hey all I have been recently been thinking about trying to do an Avatar game I was thinking d20 (probably polling from d&d 3.5) or pathfinder more or less because I am familiar and comfortable with those systems.

However, I am at a loss on how to create classes for the elemental users. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or is there already an avatar system out there?M
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 13:49, Mon 07 Nov 2016.

Pathfinder's kineticist (Occult Adventures) would probably be a good place to start.

Pick a better system for it. FATE, Cortex, M&M, basically any of the general use systems. It is WAY less work to read the 3 pages that are the entire Fate Acelerated system than it is to homebrew even a single d20 class to the point of playability. You'll actually get to play your game (Because you will finish the system hack) and it will probably be better than something your throw together yourself for a D20 mod.

M&M3e has a free online SRD and is fairly to move to after playing d20 for a while (since it is sort of d20)

Coretx's Marvel Heroic rules worked REALLY well for it IMO. Played in such a game on another site, and it felt just right :)

I think Fate would work well, especially with Avatars feel of being story centered.

All I can really say is that d20 (and especially Pathfinder) is overly complicated in ways I can't even begin to convey. I have cursory knowledge of Deadlands Classic, Savage Worlds, FATE (I think, it's been a while and I'm not sure I've connected the correct name to the idea), World of Darkness, Exalted, and D&D 4E, with advanced knowledge of Pathfinder and Marvel Superheroes. With that in mind, I have never seen a system more awful than Pathfinder, and my understand of D&D 3.5 is that it's not much different. I realize it makes for a great starting point for tabletop RPGs when you've already got the characters designed for you, and the fact that all the rules are available at d20pfsrd is super-convenient, but beyond that it just isn't worth putting your time into.

Among my experiences, though I am rather biased on this one, I think the best system--mechanically--for putting something like this together would be Marvel Superheroes (probably Basic Set). Everything you need for it is available on classicmarvelforever, and the learning curve on it is practically nonexistent. This works well from a mechanical standpoint, though it would require some slight changes to character creation (namely, primary stats go down while power ranks go up).

However, Avatar: The Last Airbender is very story-based, and therefore should probably be used with a story-based system. For this reason, more story-based systems like Exalted or Savage Worlds would help out a lot. While Exalted is explicitly too high-level and has too many weird setting-specific rules, Savage Worlds has some complications as well. Savage Worlds does, however, have Shane Hensley's Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion, which helps. Though that one also has some mechanical discrepancies that need to be fixed. Namely, the rule on power limits probably needs to be scrapped.

TLDR: No matter what you do, you'll probably need to use a little homebrewing to get things right. That said, your current system experience is a terrible kicking-off point, as Pathfinder is too carefully-balanced to go tossing in something like Bending, and 3.5 is also far too complicated to go messing around with stuff like that. Use something simpler and more story-based, like Savage Worlds. Learning a new system might not be fun (I'm working to learn Savage Worlds right now, actually), but it will definitely be worth it.

In reply to HornetCorset (msg # 6):

I agree with the analysis that any Avatar game would be story-based. Wuxia also plays a huge part of the setting (Element Bending). While I haven't used it, I have heard good things about Weapons of the Gods RPG.

I'd suggest Legends Of The Wulin as it's (mechanically improved and better written, imo) pseudo-sequel.

You might also look into Legends Of The Elements if you know of Apocalypse World.Not sure if it's any good, though.

I didn't know about this. Thank you!

There's also a (free) Apocalypse Enginge hack floating out there called Avatar World. It's decent. Better than 3.5 anyway.

EDIT: Actually, upon doing some research, Avatar World and Legend of the Elements appear to be mechanically identical. The only difference is the fluff.
This message was last edited by the user at 19:41, Sat 10 Dec 2016.

I've used FASERIP and it's a really easy system to learn- after you make a character, you only need one chart!

It's somewhat complex, itself.

Granted, I haven't played it, only owned/read the book, but I have experience with loads of different systems and this one certainly falls more toward the 'complex' category for me.  Additionally, it's designed for a specific setting, with rules meant to uphold the traditions/mood/themes of that setting.  I feel one would be better off using a generic system in this case.

Allow me to make a few recommendations: Avatar D20  http://dndsnd.pbworks.com/f/Av...Bender+d20+v2.03.pdf

And Avatar the Dungeon World edition which i can't find anymore but have the PDF's for. They were free, so i don't mind linking by request.

Pokemon Tabletop United with the Game of Throhs supplement does Avatar extremely well. I've used it for exactly that, in fact. It's also free.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:46, Sat 03 June 2017.