Battlemage

Battlemages are a fusion of mage and soldier, selected early on from among those gifted with the Spiritual arts as well as having a propensity toward physical and martial prowess. Originally formed to serve their masters as enforcers of the laws of magic, they became known as Mage Wardens. They also serve in a variety of other capacities such as bodyguards for high ranking Mages or by providing battlefield services as a sort of living artillery piece.

The life of a Battlemage is typically one of service, as they live, study and train in the Mage Colleges alongside true Mages. They are often viewed as subservient to the Mages due to their reduced capacity for mastering the Spiritual arts. However, the truth is much different. If a Battlemage can reach the title of High Curator, they become the supreme commander of a particular branch of the Mage Wardens. In this role they command more authority, though less personal power, than even an Archmage. In the event that an Archmage reaches beyond the laws of magic to grasp even more power, it would fall to the High Curator of a College to enforce the laws of magic, sacrificing as many Mage Wardens as necessary in the process to suppress the corruption.

Class Overview

Typical Roles: Support/Utility, Melee Damage, Ranged Damage
Damage Types: Physical, Spirit (Arcane, Elemental, Natural)
Class Mechanic: Vigor 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: Leather
Natural Weapon Proficiency: Knives, Swords, Bludgeons, Axes, Staves
Trainable Weapon Proficiency: Swords (2-Handed), Bludgeons (2-Handed), Axes (2-Handed), Polearms, Bows, Crossbows, Wand, Firearms

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: Adrenaline Casting
Class Secondary Skill: (choose one) Bodyguard, Military Training, or Weapon Specialist (of Battlemage’s choice)
note: If wishing to specialize in a weapon type that the Battlemage does not have as a starting proficiency, you may save the point to be spend at a later date

Primary Skills

Spirit

Dedicated School of Magic

While most Battlemages possess some innate or natural skill in magic, their skills are learned and developed though intensive training and formalized schooling. As such all Battlemages begin their schooling in 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, Battlemages must dedicate themselves to a particular School of Magic for the remainder of their lifetime, or risk breaking the Laws of Magic and being labelled a Renegade.  Though this system can be seen as restrictive, it also has its benefits. Unlike other practitioners of the spiritual arts, Battlemages 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 Battlemage must have access to the appropriate Tier and School of the power, through their Mage College or choose the path of an outlaw (renegade or sorcerer). Either way, the Battlemage 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 Mage or Battlemage 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: Battle 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 battlemages, the focus is placed on efficiency over elegance, as they are far more likely to find themselves in close combat than their mage counterparts. As such, this incantation is usually a short form shouted in their native or most familiar tongue. This is sometimes referred to as the Battle tongue, and though it is looked down upon by most mages, it is far more functional when standing toe-to-toe with an Ogre, or facing down a cavalry charge. The accompanying casting gestures are equally as pragmatic as the Battle tongue. Simple but forceful, these gestures are often made with a weapon, though an empty fist works just as well.

Vigor

A Battlemages training includes equal parts academics and physical drills. They train long and hard to fight with a variety of weapons and tactics. While the adrenaline of battle courses through their veins, a Battlemage can channel it to boost their casting prowess, particularly for defensive or melee oriented powers. However, as with any Vigor class, prolonged combat can tire out a Battlemage preventing them for using their physical training to full effect.

While learning new Spirit Powers is an intricate and involved academic process, learning new Vigor Skills is relatively simple, and follows the standard methods of training. Typically Battlemages train within a Mage College and therefore most often receive vigor training from Battlemage instructors. However, they could just as easily pick up new skills from an experienced warrior, soldier, marksman, or other vigor class. At times they may even just pay a Combat Trainer to learn a new skill. Once a skill is learned though, it can be improved simply though repeated use.

New vigor skills require training unless they are upgrades (i.e. Offensive Stance -> Improved Offensive Stance), see Learning New Vigor Skills for details.

Level Ups

Battlemages use the following chart for levelling up:

HP Dice (Regular): Small Race (1d8), Medium Race (1d10), Large Race (1d12)