The Magic User: From The Black Mete - Characters & Combat

Continuing with the Classes.

The Following is Open Game Content:

The Magic-user


The Magic-user is the mighty wizard of myth and legend. He may be a powerful magus, serving the forces of good, or an evil sorcerer, bent on enslaving mankind. Sometimes his plans and motivations are inconceivable to his fellows, as he works assiduously, to accomplish his mysterious goals. These students of magical lore begin as the weakest of characters, eventually progressing to become the most powerful. At higher levels, the Magic-user may build a Tower and attract a small number of students and servants. Also, he may learn to create new spells, magical items and Scrolls.

Prime Attribute: Intelligence.

Hit Dice: 1d4 +1 (Gains 1 hp/level after 9th level.)

Saving Throw Bonus: +2 bonus to saves vs. magic of any sort.

Magic-user Class Abilities

Spell Casting: Magic-users cast arcane spells, which must be inscribed into spellbooks, before they can be prepared for use. Once per day, usually upon awakening, the Magic-user may study his spellbooks and memorize up to the maximum number of spells which his mind can hold, which is determined by level and shown in Table 16, below. The act of working magic is quite taxing and requires a period of recuperation, before the Magic-users mind is capable of again memorizing spells. Once a spell has been cast, it cannot be cast again until it has been re-memorized. Spells from Scrolls and other sources, may be copied into a Magic-user’s spellbook. 


Arcane Mastery: At 5^th level, the MU may choose a single spell from his repertoire, to master. He need no longer memorize this spell, as his consciousness will automatically reformulate the psychic patterns within his mind, at the beginning of the next day (this will now be unavoidable and the spell will always repopulate its given slot.) The Mastered spell will always cast at maximum effect, in regards to duration, damage, etc. Another such spell may be chosen at 10^th and every five levels, thereafter.


Summon Familiar: At any time, an MU may summon a Familiar, though he may only have one such creature in service, at a time. See the GM for further info.


Wizard’s Tower (11th): At 11th level, a Magic-user reaches Name Level, that of Wizard and may build a Stronghold for himself. He will attract apprentices, mercenaries and other, weirder servants, who will swear allegiance to the Wizard and help carry out his schemes.

Armor Restricted: The Magic-User may not cast spells while wearing actual Armor. He may utilize other forms of protection, such as magical rings, bracers, etc.

Table 15: Magic-user Advancement

Level	Experience	Hit Dice	To Hit Bonus	Saving Throw
1	0	1	+0	15
2	2,501	2	+0	14
3	5,001	3	+0	13
4	10,001	4	+0	12
5	20,001	5	+0	11
6	40,001	6	+1	10
7	80,001	7	+1	10
8	120,001	8	+1	9
9	240,001	9	+2	9
10	360,001	10	+2	8
11	535,001	11	+3	8
12	710,001	+1	+3	7
13	885,001	+2	+3	7
14	1,060,001	+3	+4	6
15	1,235,001	+4	+4	6
16	1,410,001	+5	+5	5
17	1,585,001	+6	+5	5
18	1,760,001	+7	+5	5
19	1,935,001	+8	+6	5
20	2,110,001	+9	+6	5
21+	+175,000/Lvl	+1/Level	+6	5

Table 16: Magic-user Spell Progression

Class Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
3	2	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
4	3	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
5	4	2	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
6	4	2	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
7	4	3	2	1	–	–	–	–	–
8	4	3	3	2	–	–	–	–	–
9	4	3	3	2	1	–	–	–	–
10	4	4	3	2	2	–	–	–	–
11	4	4	4	3	3	–	–	–	–
12	4	4	4	4	4	1	–	–	–
13	5	5	5	4	4	2	–	–	–
14	5	5	5	4	4	3	1	–	–
15	5	5	5	5	4	4	2	–	–
16	5	5	5	5	5	5	2	1	–
17	6	6	6	5	5	5	2	2	–
18	6	6	6	6	6	5	2	2	1
19	7	7	7	6	6	6	3	2	2
20	7	7	7	7	7	7	3	3	2

Table 17: Magic-user Combat Chart

Level	-8	-7	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1 – 5	23	22	21	20	20	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11
6 - 8	22	21	20	20	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10
9 - 10	21	20	20	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9
11 - 13	20	20	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8
14 - 15	20	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7
16 - 18	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6
19+	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5

Table 18: Magic-User’s Base Weapon Damage

Melee – Small	Melee – Medium	Melee – Large	Arrows & Bolts	Darts & Bullets
1d4	1d4*	1d6**	1d4	1d3

**MU’s are at -1 to hit with Large weapons.*Magic-Users do 1d6 with the Staff, when used two-handed.

Notes: Again, we see Akrasia's Class Based Weapon Damage, which can be found in Knockspell #1, as well as at the Author's blog.

The MU's attack table is close to that of AD&D, a little closer to OSRIC.

The Thaco tops out at 14, at nineteenth level as opposed to 13 at twenty-first level in OSRIC and 11 at twenty-first level in AD&D. At nineteenth level, OSRIC has the MU's Thaco at 15 and AD&D has it at 13.

I'm using Descending AC in my current campaign, but have the To Hit Bonus column in the class charts, for a quick conversion to Ascending AC, should that be desired. At the first session, I gave the players a choice between the two and was pleased as punch that they unanimously chose Descending.

I think the idea for the Arcane Mastery came from Jeff Rients. I think. After a couple of years of reading a ton of OSR blogs, it can be a little hard to keep track of where everything is coming from.

I'm using my own rules for summoning Familiars, which were published in Knockspell #10. Also, they may be found on my blog, here.

Blogger can't handle tables, for shit! Every time I went in to edit this post, the spacing went all wonky. 

It's hard as hell to find a decent Public Domain picture of a Magic-user.