Also known in the Elder Magi’s own records as the Lesser Magics, these powers are amazing regardless of their relative strength and the Dessi wield them to great effect. Each Art is a path of magic in and of itself and many wondrous things are possible with the use of each. Of all the Elder Arts, only Alchemy does not require the expenditure of Willpower points; the others have a variable cost listed with their different techniques.
Unless otherwise stated, the use of an Elder Art is a standard action and can be combined with a move action each round.
Only one Elder Art can be used in a given round and some require more than one round to take effect. If an Art usage does have a casting time of more than one round, it does not allow movement and the Magician must remain still for the magic to work. This does not render him helpless and he can still defend himself fully; he simply is left unable to attack or move from where he is standing while concentrating on the Elder Art.
The Difficulty Class for resisting an Elder Art is calculated as 10 + half the Magician of Dessi’s class level + his Wisdom modifier. This makes his spells relatively easy to resist at lower levels, but this is balanced by the fact that few of his magical abilities allow a saving throw to avoid at all.
Alchemy
This is almost a scientific discipline rather than a magical art but it does require a magical will to cause the effects that it is capable of creating. By projecting intent and arcane energy into a concoction brewed with the Craft (alchemy) skill, the Magician can create potions capable of restoring health, Willpower, or affecting his abilities in other ways. Upon selecting this Elder Art, the Magician of Dessi immediately gains one free rank in Craft (alchemy). The effects of these potions are summarised below but the Games Master is free to allow experimentation in an effort to discover other formulas.
♦ Attribute Potions: Known by the ability score they enhance, these potions add 4 points to the drinker’s Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. This enhancement lasts one hour and a creature can only use one attribute potion per ability score per day (i.e. six per day, each one affecting a different statistic). Creating an attribute potion takes 1d6 minutes to brew and a DC 18 Craft (alchemy) check.
♦ Combat Potion: Also called The Fighter’s Friend, this potion improves a drinker’s Base Combat Skill by +2 (but cannot take it over +20), which may add an attack per round to the imbiber’s total. The potion lasts for 2d10 minutes before it wears off, at which time the drinker suffers a –2 penalty to his Base Combat Skill (minimum of +0) for one full hour due to exhaustion. Combat
potions take 1d12 minutes to brew and a DC 25 Craft (alchemy) check.
♦ Health Potion: Also called a healing draught, this requires a DC 15 Craft (alchemy) check to create and 1d4 minutes to brew. Drinking a healing potion will restore the Magician’s base magical damage in Endurance. A creature can only fully benefit from one healing draught per day; any other healing draught consumed during that time heals only its minimum possible amount (as if only 1s were rolled on its dice).
♦ Mind Potion: This potion can restore some of a Magician’s spent Willpower. It gives back the Magician’s base magical damage in Willpower and cannot bring the total above the drinker’s maximum normal value. Mind potions take 1d10 minutes to brew and require a DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check. Like healing draughts, only one potion each day will restore a normal amount; additional potions provide only the minimum possible value.
♦ Restoration Potion: This potion will utterly cure the imbiber of all ability damage and negative conditions that currently afflict him. It does not heal Endurance damage, nor can it restore permanently drained ability points. It may only restore one negative level. However, all temporary ability damage and conditions such as being dazed, nauseated, blinded and so forth are cured instantly.
This potion requires a Craft (alchemy) check of DC 20 and 2d10 minutes to brew.
Creating potions requires the Magician carry a mortar, pestle and other small herbal implements, which are automatically gained when the Magician first trains in this art.
Replacements must be purchased or made if the originals are lost. Materials for each potion are also needed. These must be found in the field, as most are rare and unusual ingredients that seldom get stocked in stores and marketplaces. Gathering the ingredients for a given potion might be an adventure in itself; the Games Master should determine whether a Magician can find materials at any given time during a game.
Generally a Knowledge (nature) or occasionally a Knowledge (arcana) check (DC 15 to 30) will allow a Magician of Dessi in an appropriate locale to find the necessary ingredients for a single potion.
Lastly, Alchemy can change the base properties of substances.
By making a DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check while in contact with a solid object, the Magician can subtract his base magical damage from its Hardness (shattering it automatically if the rolled damage would reduce the object’s hardness to 0 or less). If the base magical damage is 10 or more, the Magician can change 1 cubic inch of material per class level into another substance (lead to gold, for example). This change only lasts for one day per class level. This use of Alchemy does not require any materials or tools.
Magician of Dessi
Elementalism
This calling art summons aid from the elemental forces of the world. Unfortunately for the Magician, there is never any guarantee what form that help will take. If the Willpower cost is paid, the aid will arrive, though it might take a little while to occur and may not precisely be what the Magician was hoping for. Elementalism is notorious for giving the Dessi what they need while rarely giving them what they actually want. Upon selecting this Elder Art, the Magician of Dessi immediately gains one free rank in Knowledge (the planes).
