While Draw Steel works pretty hard to break the mold on character classes, most of them fit a fair approximation of D&D classes, like the Fury for the Barbarian or the Shadow for the Rogue. The Elementalist is interesting, because in many ways, it fits the classic Wizard archetype, if you want to cast magic spells, dropping fireballs and the like. Of course, 5E also has the Sorcerer, which fills a similar role. Likewise, D&D's Druid can be something of an "elemental spellcaster." While they have talked about the possibility of some kind of "wizard" class in the future, an Elementalist, of the exiting 9 classes, truly is the closest of the "classic magic user."
We've looked at the Shadow and the Null, but this is the first true "spellcaster" class we're examining. That said, Draw Steel doesn't make as stark a distinction between magic spells and physical abilities. You will be, in most cases, fighting from afar with this class.
Elementalists, being the game's classic mage, use Reason as their primary characteristic, which will always be the highest it can be as you level up.
Elementalists are built around the fundamental elements of Draw Steel's cosmos, but while the four classical elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, are part of this class (though we'll see that only two of those are given a real focus in the core rules) this cosmos actually has seven, adding Void, Green, and Rot.
While the class has more subclasses than most, having four subclasses themed around an element each, we can likely expect to see the missing elements granted their own subclasses in some future product. Note that Elementalist abilities tend to have keywords for an associated element, which some subclass features will interact with.
Heroic Resource: Essence
At the start of each combat, you gain Essence equal to your victories (standard for all heroic resources) and you also gain 2 Essence at the start of each of your turns (subtly indicating this is a more "order"-aligned class). Additionally, the first time in each combat round that you or a creature within 10 squares takes damage that is neither untyped (like the damage dealt by mundane weapons) or holy, you gain 1 Essence. It's likely that you'll be doing damage that triggers this every turn, and there's a lot of this that flies around.
Subclasses:
There are four subclasses (so far) that you can pick from.
Earth focuses on earth elemental powers, which tend to be forceful, protective, and stable (you can increase your stability as you cast earth spells).
Fire focuses on destruction and change, and increases your damage when you cast fire spells.
Green is the magic of life and nature, rejuvenating and protecting, allowing you to grant temporary Stamina when you cast your Green spells. This also allows you to change shape into various animal forms.
Void is the magic of mystery and the distance, and your ranged Void spells gain additional range.
Core Features:
Hurl Element can be used in place of your Ranged Free Strikes, dealing your choice of acid, cold, corruption, fire, lightning, poison, or sonic damage and using your Reason as the associated characteristic. It also deals greater damage as your Reason goes up.
Persistent Magic is probably the most unique feature for the Elementalist. Some abilities have an effect called Persistent X. When you cast a persistent spell, you can choose to maintain it. If you do so, you reduce the Essence you gain at the start of your turn equal to the persistent value. You can maintain a persistent effect until the end of an encounter, but if you take damage equal to 5 times your Reason score in one turn, you stop maintaining any persistent effects.
As an example, Behold the Mystery is a heroic ability you can get at 1st level that costs 3 Essence. It deals psychic damage to each enemy in a 3-cube within 10 squares. If you maintain it, you can use the ability again as a maneuver at the start of your turn without spending any more Essence (in other words, it's more efficient to just maintain this than to cast it multiple turns in a row, as you're effectively just spending 1 Essence rather than 3.)
Practical Magic is a maneuver that lets you do one of a few effects: you can use the Knockback Maneuver, but the distance becomes the range of your Hurl Element feature (at base, 10) and you can use Reason instead of Might. Or, you can choose a creature within range of Hurl Element and deal damage equal to your Reason score in your choice of acid, cold, corruption, fire, lightning, poison or sonic (remember how you gain an extra Essence when a creature takes non-untyped, non-holy damage?) Finally, you can teleport a number of squares equal to your Reason score, and you can spend essence to teleport 1 additional square per Essence spent.
Next, you get Enchantment, choosing one from a list, which can be changed as a respite activity.
Enchantment of Battle lets you wear light armor and a light weapon, giving you a +3 bonus to Stamina and another +3 at each Echelon of play. You also gain a +1 damage bonus with weapon abilities, including free Strikes. If you somehow have a kit, you can't take this enchantment.
