"What are we doing today brain" "Same thing we do every day pinky talk about dnd"

I'm running a game based around music, and the relative lack of thunder damage spells was sort of a bummer when I realized it Why isn't there a rock themed bard subclass that literally kills its opponents by cranking the volume to 11

I had a player build a pyromancer once and took elemental adept at 1st level. I homebrewed that it knocked fire immunity down to resistance. I don't know if it is balanced, but for that player it was really a blast. He loved hearing me describing the look on a red dragons face when it discovered this little human had arcane fire hot enough to burn it.

I know it seems OP, but I like the thought of house ruling that if it ignores resistance, it would convert immunity into resistance instead. So the spells would do half damage to an immune creature instead of none. For flavor, the thought is that this caster's fire is on a whole different level of magic compared to the common magical fire used by most casters since it has been honed and trained so such an extent. So creatures haven't built resistances or immunities to it. Just a thought!

when my pyromancer player took this he asked me if he could turn immunities into resistance is said yes, and even tho many times resistance to fire was still worse than other spells, he could still play his character to his heart content. it wasnt broken in the least

For those of you saying you homebrew it as hitting those immune to the damage type as having resistance instead, why not "evolve" the feat after some time? The Elemental Adept took the feat at level 4, and is now level 8. You can ad-lib some stuff about strange things happening to their element that could suggest that further study and practice would unlike more secrets and powers. Talk to them out of game about this and the next time they have some downtime they can set about working on their chosen speciality to "improve their feat." That way you stick to RAW originally so all players know what to expect but you retain the power of controlling how effective it is and at what times. Also builds in additional way for characters to grow stronger which they always like.

I was in a campaign where the evil cultists had made a pact with a Devil and many of them were Tieflings Taking elemental adept fire was key to making my bard suitably destructive!

Monty was REALLY excited to drop that Cptn Planet pun.

Along with getting rid of resistances it should also have immunities become resistances. Basically moving everything down a peg.

My DM ruled that if an enemy wasn't resistant or immune to whatever type of damage I chose, then the enemy was considered to have vulnerability to that damage. I don't think he realized how insanely powerful that would make my lightning storm sorcerer and I loved it.

I'm definitely gonna need to take this one for my Storm Sorcerer. He focuses on lightning and thunder damage spells. It's really fun.

As a Wizard, I was considering taking this feat, and the information you gave was super helpful. Thanks guys, great content as always.

I offer players who want this feat to additionally gain the ability to either 1 - change spells of other elemental type damage types to the one of their elemental adept feat, or 2 - allow them to cut immunities down to resistance. Of course I also encourage players to rp spellcrafting and get rewarded by getting a spell of a different damage type or slight tweak in how the spell works. Example...a player got a cantrip spell attack Feyblade. Based on the idea of green flame blade and booming blade they worked towards it and altered it to function like Chaos Bolt to where the dice rolls of the Feyblade decided its element type.

I made a Tiefling Eldritch Knight Fighter once. Gave him elemental adapt fire and flames of phelogos(sp?) it was alot of fun.

As a whole, I agree with what you guys say. However, I think this feat tends to favor damage types where you will roll tons of dice. Higher dice amounts, equals more 1's rolled and more chance to turn them to 2's. For example, the spell vitriolic sphere. Acid is a poor choice for elemental adept, but vitriolic sphere is 10d4. Making 20 the minimum damage it can do, and 10 as the recurring damage. If the creature fails their save. Pretty consistent.

The one situation I'd take this feat: Draconic sorcerer, lightning based. You don't have that many lightning spells, but you have everything you need. And your spell selection is so limited you might not want to load up on offensive spells anyway. If you're a lightning based draconic sorcerer, you're going to use shocking grasp every round you're in melee. It isn't the number of spells you can use, it's how often you use them. And with so many lightning-resistant creatures, it's hard to pass up. I'd boost my charisma first, but elemental adept would probably be my 8th level pick.