Earth Spirit (4 Willpower)
When called up, the Earth spirits will answer within 2d4 rounds (being the slowest of the elements to respond) by shaking the ground, causing a landslide, shattering some non-magical metal or stone object important to the enemy, or something equally destructive or disruptive. Earth spirits will never inflict more than a Magician’s base magical damage on a single target but they can cause damage to every foe within 100 feet of the Magician if that is what they choose to do.
Opponents on shaking ground must make an Acrobatics check with a DC equal to the spell’s saving throw DC or fall prone.
Air Spirit (4 Willpower)
Mercurial and impossible to predict, these mischievous spirits can unleash inclement weather, blow objects out of people’s hands, or even summon thunder to deafen a Magician’s opponents. Air spirits have a tendency to impede the Magician himself at the same time, though never to the same extent as his enemies. Buffeted creatures get a Strength ability check (DC equals the spell’s save) to avoid being blown away by the spirit and Fortitude saves may be necessary to resist the deafening effect of thunder. A failed save against the latter effect also stuns the target for one round. Air spirits take only 1d4 rounds to answer a calling.
Fire Spirit (4 Willpower)
The embodiment of both creativity and destruction, fire spirits answer within a single round and usually do so in some inventively destructive way. Knocked over lanterns that set the nearby surrounding on fire, an exploding torch, or fire magic raging out of control are all hallmarks of a fire spirit’s
‘aid’. Fire spirits inflicting damage will not inflict more than half the Magician’s base magical damage. All saving throws are equal to this spell’s DC and if an opponent succeeds he still takes half damage as the wrath of the fire spirit is not entirely controllable or friendly.
Water Spirit (4 Willpower)
Water spirits can be very effective, especially if called while an opponent is drinking. Liquids can try to drown targets (forcing the target to use the usual drowning rules found on page 156), waves can make an approaching enemy’s boat veer off course or marine creatures might appear and attack the Magician’s foes. Water responds in 1d6 rounds, and may – at
for an amount equal to his base magical damage instead of manifesting in any other way.
Enchantment
These magical manifestations bind the thoughts and will of an opponent, causing them to act in a specific way or hallucinate and see illusions placed in their minds by the Magician. This power does these things extremely well but maintaining the effects can get very costly in terms of Willpower. Most Magicians of Dessi use this power sparingly, keeping it on a single target just long enough to do what they need to and then leave the area before their interference is discovered. Upon selecting this Elder Art, the Magician of Dessi immediately gains one free rank in Bluff.
Mental Coercion (2 Willpower per round)
If the target of this ability, which must be used within 60 feet and must have line of sight from the Magician, fails a Will saving throw, it must take whatever actions that round the Magician wishes. These actions cannot be self-destructive or harm its allies. Each round the Magician wishes to maintain control over a single target, it gains a cumulative +1 to its save.
Targets with an Intelligence score of 16+ or a spellcasting class level of 10+ are immune to Mental Coercion.
Mental Probe (3 Willpower per question)
This power works exactly like Mental Coercion except that instead of dictating the target’s actions, the Magician of Dessi can draw the answer to a single question out of its mind once per round. These answers must be able to be answered within six seconds; longer questions require multiple rounds of effect and may cause the contact to be broken because of the progressively easier saving throw. If a target makes its saving throw, it will know it has been affected; otherwise the Magician leaves no trace of having probed his target’s mind – the target will forget the interrogation if the Magician wishes.
Mental Mirage (3 Willpower per round)
A potent, if fleeting, ability, this allows the Magician of Dessi to create an illusion with visual, audible and even tactile sensations in the mind of one subject. There is no Will saving throw against this effect; the illusion will be seen by the subject but there is no guarantee it will be believed. Belief depends entirely upon how believable the image is and what happens when it disappears. The Mirage will completely vanish if the Magician stops paying its Willpower cost, more than likely alerting the subject to its false nature. The mirage may be of up to Large size (or Huge size if the Magician of Dessi is 10th level or higher).
Prophecy
Placing the Magician in direct contact with the ebb and flow of the future, Prophecy can be the most confusing and difficult of the Elder Arts. No Magician can be said to have truly mastered Prophecy, but it can be a valuable talent even if it
remains untamed. What Prophecy lacks in precision, it makes up for in power. Very little can shield a subject from the powers of Prophecy and even those few things that cannot be seen with this Art reveal a certain level of power just by doing so. Any use of Prophecy has a percentage chance of failing equal to 30% minus the Magician’s ranks in Knowledge (arcana). Upon selecting this Elder Art, the Magician of Dessi immediately gains one free rank in Knowledge (arcana).
Future Sight (3 Willpower)
Future Sight can tell a Magician whether a particular action will bring good or bad results for him in the immediate future.
If the Future Sight succeeds, the Magician of Dessi gets one of four results:
� Weal (if the action will probably bring good results).
� Woe (for bad results).
� Weal and woe (for both).
� Nothing (for actions that do not have especially good or bad results).
Future Sight can only see about half an hour into the future, so anything that might happen after that does not affect the result. Thus, the result might not take into account the long-term consequences of a contemplated action.
