Chronicles of Expertise
“Studying magic in all its forms is fascinating. It can create, destroy, repair, and protect. It can show visions of the future, offer false visions, and can help us learn more about ourselves. The most interesting practitioners are those who look to push the boundaries of magic. They seek to not just create new spells, but to use old traditional spells in new and exciting ways. This sort of magic not only expands our knowledge of the art but increases our understanding of the capabilities of even the simplest spells.”
—From the Pathfinder Chronicles issue “Bending Magic: A Study of Spell Manipulation Outside the Constraints of Metamagic” by Gnosalton Tiberius Gammathumalshire
BENDING MAGIC
Some of the most successful magically inclined Pathfinders have been able to manipulate their magic to become more versatile. This allows them to solve a greater variety of problems with their limited number of spells. Those who share their secrets can embolden new generations of Pathfinder agents. The following feat allows characters to expand the capabilities of their spells.
Magic Trick
Choose one spell. You are able to manipulate that spell beyond its typical uses.
Prerequisite: Ability to cast the chosen spell or spell-like ability.
Benefit: You can use any magic tricks relating to the chosen spell so long as you meet the appropriate magic trick requirements.
Special: You can select the Magic Trick feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of spell.
DAY LIGHT T RICKS
Though many clerics in the church of Sarenrae can conjure powerful light, it was a warpriest named Amnok who learned to focus it through his shield and blind Sarenrae’s foes. He later learned how to conjure a burst of pure daylight, shining like the sun for a several seconds and defeating an entire cabal of vampires. Most of the manipulations of the daylightspell come from Amnok’s early work. In addition to the feat, skill, or other requirements listed in parentheses for each of these tricks, you must have the Magic Trick (daylight) feat to use the trick.
Barrier of Light (Shield Focus): When you cast daylight on a shield, it sheds bright light in a 120-foot cone and raises the light level by one step for an additional 120 feet. As a standard action, you can end the spell by causing the light to suddenly flash, blinding each creature in the cone for 1d4 rounds unless it succeeds at a Fortitude save against your daylight spell DC.
Blades of Light (Knowledge [religion] 6 ranks): When you cast daylight on a melee weapon, you can reduce the duration to 1 round per level and grant the weapon the ability to deal additional damage against undead and evil outsiders equal to 1 point per 2 caster levels (maximum +5). This extra damage does not stack with the holy weapon enchantment and similar effects.
Burst of Sunlight (Spellcraft 6 ranks or worship deity with Sun domain): You can reduce the duration of your daylight spell to 1 round, causing the spell to radiate the equivalent of pure daylight for the purpose of affecting creatures that are damaged, destroyed, or are otherwise affected by such light.
Convincing Halo (Knowledge [religion] 3 ranks): When you cast daylighton a piece of headgear, you can make it appear as a halo. This grants the creature wearing the headgear a +2 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy and Bluff checks against good outsiders.
Pin Sunlight (Precise Shot): When you cast daylight on a piece of ammunition or thrown weapon, you can cause the spell to transfer to the target of a successful ranged attack with that piece of ammunition or thrown weapon, causing the creature to radiate light from its body. If the creature succeeds at a Will save against your daylight spell DC, it instead glows with dim light in a 5-foot radius for 1 minute.
Vessel of Light (no additional prerequisites):When you cast daylight on a torch, lantern, or other tool used to produce mundane light, you increase the duration of your spell to 1 hour per level.
FIREBALL TRICKS
Vincent the Pyroclastic is a destructive force in the Society. He has caused permanent damage to and condemnation of more buildings in the Inner Sea region than any other agent. For him, incineration became an art. In addition to the feat, skill, or other requirements listed in parentheses for each of these tricks, you must have the Magic Trick (fireball) feat to use the trick.
Alchemist’s Inferno (Craft [alchemy] 9 ranks, Spellcraft 9 ranks): Using alchemist’s fire as a material component, your fireball sets everything it touches ablaze. The initial blast deals half as much damage, but targets that fail their Reflex saves also catch fire. A creature that catches fire in this way must attempt a Reflex save against the DC of the fireballspell to stop burning instead of the typical DC (Pathfinder Core Rulebook 444). Unattended objects automatically catch fire, though nonflammable objects burn for only 1 additional round.
