Arcane Tradition: Cryptomancy

Cryptomancers are skilled in magics having to do with stealth, secrecy, and shadows. Weaving confounding workings about themselves and concealing their true intentions, cryptomancers keep everyone in the dark, jealously guarding their secrets.

Cryptomancy Features

Wizard Level	Features
2	Still Aura, Subtle Workings, Security, Secrecy
6	Permanent Occlusion
10	Mirage
14	Umbra

Still Aura

Cryptomancers know that magical workings mark the aura of the caster in ways which the magically-attuned may detect. In order to maintain their secrecy, cryptomancers must abstain from spells which leave strong markings on the aura. Whenever you cast a spell of the Evocations school (with the exception of Darkness), you lose all benefits of the Cryptomancy arcane tradition until you finish a long rest.

Subtle Workings

Cryptomancers specialize in casting their spells secretly. Starting at second level, you may whisper the verbal components of your spells. This is Quiet and is audible at a maximum distance of 35 feet. If a creature might hear you, you may make a Stealth check against their passive perception to avoid detection.

Additionally, you may perform the somatic components of spells with diminished movements. These gestures will not draw attention from creatures that are otherwise engaged. If a creature might see you, you may make a Sleight of Hand check against their passive perception to avoid detection.

If the creature that would perceive you is an Arcane spellcaster, you make these checks with disadvantage.

Security

Your workings are carefully crafted to evade interception or detection:

After casting Message, you and the target may converse for as long as you maintain Concentration.

When you cast Encode Thoughts, you may specify authorized recipients: anyone else attempting to access the thoughts will find only a confusing jumble of distorted, overlapping sensations.

Creatures with truesight must succeed on a Wisdom save versus your Spellcasting to see through any illusions or concealments created by your spells.

Creatures casting Knock on one of your Arcane Locks must succeed on an Arcana save versus your Spellcasting to suppress your spell.

Secrecy

You may learn the following spells in addition to the Wizard spell list:

Blindness/Deafness
Pass Without Trace
Silence
Feign Death
Glibness

Lesser Secret
Secret
Greater Secret
Enigma

These spells all count as Wizard spells for you and your spellcasting stat for them is Intelligence.

Permanent Occlusion

At 6th level, you may cast the spells Disguise Self, Nondetection and Thought Shield as ritual spells, and their material costs are removed. When you do so, their duration is extended to 24 hours.

Mirage

At 10th level, when an enemy would hit you with a spell or attack you may use your reaction to teleport to a place you can see up to fifteen feet away and become invisible. The attack misses, and you remain invisible for 1 minute or until you attack or cast a spell. You may use this ability once per long rest.

 

 

Umbra

At 14th level, you are enveloped by an aura that obscures you and deflects attention:

• You may choose to have the effects of the Pass Without Trace spell active at any time.
• You may choose to have the effects of the Blur spell active at any time.
• As an Action, you may become invisible whenever you are in an area with obscured visibility. This ends if you attack, cast a spell, or enter an area that is unobscured.
• Any magical items on your person appear mundane when examined.
• When you are hidden, creatures that are not actively searching for you have no opportunity to detect you.

Cryptomancy Spells

Lesser Secret

1st-level enchantment (ritual)

Casting Time:

1 minute

Components:

V, S, M (parchment and ink)

You bind one or more persons to secrecy, potentially including yourself. All bound parties must be physically present and enter into the compact willingly. The caster writes the secret onto the parchment, which is burned at the end of the ritual.

After the casting is complete, any party to the compact who speaks, writes, gestures or otherwise takes actions that could reasonably be foreseen to reveal information about the topic to another thinking creature is considered to be in violation of the compact.

If a bound party violates the compact, they take 1d6+6 psychic damage and suffer 1d4 ranks of exhaustion. This exhaustion can only be removed by a Lesser Restoration or similar spell. The spell ends and all members of the compact know that the spell has been broken and which member of the compact violated it.

The caster may designate one or more observing parties to the compact. These parties are made aware when the compact is broken and receive all other information as specified for each tier, but are not bound by the terms of the compact. All observing parties must be physically present when the spell is cast.

At the time of casting, the caster may choose to make the penalty for violating the secret be less than what is specified. The specified penalties represent maximum possible strength.

If cast using a spell slot of second level or above, the damage is increased by 1d6+6 per spell level.

Secret

4th-level enchantment (ritual)

Casting Time:

10 minutes

Components:

V, S, M

Functions like Lesser Secret, with the following changes:

Parties not physically present can be entered into the compact if the caster 1) knows their name and face; and 2) has a portion of the party’s body such as hair or skin. Unwilling parties can be forced into the compact if they fail a WIS save against the caster’s spell save DC.

