Magi

In Inazria, the Magi are the people who decided that magic could be written down. They hold no bloodline claim and no calling from anything older than themselves, only a book, a memory drilled to the point of reflex, and a morning spent choosing which of the world’s possibilities they will be able to reach before nightfall. A Wizard carries the largest book in the room. An Alchemist argues with the shape of a fire until it agrees to spare a friend. A Nafazi sits with the dying and, on rather rarer occasions, with the dead. A Bek’Tan puts a wall where the world forgot to build one. Yet every one of them wakes to the same problem, which is that the spell they did not prepare this morning is the spell they will want at dusk. As with all classes in Inazria, your context supplies some of your identity and mechanics; the base class provides the core engine.

Hit Points

  • Hit Dice: 1d6 per magi level
  • Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your Constitution modifier
  • Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per magi level after 1st

Proficiencies

  • Armor: None
  • Weapons: Simple weapons
  • Tools: None (your context may grant tools)
  • Saving Throws: Wisdom, Intelligence
  • Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

  • (a) a quarterstaff or (b) a dagger
  • (a) a component pouch or (b) an arcane focus
  • (a) a scholar’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
  • Your spellbook

Class Rules

  • Ongoing Features and Concentration. If a feature creates a lasting zone, form, or summoned ally, you concentrate on it as if concentrating on a spell, unless the feature says otherwise.
  • Once on Each of Your Turns. When a feature could trigger multiple times in a round, it can do so no more than once on each of your turns unless the feature says otherwise.
  • Limited Uses. If a feature has a limited number of uses and doesn’t specify a recharge, you can use it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
  • Multiclassing. You may take levels in as many civil classes and contexts as you wish, up to 20 total character levels. You may have only one primal class and one primal context, ever. Features from different classes stack unless they say otherwise, but overlapping resources do not replace one another: you must operate both systems independently. Your Magi spell slots, spellbook, prepared spells, cantrips, and Reserve are tracked separately from any other class’s spellcasting, and they scale with your magi levels only. To multiclass into or out of Magi, you must have Intelligence 13 or higher. To choose the Nafazi context, you must also have Wisdom 13 or higher.

The Magi

LevelProficiency BonusFeaturesCantrips Known1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th
1st+2Spellcasting, Reserve, Improvised Spellcasting, Considered Casting, Context32
2nd+2Arcane Notation, Context feature33
3rd+2Context feature342
4th+2Ability Score Improvement443
5th+3Context feature4432
6th+3Practiced Concentration4433
7th+3Context feature44331
8th+3Ability Score Improvement44332
9th+4Context feature443331
10th+4Deep Notation543332
11th+4Deep Study5433321
12th+4Ability Score Improvement5433321
13th+5Context feature54333211
14th+5Context feature54333211
15th+5Instant Study543332111
16th+5Ability Score Improvement543332111
17th+6Context feature5433321111
18th+6Context feature5433331111
19th+6Ability Score Improvement5433332111
20th+6Perfect Recall5433332211

Spellcasting

You are an arcane spellcaster whose magic comes from study, notation, and rehearsal. Spell lists and descriptions live in Spells.

