Archmage

Class Description

The highest art is magic, often referred to simply as 'the Art'. Its most advanced practitioners are frequently archmages, persons who can weave spells in ways unimaginable to other spellcasters. An archmage gains strange powers and the ability to alter spells in remarkable ways, but must sacrifice some of her spell capability in order to master these arcane secrets. Most archmages are pure wizards or sorcerers rarely multiclassed, choosing instead to concentrate on perfecting their arcane skills. Archmages in urban areas often hold positions of power in magic-focused organisations. Their pursuit of arcane excellence and their familiarity with High Arcana places them above most of their peers. Some archmages choose a more solitary path, often eschewing society to study in solitude.

Requirements

Race: Any

Alignment: Any.

Skills: Spellcraft 15, Lore: Arcana 15.

Feats: Skill Focus Spellcraft and Two Spell Focus feats of any school (but not the same school), Once you have the two spell focus feats you will be given a qualifying feat for archmage. You still need to get Skill focus Spellcraft however.

Spellcasting: Able to cast 7th-circle arcane spells.

Class Features

Hit Die: d4

Base attack bonus: Low.

High Saves: Will.

Weapon Proficiencies: Archmages gain no weapon proficiencies.

Armor Proficiencies: Archmages gain no armor proficiencies.

Skill Points: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Skills: Concentration, Lore (all), Search and Spellcraft.

Class Abilities

Level	Features Gained
1
2	High Arcana feat selection
3
4	High Arcana feat selection
5
6	High Arcana feat selection
7
8	High Arcana feat selection
9
10	High Arcana feat selection

Spells per day / spells known

When a new archmage level is gained, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as though they had gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class gave them picked. If the character has more than one applicable arcane spellcasting class, they must pick one to improve.

High Arcana feats: The Archmage can take high arcana feats. All these feats cost one spellslot each and are sacrificed as you rest.

High Arcana: Spellpower 1

Specifics: At the cost of one 5th level spell your spellpower increases by one (+1 for purposes of determining level-dependent spell variables such as damage dice or range, and caster level checks only). Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell.

Use: Automatic

High Arcana: Spellpower 2

Specifics: At the cost of one 7th level spell your spellpower increases by one. Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell.

Use: Automatic

High Arcana: Spellpower 3

Requirement : Archmage level 8

Specifics: At the cost of one 9th level spell your spellpower increases by one. Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell.

Use: Automatic

High Arcana: Mastery of Shaping

Specifics: At the cost of one 6th level spell you gain the ability to shape your spells in such a manner that they only harm hostile creatures. Your understanding of magic has deepend to the point where you can use this ability at will. If no sacrificed spell slot is available the ability cannot be used. Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell.

Use: On / Off

High Arcana: Mastery of the Elements

Requirement : Archmage level 8

Specifics: At the cost of one 8th level spell you gain the ability convert spells from one element into another. This ability can be used at will. If no sacrficed spell slot is available the ability cannot be used. Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell. Note that this won't enable a Frostmage to use their piercing cold ability on spells that aren't cold-based to begin with.

Use: On / Off

High Arcana: Arcane Fire

Specifics: At the cost of one 9th level spell you gain the ability convert spells of any level into Arcane Fire. This ability can be used at will. Arcane fire requires a ranged touch attack to hit and does 1d8 magic damage for every level of the spell converted and an additional 1d8 magic damage for every Archmage level with the possibility of a critical hit. If no sacrificed spell slot is available the ability cannot be used. Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell.

Use: On / Off

In order to use arcane fire, use "spontaneous conversion" from quickcast menu.

High Arcana: Mastery of Counterspelling

Specifics: At the cost of one 7th level spell this High Arcana grants the counterspeller the ability to turn the cast spell back upon the opposing caster unless it requires a ranged touch attack or is already targeted on the opposing caster. The spell slot is sacrificed the first time after resting when the ability is used.

Use: Automatic

High Arcana: Spell-Like Ability

Specifics: An archmage who selects this type of high arcana can use one of her arcane spell slots to permanently prepare one of her arcane spells as a spell-like ability that can be used twice per day (for level 7-9), three times per day (for level 4-6) or four times per day (for level 1-3).

A spell slot is sacrificed equal to the Spell Level chosen for the Spell-Like Ability (example: A lvl 9 Bigby's Crushing Hand sacrifices a Level 9 spell slot).

This feat can be taken more than once, up to x5 at level 10.

Notes:

Spell-like abilities can be picked in this list :

WARNING/NOTE:

High Arcana feats cost spellslots to use! Spellslots are memorized / known spells and are sacrificed alphabetically. Not sacrificing a spell slot for an ability incurs a one time 5 casterlevels and 2 DC penalty. Make sure you memorize a non-metamagic spell to lose at the levels you incur a spell slot loss.

Spells modified by Metamagic feats are considered and sacrificed as a spell of their unmodified spell level.
For example: Empowered Disintegrate uses a 8th level spell-slot. However, it can still be chosen when Mastery of Shaping is activated, which sacrifices a 6th level spell slot.

Spell-like abilities are uninterruptible and cast slightly faster than normal spells.

SLA Sacrificed Spell Slot example: If your Level 9 spell selection is Wail, Mords and Sanctuary, if you choose Bigby's Crushing Hand as an SLA, this means that you lose one Level 9 spell slot, but you have 2 castings of Bigby's Crushing Hand (thus a net gain of 1 Level 9 casting).

Items that grant the spell focus feat do not count towards qualification. If you have an item that grants you spell focus feat - even if you have the two focuses - you need to unequip the item to obtain the qualification feat currently.