Bloodborn Magus (Magus/Sorcerer)

Although most magi develop their magical talents through years of study, there are those who are simply born with the gift of magic. These bloodborn magi instead dedicate their time to learning how to harness and perfect the magical talents within their blood, often sacrificing their skills with the blade. Having great confidence from their blood-fuelled magic, bloodborn magi are often intimidating foes or cunning diplomats. Still, they are formidable foes that surge with arcane energies and can dominate the battlefield. (Original Concept by Alfray Stryke)

Primary Class: Magus.

Secondary Class: Sorcerer.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Dice: d8.

Bonus Skills and Ranks: The bloodborn magus may select three sorcerer skills to add to his class skills in addition to the normal magus class skills. The bloodborn magus gains a number of ranks at each level equal to 2 + Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The bloodborn magus is proficient with all simple and martial weapons. A bloodborn magus is also proficient with light armor. He can cast magus spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a bloodborn magus wearing medium armor, heavy armor, or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass bloodborn magus still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Spellcasting: The bloodborn magus casts arcane spell drawn from the magus spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a bloodborn magus must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class (DC) for a saving throw against a bloodborn magus’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the bloodborn magus’s Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a bloodborn magus can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Bloodborn Magus Spells per Day. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

The bloodborn magus’s selection of spells is extremely limited. A bloodborn magus begins play knowing four 0-level spells and two 1st-level spells of the bloodborn magus’s choice. At each new bloodborn magus level, he gains one or more new spells, as indicated on Table: Bloodborn Magus Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a bloodborn magus knows is not affected by his Charisma score.)

Upon reaching 5th level, and at every third bloodborn magus level after that (8th, 11th, and so on), a bloodborn magus can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the bloodborn magus “loses” the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level magus spell the bloodborn magus can cast. A bloodborn magus may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

A bloodborn magus need not prepare his spells in advance. He can cast any spell he knows at any time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.