  • Spell List: You prepare spells from the Magi list. Every Magi context prepares from this same list, with full access to all of it. The Nafazi context also gains Restoration spells, which count as Magi spells for a Nafazi (see that context).
  • Spellbook: You have a spellbook containing six 1st-level Magi spells of your choice. Each time you gain a magi level, you can add two Magi spells of your choice to your spellbook, each of a level for which you have spell slots. You can also add spells you find in your travels, which takes 2 hours and 50 gp per level of the spell. Restoration spells granted by the Nafazi context do not need to be copied into your spellbook.
  • Cantrips: You know three cantrips from the Magi spell list at 1st level. You learn additional cantrips at higher levels as shown on the Magi table.
  • Preparing and Casting Spells: You prepare a number of Magi spells equal to your Intelligence modifier + your magi level (minimum of one), choosing from your spellbook and from any Restoration spells your context grants. The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. You can cast any Magi spell you have prepared, using spell slots as shown on the Magi table. You can change your prepared spells when you finish a long rest, which requires at least 1 minute of study per spell level for each spell on your list.
  • Spellcasting Ability: Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your Magi spells, except that Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for Restoration spells.
    • Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier (or your Wisdom modifier for a Restoration spell)
    • Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier (or your Wisdom modifier for a Restoration spell)
  • Ritual Casting: You can cast a Magi spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and the spell is in your spellbook. You don’t need to have the spell prepared. A Nafazi can also cast a Restoration spell as a ritual if it has the ritual tag, without copying it into the spellbook.
  • Spellcasting Focus: You can use an arcane focus as a spellcasting focus for your Magi spells.

Core Class Features

  • Reserve (1st Level). You hold back a measure of study that you have not yet committed to a prepared spell. You have a number of Reserve points equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended Reserve points when you finish a short or long rest. You spend Reserve on Improvised Spellcasting, Considered Casting, and your context’s features.
  • Improvised Spellcasting (1st Level). As an action, you can attempt to cast a spell you do not have prepared by reading it directly from a written source you can see and touch, such as a spell scroll, another caster’s spellbook, or an inscription on a wall. The spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
    • Expend a spell slot of the spell’s level or higher, spend 1 Reserve point, and make an Intelligence (Arcana) check against a DC of 10 + the spell’s level. If the spell is not on the Magi list, the DC increases by 5.
    • On a success, you cast the spell, using your spellcasting ability. On a failure, the spell fails, the slot and the Reserve point are spent, and you take 1d6 psychic damage per level of the spell.
    • Reading from a spell scroll in this way does not consume the scroll unless the casting succeeds.
  • Considered Casting (1st Level). When you finish a short rest, you can spend 1 Reserve point and 10 minutes studying your spellbook to replace one of your prepared spells with another spell from your spellbook.
  • Context (1st Level). Choose one Magi context: Wizard, Alchemist, Nafazi, or Bek’Tan. Your choice grants features at the levels listed in that context.
  • Arcane Notation (2nd Level). After 1 minute of study, you can determine the level of any spell recorded in a spellbook, scroll, or inscription, and whether that spell appears on the Magi list, even if it is written in a notation you do not know. In addition, when you see a creature within 60 feet casting a spell, you can use your reaction to identify the spell being cast.
  • Ability Score Improvement (4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, 19th Levels). Increase one ability score by 2, or two ability scores by 1 (to a maximum of 20).
  • Practiced Concentration (6th Level). When you make a Constitution saving throw to maintain your concentration on a Magi spell, you can spend 1 Reserve point to gain advantage on the save. You can do so after you roll, but before the GM says whether the save succeeds or fails.
  • Deep Notation (10th Level). You have advantage on Intelligence (Arcana) checks made for Improvised Spellcasting, and you no longer take psychic damage when it fails. In addition, once per long rest you can use Improvised Spellcasting without a written source, casting a spell you have seen cast within the last 24 hours.
  • Deep Study (11th Level). When you cast a Magi spell of 5th level or higher, you regain 1 expended Reserve point. Once you regain Reserve this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
  • Instant Study (15th Level). Considered Casting takes 1 minute instead of 10, and you can use it at any time rather than only after a short rest. Once per long rest, you can use Considered Casting as an action without spending a Reserve point.
  • Perfect Recall (20th Level). When you roll initiative, if you have no Reserve points remaining, you gain 1 Reserve point. In addition, when you fail the Intelligence (Arcana) check for Improvised Spellcasting, you do not expend the spell slot.