Cluster Bomb (Spellcraft 6 ranks): You are able to throw multiple small explosions with a single spell instead of the normal effect. For every 2 caster levels, you toss a miniature fireball with a 10-foot radius that deals 2d6 points of fire damage. The grid intersection of all blasts must be within 30 feet of each other. If a creature is in the area of multiple blasts, it attempts a single Reflex save against the combined damage.
Concentrated Fire (Selective SpellAPG or Widen Spell, Spellcraft 6 ranks): You can reduce the radius of your fireball by increments of 5 feet, to a minimum of a 5-foot radius. For each 5-foot increment you reduce the spell, you increase the spell’s damage by 1d6. This additional damage can exceed the spell’s maximum damage.
Sculpt Flames (Reach SpellAPG, Selective SpellAPG): You can alter the shape of your fireball to send its fire along the path you desire. When casting the spell, you can change the area to one 5-foot square per caster level. The spell’s area must be continuous and unbroken when cast. If its blocked or otherwise interrupted by a 5-foot wide or larger environmental feature like a wall, the spell fails. A creature only takes damage once from a fireball cast in this way, even if the spell’s area intersects with the creature multiple times.
Where There’s Smoke (Craft [alchemy] 6 ranks, Spellcraft 6 ranks): Using a smokestick as a material component, you make your fireball leave behind a thick cloud of smoke in the spell’s area for 1 minute. A moderate or stronger wind dissipates the smoke in 1 round as a smokestick. When using a smokestick in this way, your fireball deals only 1d6 points of damage per 2 caster levels (maximum 5d6).
MAGE HAND TRICKS
Cylindia the Sly was a renowned cat burglar throughout Magnimar. Though she never had any formal magical training, her ancestor’s magical blood was all she needed to produce and master the use of mage hand. She remains unique in that her adaptations to the spell came entirely from practical applications rather than study and experimentation. In addition to the feat, skill, or other requirements listed in parentheses for each of these tricks, you must have the Magic Trick (mage hand) feat to use the trick.
Dirty Magic Trick (base attack bonus +1, Improved Dirty TrickAPG): You can manipulate a target’s clothing or a nearby object to attempt a dirty trick combat maneuver against a single opponent in the spell’s range, using your combat maneuver bonus for the check.
Powerful Hand (Spellcraft 3 ranks): You can increase the weight of objects you can move by 5 pounds for every 3 ranks you have in Spellcraft.
Ranged Aid (base attack bonus +1): You’ve learned to use your mage hand to tug at an opponent’s hair, clothing, and equipment. You can use the aid another action at range, attempting a ranged touch attack instead of a melee attack.
Reaching Hand (Precise Shot or Reach SpellAPG): You can focus as a swift action before casting mage hand to increase its range to 50 feet + 5 feet per caster level. If the target of your mage hand spell is outside of the spell’s standard range at the start of your turn, you must spend another swift action to focus again or the spell immediately ends.
Subtle Hand (Deft Hands, Disable Device 6 ranks, Sleight of Hand 6 ranks): You can attempt Disable Device and Sleight of Hand checks within range of your mage hand. Working at a distance increases the normal skill check DC by 5, and you cannot take 10 on this check.
Throw Punch (Improved Unarmed Strike): You can use mage hand to strike an opponent within the spell’s range. This is a melee attack that always deals 1d3 points of force damage. The mage hand has an attack bonus equal to your caster level plus your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier, whichever is highest. Spell resistance applies against this ability.
OBSCURING MIST TRICKS
Shastalla of the Shackles was a bloodthirsty pirate, famous for her raids on Chelish patrols under the cover of obscuring mist. After Shastalla was caught and executed, the Pathfinder Society purchased her magical library for a small fortune to learn her secrets. In addition to the feat, skill, or other requirements listed in parentheses for each of these tricks, you must have the Magic Trick (obscuring mist) feat to use the trick.
Clinging Mist (Extend Spell, Spellcraft 6 ranks): Your thick mist is difficult to escape. A creature that leaves the obscuring mist continues to treat other creatures as if they had concealment for 1d4+1 rounds after it leaves.
Hydrating Mist (Survival 3 ranks): Your mist clings to creatures, soaking them and their equipment. This grants each creature a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves to resist effects of heat and a –4 penalty on saves against effects that deal electricity damage and spells with the electricity descriptor. This effect functions as submersion in water for aquatic creatures and penetrates the skin, hydrating creatures in the mist as if they consumed a canteen full of water.
