Bending (Avatar Supplement)

The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is populated by a variety of elementally-attuned people in addition to normal human beings. These "benders" have the ability to manipulate a single element with the power of their will. These people will often devote their lives to mastering the art of bending their specific element. Some benders, having studied their craft for so long, or due to an innate ability, gain more advanced forms of bending related to their native element.

There are four kinds of benders, for the four elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Benders of a specific element will stereotypically use certain styles and techniques based on their elements, but differing personalities and styles will result in different techniques. Techniques are also limited by the availability of the bending element.

There is one being who has the ability to bend all four of the elements. This individual, called the "Avatar," is the persona responsible for keeping the world in balance, and once one Avatar dies, his or her spirit is reincarnated into a new body. This reincarnation follows a cycle between the four nations: Fire Nation, Air Nomads, Water Tribe, and the Earth Kingdom, in that order. With spiritual training, the Avatar can access a supernatural mental state called the "Avatar state," in which the Avatar spiritually connects to all of their past lives, drawing on the power, knowledge, and experience of the past Avatars. The caveat is this: if an Avatar is killed while in the Avatar state, the cycle of rebirth is broken, and the spirit and power of the Avatar disappears forever.

Setting-Specific Information

For this setting, I have created five different bending-capable classes, one for each of the bending arts and one for the opportunity to create an Avatar character. Due to the nature of the setting, backgrounds and racial variants are not as free-flowing as other classes, as the racial variant will have a huge impact on a bender's abilities. As such, one cannot multi-class into a different bending class, and one cannot multi-class into the Avatar class. There is a possibility, based on the period in history, that a non-bending class could take levels in a bending class of a certain element. For example, if the fighter discovers an affinity to earth later on in training and begins to learn to wield that power.

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