Spellbound. The Enchanter s Handbook. produced and written by Owen K.C. Stephens. editing and layout by Lj Stephens. IDA Staff Shaun Horner

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2 Spellbound The Enchanter s Handbook produced and written by Owen K.C. Stephens editing and layout by Lj Stephens IDA Staff Shaun Horner Copyright 2005: Owen K.C. Stephens TABLE OF CONTENTS STUDENT WELCOME 03 FEATS 05 NEW SPELLS 06 OPEN GAME LICENSE 13

3 WELCOME STUDENT! The Arcane Academy Presents: Spellbound, The Enchanter s Handbook is a book dedicated to making arcane enchanters more versatile, useful, and varied. Enchanters are among the most under-powered spellcasters, always taking a back seat to evokers, necromancers and conjurers. Playing an enchanter requires careful planning and an understanding of the advantages and limitations of the enchantment school. This book gives a little advice, then provides some carefully balanced options to make the life of a GM or player running an enchanter easier. This book looks at a few specific areas that cause problems for enchanters. Mechanically, enchanters have few good options at some spell levels. Even worse, things you might expect an enchanter to be good at, (such as negotiation), are totally out of range of his abilities without magic. To make matters worse, the classes most able to take advantage of such Cha-based checks (bards and sorcerers) take a back-seat to wizard-specialist enchanters in terms of raw spellcasting power. Conceptually, many of the common tricks of the classic enchanter from fantasy literature (beguiling foes for days, gathering an army of thralls) are simply out of reach of most enchanters. This book presents numerous new tools GMs can use to give enchanters more options and greater breadth, moving them away from wizards without fireballs to a more useful and differentiated class. While a great deal of this book is dedicated to new enchantment spells, it also presents new options for classes to become specialist enchanters, and ways for traditional wizard enchanters to become more suave, in keeping with their choice of spells. THE BASICS Enchantment spells don t affect the physical world directly. They are, nearly without exception, designed to alter the behavior of one or more targets. The quintessential enchantment spell is charm person, which forces the target to treat the caster as a close and trusted friend. Other major tropes for enchantment spells are to force the target to behave in an unusual manner (spells like confusion or suggestion), hamper his faculties (feeblemind or touch of idiocy), render him unable to act (hold person or T s hideous laughter) or augment him, generally through inspiration (heroism or rage). The one mental condition enchantment is unable to produce is fear, as this is the realm of necromancy (cause fear, scare, fear and even symbol of fear). While this gives enchanters decent attack options, they have very few defensive or utilitarian spells within their school. Obviously most enchanters can turn to other schools for such spells, but a few broader options help tremendously (and can be found in the New Spells section of this book). An enchanter must also accept that much of his effectiveness will be by proxy. A single charm monster spell can not only eliminate the target affected, it can potentially turn him against other threats. All enchantment spells are mind-affecting. As a result, they are useless when applied directly against constructs, oozes, plants, undead and vermin. Most are either charms (which change how the subject views the caster) or compulsions (which change how the subject s mind works). Since no rules specify a character is unaware of being the target of a spell, it must be assumed the target is aware when he has been placed under an enchantment. However, in the case of charm spells, that awareness either has no impact on his behavior toward the caster while enchanted, or is delayed until after the enchantment has worn off. Casters wishing to cast enchantment spells on targets without being found out should apply the Enshrouded Spell metamagic feat. By the same token, it can be difficult for an enchanter to know if a target has failed his save against a particular enchantment spell. This can be solved either with the Feedback Spell metamagic feat, or by using detect magic. Since a successful Will save negates a mind-affecting spell, an enchanter can use detect magic to see if magic of the enchantment school is present on a target. If not, the spell has failed. TACTICS An enchanter must plan ahead more than most spellcasters. A few simple tactics can help the enchanter survive a broad range of encounters with greater ease and style. Pick Your Targets: Enchantment spells generally allow Will saves, so it is best to choose targets unlikely to have good Will saves. Fighting classes generally have poor Will saves, though Monks, Paladins, and Barbarians in rage are exceptions to this guideline. Spellcasters have good Will saves, and divine spellcasters doubly so. Of the monster types, aberrations, dragons, fey, monstrous humanoids, and outsiders have high Will saves for their level, and of course constructs, oozes, plants, undead and vermin are immune to mind-affecting spells. An enchanter facing monsters should target animals, elementals, giants, humanoids, and magical beasts first, if possible. After type, levels and hit dice are most relevant to Will saves. It s often much more useful for an enchanter to pick off one or two minor threats than waste spells trying to effect a major villain. Pick Your Spells: Enchantment spells often suffer limitations spells from other schools don t. They may be limited by type (such as charm person), limited by HD (sleep and daze monster) or hp (power word spells), allow multiple saves (hold person), grant bonuses to foes saves in certain situations (charm person and T s hideous laughter) or be language-dependent (suggestion). It s also worth noting that some creatures are immune to sleep, paralysis and/or stunning (such as elementals), making enchantment spells with those effects less useful. An enchanter needs to remain aware of what spells have what limitations, and try to ensure he has a mix with different drawbacks. 3