Contexts

Wizard

Wizardry is the youngest of the four practices and the only one that belongs to everybody. When the seven Realms met at Thilidan to sign the Great Pact, they brought their arcane secrets into the same hall for the first time in recorded history. The great schools of Thilidan and Zilwynbar have taught the cosmopolitan result ever since, and their graduates turn up in every court, every siege, and every library worth the name. A Wizard’s advantage is not a trick. It is that they know more spells than nearly anyone alive and can reach higher on the shelf than the rest.

  • Wide Study (1st Level). Each time you gain a magi level, you add three Magi spells to your spellbook instead of two. In addition, you can prepare one additional spell.
  • Arcane Recovery (2nd Level). Once per long rest when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The slots can have a combined level equal to or less than half your magi level (rounded up), and none of them can be 6th level or higher.
  • Sharpened Incantation (3rd Level). When you cast a Magi spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw, you can spend 1 Reserve point to give one target of your choice disadvantage on its first saving throw against the spell.
  • Potent Cantrip (5th Level). When a creature succeeds on a saving throw against a cantrip you cast, it takes half the cantrip’s damage (if any) but suffers no additional effect from it.
  • Second Preparation (7th Level). When you use Considered Casting, you can replace two prepared spells instead of one.
  • Empowered Casting (9th Level). Once on each of your turns, when you deal damage with a Magi spell of 1st level or higher, you can add your Intelligence modifier to one damage roll of that spell.
  • Overchannel (13th Level). When you cast a Magi spell of 1st through 5th level that deals damage, you can spend 2 Reserve points to deal maximum damage with that spell. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
  • Master of the Shelf (14th Level). Choose two spells of 3rd level or lower from your spellbook. You always have those spells prepared, and they don’t count against the number of spells you prepare. You can change your choices when you finish a long rest.
  • Peerless Incantation (17th Level). Sharpened Incantation gives the chosen target disadvantage on every saving throw it makes against that spell rather than only the first. Once per short or long rest, you can use Sharpened Incantation without spending a Reserve point.
  • The Whole Book (18th Level). When you finish a long rest, you can prepare spells from any spellbook you can read and touch, not only your own. In addition, when you finish a short rest, you can prepare one spell from a spellbook or spell scroll in your possession without spending a Reserve point.

Alchemist

Alchemists bend arcana and arithmetic together until the physical world gives in. The practice grew famous in Marlis, where the ore came out of the ground in such quantity that somebody was bound to start asking what else it might become, and the ones who answered now purify and improve materials for a living. Most Alchemists never see a battlefield at all. They are magical smiths and masterwork craftsmen, and a person who can imbue a blade is worth a great deal more at a forge than in a dungeon. However, the ones who do take to the road bring an unusual habit along with them, because an Alchemist looks at a wall of fire and sees a shape, and shapes are negotiable. It is said in Marlis that you can tell an Alchemist’s work by how little of it was wasted.

  • Laboratory (1st Level). You gain proficiency with alchemist’s supplies and with one of the following: smith’s tools, jeweler’s tools, or tinker’s tools. You can identify the composition and rough value of any refined material by touch.

  • Precise Geometry (2nd Level). When you cast a Magi spell that has an area of effect, you can spend 1 Reserve point to apply one of the following to that casting, chosen when you cast it:

    • Carve. Choose a number of creatures in the area up to 1 + the spell’s level. Those creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell.
    • Reshape. Change the area’s shape, keeping the same dimensions: a cone becomes a line of equal length, a line becomes a cone, a cube becomes a sphere of equal radius, or a sphere becomes a cylinder of equal radius.
    • Relocate. Move the spell’s point of origin up to 15 feet, so long as the new point is still within the spell’s range and you can see it.
  • Refinement (3rd Level). Over 1 hour of work with your alchemist’s supplies and 10 gp of materials, you can refine one nonmagical weapon, suit of armor, or shield. For the next 8 hours, a refined weapon deals 1 extra damage of its type on a hit, and refined armor or a refined shield has advantage on saving throws against being damaged or destroyed and can’t be broken by nonmagical means. You can have a number of items refined at one time equal to your proficiency bonus. If you refine another item beyond that number, the oldest refinement ends.

