There's No Trick To It - Magician (GLOG Class)

Just a classic wizard.

Class: Magician

You might be a High Magician in a star-spangled robe and pointed hat who studied in the storied halls of academia, or the son of a village witch who learned your mother's craft for she had no daughter to pass it on to, or a fur-clad shaman with a spirit's face painted on your own who drags mysteries out of the primal dark. However you came by it, you have knowledge of the secret ways that move the world that mortals were never meant to know.

Equipment: Robes & Hat, Satchel, Staff, Dagger, Lantern, 2 x Bonus pieces of equipment based on starting Magic Art (see below).

+1 to Saves per Template
A: 2 Magical Arts, Magesight
B: Familiar or Implement, +1 Magical Art
C: Ritualist, +1 Magical Art
D: Secret of Secrets, +1 Magical Art

∆: Archmage
Know at least 5 Magical Arts, find one of the five Pillars of Creation, and etch your personal mark onto it.
Create a new Magical Art, negotiated with your DM. Further negotiations can take place after it's created if it proves too strong or too weak - new magic has a tendency to "settle" over time.

A: Magical Arts
You begin with knowledge of two of the known Magical Arts; others may exist - probably in strange and foreign parts - but you will have to find them first if you want to learn them. You gain a bonus item from each of your starting Magical Arts. At each subsequent Template, learn a new Magical Art and gain the Advanced form of one Art you already know.

A: Magesight
You can perceive the presence of the supernatural. Just ask the DM if something is magical, and they are obliged to tell you the truth of the matter. With a Turn of careful examination, you can also determine in general terms what a given magical effect's purpose is, e.g. "Stepping into this circle will teleport you elsewhere.". This manifests for you in symbolic terms; a sword enchanted such that it bursts into fire in combat might appear to have a large salamander sitting on its blade, while an enchanted shirt of mail being unfurled might sound like a distant army roaring in victory to your ears. Magesight explicitly cannot reveal the presence or nature of illusions and curses, which by their very nature conceal and deceive.

B: Familiar
You have summoned a minor tutelary spirit to aid you in your magical practice. This spirit can switch between two forms: one a mundane animal no larger than a fox, the other a knee-high, horned, winged, homunculus with luridly coloured skin. It has a flight speed equal to its Movement speed in its homunculus form and whatever abilities are common to its species in its animal form. They have 1HD, +1HP/Level of the magician, AC12, 6' Movement (plus flight in homunculus form). Familiars can fight, using whatever natural weapons their animal form has or wielding small (d4) weapons in their homunculus form. Familiars can speak any tongue their summoner can, and in animal form can speak in animal noises that only their summoner can understand. Familiars are absolutely loyal to their summoner, though they often affect argumentative or grating personalities to teach their mage humility. Besides this, they can perform several useful services in return for a bit of their summoner's life force;

• For d6 Hit Points, they can answer 1 question as if consulting a Sage NPC for a short-term study.
• For 2d6 Hit Points, they can perform any Magical Art the magician knows or has observed being used, without any component required.
• For 3d6 Hit Points, they can transform into a monstrous guardian form, gaining additional HD, attack bonus, AC, and damage equal to their summoner's Templates, plus natural weapons that deal a base 2d6 damage. This is either a Dire version of their animal form or that of a fire-snorting cloven-hooved demon. The transformation lasts until the next Dawn or until dismissed by the magician's command, whichever comes first.

A familiar cannot be killed while its summoner lives, but can be dispersed. If reduced to 0HP they disappear and reform the next day at dusk.

B: Implement
You have a bound tool of your craft; a wand, blade, chalice, ring, or lantern is traditional, but others exist. It takes up one equipment slot or inventory space, depending on its form. As long as you have it on your person, you can perform Magical Arts without any reagent or other tool up to [Templates] times per day, just using the occult authority bound up in your implement. Your implement also has a significant magical ability based on its form. Negotiate this with your DM, some examples are;

• A wand that allows you to telekinetically manipulate objects at a distance as if you were standing at the position you point it at.
• A chalice that allows you to store a magical effect by drawing it into itself as an effervescent liquid. Save or the effect spills onto you if it is not your creation. The liquid magic can be poured or drunk to transfer the effect. 
• A ring that can make one magical effect at a time permanent - the effect it is perpetuating can be changed, which ends the previous effect.
• A blade that can damage incorporeal beings and counts as having a magical plus equal to the Magician's Templates for purposes of determining whether it can harm beings with supernatural resilience. In addition, you never fumble with an implement blade.
• A lantern that can illuminate the presence of invisible beings within its brightly lit area (typically a 30" radius).

C: Ritualist
You can now formulate rituals that enact modified or exaggerated versions of the effect of your Magical Arts. A ritual casting can bend or break the rules of the Magical Arts or combine multiple Arts into one, but must still fall within the general purview of the Arts you know. A ritual enactment of Elementalism could summon a known element from nowhere, for example, or bind an elemental to an extended service. For each modification you add, the DM can specify one of the following requirements;

• Ritual must be enacted in a place of innate magical power.
• Ritual requires expenditure of a lot of money, often in the form of large quantities of Granulated Azoth (500gp x Total Requirements).
• Ritual can only be performed once every week/month/year/decade, or only at a specific time or celestial confluence, such as a full moon, a planetary alignment or a seasonal equinox.
• Ritual requires the assistance of a particular person or category of person, like an Alchemist or a bearer of royal blood.
• Ritual has a X:6 chance of backlashing in some kind of Monkey's Paw fashion (each increase of X:6 counts as one Requirement).

This is also how you can create magical items. Single-use items typically add only a single requirement; items with daily uses add 1-3 per use, and permanent items at least 5.

D: Secret of Secrets
You can now perform the single greatest act of magic a mortal can enact, the legendary Wish. A Wish can do almost anything, but it is neither totally omnipotent or wholly convenient. A Wish for wealth or a specific magic item is usually answered with a vision revealing where such a treasure can be found and legally claimed, rather than instantly dropping it into the magician's hands. Likewise, a Wish for an enemy to die will usually reveal the location of a weapon or ally capable of slaying them. Wishes for deliverance from peril are usually answered more immediately; deathtraps break down, avalanches part to leave the magician unharmed, and deadly poisons mysteriously burn themselves through the victim's system without any lasting harm. Wishes are very quick and can be used as interrupts outside of initiative order, even as part of another action - Wishing for a powerful enemy to fail their save against your magic is entirely valid. You can only perform one Wish per level safely, so once you reach this level you have four Wishes. For each Wish you cast above this number, reroll your HD until you roll lower than your current HP and take that as your new HP total. Certain beings of demigodlike stature may be able to bestow additional free Wishes as a reward for services rendered.