I've been running a School of Invention wizard with the elemental adept feat choosing lightning damage. Makes the feat much better when you can change the damage type on spells.

response to swapping damage types around 15:30 the Unearthed arcana has the lore Wizard that allows swapping damage for spells (not cantrips) between acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage. So any spell that deals one of those you can swap to another. In addition you can swap what saving throw a spell needs once per day. It is one of my favorite subclasses both as a player and gm as it explicitly asks the player to describe how the change makes sense and i have the rule that if the player can't convince me of the difference, especially changing save type, the spell misfires in some way (I have a small table of things that might happen)

I have a player who played a light cleric and he got elemental adept fire. Recently, they had to fight red guard drakes, and I said "They would take half damage, but you have elemental adept fire so..." and he said "wait, it does that? i completely forgot!" We was so obsessed with being a pyromaniac cleric that he got the feat only because it fit his theme, not because he wanted to ignore fire resistance. The "1s becomes 2s" came up a lot, though

Arcane tradition : Lore master from the Unearthed Arcana does exactly what you described. "At 2nd level, when you cast a spell with a spell slot and the spell deals acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage, you can substitute that damage type with one other type from that list (you can change only one damage type per casting of a spell). You replace one energy type for another by altering the spell's formula as you cast it."

So on your comment about changing damage types of spells like fireball or lightning bolt, there is an unearthed arcana article for a wizard sub-type called the Lore Master. At level 2, among a few other fun things, they get the ability to change any spell with a damage type of fire, lightning, cold, acid, thunder, radiant, or necrotic into any of those other damage types. I've been playing a game for the past year with this sub-class and I absolutely love the ability to change up the damage types like this. It makes the character feel like more of a tactician or someone who really likes experimenting with and manipulating very fabric of their spells. The extreme lack (compared to older editions) of energy vulnerabilities in 5e monsters also keeps this feature from feeling broken. Sadly, Wizards has yet to include it in any officially released class. I'm really hoping we see it in a future book as it adds a ton of RP and tactical options that make being a wizard even more exciting.

I think this feat really shines for Cryomancers, there is just enough of all the factors to make it really good for ice based wizards. My wizard for example is a Cryomancer with a dash of Lighting on the side but I love this feat cuz it just makes my ice magic more powerful which is great!

Elemental Adept: Thunder. +Tempest Cleric's Channel Divinity. +Metamagic: Transmuted Spell. ---------------- = (Thunder)Ball "MAX BOOM BURST DAMAGE" *Alternatively, a Scribe Wizard with careful selections of spells, can "Transmute" spells.

My very first 5e character was a sorcerer who had this feat, I loved him and this feat came in handy very often

Lightning damage has a small pool of spells to pick meet, Kvar's Staff: a magic item that, when attuned to, changes the damage type of all non psychic, poison or thunder damage spells, to lightning. and gives you 1 free cast per day of each of those at it's lowest level

Fire elemental adept lets you fireball without having the whole problem of "Submerged foes have resistance to fire", making it surprisingly that much better in sea-oriented campaign. I know, it's few and far between, but it's a thing. I don't think most creature in ocean gets fire immunity? But I honestly haven't checked.

Watching this 2 year old realizing I have missed out on so much dudes lol. I'm so glad I am able to get your book. Can't wait to watch more of your stuff

Well, the exact wording is "...you can treat any 1 on a damage die as a 2." So hypothetically a 10 could be 20 or 11 a 22 or 12 a 22. Right?

Good job on this one. I have to pretty much agree that the most useful ones are Fire and Ice. (Though there can be arguments. Also, though I hate to say it this feat as written just feels like a bit of a trap (or as close as 5e goes). Outside of the excellent RP (as you said) you can have a feat that is not so great (not saying it is worthless just not mechanically critical or great) . It is ripe for house ruling so I am guessing that happens a lot. But still, if you are comparing damage opportunities that you get this just does not shine like maybe it should. Honestly the lack of spells for each element screams out that when they planned 5e they thought it was going to release like 4e with LOTS of releases and then spells. It feels like they changed their mind on it.

Oh this was awesome guys! It was viscerally exciting to think about all these spells and possibilities~ And damn it is absolutely tragic that lightning, thunder, and acid have so few spells!! It was both illuminating and very disappointing hearing from your research that they had so few options--I really had no idea!

A great homebrew for Elemental Adept would be allowing your players to change the damage of a spell to your adept type so long as said spell does a form of elemental damage.

