The Collector: A Mysterious Magic-User in S&W.


Magic-Users, known colloquially as Collectors, are called by many other names besides (such as sorcerers, witches, druids, magicians, shadowcasters, blood mages, etc.) based on their philosophy and style. They are the masters of occult lore, and spend their lives gathering magical knowledge and spells. Collector Guilds are often defined by the spells they know in common, and wage furtive war with each other over magical knowledge, with neither wishing to show the extent of their expertise.

Hit Die: d4
Armor: None
Attack Bonus: +1 per 2 levels
Saving Throw: as in Core Rules

Spells: All Collectors start with 4 spells (+/- INT Mod), chosen randomly from a d30 list prepared by the DM and kept in a Collector's spellbook. They gain spells as they collect them in the game world and copy them into their spellbook. There is no automatic learning of spells in this game. A Collector possesses spell slots as a Magic-User in S&W, and must prepare their spells ahead of time as in the core rules.

Occult Lore: This ability begins at 10% and increases by 5% every level thereafter to a maximum of 99%. It represents the knowledge the Collector has acquired of the magical world, its items, denizens, and history. A successful check with this skill enables a wizard to know something about a magic item, another wizard, a magical creature, etc. In order to read another Collector's spellbook (which may be written on anything) Collectors must be adept at cracking codes. Thus, a successful check with this skill enables a Collector to read the magical codes of other Collectors. To read a Collector's coded spell, you must roll your percentile chance minus 5 x the spell’s level. Thus, a first-level Collector would be unable to read a sixth-level spell (5x6=30% vs. 15%), but a third-level Collector could, even if he could not cast the spell. This ability can also be used as Detect Magic, any number of times per day.

Starting Spells (1d30)
1 Command
2 Cure Light Wounds
3 Light
4 Shield
5 Purify Food & Drink
6 Create Water
7 Remove Fear
8 Resist Cold
9 Sanctuary
10 Animal Friendship
11 Detect Trap
12 Entangle
13 Faerie Fire
14 Predict Weather
15 Speak to Animals
16 Pass Without Trace
17 Affect Normal Fires
18 Burning Hands
19 Charm Person
20 Comprehend Languages
21 Dancing Lights
22 Ventriloquism
23 Feather Fall
24 Hold Portal
25 Magic Missile
26 Mending
27 Message
28 Sleep
29 Spider Climb
30 Unseen Servant

(Above is the basic list that I use for my game, but you might want to throw in spells from any number of sources, such as Adventures Dark and Deep, Space-Age Sorcery, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, etc.)

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