Grimoire of the Known Magical Arts

Unless otherwise specified, using a magical art must be declared at the beginning of the round and is enacted at the end. A magician who is injured before then has their magic interrupted, wasting any uses of material components.

• Elementalism
  Bonus Item: Tin of Granulated Azoth (10 pinches)
  Pick one of the four classical elements; others exist, like gravity and light, but for now, you only know the secret name of one. Sprinkle a pinch of Granulated Azoth on your tongue and whisper that name, and it will respond. Issue a command up to [Templates] words long and it will obey automatically. A target of the command can be specified by gesture. For every additional word you want to add, take another pinch of Azoth and make a Save vs. Poison with a penalty equal to the number of extra pinches. On a failure, the command still takes effect, but you are incapacitated for 1 Turn per additional word. On a critical failure, the element goes haywire in some way that is detrimental to everyone around. The element has to actually be present for you to command it; this Art doesn't summon it up. Creatures affected by elemental manifestations you command are entitled to a Save, and any manifestation that would deal damage is limited to d6 per [Template] of the magician, Save for half damage. It takes a week of downtime and 100gp of ritual tools (mostly lots of different examples of the element in question) to learn a new element; each research roll has a progressive 1:6 chance of success (so 2:6 on the second attempt, 3:6 on the third, etc).
• Advanced Elementalism: You can now call up elementals, sentient manifestations of the element you speak to. The summoned elementals have HD equal to your [Templates] and can be increased by consuming extra Azoth as above. A summoned elemental will obey you for 1 Turn before dispersing back into a mundane manifestation of its element.
• Conjuration
  Bonus Item: Stick of Wizard Chalk (10 uses)
  Visualise a mundane item of up to [Templates] equipment slots large and draw a circle big enough to fit it with Wizard Chalk, using up chalk equal to its size. It appears within the circle and can be used as normal, but vanishes after 1 Turn if you stop holding it. The item conjured is generally a generic version of whatever is visualised, but you can also place a rune on a specific item (costing 1 use of Wizard Chalk) and later conjure it into the circle.
• Advanced Conjuration: You can now create teleport circles by marking a target location with a special magical circle, expending one use of Wizard Chalk. At a later time, you can scribe a new circle, either expending as many uses of Wizard Chalk as the time in rounds you want it to stay open or else keeping it open with your own body by standing within the circle, and anyone stepping into the circle is transported to a previously created magical circle of your choice.
• Divination
  Bonus Item: Ephemeris
  By means of consulting your Ephemeris, or if not available, the entrails of a domestic animal at least as large as a goat, you can determine if a specified course of action to be undertaken in the next hour will yield weal, woe, both, or neither. Woe indicates the action of monsters, traps, or hazards, and Weal indicates that the action will lead to a treasure, boon, or useful information. You can divine the future no more than d3+[Templates] times per day.
• Advanced Divination: In place of an entreaty to reveal weal or woe, you can now present up to [Templates] possible actions and divine which of them would be the best. It is possible that none of them yield any positive or negative result, in which case the auguries will reveal this.
• Transmutation
  Bonus Item: Tin of Granulated Azoth (10 pinches)
  Sprinkle a pinch of Granulated  Azoth on a target non-living object no larger than [Templates]x5' cubes and focus your will upon it. For every [Template] you possess, you may alter one of its physical properties, such as opacity, hardness, elasticity, insulation, permeability, colour, taste, or combustibility, to match that of a sample of another material that you have a sample of to hand. Magical materials such as mithril, adamant, and enchanted objects cannot be transmuted, but their physical properties can be bestowed upon transmuted targets if the magician has them to hand. The transmutation lasts 1 Turn per [Template] you possess. It is possible to increase the number of properties altered by adding additional Azoth, but this has the risk of making the reaction unstable: make a Save vs. Blasts with a penalty equal to the number of additional pinches of Powdered Azoth added; on a failure, the magician and everyone in a 10' area suffers (d6xPinches of Azoth) damage as it blows up in their face. 
• Advanced Transmutation: You can now transmute form as well as substance. The transmuted object can be reshaped into anything of approximately the same mass and holds its shape for up to the magician's [Templates] in Turns if the material it is made from is not normally capable. For example, a mass of water could be formed into a statue or the like, and would collapse into a puddle when the time elapsed, while the same statue formed of stone would remain in the same shape.
• Enchantment
  Bonus Item: Flask of Lotus Wine (10 sips)
  Take a sip of lotus wine, let it coat your vocal chords, and make eye contact with another thinking being - they will find themselves thinking your thoughts. You can issue a command up to [Templates] words long, and the target will obey it if they fail their Save. The target of the command can be specified with a gesture. The commands are obeyed for as long as it takes to execute them or one Turn, whichever is shorter. Suicidal commands permit the Save to be made twice, picking the best result, but if it still fails, they are executed. You can increase the number of Words by taking an additional sip of lotus wine, each of which adds an additional word to the command. After doing so, make a Save with a penalty equal to the additional sips or experience a loss of identity, having to obey your own command as if your victim issued it to you! Enchantment transcends the language barrier and may even affect creatures without a language - but not creatures without eyes.
• Advanced Enchantment: You can now keep up to [Templates] creatures bound in semi-permanent thrall to you, rather than issuing a specific command. Additional lotus wine can be drunk to penalise the target's Save by -1 per additional sip, but you too must also make the Save with an equal penalty and on a roll lower than your victim's are bound to serve them until freed, such is the magical Law of Dichotomy - there can be only masters and slaves! Thralls obey your commands without question, but receive a Save if they are forced up against blatantly suicidal odds.
• Illusionism
  Bonus Item: Flask of Lotus Wine (10 sips)
  Drink a sip of lotus wine and allow your vision to fuzz and unfocus, imagine a change in the world, and the magic will make it appear. You can make the image of almost anything you can imagine, but illusions can only be additive - you can change something's appearance or create the image of something new, but you cannot remove anything from the world. Others do not normally get a Save to see through illusions unless they directly interact with them. Illusions can deal psychosomatic damage, but cannot reduce a victim to below 0hp and stable unconsciousness. The maximum damage an illusion can inflict is d6 per [Template] of the magician and permits a Save to negate. It is possible to make an illusion more compelling by increasing the dose of lotus wine, which allows the magician to visualise their illusion more clearly at a risk of becoming lost in it; for each additional sip of lotus wine taken penalises all Saves by -1, but the magician must Save vs. Illusion with an equal penalty or become confused for 1 Turn per sip, acting randomly each round; d6: 1-2. Stand and stare into the middle distance. 3-4. Attack the nearest moving thing. 5. Use a random Magical Art. 6. Covered in spiders! Attack self.
• Advanced Illusionism: Your illusions can now be subtractive, such as making people or objects invisible or creating zones of silence.
• Transformation
  Bonus Item: Pouch containing three sparrows' feathers, a mouse's skull, a tuft of horse's mane, and a bear's claw.
  Place a piece of an animal in your mouth, breathe deeply three times, and on the third inhalation, it vanishes as you become the creature it came from. The transformation lasts up to your [Templates] in Turns if the creature you are becoming has HD equal to or below your own; otherwise, it lasts [Templates] rounds. You can attempt to extend this duration by making a Save vs. Illusions each Turn or round after the duration has expired. On a failure, you become lost in the beast-mind and cannot return to your own form until you next sleep. You can transform into monsters and magical creatures, but in this case, its heart or heart-analogue must be consumed. Note that some creatures may have hearts so large that shapeshifting into other, larger forms may be required first just to consume them! A monster form's supernatural powers may be employed a maximum number of times in total across all abilities equal to your [Templates] in a single transformation.
• Advanced Transformation: Place the reagent in your mouth as usual and exhale three times forcefully in the direction of another, and they shall take on the animal's form instead of you. This can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the circumstance - an unwilling victim is entitled to a Save to avoid your transmogrifying breath. 
• Abjuration
  Bonus Item: Stick of Wizard Chalk (10 uses)
  By drawing a line or circle with Wizard Chalk you can define an area that hedges out a single specified phenomenon, such as sound, light, heat, radiation, or a specific type of magic. It can also contain a specified type of creature, which must make a Save to move through the barrier or else be axiomatically incapable of passing the chalk line, or able to use any of its powers beyond it. The area covered is either 10" wide for a line or 5" radius for a circle per use of Wizard Chalk expended. These wards can technically last forever, but can be easily removed by anyone they don't specifically ward against.
• Advanced Abjuration: You can now expend additional Wizard Chalk to increase the number of phenomena that a ward hedges out, at a rate of 1:1. 
  

