Black Mage (3.5e Class)

Created By

EhSteve (talk)
Date Created:	22/7/2008
Status:	Tinkering needed
Editing:	Please feel free to edit constructively!
Balance:	Wizard

{{#set:Summary=Once wizard pupils or apprentices that abandoned their tedious and lengthy studies to pursue a much more enticing reward than mere knowledge... }}

Black Mage

"Black mage" is a broad title, used to describe those who once sought knowledge, truth, and power through deep study, contemplation, and patience. Some, however, only valued power and were not willing to wait in order to obtain it. One cannot identify a black mage easily; their attire is not uniform, their actions are not in union, they have no headquarters, no leaders, no doctrine, or anything that might possibly set them apart from any other practised caster. Great evil dwells within the body of the black mage, manifesting itself in many unnatural and unseen ways, forming a cocoon of pure, tangible malcontent, acting as a buffer between both the black mage and otherwise lethal blows.

Making a Black Mage

A black mage is a strong destructive spellcaster with some ability in combat, but they are otherwise vulnerable in melee because of their inability to wear heavy armors and lack of access to martial weapons. Black mages are good support characters, but the rest of the party must be wary of their magics - they harm allies just as much as enemies...

Abilities: Wisdom is the most important ability to a black mage; since he has forsaken his lore books, he relies on his own wit. Second in the order of importance is Constitution, as it allows a black mage to withstand more damage and focus even when under stress. The final ability for a black mage to focus on is Strength, as this allows the black mage to target and damage his opponent in close-quarter combat and deliver devastating touch attacks.

Races: The title of black mage can be bestowed upon those of many different races, none are more populous than any other. However humans, who are impatient by nature, are most likely to stray from the path of righteous magic.

Alignment: Any nongood alignment.

Starting Gold: 2d8×10 gp (90gp).

Starting Age: Moderate.

Table: The Black Mage

Hit Die: d4

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spells per Day
		Fort	Ref	Will		0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Vengeance, Aura of Evil	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Somatic Weaponry	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+1	+1	+3	Theurgic Submersion +1	5	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+3	+1	+1	+4		5	4	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	+1	+1	+4		5	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+4	+2	+2	+5		5	5	4	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+5	+2	+2	+5	Theurgic Submersion +2	5	5	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+6/+1	+2	+2	+6		5	5	5	4	3	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+6/+1	+3	+3	+6		5	5	5	4	3	2	—	—	—	—
10th	+7/+2	+3	+3	+7		5	5	5	5	4	3	—	—	—	—
11th	+8/+3	+3	+3	+7	Theurgic Submersion +3	5	5	5	5	4	3	2	—	—	—
12th	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8	Malignant Soul DR 1/good	5	5	5	5	5	4	3	—	—	—
13th	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8		5	5	5	5	5	4	3	2	—	—
14th	+10/+5	+4	+4	+9		5	5	5	5	5	5	4	3	—	—
15th	+11/+6/+1	+5	+5	+9	Theurgic Submersion +4	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	3	2	—
16th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10	Malignant Soul DR 2/good	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	3	—
17th	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10		5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	3	2
18th	+13/+8/+3	+6	+6	+11		5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	3
19th	+14/+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Theurgic Submersion +5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4
20th	+15/+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Malignant Soul DR 3/good	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana), Listen (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Use Magical Device (Cha).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the black mage.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Black mages are proficient with all simple weapons, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a Black mage’s movements, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.

Somatic Weaponry: At 2nd level, a black mage automatically gains the Somatic Weaponry feat, allowing him to complete the somatic components of a spell even if his hands are full. A black mage gains this feat even if he does not qualify for it.

Spells: To prepare or cast a spell, a black mage must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a black mages’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the black mage’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a black mage can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given below. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score.

A black mage must spend 1 hour a day focusing his desires to grant him access to his spells, sometimes voicing a dark mantra in order to reinforce his true intention. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a black mage can prepare spells. A black mage may prepare and cast any spell on the black mage spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.

