Arcane Tradition: School of Thought

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    Wizard

           Like any skill, spellcraft can be taught,
           practiced, and ‐ possibly ‐ perfected.
          Learned wizards can spend lifetimes
         in magical theory simply describing the vast reams of arcana they will never know. Specialization is often the pursuit of a budding mage: learn all that you can about that which no one else is looking at, and progress, however small, can be made. But there are always those who would rather muse upon the whole, however impossible it might be for one mind to encompass. Included below is a wizardly doctrine that looks to unusual research methods in order to examine as much of the Weave's work as possible.

Optional Class Feature

You gain class features in the Player’s Handbook when you reach certain levels in your class. This section offers an additional feature that you can gain as a wizard. Unlike the features in the Player’s Handbook, you don’t gain the feature here automatically. Consulting with your DM, you decide whether to gain the feature in this section if you meet the level requirement noted in the feature’s description.

Dedicated Study

1st-level wizard feature, which replaces the Arcane Recovery feature

Brushing up on your fundamentals is good practice, even for advanced arcanists. Once per day when you finish a short or long rest, you can choose a school of magic to dedicate at least thirty minutes to studying. The school of magic must be one for which you have a spell in your spellbook that you can prepare (although you need not have it prepared). Once you complete this study, you gain a bonus to Intelligence (Arcana) checks made to examine spells or magical effects of the chosen school that lasts until the start of your next long rest. The bonus is equal to the number of spells of the chosen school in your spellbook that you can prepare, up to a maximum bonus equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Arcane Tradition

At 2nd level, a wizard gains the Arcane Tradition feature. The following Arcane Tradition is available to you, in addition to the options offered in the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

School of Thought

One can normally tell the training of a wizard by just how long they spend stroking their chin in consideration. Enchanters: barely ever at all. Illusionists: you might think they are. Diviners have well-polished jaws. And would you look at this one! Still going...

                 HIPPOCAMPER

Proponents of this approach to the arcane avoid adhering to one specific field of study, and aim to keep an open mind. Such wizards are even willing to share knowledge with casters from very different traditions; all the better to build a holistic picture of magic. Keeping the formulae of so much spellcraft straight requires a highly organized mind: even more than other wizards, these scholars train their brains with an intensive rigor. Their mental architecture is, figuratively, awesome to behold. Information is carefully compartmentalized and filed away ‐ even from the wizard's own conscious mind ‐ in order to minimize distraction.

Scholars of thought are well aware that a single life's experience is inadequate to unlock the mysteries of the Weave. Through simple magic, they telepathically study the knowledge of others to help expand their own. Although they have garnered a reputation as ponderous thinkers, they make for reliable advisors and allies in any magical undertaking.

Memory Palace

2nd-level School of Thought feature

Your mind holds the form of a well-structured building, through which you can move to browse or store memories. You have a number of rooms inside your memory palace equal to 1 + your Intelligence modifier (a minimum of one). Unless otherwise stated, you can empty a room of your memory palace at any time (no action required). You can utilize the rooms in one of the following ways:

  • At the end of a long rest, you can store the details of a spell from your spellbook in an empty room. You always have this spell prepared while it is stored inside the room, and it does not count against the total number of wizard spells you prepare.
  • When you cast a spell using the Ready action, you can use an empty room to hold the energy of the spell so that you do not need to maintain concentration to do so yourself. While the spell is stored in the room, you can continue to hold it ready until the specified trigger is met, you empty the room, or you use the Ready action again.
  • You do not need to maintain concentration on casting a spell with a casting time longer than a single action or reaction while you have an empty room available.
  • At the end of a short or long rest, you can create and store a false memory inside an empty room. The memory must be able to be expressed in twenty-five words or less. Part of you remains aware that the memory is false, but any creature that is able to access it will believe it to be legitimate. When you store a false memory within your memory palace, you can choose to leave the door to its room unlocked, allowing it to be seen as a surface thought by the detect thoughts spell and similar magic.
  • At the end of a short or long rest, you can hide a true memory behind a locked door in an empty room. The memory must be able to be expressed in twenty-five words or less. While the memory is locked in the room, you have no knowledge of it whatsoever. Your mind fills in or dismisses any resulting gaps in logic. You can retrieve a memory locked in a room by browsing the rooms of your memory palace again at the end of a short or long rest.

