Attuned
Attuned are born with a living spark from one of the Elemental Realms woven into their bodies. This influence shapes their appearance in countless ways. Some show clear elemental traits, their bodies marked by living flame, shifting vapor, flowing water, or stone-like skin. Others display subtler signs such as hair that moves without wind, metallic undertones in their skin, faint motes of embers, drifting mist, static flicker, or tremors underfoot.
No two Attuned look the same, even those bound to the same realm. One fire-touched child may burn like a candle flame, while another only sheds sparks when excited. Water-touched Attuned range from fluid bodies to people who always seem damp. Air-touched may distort sound or shed tiny arcs of static. Earth-touched may resemble living statues or simply leave grit and vibrations in their wake.
Their powers manifest early and often unpredictably. Most Attuned communities form in remote places where young Attuned can learn control without endangering others. They mature at the same rate as humans, though their lifespans differ by realm: fire-touched often live up to about 180 years, air-touched to about 200, water-touched to about 220, and earth-touched to about 240.
Attuned Traits
Creature Type. Humanoid.
Size. Medium (4 to 7 feet tall) or Small (2 to 4 feet tall).
Speed. Your walking speed is based on your element: Fire 30 ft., Water 30 ft., Air 35 ft., Earth 25 ft.
Elemental Attunement. Choose Fire, Water, Air, or Earth. This choice determines several traits you gain.
Elemental Sensory
Your elemental nature sharpens one of your senses:
• Fire: You can see clearly through smoke, ash, steam, and other light heat-based obscurants.
• Water: Your vision is unaffected by fog, mist, rain, or natural underwater distortion in clear water.
• Air: You sense subtle shifts in pressure. You have advantage on Perception checks to detect creatures within 10 feet that disturb the air.
• Earth: You sense minute vibrations. You have advantage on Perception checks to detect creatures within 10 feet that share your surface.
Elemental Resilience
Your body is adapted to your realm’s hazards:
• Fire: Resistance to fire damage; immune to nonmagical heat and burning surfaces.
• Water: Resistance to cold damage; you can breathe underwater and ignore natural cold and shallow water pressure.
• Air: Resistance to lightning damage; unaffected by strong winds and sudden pressure shifts.
• Earth: You have natural hardening in your body.
Whenever you take nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, you reduce the damage taken by 2.
Elementalurgy
You can produce and manipulate a small amount of your element, similar in scope to the harmless effects of minor cantrips. This is biological, not magical.
Fire can create sparks or small flames.
Water can produce droplets, mist, or small amounts of liquid.
Air can create drafts, static pops, or subtle pressure shifts.
Earth can form dust, grit, pebbles, or thin layers of soil.
These effects may obscure vision, warm or chill surfaces, dampen sound, scatter light debris, or create minor inconveniences. They never deal damage, impose conditions, or function as attacks.
Elemental Enlightenment
At 3rd level your elemental nature becomes a fully controlled extension of your body. You gain Elemental Bolt, Elemental Shaping, and Elemental Traversal. These features are not spells.
Elemental Bolt
As an action, you release a concentrated burst of elemental energy at a creature you can see within 30 feet. Make a ranged attack using Dexterity or Constitution (your choice each time). On a hit, the target takes elemental damage based on your level.
Damage type: Fire → fire, Water → cold, Air → lightning, Earth → bludgeoning.
Elemental Bolt cannot critically hit and never adds ability modifiers to damage.
Elemental Bolt Damage
Level 3: 2d8 Level 5: 2d10 Level 7: 3d10 Level 9: 3d12 Level 11: 4d12 Level 13: 4d12 Level 15: 4d12 Level 17: 6d12
The bolt’s appearance is yours to choose.
Elemental Shaping
As a bonus action, you reshape, move, animate, or disperse up to 5 cubic feet of your element within 30 feet. This never deals damage, forces saves, or counts as an attack.
