d20 Heyoka Studios Class Distinctions - The Magus.pdf - Heyoka Studios - R5700

Class Distinctions #1

The Magus

By Rogan R. Hamby

ADDITIONAL CREDITS:

Editor: James Stubbs

Layout: James Stubbs

Playtesting: The Atomic Brain Gaming Group

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All text is copyrighted Rogan R. Hamby, 2005. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a chal-

lenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This book is compatible with the Revised 3rd Edition rules. This edition of Class Dis-

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This document is a work of ﬁction. Any similarity to actual people, cats, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental but

hopefully humorous in context.

The Role of the Magus

Sample Magus

Gheron: Male Human Magus 12: CR 12; Medium

Humanoid ; HD 12d4; hp 31; Init + 0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 11,

touch 11, ﬂat-footed 10; Base Atk +6; Grp +6; Atk +5

melee (1d4/19-20 dagger); SA: spells. AL CG; SV Fort

+4, Ref +5, Will +10; Str 10, Dex 13, Con 11, Int 17, Wis

14, Cha 14.

The magus (plural magi) is an arcane caster of a tradition

dating back to human civilizations only dimly remembered

today. The ﬁrst magi were the ﬁre priests who led the

worshipping people of desert coasts that mistrusted the

gods. As the leaders and scholars of their people, the magi

were free to study the depths of arcane sciences. They

pushed their abilities to the limit, using all of their mental

attributes to further their mastery of magic. Today, the

very term for common arcane manipulation, magic, is

borrowed from their title but few know that the magi still

exist.

Skills & Feats: Concentration +15, Craft (Bookbinding)

+7, Craft (Calligraphy) +7, Craft (Illustration) +7,

Decipher Script +18, Knowledge (arcana) +18,

Knowledge (history) +8, Knowledge (monsters) +8,

Knowledge (religion) +8, Spellcraft +18. Common,

Draconic, Elven, Orc. Spell Mastery (Teleport, Magic

Missile, Polymorph), Silent Spell, Extend Spell,

Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Arcane Spontaneity

(Polymorph).

Magi are spellcasters above and beyond all else. Their

closest counterparts are wizards but they tend to be less

adventurous and do not bother with binding familiars

as wizards do. A magus treasures the chance to focus

on their research that isolation brings rather than create

companionship. Additionally, while many wizards treasure

their role as item creators, magi prefer to research spells.

Magi respect discipline and are comfortable with wizards

and psions despite their differences. Magi consider

wizards distracted and psions limited but nonetheless

compatriots. Clerics are respected but their allegiances

with gods are mistrusted and druids are admirable but

… odd. In contrast, the lack of formal processes around

wilders, bards and sorcerers make them wild at best and

dangerous at worst.

Rotes: 256, used 254

Spells Prepared (save DC 13 + spell level): 0 -Detect

Magic x2, Read Magic x2, Mage Hand; 1 st - Cure Light

Wounds, Expeditious Retreat, Comprehend Languages,

Magic Missile x3, Shield x1, Mage Armor*; 2 nd - Bull’s

Strength, Cat’s Grace, Alter Self; 3 rd - Water Breathing,

Blink*, Wind Wall, Dispel Magic x2 ; 4 th - Scrying,

Charm Monster, Wall of Ice; 5 th - Teleport**, Persistent

Image, Break Enchantment, Waves of Fatigue; 6 th - True

Seeing*, Disintegrate.

* This spell is modiﬁed with the Extend Spell feat

** This spell is modiﬁed with the Quicken Spell feat.

Non-magic users such as ﬁghters, monks and rogues are

seen as belonging to a different social class. Although

a magus will typically voice polite regard for those that

choose non-mystic paths, there is some contempt for those

who do not master the powers. Magi regard character

classes with limited magical knowledge, such as psychic

warriors, soul knives, rangers, and paladins as dilettantes.

