Why don't more games invent new, unique elements? Why does it always have to be fire/ice/wind/earth/light/dark/etc?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

/title.

I can only think of a small handful of games that created unique elements.

WoW famously has Fel, the green and black fire that corrupts your soul and is the element of WoW's weird alien looking demons. Wielded by the playable Warlock and Demon Hunter classes. The Dragonflight patches introduced Shadowflame, which is orange and purple and is basically fire but infused with dark magic, and the player could inflict some Shadowflame damage by equipping weapons or trinkets from the 10.1 and 10.2 patches. The Void (formerly just generic dark shadow magic associated with cthulu tentacles) recently got rebranded as pretty star and comet themed magicks that the player can wield via trinkets.

Guild Wars 2: The element of the third Elder Dragon, Kralkatorik, is Brand, which manifests as purple lightning crystals that spread across and corrupt the regions and creatures it touches. However, this cannot be wielded by the player mechanically.

Trails has the three higher elements of Mirage, Space (ie golden glowing orbs), and Time. Time overlaps with generic shadowy death magicks like scythes and instant KO status, but is rethemed as being about hastening or lengthening the conceptual existence of the target.

Honkai Star Rail has Quantum and Imaginary as elements.

[J1M]

I wouldn't call smashing two elements together anything new. Frostfire, shadowflame, etc are just ways of making damage type unimportant for things like passive talents.

Fel has similar roots. It is from Chaos damage in Warcraft III, which, again, was a damage type that ignored all of the damage reduction rules based on damage type.

The reason these concepts appear over and over is because they are grounded in reality. Lightning damage = electricity = electrons. Holy = light = photons. Fire = heat, cold = opposite of heat, shadow = opposite of light, etc.

If you want something different that will land with people, you could dig into alchemy terms. Have attacks that deal Salt damage.

[Tangerine]

Calling your fire darkpyre just makes it fire with a tint swap and a 'but'.

Brand: Lightning but magic corruption.
Fel: Fire but magic corruption.
Shadowflame: Fire but also dark.

This isn't interesting. It's a lazy way to make something seem special by taking something that exists and slapping a coat of paint on it.

[A Chinese opium den]

/title.

I can only think of a small handful of games that created unique elements.

WoW famously has Fel, the green and black fire that corrupts your soul and is the element of WoW's weird alien looking demons. Wielded by the playable Warlock and Demon Hunter classes. The Dragonflight patches introduced Shadowflame, which is orange and purple and is basically fire but infused with dark magic, and the player could inflict some Shadowflame damage by equipping weapons or trinkets from the 10.1 and 10.2 patches. The Void (formerly just generic dark shadow magic associated with cthulu tentacles) recently got rebranded as pretty star and comet themed magicks that the player can wield via trinkets.

Guild Wars 2: The element of the third Elder Dragon, Kralkatorik, is Brand, which manifests as purple lightning crystals that spread across and corrupt the regions and creatures it touches. However, this cannot be wielded by the player mechanically.

Trails has the three higher elements of Mirage, Space (ie golden glowing orbs), and Time. Time overlaps with generic shadowy death magicks like scythes and instant KO status, but is rethemed as being about hastening or lengthening the conceptual existence of the target.

Honkai Star Rail has Quantum and Imaginary as elements.

Uh probably because they are really big into kabala usually.

[maidenhaver]

Elements are for monks. Mages should have magic that can make big titty goth girls appear, or open portals, make people huge, like trippy stuff.

[Kain]

New and unique does not always equal fun. Take Sting Entertainment for example, a bunch of unique games. None are fun to play with (maybe minus the first game).

[Tadeusz]

I don't think that some new exotic elements are needed that often. You can get plenty of variations from the basic six, something like this:

F4YYVG8R8ZY6W3R5JD8X.jpeg

[Stack of Turtles]

I don't think that some new exotic elements are needed that often. You can get plenty of variations from the basic six, something like this:

It's funny how the positive earth zone is just not named. "Yeah we couldn't come up with anything, nobody will notice."

[Tadeusz]

It's funny how the positive earth zone is just not named. "Yeah we couldn't come up with anything, nobody will notice."

Hm, maybe they forgot. It's actually minerals.

[Stack of Turtles]

It's funny how the positive earth zone is just not named. "Yeah we couldn't come up with anything, nobody will notice."

Hm, maybe they forgot. It's actually minerals.

minerals is just "rocks, but good" anyway

[Cipher]

Calling your fire darkpyre just makes it fire with a tint swap and a 'but'.

Brand: Lightning but magic corruption.
Fel: Fire but magic corruption.
Shadowflame: Fire but also dark.

This isn't interesting. It's a lazy way to make something seem special by taking something that exists and slapping a coat of paint on it.

It's not a bunny, it's an Esquilax!

[Norfleet]

Have attacks that deal Salt damage.

Particularly effective vs. leeches, slugs, snails.

[DemoGraph]

I'm not sure that they're that rare.

