Mage

Magic is a powerful tool that can be used to create many wondrous and incredible things, but it is also a potent force that can be used offensively. The Mage path allows you to harness the power of the arcane to tear down your enemies, burn fortresses to ash and cinder, and call upon the powers of down spells of incredible devastation. If you’re looking to crush your foes with incredible and primal power, Mage is the way to go.

Primary Stats: Intelligence, Constitution

Bonus to Skill Checks: Concentration, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana, Nature, the Planes)

Basic Abilities

Opening this talent tree grants you the following powers and abilities.

Destructus Arcana: You might have been able to throw some fire at someone, or maybe arc a bolt of lightning at an enemy, but now you have a grasp of what you’re doing, and your study has paid off. You can access a great deal of power now, and your accuracy is greatly improved as you hurl deadly arcane power at your enemies. Hurl giant spheres of acid, rain fire from the sky, freeze your foes in their tracks, or melt their flesh with necrotic energy; it’s all up to you. This allows you make your own general attack spells. None of it will be particularly powerful at this level, but it’s a start.

Basic Arcana: More than just hurting someone with magic, you can perform various other useful techniques. You can summon bits of magic to enhance someone’s abilities for a short time, block incoming damage with a spell shield, even enchant equipment for a short time. As with destructus arcana, it’s not terribly powerful, but allows you to use your imagination.

Blink: A basic maneuver and simple spell that allows you to teleport short distances.   

Mastery: Mastery is a measure of your overall power and ability in a given talent branch. Each rank raises your ability a bit higher, and grants you greater power and access to more abilities further down the line. You must purchase each rank in order. Each rank is explained in detail below.

Rank 1: Your powers are slightly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to cast spells. Your spells are also slightly empowered, granting greater effects. For example a simple fireball might now have an explosive effect when it crashes against a foe, dealing more damage to him and perhaps a few people near him. 10 points.

Rank 2: Your powers are slightly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to cast spells. Your spells are also slightly empowered, granting greater effects. It takes slightly less time to cast various spells, and you can have no more than Intelligence modifier spells of a reasonable level that are instant cast spells for you. 20 points.

Rank 3: Your powers are enhanced, reducing the energy you need to cast spells. Your spells are also empowered, granting greater effects. While spells generally have a physical and vocal component, you now can cast certain spells in your arsenal with one or the other. For example, a gesture might send a fireball hurtling at your foes or you could have a spell that has only a vocal component. You also gain the ability to “hang” spells; that is, you can ready more powerful spells and leave out one key element that you need to finish the spell. These spells must be maintained and refreshed, but this and the vocal vs. physical component applies to all schools of magic. You gain a +2 to Intelligence. 30 points.

Rank 4: Your powers are greatly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to cast spells. You can cast many minor and basic spells without using any energy at all. You have a growing list of instant cast spells that can be slightly more powerful; think encounter to at-will. You can have up to 12 ready to go at any time. These spells are not spells that you’ve hung, rather they are spells that you have practiced and perfected and are now simply a ready part of your arsenal. Your spells are also greatly empowered, granting greater effects. You can now absorb arcane energy directly from the ether, recharging you and allowing you cast more spells than normal, but this can have negative effects if done too often without resting. 40 points.

Rank 5: Your powers are greatly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to cast most spells to almost nothing. Your spells are also greatly empowered, granting greater effects; for example, a basic fireball could now explode hurting several people around the initial target, and also ignite those affected. You constantly absorb arcane energy from the ether as a natural ability, granting you greater stamina in your spell casting. This does not mean you will never run out of energy, as you have a “max mp” as it were, but it can help you in long and difficult battles. You gain a +3 to Intelligence. 50 points.

Familiar: You have studied thoroughly and created a creature that aids you in your battles, studies, and life. The creature is sentient, though only you can hear it. You can speak to it telepathically wherever it is in the world, and you can use its senses as your own when you have need. The creature can be any sort of small, natural animal you like, or an imp if you are so inclined. So long as the creature is out and within 5 feet of you, your spells are slightly empowered, you can cast slightly faster and with greater accuracy, and you gain a +2 to Intelligence. This increases to a +3 at Mastery Rank 3 and a +4 at Mastery Rank 5. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 25 points.

