Thaumaturge - A new Prestige Class

While many spellcasters study magic as a practical craft, and some as metaphysical theory, relatively few have made an in-depth study of the principles of magic as it is cast by sapient species. But some six hundred years ago, an elf by the name of Ekelentlin, a Sorceror, became interested in what set him apart from other elves. He exhaustively researched the "blood of dragons" theory, then set about understanding how non-Sorcerors cast spells. Eventually, he worked his way up through apprenticeship and became a full-fledged Wizard as well, learning to cast arcane spells through rigor and acadamia as well as intuitively. Then he set about unifying the disciplines.

Ekelentlin was the first Thaumaturge, and, for a long period, the only one. Though Thaumaturgy is academically rewarding, it requires a certain latent talent and a high interest in a rather obtuse subject matter. Both conventional Wizardry and Sorcery offer more to a practitioner in terms of raw power, but the Thaumaturge is unparralled in his flexibility.

Eventually, Ekelentlin did find like-minded souls, and the small practice of Thaumaturgy truly began. Most Thaumaturges, in these later years, are academic-minded Wizards or individuals with an interest in (if not an actual talent for) two or more branches of arcane spellcasting. Thaumaturgy is most rewarding for Wizards and Sorcerors, though Bards, arcane Loremasters, and other classes may derive some interest or benefit from it.

Hit Die: d4

Requirements

To qualify to become a Thaumaturge, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Spellcasting: Ability to cast at least level 3 Arcane spells

Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft: At least 10 ranks in each.

Class Skills

The Thaumaturge's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Cantrips (special, exclusive skill), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int, exclusive skill), and Spellcraft (Int). See Chapter 4: Skills in the Player's Handbook for skill descriptions.

Skill points at each level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Thaumaturge prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Thaumaturges gain no proficiency in any weapon or armor. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble.

Spells per Day: A Thaumaturge has enormous breadth and flexibility in his spellcasting abilities. His thorough knowledge of personal magic allows him to prepare spells much more loosely than a Wizard, but have much greater breadth of allowable spells than a Sorceror. However, due to the complexities of understanding a spell fully enough for Thaumaturgy, the number of spells he can cast per day, particularly of higher level spells, suffers.

When a Thaumaturge prepares spells in the morning, which takes about 45 minutes, for each spell slot he chooses a magic school (like "invocation"). During the day, he can use that slot to cast any spell he knows at the appropriate level or below in that school.

A Thaumaturge's starting spell list is all of the arcane spells he knew in all of his previous classes. Every level that the Thaumaturge attains, he can add up to four spells, distributed across any levels he's capable of casting. A Thaumaturge can also learn spells from scrolls or spellbooks like a Wizard.

Thaumaturge Spells Per Level (Table T-1)

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	*	1	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-
2	*	1	1	0	0	0	-	-	-	-
3	*	1	1	1	0	0	0	-	-	-
4	*	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	-	-
5	*	2	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	-
6	*	2	2	2	1	1	1	0	0	0
7	*	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	0	0
8	*	3	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	0
9	*	3	3	3	2	2	2	1	1	1
10	*	4	3	3	3	2	2	2	1	1

Thaumaturges, obviously, get a fairly low number of spells. However, they can get bonus spells quite easily. The base bonus spells for a Thaumaturge is not based on an attribute, but their level. Add 10 to the Thaumaturge's class level, and treat that as an attribute.

A Thaumaturge can get a lot more bonus spells by sacrificing their spells from another class. If the Thaumaturge was a Sorceror or Wizard, and he does not prepare spells as one of those classes for the day, he now gets bonus spells as if his attribute were 10 + Thaumaturge class level + Wizard and/or Sorceror class level. In addition, he gets any bonus spells due to him because of high Intelligence and/or Charisma. A class with more limited spellcasting abilities, like a Bard, contributs only half of its class levels to this calculation.

A Thaumaturge is considered the sum of all of the spellcasting levels that contribute to his spells for that day, in terms of casting any of those spells. However, note that for other purposes, particularly crafting magical items, his levels do not accumulate in this manner. Thaumaturges, concentrated as they are on internal magical theory, are less than thoroughly competent at creating magical devices.

Example: Mira is a 5th level Thaumaturge, a 5th level Sorceror, and a 5th level Wizard. If she chooses to prepare spells solely as a Thaumaturge for the day, she prepares the normal number of spells for a 5th level Thaumaturge, plus the bonus spells due to her from her Charisma and Intelligence, plus the bonus spells that one would get from an attribute of 25 (10 + 5 + 5 + 5), and she'd cast them as a 15th level spellcaster.

The Difficulty Class for resisting a Thaumaturge's spells is 12 + the spells's level, plus an additional bonus as indicated on table T-2.

Cantrips: A Thaumaturge does not prepare Cantrips (level zero spells) as normal. Rather, she has access to a special, exclusive skill called "Cantrips." Whenever she wishes to cast a Cantrip, she simply rolls her Cantrips skill at a DC of 20. If she succeeds, she is able to cast the Cantrip. If she fails, she may try again as soon as next round.

The Cantrips skill does not have an associated attribute. Rather, if the Thaumaturge has forgone spells from another class that day, that class's spellcasting attribute (Intelligence of Charisma) is used as the Cantrips attribute. If the Thaumaturge has forgone spells from two classes or more, each class's attribute counts agains the Cantrips skill.

If the Thaumaturge has metamagic feats that she wishes to use on the Cantrips, this raises them into the realm of 1st or higher level spells, and the Thaumaturge must spend spell slots on them as normal.

Bonus Feats: The Thaumaturge, due to her advanced knowledge of personal spellcasting, is able to pick bonus Metamagic feats as indicated on table T-2.

The Thaumaturge (Table T-2)

Class Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Bonus Metamagic Feat
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	+1 DC to Spell Saves
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Bonus Metamagic Feat
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Bonus Metamagic Feat, +1 DC to Spell Saves
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Bonus Metamagic Feat
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	+1 DC to Spell Saves
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Bonus Metamagic Feat