You can create temporary, non-living elemental constructs. These have no combat integrity. If a creature targets a shaped construct with an attack, harmful effect, or force, it is instantly destroyed without affecting the attacker.
Shaping cannot restrain, block, provide cover, or grant mechanical benefits, but it can create decoys, illusions, sculptures, tools, environmental changes, or other noncombat utility.
Elemental Traversal
As a bonus action, you move up to 15 feet using your element. This is physical movement, not teleportation. It provokes opportunity attacks. This movement is separate from your normal movement and does not reduce or replace your walking speed. You can use Elemental Traversal only once per turn, and must end the movement in a space you can stand in.
• Fire: Fireburst Dash. You compress into a blazing sphere and rocket up to 15 feet. Creatures whose space you move through must succeed on a Strength save (DC 8 + PB + Con mod) or be pushed 5 feet away from your path. No damage is dealt. You may rise or fall up to 5 feet. A brief scorch trail fades at the start of your next turn.
• Water: Slipstream. Your body liquefies as you slide up to 15 feet. You may move through the space of any creature regardless of size. You must stay in contact with a surface. If you pass through a gap too narrow to reform safely, you re-solidify in the nearest open space and the movement ends.
• Air: Lightning Step. You surge forward in a jagged, split-second arc of bioelectric force, moving up to 15 feet. You physically pass through the space at extreme speed, leaving a crackling arc behind. You ignore nonmagical difficult terrain during this movement.
• Earth: Stoneglide. You merge with the ground and ride shifting stone up to 15 feet, able to curve or change direction as long as you stay in contact with solid ground. You can’t cross gaps wider than 1 foot. You ignore nonmagical difficult terrain made of stone, earth, sand, or clay.
DM Notes: Running an Attuned at Your Table
The Attuned are designed to offer strong narrative flavor and expressive utility without overshadowing class features. The following guidelines help clarify how their abilities function during play.
Elemental Bolt
• Elemental Bolt is an attack, not a spell. It uses an action, cannot critically hit, and never adds modifiers to damage.
• It is weaker than a cantrip at early levels and stronger at later levels, but balanced around being a single-target option with no secondary effects.
Elemental Shaping
• Shaping is intentionally powerful as a narrative and creative tool but has no combat integrity.
• Constructs made from shaping are non-living, weightless or fragile depending on the element, and disappear if targeted by force or harm.
• Shaping cannot restrain creatures, impose conditions, deal damage, or provide combat benefits such as cover, flanking, grappling, or difficult terrain.
• Anything a player creates exists only for narrative or exploratory use: distractions, decoys, warnings, tools, illusions, artwork, footprints, temporary structures, messages, or environmental manipulation.
Elemental Traversal
• Traversal is bonus-action movement that does not replace the Attuned’s normal movement. It cannot be used more than once each turn.
• Traversal provokes opportunity attacks unless the movement itself would logically avoid them (for example, moving under a creature using Slipstream does not avoid the OA unless it leaves the threatened area).
• Traversal is physical movement, never teleportation, and must respect barriers, terrain, and line of travel appropriate to the element.
Balance Expectations
• Attuned are slightly stronger than an average species in narrative flexibility but stay balanced in combat due to firm limitations.
• Elemental Bolt scales without overtaking class abilities because it has no crits, no modifiers, and no area effects.
• Elemental Shaping provides creativity, not combat advantage.
• Traversal offers mobility equivalent to a light version of a Monk or Rogue feature but without the stealth, damage, or action economy edge.
Adjudication
• When in doubt, allow expressive shaping that does not affect combat.
• If a player uses shaping creatively to solve a problem, reward the idea but ensure it stays non-damaging and non-restraining.
• For traversal, treat it exactly like movement: it can be blocked, interrupted, or penalized by effects that restrict movement unless the feature itself specifies otherwise.
The Attuned thrive at tables where creativity matters. If kept within these guidelines, they remain flavorful, flexible, and fair.
