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Arcane Tradition - School Specialist

In the many great and revered teaching institutions of magic and arcana, competition between wizards is fierce. Whether it be in the field of academia or the field of practical application, every wizard wants to be the best at what they do. Whatever the reason, there’s a common maxim among wizards that transcends cultures, languages and even planes of existence; if you want to be just decent with most forms of magic, go be a bard somewhere else.

School specialists are those who focus so tightly on their chosen fields of arcane academia that they can truly plumb the depths of scholarly minutia, advancing the world’s knowledge of their chosen school of magic one complex thesis at a time. And if in exchange they don’t have time to dabble in schools of magic that never really fit their personality, natural aptitude or needs? Well, that’s just the sacrifices one needs to make to truly understand the subtle science of magic.

Specialised Savant

When you choose this tradition at 2nd level, you must choose 1 of the primary schools of magic; abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, or transmutation.

This school becomes your focus school, and upon choosing your focus school you can immediately learn one 1st-level spell and up to two cantrips that belong to your focus school, which may all come from any spell list, and are treated as wizard spells for you.

When you learn new wizard spells as a result of gaining a level in the wizard class, at least one of the spells you choose to learn must be from your focus school, unless there are no remaining spells yet to learn from your focus school that are of a spell level you can cast. When copying a focus school spell into your spell book, the gold and time you must spend is halved.

You must also choose 2 primary schools of magic, other than your focus school, which becomes your forbidden schools, having lost the appropriate mindset for casting spells of that school, or perhaps simply having your rote skills in that area become rusty and inelegant because of lapsed practice.

You cannot learn any spells from your forbidden schools once you gain this feature, and if you attempt to cast a spell from your forbidden schools, whether it is a wizard spell you have previously learned, a spell from another class, or cast from a spell scroll or magical item, you must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) ability check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell level of the cast spell. You make the ability check at disadvantage, and if you fail the check then you fail to cast the spell, expending any spell slot, spell scroll or consumed material components used in the attempt.

Prodigious Memory

At 2nd level, you have attained a greater mastery of spell preparation within your chosen area of specialisation. As a bonus action, you can replace one spell you have prepared with another spell from your spellbook. The new spell chosen must be a spell from your focus school. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

 

 

Habitual Spellcasting

Starting from 6th level, you’ve become so familiar with casting spells from your focus school that you can do so with barely a glance and an effortless wave of your hand. When you cast a spell from your focus school, choose one of the following to apply to that spell.

• Treat that spell as if it had been cast using a spell slot one level higher than the actual spell slot used.
• If the spell level of the cast spell is equal to or less than your wizard level divided by three, you can obscure the verbal and somatic components of the spell. If an onlooker has reason to suspect you are casting a spell, they can attempt an Intelligence (Arcana) skill check with a DC equal to your spell save DC + the spell level of the cast spell. If they fail the skill check, or do not have reason to suspect you are casting a spell, then they cannot counterspell your spell, and they have disadvantage on any saving throws they must make against the spell’s effects during that turn.

Arcane Recognition

At 6th level, you have become attuned to the specific fluctuations in the weave made when spells from your focus school are cast. You are always under the effect of detect magic, with an effective radius of 60 feet instead of 30, but only for spells and magic from your focus school. You can still cast detect magic normally to be able to detect magic from other schools.

Additionally, if another creature casts a spell from your focus school within 60 feet of you, you are instantly made aware of it, and if the spell is of a spell level you can learn you recognise the exact spell being cast. If a spell from your focus school would require you to make a saving throw against it, you do so at advantage.

Spell Thesis

At 10th level, you’ve begun studying one particular spell in exacting detail, hoping to pick apart every element of it for complete and total understanding. Choose one 1st-level or higher spell from your focus school, and when you cast that spell it gains the following changes.

• If its original casting time is 1 action or 1 minute, you can cast it as a bonus action instead.
• It is treated as if it were cast with a spell slot 2 spell levels higher than it was actually cast at (this spell slot increase does not stack with Habitual Spellcasting)
• You can cast other spells on the turn that you cast it.
• If it a duration of 1 minute or longer, double the spell’s duration.

At 13th, 16th and 19th level, you can choose a different spell to benefit from this feature, and the previously-chosen spell loses the benefits of this feature.

Empowered Understanding

Upon reaching 14th level, your mental understanding of your focus school is so great that you can invoke its magic as easily as breathing, allowing you to focus on maximising the benefits of your spells.

You make concentration checks to maintain your focus school spells at advantage. In addition, whenever you cast a spell from your focus school that would require any number of dice to be rolled, the number of dice rolled for that spell’s effect increases by a number equal to the level of the spell slot used to cast that spell, or that spell’s base spell level if no spell slot is used to cast it.

This feature does not change the number of dice that must be rolled for an ability check, saving throw or to determine a result on a table.

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