Elementalist Endgame Suggestion: Elemental Balance
Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2025 7:29 am
I'd like to offer an endgame for Elementalists, particularly around their pets. It is similar to the Lightspeaker endgame, only multiplanar, and can end up triggering an adverse advent.
The Basics
Once an Elementalist reaches level 30, they become able to affect the Balance with their pets. Specifically, they gain the ability to travel to one of four elemental "Poles" to donate pets they own of that element. There is one Pole on each plane:
Valhalla has the Pole of Earth.
Elysium has the Pole of Water.
Stygia has the Pole of Fire.
Purgatorio has the Pole of Air.
Donating a pet at the appropriate Pole releases the pet from the Elementalist's control and turns it into a free pet. The pet is then teleported to a different plane depending on the CURRENT MO of the donator.
Earth: Good->Elysia, Neutral->Purgatorio, Evil->Stygia
Water: Good->Valhalla, Neutral -> Purgatorio, Evil->Stygia
Fire: Good->Elysia, Neutral->Purgatorio, Evil->Valhalla
Air: Good->Elysia, Neutral->Valhalla, Evil->Stygia
Donating a pet has a few effects on the Elementalist: Minor pets donated will raise the Elementalist's accuracy with that element, Lesser pets donated improve soak against that element, and Greater Pets will raise the Elementalist's damage. Furthermore, pets donated will also shift the Elementalist's affinity to a maximum of double their normal affinity. (Example: An Elementalist with three air skills can raise their affinity to as if they had six skills). The stronger the pet, the stronger the shift in affinity. The more pets donated, the stronger the shift in affinity. (Example/Suggestion: Minor gives 20 "points" of affinity, Lesser gives 40 "points" of affinity, and Greater gives 70 "points" of affinity, with each 100 "points" increasing affinity by 1. These bonuses remain as long as the Elementalist's donated pets remain in existence. Thus if the pets are slain, the Elementalist will lose affinity accordingly.
A pet can be released at a pole inappropriate to it. However, this has no effect on the Elementalist's affinity and instead teleports the pet to it's pole where it becomes a donated pet without a donator. This can be useful for ensuring that a plane does not get overwhelmed by elementals foreign to it.
Pets donated are rejuvenated, do not spend AP to move, have no pet decay, and remain in Defensive stance. Donated pets do not attack unless they are attacked. If a donated pet is slain, it reduces the Elemental's affinity appropriately. Donated pets are considered denizens of that plane with a Morality matching that plane, regardless of the MO of the donator. This makes sure that the normal planar denizens do not normally attack them.
Nothing can go wrong, right?
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Planar Effects
Each plane has it's own separate "balance" that is determined by how many pets (donated, and summoned) as well as fonts of that element that reside on that plane. The amount of balance shift from pets is dependent on the type of pet as well as if the pet is controlled by a summoner, equal to the shift of affinity (reduced by 100% if the pet is under control of an Elementalist under level 30, 90% if the Elementalist is level 30). That is, Minor 20, Lesser 40, Greater 70. The stronger the balance shift, the stronger that element gets on that plane, increasing the damage of Elementalist pets and spells. (Example/Suggestion: every 200 points increases spell/pet damage by 1, to a maximum of 5 at 1000). Thus if there's a lot of air pets and fonts are on a plane, air becomes dominant and powerful.
Furthermore, a Pole is a Font that starts with 75 points to that its element. If the font is destroyed, the pole moves to another location, creating the font anew at 75 points. This font provides an affinity level equals to two and a half times the depth of this font (to a maximum of 250). Other fonts contribute half of their MP pool to a plane's base affinity (To a maximum of 250) if on the appropriate plane, or their full MP pool (to a maximum of 500) on a plane different to the pole. Thus for example Valhalla has an base affinity to Earth equal to 2.5x the font size of the pole, plus half of the total of all other Impact fonts on the plane (max 250), and all other planes have a base affinity equal to the MP total of all Impact fonts (max 500) on each particular plane.
---
Oh shit!
There are two hazards to this: Elemental Imbalance, and Elemental Overloads. Both result in the same thing: an Elemental Storm.
An Imbalance occurs when the elemental affinity of a plane gets too heavy compared to the other elements. The dominant element affects spell damage cast by nonelementalists, raising that element's damage by 1 and reducing the opposite's damage by 1 (to a mininum of 1), for every 100 points of imbalance over the opposite or 200 points of imbalance over the other two elements, whichever would have the greatest effect (to a maximum of 5 points of improvement/reduction). This applies across the plane.
