# LOL...Disciples of Death can't steal souls



## John Q. Mayhem (Jan 10, 2005)

I've just noticed that if you take the Elemental Disciple of Death feat, you can't have any Life spell lists...which includes Move Life, the list with soul-stealing magic. Just thought it was amusing...Also, you can't become an Elemental Guardian of Death, because it has no friendly elements. Unsure whether that's on purpose or not. I noticed these when making a high-level EoM(R) necromancer.


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## Verequus (Jan 10, 2005)

Actually, there are more elements with no friendly elements - next to Life all of the unifying elements. Furthermore, I have to admit, that I don't like it, that several instances forbid the knowledge of some spell lists - one of the very things I like about the specialisation feats is, that you can become a specialist of everything (except Create ) without sacrifacing knowledge. The other thing, I like, is, that you don't start as a specialist, but grow into one. The above mentioned restriction validates this wonderful idea.

 As a houserule, I'll won't require the ignorance of the opposed elements, next to the addition, that elements without friendly elements need then the knowledge of the opposing one. This allows to become Guardians of Life and Death simultaneously, but you have still to use at least one feat for each element, so it isn't really a concern. Hmm, I see, that no unifying element has an opposing element. In that case, every unifying element has to be known.

 Another discovery, I just made: Earth, Crystal and Metal don't have any opposing elements? Because they don't deal energy damage?


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## RangerWickett (Jan 11, 2005)

Most of the tradition feats in LA are designed mostly for flavor, so in the case of elementalism I was focusing on the classic 4-element system, where oppositions are strong.  But if in your game you're willing to let a mage dabble in opposed magic, there wouldn't be any balance issues that I can see.

Earth, metal, crystal, and nature don't have opposing energy types, true.  It was a bit of a mistake on my part to not fully look at what elements are actually opposed to everything; I knew what flavor I wanted, saw that fire and water opposed each other nicely, and didn't check all the other elements.  Again, though, the goal of the feats was to allow for interesting abilities involving specific elements.  The spell list knowledge prerequisites are mostly there to encourage specific types of characters that are appropriate for the magical tradition of Elemental Guardians.  In which case, earth opposes air and air's friends, water opposes fire and fire's friends, and vice versa.


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## John Q. Mayhem (Jan 11, 2005)

I'm thinking that I might only allow the Disciple/Guardian feats with the classical elements, but I like the idea of a necromancer being able to "smell" Death magic...I'll tinker it out. I love EoM[R] and Lyceian Arcana, Ranger, so please don't think I'm nitpicking. You did a great job.


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