4 4 Some enchantment spells have far fewer limitations, but aren t as immediately effective. These can be used to augment allies (heroism) or hinder a foe without eliminating him (crushing despair, touch of idiocy). A few spells of this type can greatly increase the number of situations an enchanter can effectively work in. More spells of this type are presented in the New Spells section. Cover Yourself: Since an enchanter doesn t have a broad array of defensive options within his school, it s important to gain protection somehow. If a foe can be charmed he may be willing to provide protection, even if he won t attack friends. This is one of the greatest uses of charm spells, and one of the few ways an enchanter can get extra defense. It s also possible to take cover behind a held or otherwise incapacitated foe. An enchanter should also consider casting defensive spells before trying to use offensive enchantments. Not only does this increase his chance of immediate survival, it allows him time to observe foes and learn more about them before choosing a target. As a more long-term thought, a wise enchanter arranges to have around individuals willing to risk themselves on his behalf. This can be done through good personal relationships and making friends, or by maintaining a gaggle of followers (see the Retinue edge, below) or even by keeping a weak-willed but strong target consistently charmed (see the Renew Spell feat, below). SPONTANEOUS ENCHANTERS While wizards have the option of specializing in enchantment bards and sorcerers don t have a similar mechanic. This is unfortunate because both bards and sorcerers use Charisma as their spellcasting ability, which certainly seems to lend itself to an enchantment-based spellcaster. But since both classes only select a very limited number of spells, restricting them to a smaller set of schools is less of a limitation. A sorcerer barred from taking evocation spells, for example, simply doesn t select any and has just as many total spells available to him as a typical sorcerer. Additionally, altering the number of spells a bard or sorcerer may know changes each class total power level so much as to be practically impossible to balance. As an alternative, bards and sorcerers may be allowed to gain some bonuses to all spells of the enchantment school by taking a penalty to all other schools. Bards that do this are known as heralds or houri. Sorcerers who do this are called courtiers. Rather than changing spells per day or spells known, allow a spontaneous caster to gain a +3 bonus to effective caster level for all enchantment spells in exchange for taking a -2 penalty to caster level (minimum of 0) in all other schools (except universal spells). Thus a 5 th level herald casts all enchantment spells as an 8 th level caster, and all other spells as a 3 rd level caster. Universal spells are still cast at 5 th level. This has no effect on what level of spell the character can cast. A 6 th level enchanter specialist sorcerer is still limited to 3 rd level enchantment spells despite casting those spells as a 9 th level caster (and can cast 3 rd level spells of other schools, even though he casts them as a 4 th level caster). Of course at low levels the caster may be casting many spells as a 0-level caster, making them useless (casting mage armor as a 0-level caster results in a duration of 0, meaning the spell ends as soon as it s cast). The caster may still choose to know these spells, but until he can cast them as at least a 1 st level caster, they have no effect. ENCHANTING EDGES Any enchanter may take one of these special abilities (called edges ) instead of a familiar. An enchantmentspecialized spontaneous caster may take one of these special abilities rather than a familiar (if a sorcerer), or instead of one specific bardic ability (if a bard). These special abilities are specifically designed to grow in usefulness as the enchanter gains in level, much as familiars and bardic abilities do. Dashing: The character adds four of the following skills to his list of class skills Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Perform (all skills, each taken individually)(cha), Sense Motive (Wis) and Speak Language. If his class already has one of these skills, he instead gains a +2 bonus to all checks made with that skill. Additionally, the character gains one skill point per level that must be spent on one of the selected skills. Magnetic: The character gets a bonus on all Charismabased skill checks made to influence members of his chosen gender. (Some characters are magnetic to members of the opposite gender, others to members of the same gender.) The bonus is equal to the character s class level. A character can only charm NPCs with attitudes of indifferent or better. The charm bonus can t be used against characters who are unfriendly or hostile. Mesmerist: A limited number of times per day, the character may add one level of metamagic feats he knows to an enchantment school spell without preparing the metamagic in advance or increasing the effective level of the spell. This is often used to allow an enchanter to cast a spell as a Still Spell or Silent Spell. The number of times per day the enchanter may do this is based on his total number of spellcaster levels, as shown below. At 10 th level, the enchanter gains the ability to use two of his daily uses of this ability to add two levels of metamagic feats he knows to an enchantment school spell without preparing the metamagic in advance or increasing the effective level of the spell. Spellcaster Levels Uses per day Retinue: This works as the Leadership feat, except the enchanter may take it at first level. A character may have both a retinue and the Leadership feat, giving him two