I didn't think that yall would do a capitan planet reference. Pleasant surprise.

Elemental Adept is probably also worth it for Clerics of the Tempest. Letting that max-damage spell ignore resistance will _really_ hurt. You might even want to take elemental adept for _both_ lightning and thunder. Dninni and storm giants are the only creatures immune to both in the Monster Manual, but they're both chaotic good. Volo's has one, but it's a storm giant variant. So you're probably not fighting them unless you're running an evil character. (Storm King's Thunder games aside). Their spell list for such damage types is pretty anemic, basically zilch for the base cleric list, and not every tempest domain spell is damage dealing. But a dual-class tempest cleric/storm sorcerer could be both amazingly thematic and very effective. Variant human versions could be getting good mileage out of it by level 5.

I have a level 5 variant human sorcerer with the metamagic adept and elemental adept feats. For Metamagic, I took transmute as one of them so I can cast all of my spells in the element I choose. I'm not in a terribly serious campaign, so even though he is a little underpowered by not taking full advantage of twinned spell and quickened spell with all of my attacks, it is very funny to cast lightning bolt as a fire spell.

Can you rule that this feat reduces Immune down to Resistance like it reduces Resistance down to normal?

I remember Energy Substitution (replace all damage with selected energy type) and Energy Admixture (effectively double damage with second part being chosen energy type for higher level spell slot - yes, it worked on the same type as well) from 3.5. Great for DMs to trick out a specialist caster, or a recurring villain.

Lightning damage spells also include Witch Bolt and Call Lightning (One of the extra _storm-related_ spells that the _storm sorcerer_ doesn't get, if I might reee) There's also some class features that do elemental damage, like Storm Sorcerer's "Heart of the Storm" ability. Not that that matters, because it usually will never do more than 2-6 damage in most campaigns, but there ya go.

We have a lore wizard (UA) in our party and elemental adept has been amazing for him! His character loves lightning magic and definitely makes the most of being able to change the damage type of his spells.

An important point to note with this is that a lot of the creatures that are immune or resistant to an element are often related. So for example most of the immune monsters to fire will be Fiends, Elementals, and Dragons. Similar for resistance. Also they are also often resistant to several types at once, for example with Fiends and Celestials. So this feat can become very powerful if you fight a lot of those creature types. Immunity will still not be overcome, but that's when you change up spells you use (and increases the challenge as a DM), but being able to deal normalized damage to something that would otherwise be simply resistant in a campaign setting that is heavy on that monster type, can really make you capable when you otherwise wouldn't be. If you aren't playing in such a game, but a more 'standard fare' type, then this feat falls off from usefulness terribly using only really the 1's to 2's portion of it.

Been playing a Black Dragon Sorc(Black Dragonborn too) that has a curse that forcebly changes all his elemental damage types to Acid. Lots of fun.

Just a thought guys... its not about how many spells use the damage type... its about how often you *use* those spells. For bards, sorcs and warlocks, who have fewer spells, but use them a LOT once you choose them, it could be down to a cantrip and 2-3 spells you like. Its not about having every single spell based on it.. but choosing WELL. This is not a feat for wizards, who, like you say, are all about variety.. but about those classes with LIMITED flexibility. Might not that flexability.. do instead specialize in what you DO have

Vitriolic Sphere is the best use for this feet and Acid is good in terms of immunity. 15d4 with all 1=2 is AWESOME

There's no reason an elemental caster couldn't just homebrew different elemental versions of existing spells, Fireball? Hail Nova (ice). Uses the same rules as fireball, basically, just does cold damage. Or, Lightning Burst, same as fireball basically, just electricity damage. Thunderwave? Acid wave. Since the lore of levelling up is that they are figuring out more magic, there's a perfect lore-based reason for an elemental adept to be dreaming up homebrewed variants of existing spells that have alternative damage types.

The issue with feats that allow you to change damage types is that a lot of spells deal the damage they do because of the meta of the game. Eg. as you guys pointed out, fire has a TON of resistances and immunities. It's also why fire spells tend to hit the hardest. If you allowed people to make a thunder ball, or worse-- force ball, you make that spell significantly more powerful. It's relatively balanced as it is because everybody and his brother is resistant to fire.