Dual Cast: Many spells require you to channel energy through your hands, guiding the magic. You now have the ability to cast two separate spells from each hand, or use your hands together to cast the same spell making it a bigger spell with different and more powerful effects. This kind of spell casting requires a great deal of energy and can drain you very quickly. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Counterspell. You stop magic as it’s being cast, or disrupt a spell after it’s been cast. It might not work all the time, and depends on the ability of you and the spell being cast, but it can still be a useful ability and can even silence spellcasters for a short time at higher levels. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Archmage: You have chosen your path, whatever it may be, or perhaps perfected several different paths of magic. Regardless, you have learned and practiced arcane secrets and rituals throughout your life, always searching for greater knowledge, better control, and more power. You may never stop practicing, you might never achieve your complete goal, but you have become one of the most powerful mages in the world, and other planes. All of your powers are magnified to a great extent, your power usage is reduced to almost 0 for nearly all your spells and you can do wondrous and amazing things. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.

Arcane Branch

10 points.

Opening this branch of Destruction grants the following abilities.

Frostfire: You have learned the secret of a potent arcane tool, the burning ice known as the frostfire and it is yours to command.

Empowerment: Taking this branch of Destruction empowers the spells of any other branch you may have, including this branch.

Arcane Branch Abilities

Arcane Missile: The most useful tool in the mage’s arsenal, silvery threads of arcane energy streak from your fingertips and unerringly to your foes. While it always hits your target, it isn’t always the most powerful attack you have. Still, at least you know you’ll never miss. 10 points.

Create Hearthstone: Using a regular, small, smooth stone, you enchant it so that it can be used to teleport to one specific location. You can change the location as you wish, but it will always be general. For example, it won’t be a specific room in a house, but just outside or in an open area of a town, or city, or near a forest or stream. At Mastery Rank 3, you can have 2 different locations stored in the hearthstone. At Mastery Rank 5, you can have 3 different locations stored in the hearthstone. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Mage Armor: You are covered with a glimmering brilliance that absorbs attacks, reducing them to practically nothing and feeding back into the spell that produced the effect. A great layer of protection. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Featherfall: Why do you always find yourself being thrown off the side of a mountain by angry barbarians? With this, you need never worry about what happens at the bottom again. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Curse: You place a minor curse on a foe, slowing them, weakening them, or simply sapping their life. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 15 points.

Invisibility: A simple spell that allows you to be hidden from sight. This does not make you silent, nor intangible, and the spell will fade if you draw attention to yourself. At Mastery Rank 3, you can cast this on other people. At Mastery Rank 5 you can cast it on groups of people. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Arcane Rage: You draw the raw power of the arcane and use it as an attack, sending bolts of pure magic to destroy your foes. You can send an arcane barrage at your enemies, glimmering blue energy that explodes on contact, or simply absorb the energy and send it out in a shockwave around you. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Polymorph: You channel arcane energy to render your foe helpless in the form of a rabbit, pig, squirrel, or some other small, minor creature. They are confused while in this state and can do nothing. The spell ends when they are hit, and lasts only a few moments anyway. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 25 points.

Teleport: You can now teleport yourself great distances, but this is limited. You must know where you are going, having been there before, and you cannot take others with you or travel to other planes. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 30 points.

Mana Bomb: Gathering a bit of arcane energy in to a small sphere, you float it to the middle of the field, where it explodes brilliantly, taking out your enemies. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 15 points.

Arcane Brilliance: A burst of magical insight allows you to garner secret knowledge, or aids you in a skill check, saving throw, and more. The burst can also affect your allies, allowing them to strike with more accuracy, hit harder, take more damage, and more. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Portal: You can create minor magical gates that allow you and a very small number of people to teleport all over the world. They last only a few moments. You don’t need to have visited the place you are going, but you must have a very good idea of where it is, or a picture. It will not always be exactly where you want, but it will always be very very close. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 30 points.

Netherstorm: You draw upon the energy of the great nether realms, summoning multicolored bolts of energy that break through defenses and are made of everything at once, dealing incredible damage to your foes. Requires Mastery Rank 4 and 25 points.

