Halcyon Mage (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

Halcyon mages are students of one of the oldest academies of magical learning. A Halcyon mage studies and follows ancient traditions of magic and utilizes these secrets to bring decency and integrity to civilization.

Class Information

This is a prestige archetype. The halcyon mage is an arcane spellcaster with a focus on nature, life, and decency.

Prestige Class: Magaambyan arcanist from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige.

Build Classes: The halcyon mage is built on the wizard, but the following optional build classes are described below: arcanist,or witch.

Role: Halcyon mages work to support their fellow creatures and nourish life. When the situation demands they take up arms, but they take the long view and feel that peace is generally the better solution.

Alignment: Halcyon mages must start with a good alignment. Most Halcyon mages consider their studies to be a sacred duty and a tradition that spans the ages. A halcyon mage that change to a non-good alignment earns the disapproval of their peers and loses the aura of good, halcyon magic, virtuous spells, lasting goodness, blessed warding, righteous contravention, holy arcana, altruistic guardian, and timeless body abilities until the return to a good alignment, but can continue to advance in the class.

Hit Die: d6.

Class Skills

The halcyon mage's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival (Wis).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Halcyon mages are proficient with the club, dagger, sling, and quarterstaff, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor interferes with a halcyon mage's movements, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail.

Class Features

These are all the class features of the halcyon mage. The prestige archetype is open to many classes, with slight modifications. It replaces all of the class features of whatever class it is taken with, except as noted below under weapon and armor proficiency, spells, and build class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A halcyon mage gains the armor and weapon proficiencies of her build class.

Spells

The halcyon mage learns and casts spells exactly like the build class, including the effect of ability scores on spellcasting and cantrips.

Build Class

The halcyon mage inherits a few class features from the build class, as follows.

Arcanist None.

Witch A witch keeps the witch's familiar and patron spells abilities. She can use Spell Mastery to memorize her spells without the help of her familiar.

Wizard None.

Halcyon Spell Mastery

A halcyon mage gains Spell Mastery as a bonus feat at 1st level. The halcyon mage can learn the Spell mastery feat multiple times, with stacking benefits. At level 6 and every 6 levels thereafter, the halcyon mage gains Spell Mastery as a bonus feat one additional time.

Once per day, a halcyon mage can cast any spell she has mastered with the Spell Mastery feat, even if she hasn't prepared it that day. This spell is treated like any other spell cast by the Halcyon mage, but can't be modified by metamagic feats or other abilities. The halcyon mage gains another daily use of this ability at level 6 and every 6 levels thereafter.

Halcyon Magic (Su)

At 2nd level and every two levels thereafter, a halcyon mage chooses a spell from the druid spell list and treats it as if it were on her spell list. To learn a druid spell in this way, the halcyon mage must have ranks in Knowledge (nature) equal to twice the level of the spell learned. The spell's type becomes arcane and its save DC functions as normal for the halcyon mage. The Halcyon mage automatically learns this spell and adds it to her spellbook or familiar.

Aura (Ex)

From 3rd level, the power of a Halcyon mage's aura of good (see detect good) is equal to her class level.

Superior Spell Mastery (Ex)

At 4th level, by spending a total of 24 hours studying over a maximum of 3 days, a Halcyon mage can change all the spells she has mastered with the Spell Mastery feat(s).

Virtuous Spells (Su)

At 5th level, a Halcyon mage casts spells with the good descriptor at +1 caster level. To prepare a spell with the evil descriptor, she must use two spell slots of that spell level to prepare the spell. She cannot select spells with the evil descriptor to memorize using Spell Mastery, and any spells thus memorized are lost from her memory.

Intoned Recollection (Ex)

At 7th level, by performing a special ritual, a Halcyon mage can prepare a spell into an arcane spell slot with 1 minute of preparation. The open spell must be one holding a prepared spell, and the replaced spell is lost. She must have mastered the spell with the Spell Mastery feat in order to prepare it with this ability. She doesn't need to rest for 8 hours beforehand, but all other requirements of the preparation process still apply.

Lasting Goodness (Su)

At 8th level, all of a Halcyon mage's spells with the good descriptor have their durations extended by a number of rounds equal to her skill bonus in Spellcraft. A spell with a duration of concentration, instantaneous, or permanent isn't affected by this ability.

Spontaneous Spell Mastery (Ex)

At 9th level, a Halcyon mage can “lose” any prepared spell to cast a spell of the same spell level or lower which she has mastered with the Spell Mastery feat.

Blessed Warding (Sp)

At 10th level, a Halcyon mage is under a constant protection from evil effect (caster level equal to her class level). If this is dispelled, she can reactivate it as a swift action.

Righteous Contravention (Su)

At 11th level, a halcyon mage gains a +2 bonus on checks to overcome the spell resistance of evil creatures or evil objects, and on checks to dispel spells cast by evil creatures, spells with the evil descriptor, or evil magic items.

Woodland Stride (Su)

Gained at level 13, this is the same as the druid class feature of the same name.

Holy Arcana (Ex)

At 14th level, a halcyon mage adds all the bonus spells from the Good cleric domain to her spell list. These spells become arcane and the save DCs function as normal for her class.

Altruistic Guardian (Su)

At 16th level, as an immediate action when a spell or supernatural effect that allows spell resistance targets a halcyon mage's allies or they are within its area of effect, she can use this ability as an immediate action to redirect the effects to herself. She can do this for a number of allies up to her Intelligence modifier, provided they are within 30 feet of her. The Halcyon mage must make all appropriate saving throws for each ally, possibly making multiple saving throws against the same spell or effect. She suffers all damage, conditions, and other effects that her allies would have taken, possibly taking these multiple times. She redirects before suffering the effect herself; even if she is killed, all the effects are still redirected. Area effects with a non-instantaneous duration can still affect her allies normally at a later time.

Timeless Body (Ex)

Gained at level 20, this is the same as the druid class feature of the same name.

Table: Halcyon Mage

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Build class, halcyon spell mastery
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Halcyon magic
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	Aura
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Superior spell mastery
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Virtuous spells
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Halcyon spell mastery
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Intoned recollection
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Lasting goodness
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	Spontaneous spell mastery
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Blessed warding
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Righteous contravention
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Halcyon spell mastery
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Woodland stride
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	Holy arcana
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9	—
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Altruistic guardian
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	—
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Halcyon spell mastery
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	—
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Timeless body

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Section 15 Addendum

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Benjamin Bruck, Jason Bulmahn, Matt Goodall, and Jason Nelson.