Optionally, the caster may designate one or more small items to serve as containers for the secret. If this is done, then all parties forget all information pertaining to the secret and cannot be forced, magically or otherwise, to divulge information pertaining to it. Anyone who touches this item becomes aware of the secret while in contact with the item, but forgets all but the most general details when contact is broken.

Any existing writings, pictures or other records pertaining to the secret are affected by the spell. Anyone who would perceive such records finds them unremarkable and undeserving of attention. An individual who knows that the record exists can make two WIS saving throws against the caster’s spell save DC. If the first roll is successful, they are able to focus their attention on the record, but they perceive it as incomprehensibly muddled. If the second roll is successful, the spell is broken and all parties to the compact are aware that it has been broken by an outside party. Such attempts can only be made once per day.

When a bound party attempts to violate the compact, the party must succeed on a WIS saving throw versus the caster’s spell save DC or else be compelled to abide by the compact. The party can only make such an attempt once per day. Bound parties are always aware before taking such an action that it would violate the compact, regardless of any memories lost to the spell.

If any intelligent creature violates the compact, they immediately take 4d8+32 psychic damage and suffer 1d4+1 ranks of exhaustion. This exhaustion can only be removed by a Greater Restoration or similar spell. The spell ends and all members of the compact know that the spell has been broken and which member of the compact violated it. If the violating party is on the same plane as other members of the compact, these members know the general direction and distance of the violating party until their exhaustion is removed.

If cast using a spell slot of fifth level or above, the damage is increased by 1d8+8 per spell level.

 

 

Greater Secret

7th-level enchantment (ritual)

Casting Time:

1 hour

Components:

V, S, M

Functions like Secret, with the following changes:

Any existing writings, pictures or other records pertaining to the secret are affected by the spell. Anyone who would perceive such records find them unremarkable and undeserving of attention. An individual who knows that the record exists and attempts to investigate it experiences an intense sensation of dread, aversion, and confusion. They must succeed on a WIS saving throw with disadvantage against the caster’s spell save DC or else be compelled to stop their attempts. If they succeed on a second such save, they are able to focus their attention on the record, but they perceive it as incomprehensibly muddled. If they succeed on a third such save, the spell is broken and all parties to the compact are aware that it has been broken by an outside party. Such attempts can only be made once per day. On each new attempt the perceiver must begin again with the first save.

If any intelligent creature violates the secret, they immediately take 6d20+120 psychic damage and accrue 1d4+2 ranks of exhaustion. This exhaustion can only be removed by a Wish or similar spell. The spell ends and all members of the compact know that the spell has been broken and which member of the compact violated it. If the violating party is on the same plane as other members of the compact, these members know the exact location of the violating party until their exhaustion is removed.

If cast using a spell slot of eighth level or above, the damage is increased by 1d20+20 per level and exhaustion accrued increases by +1 per level.

Enigma

9th-level enchantment

Casting Time:

24 hours

Range:

Everything

Components:

V, S, M (an exhaustive list of the true names of all targets written in special inks on special papers, plus incense and powdered gems, worth a total of 50000 gp)

Duration:

Forever

The primary spellcaster must be assisted by one arcane spellcaster knowing at least one 8th-level spell, one divine spellcaster knowing at least one 8th-level spell, and ten spellcasters of any kind knowing at least one seventh-level spell.

You warp reality to eliminate all awareness of a target. The target may be one of the following or an appropriate combination:

• Up to 1000 HP of creatures, excluding gods
• Items of up to 1000 tons and 500,000 gp value (any item can be the target if it is physically present at the casting site)
• A location of up to 1000 cubic miles in volume
• Memories of events up to 10 years in duration

When the spell is complete, all non-godlike intelligent creatures (WIS and INT both less than 27) forget all memories pertaining to the target of the spell. The target(s) become imperceptible to all senses, both magical and mundane. If the target is a location, it cannot be mapped and anyone moving towards it will unwittingly change course to bypass it. If the target is a creature, any effects that its actions have on the world are perceived as occurring spontaneously and without explanation, and are soon forgotten. With few divine exceptions (ex. Mystra’s Library), all records of the target of the spell are effaced and become blank/empty.

The caster may designate creatures and items present at the ritual to be exempted from the effects.

The spell can be ended by an unaffected creature publicly declaring the existence of the target to at least one thousand intelligent creatures and showing them the target (in the case of creatures, locations or items) or irrefutable proof of the existence of the target (in the case of memories).

After completing the spell, the caster suffers five levels of exhaustion.

A god can be the target of this spell if they are reduced to 1 hp or less and are affected by an Imprisonment spell.