Magic-User (D&D Wizard variant)

Unofficial rules compendium

This is mostly a spoof on 1ed magic-users; don't take it too seriously. While it is possible that you will someday encounter an archaic spllcaster like this, it is absolutely not intended for player characters.

The magic-user is an old-school wizard. Only a few generations all wizards were magic-users, metamagic was unheard of, spellbooks were treasures beyond prize, and magical knowledge was zealously guarded. Magic was rare but highly prized. The magical revolution of the last century has made magic more common, but also devalued it to one of many services. Some wizards disdain this trend and continue to practice magic as their forebears did, disdaining contact with the magical community.

The only school of specialization allowed for magic-users is illusionism; an illusionist has Conjuration, Evocation, Necromancy, and Transformation as prohibited schools, but casts illusion spells as if they were all one spell level lower. They do not receive extra spells per day.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A magic-user is proficient in the dagger, dart, and quarterstaff, but not with any armor or shields.

Skills

Class skills: Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Forgery (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Profession (Wis), and Ride (Dex). Note that magic-users have neither Concentration nor Spellcraft as class skills, reflecting their lack of a coherent magical theory.

Skill points per level: 2 + Int bonus.
Skill points at first level: (2 + Int bonus) x4.

Bonus feats

A magic-user gets no selective bonus feats. Instead, they get the following abilities as they advance in levels.

Level 1: Magic Understanding; A magic-user gets a +2 bonus on all Reflex and Fortitude saves against spells and spell-like abilities.

Level 5: Improved Familiar

Level 7: Brew Potion, Scribe Scroll.

Level 11: Craft Staff, Craft Wand.

Level 13: Craft Magic Arms And Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Wondrous Item, Forge Ring.

Spellbook

Magic users do not use the same techniques to scribe their spells as modern wizards. While a modern spellbook is almost scientific in its exactness, a magic-user's is full of jargon, personal notes, riddles, misleading passages and other obstacles. The actual spell text might be only a small part of the chapter devoted to this spell, and the same spell might be haphazardly described, with parts of the description in different places. This makes a magic-users spellbook much less reliable than that of a modern mage. Each spell takes up twice as many pages as normal, and this means that the magic-user needs more tomes to hold his spells. It is common practice among magic users to have a separate spellbook for each level of spell.

A first level magic-user begins with 5 + Int bonus spells of level zero, and 2 + Int bonus spells of level 1.

A magic-user learns only one free spell each level from his personal research, and no feat or ability can modify this number. Magic-user spellbooks are different from the spellbooks of other wizards, and it is impossible for a magic-user to copy a normal spellbook, but they can copy that of another magic-user or any arcane scroll, using up the scroll as normal in the process. In the magic-user community, spells are dear in the extreme, and no magic-user willingly shares spell knowledge with another unless extremely well paid.

All magic-user spell research and spell scribing costs are only half normal.

Magic Item Creation

Magic-users create magical items in a non-replicable manner; each item is unique. The gold cost is only 1/10 of normal. However, each item requires unique ingredients, most commonly salvaged from monsters. Dragon eyes, nymph tears, and unicorn horns are examples of typical ingredients. Such ingredients must be harvested from a freshly-killed Aberration (Divination), Dragon (Any), Elemental (Evocation), Fey (Illusion), Giant (Transformation), Magical Beast (Abjuration), Monstrous Humanoid (Enchantment), Outsider (Conjuration), Plant (Transformation), or Undead (Necromacny). Components from a certain type of creature can only be used for enchantments of one particular school. A successful Craft (Alchemy) roll (DC 10 + CR) salvages components worth (CR squared) x10 gp, and this is used to pay the remaining cost of the enchantment.

Spellcasting

While magic-users are in many ways inferior to wizards, they shine in spellcasting. It is as if their highly individualistic learning allows them to transcend the limitations of more orderly wizardry.

• When casting a spell whose effect is limited so that it cannot achieve an effect beyond that gained at a certain caster level, a magic-user can ignore this limitation.

• The saving throw DC of a magic-user spell is always 20, regardless of the level of the spell or the magic-user's attributes.

• Magic-user spells cannot be counterspelled using the same spell, nor can they themselves counterspell. This is because they are much more diverse than modern spells; two magic-user's version of fireball are only superficially the same spell. Dispel magicand similar spells can counterspell normally.