Mist Screen (Heighten Spell): You can shape your obscuring mist into a dense wall of mist with an area up to one 10-foot square per 2 levels. The sections of wall are 5 feet thick and must remain contiguous, but they do not need to be anchored to a solid surface. At least one section of the wall must include your space. Creatures standing within the wall have concealment. Creatures on the opposite side of the wall have total concealment.
Obscure Self (Stealth 6 ranks): You reduce the area of the obscuring mist to your space plus all adjacent squares, but the mist is no longer stationary and instead automatically moves with you when you move. This does not create enough concealment to attempt Stealth checks. As a swift action, you can anchor the mist, causing it to become stationary and allowing enough concealment to hide. You can release the mist as a swift action, allowing it to move with you again. If you take any fire damage while this trick is in effect, the spell immediately ends.
Obscure Terrain (Selective SpellAPG): Your mist rests low to the ground, blocking sight to all underfoot and making the area difficult to traverse. Your obscuring mist takes up the same area, but no longer blocks sight of other creatures. Instead, all creatures moving through the mist treat the area as difficult terrain. A creature can spend a move action to treat the area as normal terrain until the end of its turn.
Quenching Mist (Spellcraft 6 ranks or water subtype):You can issue a forceful blast of pressurized mist in a 15-foot cone instead of casting obscuring mist normally. This blast automatically quenches any nonmagical fires and functions as dispel magic against magical fires as long as those fires are Medium or smaller. The duration changes to instantaneous and the spell gains the water descriptor. Creatures with the fire subtype within the cone take 1d6 points of damage for every 2 caster levels (maximum 5d6) you have (half on a successful Reflex save).
PRESTIDIGITATION TRICKS
Though magical practitioners around the multiverse make daily use of prestidigitation, Poshment the Peculiar was the first to dabble in prestidigitation’s many possibilities. Through dedicated study and dubious field tests, he was able to find many more uses than dying his clothes and cleaning up a spell component closet. By the time he had graduated from the Arcanamirium in Absalom, he had already learned to permanently dye clothes and even paint on canvas using only his spellwork. Over the years, he expanded prestidigitation from a multi-use spell to a work of art. In addition to the feat, skill, or other requirements listed in parentheses for each of these tricks, you must have the Magic Trick (prestidigitation) feat to use the trick.
Adjust Scent (Survival 6 ranks): You can adjust the smell of an object or willing creature to become more or less powerful, respectively doubling or reducing by half the distance needed to detect the target with the scent universal monster ability.
Chromatic Savant (Disguise 3 ranks or gnome): When you change the color of an item, the changes are permanent. You can also change the color of part or all of a living being, but the effect gradually fades away in about a month. You must succeed at an appropriate Craft check to create complex or specific designs.
Lasting Changes (Extend Spell): The effects of your prestidigitation spells persist for 1 hour per caster level; this does not change its spell level.
Minor Levitation (Spellcraft 3 ranks): You can cause up to 1 pound of material to become weightless and direct it to move up to 5 feet each round as if under the effects of levitate.
Repulsive Flavor (Craft [cooking] 3 ranks): You can cause a willing creature to taste foul. Once a creature with a bite attack successfully attacks the target of your spell, the target gains a +2 circumstance bonus to AC and CMD against bite attacks and grapple checks made with a mouth, such as the grab ability or swallow whole, from that creature.
Thaumaturgic Aesthetics (Bluff 3 ranks, Disguise 3 ranks, Deceptive): While you have a prestidigitation spell active, you can thematically change the effects of other spells you cast, such as changing the color of a fireball, granting your magic missile a specific shape, or adding a floral smell to your mage armor. This increases the DC of Spellcraft and Knowledge (arcana) checks to identify your magic by an amount equal to half of your ranks in Disguise (minimum 1).
SHIELD TRICKS
Kah’la is one of the more studious magi to ever graduate from the Arcanamirium. Though her professors had hoped she would make a fine magical theoretician, she joined the Pathfinder Society and put her theories on abjuration to good use. In addition to the feat, skill, or other requirements listed in parenthesis for each of these tricks, you must have the Magic Trick (shield) feat to use the trick.
