[FtA!] Air Shapers

[RPGPundit]

Air Shaping does not on the surface of it sound like a very combat-oriented spell list to chose. But if you check out the spells it has, it actually makes Air Shapers some very very tough combatants at high levels.  Even lv.3 Dust Devil is a very dangerous spell that can easily wipe out an opposing force's strategy as key members of the force get stunned.

And lv. 9's Vacuum is one of the deadliest spells in the game.

Whirlwind, wind strike, and Tornado are all incredibly destructive spells, and then of course you get to summon an Air Elemental as the lv. 10 spell.
And to top it all off you can fly.

So I see Air Mages as very aggressive sort of dudes.

Possible backgrounds I could imagine for Air Shapers would be a religious order of priests who serve a Storm God, a mad Chaos mage, a nation of Air Pirates who travel through the sky on flying boats with the help of Rogue-Wizards and ancient lost artifacts, etc etc.

What other roles could you think up for an Air Mage or for Air magic in the setting?

RPGPundit

[Silverlion]

They could be specialist war-mages for mountain kingdoms.

They could be hedge-wizards serving the community in defense and weather protection helping to ensure crops (I think.)

Don't even need air pirates, but plain old pirates could make use of one.

Might have contests of skill and battle reminiscent of WW1 flying aces.

Have them as researchers studying various interactions (aiding alchemists in their such--vacuum is a useful effect to halt certain chemical reactions.


Firefighters.

[beejazz]

You are a fan of Avatar, are you not?

You could stretch it out and cover more general weather (lightning and ice and whatnot) or include sinister options like breathdrinking. Continuing with the latter theme, if water focused casters could gain or confer the ability to breathe water consider a counterpart spell that allows water breathers to breathe air. Fog might be okay too.

For roles in the game, I'm not sure. They might be very combat effective, but I definitely see air as often being a mobility thing. Think maybe a flying messenger service or something.