Players Option: Heroes of the Elemental Chaos (4e)
Command the Elements Imagine untamed oceans wracked by lightning¸ whirlwinds of seething flame and roaring thunder¸ and massive shards of flying earth and ice. Welcome to the Elemental Chaos¸ the raw plane from which the gods and the primordials fashioned the world. The plane forms the foundation of the D&D cosmos and is home to countless elemental beings¸ including genies¸ archons¸ and demons. It's also a source of tremendous arcane power¸ the place where all fireballs and lightning bolts are born. Now you can play a hero who harnesses the raw power of the Elemental Chaos. Player's Option: Heroes of the Elemental Chaos presents the elementalist sorcerer and the sha'ir wizard as new class options¸ as well as new character themes¸ feats¸ powers¸ paragon paths¸ epic destinies¸ and elemental companions. Product History Heroes of the Elemental Chaos (2012)¸ by Richard Baker and Robert J. Schwalb¸ was the third Player's Option for D&D 4e. It was published in February 2012. About the Cover. Cryonax¸ a Prince of Elemental Evil¸ takes center stage on the cover. He's been a part of D&D mythology since the early '80s. Concluding the Heroes. 2011 had been a down year for D&D with Wizards publishing just eight RPG books (plus one release for Free RPG Day). The other shoe dropped on January 9¸ 2012¸ when Wizards of the Coast announced through a New York Times article that D&D 4e was ending¸ to be replaced by a new edition. Heroes of the Elemental Chaos was the first RPG publication to follow that announcement. Afterward¸ there would be just two more 4e-specific books (plus one more Free RPG Day release). Heroes of the Elemental Chaos was the third and final book in the short-lived Player's Option series for D&D. Like its predecessors¸ it featured classes¸ paragon paths¸ epic destinies¸ and themes. Unlike its predecessors¸ there were no new character races¸ just elemental-based variants for some existing races. The book also includes an extensive section on elemental power¸ including elemental magic. However¸ it's not presented as a power source¸ marking the end of 4e's slow move around from sources in the final year of its publication. Instead¸ elemental magic is used as a modifier to other power sources - which matches how it had always been used by arcane and divine casters. The Forgotten Heroes. There are just two full builds in this book: the elemental sorcerer and the sha'ir wizard. The elementalist is a rather common sort of magician in myth that had (rather surprisingly) not existed for the first 17 years of D&D's life. Instead the first elementalist appeared in Tome of Magic (1991). They'd been better loved in later days¸ appearing in Tome and Blood (2001) for 3e and Complete Arcane (2004) for 3.5e. The sha'ir is a genie-related magician who made its first appearance in Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures (1992). They later got a complete book of their own¸ CGR3: The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook (1994). Unfortunately¸ some readers found the 4e sha'ir too similar to the witch¸ who had debuted a few months earlier in Heroes of the Feywild (2011). Expanding the World Axis. Heroes of Elemental Chaos contains a little bit of information on the Elemental Chaos¸ but The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos (2009) is generally a better source. NPCs of Note. Baker and Schwalb filled Heroes of the Elemental Chaos with references to character from D&D lore¸ such as the drow Eclavdra¸ the wizard Mordenkainen¸ and the madman Castanamir. However¸ the most notable reference in Heroes of the Elemental Chaos is probably to the cult of the Elder Elemental Eye¸ a deity who dated back to the '70s and who would receive even more attention in season 8 of D&D Encounters¸ "The Elder Elemental Eye" (2012). The author