Wizard

Among those that have learned to master the Spiritual Arts, it is Wizards who have the greatest respect for the immense power at their disposal. Viewed as a sacred and honorable charge bestowed upon them for the service of all creation, they know the effects of even the slightest misuse of power can echo across creation. Ever in search of truth, Wizards are scholarly, making them highly prized advisers and seers in royal courts and other governmental bodies.

Their commitment to service and studied caution regarding magic perhaps hold them back compared to the unbridled thirst for power of their Mage counterparts. Wizards believe that Honor is its own reward, and in many ways this makes them superior to a simple, though powerful, spell caster. Versatile allies, Wizards are equally adept at both offensive and support roles. They are unafraid to wade into the thick of battle, many even known for wielding powerful enchanted swords in close combat.

Wizards do not shy away from leadership, but rather wear it as a mantle, for they accept that their authority is woven into all of Creation. However, there is a darker side to that authority when a Wizard grows so powerful or so diluted that they believe it sets them above the very Creation they are meant to serve. Though it is rare, a Wizard straying from the path can have dire consequences for entire continents—or worlds.

Class Overview

Typical Roles: Support/Utility, Melee Damage, Ranged Damage
Damage Types: Physical, Spirit (Arcane, Elemental, Natural)
Class Mechanic: Honor and Spirit

Default Stats: During Character Creation you may choose to use the default stat line shown below, before racial modifiers. This can be instead of rolling for stats, or if after rolling ten sets of stats you don’t like the results.

During Character Creation you may choose to use the Default Stat Line, before racial modifiers, instead of rolling for stats, or if after rolling ten sets of stats you don’t like the results

Proficiencies

Natural Armor Proficiency: Cloth
Trainable Armor Proficiency: None
Natural Weapon Proficiency: Knives, Swords, Staves, Wands
Trainable Weapon Proficiency: Whips

See Equipment section for details. When using a weapon that your class is not proficient with, see Combat Penalties. There is no level or title prerequisite to train in a new proficiency, however you must receive the appropriate Training.

Class Skills

Class Passive Skill: Spiritual Authority
Class Secondary Skill: Commander, Teacher, Academic (choice of)

Primary Skills

Spirit

Dedicated School of Magic

While every Wizard possesses an innate gifting or connection with the Spirit of Creation, their skills are refined and developed though intensive training and formalized schooling. As such all Wizards begin with a foundation in the basics of Common Arcane magic, learning and wielding this School of Magic exclusively for the duration of Tier 1 powers.

Upon advancing to Tier 2 and beyond, Wizards must swear a solemn oath to serve a particular School of Magic for the remainder of their lifetime. To deviate from their path, is to become the reviled and dishonored Oathbroken. Though this system can be seen as restrictive, it also has its benefits. Unlike other practitioners of the spiritual arts, Wizards are permitted to retain all Tier 1 Common powers throughout their career, regardless of which School they belong to, while simultaneously being granted access to Tier 1 powers of their chosen School as well.

Academic Approach

The academic approach to learning new powers is utilized by Mages, Battlemages, and Wizards. In order to use the Academic method the Wizard must have access to the appropriate Tier and School of the power, through their College of Wizardry or choose the path of an outlaw (Hedge Wizard or Oathbroken). Either way, the Wizard must then proceed though the following procedure:

• First the caster must find, purchase, or be given a scroll or text for that selected power. Scrolls are often awarded to students of the spiritual arts by their masters, in exchange for the completion of tasks or errands. Colleges also retain extensive libraries of source material that can be utilized, with permission of course.
• Then the caster must attempt to cast the power by consuming the scroll AND expending the Spirit cost.
• Next the caster must pass an Intellect test at -1 Disadvantage per Tier of the power they are attempting to learn.
  • If failing: The scroll is destroyed and any damage and/or negative effects are inflicted on the caster or on a nearby (unintended) target.
  • If succeeding: The power works as intended and is now available in the memory of the caster, and can now be used at will while it remains in the caster’s memory.