Other Magical Arts that might be found in foreign parts may include Necromancy and Diabolism, which are said to employ black candles made of human tallow, Body Control, which turns the power of the black lotus inwards, and Maleficia, which uses inscribed tablets of stygian lead to inflict terrible curses.

The Magic Shop
Unless otherwise stated, each item takes up 1 equipment slot.

Ephemeris - 250gp
A book of tables and charts showing calculations of the position of various astronomical bodies over time. Needs to be replaced with an updated version every quarter at the seasonal Equinoxes. 

Dried Monster Hearts - 10gp x HD of Monster

Salted and preserved in clay-sealed jars under anaerobic conditions. Availability of any given species is not guaranteed, and is based on a cottage industry of processing the kills adventurers bring back.

Goat - 1gp
A common example of Capra Hircus, the silver standard in sacrificial animals. Takes up no equipment slots, but must be herded or led around by a string.

Granulated Azoth, 10 pinches - 100gp
Resembles table salt but with a faint silvery metallic tint. Acts as a bridge between consciousness and the world of matter that is normally deaf to mortal concerns. Tastes salty, metallic, and oddly limey, with an electric spark. 

Lotus Wine, 10 sips - 100gp
Slightly viscous, inky-purple fluid created by fermenting the macerated roots of the Black Lotus. Allows the drinker's mind to escape the cage of its skull and project itself upon the outside world. Mildly dissociative in small doses, highly hallucinogenic in larger.

Wizard Chalk, 10 uses - 100gp
Sulphur-yellow and similar to a tailor's wax chalk, which leaves long-lasting and waterproof marks. Acts as a medium to define boundaries between the physical and magical worlds.

Four Grimoires - GLOG

The Secret Diary of Archbishop Oda of Nêmes

Probably not actually written by the titular archbishop, who was mostly known for a poorly recieved tractate on the sacramental role of poultry, and certainly not secret given its wide distribution. Its spells are no less efficacious for their dubious origins.

The Expedient Banishment

The caster forcefully presents their hand with fingers splayed in the sign of the horns and imperiously declares "Apo Pantos Kakodaimonos!", which causes all beings of lower spiritual vibration - typically Chaotic spirits and disembodied undead - in a 12" cone to flee his presence unless they pass a Save with a -[best] penalty, returning to their own home plane if possible. Cacodemons specifically Save against this spell with Disadvantage.

Talisman of the Dorian Mysteries

By means of this spell, two ounces of bronze, a pinch of frankincense, a dram of olive oil and a piece of clay from a holy river the caster is able to craft and sanctify a protective talisman. The whole mess of ingredients costs about 50gp in any reasonably cosmopolitan town. The spell takes an hour to cast, including the time spent forming the clay into a mould, melting the bronze and anointing the talisman. Once created it will grant the wearer one of the following protections;

• [best]+[dice] bonus HP, restoring at dawn each day.
• Immunity to possession or mind-controlling spells cast with fewer [dice].
• The first [dice] levels of energy drain are ignored, the talisman being destroyed when this reaches 0.
• Seeing in darkness out to a distance of [dice]*20'  (the dark also being a manifestation of primal evil).

No more than one talisman can be worn at once. The caster can have up to their max MD talismans in existance at any one time, and must destroy one before they can create another once they reach their maximum. The caster has a general sense of where all their created talismans are, but cannot destroy or depower them remotely without some other magic.

