just give it the Elements mantle. Finally, Complete Arcane's Wu Jen is very much an "elementalist wizard", albiet using five elements instead of four. It's been too long since I've seen the elementalist to give better advice than that.
Shadowfax7 04-09-08, 07:00 AM	Any ideas on how to approach this problem? Should I just go with a specialist wizard from the 3rd edition PHB? One of the defining things I remember about 2nd edition is the 1d4 "level bump" for specialist spell casting per day. I had a 13th level Earth Elementalist which I converted to 3.5 ed. using a Specialist Wizard that specializes in one of the sub-schools of Air, Earth, Fire or Water spells (this is actually weaker than normal specialization in one of the schools of magic, but fits the concept). Then I used feats to re-create the 2nd ed. Elementalist's abilities: The metamagic feat, Heighten Spell for the 1d4 level bump. Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus in one of the sub-schools of Air, Earth, Fire or Water spells. I did not recreate the save bonus against spells of the element specialized in, but that can be done by choosing one of the "bonus to saves" feats" (Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes) OR create a homemade feat that provides a bonus to saves vs. one of the sub-schools of Air, Earth, Fire or Water spells.
Shadowhowler 04-09-08, 03:05 PM	Re-doing a 2nd Eddition Wizard Elementalist would be easy... HOW you do it just depends on how much work you wanna put into it. You could create it as a base class. This would be a pain cuz you'd have to sift threw the PHB and Spell Compendium and create it's spell list... snatching all the approprate element baised spells. You could do it as a PrC. This would be a little easier... but would not have the full flavor of the original... pretty close tho. You could do it as Tempest suggested... the Wu Jen is defenitly heavy in the elements... I have little experince with the shugenja tho. Lastly, you could do it as Shadowfax7 did... just pick the right spells and feats to get the feel of your old character down. Go wild!
Bewildered DM 04-10-08, 09:56 PM	Great feedback! Thanks, all! I can take something useful from each of your responses! As for the spell list, Talisman did the hard work for all of us in his post, The Fourfold Path: The Elementalist (base class): http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=976790 I found this a few days ago, but didn't go with it because I mistakenly thought the class used all four elements eventually. I'm going to revisit it along with the suggestions here. Again, thanks for the feedback!