Magician
- Races: Varies by Tradition.
- Sex: Varies by Tradition.
Magicians are unstable. Magic is horrifically dangerous. Few magicians live without suffering mutations, personal injury, and an eventual horrifying death. Sorcerer-kings are feared. Tame magicians are kept on tight leashes. Their prowess is unquestionable, but their training makes it difficult for them to rule men. And yet, the most powerful wizards of all have done just that — commanding through force of sorcerous magic or institutional benefice as Fisher Kings who shape their realms as surely as it shapes them.
A spell is a miniature spirit, sprite, demon, devil, angel, elemental, or outsider presence whose body can serve as a lens for power. Magicians are spirit-speakers & god-keepers who tend miniature shrines in exchange for power provided through magic.
Magicians are not a straightforward Class to play. Unlike lords, magistrates, or gangsters, all of whom have direct & intrinsic paths to the institutional power Glass Empires revolves around, magicians rely on specialized magical abilities that carry enormous risks. They have less in the way of institutional ability & therefore most “sorcerer-kings” rely on unique combinations of talent & discovered magic to power their conquests. Because of this, they may lack a straightforward route to power. Most magicians are the right-hand man of conquerors, not the conqueror themselves. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible; rather, it means finesse & intelligence is required to succeed.
Magical Traditions
Every magician has a Magical Tradition from which their specialization descends. Your Tradition is your philosophy & history that shapes the way you see the world & the sort of spirits you can interact with; it also shapes the spirits you are most likely to encounter.
Each Magical Tradition defines the following:
- A single Tradition Feature, a special Class Feature that’s always obtained the first time you gain a rank in the Magician Class, that comes with both benefits & drawbacks reflecting the way that tradition of Magicians see & interact with the world.
- A list of 12 backgrounds unique to that Tradition.
- A list of 12 spells, the most frequent spirits encountered & captured by that Tradition’s practitioners.
Magicians are not limited to capturing (& casting) spells from their Tradition. Per the rules on spellcasting, any magician can cast spells from any Tradition or even those that have no native Tradition, provided that they have a Fact or Feature that relates to that spell. That said, the spells in a Tradition’s list are the ones they’re most likely to attract as they grow in power.
For the full Tradition entries — Tradition Features, Backgrounds, and spell lists — see Magical Traditions Magical Tradition.
Class Features
The first time you take a Rank in Magician, pick a Magical Tradition. It’s yours now. You can’t change it later. You gain its Tradition Feature, a special Class Feature.
Every time you take a Magician Rank, gain +1 Spell Die. You also attract an additional random spell from your Tradition’s spell list as soon as you make or otherwise obtain a Totem capable of holding it.
Every even-numbered Magician Rank, roll once on the adjacent table of Class Features & gain that Feature.
| 1d6 | Magician Class Feature |
|---|---|
| 1 | Overcharging: Every time you cast a spell, you can declare you’re overcharging the spell. When you do so, take 1d6 Damage, boost your [Sum] by the amount of Damage taken & increase your [Dice] by 1. |
| 2 | Addiction: Whenever you suffer a Mishap, restore one of your exhausted SD. |
| 3 | Magician’s Eyes: In bright light, you can see invisible things (including spirits) as a faint lensing outline. Through direct eye contact, you can tell if someone is possessed, charmed, or soulless. Enchanted items glow with a faint rainbow hue. |
| 4 | Identify Spirit: Given 1 hour of study, you can identify if something is enchanted or possessed by a spirit/spell & the approximate nature & intent of that spirit/spell. This accounts for all permanent & temporary effects inflicted by [[action-casting |
| 5 | Cautious Casting: Once per day, when you cast a spell but before calculating spell effects, you may willingly reduce any single Spell Die’s rolled result to 1. |
| 6 | Spell Possession: You can treat your head as being a Totem capable of housing 2 spirits. Internally-held spirits are always available for casting & can only be unwillingly extracted from your body if you are killed. You count as possessed if you have any spirits inside you. |
Class Backgrounds
If this is your first Class at character creation, your Class Background is determined by the list in your Magical Tradition Magical Tradition. Roll once. For each, write a Fact that describes a true lesson of your choice you learned from the experience: “Because I [was (a)…], I learned [lesson].” You can play with the phrasing so long as the background & lesson are both included.