School of Scholarship
Arcane Tradition: School of Scholarship
Some wizards choose to focus on mastering a specific school of magic, while others learn to blend spell with swordplay. Although these specializations are powerful in their own right, you prefer something purer. Rather than master a single school of magic, arcane scholars excel at understanding how magic and spells work, and hone their craft to make the wondrous even moreso.
Great Minds ...
2nd-level wizard feature
Any good wizard knows that a reliable assistant can make a world of difference.
You add find familiar to your spellbook, if it isn't there already, or another 1st-level wizard spell of your choice if it is. Your summoned familiar gains the following benefits:
- Your familiar can use your Intelligence score and proficiency bonus, if its natural Intelligence score or proficiency bonus would be lower.
- You and your familiar both gain proficiency with the Arcana skill, and one skill of your choice between History, Nature, and Religion. While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, your proficiency bonus is doubled for ability checks that use those two skills.
- Your familiar can understand all languages you know, and gains the ability to speak if it couldn't already.
Study Partner
2nd-level wizard feature
You've learned to fully appreciate new approaches to magical theory, and can work alongside another wizard to lighten your workload.
You and another wizard can work together to halve the time it takes you both to copy new spells into your spellbook or prepare your spells at the end of a long rest.
Alternatively, your familiar can assist you in the other wizard's place, allowing you to still reap the benefits of having a study partner.
Wizard Tricks
6th-level wizard feature
Eureka! You've discovered how to modify the behavior of your spells, although these modified spells require twice as much preparation to use.
When you prepare your spells of 1st-level or higher at the end of a long rest, you can choose to prepare modified versions of spells in your spellbook, using one of the Wizard Tricks that you know. Unless otherwise noted, preparing a spell in this way counts as double against the number of spells you can have prepared (for example: if you can normally prepare 10 spells, and prepare a fireball modified by Prismatic Substitution, you can prepare only 8 other spells alongside it).
Modified spells can be prepared alongside the original spell and even the same spell modified by another trick, preparing each one independently.
Additionally, you can choose to modify a single wizard cantrip you know with one of the Wizard Tricks you know. You can change which cantrip to modify, what Wizard Trick to use, or both, upon completing a long rest.
You learn two Wizard Tricks from the Wizard Trick Options later in this section at level 6, and learn another at 10th and 14th level. When you gain a level in this class, you can replace a Wizard Trick you know with another from the list.
... Think Alike
10th level wizard feature
You and your familiar have begun to work in near perfect harmony, improving your ability to focus and vastly improving the efficiency of your spellcasting.
When you make a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell, your familiar can spend its reaction to add its Intelligence modifier to any Constitution saving throw you make to maintain concentration on a spell until the start of its next turn.
In addition, your familiar can assist in casting some spells, halving the additional time required to cast a spell as a ritual.
Rapid Recollection
14th level wizard feature
You have become intimately familiar with your spellbook and the spells within.
If your spellbook is in hand, you can skim through it and cast one spell of 1st-level or higher from it, as though you had it prepared. Additionally, when you cast any wizard spell you can spontaneously apply a Wizard Trick you know to it.
You can use this feature twice, and regain the ability to do so upon completing a long rest.
Wizard Trick Options
Wizard tricks are sorted alphabetically. You learn two of your choice at 6th level, and another at 10th and 14th level.
Delayed Effect
wizard trick option
When you use the Ready action to ready a spell modified by this trick, the time you can hold its energy is extended to 1 minute, although all other limitations apply.
Eschew Materials
wizard trick option
If a spell modified by this trick would normally require material components costing no more than a total of 50gp, it instead requires no material components. This limit increases to 100gp at 10th level, and 150gp at 14th level.
If a material component being eschewed is required for use in the spell's function, a working copy of the required component is created from ethereal matter until its purpose has been served.
Ethereal Spell
wizard trick option
An Ethereal Spell travels through the ethereal plane to reach its destination. If the spell would normally require an attack roll it instead forces its targets to make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC, and suffer the spell's effects on a failure. Additionally, an Ethereal spell can be used to target creatures, objects, or points in space on the Ethereal plane.
Ethereal spells are stopped by any obstacle or barrier in the ethereal plane, such as that created by wall of force, but otherwise ignore even total cover to reach their target.
Familiar Spell
wizard trick option
When you cast a Familiar Spell, you can cast it as though you were in your familiar's space, and can use your familiar's senses while doing so. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to channel the spell when you cast it.
Lingering Spell
wizard trick option
If a spell modified by this trick has a duration of Instantaneous and affects an area, you can begin concentrating on the the spell for up to 1 minute. While you concentrate, the spell's energy lingers and any creature or object that enters the spell's area is subjected to the spell's effects as though in range for the initial casting. Creatures and objects can only be affected once per casting of a lingering spell.
Prismatic Substitution
wizard trick option
If a spell modified by this trick would normally deal acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage, you change that damage type to another from that list, determined at the time of the spell's preparation.
Changing a spell in this way puts an above-average amount of strain on the Weave. As a result, this trick can only be applied to spells 5th-level or lower.
Shadow Spell
wizard trick option
A spell modified by this trick has any destructive purpose perverted, and loses its lethal bite. When a creature would die from damage dealt by a Shadow spell, it instead falls unconscious and is stable. (For more information, see "Knocking a Creature Out" on D&D Beyond or page 198 in the Player's Handbook.)
Additionally, Shadow Spells are incapable of affecting objects or terrain.
