Hello everyone, and welcome to the first in a new series of articles focusing on the Cleric Domains in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The goal for each of these is to provide you with a quick overview of your domain powers, spells, and introduce you to a god or goddess from real-Earth mythology who could be a deity using this particular domain.
All that said, welcome to this week’s article on the domain of: Air
The air domain is described as “You can manipulate lightning, mist, and wind, traffic with air creatures, and are resistant to electricity damage.” so it’s probably pretty fair to say that this is either a Sky or Weather god.
So the powers are Lightning Arc that does 1d6+1 (+1 for every 2 levels) of electricity damage in a 30 feet range. That’s pretty nice, as it’s a ranged touch attack, meaning it’s easy for you to hit even the most difficult opponents, and while the damage itself isn’t great, it is at least comparable to a shortbow; so is not too shabby, at least at lower levels, though you do of course only have a limited amount of uses per day. (3+Wis modifier).
The other ability is Electricity Resistance, giving you resistance to electricity and immunity at level 20. Again fairly handy as electricity is probably the second most common type of elemental damage.
Spells:
The spells you get with the Air domain are as follows:
Obscuring Mist
Obscuring Mist is an overlooked spell for its sheer ability. It provides a 20% miss chance within 5 feet and 50% miss chance to anything further away. It is a huge advantage to have at any level, and the only real competitor for defensive purposes is invisibility. Some spells (and windy conditions) can disperse the mist, but these are all much higher level than Obscuring Mist itself. The downside, of course, is that you cannot target anyone more than 5 feet away, unless you have other senses than sight.
Wind Wall
Wind Wall helps to stop damage from Tiny and Small characters (as they can’t get through), and the same goes for arrows and bolts from bows and crossbows respectively, making it an excellent defensive spell, though it has less use against other ranged weapons (but it still provides a 30% miss chance). It can also stop gases and the like, making it an effective stop-gap measure against certain types of environmental hazards, like in a mine.
Gaseous Form
Giving you not only an immunity to poison, sneak attacks and critical hits, but also damage reduction of 10/magic, and the ability to fly (slowly) and move through small cracks. In many ways, it is the equivalent of the mist that is so common to vampire tales, where they disappear back to their coffins to regenerate. It is a very effective retreat spell, or good for breaking and entering for the roguish types. Just remember that you cannot attack anyone yourself. While it has a relatively long duration (2 minutes per level), you can dismiss it at will.
Air Walk
Air Walk is an effective transport spell, as it allows you to travel at your normal speed, through the air, allowing you to walk across chasms (think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and through the air itself, both up and down. While it is faster therefore than the fly spell, it does not provide the same maneuverability, and still, requires you to take actions to move. It does last longer, however, and the speeds attainable are much greater.
Control Winds
This allows you to change the winds in the area around you, allowing to be decreased or increased as you wish, making it either easier or more difficult to get around. And you can choose to maintain a calm “eye” at the center so that you (and any allies) remain unaffected. In the light of recent hurricanes, I don’t think I need to explain how much damage a spell of this type can do if you’re a high enough level caster.
Chain Lightning
Similar to Lightning Bolt, it is possible to attack multiple targets by having it jump from one target to another, after which it can jump to a number of secondary targets within 30 feet of each other. Each secondary target takes the same amount of damage as the primary target, with a minimum of 11d6 to the primary target, and up to 11 other targets. At that point it would do a total of 132d6 points of damage in total, making it an extremely powerful spell for its level. (A maximum of 420d6 points of damage at level 20, assuming there are enough targets in range).
Elemental Body IV (air)
This allows you to take on the form of a Huge air elemental, making you immune to bleed damage, critical hits, and sneak attacks while in elemental form and giving DR 5/-.
Further, you also gain a +4 size bonus to your Strength, +6 size bonus to your Dexterity, and a +4 natural armor bonus. You also gain fly 120 feet (perfect), along with darkvision 60 feet and the ability to create a whirlwind. Bearing in mind that the Huge Air elemental does 2d6+Str points of damage with each of its slams, it should be no surprise that this can be a drastic game changer.
Whirlwind
This creates a mini-cyclone, that can pick up and continually damage Medium or smaller creatures, without a save, after the first 2 are failed. At the level where this is gained, this would mean that a creature failing both saves would take a MINIMUM of 1d8+14d6 points of damage without a save thereafter, plus possibly (due to the damage) making it impossible for them to cast spells. And because they’re caught in the cyclone, they also become immobilized and unable to move while within the cyclone.
Elemental Swarm
This spell allows you to, given time, summon a small swarm of elementals; as in, within 20 minutes you have 2d4 Large Air elementals, 1d4 Huge ones, and 1 greater Air Elemental, all with maximum hit points. Pair that with Augment Summoning and Superior Summoning feats and this becomes rather dangerous as backup.
New Deity
Mehet-Weret
Great Flood, Celestial Cow, Goddess of Air, Water, Creation and Rebirth
Alignment NG
Worshipers farmers, sailor, expectant mothers, families of the dying
Cleric Alignments LG, LN, NG, N, CG, CN
Domains Air, Good, Repose, Water, Weather
Subdomains Monsoon, Redemption, Rivers, Seasons, Storms, Wind,
Favored Weapon Quarterstaff
Symbol a golden disk, suspended between the horns of a cow.
Mehet-Weret is responsible for raising the sun into the sky every day. She produces the light for the crops of those who worship her and causes beneficial floods in the areas where her worshippers live. While she is said to favor the form of a cow, she will on occasion take humanoid form, where most mistake her for a minotaur, as she has a woman’s body with a cow’s head.
Rites are performed for her at noon when the sun is at its highest, where her worshippers revel in its warm rays, and they believe that she causes cattle and people to remain fertile in the warm seasons.
She is known to favor young children and couples who plan on having children, as she sees this as a way of encouraging life to grow. She most often shows her favor in a gentle breeze that cools the warm, or brings warmth to those who are cold, while her displeasure is shown with sudden bursts of strong winds, that check anyone’s progress.
Next week, we take a look at the Animal domain. Let us know in the comments if you have anything you wish to add or see addressed. 🙂
Kim Frandsen
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