A 3.5 feat Elemental substitution was great for this. But a home brew rule I have is that upon learning a spell with an elemental damage type is to allow them to pick the damage it does but hard lock them to that type. If they want a new damage type they take a new spell or burn the feat to pick up Elemental substitution

Good stuff as always, although at that point the mic volume was slightly lower than in the later videos ;) Also, I like the homebrew of knocking down immunity to resistance.

Call lightning? If you are a druid or tempest cleric i could see lightning adept working well.

Yeah, having played a Waterdeep Brass Dragon Sorcerer, the Elemental Adept feat was tempting, but I opted instead for Spell Sniper at 8th level, as it was much more useful in an urban campaign to focus on ray and beam spells with a to-hit roll instead of dealing with the fallout of massive AOE damaging spells (although I did still use Melf's Minute Meteors as a 3rd-level option as a stand-in for Fireball, to great effect).

I think using the Weave to explain changes is an easier way to integrate them into a campaign. As an optional rule or feat for casters, maybe they can 'pluck at the seams'. Spending an equivalent or higher spell slot to convert one of their damage die to a randomly determined type (with options determined by the GM). This in my opinion, would open the 'Wild Magic' table up to other classes as well. It'd be up to the player to retain what spells had been changed in what way, or spend some amount of time or effort training the conversion away dismising it. I like the idea of a Fireball dealing 2d6 fire, cold, lightning, and acid personally.

Watching this after Tasha's Cauldron of Everything dropped. Now we have the Sorceror's transmuted spell, making this feat so much better for other damage-type casters. Also, they added in Tasha's Caustic Brew, a *really* good acid damage spell that scales with level incredibly well, meaning that an acid caster could frankly get by on just it.

Would be sweet a video about creating new spells. Inspiration and role play opportunities. I used to create spells and magic itens, with my players. Like a signature spell. A lot places for inspiration.

Solid work gentlemen. I think, like many have stated, that the impact of this feat is hamstrung by the spell listing. I'm a big lightning fanboy, but others simply just don't want to live off of pyromancy forever. As such, it's not always a great option mechanically or thematically. It's funny. Xanathar did alot for necromancy but almost nothing for evocation variety. Heck, even fire got a boost with Aganazzars Scorcher and Melfs Minute Meteors, further making it a moot point to delve into other elements.

This is one of 2 phb feats I changed as a dm. I took an old school approach, first I based availability on spell element rather than damage type, the feat evolved with every 5 caster lvls. 1-5: as is, 6-10: reroll 1s spell atk and Dc +1, 11-15: reroll 1-2s spell attack and dc +2, 16-19: spatk and dc +3 crit range 19-20, level 20 immunity -> resistance may maximize once per long rest and additional time gaining levels of Exhaustion per use. They could only pick the feat once. The second was weapon Master, pick a single weapon type and gain double proficiency

Making it selectable as to which Element on a long-rest seems a good adaption. Or it allows you to change the type of damage to your selected type of any elemental spells you cast if you wish. Like Cold fireballs, etc.

I will sometimes if it fits the character give them the ability to shift the elemental energy of there spells for example instead of fire ball dealing fire damage it can instead doing lightning or even thunder damage. I made this because I had a storm sorcerer and I felt alot of his class abilities weren't being used at all.

About the draconic sorcerer what i like to do is use the feat in an element other than the one from the draconic lineage and justify it as having a natural affinity for one type of damage due to my lineage and another one that I have trained over the years to master which is the feat, doing that I made my favourite character to date that was a master of fire and ice making boosted damage with each one in combat and having two damage types helped a lot with various enemies with different types of resistances

Watching this after the UA Sorcerer updates is wild. I currently play a storm queen support character, which only works because my DM rules that divine soul sorcerer should have the domain spells of a chosen cleric domain, and there is a new meta magic option called “elemental spell” that lets you change the damage types of spells. I chose tempest domain and gained access to call lightning, which is a Druid concentration spell that allows me to repeatedly use my action to attack, but I can still use my bonus action for support. This is how I can get around the rule of only casting one leveled spell per turn and not have my supporting capabilities compromised. I can also always quicken spell other key support spells in a pinch. The biggest deal is the consistent damage and healing without either being lessened in a meaningful way, but the aesthetic alone of using chilltouch to shock enemies like a taser and prevent healing is enough to make me happy for the rest of my life 🥰🥰🥰 thunderball will also be glorious once I receive my third ASI and swap it for thunder elemental adept. She’s a variant human for the feat, so I have war caster and elemental adept lighting rather early on.