An Overload occurs when there's too much of an element on that plane, period. After 1000 points of affinity, each 125 points raises the damage of ALL nonspell/nonelementalist attacks of the appropriate element by 1 and reduces the damage of the opposing element by 1 (to a minimum of 1, and 5 points improvement/reduction). Again, across the plane. This also increases nonelementalist spell damage: nonelementalist spell damage receives the highest of Overload or Imbalance effects for that plane.
If at any point either of these affinities would reach 6: That particular elemental affinity is 1750 or greater, higher than 600 points over it's opposite, or higher than 1200 over the combined affinities of it's neutral elements, an Elemental Storm occurs.
During the elemental storm, the damage bonus for Elementalists becomes +7, and any time an Elementalist uses that damage type, they deal damage to themselves equal to the bonus -1. This bonus and backlash also applies to nonspell/nonelementalist attacks if the Storm is triggered by an Imbalance, or nonelementalist spells if the Storm is triggered by an Overload. All pets of that element on that plane immediately become Aggressive to all. Any pets of that element summoned by or under the control of an Elementalist immediately escape the Elementalist's control for as long as the storm is occurring, becoming neutral pets aggressive to everything. All pets of that element begin to decay, regardless of control. The storm lasts until every one of the elemental pets on that plane is eliminated. Because of this, a storm can generally be waited out until all of Elementalist pets in the Storm exhaust themselves. As the Storm wanes, the bonus slowly diminishes (1 per 250 points of affinity) until affinity reaches 0 or all pets of the storm's element are destroyed, which fully resets that element's bonus to 0, destroys all undestroyed pets of the storm's element, and ends that storm on that plane. Multiple Storms can occur on a plane, and are quite possible if more than one balance of a plane is high.
---
Can it get worse? Damn straight it can.
Storms can rage across multiple planes separately. However, if more than one storm of the same type occur over multiple planes (for example, an Fire Storm over Valhalla and Purgatorio), there is a possibility of an Elemental Tempest occuring. The chance for an elemental tempest is checked whenever a storm starts: 0% if no other plane is under going that storm, 33% if one other plane is, 66% if two other planes are, and 100% if all other planes are under that elemental storm). Only one Tempest can occur at a time.
A Tempest immediately triggers an Elemental Storm on EVERY plane. Unlike normal storms, the damage bonus applies to any time that damage is used (including by nonelementalists) as well as the backlash damage for using that damage type. When a Tempest triggers, it will also immediately kill all NONcontrolled pets of the opposite element (this will, of course, immediately shut down any storms of that element). Pets are only killed at the beginning of the Tempest, so Elementalists are free to donate pets of that element anew. Minor and Lesser pets decay. However, Greater pets do not, and must be hunted down and slain (Or have Lodestones of Balance donated to destroy) to end the Tempest. All pets of that element rejuvenate on kill. Finally, the highest damage effect across all four planes is applied, as opposed to the bonus of a plane's particular balance, with an additional +1 for every plane that contains a proper Storm (That is, have active pets of the Tempest's element remaining). This will raise initial damage bonus to +11 and 10 backlash damage to anyone using that element, as well as guarantee that any attempt to use that damage type will inflict backlash damage for the duration of the Tempest.
---
Lodestones of Balance
Lodestones of Balance can be donated at any pole, which immediately teleports that Lodestone to another location on that plane. Lodestones increase the minimum for Imbalances and Overloads by 50 points for each Lodestone donated (thus a plane with two active Lodestones could reach an affinity of 1850, or higher than 700 / 1300 points). Donated Lodestones DO decay, and if a donated Lodestone is active when a storm occurs, it will immediately detonate to destroy one pet of that element on that plane along with itself, starting with the most powerful pets. This way, donated Lodestones act as a counterweight to help delay and and shorten Elemental Storms, but need to be regularly refreshed as they decay and the loss of a group of Lodestones when an element is very high may inadvertently cause one or more different Storms.
Lodestones of Balance also increase Arcane affinity for the Elementalist and its plane by 100 points. However, if an Arcane "Storm" occurs, all Lodestones on that plane will immediately detonate, also destroying one donated Elementalist pet for each Lodestone destroyed, starting with the heaviest affinity. This Arcane affinity opposes no elements nor affects or is affected by the balance of any elements, so this can only occur if there are far too many donated Lodestones on that plane. As all Lodestones will be destroyed, the Arcane "Storm" will immediately end as soon as it begins, with the destruction of a significant number of donated pets with the aim of evening out that plane's particular elemental imbalances.
---
Other Notes
All of this is very simplistic and basically all about running up elemental damage and flooding the planes with random elementals until the elementals go berserk and try to kill everyone. I think that these events would go very well with weather effects and weird little effects that Elementalists can use at times of high balance. For example, using the Poles to teleport between planes, or freely teleporting between fonts, or fonts offering cheaper/stronger enchantments if balance is particularly high.
