They made mention of a multiple manifestation feat. That would pretty much give you the flavor of the quasi- or para- elementals, I guess.

Am I the only one who is seeing the awful cheese in Lightning Lure and Booming Blade? I guess I really shouldn't be one to complain... but these abilities just set off alarms in my head.

I really hope they change them by the time the book comes out, but judging by the fact that they're there, it seems unlikely.

The Genasi look awesome on the other hand, as do most of the other Swordmage abilities. So the Water one can breathe in water, have they provided rules for swimming yet? I have to admit I haven't looked particularly hard, but.... they seem to have left out a lot of aquatic monsters from the MM. In fact, Genasi looks to be the first water breather I've seen.

Black Dragons too, as I recall.

"awful cheese" in lightning lure and booming blade? They'd have to remain next to you for at least one round for that combination to be useful at all, fortitude is the strongest non-AC defense on average, you don't get your weapon proficiency bonus...I don't see how it's superior to just moving adjacent to someone and using booming blade.

Swimming is under Athletics.

And underwater combat is clearly marked in the DMG.

Also there are still a few aquatic monsters in the MM. Like the aboleth, kua-toa, and (my favorite) sahuagin.

I meant not using them together. I meant in the moves themselves. I guess I was just disappointed that Wizards seemed to be reaching oh so far for "cool" effects and would wind up with something so... bizarre. I guess I had the wrong definition of cheese. I had meant to say that they seemed cheesy. Like 70's cartoon cheesy.

"When he moves away, the sounds get louder and hurt them!"
"I pull him in with my lasso of lightning!"

Fair enough. I haven't been poking through it enough. I guess I meant player races, seeing as they took out the merfolk and aquatic elves. I knew there were monster water breathers, they had just lost playable ones since 3.x.

...So you're okay with wizards summoning a bunch of force daggers, clerics shooting beams of light, warlocks doing the exact same thing in reverse...but this is cheesy? It's magic.

Ah. Yes. Hum...
*ploughs through books*

Well. Besides from the watergenasi and the Water Breathing ritual I think the only other race available right now would be...

Warforged.
Okay, okay they're not aquatic but at least they won't drown!

I personally like the direction that the power design has gone. I've always played D&D as high fantasy and I love the fact that every class just feels powerful and has the special effects to go along with it.

I understand that there are players that would prefer a more low fantasy setting more akin to Conan or Tolkien, but my personal preference is for the action scenes to look like something that Hollywood would put into a summer blockbuster. Huge explosions, dizzying swordplay, and amazing lightshows is what I like. Then again, I was a theatre technician and special effects was part of what I did for a living (then I realized that I wasn't really making a living and left for other work).