Hi guys. I'm interested in this quality, though it requires 5 spells aligned to that element.
My issue is that there aren't enough combat lightning spells and barely enough fire spells.
What elements is this actually designed for?
Well, by the strictest reading, "lightning" isn't even a valid choice. The choices are air, earth, fire, or water. But of those four choices, only one of them (fire) is an element that actually deals damage. The water element specifically
doesn't deal damage, only knockdown, although being immune to that secondary effect would be quite useful.
So your question of what element is it designed for is quite apt. I feel like the writer who came up with it is a big fan of D&D, because this quality screams the classic "elements" of d&d style play. In most d&d rules I've seen the "natural elements" are tied to corresponding damage types (air=lightning, earth=acid, fire=fire, and water=cold), but I feel like Shadowrun (usually) tries to distance itself from this cliched trope. The idea of having a Fire Spirit shoot lightning, or better yet the water spirit that takes the form of an electric eel is totally a thing in D&D so that automatic tie-in totally doesn't work. That's one of the reasons I just flat-out dislike the implications of this quality in general.
That being said, the requirements
do state that they have to be spells
related to a specific natural element, they don't have to be elemental damage spells. Shape Earth, Clean Water would be easy examples of spells that would help qualify. You could argue Levitate being related to air, for example.
Oh, and FYI, there are plenty of spells to use for Fire (and any of the damaging elements). At the very least, there are the three base spells (each element has one for touch, single-target, and area), plus Elemental Grenade, and Elemental Wall. So that's 5 easy.