Despite their personal biases, magi are practical, having

survived as a tradition for many thousands of years by

learning to get along with others and keep their proﬁles

low. There are many who mistrust people who cross as

many boundaries of lore as the magi do.

Gheron is a typical adventuring magus. He grew up in a

small riverside village as a priest and, when of age, was

exposed to the fact that it was not the Fire God that granted

magic but the magi’s own study of lore that did. Since

then, Gheron has left the village and found companions

whose treasure seeking has complemented his own interest

in the old desert ruins. Gheron hopes to one day return

home and, with enough original research and old artifacts

of his people, impress the elders enough to earn a post

among the order.

In a party, the magus has a similar function to that of a

wizard and is often the academic guru who can also play

a support role, function as a wild card or provide heavy

ﬁrepower depending upon spell selection. Magi often

adventure hoping to comb through ancient ruins and other

places of lost knowledge to gain a boost in their research.

Gheron’s equipment is typical of an adventuring magus

of his level (not listed here) and also has a pet cat named

Greymalkin.

The Magus

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the magus must have an

Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The

Difﬁculty Class for a saving throw against a magus’s spell

is 10 + the spell level + the magus’s Intelligence modiﬁer.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d4.

A magus can cast a limited number of spells per day

limited by their allocation of rotes. Her base daily spell

allotment is given on Table: The Magus. In addition, she

receives bonus rotes per day if she has a high Intelligence

score.

Class Skills

The magus’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill)

are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int),

Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually)

(Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Unlike a bard or sorcerer, but like a wizard, a magus may

know any number of spells. She must choose and prepare

her spells ahead of time by getting a good night’s sleep and

spending 1 hour studying her spellbook. While studying,

the magus decides which spells to prepare.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modiﬁer) x4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modiﬁer.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the magus.

Bonus Languages: A magus may substitute Draconic,

Celestial and Infernal for any of the bonus languages

available to the character because of her race.

Weapon and Armor Proﬁciency: Magi are proﬁcient with

the dagger and quarterstaff, but not with any type of armor

or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a magus’s

movements, which can cause her spells with somatic

components to fail.

Spellbooks: A magus must study her spellbook each day

to prepare her spells. She cannot prepare any spell not

recorded in her spellbook, except for read magic , which all

magi can prepare from memory.

Spells: A magus casts arcane spells, which are drawn from

the sorcerer/wizard spell list. A magus must choose and

prepare her spells ahead of time (see below).

A magus begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-

level spells from the wizard/sorcerer spell list plus three

1st-level wizard/sorcerer spells of your choice. For each

point of Intelligence bonus the magus has, the spellbook

holds one additional 1st-level spell of your choice. At each

Table: The Magus

Fort

Save

Ref

Save

Will

Save

Spell

Level

Personal

Lore

Research

Adept

Level BAB

Special

Rotes

1st

Research Tome 7

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

III

6th

7th

8th

9th

106

10th +5

133

1st

11th +5

160

12th +6/+1

193

III

13th +6/+1

226

VII

14th +7/+2

265

15th +7/+2

304

VIII

16th +8/+3

+10

349

17th +8/+3

+10

394

18th +9/+4

+11

445

2nd

19th +9/+4

+11

472

20th +10/+5 +6

+12

541

new magus level, she gains two new spells of any spell

level or levels that she can cast (based on her new magus

level) for her spellbook. At any time, a magus can also add

spells found in other magi’s spellbooks to her own.

metamagic feat would increase the original spell times

the level of the spell being modiﬁed. So, for example, a

silenced third level spell would require 12 rotes: 9 for the

third level spell and 3 for silencing it.

Research Tome: One thing that follows a magus

throughout their career is a research tome. Unlike spell

books, research tomes are journals that function as spell

books secondarily. As a magus’s career goes on, it is

common to destroy old research tomes and create new

ones, removing pages from the old one to rebind and

adding pages.