Friendly Shield (BodyguardAPG): When using the Bodyguard feat, you can instead grant your ally the benefit of your active shield spell. You lose the spell’s benefits and your ally gains these benefits for the spell’s duration.
Force Bash (Improved Bull Rush, Improved Shield Bash):While the shield spell is active, as a standard action you can cause your shield to fly toward a target within 30 feet and attempt to bash it. On a successful ranged attack roll, the spell deals 1d8 points of force damage plus 1 point per 3 caster levels (maximum +5 at 15th level). If it deals damage, you can also attempt a bull rush combat maneuver with the shield as a free action. The shield has an attack bonus equal to your caster level plus your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier, whichever is highest. Using the shieldin this way consumes 1 minute of the spell’s duration. Spell resistance applies against this ability.
Force Equipment (Equipment Trick [shield] [Pathfinder Player Companion: Adventurer’s Armory 22]): You can use your shield spell with the Equipment Trick (shield) feat for the following tricks: Break Ground, Hurl Shield, Little Wall, Ricochet Shield, Shield Gag.
Instant Cover (Spellcraft 6 ranks): While the shield spell is active, as an immediate action you can expand your shieldinto a tower shield made of force. Choose one edge of your space. That edge is treated as a wall of force, except for each 2 caster levels it has hardness 5 and 5 hit points. At the end of the current creature’s turn, the shield spell immediately ends.
Reflective Shield (Spellcraft 9 ranks): While the shield spell is active, as an immediate action you can reflect magic missilespells back on their caster as if using spell turning. Using the shield in this way consumes 1 minute of the spell’s duration.
UNSEEN SERVANT TRICKS
Who better than Seganam, a conjuration professor at Korvosa’s Acadamae, to discover a variety of applications for unseen servant. Originally he modified the spell to assist with his alchemical experiments, but over time he learned to make these servants function in a variety of ways. Today, armor-clad servants stand perpetual guard outside his office. In addition to the feat, skill, or other requirements listed in parentheses for each of these tricks, you must have the Magic Trick (unseen servant) feat to use the trick.
Phantom Decoy (Disguise 6 ranks): Your servant can inhabit a suit of armor as if wearing it, appearing as haunted armor. This reduces the unseen servant’s movement speed as normal armor would. Attacks against the unseen servanttarget an AC equal to 10 plus the armor bonus from the armor. Any successful attack damages the armor as if it were targeted by a sunder combat maneuver. An area effect that deals 6 or more points of damage destroys the unseen servantas usual.
Unfettered Servant (Reach Spell): Without increasing the spell slot, you increase the range of your unseen servant to long. If the servant moves beyond the spell’s range, it finishes its current task before it ceases to exist.
Unseen Apprentice (Combat Casting, Spellcraft 3 ranks):You servant is gifted with a spark of magical prowess. If the servant is adjacent to you when you attempt a concentration check, you gain a +1 bonus to the check. This bonus increases to +2 when you have 10 or more ranks in Spellcraft.
Unseen Assistant (Craft [any], Perform [any], or Profession [any] 3 ranks): You infuse your servant with the spirit of creativity. It can assist you as if successfully using the aid another action with a single Craft, Profession, or Perform skill in which you have 3 or more ranks. Alternatively, it can use any of these skills itself, using half of your total bonus for that skill.
Unseen Squire (armor proficiency): Your servant can assist any character in donning armor with which you are proficient. When doing so, that character is considered as having help to don her armor and can do so in half the usual time: 5 rounds for light armor, 1 minute for medium armor, or 2 minutes for heavy armor.
Unseen Warrior (base attack bonus +3): You imbue your servant with the spirit of battle, reducing the duration to 1 round per level but allowing it to take aid another actions in battle on your turn. The servant has an attack bonus equal to your caster level plus the highest of your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifiers.
REMINDER TO THE READER
“Most of these spells require multidisciplinary study, and it would be absurd to become the master of even one spell, much less all the spells I’ve listed. My recommendation is to find a trick or two that you find intriguing, master it, and always keep that spell at hand.Even I cannot perform half of the magical tricks that I’ve researched. It took Cylindia the Sly months to master mage hand and my cousin Poshment practically a decade to perfect prestidigitation. Currently, Seganam is researching more utility uses for unseen servant. Myself, I’m diligently debating the different discussions on daylight to determine the most direct development for my dissertation.”
