Doll Mage (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

A doll mage uses her magic to animate dolls, and learns to use her magic these dolls.

Class Abilities

This archetype has all normal class abilities, except as noted.

Magic Dolls (Ex)

A doll mage makes magical animated dolls. Except as described below, these function as familiars, with the base creature being a tiny animated object. Each magic doll has the Additional Movement (fly), Exceptional Reach (giving it a reach of 5 ft.) and Piercing Attack construction abilities and begin with one additional construction point to spend.

Magic dolls are normally humanoid in shape, can speak, and can manipulate objects. Unlike most constructs they are not mindless and thus subject to mind-affecting effects.

All magic dolls normally are in the same space as the doll mage, hovering about her or riding on her, only leaving her space if directly ordered. A magic doll in the doll mage's space has cover (Meaning it normally does not trigger attacks of opportunity) and need not take actions to move or make any skill rolls (such as Fly) to move along with the doll mage as she moves. If the doll mage teleports or is teleported, all her magic dolls in her space teleport along with her without counting against the restrictions of the teleport effect.

Unlike other classes that have familiars, a doll mage has several magic dolls, beginning with two and gaining an additional doll at level 8, 13, 17, and 20. At the same levels, each doll gains an additional construction point to spend. All magic dolls have identical statistics and the same construction point abilities.

Destroyed dolls are replaced in the same way as normal familiars. Magic dolls must remain dolls; abilities that would permanently change them to not be dolls (such as the Improved Familiar feat) cause them to cease being familiars. Magic dolls cannot use magic items.

This replaces Arcane Bond.

Doll Powers

Magic dolls gain powers as the doll mage advances in level. When a magic doll uses one of these powers to cast a spell, this uses up one of the doll mage's spells per day and the spell has the same effect as it would have if by cast by the doll mage herself.

Doll Cantrips

At level 1, all magic dolls can cast cantrips (level zero wizard spells) from among those the doll mage has prepared that day.

Doll Spellcasting

At level 5, several dolls acting in concert can cast a spell. All spellcasting the dolls must be in the same space as the doll mage and the spell must be one the doll mage has prepared and must be lower in spell level than the number of dolls casting it. Only one spell can be cast this way each round. This works just as if the master of the dolls cast the spell herself; she expends the spell as if she cast it herself, and all attributes of the spell are based on her spellcasting ability.

At 13th level, a group of 2 magic dolls can cast a 1st level spell, 3 dolls can cast a 2nd level spell, and all 4 dolls can cast a third level spell.

Doll Sacrifice

At level 10, a magic doll can sacrifice itself to intercept an attack aimed at the doll mage. Doll sacrifice must be declared before the attack is resolved and destroys one doll. If this is an attack with a to-hit roll, doll sacrifice is automatically successful. If it is against an attack that grants a saving throw, the doll mage gains a +4 bonus on this saving throw and suffers no effect whatsoever on a successful save. Against an attack that requires neither an attack roll nor allows a saving throw, the doll mage is allowed a Reflex saving throw with a DC based on the level of spell or ½ the HD + Charisma bonus of a non-spell ability to negate the effect.

Alternatively, a group of dolls can use doll spellcasting to cast a spell the doll mage has already expended for the day. This works just like normal doll spellcasting, but one of the participating dolls has to sacrifice itself.

Doll Counterspell

At level 15, magic dolls can counterspell as an immediate action, collaborating in the same way they do for doll spellcasting. The dolls cannot use doll spellcasting in the following round.

Greater Doll Spellcasting

At level 20, the dolls can cast spells even when not in the same space as the doll mage, but each 100 ft. of distance between the doll mage and the spellcasting dolls reduces the maximum level of spell that can be cast by one. All the spellcasting dolls must be in the same square to cast a spell. Also, several groups of magic dolls can cast spells simultaneously, casting more than one spell per round using doll spellcasting.

This replaces Scribe scroll, the bonus feats gained at level 5,10,15, and 20, as well as all Arcane School abilities.

Table: Doll Mage

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Doll cantrips, magic dolls, cantrips	3	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3		4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3		4	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4		4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Doll spellcasting	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5		4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5		4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Multiple dolls (2)	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6		4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Doll sacrifice	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7		4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8		4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Multiple dolls (3)	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9		4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9	Doll counterspell	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10		4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Multiple dolls (4)	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Multiple dolls (5), greater doll spellcasting	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Summary of Changed Class Abilities

• Arcane Bond
• Arcane School
• Scribe Scroll
• Bonus Feats (all)

The Care and Making of Magic Dolls

A doll mage can simply spend 200 gp per wizard level on a replacement magic doll (per the cost of replacing a lost familiar), but many doll mages will prefer to craft their own dolls. This saves money at the cost of additional effort.

• A doll generally has a child-like humanoid appearance. Most people can identify it as a doll quite easily. A doll crafted to look like some tiny creature can make Disguise checks at +10 to stay in role, but few dolls are good at Disguise. Such a specialized form might also make the doll unable to use tools or make the normal attacks. Example: a magic doll crafted to look like a songbird has no hands and no reach..
• Magic dolls gained by advancing in level do not have a cost, not does it cost goild to upgrade the dolls you have when you advance in level. Like spells gained by advancing in level, they are assumed to be the result of the doll mage's downtime activities and studies on the side.
• A masterwork doll suitable for making into a magic doll costs a minimum of 20 gp. Costs beyond 20 gp can be substituted with ritual materials - similar to the ones used in binding a normal familiar. In this way, if a replacement doll is not complete (not yet worth the full amount required), the remaining work can be substituted with ritual materials.
• Dolls are made with a combination of crafts; tailor, sculptor and painter. Each of these skills contribute 1/3 of the cost of the doll. But there is also a specialized Craft (dollmaking) skill that incorporates elements of all these crafts but is specialized in making dolls and other toys. As an optional rule, Craft (dollmaking) can also function as craft tailor, sculptor and painter half skill bonus, particularly if making small items.
• A doll mage who creates her own dolls do so faster than normal; her production rate is in gold pieces per week instead of silver. This applies only against the cost of replacing dolls for use as magic dolls; magic dolls have a value of only 1/10 normal if sold. It is still likely to take a long time to produce high-level dolls. The Craft DC to create magic dolls is 20, but can be set to be higher if desired. You can generally take 10 when crafting dolls in a suitable locale.
  A fifth level doll mage with Craft (Dolls) of +15 decides to set the DC of this weeks crafting to 25 and takes ten on the roll. The production for the week is 25 (DC) * 25 (10+skill) = 625 gp. A fifth-level magic doll costs 1000 gp, just under 2 weeks work.

Alternate: Pet Mage

A pet mage is a variant doll mage that has regular familiars rather than dolls. These gain all the abilities of doll mages, but have regular familiars rather than animated objects and these familiars do not gain any construction abilities. Instead they gain one bonus feat at level 1 and each time a magic doll would gain a construction point. A pet mage's familiars can speak, but generally not use tools or weapons. They have no trouble with somatic components. Like a doll mage, a pet mage can't benefit from Improved Familiar.

The text in this article is Open Game Content. It is covered by the Open Game License v1.0a, rather than the Action copyright. To distinguish it, these items will have this notice. If you see any page that contains OGL material and does not show this license statement, please contact one of the Action administrators. Please note that images used in article may have different copyright than the text.