I really liked the thoughts offered in this video about homebrewing this feat or even new spells to help make both feel more well-rounded. I whole-heartedly agree that there should either be more spells with more diverse damage types, a canon feat for converting damage types of spells or at least a solid sage advice article on how to create new spells from old ones and keep them balanced (b/c each damage type often has a different way it deals damage i.e number of dice vs size of dice). I'd love to see a Dungeon Dude video covering similar ground actually, and discussing how to homebrew new spells and keep them balanced. Kind of a tangent, but I was really hoping that the competing feat Flames of Phlegethos was going to be mentioned at some point in this video. It's a feat that just seems SO flavorful and interesting, I'd like to see it broken down and compared with Elemental Adapt.

I always find it hard to resists the siren song of pyromancy. I have no problem changing the element spells to fit a theme. Acid ball for the black dragon sorcerer. Ice ball for the infernal pact warlock that gets his powers from the Stygia. I love these videos that explore single feats. They really light my fire.

really like you guys, I hope you find success on youtube so you can keep making these.

I think home brewing this to A) bypass immunity, and become resistance B) re-roll ones instead of turning to twos- would be ok. I don’t think it steps on the sorcerers toes, because sorcerers get their ability just for being a sorcerer, and can use it on just about any damage dealing spell, where this would only apply to spells of that element. Plus, sorcerers could always take this feat themselves, which would be a real temptation, freeing up sorcery points whenever they cast elemental damage.

I have a homebrew artifact that helps pyromancer builds (I tend to make such characters) that gets stronger at higher levels. At the highest levels you ignore fire immunity and is turned into fire resistance. But you cannot ignore fire resistance

The Feats you are thinking of that change the type of energy in 3.5, are of 2 flavours; 1) Energy Substitution, which you could 1 for 1 swap an element for another. The prereq was have a Metamagic Feat. It can affect anything with an Energy Descriptor. Which leads to: Energy Admixture, which needed Energy Substitution for preqreq, the spell is 4 levels higher, but you can throw the same element you substituted in extra dice (so say a 5D6 Electric became a 10D6 Electric). These are in Complete Arcane. OR 2) Energy Affinity, which you need all 4 of the base Elements (Fire, Acid, Cold, and Lightning) in Spells to get it. It does much the same thing as Energy Substitution, but only affects the 4 elements. And there is no 2nd feat that adds damage dice. That is in Miniatures Handbook.

What I'd allow is probably something like "you pick 3 spells that don't deal damage of your chosen element. the new versions deal damage of your element instead but the damage die are reduced by one". So frostball for 7d6 or fire stream for 5d8.

I really enjoyed playing a multiclass of 6 levels of Tempest Cleric, and the rest (we got up to 15th level) of Land Druid (mountain) with the Elemental Adept (lightning). 6 levels of Tempest Cleric gives you: - At 1st level, when someone within 5ft hits you with an attack, you can spend your reaction to deal 2d8 lightning or thunder damage to them (dex save for half). You can use it as many times as your Wis modifier allows. - At 2nd level you get Channel Divinity that allows you to forgo a damage roll for lightning/thunder damage, and instead dish out full damage the spell/attack can deal. - At 6th level you get Channel Divinity twice per rest, and you also gain some crowd control: every time you deal lightning (not thunder, though) damage, you push the targets (large or smaller) 10ft away from you (which does work with your 1st lvl passive). And the Mountain Druid was primarily for RP purposes, the Lightning Bolt spell, and Natural Recovery, because why not to be a Wis-based wizard? Fun stuff, blasting people with Lightning Bolt or Call Lightning, maximizing damage and stripping resistance, while also tossing them around.

