Homebrew Elemental Species Details

Elementals are mystical beings made from the purest alignment of nature and magic. They are strangers to the world but most that come here are willing to learn and adapt. Their more primitive counterparts have given them a bad reputation of beings of pure chaos, but in reality elementals are quite civilized and able to carry a good conversation with most people.

Humanoid in form only

Elementals are their elements. Unlike genasi, which many people see as elementals, elementals are not necessarily humanoid, though most do appear human in form. Their forms can shift at their wills by shaping the elements of which it exists. This means that their size and weight may vary from elemental to elemental. There is no gender among elementals, they are simply created in their plane of existence. This also means that family is something entirely different to elementals. Most see family as all elementals of their element. Elementals wear clothes because it is customary for humanoid races, but they do not require them to hide any private parts, as they do not have them.

Elemental Chaos

The nature of an elemental stems from chaos, though the elementals that will go out adventuring and travel the world have most often trained in some form of self control, either following a strict code or simply being able to control their inner chaos enough to be able to harness it as a weapon. This means that when interacting with an elemental you will find a surprising control over their emotions. Seeing an elemental lose its control over its feelings it can be quite disasterous though, leading to strong winds, flames spewing everywhere, earthquakes or even tidal waves being conjured at random. This is also why a lot of civilisations either shun their kind or have never met them, as the Elementals may just keep to themselves as they explore nature.

Extraplanar exploration

Being created out of the magical energy of one of the four elemental planes, these creatures will try to wander out to see what all other elements are like, and as they cannot function in other elemental planes, some end up in the material world. Their need to explore leads them to the most extreme places in the world. This means that to find a water elemental traveller you may just need to look in a desert, where no water is present. This need to explore other elements of the world is also exactly the reason why these travelling elementals are so difficult to find. Their urge to test their limits leads them to places where no humanoid, fey or aberation had ever set foot.

Magical to the core

Elementals are formed in the chaos that is the elemental planes. Sometimes these planes produce something that is called "an elemental core" and sometimes, around these cores an intelligent and curious elemental forms, these can be found in the material plane. All elementals have these cores, and these cores are quite powerful if used for spellcasting. This means that some powerful wizards or sorcerers may come out looking for these cores to boost their powers. Elementals have thusly created themselves a protection strategy, being able to harness their Chaotic nature and focussing it towards their opponents, this is what is called an Elemental Barrage. These have been known to destroy the very being of their opponents and are also a reason for their shunning out of civilized culture.

Subraces

The Elementals are divided into four groups, one for each elemental plane. These different types of Elemental all have different personalities and strengths. There are some worlds where Elementals have been known to carry a core of more than one element. meaning Ice elementals, Steam elementals and Mud elementals could be a thing.

Elemental Traits

As an Elemental you gain these abilities, stemming from your elemental origins:

Ability Score Increase

Your Charisma score increases by 2.

Age

Elementals age quickly, becoming adults when they reach 2 years of age. They can live for a long time, but most cease to exist after around 1500 years.

Alignment

Elementals are beings created out of pure chaos and had to pull themselves together (literally) to be able to walk in the material world. This requires a lot of self discipline, meaning most follow their own set of rules. They tend towards lawful neutral.

Size

Elementals vary wildly from being to being, some are under a foot tall and others can tower to over 8 feet. The weight also varies immensily, as air elementals weigh next to nothing but earth elementals can quickly go to over 2 tonnes. Your size is medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Your adaptive body give you 60 feet of darkvision. You have the ability to see in the dark as if dim light and in dim light as if bright. You cannot discern color whilst looking into the darkness. 

Malleable

The immense variability of the Elementals body allows it to fit almost anywhere. You can move through spaces as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing and can enter an occupied space as if it were difficult terrain.

Elemental Barrage

You are able to tap into your elemental chaos and channel it into a powerful attack. This attack varies between the elemental types: Whirlwind, Whelm, Wildfire and Earthquake. These are further described in the subrace section of this race.

Languages

You can speak read and write both common and primordial.