Open Book

2nd-level School of Thought feature

You have learned to skim a well-read mind like any other tome. As a bonus action, you can focus your thoughts on a creature that you can see within 30 feet of you and attempt to peruse its magical knowledge. Make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. The DC equals 11 + the level of spells you are hoping to peruse. On a success, you learn the name and effect of each spell of the chosen level or lower that the target can cast. If any of these spells appears on the wizard spell list, you can make a mental note of the spell's formula by storing it within an empty room of your memory palace.

You can add a spell you have stored in your memory palace in this way to your spellbook as normal if it is of a spell level you can prepare. The gold and time you must spend to copy a spell found in this way into your spellbook is halved.

Hold Thought

6th-level School of Thought feature

By opening the doors to your own spacious mind, you can ease the mental load of spellcasting for another. As a bonus action, you can choose a creature within 30 feet of you that is concentrating on a spell. If the target is unwilling, it can make an Intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC. On a success, this feature has no effect.

You maintain concentration on the target's spell in its stead by storing it inside an empty room of your memory palace. You can continue to concentrate on one other spell of your own while you have a spell stored in this way. If you lose concentration on either spell for any reason other than willingly choosing to end it, both spells end.

Once you concentrate on two spells at once, you must complete a short or long rest before you can do so again.

Enduring Ego

10th-level School of Thought feature

When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can temporarily transfer your consciousness into the mind of another creature within 60 feet of you. When you do so, your body is unconscious but stable as your mind divorces from it. You can maintain concentration on spells, making a Constitution saving throw as normal against the triggering damage to do so when you use this feature.

In this state you are intangible and cannot be targeted by any means. You cannot take any actions, bonus actions, or reactions, other than to use your Hold Thought or Open Book features. You perceive through your host creature's senses, and you gain the benefits of any special senses that it has. You can communicate telepathically with any other creature within 60 feet of it. Your telepathic utterances are in a language you know, and a creature understands you only if it knows that language. It can respond in kind. Your host is not aware of your presence unless you choose to communicate with it. If you choose to allow it to do so, the host can use your Intelligence saving throw modifier in place of its own whenever it is forced to make an Intelligence saving throw.

Your consciousness can persist in this state for up to 1 hour. If your body regains hit points, you immediately return to it if it is on the same plane of existence. When the effect ends, you die if you have not returned to your body.

Sympathetic Revelation

14th-level School of Thought feature

You can attempt to cast spells beyond your understanding by using the knowledge of another. As an action taken when you find a spell with a casting time of 1 action in a creature's mind using your Open Book feature, you can cast it at its lowest level. The spell chosen must be 5th-level or lower, but does not need to be on the wizard spell list.

The spell is cast as if by you, using your spell save DC, spell attack bonus, and spellcasting ability. If your target has a spell slot of the required level for the chosen spell, that spell slot is used instead of your own to cast the spell.

If the spell is a wizard spell and of a spell level you can prepare, you can immediately replace one of your prepared wizard spells with it.

Once you use this action, you must complete a long rest before you can do so again.

                         Firbolg Scholar
                              of Thought
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Optional Class Feature

You gain class features in the Player’s Handbook when you reach certain levels in your class. This section offers an additional feature that you can gain as a wizard. Unlike the features in the Player’s Handbook, you don’t gain the feature here automatically. Consulting with your DM, you decide whether to gain the feature in this section if you meet the level requirement noted in the feature’s description.

Dedicated Study

1st-level wizard feature, which replaces the Arcane Recovery feature

Brushing up on the fundamentals of your magical knowledge helps focus your mind for undertaking a specific project. Once per day when you finish a short or long rest, you can choose a school of magic to dedicate some time to studying. The school of magic must be one for which you have a spell in your spellbook that you can prepare (although you need not have it prepared). Once you complete this study, which takes at least thirty minutes of your rest, you gain a bonus to Intelligence (Arcana) checks made to examine spells or magical effects of the chosen school that lasts until the start of your next long rest. The bonus is equal to the number of spells belonging to the chosen school in your spellbook that you can prepare, up to a maximum bonus equal to your Intelligence modifier.

 

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