I'm thinking of taking this in Acid for my Alchemist. The main spells (Tasha's Caustic Brew and Melf's Acid Arrow) are all D4 based, so the chance of boosting a 1 is actually 25% per dice. That is a really big boost in my opinion

I’m currently playing a fire sorcerer with this feat and I really could not be happier. I know enough spells to have a few powerful ones of another type, so I have a chance against fire immune enemies. And 8d6 is a lot more on average when you turn the 1s into 2s (and rerolling low ones doesn’t hurt either, though most of the time I have bigger fish to fry with my sorcery points).

One thing we should mention for Acid: The resistance bit isn't that great for it, but Acid spells can get a massive number of d4s & d6s going. Twin Acid Arrow and you can deal 12d4. And since it gets 2d4 per slot level, twinning a third level arrow gives it up to 16d4 if it hits. Hefty on the sorcerery points, but it CAN outdamage a Fireball of the same level. Fun times!

Is rolling again so much better than switching a 1 for a 2? Well, let’s see : You have 16,7% chance of rolling a 1 on a 6 sided dice. With Kelly’s stupendous fireball, it amounts to a probability of 16% multiplied by 1 point of additional damage multiplied by 8 D6, so about 1 point of additional damage per fireball (if you add 1 point of damage to the one’s, like the feat’s description suggests). Now, if you re-roll, you will statistically get 3,5 meaning an additional 2,5 damage over the one’s. Still with the fireball example, that would mean 16% chance * 2,5 damage * 8 D6 = about 3 points of additional damage. So, if Kelly is having a Blast at re-rolling, I Say let him ; the difference in damage output is negligible. You will average a 29 or 31 damage depending of your method, instead of a 28 without the feat. It also shows how weak this feat really is in terms of raw damage potential.

While watching this video it inspired me to make a sort of revised version that would also work in tandem with other classes that might be able to do some of the things this feat does as part of their features. Elemental Adept (Revised) *Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell* When you gain this feat, choose one of the damage types that isn't Bludgeoning, Slashing or Piercing. Spells you cast ignore resistance to damage of the chosen type. If your class, race or any other features already bypass resistances; Then the spells can treat immunities like resistances at a further half damage. (Quarter of the original damage rolled) In addition, when you roll damage for a spell you cast that deals damage of that type, you can treat any 1 on a damage die as a 2. You can select this feat multiple times. Each time you do so, you must choose a different damage type.

Elemental adept synergizes well with Draconic Soul sorcerer, I’m making a cold damage focused character and I think it’ll be really good. Fiend pact Warlocks can do it well with fire too.

Transmuted Spell metamagic makes this a very viable option for Lightning Elemental adept. After a few levels you'll run out of spell slots before you run out of sorcery points.

So me and my DM came up with a feat for my wizard called elemental expert that allowed you to makes 1s and 2s, 3s and brought immunity down to resistance with the prerequisite of having elemental adept in the same element that you choose and being able to cast 4th level spells

I really like this feat. I think it gives you all the flavor of being the pyromancer or storm mage that the core classes don't quite offer. I agree that as a DM you should allow players to develop unique spells or twist existing spells to fit other elements.

Having DM'd a few campaigns I've always felt it is the DM's job to help the player create their backstory. And in the backstory there is often motivating reasons for taking a feat. With Elemental Adept, perhaps the world you are playing in is overrun with a type/group of monsters that are resistant to a particular element. Would make sense that a caster would specialize in that Element. So many DM's keep their world completely hidden from players, and it makes no sense. The players have spent their whole lives in this world...they should know a bit about it. Granted, not everything need be revealed, but some information just makes the world more real and helps the narrative progress. Thanks for the video.

A other thing that could be important when picking this feat, is the die size of the spell. Having a spell with 6d4 is better than 3d8. And with spells that use d10/d12 the impact would be even lower. The 1=2 works best on small dice.

Reroll 1s isn't really that awesome, actually. The average of one D6 is 3.5. If you change D6 to 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 the average goes to 3.67, which is not really impressive. If you reroll 1s, it's equivalent to rolling D5+1, which has an average of 4. This is a bit better but still from an average damage level not better than bumping to D8, which has an average of 4.5. To put this in context a fireball cast at 3rd level has average damage 28. With Elemental Adept, it's 29.4. With reroll 1s, it's 32. So we're not really talking a HUGE bonus even with reroll 1s. The damage edge is pretty darn trivial. It's the Resistance avoidance that matters. Quite honestly I think the feat isn't really that fantastic except for the Resistance avoidance but even then... eh.

