Tempestarii Witch Tradition — Elemental Magic and Philosophy
Tempestarii Witches devote themselves to elemental magic and to understanding how earth, fire, air and water shape the world. Their chosen element influences training and ritual without fixing personality or ancestry.
Choose Tempestarii If…
- You want an elemental Witch whose magic is built around earth, fire, air or water.
- You like choosing one element and letting it shape spells, defences, enemies and character imagery.
- You want your Witch to feel part philosopher, part natural magician and part elemental specialist.
- You enjoy a clear magical theme that remains useful both in and out of combat.
At a Glance
| Play style | Elemental specialist, controller and resilient spellcaster. |
|---|---|
| Core choice | Earth, Fire, Air or Water. |
| Signature abilities | Elemental Aura, Spirit of the Element and Elemental Protection. |
| Built-in weakness | Your opposing element remains especially dangerous under the legacy rules. |
What it feels like to play: Tempestarii rewards commitment to a theme. A Fire Witch should solve problems differently from a Water Witch; the tradition works best when your element affects how you travel, fight, bargain and understand the world.
5.5e / 2024 Tradition
Level 3: Elemental Path
Choose Earth, Fire, Air or Water. Your choice determines an elemental damage type: Earth—Acid, Fire—Fire, Air—Lightning, Water—Cold. You learn one cantrip associated with that damage type from the Wizard or Druid list; it becomes a Witch cantrip for you and does not count against your cantrips known.
When you cast a Witch spell that deals Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Thunder damage, you can change that damage to your chosen elemental damage type.
Level 6: Elemental Aura
As a Bonus Action, expend one Hexcraft use to surround yourself with elemental power for 1 minute. The first time on each turn that a hostile creature enters a space within 10 feet of you or starts its turn there, it takes damage of your elemental type equal to your Intelligence modifier. You can end the aura at any time without an action.
Level 10: Spirit of the Element
- Earth: you gain Tremorsense 10 feet while touching the ground.
- Fire: you gain Resistance to Fire damage.
- Air: your Speed increases by 10 feet and you reduce falling damage by an amount equal to five times your Witch level.
- Water: you gain a Swim Speed equal to your Speed and can breathe air and water.
Level 14: Elemental Protection
You gain Resistance to your elemental damage type; if Fire already granted that Resistance, choose Cold or Lightning instead. When you would take damage of a type to which this feature gives you Resistance, you can use your Reaction and expend one Hexcraft use to gain Immunity to that instance of damage.
Legacy rules source
Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks, Timothy S. Brannan and the Netbook of Witches and Warlocks team.
Description: Tempestarii are witches who have dedicated themselves to the study and philosophy of the elements and elemental magic. Typically, there are 4 different types of Tempestarii; one for each of those who follow earth, fire, air, and water. The Tempestarii’s personality and function tend to vary between elements.
Any people can follow any elemental path. Regional environments, family traditions, patrons and personal experience are better guides than ancestry: a coastal dwarf may study water, a desert elf may choose fire, and a halfling raised among mountain spirits may follow earth.
Role: Tempestarii study both the philosophy and science of their chosen element. Because of this, there tend to be four different philosophies among the Tempestarii.
Each element carries traditional imagery: earth may suggest endurance, fire transformation, air freedom and water patience or adaptation. Individual Tempestarii can embody, reject or reinterpret those ideals; choosing an element does not dictate temperament or alignment.
The Tempestarii study the elements because they believe that with a greater understanding of the elements of nature, the greater the knowledge of their self and the world around them will be. Tempestarii live far away from civilization. Their homes are at the bases of mountains, where a lake or river connects to the mountainside, or at another place where all four elements connect.
Joining this Tradition: Some Tempestarii covens specialise in one element and serve a patron or spirit strongly associated with it. Others deliberately gather practitioners of several elements, treating balance, rivalry or cooperation between the elements as the centre of their practice.
Tempestarii are more solitary than many other witches, generally keeping to themselves and not associating with the other covens. Sometimes they will consult or be consulted by wizards who also study the elements.
Leaving this Tradition: Under the legacy rules, abandoning the obligations of the chosen element suspends the tradition’s supernatural benefits. Restoring them normally requires a meaningful act of reconciliation tied to that element, chosen by the Games Master and suited to the campaign rather than a fixed hazardous ordeal.
Skills & Feats: Tempestarii receive Knowledge: The Planes as a class skill.
Occult Powers
Minor: 7th Level: Elemental Aura. At 7th level, the Tempestarii can immediately identify creatures of her chosen elemental subtype, and creatures opposed to her element within 30 feet suffer -2 to their attack rolls, initiative, saving throws, and skill checks.
Medial: 13th Level: Spirit of Gaea. At 13th level the Tempestarii becomes connected with her chosen element, increasing her defensive capabilities. Earth Tempestarii gain a +4 bonus to their Fortitude Save. Air Tempestarii gain a +4 bonus to their Reflex save. Water Tempestarii gain a +4 bonus to their Will save. Fire Tempestarii gain a +2 bonus to their Fortitude and Reflex Saves each.
Greater: 19th Level: Elemental Protection. At 19th level the Tempestarii’s defenses build up, and they gain resistance to certain types of attacks. Fire Tempestarii gain damage resistance 30 against fire and heat attacks. Water Tempestarii gain damage resistance 20 against frost attacks, and also can breathe underwater normally. Earth Tempestarii gain damage resistance 30 against electric attacks. Air Tempestarii gain damage resistance 10 against all energy based attacks (acid, electricity, fire, frost, sonic).
