New Class: Mage
by Joe Wetzel (joewetzel at gmail dot com)
Overview
Members of the mage class have greater flexibility than wizards (even specialists) for several reasons. First, instead of being limited to a number of spells of each spell level, a mage may use up all his points on a smaller number of higher level spells or use a greater number of low level spells.
The class also gains metamagic feats to further improve flexibility. Because the spells cast can vary so widely there is no way for the mage to plan ahead and select a small number of spells to cast that day. Therefore he does not study a number of spells each day. He may use any spell he knows and still has enough spell points to cast.
However, all this added flexibility comes at a price. The mage must limit his spells known to one school of magic except for two spells per mage level. The mage does know and may cast any 0-level spells.
He may also choose a different “Unique Arcane Ability” instead of Summon Familiar based on the mage’s specialty school, background and personality.
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John William Waterhouse’s Circe (The Sorceress) studies her craft.
Alignment
Any.
Hit Die
d4.
Class Skills
The mage’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are the same as a wizard’s: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level
(2 + Int modifier) × 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level
2 + Int modifier.
| Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special | Spell Points Per Day | Max Base Spell Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Heighten Spell, Silent Spell or Still Spell*; Unique School Ability | 8 | 2 |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | 10 | 2 | |
| 3rd | +1 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Heighten Spell, Silent Spell or Still Spell* | 12 | 3 |
| 4th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | 16 | 3 | |
| 5th | +2 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Heighten Spell, Maximize Spell, Silent Spell, Still Spell or Widen Spell* | 20 | 4 |
| 6th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | 26 | 4 | |
| 7th | +3 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Heighten Spell, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Still Spell or Widen Spell* | 32 | 5 |
| 8th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +6 | 40 | 5 | |
| 9th | +4 | +3 | +3 | +6 | Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Heighten Spell, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Still Spell or Widen Spell* | 48 | 6 |
| 10th | +5 | +3 | +3 | +7 | 64 | 6 | |
| 11th | +5 | +3 | +3 | +7 | Any metamagic feat* | 80 | 7 |
| 12th | +6/+1 | +4 | +4 | +8 | 100 | 7 | |
| 13th | +6/+1 | +4 | +4 | +8 | Any metamagic feat* | 120 | 8 |
| 14th | +7/+2 | +4 | +4 | +9 | 150 | 8 | |
| 15th | +7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +9 | Any metamagic feat* | 190 | 9 |
| 16th | +8/+3 | +5 | +5 | +10 | 240 | 9 | |
| 17th | +8/+3 | +5 | +5 | +10 | Any metamagic feat* | 300 | 9 |
| 18th | +9/+4 | +6 | +6 | +11 | 375 | 9 | |
| 19th | +9/+4 | +6 | +6 | +11 | Any metamagic feat* | 450 | 9 |
| 20th | +10/+5 | +6 | +6 | +12 | 550 | 9 | |
| *If the mage already has all the feats that fit this criteria, he may choose any other feat. | |||||||
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the mage.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Mages are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a mage’s gestures, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.
Spells
A mage casts arcane spells which are drawn primarily from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time as a wizard or a cleric must (see below).
To learn or cast a spell, a mage must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a mage’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the mage’s Intelligence modifier.
While mages use the same spell lists as wizards, they use the spells much differently from wizards. Instead of getting an allotment of spells broken down by level as wizards and sorcerers do, mages have a number of spell points based on their level. These points can be used to cast a number of spells of varying levels and are listed on Table: The Mage.
In addition, a mage receives bonus spell points per day if he has a high Intelligence score. The number of spell points is determined by the Table: Bonus Spell Points.
| Mage Level | Mage’s Intelligence | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-13 | 14-15 | 16-17 | 18-19 | 20-21 | 22-23 | 24-25 | 26-27 | |
| 1st | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 2nd | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 3rd | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 12 |
A mage may know any number of spells like wizards (differing from sorcerers and bards) but most of a mage’s spells may only be from the his specialized school of magic (and universal.) At each level (after 1st level–see the section “Spellbooks” below for a mage’s initial spell choices) he may choose only two spells to learn from other schools. A mage does not have to choose these two spells from another school when gaining a level. He hay reserve one or both until he finds a spell later or at his next level. A mage may not know or cast a spell higher than his “Max Base Spell Level” in Table: The Mage.
To cast a spell, the spell as written in a reference book such as the “Player’s Handbook: Core Rulebook I” must be equal or lower in level to the mage’s “Max Base Spell Level.” If the caster chooses not to modify the spell using a metamagic feat, he simply uses up a number of spell points based on the spell’s level. (See Table: Spell Points.) If the caster does modify the spell using meta magic feats he must pay a number of spell points equal to the modified spell level.
One important addition to the cost of the spell is a modifier for spells that do damage based on caster level. These spells (such as Magic Missile and Fireball) in the spell point system do damage based on the minimum caster level required to cast the spell. To improve the damage the wizard can spend one more point per additional die of damage. Note that the amount of damage described in the spell can not be exceeded. A 8th level mage can cast:
Magic Missile with 1 missile costing 1 spell point
Magic Missile with 4 missiles costing 4 spell points
Fireball for 5d6 damage costing 5 spell points
Fireball for 8d6 damage costing 8 spell points
But without a metamagic feat he can not cast a 5-missile Magic Missile spell or an 9d6 Fireball. With the empower spell feat the 9th level mage may cast a 12d6 fireball according to the following formula:
Empowered fireball costs 12 spell points (3rd level +2 spell levels) for 9d6 damage + 3 spell points for the additional 3d6 = 15 points
The additional damage done through metamagic feats only incurs a level adjustment cost. It does not incur an additional per die cost. The last example above shows that the additional spell levels for the metamagic feat are considered when determining the base damage for a spell with variable damage. The empowered fireball’s base damage was 9d6 because the cost to empower the spell included the cost to raise its base damage.