The Pyramid of Power

The caster must acquire a piece of stone from the wall of a temple more than a century old and carve it into a tetrahedron mathematically equilateral to within an accuracy of one fifth of a milimeter that is large enough to take up 2 equipment slots. This spell may be intoned over the resultant pyramid to perform one of several feats; if a blade is placed beneath it it acquires a [dice] magical plus until the next dawn and will not grow dull or break by any natural force during this time, if a person rests while the pyramid is placed above them (usually by means of a tripod stand) they will heal at x [dice] speed with a [best] bonus to Saves vs disease, and up to [best]+[dice] phials of water poured over it are transformed into magic water which is as efficacious as holy water for all purposes besides performing sacraments.

Bane Against A Basilisk

The magus must first acquire a weasel, either wild or domesticated matters not, and feed it the meat of a chicken or snake that has been soused in vinegar while casting this spell. Between the time of casting and the next dawn the weasel acquires a compulsion to attack any basilisk it sees or smells. A basilisk bitten by the enchanted weasel must Save vs Death with a [dice] penalty or be instantly slain. 

The Rakshasa Yoga

Bound in pale blue silk and smelling of spice and exotic flowers, this slim manual describes the discoveries of the limitations and potential of the mortal body and mind by generations of bodyworkers and hypnotists. Studying its spells requires a regimen of calisthenics and a strict diet of pickled vegetables and fish which brings on strange dreams where beast-headed tutelary spirits initiate the magus.

Asura's Grasp

As much an esoteric martial arts maneuver as it is a spell, the caster is able to increase their grip strength and the torque generated by their wrists and shoulders to extraordinary levels. This requires a whole Turn spent flexing, stretching and swinging your arms around. Until the next dawn, the caster makes all brawl/grapple attack with a [dice] bonus, on a success they dislocate one of the subject's limbs of their choice - on a critical success they can snap the subject's neck, requiring a Save vs Death unless the subject is blessed with multiple heads or doesn't have a neck to snap.

Light  As A Feather, Stiff As A Board

The target of this spell must Save or immediately stretch their body to its full extension - arms above their head, standing on tip toes for humanoids, other body plans are affected as one would imagine, it's especially funny on serpents. The target becomes as rigid as a solid oak plank for [sum] minutes, while simultaneously weighing so little that they can be lifted easily with one hand. Subjects of this spell can be used as sturdy bridges across pit traps, 10' poles, short ladders or similar such handling without snapping them out of the effect, but directly causing them harm will permit another Save with a bonus equal to the previous number of Saves.

Brew Shakti Oil

This spell requires an hour, a flask of mustard oil and a measure each of dried jasmine, oleander, cinnamon and hibiscus, all costing about 10gp x MD together. This produces a fragrant oil which when rubbed onto the body increases the muscles explosive strength and toughens skin to extraordinary levels. A dose of Shakti Oil grants a [dice] bonus to damage and grants an unarmoured AC of 10+2 x [dice]. A man using Shakti Oil of 2MD or more can kick down an ordinary wooden door without slowing down. A magus can keep no more than phials of Shakti Oil fresh than they have max MD.

Roar, Lightning Mind

The yogin closes their eyes and takes a deep breath then releases a silent roar of pure Self that blasts outwards in a 10' x [dice] radius in an electric crackle that is felt rather than heard. This restores anything that has been magically transformed back to its original form for [sum] rounds, or permanently if the spell's [dice] exceed that of the magic that caused the inital transformation (in the case of monster abilities that cause transformations, such as a basilisk's gaze, use the monster's HD). 

Distant Aethyrs

Transcribed from the inner surface of a large oblong meteorite that fell to earth. It describes a number of phenomena and physical laws that are outside of the known paradigm of physics. Included are a number of beautiful hand-etched astronomical plates detailing the author's attempts to determine the meteor's star of origin. 

Zeta Ray

The caster projects beams of searing yellow-green-purple weirdlight from their eyes that zip through the air at right angles around obstacles to strike any target within 60' unfailingly. A target of the Zeta Ray with HD lower than [best]+[dice] is instantly teleported to another place the caster can see within 60'.

Adamantize

The caster touches a single contiguous piece of metal and hums a low tune that rapidly descends into the deep dark reaches of the ULF range. This induces a phase-shift rendering it as indestructible as adamant for [dice] Turns.

Nexus Tuning

This spell targets borders and portals between planes and alternate universes. The caster strikes a strange posture, waving their arms and standing on one leg as they form their body into a multiversal "antenna" and adjust the information flow through the targeted dimensional valence. Pull up whatever version of the Great Wheel of Planes you use, the caster can rotate the plane the target links to up to [best] steps, at a cost of 2 steps they can shift one step toward or away from the centre. This one works fine, if you find others then you can use those too;

For every step that the nexus is retuned, a whole day must pass before it can be subject to any further retuning.

Time Crystal

The right kind of math can do more than analyze, but enact change through the plane of platonic numbers. Perform this alogrithm to collapse your local light cone into a crystaline structure that you can percieve all at once. Gain a number of Portents (d20's that are immediately rolled and kept) equal to the [dice] of the spell, swap out the result of these Portents with any rolls made by you or anyone who interacts with you (such as an enemy swinging a sword at your neck) before the end of your next round. Any unused Portents at the end of your round become extra attacks you must make immediately. When you use a Portent to interfere with the course of causality everyone present remembers both the original event and the new one simultaneously (i.e. the aformentioned foe remembers hacking his sword into your neck and you deftly parrying it at the same time), in a kind of weird déjà vu like feeling. 

The Copper Crowne

This book contains the written rites of the ancient Draoidhe priest-kings that ruled in the era between the end of the Elven Imperium and the rise of the One Church, and consists mostly of fragmented but still invaluable parts of the elves' occult science which was inherited by the very former human servants who deposed them.

Glamour-Awe

The caster must either wear a circlet of three twisted copper wires or else bathe in rain or river water and draw a star upon their brow with oil of mint or lavender - this satisfies the conditions of the spell until they become dirtied or the next dawn, whichever comes first. Upon casting this  spell the caster radiates an aura of supernal awe that overwhelms the senses of all who behold them. Everyone with fewer than [dice] HD who lays eyes upon the caster must Save or be unable to do the caster harm or otherwise act against them, even their speech must be respectful and reverant. Anyone who fails by more than 5 points becomes Charmed, obeying any non-suicidal or abhorrent command given by the caster. Both effects of the spell lasts [sum] rounds.