Enchantment of Celerity increases your speed by 1 square, as well as the distance you can shift when you disengage.
Enchantment of Destruction increases your rolled damage from any magic ability by 1 (rolled damage is just any time you make a power roll to see how much damage an ability uses, which is most abilities).
Enchantment of Distance increases the range of your magic abilities by 2 squares.
Enchantment of Permanence gives you a +6 bonus to Stamina, with an additional 6 at each echelon of play. You also get a +1 bonus to stability (reducing forced movement used against you).
Finally, other than your class abilities, you get an Elementalist Ward. Like the Enchantment, you get one from a list and can swap it as a respite activity.
Ward of Delightful Consequences gives you 1 Surge when you take damage.
Ward of Excellent Protection gives you immunity to acid, cold, corruption, fire lightning, poison, or sonic damage equal to your Reason score.
Ward of Nature's Affection let you, when a creature within a number of squares equal to your Reason score deals damage to you, use a free triggered action to slide that creature a number of squares equal to your reason score.
Ward of Surprising Reactivity lets you, when a creature that's adjacent to you deals damage to you, use a free triggered action to push that creature a number of squares equal to twice your Reason score (note that's twice the movement as Nature's Affection, but only as a push, and only if the creature's right up next to you).
Levels 2 and 3 both have subclass-specific features.
At level 4, you get more Essence from creatures taking non-untyped and non-holy damage, up from 1 to 2.
Mantle of Essence gives you an aura when you have 3 or more Essence, with a radius equal to your Reason score. The effects of the aura are determined by your subclass, and you can activate and deactivate the aura at will (no action required).
At level 6, you get Wyrding.
Wyrding lets you spend 10 uninterrupted minutes to create a freeform magic spell, which can take numerous forms: you can create a mundane object (with a size equal to your reason score, so at the level you get this, already size 3). You can construct a shelter suitable for twenty creatures that lasts 24 hours that can't be detected by enemies. You can restore all stamina to a mundane object with size equal to your reason score or lower. You can fill an cube area with a size up to your reason score that's within 5 squares of you with difficult terrain or natural phenomean like water, fire, plant life, etc., you clear an area of those things. You can preserve a corpse or up to 5 pounds of food for a week, or cause the corpse or food to rot instantly. Or, you can create a seal on a surface that can't be seen or felt by anyone but you. If a creature comes to an adjacent space to the surface, you can see through the seal as long as the creature's adjacent. You can also limit which creatures activate the seal, such as picking a keyword like undead or a specific individual's name. You can only have one seal up at a time.
At level 7, you get Mantle of Quintessence, which will increase the patience of creatures in your Mantle of Essence aura by 1, maximum of 5, (giving you more time in a Negotiation to make your arguments,) and you and any ally gain an edge on tests that use the Handle Animals skill. If you have 5 or more victories, the bonus to patience increases to 2 and you now grant a double edge of Handle Animals tests.
You also get Surging Essence, giving you 3 Essence at the start of each turn, up from 2.
At level 9, you get Grand Wyrding, allowing you to use Wydring as a main action (rather than taking 10 minutes). Also, if you have 5 or more victories, you gain damage immunity all to your choice of acid, cold, corruption, fire, lightning, poison, or sonic damage (damage immunity all means full immunity - you don't take any whatsoever).
At level 10, you get an epic resource called Breath. When you take a respite, you gain Breath equal to the XP you earn. You can spend Breath to gain Essence (no action required,) gaining 3 Essence for every 1 Breath. Breath persists until you convert it into Essence.
Essential Being now grants you 4, rather than 3 Essence at the start of each turn.
You also gain One, which makes you the embodiment of your chosen element. Elemental motes float around you when you cast magic, and your appearance changes to reflect your chosen element. Each subclass grants a different feature.
For example, Master of Void lets you teleport whenever you move, and you no longer require project sources for research projects, and you automatically complete any research project on the first project roll. Master of Fire increases your damage with all spells and also lets you melt non-artifact supernatural objects, and when you melt a treasure, you gain Breath equal to its echelon.
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