Black mages choose their spells from the following list:

0— Acid Splash, Daze, Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Flare, Inflict Minor Wounds, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, Touch of Fatigue.

1st— Burning Hands, Cause Fear, Chill Touch, Color Spray, Inflict Light Wounds, Magic Missile, Magic Stone, Magic Weapon, Produce Flame, Ray of Enfeeblement, Shocking Grasp, Sleep, Summon Monster I*, True Strike.

2nd— Acid Arrow, Blindness/Deafness, Daze Monster, Death Knell, Flaming Sphere, Ghoul Touch, Hideous Laughter, Hold Person, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Scare, Scorching Ray, Silence, Sound Blast, Summon Monster II*, Touch of Idiocy.

3rd— Bestow Curse, Contagion, Deep Slumber, Explosive Runes, Fireball, Flame Arrow, Glyph of Warding, Greater Magic Weapon, Inflict Serious Wounds, Lightning Bolt, Poison, Searing Light, Slow, Stinking Cloud, Summon Monster III*, Vampiric Touch.

4th— Black Tentacles, Confusion, Crushing Despair, Death Ward, Dispel Magic, Enervation, Fear, Fire Shield, Fire Trap, Flame Strike, Greater Magic Weapon, Ice Storm, Inflict Critical Wounds, Phantasmal Killer, Shout, Solide Fog, Summon Monster IV*, Wall of Fire.

5th— Blight, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Disrupting Weapon, Feeblemind, Hold Monster, Insect Plague, Interposing Hand, Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Mind Fog, Nightmare, Slay Living, Stoneskin, Summon Monster V*, Symbol of Pain, Symbol of Sleep, Telekinesis, Waves of Fatigue.

6th— Acid Fog, Banishment, Blade Barrier, Chain Lightning, Circle of Death, Eyebite, Forbiddance, Freezing Sphere, Greater Dispel Magic, Harm, Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds, Summon Monster VI*, Undeath to Death.

7th— Blasphemy, Delayed Blast Fireball, Destruction, Finger of Death, Fire Storm, Insanity, Mage's Sword, Mass Hold Person, Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, Power Word Blind, Prismatic Spray, Spell Turning, Summon Monster VII*, Sunbeam, Symbol of Stunning, Symbol of Weakness, Waves of Exhaustion, Word of Chaos.

8th— Antimagic Field, Binding, Greater Shout, Horrid Wilting, Incendiary Cloud, Maddening Scream, Mass Inflict Critical Wounds, Polar Ray, Power Word Stun, Scintillating Pattern, Summon Monster VIII*, Sunburst, Symbol of Death, Symbol of Insanity, Trap the Soul.

9th— Implosion, Imprisonment, Mass Hold Monster, Meteor Swarm, Power Word Kill, Soul Bind, Storm of Vengeance, Summon Monster IX*, Wail of the Banshee, Weird.

* Black Mages can only summon evil creatures.

Vengeance: A black mage chooses upon character creation whether he can channel acid, fire, cold, electricity, or sound upon wish (once this decision is made, it is final). He can change stored spell energy into a destructive ranged or touch spell of the damage type he chose upon creation even if he did not prepare it ahead of time. The black mage can “lose” any prepared spell in order to cast a ranged or touch damage spell of the chosen type of the same spell level or lower. If the black mage chooses to cast that ranged or touch damage spell of the chosen type at a lower level than the spell slot sacrificed, this adds to the saving throw required by the target.

The saving throw required is a Reflex save equal to 10 + level of spell slot sacrificed + the black mage’s Wisdom modifier. If the target succeeds on the saving throw, they take only half damage (rounded down).

When a black mage chooses to spontaneously cast a damaging spell of the chosen damage type, he may either select it as a ranged or touch spell. A ranged damaging spell from a black mage follows the same principle as a regular projectile, and the black mage must roll a d20 with modifiers as a regular ranged touch attack (Dexterity modifier + Base attack bonus) against the target's touch AC. The spell will affect only the first target it hits (unless specified as a splash attack, where it will eafect a 5ft radius from where it hit). If the target is missed, then the damaging spell is wasted. When cast as a ranged touch attack, it has a range of 20 ft. + 5 ft. per black mage's class level.

