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The War Mage

War Mage

Many nations employ mages to do research, imbue artifacts, force magical weaponry, build fortified structures. One thing that should go without say, are mages hired to blow other people up. Every kingdom and nation probably has at least a single battle mage per regiment, if not multiples. It is a common and popular career for those with a keen sense of the arcane world. Some mages think it's a misuse of magic, while others think it's the only legitimate use of magic. Either way, there is no denying the effectiveness of a War Mage on the battlefield.

Basic Detail

HD Type: d8
Bonus HP Per HD: +3
Attack Curve: Low
Magical Prowess: Advanced
Sub-Type: Combat Focus
Skill Growth: 2 + Int Modifier (x4 at first level)
Suggested Skills Balance, Beguile, Concentration, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Haggle, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana), and Perform.
Known Skills: 6 + Int Modifier Weapon Proficiency: Pick one weapon
Armor Proficiency: Light
Saves: 3 low and 1 high Primary Mental Attribute(PMA): Charisma

Suggested Attribute Distribution: Str 12, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 18

Progression

HD Perk Base Attack High Save Low Save Spell
Proficiency
1 SorceryD, Shield TrainingF, Shield FocusF, and Arcane Blast (1/day)A +0 +2 +0 +1
2 - +1 +3 +0 +1
3 Ray GuardF +1 +3 +1 +1
4 - +2 +4 +1 +1
5 Spell Penetration +1, Still SpellF and Resistive FocusD +2 +4 +1 +1
6 Soundless SpellF and Arcane Blast (2/day) +3 +5 +2 +2
7 - +3 +5 +2 +2
8 - +4 +6 +2 +2
9 Mixed MetamagicF +4 +6 +3 +2
10 Spell Penetration +2, Swift SpellF, Dancing Stars (2/day)A, and Observant CasterD +5 +7 +3 +2
11 - +5 +7 +3 +2
12 Bolster SpellF and Arcane Blast (3/day) +6/+1 +8 +4 +3
13 Dancing Stars (3/day) +6/+1 +8 +4 +3
14 - +7/+2 +9 +4 +3
15 Spell Penetration +3, Improved Metamagic x2F, and Spell FlankerD +7/+2 +9 +5 +3
16 - +8/+3 +10 +5 +3
17 - +8/+3 +10 +5 +3
18 Perfect SpellF and Arcane Blast (4/day) +9/+4 +11 +6 +4
19 - +9/+4 +11 +6 +4
20 Spell Penetration +4, Improved MetamagicF, Magic CapacitorA, and SpeedyD +10/+5 +12 +6 +4

F Feat, A Ability, and D Definition

The Breakdown

Sorcery: This is a primary definition that grants access to the arcane spell casting list, but removes access to the generalist list. Every single HD, including first, gain a known spell. The war mage cannot user a spell book or prepared spells at all. Every HD evenly divisible by 5, gain +1 inherent bonus to Spell Penetration against Spell Resistance.

Shield Training: Gain proficiency with all types of shields. The War Mage favors wielding a shield and a focus, and not holding a weapon of any kind.

Shield Focus: Gain +1 training bonus to AC with the selected shield, and a secondary bonus. See Text

Arcane Blast: Gain the ability Arcane Blast.

Ray Guard: Apply a shield's total AC bonus to touch AC against any ranged touch attack.

Still Spell: Increase the spell slot of a spell by +1 and cast a spell without the need for somatic components.

Resistive Focus: Pick a low save and make it a high save.

Soundless Spell: Increase the spell slot of a spell by +1 and cast a spell without the need for verbal components.

Mixed Metamagic: Allows the mixing of any two base +1 increase metamagic into a single spell. For example Signless and soundless spells applied to a single spell for a +2 increase.

Swift Spell: Increase the spell slot of a spell by +4 and cast a standard action spell as a swift action. This allows another standard action spell to be cast in the same round.

Dancing Stars: Gain the ability Dancing Stars.