Sturdy Spell
wizard trick option
A spell modified by this trick imposes disadvantage on any check made to counter or dispel it, such as by the spells counterspell and dispel magic.
Supporting Materials
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Changelog
2020-06-26, v1.04
- Add clarification text to Wizard Tricks about modified spells being separate the purpose of preparing the spell again (either unmodified or with another modification).
- Clarify that the target of an Ethereal Spell gets no bonus to their saving throw from cover.
2020-06-23, v1.03
- Move Wizard Tricks to the end of the subclass description.
- Allow swapping a wizard trick out for another on a level-up.
- Rename to "School of Scholarship".
2020-01-28, v1.02
- You can use Rapid Recollection to spontaneously apply a wizard trick to a spell you have prepared, not just a spell you're rapidly recollecting.
2018-12-27, v1.01
- Great Minds now lets you pick a different 1st-level wizard spell if you already know find familiar.
2018-12-27, v1.00
- Pull back Eschew Materials a bit. Now caps out at 150gp at level 14.
- Remove Traumatic Impact. Doesn't fit, thematically.
- Restrict Prismatic Substitution to spells 5th-level or lower.
- Simplify mechanics and language for modifying a cantrip.
- Release as version 1.00.
2018-12-26, v0.95
- Eschew Materials increases at set points. The most valuable spell it can eschew for now is glyph of warding, and even then only at level 20.
- Rename Arcane Assistant to Great Minds...
- Rename Shared Intellect to ...Think Alike and tweak it to allow the familiar to assist in ritually casting spells.
- Familiars can now speak, if they couldn't already.
- Add Traumatic Impact wizard trick: change any damage to psychic damage, but at a cost to yourself
- Try to smooth out Ethereal Spell.
- Clean up Prismatic Substitution. Maximizing a substituted spell greater than 5th-level now severely harms the caster, in an attempt to curb Tempest Cleric 1/ Wizard x cheese with high level spells.
- Lingering spell lasts up to a minute, but still only affects a creature once per casting.
2018-09-25, v0.94
- Eschew Materials now scales with wizard level.
- Clean Lingering Spell's description.
- Add new trick "Familiar Spell".
2018-09-18, v0.93
- Integrate the familiar into Mind Over Magic, and rename it to Shared Intellect.
- Clean up Arcane Assistant again, this time sharing Int score and prof bonus.
- Try removing the spell level cap on Rapid Recollection.
2018-09-18, v0.92
- Try to fix phrasing of Study Partner so it's not so confusing.
2018-09-15, v0.91
- Fix phrasing of Shadow Spell to reflect that nonlethal damage isn't actually a thing in 5e.
2018-09-15, v0.9
- Correct formatting issues regarding the credits.
- Change attaining the last two Wizard Tricks to 10th and 14th level.
- Make find familiar be always prepared for free starting at 2nd level.
- Simplify the wording of Delayed Effect to extend on the Ready action instead.
- Change "master" to "learn" under the initial Wizard Tricks description.
- Break part of Arcane Assistant into Study Partner, and open its utility somewhat.
2018-09-13, v0.84
- Adjust the wording for determining the research assistant's Intelligence score.
- Double proficiency is now available only to Arcana and History, Nature, or Religion, whichever the wizard chooses.
- Try to polish the wording of Lingering spell. Remove the duration modification and simply provide the option to concentrate on it until the start of the wizard's next turn.
- Add a rule to Prismatic Substitution to prevent any Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath cheese, as well as prevent a Sorcerer's Empowered Spell metamagic from interfering.
- Move the note on applying a Wizard Trick to a spell cast with Rapid Recollection.
- Attack rolls made by Ethereally Cast spells now force Dexterity saving throws instead. Try to clean some of the wording.
- Reduce the wordiness of the fluff on Mind Over Magic.
2018-09-12, v0.82
- Give research assistants the ability to understand their wizard's languages.
- Add an option to expend both uses of Rapid Recollection to apply a wizard trick to a rapidly recalled spell.
2018-09-11, v0.81
- Rename Reinforced Magimatrix to Sturdy Spell.
- Clarify wording on Lingering Spell.
- Rename Restrained Might to Shadow Spell
2018-08-23, v0.8
- Clarify that Wizard Tricks can only be applied to spells of 1st-level or higher.
- Add more wizard tricks, increasing the total number of options to 7: Lingering Spell, Reinforced Magimatrix, and Restrained Might.
- Increase the number of wizard tricks that can be learned, and provide the option to replace up to one of them on leveling up.
- Remove some of the limitations on the Delayed Casting trick, opening it up to spells that normally require concentration, but require the caster's reaction to cancel a delayed spell's effects.
- Smooth out some of the wording in Mind over Magic.
2018-07-06, v0.71
- Remove the auto-success ability from Mind over Magic, and halve the time Ritual Casting takes instead. I'm still not happy with this; it still only feels like half a feature.
2018-06-22, v0.7
- Try removing the extra spell slot cost from Wizard Tricks, to see how it balances there
- Fix typos and clarify some lines in the different Wizard tricks.
- Switch up Mind over Magic to grant a bonus to concentration checks in general, and add the ability to succeed on a failed concentration checks a limited number of times per long rest.
- Add hyperlinks from the changelog to different features
- Add hyperlink to Find Familiar on D&D Beyond
2018-06-21, v0.65
- Scrap pretty much everything
- Add Arcane Assistant
- Add Wizard Tricks
- Add Mind over Magic
- Add Rapid Recollection
2018-06-20, v0.5
- Initial release
Credits
Cover Art