Chinese have 5 element matrix (with wood). Exalted took it for its elemental compass (earth in the center) with chaos beyond, death below, and astral above.
Dominions has system where combinations of basic elements have typical effects (fire+death - banefire and underworld, water+fire - steam and acid, fire+nature - sickness and cleansing, etc.). It also has glamour and blood as elements.
MTG Ravnica and other sets also were about combinations.
Ars Magica has separate body, animal and vegetation elements (because humans have souls and trees lack conscience). You can freely mix and match elements.
Mage the Ascension has Time, Space and Spatial schools / elements, though IIRC they couldn't be combined.
Zanzarah had both earth and metal, the latter being all about mecha fairies.
FF7 has separate wind and lightning, poison and water, earth and gravity.

So the general answer is probably this:

[Norfleet]

We have enough actual elements that there is no need to invent new ones. Why not have attacks that deal Plutonium damage or summon Titanium Elementals instead?

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm not sure that they're that rare.

Chinese have 5 element matrix (with wood). Exalted took it for its elemental compass (earth in the center) with chaos beyond, death below, and astral above.
Dominions has system where combinations of basic elements have typical effects (fire+death - banefire and underworld, water+fire - steam and acid, fire+nature - sickness and cleansing, etc.). It also has glamour and blood as elements.
MTG Ravnica and other sets also were about combinations.
Ars Magica has separate body, animal and vegetation elements (because humans have souls and trees lack conscience). You can freely mix and match elements.
Mage the Ascension has Time, Space and Spatial schools / elements, though IIRC they couldn't be combined.
Zanzarah had both earth and metal, the latter being all about mecha fairies.
FF7 has separate wind and lightning, poison and water, earth and gravity.

So the general answer is probably this:

D&D having fundamental laws of the universe as elements is more interesting than anything listed tho

1691456039238099.png

[Vergil]

Where do you get your ideas from?

[Acrux]

We have enough actual elements that there is no need to invent new ones. Why not have attacks that deal Plutonium damage or summon Titanium Elementals instead?

That D&D webcomic had a character who did exactly that.

[J1M]

Elements are for monks. Mages should have magic that can make big titty goth girls appear, or open portals, make people huge, like trippy stuff.

Elements are for alchemists. Monks can **** off and learn how to hold a spear.

[asf]

sure i will add lawrencium to my game

[Demonic Fate]

Using familiar elements mean that you can look at an enemy and often instinctively guess if they're resistant/vulnerable to that element. Fighting shadow enemies? Probably vuln to light damage, etc. You might get occasionally surprised and need to switch, but most of the time it will be fine and if you're playing on like medium difficulty it will be good enough.

While if your char has abilities that deal Bullshittium damage, you'll have to explicitly check the spec sheet for everything that isn't literally a Bullshittium Elemental.

[Jordy]

[Jordy]

Calling your fire darkpyre just makes it fire with a tint swap and a 'but'.

Brand: Lightning but magic corruption.
Fel: Fire but magic corruption.
Shadowflame: Fire but also dark.

This isn't interesting. It's a lazy way to make something seem special by taking something that exists and slapping a coat of paint on it.

To add to this, when it's just a reskin of magic with a different name, users will usually see through the illusion and just be frustrated remembering a different term for something that already exists.

[J1M]

If I was to identify an issue with elemental systems in games it would be that it is dumb when holy is strong against void AND void is strong against holy. Something akin to rock-paper-scissors or Magic's 5-color system is more interesting.

[rusty_shackleford]

related:
People cry about environmental effects in Larian games but they're some of the very few games where I felt like elemental damage types actually mattered to a significant degree. Being able to completely warp the battlefield was cool and made you feel powerful — or the enemy you're fighting is powerful.
Sure it might have been too easy to flip ground effect elements, but it's better than elements having zero effect on the environment at all.

[Stack of Turtles]

If I was to identify an issue with elemental systems in games it would be that it is dumb when holy is strong against void AND void is strong against holy. Something akin to rock-paper-scissors or Magic's 5-color system is more interesting.

I think it makes sense for both to be strong on offense and weak on defense against the other.

[rusty_shackleford]

everyone find their favorite AD&D cleric sphere spell
https://regalgoblins.com/spells.php

Selection_022.webp

click one of the spheres and get looking

[Val the Moofia Boss]

everyone find their favorite AD&D cleric sphere spell
https://regalgoblins.com/spells.php


click one of the spheres and get looking

Soften Earth and Stone. Drown your enemies in quicksand! Swallow up the foundations of a castle wall and watch it crumble!

[rusty_shackleford]

everyone find their favorite AD&D cleric sphere spell
https://regalgoblins.com/spells.php


click one of the spheres and get looking

There's a lot of neat roleplay-friendly spells at the lower levels.

Selection_023.webp

Sphere: Guardian.
I don't know if "Guardian" counts as an element for the OP. I guess we'd have to define what 'element' means.

[Norfleet]

To add to this, when it's just a reskin of magic with a different name, users will usually see through the illusion and just be frustrated remembering a different term for something that already exists.

I am so tired of people insisting snowflake-naming their "new" **** which is exactly the same as the old ****, yes.

[Cipher]

everyone find their favorite AD&D cleric sphere spell
https://regalgoblins.com/spells.php


click one of the spheres and get looking

Soften Earth and Stone. Drown your enemies in quicksand! Swallow up the foundations of a castle wall and watch it crumble!

I did that once, back in the day! That's when I realized clerics were broken, with d8 HP, access to armor and spells without spell failure and also healing.