Observant Caster: Casting spells in threatened squares no longer provokes attacks of opportunity.

Bolster Spell: Increase the spell slot of a spell by +2 and cast a spell with an extra 4 dice of damage, healing or warding. These will also be affected by spell proficiency.

Improved Metamagic x2: Reduce the spell slot increase of metamagic by 2, to a minimum of 1. Signless and soundless spell are specifically reduced to 0.

Spell Flanker: Pick a melee touch attack spell, threaten squares with it. Use the melee touch attack spell as an immediate action if a creature provokes an attack of opportunity. The spell selected for this must be 5th level or lower.

Perfect Spell: Maximize the dice potential of any roll. For example of something does 10d6 with spell proficiency 2. The spell will do 60 + 20 damage.

Improved Metamagic: Reduce the spell slot increase of metamagic by another 1 to a minimum of 1. Signless and soundless spell are specifically reduced to 0.

Magic Capacitor: Gain the ability Magic Capacitor

Speedy: Increase the base speed of the character by 20 ft.

Spell Casting

Caster Level: An advanced caster's caster level (CL) is equal to their HD.

Spells Known: Spells known are spells that a caster does not have to prepare ahead of time. An advanced magic user gets a large amount of these. Not having spells known does not mean that they cannot cast spells of that level. They can carry a spell book around and put any spell into it from their specified list. (Arcane, Divine, or Generalist).

Spells Per Day: Also called spell slots, these are how many of a given spell level can be cast per day. Sometimes a level will have 0 listed. This means they are able to cast spells at that level, given that they have a high enough PMA to get bonus spells per day.

Prepared Spells: Spells in a spell book must be memorized and will, 'take,' a spell per day to do so. It will be kept as a prepared spell until cast. A memorized spell's slot can be used to cast any known spell instead.

Spell Proficiency: Spell proficiency is added to Spells, spell-like abilities(Sp), supernatural abilities(Su) DC's, as well as any non-touch attack roll. It is also applied as a flat bonus for each damage/healing/warding dice for Spells, Spell-like abilities(Sp), or Supernatural Abilities(Su). For example, if a character has a spell that deals 5d6 damage and has a Casting Proficiency of 2 it will be 5d6+10 damage.

Spells Known
HD 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
1 - - - - - - - - -
2 - - - - - - - - -
3 1 - - - - - - - -
4 1 1 - - - - - - -
5 1 1 1 - - - - - -
6 2 1 1 - - - - - -
7 2 2 1 1 - - - - -
8 2 2 2 1 - - - - -
9 3 2 2 1 1 - - - -
10 3 3 2 2 1 - - - -
11 3 3 3 2 1 1 - - -
12 4 3 3 2 2 1 - - -
13 4 4 3 3 2 1 1 - -
14 4 4 4 3 2 2 1 - -
15 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 -
16 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 1 -
17 5 5 5 4 3 3 2 1 1
18 6 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 1
19 6 6 6 5 4 4 3 2 2
20 6 6 6 5 4 4 3 2 2
Spells Per Day
HD 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
1 2 - - - - - - - -
2 3 - - - - - - - -
3 3 1 - - - - - - -
4 3 2 - - - - - - -
5 4 2 1 - - - - - -
6 4 3 2 - - - - - -
7 4 3 2 1 - - - - -
8 4 3 3 2 - - - - -
9 5 4 3 2 1 - - - -
10 5 4 3 3 2 - - - -
11 5 4 4 3 3 1 - - -
12 5 4 4 3 3 2 - - -
13 5 5 4 4 3 2 1 - -
14 5 5 4 4 4 3 2 - -
15 5 5 5 4 4 3 2 1 -
16 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 -
17 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 2 1
18 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 2
19 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 3
20 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4

Suggested Spells by Level

Since advanced casters have full CL they can efficiently utilize both a mixture of offensive or defensive spells. They also have the highest spell proficiency they wield magic with authority. All spells are simply more effective.

Simplex

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9