Any ideas?
The Basics
Once an Elementalist reaches level 30, they become able to affect the Balance with their pets. Specifically, they gain the ability to travel to one of four elemental "Poles" to donate pets they own of that element. There is one Pole on each plane:
Valhalla has the Pole of Earth.
Elysium has the Pole of Water.
Stygia has the Pole of Fire.
Purgatorio has the Pole of Air.
Donating a pet at the appropriate Pole releases the pet from the Elementalist's control and turns it into a free pet. The pet is then teleported to a different plane depending on the CURRENT MO of the donator.
Earth: Good->Elysia, Neutral->Purgatorio, Evil->Stygia
Water: Good->Valhalla, Neutral -> Purgatorio, Evil->Stygia
Fire: Good->Elysia, Neutral->Purgatorio, Evil->Valhalla
Air: Good->Elysia, Neutral->Valhalla, Evil->Stygia
Donating a pet has a few effects on the Elementalist: Minor pets donated will raise the Elementalist's accuracy with that element, Lesser pets donated improve soak against that element, and Greater Pets will raise the Elementalist's damage. Furthermore, pets donated will also shift the Elementalist's affinity to a maximum of double their normal affinity. (Example: An Elementalist with three air skills can raise their affinity to as if they had six skills). The stronger the pet, the stronger the shift in affinity. The more pets donated, the stronger the shift in affinity. (Example/Suggestion: Minor gives 20 "points" of affinity, Lesser gives 40 "points" of affinity, and Greater gives 70 "points" of affinity, with each 100 "points" increasing affinity by 1. These bonuses remain as long as the Elementalist's donated pets remain in existence. Thus if the pets are slain, the Elementalist will lose affinity accordingly.
A pet can be released at a pole inappropriate to it. However, this has no effect on the Elementalist's affinity and instead teleports the pet to it's pole where it becomes a donated pet without a donator. This can be useful for ensuring that a plane does not get overwhelmed by elementals foreign to it.
Pets donated are rejuvenated, do not spend AP to move, have no pet decay, and remain in Defensive stance. Donated pets do not attack unless they are attacked. If a donated pet is slain, it reduces the Elemental's affinity appropriately. Donated pets are considered denizens of that plane with a Morality matching that plane, regardless of the MO of the donator. This makes sure that the normal planar denizens do not normally attack them.
Nothing can go wrong, right?
---
Planar Effects
Each plane has it's own separate "balance" that is determined by how many pets (donated, and summoned) as well as fonts of that element that reside on that plane. The amount of balance shift from pets is dependent on the type of pet as well as if the pet is controlled by a summoner, equal to the shift of affinity (reduced by 100% if the pet is under control of an Elementalist under level 30, 90% if the Elementalist is level 30). That is, Minor 20, Lesser 40, Greater 70. The stronger the balance shift, the stronger that element gets on that plane, increasing the damage of Elementalist pets and spells. (Example/Suggestion: every 200 points increases spell/pet damage by 1, to a maximum of 5 at 1000). Thus if there's a lot of air pets and fonts are on a plane, air becomes dominant and powerful.
Furthermore, a Pole is a Font that starts with 75 points to that its element. If the font is destroyed, the pole moves to another location, creating the font anew at 75 points. This font provides an affinity level equals to two and a half times the depth of this font (to a maximum of 250). Other fonts contribute half of their MP pool to a plane's base affinity (To a maximum of 250) if on the appropriate plane, or their full MP pool (to a maximum of 500) on a plane different to the pole. Thus for example Valhalla has an base affinity to Earth equal to 2.5x the font size of the pole, plus half of the total of all other Impact fonts on the plane (max 250), and all other planes have a base affinity equal to the MP total of all Impact fonts (max 500) on each particular plane.
---
Oh shit!
There are two hazards to this: Elemental Imbalance, and Elemental Overloads. Both result in the same thing: an Elemental Storm.
An Imbalance occurs when the elemental affinity of a plane gets too heavy compared to the other elements. The dominant element affects spell damage cast by nonelementalists, raising that element's damage by 1 and reducing the opposite's damage by 1 (to a mininum of 1), for every 100 points of imbalance over the opposite or 200 points of imbalance over the other two elements, whichever would have the greatest effect (to a maximum of 5 points of improvement/reduction). This applies across the plane.
An Overload occurs when there's too much of an element on that plane, period. After 1000 points of affinity, each 125 points raises the damage of ALL nonspell/nonelementalist attacks of the appropriate element by 1 and reduces the damage of the opposing element by 1 (to a minimum of 1, and 5 points improvement/reduction). Again, across the plane. This also increases nonelementalist spell damage: nonelementalist spell damage receives the highest of Overload or Imbalance effects for that plane.
