Pathfinder 1E Acid and Earth - should they break up?

[Particle_Man]

I noticed that there is a loose association with Acid and Earth in Pathfinder (Earth domain clerics get Acid Dart, Stone Oracles can get acid resistance, earth school elementalist wizards get acid cloud, the Oread race gets acid resistance). But this is not always the case (deep earth sorcerers and geokineticists have no association with acid, AFAICT, and earth elementals are not particularly associated with acid).

Now I can see the Pathfinder urge for symmetry (4 cardinal elements, 4 energy types to go with them) but maybe that symmetry is not necessary. I mean going the other way I don't think there is a Sonic elemental, nor a plane of Sound. And Pathfinder has an acid quasi-elemental, so it doesn't need to ground an energy type in Earth. And Earth is not, to my mind, associated with energy. More like solidity, really. Black dragons, that breath acid, are associated with water, not earth, for an example of another break between earth and acid.

What do you think? Should there be a strong (or weak) tie between acid and earth? Or is such a tie unnecessary?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I think it's kind of silly, personally, but the decision was made early on and it propagated widely throughout the edition. It doesn't exactly hurt anyone, and remembering to change it would probably be more effort than it's worth.

 

[Arilyn]

Yes, I think the connection is strange too, but as Saelorn says not worth changing. Earth, air, fire and water are traditional and I'm guessing acid is the only thing they could think of to attach to Earth.

 

[TwoSix]

Never liked it personally; I always thought acid and water had a much more obvious connection. (Water is the element associated with change and dissolution, acid is usually portrayed as a liquid.)

 

[RangerWickett]

I wish they'd do a bit of extra work and give *earth*-themed powers to earth folks, like earthbending or even just walls of force and the like. Powers focused on solidity.

 

[Andor]

Yeah, I never understood the whole earth/acid thing. Why not just let earth attacks do earth damage like in Arcana Unearthed? A rock to the head is painful.

I'm not sure it's worth the trouble of formally splitting out, but if a player wanted to retype a characters earth themed damage away from acid in a game I was running I wouldn't even blink before saying yes.

 

[Kaodi]

Really should have been Fire/Fire, Air/Cold, Earth/Electricity, Water/Acid .

 

[Starfox]

I could see sonic as an alternative to acid for the earth element. But like most here, I don't consider a change worth the hassle.

 

[RangerWickett]

Sonic is intrinsically linked to air, since that's how we hear. Thunder is the most iconic loud noise in fantasy, far far more than vibrating rocks.

Really, fire should be fire, which should do the most damage and spread and cling. Air should do sonic which deafens and shoves, plus cold which immobilizes but does little damage, and lightning which does moderate damage and can fatigue temporarily.

Water should let you do acid damage, and create water to move people or block other elements. Earth would create solid objects to throw, or barricades, or shape stone and metal

 

[Dalamar]

The earliest I remember seeing the link is in Tome & Blood for 3rd edition. Therein was the Elemental Adept prestige class that had the link. My guess is the PrC was developed as a Fire Adept, and later someone decided that they could kill four birds with one stone. Except now many of the features don't work since the system has no air, water, or earth damage (or resistance on the monsters). Hence the link.

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