Special Benefits: A Tempestarii casts all spells of their chosen element as if they were one level higher.
Special Restrictions: A Tempestarii is especially vulnerable to their opposing element (Air vs. Earth, Fire vs. Water). All saves made against spells and magic connected with their opposing element are made with a -2 penalty.
Equipment: The Tempestarri will use a ritual tool that is associated with their element. For the use of spell focuses, the witch will opt for smaller versions of large items.
Coven Domains: Air, Earth, Fire, Water
Preferred/Barred Covens: Aside from elemental covens, Tempestarii can fit it with many different covens, especially ones relating to magic. Solitary witches also become Tempestarii with some frequency.
Relationship to the Patron: A Tempestarii patron may be an elemental power, deity, spirit, dragon, fey sovereign or another being tied to the chosen element. Study and responsible use of that element commonly form part of the Witch’s obligations.
Source/Views of Magic: For many Tempestarii, magic is seen as nothing out of the ordinary, it is only natural. The elements are encompassed in everything, magic is the manipulation of the elements, and hence it is viewed that their magic is not necessarily special at all. This casual view of magic can put the Tempestarii at a disadvantage, with the most serious of wizards.
Wealth: Tempestarii start with the normal amount of wealth allotted to a witch.
Other: As mentioned above, Tempestarii are often at odds with wizards about the nature of magic, but this very same attitude usually puts them on good terms with sorcerers and druids. Other classes find the Tempestarii only slightly more tolerable than any other witch.
Tempestarii find welcome in the lodges of Hermetic Mages; despite that class· arcane training, they find the Tempestarii view on the elements and magic to be fascinating. Fire Tempestarii also find their way into Warlock cults more often than other Tempestarii, and water Tempestarii are welcomed as -Sea Witches-.
| GM’s Note: The Fifth Element AEther, Essence, Asaka, the Void. Regardless of what it is called many sages speculate a fifth classical element. The Pythagoreans speculated it was space or time and used the dodecahedron (a d12) to symbolize it. Many witches and hermetic wizards believe that the fifth element is magic, pure and untainted. The twelve sides each represent the symbols of the zodiac. |
| Traditions | ||||
| Elemental Correspondences | ||||
| AIR | FIRE | WATER | EARTH | |
| Direction | East | South | West | North |
| Rules | The mind, all mental, intuitive and psychic work, knowledge, abstract learning, theory, windswept hills, plains, windy beaches, high mountain peaks, high towers, wind and breath | Energy, spirit, heat, flame, blood, sap, life, will, healing and destroying, purification, bonfires, hearth fires, candle flames, sun, deserts, volcanoes, eruptions, explosions | Emotions, feelings, love, courage, daring, sorrow, the ocean, the tides, lakes, pools, streams, and rivers, springs and wells, intuition, the unconscious mind, the womb, generation, fertility | The body, growth, nature, sustenance, material gain, money, creativity, birth, death, silence, chasms, caves, caverns, groves, fields, rocks, standing stones, mountains, crystal, jewels, metal |
| Time | Dawn | Noon | Twilight | Midnight |
| Season | Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter |
| Colors | White, bright yellow, crimson, blue-white | Red, gold, crimson, orange, white (the sun’s noon | Blue, blue-green, green, gray, indigo, black | Black, brown, green, white |
| Zodiac | Gemini, Libra, Aquarius | Aries, Leo, Sagittarius | Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces | Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn |
| Tools | Athame, sword, censer | Brazier, censer, wand | Cup, Cauldron | Pentacle, stone |
| Spirits | Sylphs, ruled by King Paralda | Salamanders, ruled by King Djinn | Undines, ruled by King Niksa | Pechs, ruled by King Ghob |
| Wind | Eurus | Notus | Zephyrus | Boreas, Ophion |
| Sense | Smell | Sight | Taste | Touch |
| Jewel | Topaz | Fire Opal | Aquamarine | Rock crystal, salt |
| Incense | Galbanum | Olibanum | Myrrh | Storax |
| Plants | Frankincense, myrrh, pansy, primrose, vervain, violet, yarrow | Garlic, hibiscus, mustard, nettle, onion, red | Ferns, lotus, mosses, rushes, seaweed, water lilies, and all water plants | Comfrey, ivy, grains (barley, oats, corn, rice, rye, wheat) |
| Tree | Aspen | Almond, in flower | Willow | Oak |
| Animals | Birds | Fire-breathing dragons, lions, horses (when their hooves strike sparks) | Dragons (as serpents), dolphins and porpoises, fish, seals and sea mammals, water-dwelling snakes, all water creatures and sea birds | Cow or bull, bison, stag, earth-welling snakes |
| Goddesses | Aradia, Arianrhod, Cardea, Nuit, Urania | Brigit, Hestia, Pele, Vesta | Aphrodite, Isis, Mariamne, Mari, Tiamat | Ceres, Demeter, Gaea, Mah, Nephthys, Persephone, Prithivi, Rhea, Rhiannon |
| Gods | Enlil, Khephera, Mercury, Shu, Thoth | Agni, Hephaestus, Horus, | Dylan, Ea, Llyr, Manannan, Osiris, Neptune/Poseidon | Adonis, Athos, Arawn, Cernunnos, Dionysus, Marduk, Pan, Tammuz |
| Platonic Solid | Octahedron (d8) | Tetrahedron (d4) | Icosahedron (d20) | Hexahedron (d6) |
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