Tuesday, November 11, 2014

d20 Rifts - Wild Mage

Unlike his cousin the Learned Mage, who we met yesterday, the Wild Mage glories in the power of magic. They are masters of the meta-magic feat, allowing them to reshape what spells they do have at will.



Wild Mage

This is a base class.
The wild mage is nearly a force of nature.  The magic surges from within him, demanding outlet.  He eschews formal training, preferring to gain mastery through personal trial and error.  This works surprisingly well, on most occasions.  Only a handful of wild mages are found by their servants, having forgotten to add range to their death spell…
            Abilities:  The primary ability for a wild mage is Intelligence, which governs most aspects of their abilities. 
            Vitality:  1d8 plus Con modifier per level.

Class Skills
            The wild mage’s class skills and the key abilities are listed below:

Class Skill                   Key Ability
Appraise                      Int
Bluff                           Cha
Bureaucracy                Cha
Computers                   Int
Concentration             Wis
Craft                            Wis
Cryptography              Int
Cultures                       Wis
First Aid                      Wis
Gather Information     Wis
Hobby                         Wis
Innuendo                     Wis
Intimidate                   Str/Cha
Knowledge                 Int
Languages                   Wis
Listen                          Wis
Profession                   Wis
Read Lips                    Int
Search                         Int
Sense Motive              Wis
Sleight of Hand          Dex
Spot                             Wis
Surveillance                 Wis
Survival                       Wis
Swim                           Str

Skill Points at 1st Level: (8 + Int modifier) × 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 8 + Int modifier.


Class Features
            The following are class features of the wild mage.

            Starting Feats: At 1st level, the wild mage gains the following feats.
                        Armor Proficiency (Light)
                        Weapon Group Proficiency (Melee)
                        Weapon Group Proficiency (Hurled)
                        Weapon Group Proficiency (Rifle)

            Casting Class:  Levels in this class add to your casting level.

            Surge of Power:  Whenever the wild mage spends an action die on a refresh action, he also regains a number of PPE equal to the action die result.  This is the wild mage’s core ability.

            Tapping the Vein:  Mages of every stripe use PPE to power their spells.  PPE can be drawn from a number of sources.  Personal reserves are always available.  At first level, the wild mage can choose a second source from which he can draw power.  The sources are:  ley lines, other people, fetishes.  The wild mage can choose another source at 10th and 20th level.
            The personal reserves of the wild mage are also impressive.  In addition to his standard racial PPE pool, the wild mage gains 5 PPE per class level, plus an additional 20 PPE at 1st level.  At 10th level, this increases to 10 PPE per class level.  At 20th level, it increases again to 20 PPE per class level.
            Finally, the wild mage gains the ability to cast spells.

            Practical Education:  In the course of teaching himself magic, the wild mage has suffered a lot of setbacks.  Sometimes, explosive setbacks.  These have given him a sixth sense for danger, and an ability to survive just about anything.  At 2nd level, the wild mage can re-roll any failed saving throw once per session.  The wild mage may use this ability one additional time per session at 11th and 19th levels.

            Meditative Trance:  The wild mage finds most of his powers within himself.  This ability allows him further self-knowledge, and self-control.
            At 3rd level, the wild mage is able to enter the trance.  While in a meditative trance, he recovers his class level in vitality and PPE every hour.  Further, he is able to spend a focused hour in the trance to become aware of all unusual effects on his person (including possession, enchantment, disease, drugs, etc.).  This information is strictly the presence of an unnatural effect and its general type.  Standard Knowledge checks must be made to more precisely diagnose the nature of the effect.
            At 7th level, he gains the ability to make an inspiration check without spending an action die.  This requires at least one focused hour of meditation.
            At 11th level, the wild mage may opt to remove any one temporary condition he is suffering under, such as nauseated or deafened.  This requires at least one focused hour of meditation.
            At 15th level, the wild mage may increase his focus to raise his effective caster level.  For every hour he spends focusing in trance, his caster level is raised by one.  After leaving the trance, the wild mage loses one caster level every ten minutes until his caster level returns to normal.
            At 19th level, the wild mage is able to increase his personal reserves.  For every hour of focused meditation, he can increase his maximum PPE by one-half his caster level (noting that he also gains his caster level in PPE in that same hour).  This increase lasts until the wild mage sleeps (at which point any PPE above his normal maximum are simply lost in a series of intense dreams).
            A wild mage can only be gaining the benefit of any one focused meditation during any given hour.  However, several different benefits can be gained during a single long trance.  E.g., a 12th level wild mage could go into a trance, establish that he is deafened from a magical effect in the first hour, make an inspiration check in the second hour, and remove the deafened condition in the third hour.  During each of those three hours, he is also gaining vitality and PPE at an accelerated rate, as well as any other trance benefits from other sources.  Note that a meditative trance does not count as sleep, nor does it remove the need for food and drink.

            Bonus Feat:  Beginning at 4th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the wild mage may select an additional feat from either the mystic or basic combat trees.

            Wild Casting:  One of the benefits to making up spells as you go is that you can make them what you want.  Beginning at 5th level, the wild mage is able to reduce the EM of a meta-magic feat he is using by 1.  E.g., using the Maximize Spell feat will only cost three times as much PPE, instead of the usual four.  (The meta-magic feats such as Extend Spell and Silent Spell, that only have an EM of two, will be reduced to a multiplier of one, making them essentially free.)  Only one feat per spell can gain this benefit.
            However, this benefit does not come entirely for free.  When using Wild Casting, the caster must make a Concentration check to successfully cast the spell, with a DC equal to 10 plus the base PPE cost of the spell.  If the check is successful, the spell is successfully cast.  If the check fails, the spell is lost, and the caster loses the base PPE (though not the total cost of the spell).  If the check fails critically, the caster loses the total cost of the spell.  If the check critically succeeds, the caster can opt to reduce the cost by an additional multiplier (minimum 1).
            At 9th level, the caster may add the number of mystic feats he possesses as a magic bonus to the Concentration check.
            At 13th level, the caster may opt to reduce the multiplier of a single feat by two levels, or reduce the multiplier of two feats (affecting a single spell) by one level each.
            At 17th level, the caster may add his caster level as a magic bonus to the Concentration check.  This bonus stacks with the bonus from 9th level.

Bonus Spell:  The wild mage is constantly experimenting.  Frequently, new inspiration will come to them out of the blue.  Old attempts will suddenly work.  Beginning at 6th level, the wild mage may choose any one spell to add to his grimoire.  He may add an additional spell at 9th level, and every 3 levels thereafter.

            Irresistable Force:  A wild mage in full power is a terrible thing to behold, and a truly unstoppable foe.  At 14th level, once per session, the wild mage is able to add his caster level as a magic bonus to the save DC of a spell he is casting.  This ability must be declared before the target rolls the saving throw.


1~ Tapping the Vein, Surge of Power
2~ Practical Education (1x)
3~ Meditative Trance (healing)
4~ Bonus Feat
5~ Wild Casting
6~ Bonus Spell
7~ Meditative Trance (inspiration)
8~ Bonus Feat
9~ Bonus Spell, Wild Casting
10~ Tapping the Vein
11~ Meditative Trance (remove condition), Practical Education (2x)
12~ Bonus Feat, Bonus Spell
13~ Wild Casting
14~ Irresistable Force
15~ Bonus Spell, Meditative Trance (education)
16~ Bonus Feat
17~ Wild Casting
18~ Bonus Spell
19~ Meditative Trance, Practical Education (3x)
20~ Bonus Feat, Tapping the Vein

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