Elementalism will be fairly similar to wizardry mechanically, with the exception of relying primarily on external power sources rather than free mana. This will, for example, allow a water elementalist to cast spells quickly and easily when aboard a ship in the middle of the ocean, but require extended periods of time to cast a spell in the desert (if it's possible at all). Power can be collected slowly without accruing much (any?) Taint, while quicker collection of Power will Taint an elementalist quite quickly.
The effects producable with elementalism will typically be more powerful than those of wizards, but take substantially longer to bring about. (The official story of wizards being so much more powerful than elementalists is a result of this time factor - a fire elementalist may be able to create a bigger, meaner fireball than a Bright wizard, but the wizard will have fried the elementalist long before his spell is ready.) Elementalists can also, if given enough time, produce these effects with little to fear of Catastrophe. If rushed, however, and forced to touch the Power of Chaos itself, their methods will quickly result in disaster.
Though few will admit to it, attempts have been made over the centuries since the coming of Teclis to fuse wizardry and elementalism into a hybrid with the strengths of both paths, but success does not appear likely in the foreseeable future. This research has improved the power of wizardly ritual spellcasting, and the elementalists of today are much stronger than those of two centuries ago, but no means of combining the power of elementalism with the efficiency of wizardry has been found.
MIB Index | WFRP Index | RPG Index | Home