FASA Games, Inc.

First off I happen to favor the Elementalist above all other magicians so these statements will be coming from that frame of mind, since I'm most familiar with their spell list, even though I'm sure many of the same questions could be asked for all of the magician disciplines. I have been going through the spell lists for an Elementalist and have noticed some seemingly serious balance issues and am just wondering if I am alone in this opinion or if I'm just missing something. Don't get me wrong I love this game and even though I know I will not be able to artfully express my opinion with out sounding like I am complaining let me state here and now that I am not. I am sincerely trying to get other people's opinions to see if it is just me.

First let's start Earth Darts the "bread and Butter" 1st circle Elementalist spell. When you compare this spell to Lightning Bolt, a 3rd circle Elementalist spell I am left wondering why Lightning Bolt is such a high circle spell. Given that Earth Darts does more damage and has a greater range with all other stats the same as Lightning Bolt I don't get it. I understand that Lightning Bolt ignores metal armor but there are only 3 types of armor in the Player's Guide that qualify (Chain Mail, Plate Mail, and Ring Mail) and as far as shields go I don't know if any would count because the shields with metal are also wooden, only the Body shield sounds like it would be ignored. At best Lightning Bolt should be second circle and i would argue for first myself.

Next compare a Nethermancer's 1st circle attack spells to Earth Darts which excluding Flame Weapon, a spell that is really more of a buff for some one else than an attack for the caster, is the only 1st circle attack Elementalists get. Nethermancer's get two 0 thread attack spells at first circle, Spirit Darts and low damage and low range spell and Spirit Grip a close attack that does the same as Earth Darts, then they get Chilling Circle an AOE spell and Undead Struggle. These are all fine with me except that there 4 of them and I'm not even done I saved the best for last Astral Spear. This spell compared to Earth Darts is way better. Earth Darts has a slightly better weaving difficulty and they do the same damage but Astral Spear has 4 times the range and goes against mystic armor not physical armor like Earth Darts and every other Elementalist spell does, mystical typically being lower for most targets.

I always thought that because Elementalists had the "handicap" of going against Physical Armor that they were compensated in some way by having generally higher damaging spells, lower thread spells, or just more attack spells to choose from. Having gone through the spell list a little more thoroughly now I have to say that does not seem to be the case. Opinions?

I can offer an opinion on a couple of those points.

Lightning bolts ability to ignore mettle armour is more useful than you think. While there are only 3 types of mettle armour in the book they are the armours most likely to be worn by soldiers, scorchers or raiders, being heavier than leather while crystal is too expensive for most people.

The second is your comparison of earthdart to the nethermancers spirit grip and spirit dart. Earth dart is superior to both in my opinion doing more damage than spirit dart and having better range than spirit grip. Also an elementalest can do more for the party’s damage output by casting flame weapon on a fighters weapon increasing party damage output for the entire fight without affecting his future actions.

Also, for spell balance between the Disciplines, you have to keep in mind that the Magician Disciplines are not intended to be primary damage dealers. They are versatile support characters who have enough "oomph" in a fight to defend themselves. The fact that the Elementalist, at first Circle, can boost everyone's natural healing, armor, and damage, and by Third Circle can feed the entire party for free with just three blades of grass, is way more valuable to some parties than a Magician specializing in dealing with undead and Horrors.

Speaking of which, even when talking about just damaging spells, keep in mind that one of them you specifically mentioned, Undead Struggle, takes the Nethermancer out of the fight, has a very narrow focus, and has a chance to kill him if he uses it on too powerful of a target. So that's not too bad of a trade off, really.

The Elementalist has always suffered from this a bit. Range, Threads, Armor, never been to his advantage. It's always one of them for any given spell that seems to spoil it. And with spells being added in ED1 supplements, the other Disciplines always seemed to get a bit more, at least for attacks. And picking what to have in a matrix is always a pain.
OTOH, the Elementalist gets a lot of utility, and that's what his additional supplement spells were about.
I think what makes things so obvious to many Elementalist players, however, is that there are no "uber spells" like some of the other Disciplines get. Spells that are at one glance must takes, such as Razor Orb or Bone Shatter. If he had a couple of these, things would be okay I guess, with things balancing out over circles.
But the Elementalist didn't get much attention in re designs and so on, there hasn't been much that was toned down. And that was also because he had no uber spells, as these are always a bit of a problem...

Elementalists, IMHO, have a the slowest start of the magician classses.
Wizards and nethermancers get reasonable damage dealing potential at 1st Circle (spirit dart and mind dagger(
Illusionists are forced to be support characters until 2nd circle (ephemeral bolt and true ephemeral bolt)
Elementalists get that ablity at third circle (Ice Mace and Chain)
By 5th circle they are all equally combat capable.

When the Elementalist at my table got the fireball spell, she became the de facto long range hitter of the group. The Nethermancer certainly couldn't compare for volume of damage, but could absolutely WRECK a single target.

Each Discipline has a different focus. The Elementalist doesn't have a single target focus for damage, but can deal with large numbers relatively easily.

Elementalists also get Ice Mace and Chain (C3) and Blizzard Sphere (C4). Both can be nasty combat spells. One is single target, the other a multi-round AoE. They are modified by physical armor, but I don't see much equivalent direct-damage spells in the other Disciplines from C1-4. The two threads for Blizzard Sphere can be awkward, but an Enhanced Matrix at C5 makes that less of an issue given it's casting difficulty and effective damage.

Elementalist starts slow but makes up for it quickly enough.

You cannot forget about the Elementalist's Second Circle spell of Flame Strike, which has nasty damage and no threads. Ice Spear is nice for its long range despite the thread and low damage at that circle as well.

Elementalists also have the disadvantage of spell components moreso than the other casters. Fireball is nice, but how often do you actually have a flame large enough to use it? Our has most members with low-light and the one that doesn't (me) finally got the illusionist to do a named spell of cats eyes to make some low light goggles. In cases were we do need light we use light quartz. So any fire spell requiring flame is a hard one. Water runs in a similar vein. While a waterskin can provide a spell here and there, it takes time to get it out and place it before those spells can be used well (looking at you puddle deep and icy surface). The physical vs mystic armor is hard at times, but is less bothersome to me than the material component issues.