If at any point either of these affinities would reach 6: That particular elemental affinity is 1750 or greater, higher than 600 points over it's opposite, or higher than 1200 over the combined affinities of it's neutral elements, an Elemental Storm occurs.
During the elemental storm, the damage bonus for Elementalists becomes +7, and any time an Elementalist uses that damage type, they deal damage to themselves equal to the bonus -1. This bonus and backlash also applies to nonspell/nonelementalist attacks if the Storm is triggered by an Imbalance, or nonelementalist spells if the Storm is triggered by an Overload. All pets of that element on that plane immediately become Aggressive to all. Any pets of that element summoned by or under the control of an Elementalist immediately escape the Elementalist's control for as long as the storm is occurring, becoming neutral pets aggressive to everything. All pets of that element begin to decay, regardless of control. The storm lasts until every one of the elemental pets on that plane is eliminated. Because of this, a storm can generally be waited out until all of Elementalist pets in the Storm exhaust themselves. As the Storm wanes, the bonus slowly diminishes (1 per 250 points of affinity) until affinity reaches 0 or all pets of the storm's element are destroyed, which fully resets that element's bonus to 0, destroys all undestroyed pets of the storm's element, and ends that storm on that plane. Multiple Storms can occur on a plane, and are quite possible if more than one balance of a plane is high.
---
Can it get worse? Damn straight it can.
Storms can rage across multiple planes separately. However, if more than one storm of the same type occur over multiple planes (for example, an Fire Storm over Valhalla and Purgatorio), there is a possibility of an Elemental Tempest occuring. The chance for an elemental tempest is checked whenever a storm starts: 0% if no other plane is under going that storm, 33% if one other plane is, 66% if two other planes are, and 100% if all other planes are under that elemental storm). Only one Tempest can occur at a time.
A Tempest immediately triggers an Elemental Storm on EVERY plane. Unlike normal storms, the damage bonus applies to any time that damage is used (including by nonelementalists) as well as the backlash damage for using that damage type. When a Tempest triggers, it will also immediately kill all NONcontrolled pets of the opposite element (this will, of course, immediately shut down any storms of that element). Pets are only killed at the beginning of the Tempest, so Elementalists are free to donate pets of that element anew. Minor and Lesser pets decay. However, Greater pets do not, and must be hunted down and slain (Or have Lodestones of Balance donated to destroy) to end the Tempest. All pets of that element rejuvenate on kill. Finally, the highest damage effect across all four planes is applied, as opposed to the bonus of a plane's particular balance, with an additional +1 for every plane that contains a proper Storm (That is, have active pets of the Tempest's element remaining). This will raise initial damage bonus to +11 and 10 backlash damage to anyone using that element, as well as guarantee that any attempt to use that damage type will inflict backlash damage for the duration of the Tempest.
---
Lodestones of Balance
Lodestones of Balance can be donated at any pole, which immediately teleports that Lodestone to another location on that plane. Lodestones increase the minimum for Imbalances and Overloads by 50 points for each Lodestone donated (thus a plane with two active Lodestones could reach an affinity of 1850, or higher than 700 / 1300 points). Donated Lodestones DO decay, and if a donated Lodestone is active when a storm occurs, it will immediately detonate to destroy one pet of that element on that plane along with itself, starting with the most powerful pets. This way, donated Lodestones act as a counterweight to help delay and and shorten Elemental Storms, but need to be regularly refreshed as they decay and the loss of a group of Lodestones when an element is very high may inadvertently cause one or more different Storms.
Lodestones of Balance also increase Arcane affinity for the Elementalist and its plane by 100 points. However, if an Arcane "Storm" occurs, all Lodestones on that plane will immediately detonate, also destroying one donated Elementalist pet for each Lodestone destroyed, starting with the heaviest affinity. This Arcane affinity opposes no elements nor affects or is affected by the balance of any elements, so this can only occur if there are far too many donated Lodestones on that plane. As all Lodestones will be destroyed, the Arcane "Storm" will immediately end as soon as it begins, with the destruction of a significant number of donated pets with the aim of evening out that plane's particular elemental imbalances.
---
Other Notes
All of this is very simplistic and basically all about running up elemental damage and flooding the planes with random elementals until the elementals go berserk and try to kill everyone. I think that these events would go very well with weather effects and weird little effects that Elementalists can use at times of high balance. For example, using the Poles to teleport between planes, or freely teleporting between fonts, or fonts offering cheaper/stronger enchantments if balance is particularly high.
Any ideas?