Flames of Phlegethos is a good alternative if you'd really prefer a reroll feature instead. Granted its restricted to fire and only tieflings can take it. But it also comes with a +1 to either INT or CHA.

I know there was some UA a few months back (maybe more than a year now) where they put out the Lore Master Wizard? The entire premise of the class was about changing how the spells worked; be it changing the damage or changing the saving throw. Not sure how the response was for it but I loved the idea! Just liked the idea of a frostbite spells that caused (freezing) Fire damage or a Fireball that required a Wisdom save as it was a mental burn.

cold and lightning have always been my favorite combo

I’d change the feat from changing 1s to 2s to “if, when you roll damage for a spell using the element with which you choose Elemental Adept, you roll a natural 1, you may instead roll 1d4+1 and take that damage instead.

We have a gnome wizard who is really into evocation, especially fire, he saw how good it would be to have when they had to fight a giant demon that was resistant to all the elemental spells. After that fight he picked up mind spike and tidal wave to have something for if that happens again. So there are ways around, but if i really wanted to make a pyromancer or a cryomancer i would definitely pick it up.

I’ve been playing Storm King’s Thunder as a winter wizard (cold and calculating) with this feat for about a year and am happy with it. At lower levels, the feat seems lackluster. I only started feeling the benefits at mid levels, where we were rolling more damage dice and fighting a larger variety of foes. Immunity wasn’t that bad as my cold cantrips’ secondary effects still work (slow by 10ft or disadvantage on an attack).

Don't forget Melf's acid arrow! back in the day it was the illusionists lightning bolt. I guess its evocation now but still. lots of applications.

tiefling fire sorcerer(kaladesh) with elemental adept and flames of Phlegethos BEHOLD MY FLAMES

If your table allows Unearthed Arcana, this is a great feat to pair with the Lore Master wizard, who, upon getting the subclass, can change their spells to deal almost any damage type.

I don't mean to offend, but I always thought that the spells in the books were just the most common ones. If you want a giant exploding snowball just reskin fireball with cold damage and call it iceball or something. If you want the gout of flame there was Aganazzar's Scorcher or you could just reskin lightning bolt as you said. If you are just reskinning spells I can't see it throwing the game out of balance with OP spells.. That said, creating new spells can be fun too. Why not an acid rain spell? You conjure a cloud that rains acid over an area which causes damage upon entry or if you're in it's diameter at the beginning of the turn, while possibly being difficult terrain. I can't imagine a DM having a real problem with something like that. I think there are similar spells already in the books like that.

I'm suprised they haven't kept Melf's acid arrow in some form or variety as an added choice of acid spell. Or just allowing some spells some flexibility, like "Fireball, 8d6 damage. You can choose another elemental type (not force or psychic) of damage but it then only has a base damage of 7d6." It keeps the theme of "fireball is the best ball" but adds option of making other elementals.

I'm currently playing as a very fire spell heavy sorcerer and I do like that 1 to 2's rule, because if say I roll 8d6 for fire ball and I get a 1 and 3 2's I use empower and re-roll all four dice for a change of a 4 or 5 or 6 with no chance of it doing lower damage.

It's often not useful as a feat pick, but could be a nice reward for a spellcaster. Maybe the cleric did some great deed for his deity and is blessed with the power of the sun, giving him the elemental adept for fire as a reward. Similar to the magical initiate this feat does really feel like a magic item.

Another thing to note is you can take it twice, meaning playing a duel element caster of ice and fire is really viable in a respectable amount of cases. May sound a bit out there but there is lore master, Which I think can really milk this spell. Few creatures can resist or be immune to fire damage and the Lore master makes all spells they take deal Thunder damage with elemental adabt just makes him have about 20 ways to implode most encounters. What's even worst is if the GM does throw something at you that is immune to thunder, bite the bullet and make it force or necrotic damage XD

Maybe Energy Substitution as a Meta Magic for Sorcerers?

