Lore Mastery
Lore Mastery is an arcane tradition fixated on understanding the underlying mechanics of magic. It is the most academic of all arcane traditions. The promise of uncovering new knowledge or proving (or discrediting) a theory of magic is usually required to rouse its practitioners from their laboratories, academies, and archives to pursue a life of adventure.
Known as savants, followers of this tradition are a bookish lot who see beauty and mystery in the application of magic. The results of a spell are less interesting to them than the process that creates it. Some savants take a haughty attitude toward those who follow a tradition focused on a single school of magic, seeing them as provincial and lacking the sophistication needed to master true magic. Other savants are generous teachers, countering ignorance and deception with deep knowledge and good humor.
Lore Master Spells
You gain tradition spells at the wizard levels listed in the Lore Master Spells table. See the Arcane Tradition class feature for how tradition spells work.
Lore Master Spells
| Wizard Level | Tradition Spells |
|---|---|
| 2nd | chromatic orb |
| 3rd | nystul's magic aura |
| 5th | protection from energy |
| 7th | watery sphere |
| 9th | skill empowerment |
Quick-witted
At 2nd level, your analytical abilities are so well honed that your initiative in combat can be driven by mental agility, rather than physical agility. When you roll initiative, it is either an Intelligence check or a Dexterity check for you (your choice).
Spell Secrets
Also at 2nd level, you master the first in a series of arcane secrets uncovered by your extensive studies: the ability to expend more magical power to alter the arcane makeup of your spells as they are being cast.
Once per round when you cast a wizard spell using a spell slot and the spell deals slashing, bludgeoning, piercing, acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder, or necrotic damage, you can choose to expend a number of additional spell slots to substitute that damage type with one other type from that list (you can change only one damage type per casting of a spell). The additional spell slots expended must have a total level which meets or exceeds that of the spell being cast.
Altering Spells
While the Spell Secrets feature offers increased versatility, other players may have difficulty spotting its effects. Take a moment to describe how you alter your spells. For example, a fireball transformed to deal necrotic damage might become an exploding cloud of dark, writhing tendrils. A magic missile spell changed to deal piercing damage might reshape itself into a spike of arcane force at the last moment. Making sure your changes have narrative impact can make the game more fun for everyone.
Alchemical Casting
At 6th level, you learn to augment spells in a variety of ways. Once per round when you cast a wizard spell using a spell slot, you can expend one additional spell slot to augment its effects for this casting, mixing the raw stuff of magic into your spell to amplify it. The effect depends on the spell slot you expend.
Grasp of History
By spending an additional 1st-level spell slot, you can double the range of the spell if its range is more than 5 feet.
Smarts
By spending an additional 2nd-level spell slot, you can deal an additional 2d6 force damage to each target of the spell. If the spell can deal damage on more than one turn, it deals this extra force damage only on the turn you cast the spell. This damage takes place after any other effect of the spell.
Simple Geometry
BY spending an additional 3rd-level spell slot, you can concentrate a spell’s potency. Increase the spell’s save DC by 2 for one affected creature.
Prodigious Memory
At 10th level, you have attained a greater mastery of spell preparation. As a bonus action, you can replace one spell you have prepared with another spell from your spellbook. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Master of Lore
Starting at 10th level, you have become a compendium of knowledge on a vast array of topics. Your gain proficiency in in History, Nature, and Religion. If you are already proficient in a given skill, you instead add double your proficiency bonus to checks made using that skill.
Master of Magic
At 14th level, your knowledge of magic allows you to hypothesize about the arcane makeup of almost any spell. As a bonus action, you can call to mind the ability to cast one spell of your choice from any class’s spell list. The spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, you mustn’t have it in your spellbook, the spell must have a casting time of one action, and you must follow the normal rules for casting it, including expending a spell slot — however the spell slot you expend must be one level higher than the spell you are trying to cast, an inefficiency resulting from your inexperience with the precise magics at work. If the spell you cast isn’t a wizard spell, it counts as a wizard spell when you cast it.
When you attempt to cast the spell, make an Intelligence ability check against a DC of 10 + the spell's level. The spell slot is used regardless of your success. If you succeed, the spell is cast. If you fail, you make a clerical error in your spellwork, and instead must roll on the adjacent Experimental Error table to see what effect your mistake incurs.
The ability to cast the spell vanishes from your mind when you cast it or when the current turn ends, and you can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Changelog:
Version 1.1
- Change restrictions on some Alchemical Casting features
- Reworded some Experimental Error effects
- Fixed some typos and wording issues
Version 1.0 (Changes from UA)
- Moved expertise from level 2 to level 10 feature
- Added spell cost to Spell Secrets
- Removed spell save modification from Spell Secrets
- Rebalanced effects in Alchemical Casting
- Added chance of failure to Master of Magic
- Increased cost of Master of Magic by one spell level
Experimental Error
| d6 | Effect |
| 1 | You correctly classify the spell and create an appropriate arcane structure, but the specifics are... lacking. You accidentally cast a random spell from the same class' spell list which is of the same level. The spell's target is the same. If the new spell is an area spell, the target lies at its center. If the target is beyond the new spell's range, the spell is wasted. |
| 2 | Magic is an amazing thing, and you in particular are fond of its intricacies. You encounter an arcane curiosity in the spellwork which fascinates you just long enough for you to lose your focus. The energy you've conjured closes in on you, and you are stunned. At the beginning of each of your turns, you may make a Wisdom saving throw against your own spell save DC to end this condition. |
| 3 | Everyone has bad days — as you begin to make the motions of the spell, you realize that you've channeled too little power. Choose a 1st-level spell from the same class' spell list to cast instead, at first level. |
| 4 | You cast the spell as intended, but an unintended and powerful jolt of magical energy follows it as your eyes flicker around the scene. Choose one creature you can see to take the effects of a random spell of the same level. Once you have chosen a target, the DM determines the spell which takes effect. |
| 5 | The arcane energy consumed by the spell is far greater than you anticipated. If you have an additional spell slot of the same level used to cast the spell, you may expend it as well to successfully cast the spell. If not, the spell explodes around you in wild arcane energy. You and all creatures within 5ft of you must roll an Intelligence saving throw. An affected creature takes 1d10 force damage per level of the spell slot expended on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. |
| 6 | The finished spell crackles at your fingertips, when you realize you forgot to make the somatic motion for 'release' at the beginning of the casting and are in need of a jump-start. Rather than casting your spell you hold your action, with the spell to be released only if an ally expends a spell slot of the spell's level to assist you. |