Note: When calculating damage, fire damage is as the following table. However, subtract 1 off damage per die for all other damages except sonic, which is one die size smaller than stated (d8 becomes d6, d6 becomes d4 etc).

Vengeance damage table

Spell Level	Result
0	1d6 + Wisdom modifier
1st	2d8 + Wisdom modifier
2nd	4d8 + Wisdom modifier
3rd	6d8 + Wisdom modifier
4th	8d8 + Wisdom modifier
5rd	10d8 + Wisdom modifier
6th	12d8 + Wisdom modifier
7th	14d8 + Wisdom modifier
8th	16d8 + Wisdom modifier
9th	18d8 + Wisdom modifier

Aura of Evil (Ex): The power of a black mage’s aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his class level plus his cleric level, if any.

Theurgic Submersion (Su): Magic simply congeals around the black mage, flowing over him like liquid and protecting him from physical harm. This provides an armor bonus to AC equal to the stated value. The bonus given is +1 at 3rd level and increases by 1 every 4 levels (7th, 11th, 15th, 19th etc). This bonus stacks with items that grant other armor bonuses to AC, but the black mage can only use one source of armor bonus to AC to add this bonus to.

Malignant Soul (Ex): At 12th level, a black mage gains Damage Reduction. Subtract 1 from the damage the black mage takes each time he is dealt damage from a weapon or a natural attack which is not of good alignment. At 16th level, this bonus increases by 1. Damage reduction can reduce damage to 0 but not below 0.

Ex-Black Mages

If a black mage for any reason should change his alignment to anything than evil, he can no longer gain any levels in black mage and looses his ability to cast Vengeance, loses his armor bonuses granted by Theurgic Submersion and Damage Reduction given by Malignant Soul.

The character may once again take levels as a black mage as well as gaining both his ability to spontaneously cast Vengeance and other special class abilities if his alignment should become evil again.

Epic Black Mage

Table: The Epic Black Mage

Hit Die: d6

Level	Special
21st	—
22nd	—
23rd	Bonus Feat, Theurgic Submersion +6
24th	Malignant Soul DR 4/good
25th	—
26th	Bonus Feat
27th	Theurgic Submersion +7
28th	Malignant Soul DR 5/good
29th	Bonus Feat
30th	—
4 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Malignant Soul (Ex): The epic black mage’s damage reduction increases by 1 point every four levels higher than 20th.

Theurgic Submersion (Su): The epic black mage’s armor bonus to AC increases by 1 point every four levels higher than 19th

Spells: The black mage’s caster level is equal to his class level. The wizard’s number of spells per day does not increase after 20th level. Each time the black mage achieves a new level, he learns two new spells of any spell levels that he can cast (according to his new level).

Bonus Feats : The epic black mage gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic black mage bonus feats) every 3 levels after 20th.

Epic Black Mage Bonus Feat List: Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Combat Casting, Craft Epic Magic Arms and Armor, SRD:Craft Epic Rod, Craft Epic Staff, Craft Epic Wondrous Item, Efficient Item Creation, Epic Spell Focus, Epic Spell Penetration, Epic Spellcasting, Forge Epic Ring, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Metamagic, Intensify Spell, Multispell, Permanent Emanation, Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Spell Opportunity, Tenacious Magic.

Human Black Mage Starting Package

Weapons: Spear, Light Crossbow.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Table: Starting Skill Points

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
Concentration	4	Constitution	—
Listen	4	Wisdom	—
Sense Motive	4	Wisdom	—
Spellcraft	4	Intelligence	—
Spot	4	Wisdom	—

Feat: Improved Initiative.

Bonus Feats: Toughness.

Gear: Backpack, Bedroll, Waterskin, Flint and Steel, 3 × Torch, Vial of Ink, Ink Pen, Ink Pot, 10 × Parchment, Scroll Case, Quiver, 20 × bolts, Sack, Spell Component Pouch, Travelers Outfit, 3 × Trail Rations.

Gold: 35 gp.

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