  • Transmute Matter (5th Level). As an action, you can spend 1 Reserve point and touch a nonmagical object no larger than 5 feet in any dimension, changing its material to wood, stone, iron, glass, ice, or salt. The object keeps its shape and approximate mass, and the change lasts for 1 hour. By spending 1 hour and 2 Reserve points instead, you make the change permanent. You can’t transmute an object worn or carried by an unwilling creature.

  • Controlled Reaction (7th Level). When you cast a Magi spell that deals acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage, you can spend 1 Reserve point to change that damage to another of those types for the duration of the spell.

  • Wider Geometry (9th Level). Precise Geometry gains a fourth option: Expand. Increase the area by 5 feet in each of its dimensions. In addition, when you use Carve, the number of creatures you can choose is 2 + the spell’s level.

  • Persistent Reaction (13th Level). When you cast a Magi spell of 1st level or higher whose area of effect is instantaneous or lasts only until the end of your turn, you can spend 2 Reserve points to have the reaction continue. At the start of your next turn, the spell takes effect again in the same area. Each creature in the area makes the spell’s saving throw and takes half the spell’s damage on a failed save, suffering no other effect of the spell. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

  • Imbue Item (14th Level). Over 7 days of work with your alchemist’s supplies, using rare components approved by your GM and which cannot simply be purchased, you can imbue one nonmagical weapon, suit of armor, shield, or wondrous object with one of the following properties. The item becomes a magic item.

    • Keen. A weapon gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls.
    • Warded. Armor or a shield grants its wearer a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
    • Charged. Choose a Magi spell of 3rd level or lower from your spellbook. The item has 3 charges and regains all of them at dawn. A creature holding the item can expend 1 charge to cast that spell from it, requiring no components and using your spell save DC and spell attack modifier.
    • Enduring. The item can’t be broken by nonmagical means, and its wearer or wielder has resistance to one damage type you choose when you imbue it.

    You can maintain a number of imbued items equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum one). If you imbue another item beyond that number, choose one of your imbued items; it becomes nonmagical.

  • Perfect Geometry (17th Level). Once on each of your turns, you can use Precise Geometry without spending a Reserve point.

  • The Great Work (18th Level). Once per long rest, as an action, you can spend 3 Reserve points to reshape a 30-foot cube of nonmagical matter you can see within 120 feet. You can raise or lower the ground by up to 10 feet, open or seal a passage, turn stone to sand or sand to stone, or create or clear difficult terrain. The change is permanent. Each creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC, taking 6d6 bludgeoning damage and falling prone on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Nafazi

The Nafazi, called Thaumaturges in Common, are the world’s experts on the study of life itself. They are the Realms’ foremost scholars of restoration and vitality. Unique to the Nafazi school, however, is their discipline of studying the dead, and even undead, rather than simply burning the bodies. The Dalvas of Azelliot’s east are held to be the original innovators. Most Nafazi hold life supreme and spend their whole careers curing wounds and tending to the weak. Some study the dead in order to serve the living better, speaking with what lingers and raising old bones to learn from them, and they are watched rather closely for it. Unfortunately, it is known that clans of ill-minded Nafazi join together and take the thought too far: these “necrotic Magi of death” are considered an exiled class from the main stream. It is said they walk east into the Zavu, where the plains open onto the cold dead frontier. Yet, as the Nafazi will tell you, one cannot study the qualities of life without studying the qualities of death.