Craft Blasting Rod

The caster must take a stanged (forked) branch of lightning oak and bind a piece of rock crystal between its forks with copper wire which is wrapped around the rod in a specific knotwork pattern. The result is a magical weapon that deals d10 nonlethal damage to anyone touched by it, adding the caster's Intelligence bonus to attack rolls. Only magic provides protection from the blasting rod (treat nonmagical armour as having AC 10). The 1MD version does only that, more advanced versions of the blasting rod have greater powers;

1. A 2MD blasting rod gains a range of 30'.
2. A 3MD blasting rod can blast away clouds, clearing precipitous and overcast weather, or alternatively cause a cloud to rain - it's all in the wrist.
3. A 4MD blasting rod deals d12 damage and increases its range to 60'.

A caster can only have one blasting rod in existence at any one time as it draws upon his personal thaumaturgic field for power. Elfin battlemages and draoidhe alike wielded them as their badge of office.

Barrowhide

The ancient elves used this spell to ward the entrances to their keeps benath the mounds from their human slaves, such that even if they meant to storm their masters' homes they could not even find them to begin with. The caster crafts a wreath of local plant life and hangs it above a door. The door will thereafter be impercievable to anyone other than the caster and those carrying their personal rune (which every magus has). Attempts to find it without magic suffer a -[dice] penalty and may not be retried by the same person twice. The spell lasts until the next solstice but can be refreshed at any time during the day.

Bake Starbread

The caster must bake farls from wild grains, herbs and berries gathered under starlight while chanting this spell, a process that takes about an hour assuming the materials are already gathered. A campfire will not suffice, a true oven is needed. The result are [sum] farls of enchanted starbread - a thin crisp crust hiding down-soft and fragrant butter-yellow crumb. Starbread never rots and repels vermin as long as the crust is unbroken, and banishes a single unit of Fatigue when eaten in addition to its nutritional effect. Abandoned elfin barrow-keeps are still sometimes found with stores of uneaten starbread, as fresh as the day they were baked. Legends say that a man who eats naught but starbread for a year and a day will become an elf, for this reason the draoidhe rationed it out in small quantities to travelling warriors.

Nothing Stays Dead Forever - Mushroom Wizard (GLOG)

 Why not just take one spell from DCC and turn it into a whole GLOG wizard? Yeah, lets do that.

Use your favourite GLOG wizard chassis

Starting Equipment: Big silly sadogasa hat, tan-coloured linen robes, wide utility belt covered in tooled leather pouches, 6 empty phials, 2 phials of yellow mold spores, tiny duster bellows, 2 pieces of Sporulated Oddities.

Perk: You can detect and identify funguses, slimes and molds within a 60ft radius without a roll, through a combination of intimate understanding of their growing conditions and a practiced nose. You are proficient in blowguns and poison.

Drawback: When you sleep you experience uncontrollable psychadellic visions, if roused from sleep before you would naturally awaken you act as if under a Confusion spell every round you do not pass a Save vs. Poison, until you either return to sleep or pass 3 tests.

Cantrips:

• Touch a surface to leave behind a bioluminescent slime patch that glows softly whenever something significantly magical (1MD or more worth) comes within 5ft of it.
• Spend an MD to make a useful or edible fungus grow enough to provide 1 dose/meal.
• Instantly cause any liquid that has sugars in it to ferment into crude but respectable alcohol.

Spells:

1. Choking Mold
Your magic drives the omnipresent mold and mildew spores in the area into sudden extraordinary fecundity, until they have filled an area 10'x[dice] diameter with choking, toxic particles. Air-breathing creatures within that area are incapacitated for [sum] rounds by coughing fits unless they make a Save vs. Poison, able to do no more than move their normal walking speed and defend themselves - they still keep their full AC but may not attack, cast spells or use supernatural abilities that require focus and concentration. Hypothetically impossible to cast in extremely clean areas, but the spores you tramp around on your person will usually do the job in that case.

2. Ablative Polypores
The caster causes the dermal yeasts of the target to go into a bloom, covering their skin with a layer of spongy, leathery chitin. The target reduces any physical damage taken by [dice], the spell ends on the next sunrise or when it has absorbed [sum] damage, whichever comes first.

3. Entangling Hyphae
The caster indicates a point of earthen or wooden surface and 30' long whipping tendrils of fungal matter as thick as hemp ropes explode from it, attacking anyone in the area with a bonus equal to the wizard's own attack bonus +[dice]. Anyone successfully attacked is snared and may not move until they have freed themselves by dealing the hyphae a total of [sum] damage with a bladed weapon, hitting automatically. This damage must be dealt seperately for each creature snared. Once the initial explosion of tendrils is over others may enter the area without risk of being attacked. At the end of any round where a creature is still snared they take d6+[dice] damage from the crushing tendrils.

4. Shape Mold
The caster causes thick, rubbery, fungal matter to come into existence where they gesture and forms it into simple solid shapes such as walls, ramps, pillars, blocks, funnels, umbrellas and bridges. The total fungal mass equals [dice] 5' blocks or 10' sheets and are stable as long as their ends rest on solid ground. Mold matter is about as tough as polystyrene - in large blocks it's sturdy enough to bear a man's weight and would take a full minute of work with a bladed weapon to hack through, but the thinner sheets will crumble under any serious weight - they are however air and watertight and look solid enough at first glance, even though anyone with the strength of a goblin or more could easily push their way through.

5. Medishroom
The caster causes the fungal flora of the target to repair their injuries - dermal yeasts growing over wounds like bandages, reducing inflammation and relieving pain. The target heals [sum] points of damage. If cast with 2+ MD the target is also instantly cured of any fungal poison, disease or parasite. If cast with 4+ MD the target also regenerates any lost limbs or organs, and gets a new Save against any non-fungal poisons, diseases or parasites.

6. Psilocybic Vision
Credit to Deus-ex-Parabola's Zouave - though, annoyingly, not the version currently on his blog - for the mechanics of this.
The caster induces a potent and revelatory hallucinatory state on the target, who gets two Saves vs. Magic; the first to throw off any madness or mind-affecting ailments, the second to avoid [sum] rounds of traumatic and violent hallucinations, as a Confusion spell. The target gains a +/-[dice] bonus or penalty to their saves, divided between both as the caster desires.