Location Sight (4 Willpower)
The Magician can sense the direction of a well-known or clearly visualised person or object. He can search for general items or types of people, in which case he locates the nearest one of its kind if more than one is within range. Attempting to find a certain item or person requires a specific and accurate mental image; if the image is not close enough to the actual object or creature, Location Sight fails. A Magician of Dessi cannot specify a unique item unless he has physically touched or been touched by that particular item. Location Sight lasts until the Magician comes within 10 feet of the object or person searched for or one hour elapses, whichever comes first.
Aura Sight (5 Willpower)
Aura Sight grants the ability to see all things as they actually are. The Magician sees through normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, discerns the exact locations and allegiance (Good, Evil or the Balance) of creatures or objects under illusions or other masking effects, spots invisible creatures or objects normally, pierces illusions and views the true form of shape-changed or transmuted things. Further, the Magician can focus his vision to see into the Daziarn Plane (not that this is recommended for a Magician’s sanity). Aura Sight only operates out to a distance of 60 feet.
Aura Sight does not penetrate solid objects. It in no way confers X-ray vision or its equivalent. It does not negate concealment, including that caused by fog and the like. Thus, Aura Sight does not help the viewer see through mundane disguises, spot creatures that are simply hiding or notice secret doors hidden by mundane means.
Evocation
The most dangerous Elder Art to invoke, a Magician of Dessi using it is tapping the necromantic magics of Magnamund and reaching across the veil of Death itself to draw upon the powers and wisdom of the deceased. This is never a safe thing to attempt and many Magicians fall victim to the very spirits they wished to interrogate. Caution, force of will and a magical pentacle engraved on the ground for protection are strongly recommended for any Magician of Dessi brave enough or desperate enough to wield the fell power of Evocation. Upon selecting this Elder Art, the Magician of Dessi immediately gains one free rank in Diplomacy.
Spirit Speak (1 Endurance and 1 Willpower per round) This art draws forth the spirit of a known being, or the spirit attached to remains found by the Magician of Dessi, allowing it to answer several questions that he posits. The Magician may ask one question per two class levels; each question requires one round to ask and be answered. Unasked questions are wasted if the Magician lets the spell go before asking them all. The spirit’s knowledge is limited to what the creature knew during life, including the languages it spoke (if any) and anything that has happened in the vicinity of its body since it died. Answers are usually brief, cryptic or repetitive.
If the spirit’s allegiance is different from the Magician, the spirit gets a Will save to resist the spell as if it were alive.
A successful save frees the spirit from control and if the Magician is not standing inside a pentacle, it will immediately attack him. Otherwise, it flees and will visit terror upon the living world until it is destroyed (if Evil). Good freed spirits immediately return to the realm of the dead if they cannot attack their summoner.
Summoning the spectres of the dead is not without a cost. In addition to the slow drain on health and Willpower that this art demands, the summoned spirit is allowed to ask a single service of the Magician after answering its questions. The round spent doing so does not cost the Magician Endurance or Willpower but if the caster does not honestly agree to the task, the spirit is immediately set free as above. This service must be performed within one day per class level of the Magician or the spirit may return at a time and place of its choosing (typically when the Magician is asleep and helpless) to exact its revenge for the broken oath.
These tasks tend to be something that was important to the spirit in life and may be simple or incredibly difficult to perform. They are never impossible tasks, though they may
Magician of Dessi
easily be more trouble than the information they bought was worth. Games Masters should make sure that a given task is a test of some ability of the Magician and if it proves to be too arduous, experience points should be rewarded for their completion.
Psychomancy
A Magician of Dessi using this ability can deduce facts about an object and possibly even glimpse moments in its history by handling it while in a meditative trance. This power is very cryptic at times and can be misleading if not used carefully;
generally speaking, it is most accurate when the Magician tries to glean specific information and is not too general in his inquiries. The meditation needed to use this power requires five minutes and a Concentration check at DC 20. Failure to make the required check, which Magicians may take 10 on if they are in a peaceful, undisturbed area, wastes the five minutes of time and still requires the intended Willpower cost. Upon selecting this Elder Art, the Magician of Dessi immediately gains one free rank in Sense Motive.
Powersense (3 Willpower)
Used to determine the powers and functions of an item, Powersense is very effective but can be misled intentionally by an intelligent item. The Magician discerns magical properties present in a single handled object. The Magician learns its functions, how to activate its functions (if appropriate) and the allegiance of its maker. In the case of an object with active spells cast upon it, the Magician of Dessi learns each spell, its effect and the allegiance of its caster.
An intelligent object may attempt to resist this effect if it so desires. Increase the DC of the Concentration check by +5 (for intelligent items) or +10 (for exceptionally powerful intelligent items); should the Magician fail this check he learns nothing about the object except what he can discern by looking at it, as per normal. However, the intelligent item may also choose to lie if the Magician failed his Concentration check – instead of revealing nothing, it misleads the Magician concerning its powers, active spells and the allegiance of its maker.
Pastsense (4 Willpower)
This power gives the Magician the ability to see the immediate past of an object and any truly important history it might have.
These images tend to come to the Magician of Dessi in the form of dream sights, riddles and indistinct visions that plague
These images tend to come to the Magician of Dessi in the form of dream sights, riddles and indistinct visions that plague