S-Class Wizard

What Are S-Class Characters?

S-class wizards are students of fundamental magic, filtered through the lens of the arcane. They are practitioners of arcane rituals and casters of powerful spells, able to adapt their own education to learn from those around them who may be capable of creating the same basic effects.

Role: Given time and opportunity, an s-class wizard is able to prepare for almost any circumstance. They can plan to support their allies, then fight back against an unexpected enemy at a moment’s notice.

Note: The s-class wizard is an alternate, superior version of the wizard class. They retain all of the standard wizard progressions and options, and as such should qualify to select wizard archetypes without specific adjustments.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d6.

Starting Wealth: 2d6 × 10 gp (average 70 gp.) In addition, an s-class wizard begins play with both a spellbook containing his 0-level and 1st-level spells and an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

Class Skills

The s-class wizard’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Table: S-Class Wizard

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Arcane bond, arcane school, cantrips, Scribe Scroll	3	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Adaptive studies	4	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	—	4	2	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Fast study	5	3	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Bonus feat	5	3	2	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Arcane school power	5	3	3	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	—	5	4	3	2	1	–	–	–	–	–
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Opposition research	6	4	3	3	2	–	–	–	–	–
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	—	6	4	4	3	2	1	–	–	–	–
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Bonus feat	6	4	4	3	3	2	–	–	–	–
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7	—	6	4	4	4	3	2	1	–	–	–
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Arcane school power	6	4	4	4	3	3	2	–	–	–
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	—	6	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	–	–
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	Split slot	6	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	–	–
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9	Bonus feat	6	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	–
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	—	6	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	–
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	—	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Arcane school power	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	—	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Arcane school power, bonus feat	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the s-class wizard.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

S-class wizards are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff, but not with any type of armor or shield. Armor interferes with an s-class wizard’s movements, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.

Spellcasting

An s-class wizard casts arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. An s-class wizard must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time.

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the wizard must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an s-class wizard’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the wizard’s Intelligence modifier.

An s-class wizard can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Wizard. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).

An s-class wizard may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook. While studying, the wizard decides which spells to prepare.

Spellbooks: An s-class wizard must study his spellbook each day to prepare his spells. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his spellbook, except for read magic, which all wizards can prepare from memory.

Starting Spells: An s-class wizard begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells (except those from any of his opposed schools) plus three 1st-level spells of his choice. The wizard also selects a number of additional 1st-level spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the spellbook. At any time, an s-class wizard can add spells found in other wizards’ spellbooks to his own.

Spells Automatically Gained at a New Level: Wizards perform a certain amount of spell research between adventures. Each time an s-class wizard attains a new wizard level, he gains two spells of his choice to add to his spellbook. The two free spells must be of spell levels he can cast.

Arcane Bond

At 1st level, s-class wizards form a powerful bond that acts as a physical expression of their adherence to magic. This bond can take one of two forms: a familiar or a bonded object. A summary suggestion for each is provided at the end of this section.

Arcane School

An s-class wizard can choose to specialize in one school of magic, gaining additional spells and powers based on that school. This choice must be made at 1st level, and once made, it cannot be changed. An s-class wizard that does not select a school receives the universalist school instead.

An s-class wizard that chooses to specialize in one school of magic must select two other schools as his opposition schools, representing knowledge sacrificed in one area of arcane lore to gain mastery in another. An s-class wizard who prepares spells from his opposition schools must use two spell slots of that level to prepare the spell. He also takes a –4 penalty on any skill checks made when crafting a magic item that has a spell from one of his opposition schools as a prerequisite. A specialist A universalist wizard can prepare spells from any school without restriction.

For example, an s-class wizard with conjuration as an opposition school must expend two of his available 1st-level spell slots to prepare mage armor.

Each arcane school gives an s-class wizard arcane school powers at 1st, 6th, 12th, 18th, and 20th level. In addition, specialist wizards receive an additional spell slot of each spell level he can cast, from 1st on up. Each day, an s-class wizard can prepare a spell from his arcane school in that slot. This spell must be in the wizard’s spellbook. An s-class wizard can select a spell modified by a metamagic feat to prepare in his school slot, but it uses up a higher-level spell slot.

S-class wizards with the universalist school do not receive additional spell slots. instead, they gain additional arcane school powers at 10th, 14th, and 16th level.

S-Class Arcane School options can be found here.

Bonus Language

An s-class wizard may substitute Draconic for one of the bonus languages available to the character because of his race.

Scribe Scroll (Ex)

At 1st level, an s-class wizard gains Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat.

Adaptive Studies (Ex)

At 2nd level, an s-class wizard gains the ability to learn spells sooner than his colleagues. If he has access to a spell on the wizard spell list that can be learned at an earlier spell level by another class, the wizard can learn it at that spell level as well. The wizard must be able to learn the spell from a member of the class that learns the spell sooner.

For example, if a 3rd-level s-class wizard knows a summoner who can cast haste as a 2nd-level spell, the wizard can learn that spell from the summoner as a 2nd-level spell, instead of waiting to learn it as a 3rd-level spell like other wizards. When he reaches 5th level, the wizard can also learn bestow curse as a 3rd-level spell from his cleric ally.

Fast Study (Ex)

At 4th level, an s-class wizard can prepare all of his spells in only 15 minutes, and his minimum preparation time is only 1 minute.

Bonus Feats

At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, an s-class wizard gains his choice of a bonus feat or an arcane discovery for which he meets the prerequisites. At each such opportunity, he can choose a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, or Spell Mastery.

Opposition Research (Ex)

An 8th-level s-class wizard can choose one of his opposition schools. It is no longer an opposition school for him.

Split Slot (Ex)

Once per day, when a 14th-level s-class wizard prepares his spells, he may treat any one of his open spell slots as if it were two spell slots that were two spell levels lower. For example, a 14th-level wizard can split a 7th-level slot into two 5th-level slots, preparing cone of cold and waves of fatigue in those 5th-level slots. For all purposes, the two lower-level slots are treated as that lower level (so the split 7th-level slot used for a cone of cold has a DC as if it were in a normal 5th-level slot). Splitting a 2nd-level slot lets you prepare two additional cantrips (which you can cast over and over, just like normally prepared cantrips). The wizard cannot split cantrips or 1st–level spells with this feature.