7. Slimemold Form
The caster disolves their body and gear into a protoplasmic state for [sum] rounds, during which time they can slime under doors or through bars and the like, move along any surface in defiance of gravity and are immune to harm that doesn't come from fire, cold or acid. While in this state they may not attack or cast any other spells and their senses besides touch are quite dull - simple eyespots let them detect the presence and rough direction of light and movement and they can hear as if through a pillow.

8. Puffball
A big purple puffball swells into existence at the targeted point until it reaches the size of a football, then promptly explodes into a cloud of toxic spores. Creatures and objects composed of organic matter (including wooden and flesh constructs and corporeal undead) within a 10'x[dice] diameter area take [sum] damage, Save for half. Creatures and objects destroyed by this damage are reduced to nutritious compost.

9. Sporulate Shroomen
With a wave of their hand and a puff of spores the caster causes [best]+[dice] human-height toadstools to suddenly come into being, shortly afterwards growing crude faces, arms and legs, uprooting themselves and doing the wizard's bidding for [dice] turns, after which they revert to being mundane - if rather large - toadstools. Shroomen have the base stats of 0-level Men-at-Arms in leather armour who deal d6 damage with their clublike fists, but are utterly fearless and gain a bonus to attack, damage and hit points equal to +[dice]. For each MD spent after the first, add one of the following bonuses;

• All Shroomen can form chitinous melee or throwing weapons out of their own corpus once per round. These strike as +0 magical weapons but are otherwise mundane examples of their type from the equipment list. These weapons cannot be seperated from the Shrooman for more than a round without decaying into mulch.
• Their armour class is improved by one step, i.e. from Leather to Chain, Chain to Scale, Scale to Plate.
• Anything that draws breath which starts its round in an adjacent square to a Shrooman must Save vs. Poison or suffer d4 damage.
• Morale checks made in a 20' radius of a Shrooman are made at a [dice] penalty from the clouds of psychogenic spores.

10. Cordyceps Command
The victim of this vile spell must Save vs. Magic or be rendered entirely without a will of their own, obeying the last command given to them regardless of source for [sum] minutes. If the caster wishes they may invest a MD in the victim, which is set aside from their pool and not rolled until the spell is ended - while this MD is invested the caster may percieve through the victim's senses and send them commands telepathically.

11. Chartreuse Destruction
The caster flicks their finger and projects a single droplet of the horrifically deadly green slime at a the target, requiring an attack roll ignoring armour but not dodge bonuses. Victims who do not recieve disease-curing magic must cut, burn or freeze away the affected area by dealing themselves [sum]+[dice] damage within d4 rounds (others may help), or collapse into a pool of green slime, quite dead.

12. The Knowledge & Conversation of Aklo-Myotes, Eater of Death
Meditating on bare earth, the caster comes into contact with Aklo-Myotes - a globe-spanning sentient mycelial mat that is one of the oldest life-forms in existence - it was consuming their flesh that first sparked true intellect in mankind. In return for the wizard's magical energies Aklo-Myotes can perform several useful services. They will flawlessly answer [best] questions related to history, geography, mathematics, biology or chemistry. It is worth remembering that Aklo-Myotes is a being purely of the physical world - it has no spirit or soul to speak of, just a towering but wholly material intellect, and is thus utterly ignorant of spiritual matters. Aklo-Myotes does however pay scrupulous attention to anything related to lifeforms and especially dying things, has perfect memory, is almost omniscient within the sphere of the planet's surface and is very nearly as old as life itself. For greater negotiated payments, ranging from MD being automatically expended to sacrifices, errands and quests undertaken by the caster, Aklo-Myotes can  perform greater feats. This includes assisting with developing new fungal, biomantic, necromantic or geomantic spells, causing enormous natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis by rippling its massive body beneath the earth or changing a whole 6-mile hex of terrain into another type over the course of a season, such as draining a swamp into pastoral land or raising hills on previously flat ground.

Mishaps

1. Arcane Allergen: Your body and mind start rejecting your magic, MD return only on a 1 for 24hrs.
2. Urgh: You double-over in helpless nausea for d3 rounds after the spell is cast.
3. Agnosia: You briefly lose the ability to tell people apart - the best you can do is friend and foe, any attack or spell that targets others has a random chance of hitting the intended person in the group for d6 minutes.
4. I feel weird: Gain a random fungal mutation; after [sum] rounds make a Save vs. Magic, on a failure it's permanent.
5. Yarghble: Vomit up a giant pool of proteinous purple liquid in a 10' radius centred on yourself. Anyone fighting in or moving through it must Save vs. Paralysis or fall prone on the slippery mess.
6. Ohshi-!: Mycotoxins briefly induce potent but wholly uncontrolled psychic powers. Everyone within 20' - yourself included - takes a blast of [sum] psychic damage.

Dooms

1. Nocturnal: You take a [Templates] penalty to saving throws made while standing in direct sunlight. You only regain hit points through rest if you sleep during the day.
2. Anyone else getting trails?: At the start of each day, make a Save vs. Magic, on a failure you are completely insensate for d12 hours, lost in phantasmagoric visions. Without curative magic the best anyone can do for you is tie you up and pull you along on a lead until you calm down.
3. The Shroom Doom: The wizard takes root and over the course of a day and a night transforms into a Brain Fungus. Sentient but unable to take any physical action other than shrieking incoherently and only able to sense moving objects within 30' by vibration. After each week the wizard must make a Save vs. Death or go completely mad, Brain Funguses in this state are incapable of rational thought and use their spells to attack anyone coming within their sensory radius.

Avoid your Doom by undergoing an Astral Quest into the centre of your mind, being crowned the Myconid King or gaining a new, better brain.