Gate: You can now make permanent doorways that bridge places together. This takes a great deal of time and energy. At this point, you can also travel to other planes. If you have portal or teleport, you can travel to other planes with those spells as well. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 30 points.

Arcane Empowerment: You stand for a moment, concentration and attuning yourself to the magic around you. You overcharge yourself with arcane power and become a living bit of magic for a short time. This empowers all of your abilities to a great extent, allowing you cast nearly any spell almost instantaneously without wearing out. However, the effect is short lived, and when it’s over, you are greatly weakened, to the point of being unable to move. Doing this more than once a day is likely to kill you. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.

Elemental Branch

10 points.

Opening this branch of Mage grants the following abilities.

Summon Elemental: You gain control of an elemental creature. This creature can cast spells and has abilities based on the element it is summoned from. They have a reasonable, standard intelligence at least, and can be commanded as well. Each level adds new powers and abilities to the elemental as well as intellect. The creature can be a permanent companion if you desire, but can also be dismissed with a thought.

Level 1

Requires Elemental Branch

Level 2

Requires Mastery Rank 4 and 50 points.

Level 3

Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 75 points.

Elemental Branch Abilities

Burning Mage: You have mastered the arcane spells that deal with fire. You can shoot fireballs in rapid succession, summon meteors from the sky, make it rain fire, or even ignite the very air itself. You can cast fire based spells easily and quickly using almost no energy. All of your fire spells are very powerful and incredibly dangerous; generally leaving anything that you choose to cast it on a pile of cinder and ash. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 20 points.

Ash Golem: Using some of the burning cinders from fallen foes, you create a minor golem of fire and ash that charges and attacks your enemies until it burns out. Requires Burning Mage and 15 points.

Aura of Flame: You appear to be living fire. Those that attack you are devoured by flame, igniting from touch or even from casting other spells. This aura slowly drains you, but empowers your spells further and helps protect you in battle. Requires Burning Mage and 20 points.

Living Bomb: Why should your enemies not be your weapons? You cast a bit of fire on them that draws energy slowly and, after a few moments, explodes violently doing massive damage to the afflicted target and anything nearby. It might not always kill, but generally, it will make someone wish they were dead or at least not violently on fire. Requires Burning Mage and 25 points.

Tempest Mage: The raw, primal power of the storm is yours to command. Incinerate your foes with brilliant bolts of lightning, throw them or slice them with deadly winds, or pummel them with ferocious hurricanes. You command the power and fury of the storm and those you are foolish enough to face you are soon wiped off the map. Your storm spells, such as lightning, or wind are greatly empowered. You can send hurricane force winds against your enemies with a gesture and lightning is your easiest, fastest, and most lethal attack. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 20 points.

Cyclonic Mastery: The destructive force of the winds are easily commanded, and you use them to great advantage. So adept are you that when you cast any spell, a small cyclone is also sent out to destroy or hinder a foe at the same time while a wall of wind protects you from attacks. Requires Tempest Mage and 15 points.

Impaling Winds: You can easily guide an arrow to its intended target, increasing your accuracy to near perfect, but you can also make that arrow hit with much greater force by pushing it with your wind ability, driving an arrow through solid rock. Requires Cyclonic Mastery and 20 points.

Arcing Brilliance: Lightning is your weapon of choice, and you wield it as well as any warrior would a blade. You call it from nothing, chain it from enemy to enemy, and leave your foes little more than cinders on the winds. Should someone be foolish enough to attack you, they’ll get quite a shock from the lightning aura that surrounds you. Requires Tempest Mage and 20 points.

Storm Dragon: You summon a massive burst of lightning which takes the form of a dragon and swoops out over your foes to destroy them. It might not last terribly long, or even be a real dragon, but that doesn’t diminish its effectiveness or ability. Requires Arcing Brilliance and 25 points.

Ice Mage: The cold is your weapon, and you use it to do amazing things. You can turn the battlefield to glass and watch your foes slip and slide, impale them with ice lances, or even freeze them solid where they stand. Regardless, you are a frozen master, and your foes are chilled by both your ability and your spells. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 20 points.

Frost Armor: Your armor is covered by a fine layer of ice threads, granting you an aura of frost that makes you more difficult to hit, empowering your armor to make it more effective as well as freezing, slowing, and hurting anyone foolish enough to attack you. The effect must be refreshed frequently, as the spell dissipates. Requires Ice Mage and 15 points.  