A magus gains a bonus number of rotes equal to their

Intelligence modiﬁer times the highest level of spell she

can cast each time she gains the ability to cast a new level

of spell. So, a level 11 magus with an Intelligence of 16

would gain 18 bonus rotes (level 6 spells times +3 from

Int). She would have last gained 15 bonus rotes at level 9

if her Intelligence had been 16 then as well.

A research tome has several advantages for an adventuring

magus as well as drawbacks. The primary drawback is that

the tome, due its interaction with the magus, is a mystic

link that can be used by appropriate rituals. Someone who

understands the text could also use it to gain insight into

the magus’s thinking.

A magus may also choose to not allocate all of their rotes

to use for spontaneous metamagic. See: Research Adept

Spell Level: This is the maximum spell level that the

magus can cast. At any level they can cast spells of this

level and lower that they have in their research tome

available for memorization.

Magi may memorize any spells they learn by researching

them, as a wizard does, from their research tome as if it

was a spell book. These spells do not require material

components if the magus has their research tome in their

hand and the components are 1 gold or less in value. This

limit increases to 2 gold at 10 th level, 3 gold at 15 th level

and 4 gold at 20 th .

Personal Lore: A magus pushes their knowledge of magic

to the degree that they can learn the casting secrets of

another class though it has risks. At 10 th and 18 th level, a

magi may choose another spell casting class whose spells

the magi may now research as arcane spells. Typically,

the class spell lists selected are cleric and druid though,

with GM permission, the Psion power list could be adapted

and learned as well. These spells must be researched

from scratch and cannot be learned from another source.

Additionally, this learning reﬂects the magus’s personal

insight so the spell is useless even to another magi who can

research spells from that class list.

Magi typically take great pride in their research tomes,

using the most expensive inks, bindings, covers and papers.

Many magi learn scribing and drawing skills in their craft.

Additionally, many enhance their tomes with protective

and utility spells. One natural ability of the magi, however,

is to have a vague awareness of their tome’s location

regardless of distance so long as they are on the same

plane. At 12 th level, the magi may scry on the tome at will.

Tapping into this knowledge is not without risk. As the

magus is now learning magic that they do not have the

inherent safeguards for, it can take a toll on her mind.

Every time a spell from another class list is researched, the

magus may develop a phobia. Spells of a level equal to or

lower than the magus’s Charisma bonus, are safe to learn,

as their sense of self-identity is strong enough to withstand

the stress. Magical spells or equipment that enhance

charisma do not count towards this limit. So, a magus with

a Charisma of 13 and a cloak of charisma +4 is still only

considered to have a charisma bonus of +1 for purposes of

determining what spells from another spell list are safe to

learn.

Magi research spells just as a wizard does.

Rotes: A magus memorizes spells by allocating rotes.

Rotes are units of memory, representing the ability of a

magus to apply the intensive process of embedding the

pattern of arcane magic onto the neural networks of the

magus’s mind. Each level of spell casting requires a

number of rotes as indicated below:

0 level

- 1rote

1 st level

- 3 rotes

2 nd level

- 6 rotes

3 rd level

- 9 rotes

Any spells with a level above the charisma bonus require a

Will save DC 20 + the level of the spell. Failure to make

the save means that they must roll on the fear chart below.

The fears that may be gained are not inﬁnite and some

believe that the reason is that the magus’s mind is damaged

by exposure to knowledge that their mind is unprepared to

handle.

4 th level

- 12 rotes

5 th level

- 15 rotes

6 th level

- 18 rotes

7 th level

- 21 rotes

8 th level

- 24 rotes

9 th level

- 27 rotes

When spells are memorized, the magus may apply any

metamagic feats that she knows. Applying a metamagic

feat requires 1 rote per additional level of spell that the

The ﬁrst time a phobia is rolled, the magus becomes

Shaken if exposed to the cause of their phobia. If they

roll that result again they instead become Frightened when

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