Sporulated Oddities
1. Can of Dwarf Yogurt: Actually a kind of mold that converts leaves, twigs, moss and other random bits of organic matter into a nutritious but terribly sour brown yogurt-like slime. Allows you to live (poorly) on otherwise inedible plant matter, if not kept supplied with feedstock and water it dies after 3 days. 1 slot.
2. Portable 1-man tent: Very easy to assemble and disassemble, throw it out and peg it down. Folds up into 1 slot.
3. Bioluminescent Lantern: Not as bright as a normal lantern, illuminating out to a 20ft radius, but only needs a spoonful of fertilizer daily for fuel. Distinctive blueish light. 1 slot.
4. Long-stemmed smoking pipe: with a pouch of suspicious tobacco and a box of matches. 0 slots.
5. Six phials of antifungal powder: Gives an extra Save against the effects of fungal toxins and diseases. 1/3 of a slot each.
6. Big knife: It's just a big knife, as a short sword in combat, well made and maintained, has a little honing bar that screws into the handle. 1 slot.
7. Pair of knee-high waterproof boots: Absolutely essential for fungus-farming, made of one solid piece of alchemical faux-leather, sweaty. 1 slot, 0 when worn.
8. Long-handled tongs: Made of springy metal with wooden handles. 1 slot.
9. Spray Mister: Currently full of a fertilizer-water mix, could be filled with all sorts of things. 1 slot.
10. Spidersilk Scarf: Decorated with a fetching pattern. Wrapped twice around your face, gives advantage on Saves against airborne particles. 0 slots.
11. 50' of rope: Oddly organic in texture, like a spooled-up leathery tendril. 1 slot.
12. Quarterstaff: 6 foot of waxed oak, brass shoe, anything that you can't kill with a magic missile you can probably see off with a good whack. 1 slot.
13. Pack of mushroom-themed playing cards: A bit grubby, from your time hustling the other apprentices at Whist (at which you are Skilled). 0 slots.
14. Hammer and 10 iron spikes: When you don't have them you'll wish you did. 2 slots.
15. Thurible and 10 cones of incense: Covers up unpleasant scents. 1 slot.
16. Sack of fertilizer: If mixed with sugar, startlingly explosive. On it's own, smelly. 2 slots.
17. Bamboo Blowgun: A meter long, fires darts the length of daggers. A medium ranged weapon. Comes with 5 darts. 1 slot.
18. A jug of mushroom wine. Tastes like regular wine with a musty finish. 1 slot.
19. A farmer's almanac. For the current year, contains weather foreacasts, planting tables and assorted bits of useful knowledge. 1:6 chance once per session that it has advice relevant to a current problem that would also interfere with agricultural-types. Retains this property for 1 year, then it's good toilet paper. 1 slot.
20 a curious treasure;

1. A pair of +1 scissors: Steel with an ormolu finish, as a dagger if used as a weapon. 1/2 a slot.
2. Sapient Treefrog: Speaks common, mildly toxic skin - could be really toxic if condensed and mixed with pure alcohol. Used to be a mushroom-thief. 1 slot.
3. Tin Bucket of Potion of Mushroom Growth: Makes regular mushrooms into giant ones, the whole bucket could make a toadstool you could hollow out and use as a house. Bucket has a lid held on with little clamps on the sides. 4 slots.
4. Wand of Acid Arrow: One cubit of bogwood & verdigrised copper. Holds 1MD, regenerating at dawn. 1/2 a slot.
5. Antishawl: Woven from brown-mold mycelium, eats heat - the wearer is immune to heatstroke in all but the most absurdly hot weather, and gets advantage on saves even in those cases. 1 slot, 0 when worn (but it would be chilly to wear it all the time).
6. Jar of Adamant Glass: Looks like a regular glass kilner jar, actually made of transparent adamant - completely indestructible and seals spirit-tight. 1 slot.

Wizards of Gnostastra - Astromancers

Below is the beginnings of an attempt to convert my D&D home setting into the GLoG, which has become my recent obsession;

Few places inspire as much mixed feelings as Gnostastra in the mind of the public. On one hand, it is the isle’s greatest institution of higher education, a beacon of progress and enlightenment, where even the common man, be they clever and studious, can become a peer of the realm. On the other, it is a den of madness and a pathway to knowledge that, perhaps, ought best be forbidden.

When night falls and people look out over the inland sea, most are glad that the university is safely separated from the mainland, especially when the towertops flicker with multi-hued coronal fire and hideous shrieks echo out over the water. This reputation is not enhanced by the fact that Gnostastra’s history was originally as a bedlam, a place to dump the multitudes struck with madness where they could do no harm.

This changed when the astromancer Heironymus Stodtt successfully divined that a mind that has been stripped of sanity could potentially lay bare the truths of the universe that the human mind’s perceptual filters protected it from - and that furthermore these truths could, once properly transcribed, be used by more rational minds to grasp the levers of reality itself.

He established his research facility right next to the island asylum, so as to have easy access to a large supply of lunatics, and as his research bore fruit and attracted more and more scholars so too did the facility expand, eventually consuming the asylum whole and expanding its purpose from pure research to education, becoming the University as it is today.

The tall towers and wide rooftops of the university still bear many telescopes, a mark of its founding in astromancy, but today much of its work is done in the cells far closer to the ground, where the new science of alienism - literally the study of the disconnect or “alienation”  between body and mind believed to be at the root of insanity - is the hot topic of discussion.

Tradition: Astromancer Wizard Starting Equipment: A telescope, a well-thumbed almanac, a penknife, upper-middle class conceit.

Perk: You may add +1MD to a spell when targeting someone whose birthday you know, down to the hour. This MD does not return to your pool or risk triggering Mishaps or Dooms. You can learn spells from observing unique astrological events. You get invited to a lot of black-tie parties.

Drawback: Your Magic Dice only come back at night, under an unrestricted view of the sky. You still have to sleep to regain them or roll to save as normal, but they don't come back until you have seen the first star of the evening. Most astromancers are night-owls.

Cantrips

1. Touch a surface with your fingertip to leave behind a tiny glowing speck, touching twice or more will leave hair-thin connecting lines. Not particularly bright but oddly visible for miles away at night. Lasts until scrubbed off.
2. Make conductor-like gestures to summon a beautiful but oddly unnerving music from any point you can see for as long as you continue to stand and gesture.
3. See through clouds and fog as if it was transparent, only works on water vapor.

Astromancer Mishaps D6

1. MD only return on a 1-2 for the day.
2. Take 1d6 damage.
3. Random mutation for 1d6 rounds, then Save. Permanent on a fail.
4. Blind for 1d6 rounds.
5. Save vs Fear or flee when in sight of the sky for 24hrs.
6. Reroll the next 1d6 successful saves.