Mages do not have to memorize particular spells. Because a mage often uses metamagic
feats to alter a spell he may cast any spells he knows during the day, as long as he does not expend too much magical energy (which is tracked using spell points.) However, a mage does need to study just as long each day as other wizards do but his studying is about his spells and magic in general, not specific spells he plans to use during the day.
William Fettes Douglas’s The Alchemist sells a potion.
| Spell Level | Spell Points |
|---|---|
| 0th | 1 |
| 1st | 2 |
| 2nd | 3 |
| 3rd | 5 |
| 4th | 8 |
| 5th | 12 |
| 6th | 20 |
| 7th | 30 |
| 8th | 50 |
| 9th | 80 |
Metamagic Feats
At every other level, a mage gains a bonus metamagic feat. If the mage already has all specified metamagic feats he may choose any other feat instead. The mage must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including caster level minimums.
These bonus feats are in addition to feats that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. The mage is not limited to the metamagic feats when choosing these feats.
Spellbooks
A mage must study his spellbook each day to review his spells although he does not have to designate certain spells for use that day. However he cannot cast any spell not recorded in his spellbook, except for read magic, which all wizards can prepare from memory.
A mage begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells plus two 1st-level spells of
your choice and one 2nd-level spell of your choice. For each point of Intelligence bonus the mage has, the spellbook holds one additional 1st-level spell of your choice. At each new mage level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new mage level) for his spellbook. At any time, a mage can also add spells found in other mages’ or wizards’ spellbooks to his own.
Because a mage is limited to spells from within his chosen school plus just two spells from other schools, it may be a struggle at early levels to find enough spells to learn. With the game master’s permission other reference books and the internet have many other spells to consider. It is also possible to create some unique, new spell. Finally the game master may consider some spells belong in more than one school. For example, Mage Armor may also be an Abjuration spell or Magic Weapon may also be an Enchantment.
Unique Arcane Ability
Because many mages may not have the “Summon Familiar” spell and that ability does not fit with many mages’ character concepts, mages have alternatives. Other sources on the internet and in other sourcebooks have alternative arcane abilities to Summon Familiar, but one article is Arcane Abilities: Alternatives to Summon Familiar.
Feats
Obsolete Core Feats
New Feats
Designer’s Notes
A New Base Class Vs. a Prestige Class
Wizards and Mages in the Same Campaign
Spell Point Costs
I felt that every spell, including 0-level spells had to have a cost, so they started as one point. I experimented with how to progress from that at first by roughly doubling the points for each spell level. Unfortunately that meant that if you gave a 17th level mage enough points for a couple of 9th level spells he could cast over 500 fireballs, which even though 17th level wizards should be abel to cast many fireballs 500+ seemed too much.
I also saw another spell point system which just added a point or two each level, but this seemed too small because while a 3rd level spell cost about 50% more than a second level spell, a 7th level spell only cost about 15% more than a 6th level spell.
In the end, starting with 0-level spells as one point and 1st level spells as two points and then roughly adding the cost of the two previous spell levels to determine the next spell level’s point cost seemed to be the best balance. The cost difference between 0-level and 1st level spells is doubled, but 0-level spells are supposed to be particularly weak. Beyond that the difference is 30-50% (starting at 50% and mostly going down to 30% except between a couple of levels where I tried to avoid numbers that are hard to work with.)
The 17th level mage mentioned above can still cast about 80 fireballs (depending on high intelligence, adding dice or metamagic) but if he wants to cast 80 fireballs instead of a smaller number of high level spells he should be able to.
Spell Points Per Day
When I originally drafted this class, I added up the spell points a wizard would get if he was a mage based on the number of spells he gets per day in the charts.
Unfortunately that resulted in a situation similar to the 500 fireballs a day for high level mages mentioned above. I thought about the issue some more and finally arrived at a rule of thumb that a mage should be able to cast four of the highest level spell he can cast each day.
This concept doesn’t quite match what normal specialist wizards can do. It does let mages cast two more spells of that highest level but it doesn’t give them nearly enough to cast all the spells a regular specialist wizard can. (For example, a regular specialist 11th level wizard gets 163 point worth of spells in this system, whereas a mage only gets 80.)
Because many of a regular wizard’s spell slots are not used up each day this difference doesn’t seem so bad. Furthermore many people think the wizard gets out of balance when compared to other classes at higher levels. The reduced spell points is one way to rectify that. In fact, at higher levels the 4-spells-of-highest-level-per-day rule of thumb gets cut down to a degree.
The text above uses content published under the Open Game License.
One Response
I’ve handled the spell casting a bit different in this type of magic user class. I have allowed the basic spells of fire, light(ning), cold, acid to be learned as combat spells but they only get 1 point per level of the spell caster and the spell cast must assign that point to a specific spell (leveling occurs a bit quicker in my worlds because I use it spur on the players, but in my mind I look upon it as a 10:1 ratio, that is 10 of these levels is equal to 1 in a standard game so if someone is 100 levels it would be equal to 10 in a standard game). With set damage based upon expertise with a spell, it is possible that a 100th level mage could have a 100pt fireball, but all other spells would be zero damage. It’s more likely that a 100th level mage in my system would have a 15-30 point fireball and about the same for lightning, cold, acid but they still have other spells to learn as well (and I ration them out just as stingy as I do damage points). Magic in my systems are controlled because the players must learn to do much more than hack & slay. If they have a good fire spell and a good cold spell, then they can increase the damage by alternating the spells in some cases – limit the magic and watch the players become creative, they’ll have more fun and so will you.
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