  • Rites of Breath (1st Level). You must have Wisdom 13 or higher to choose this context. You gain proficiency in Medicine or Religion (your choice) and with the herbalism kit. In addition, you add your Wisdom modifier to the hit points restored by any Restoration spell you cast.
  • Restoration Spells (1st Level). You gain the following Magi spells, which are Restoration spells for you. You can prepare them using your normal Magi preparation, and they do not need to be copied into your spellbook. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for them.
    • 1st: cure wounds, healing word
    • 2nd: lesser restoration
    • 3rd: revivify
    • 5th: greater restoration, mass cure wounds, raise dead
    • 6th: heal
    • 7th: regenerate, resurrection
    • 9th: mass heal
  • Vital Current (2nd Level). When you cast a Magi spell of 1st level or higher, you can spend 1 Reserve point to apply one of the following to that casting, chosen when you cast it:
    • Quicken the Breath. If the spell is a Restoration spell that restores hit points, one creature it restored also gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) and can end one of the following conditions on itself: blinded, deafened, frightened, or poisoned.
    • Still the Breath. If the spell deals necrotic damage, you regain hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1), and one creature the spell damaged has its speed reduced by 10 feet until the end of your next turn.
  • Threshold Sense (3rd Level). You can tell at a glance whether a creature you can see within 60 feet is living, undead, a construct, or a corpse, and you know how many hit points a creature has remaining once it falls to half its hit point maximum or fewer. When you spend 1 minute examining a corpse, you learn whether it died within the last 10 days and, if so, the cause of death.
  • Speak with What Lingers (5th Level). You can cast speak with dead without expending a spell slot, and you can ask two additional questions when you do. Once you cast it this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
  • Anathema to Undeath (7th Level). When you deal necrotic or radiant damage to an undead with a Magi spell, add your Wisdom modifier to one damage roll of that spell. An undead damaged by a Magi spell you cast can’t regain hit points until the end of your next turn.
  • Restoration Rites (9th Level). Lesser restoration and revivify are always prepared for you, and they don’t count against the number of Magi spells you prepare.
  • Rite of Return (13th Level). When a creature you can see within 30 feet drops to 0 hit points without being killed outright, you can use your reaction and spend 2 Reserve points to have it drop to 1 hit point instead. It also gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier + your magi level. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
  • Study of the Dead (14th Level). Over 10 minutes of rites performed on the remains of a Medium or smaller humanoid or beast dead no more than 30 days, you can raise those remains as a skeleton or zombie subject for study. It uses the rules in Summons and Companions, except that it does not require concentration and it remains for 8 hours or until it drops to 0 hit points. It obeys your commands and can answer simple questions about what it knew in life, though never about the manner of its death. You can have only one subject at a time.
  • Master of the Threshold (17th Level). Once on each of your turns, you can use Vital Current without spending a Reserve point. You can also apply both Vital Current options to the same casting.
  • The Long Breath (18th Level). Once per long rest, as an action, you can spend 3 Reserve points. Choose up to six creatures you can see within 30 feet. Each creature regains hit points equal to your magi level + your Wisdom modifier, and for 1 minute, the first time each of them would drop to 0 hit points, it drops to 1 hit point instead. An undead in the area instead takes radiant damage equal to your magi level and can’t regain hit points for 1 minute.

Bek’Tan

Bek’Tan is the Yaz’togal word for unique magic of pure force. It was originally adapted for warfare as a direct response to the Palcha empire’s warmongering and conquest of the 2nd Generation. Although the Palcha are genetically gifted with a limited form of Bek’Tan, the Yaz’togal learned to expand and enhance the concept and make the practice teachable among themselves by working alongside early Palcha defectors. The magic itself is pure force: pushing, pulling, pinning, lifting, throwing, and raising walls in places where no stone could ever be quarried. A Bek’Tan prefers to stand firmly in the heat of combat, raising up walls of raw energy and shoving foes to the ground.

The use of ‘Palcha magic’, however, carries an unfortunate and negative connotation. To most of Azergad, the practice is thought of as primitive and barbaric, recalling the horrors of the Palcha’s abuse that held the western reaches of Bisengal for four centuries. To one of the remaining ‘true’ Palcha, Bek’Tan is the craft of traitors. True masters of Bek’Tan, as few and far between as they are, are still among the best of friends one could have on the battlefield.