Astromancer Dooms

1. You are rendered blind and deaf for 24hrs, unable to perceive anything beyond a baffling melange of conflicting visions about distant times and places. All of the things you see during this time are real, but most will be things you will never interact with in the course of your life.
2. Your range of critical failure becomes 18-20
3. You are hurled through time and space to a random but always thoroughly inhospitable place; the world during its Hadean phase, the irradiated wastelands of the far future, an alien Deathworld, etc.

Astromancer Wizard Spell List

Astromancy is mostly limited to safe, respectable divinations and apotropaic effects, but not a lot that directly affects the world of matter.

1. Horoscope

R: 50' T: [dice] creatures D: [sum] rounds

You call out cryptic advice to the creatures targeted by the spell. Once each, during the duration of the spell, those creatures may roll twice and take the best result on any roll they make.

2. Magic Circle

R: 50' T: [dice] x 5' diameter circular area D: [sum] hours

Your pointing finger, wand or chalk describes a circular area of ground which becomes ringed with a luminous band of bluish-white starlight. Any creature not native to your currently occupied plane of existence takes [sum] damage any turn it enters or starts occupying the circle. Spells that were cast with fewer dice than your Magic Circle cannot cross its boundary, though any mundane effects resulting from it (natural fires, falling masonry, etc.) might.

3. Astral Projection
R: 0 T: Self D: [dice] hours

You leave your body behind and walk the world as an astral spirit. Your astral form is unaffected by gravity, can instantaneously move to any point in your field of vision and pass through physical matter at your normal walking pace. You can still perceive the material world though in a silvery monochrome. Your astral form is invisible to normal sight, creatures that see infra-red or whose physical body intersects with your astral form may perceive a chill in the air you occupy, and you are clearly visible as a silvery spectre to anyone with Wizard Vision. Physical matter and energy doesn't affect you at all, but magic does - you can't walk through a magical force field and a magic missile hurts you just as much as normal. You also can't engage your right hemisphere when astrally projecting, and so cannot remember or make sense of proper nouns or recognize faces - you can still try to recognise people by their attire or distinguishing features.

4. A Fixed Point in Space

R: Touch T: Object D: [sum] minutes or until ended

One object touched that is no larger than that which can be lifted with one hand, becomes fixed in place relative to the nearest celestial body, it is indestructible for as long as the spell lasts. The caster may choose to end this spell at any time within the duration.

5. Identify

R: Touch T: Object D: 0

This spell takes 10 minutes to cast. You touch an object and learn [dice] significant things about it, starting with any magical properties it has and then its mundane utilities, then its provenance and owners, then its approximate value, in order. If you invested at least 2 dice into this spell you also learn how to activate any of the item's properties, if you invested 4 dice you also learn if it carries any curses.

6. Scry
R: [dice]x100' T: point in space D: concentration
You conjure an invisible, intangible, floating eyeball to a point in space that you designate. Unlike most spells, you do not have to have line of sight to cast it. As long as you maintain concentration, you can see through this sensor with your normal senses. This spell requires something to scry on, usually a mirror, quiet pool, clouds, or bonfire. If you invest 2 or more [dice], you can also hear through the sensor (it grows an ear). If you invest at 3 or more [dice], you can also speak through the sensor (it grows a dribbly little mouth). If you use an actual crystal ball when casting this spell, the range is instead [dice] miles. Crystal balls are rare enough that they are never offered for sale, but are worth upwards of 3,000gp. Most are ancestral relics.

Taken from Skerples.

7. Consultation

R: Touch T: One willing creature D: 0

This spell takes 10 minutes to cast. The affected creature must tell you of one curse, illness, crime or social humiliation they have become afflicted by. Over the course of the consultation you can divine a way to allow them to overcome the affliction, see themselves redeemed in the public eye or otherwise escape their fate. For 1 die the answer is immensely difficult, ruinously expensive or perilously dangerous, like personally funding and mounting an expedition for some remote and unexplored area of the world or saving the life of the Pope. For 2 dice the burden is divided between two, more manageable steps, like catching a notorious serial killer and funding a new orphanage. For 3 dice the answer is given as three steps that are more manageable still, "befriend this duchess, convince her to gift you this rare vintage of sherry, use it to bribe this judge.". For 4 dice, the four steps are often barely difficult and may seem unconnected to the desired outcome; "Buy a limited edition osmium-knibbed pen from this boutique, balance it on the edge of the waste paper bin at the corner of Bergamot Street at 3pm and take a right down Ha'penny Way while whistling the refrain to "Throw Out the Life-line!" and tip your hat good-morning to Admiral Bancroft coming the other way."

8. Magic Missile

R: 200' T: creature D: 0
Target takes [sum] + [dice] damage, no save. As an astromancer your magic missile is a pencil-thin beam of white light that moves at geometric angles to strike its target.

9. Banishment

R: 50', T: creature D: concentration or permanent (see below)

With a warding gesture and a word that warps light you push the targeted creature of up to [dice] * 2 HD out of existence. If the targeted creature was native to your current plane of reality they are pushed into a lightless, timeless cavitation, and pops back as soon as you release your concentration, with no time having passed from its perspective. If the target was native to another plane, it is returned to its plane of origin permanently - it may be summoned back again or cross under its own power if it has the ability, but not until [sum] days have passed.

10. Fold Space


R: Special T: self and 1+[dice] people or objects D: 0

When you cast this spell, pick a star you can see, you may instantaneously teleport yourself the the other targets to any point in the world where that star is also visible. There is a 1% chance something goes awry during the teleportation.

Emblem Spells

11. Geas

Range: Touch; Target: One creature; Duration: Permanent

Can only be cast with 4MD. Your control over the astral strands of fate is absolute. You compel the target of this spell to perform a service to you, whether they like it or not. Once the spell takes effect the target must devote their absolute attention to furthering this goal and once it is complete they are freed of the spell. The target can Save to resist the effects of the spell, but failure allows you to inflict a curse upon them.

Taken from Iron & Ink.

12. The Stars Come Right
R: 0 T: Self, D: [sum] rounds

You attain brief but flawless omniscience of all events through time and space within a light-cone centered on a point relative to your pineal gland. It's a bit much to process all at once, but the upshot is that you roll a number of d20's equal to [dice] and record the scores. Within the duration you may replace any d20 roll made by anyone in eyeshot with one of these results, after which you discard that result and may not use it again.