Shatter: Your mastery of ice has shown you that, when frozen in a specific manner, things are much more likely to simply shatter when struck or when left on their own. This has a highly detrimental effect on the most things. Requires Ice Mage and 20 points.

Frost Nova: Tiny shards of ice gather among your enemies, slowly growing and spinning, until they explode, freezing those nearby and sending razor shards of ice throughout your foes. Requires Ice Mage and 20 points.

Frost Giant: You summon a massive piece of living ice to come and smash your foes. They last for a very short time before having to return to the plane from which you summoned them, but they do a great deal of damage and have multiple physical and magical attacks. You can’t do anything when you have one summoned but command them, otherwise they will be free to do as they choose and that isn’t good for the person that yanked them from their home. Requires Ice Mage and 30 points.

Invoker Branch

10 points.

Opening this branch of Mage grants the following abilities.

Primal Arcana: You have studied the gods and their abilities, and you have learned the ancient techniques and spells that they used. You draw from a different, older magic, a magic that is difficult to master and control, but is incredibly powerful. It works much the same as destructus and basic arcana, but it is infused with slightly greater power, and takes a bit more out of someone to use.

Arcane Branch Abilities

Sun Burst: You channel a beam of radiant, primal fire at your foes, burning straight through them. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Astral Bolts: Lightning bolts of white flame tear through your foes. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Word of Power – Disrupt: You shout an ancient word of primal power at an enemy, preventing them from finishing their spell and silencing them for a short time. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Chains of Prometheus: Burning, star metal chains bind your foes, rendering them helpless, immobile, and igniting them with primal energies. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Lance of the Inquisitor: A lance of pure radiant energy crashed down on a foe, exploding violently and igniting those around him. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 15 points.

Word of Power – Primal Terror: You speak one of the ancient lost words, and your foe is overwhelmed by a fear that all creatures know and cannot fight. It tears at their mind, rendering them helpless and bleeding. At Mastery Rank 5 you can cast it on groups of people. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Arcane Rage: You draw the raw power of the arcane and use it as an attack, sending bolts of pure magic to destroy your foes. You can send an arcane barrage at your enemies, glimmering blue energy that explodes on contact, or simply absorb the energy and send it out in a shockwave around you. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Four Pillars: You call on the Four Pillars of True Power; the black stone, the clarity of mind, the gray earth, and the possibility of the future. Channeling their energy you unleash a devastating attack that washes over your foes, leaving them stunned and burning with primal energy. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 30 points.

Word of Power – Primal Energy: The ancient word explodes from you, and you and your allies find that your wounds are healing, you have greater power, stamina, and accuracy, and you are all empowered to finish the task at hand. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 30 points.

Nova Orb: A miniature, pulsing sun appears in the midst of your foes. Without warning, it explodes. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 15 points.

Astral Tempest: You breach the wall between this world and an astral dominion, causing a storm of primal energy to rip through your foes. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Tendrils of the Void: Rivers of black swarm your foe, then bind him, as the original void devours him. If this kills an enemy, it respawns and moves to another foe. It will not stop if it continues to kill unless you return it to the Abyss. At Mastery Rank 5, you can send out multiple tendrils. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 30 points.

Malediction of Garthak: The exarch Garthak betrayed the gods. He was cursed so that the next killing blow he landed on a foe caused him to die with the same wound. You can now use this to mark enemies. When an enemy is marked, any damage he receives from your allies is spread to his allies. If there is only the marked creature, all damage is increased exponentially. Requires Mastery Rank 4 and 25 points.

Cataclysm: The primordial and the gods warred to create the Universe, and both sides had found a way to end the war. You level that final measure at your foes. Earthquakes destroy the field, volcanos erupt spewing lava into the air, and your foes are caught in the middle of the end of the world. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.

Power of the Nameless: Ancient words bring for the power of those who came before the gods, before the primordial, and their power smites your foes. This empowers all of your abilities to a great extent, allowing you cast nearly any spell almost instantaneously without wearing out. However, the effect is short lived, and when it’s over, you are greatly weakened, to the point of being unable to move. Doing this more than once a day is likely to kill you. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.