Five Elements (5e Variant Rule)
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Five elements[edit]
All damage-dealing magic used by magic slots (but not cantrips) is now divided into five elements: Spirit, Air, Earth, Water, Fire. When casting a spell with a slot, you gain mastery of a certain element, depending on the type of damage the spell deals. A level 1 slot gives 1 mastery point of an element, a level 2 slot gives 2 mastery points of an element per cast, 3 = 3, and so on. Mastery of an element at certain levels gives some advantages to protection from magical damage.
Seculorum Circle: Fire > Spirit > Air > Earth > Water > Fire
Damage types, distributed by elements:
- Fire Element - Fire, Lightning
- Spirit Element - Necrotic, Radiant
- Air Element - Psychic, Thunder
- Earth Element - Force, Magic Bludgeoning, Slashing and Piercing damage types
- Water Element - Cold, Magic Acid, Magic Poison
Classes that can cast spells start with 20 points in each element, and accordingly with a total Seculorum of 100 points. Elemental mastery is calculated by the ratio of the element to the entire Seculorum: points of this element divided by the sum of points of all elements. The sum of points of all elements is the Seculorum points.
- 1/5 or 0.20-0.24: starting value, unchanged
- 1/4 or 0.25-0.32: resistance to damage types of this element
- 1/3 or 0.33-0.49: immunity to damage of the element, and vulnerability to the previous element (look at the circle of the seculorum)
- 1/2 or 0.50-0.74: instead of receiving damage of this element - healing half of the amount that should have been damage
- 3/4 or 0.75-0.99: additional effects and bonuses, individual for the elements (invented by the master individually)
Example: if a character has 1/3 fire magic, then he gets immunity to the damage type "Fire", and vulnerability to damage types "Cold", "Magic Acid", "Magic Poison".
Example: if a character has 25 fire element points at this stage, he uses "fireball" with a 3rd level spell slot, then he gets 3 fire element mastery points, and the number of fire element mastery points becomes 28. If he had 25 fire and 20 each of the other 4 elements before, then the sum of the elements (seculorum) was equal to 105 points, and after using the fireball, the seculorum became equal to 108 points.
Mechanics inspired by the game Soulbringer
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