Alternately, if the power is taught by a Wizard of the appropriate Title/rank (aka Spirit Teacher), no scroll is required and any failure is contained by the teacher.

Personal Spell Book

Personal Spell Books are used by Mages, Battlemages, and Wizards. While they may vary greatly in size and complexity, they remain the personal property of the Spirit user and typically cannot be read by anyone other than their owner, sometimes even driving an unauthorized reader mad. These casters use their Spirit Books as a means of simplifying the process of re-learning and over-writing powers currently in their memory. So long as a power is recorded in the caster’s Spirit Book, the Tier 0 power ‘Memorize Power’ can be used to successfully return a power to memory from the Spell Book without having to go through the process of learning the power (as outlined in the previous section). All rolls and requirements are waived. See the description of ‘Memorize Power’ in the Spirit Powers section for details on the frequency at which it can be cast.

Essentially this allows Mages, Battlemages, and Wizards to learn as many powers as they desire for the task at hand while using a Spell Book to store excess powers without having to re-learn them. Spell Books can store as many powers as there are pages available, where the number of pages required for a given power is equal to the tier of the power. To transcribe a power to a Spell Book the caster must have at least Rank1 Scholar (secondary skill). Transcribing takes a half rest and takes one known power from memory and permanently records it in the Spirit Book. Under no circumstances can Spell Books be used to directly cast powers. With the exception of Tier 0 powers, only powers stored in memory may be cast.

Incantation: Dragon Tongue

In order to actually cast any of their powers, a Mage, Battlemage, or Wizard must speak out a memorized incantation while picturing the substance and form of the spell in their mind. This must be paired with a casting gesture of some kind to set the spell into motion (see Methods of Casting).

For Wizards, this incantation must be spoken in one of the primordial languages of creation. This most often takes the form of the Dragon Tongue, for Dragons are believed to be one of the first to ever wield the spiritual force of magic. The Draconic languages, each with its own dialect linked to its Realm of Origin, carry immense power and are bound to the very fabric of Creation.

Such is the power of the Dragon Tongue, that mere mortals cannot use their bodies to directly set their spells into motion and must physically channel their spell-work through an inanimate object instead. Typically Wizards will use a staff, sword, wand, or knife to preform the required gestures, however any lifeless object in hand will do in a pinch.

Honor

Codes

Wizards seek spiritual truth, ever searching and reaching to understand and record the mysteries of creation. While all Wizards pledge themselves to this code of honor, most will belong to Wizard Order or College that may ask them to pledge themselves to additional code of honor as they grow in power.

Skills

Wizards view their spiritual gifts as a great honor bestowed upon them by creation itself, or in some cases, powers so ancient they existed before creation. This provides them with an assortment of Honor skills, in the form of Oaths, Virtues, and Code skills, to defend those who cannot defend themselves and seek violent retribution against those who have done wrong.

No training is required for Oaths and Virtues, as they are a function of one or more of the Codes that a Wizard is pledged to. However, oaths must still be sworn and upheld, while virtues must be demonstrated through a Wizards research and fieldwork. Training in Code Skills is required and is typically facilitated by the College of Wizardry to which the Wizard belongs, where an instructor will act as a Mentor and trainer to a lesser Wizard.

Wizards classes cannot learn a previously unknown Code or Code Skill (i.e. putting the first code point into Threads of Creation) unless they are taught/instructed by a Mentor (aka Code Trainer) that knows the corresponding skill. If assigning additional code points to an already known code skill, then no trainer is required and the point can be assigned immediately (i.e. increasing the number of code points in Threads of Creation from 1 to 2). This represents an Wizard honing their skills rather than actually learning a new skill.

Level Ups

Wizards use the following chart for levelling up:

HP Dice (Slight): Small Race (1d6), Medium Race (1d8), Large Race (1d10)