  • Force Practice (1st Level). You have advantage on saving throws and ability checks made against being moved against your will or knocked prone.
  • Force Bracing (2nd Level). A shell of worked force sits close against your body. While you aren’t wearing armor, your Armor Class equals 13 + your Constitution modifier.
  • Barrier (2nd Level). As an action, you can spend 1 Reserve point to raise a barrier of force at a point you can see within 60 feet. It is a flat vertical panel 10 feet long and 10 feet high, and it does not need to rest on a surface.
    • A barrier is an object with an Armor Class of 15 and hit points equal to five times your magi level (minimum 10). It is immune to poison and psychic damage, and it provides total cover.
    • A barrier lasts for 1 minute, until it drops to 0 hit points, or until you dismiss it (no action required). It does not require your concentration.
    • You can raise only one barrier on each of your turns. You can have one barrier active at a time, increasing to two at 9th level and three at 17th level. If you raise a barrier beyond that number, your oldest barrier ends.
  • Force Slide (3rd Level). As a bonus action, you can spend 1 Reserve point to move one of your barriers up to 30 feet to a point you can see. If the barrier would enter a creature’s space, that creature must make a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, it takes 2d8 force damage, and you either push it up to 10 feet away from the barrier’s path or knock it prone if it is Large or smaller. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and is neither pushed nor knocked prone. In either case, the barrier stops in an unoccupied space adjacent to the creature.
  • Repelling Barrier (5th Level). Your barriers are 15 feet long instead of 10. When a creature enters or starts its turn within 5 feet of one of your barriers, it must succeed on a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC or be pushed 10 feet directly away from the barrier. A creature makes this save no more than once per turn.
  • Anchored (7th Level). When a creature you can see within 30 feet moves, you can use your reaction and spend 1 Reserve point to force it to make a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, its speed becomes 0 until the end of its turn.
  • Bek’Tan Discipline (9th Level). You gain proficiency in Constitution saving throws. Your barriers gain additional hit points equal to five times your Intelligence modifier.
  • Hurl Barrier (13th Level). As an action, you can spend 1 Reserve point to fling one of your barriers at a creature you can see within 60 feet. The barrier ends as it strikes. The target must make a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, it takes 4d8 force damage and falls prone. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and is not knocked prone. The damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 17th level (5d8). You can use Hurl Barrier only once on each of your turns.
  • Crushing Barrier (13th Level). As an action, you can spend 2 Reserve points to close a fist of force on a creature you can see within 60 feet. It must make a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, it takes 4d8 force damage, is lifted up to 20 feet into the air, and is restrained until the end of your next turn, repeating the save at the end of each of its turns to end the effect. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and is not lifted or restrained. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
  • Barrier Mastery (14th Level). You can raise a barrier as a bonus action. In addition, you and any creatures you choose when you raise it can see, make attacks, and cast spells through your barriers as though they were not there. To every other creature, the barrier remains solid. Once on each of your turns, you can use Force Slide without spending a Reserve point.
  • Unmoved (17th Level). You can’t be moved against your will or knocked prone unless you allow it. When a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to push it up to 10 feet directly away from you.
  • Bek’Tan Redoubt (18th Level). Once per long rest, as an action, you can spend 3 Reserve points to raise a redoubt at a point you can see within 60 feet: a ring of force 20 feet in radius and 15 feet high, with one opening of your choosing. Each panel of the ring is an object with an Armor Class of 15 and hit points equal to ten times your magi level. The redoubt lasts for 10 minutes and does not require your concentration. Creatures you choose when you raise it can pass through the ring freely; to all others it is solid. When you raise it, each creature in the ring’s space must succeed on a Strength saving throw against your spell save DC or be pushed to the nearest unoccupied space outside the ring and knocked prone.