5 cohorts and a larger number of followers, but taking the retinue ability affects the character s leadership score for purposes of the Leadership feat in the same way having a familiar or an animal companion does (see the Leadership feat for details). Silver Tongued: The character has a way with words when attempting to con and deceive. With this talent, he applies his class level as a bonus on any Bluff, Diplomacy, or Sleight of Hand checks the character makes while attempting to lie, cheat, or otherwise bend the truth. FEATS Metamagic feats are a good way to augment an enchanter s spell power, especially Silent Spell, Still Spell, and Heighten Spell. Truly dedicated enchanters turn to more specialized feats to get the most out of their spells. Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus increase the save DC of the caster s enchantment spells. Negotiator and Persuasive improve the chances the enchanter can talk himself past flunkies, to gain access to more valuable targets. The following feats are specifically designed for characters that depend heavily on enchantment spells. A specialist enchanter may take one of these feats in place of the bonus feats wizards gain every 5 levels. New Feats Below are additional feats an enchanter can use to run specific kinds of operations or focus yet more on the power of his spells. Alluring [General] Your personal magnetism is considerable. Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus to all Cha ability checks. The character additionally receives a +4 bonus to checks with Cha-based skills that the character has no ranks in. A character with 3 or fewer ranks in a Cha skill may opt to make an unskilled check to take the +4 bonus rather than his rank bonus, but can t add both to the same check. Bewitching [General] Your mind-affecting spells are more potent than those of others. Prerequisite: Cha 15+ Benefit: The save DCs of your mind-affecting spells are increased by +1. This stacks with bonuses granted by taking the Spell Focus or Greater Spell Focus feats for the enchantment school. Enshrouded Spell [Metamagic] The targets of your mind-affecting spells don t realize they ve been enchanted. Benefit: Only mind-affecting spells may be cast as enshrouded spells. An enshrouded spell is masked from the target. If the target of the spell resists it, he has no idea what kind of spell was targeted on him. If he is affected by the spell, he doesn t realize his actions have been mystically influenced even after the duration of the spell ends. The target may wonder why he took actions that were out of character, and may be convinced by friends or allies that he was enchanted, but he has no inkling of that without external input. Enshrouded spells use up spell slots two levels higher than Feedback Spell [Metamagic] You know when the targets of your spells have succeeded at their saving throws. Benefit: A Feedback Spell is tied to the caster in a way that allows him to feel how effective it is against its targets. The caster immediately knows when any creature targeted by his spell or caught in its area succeeds at a saving throw against the spell. This is true even if the target gains additional saving throws. For example, a caster who hits a foe with a Feedback hold person becomes aware as soon as the foe succeeds at his Will save against the spell, even if it happens many rounds later. Feedback spells use up spell slots one level higher than Greater Word [Metamagic] You can affect more powerful creatures with your power word spells. Prerequisite: Must be able to cast 3 different power word spells. Benefit: A greater power word spell affects 20% more hit points of creature or creatures. Thus a greater power word, throw could affect one creature with 72 hit points, or up to 120 hit points worth of creatures with no more than 24 hit points each in a 15-foot-radius. Greater power word spells use up spell slots two levels higher than Renew Spell [Metamagic] You can maintain a spell by casting it again before the duration runs out. Benefit: Only a spell with a duration, target, and saving throw that negates its effect can be cast as a renewed spell. If a renewed spell is cast on a target already under the effects of the same spell, cast earlier by the same caster, the duration of the new spell is added to whatever remains of the old spell duration. The target is not allowed an additional saving throw. You can never extend the duration of a spell beyond double it s normal maximum with a renewed spell. For example, Alluriel, a 9 th level houri, successfully cast charm person on Rowan 3 hours ago, meaning the spell has 6 hours of duration left. If she casts a second charm person on him now as a renewed spell, the duration of the original charm person is extended by 9 hours, leaving Rowan charmed for the next 15 hours. If she immediately casts another renewed charm person upon him, the spell s remaining duration maxes out at 18 hours, double the spell s original duration. Renewed spells use up spell slots two levels higher than 5