My fix for elemental adept: 1. You can choose any of the damage types excluding slashing, piercing, bludgeoning and force. 2. After 1 long rest you get to pick a different element to get the ability in. 3. You ignore resistance and immunity is treated as resistance. 4. If you roll a 1 on a damage die you get to reroll the dice once. I probably made it a bit OP with the first and second additions but idk 😐

the ability to make 1 into 2 is best with spells with low dice sizes preferably D4 and D6 or maybe some costom spell that has d3 in there

I agree that for a draconic sorcerer this would be an auto-take at some point. No need to get it at level 4 but 8 or 12 it should be. But mostly for that category of character.

Tiefling Dragonblood Sorcerer with Elemental Adept: Fire and... The Racial Feat from Xanathar's Guide to Everything: Flames of Phlegethos. (Required Tiefling) Increase Int or Cha by 1. When you roll fire damage for a spell you cast, you can reroll any roll of 1 on the fire damage dice, but you must use the new roll, even if it is another 1. Whenever you case a spell that deals fire damage you cause flames to wreathe you until the end of your next turn. They don't harm you or your possessions, she a bright light 30ft and dim another 30. While the flames are present any creature withing 5ft of you that his you with melee takes 1d4 fire damage. This means you get the Tiefling's natural fire spellcasting, a buff to Int or Cha for casting stat (this is a half feat!) and can reroll your 1s into 3-6, and if they land 1 again, they're 2 instead. Taking elemental adept ensures you ignore resistance and squeak a bit more damage out of your casting. get some AC and HP from Dragonblood, once you hit Lv. 6 Elemental Affinity adds your Charisma to your spells (one damage roll, so it doesn't add up, but still good) and you can spend a sorcery point to gain resistance... Not that you'd bother, since you have racial resistance to Fire as a tiefling anyway. Take Careful Spell to make sure you don't hit your friends with all those fireballs and either quickened spell to dump Firebolts or Heightened Spell to help your target fail the saves.

I actually played with the concept of changing spell damage types by using items, like one of the first magic items I’ve ever made, the Ice Dragon Heart, it’s a wondrous item (pendant), very rare, and grants the following bonuses: wearer is immune to cold damage; wearer’s damage dealing spells always deal cold damage. It was worn by the PC’s ally and patron, a silver Dragonborn archmage, and in the climatic ending of the first campaign old Azaka (archmage’s name) had to fight the evil elemental Tor’rud the Dark Flame, while the PCs dealt with the fire elemental minions. Old Azaka starts casting Meteor Swarm, Tor’rud laughs at him because it recognizes the verbal and somatic components, and because he absorbs fire damage he was all like “come at me you idiot!” Lo and behold these huge comets of ice hurl out of the sky and smash into Tor’rud’s aghast face and nearly ripping his physical form apart (meta gaming wise he had less that 20HP left, so almost killed him) which scared him so much that he fled back to the elemental chaos, abandoning his invasion entirely and sparing the world of his fire. Edit: typo

You always have to consider the setting and the DM when building a character. In our Curse of Strahd run-through, we often encounter Druid Barbarians. They're Resistant to EVERYTHING but Psychic, so any type of Elemental Adept would have been useful.

so, story time, Dungeon Dudes! I had a Tabaxi Sorceress with draconic ancestry in a 5e setting. the DM lead us into a final encounter where we were getting surrounded by Tanurruks (I think that's how it's spelled), intending a total party wipe net zero ending. most of the party manages to get out of the ambush and set themselves up to start doing ranged attacks, but I, a barbarian orc, and a rogue (forgot the race) were trapped by 1 of each of these nasties. my sorceress had just gotten elemental adept fire at 4th level, and was currently at 5th, just having picked up fireball. deciding to let my dice determine my fate, I threw a fireball at my feet, catching the tanurruks, the rogue, and the barbarian as well as myself in the crossfire. the DM had forgotten about my feat, and was salty when I reminded him what it did... I passed my dex save with a natural 20, I think the rogue MIGHT have passed, and the barbarian and all the nasties failed. the rogue was unconscious, I was scorched but still up, one tanurruk and the barbarian that was facing it got turned to ash, and the last 2 were so weak that the ranger right after me was able to finish them off with hail of thorns active. DM = mega salty.

This feat is a must have for Fiend-heavy campaigns as they have multiple elemental resistances - Fire, Cold and Lightning