Wilder Mage (Wizard/Ranger)

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

The wilder mage is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the composite longbow, composite short bow, hand crossbow, longbow, and short bow. The wilder mage is also proficient with light armor. She can cast arcane spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. Like any other arcane spellcaster, a wilder mage 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 wilder mage still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

Spellcasting

The wilder mage casts arcane spells drawn from the wizard spell list and can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her daily allotment of runes is given on Table: Wilder Mage. She also receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Intelligence score. A wilder mage otherwise learns, prepares, and casts spells as a wizard of equal level.

Focused Arcane School

At 1st level, a wilder mage gains the wizard’s arcane school ability and must select the Arcane Hunter focused arcane school. This ability replaces the ranger’s 1st, 3rd, and 5th favored enemy, and Endurance.

Wild Senses (Ex)

At 1st level, a wild mage’s life among the wild has sharpened her senses. She gains low-light vision and a +1 bonus on Perception checks. If she already has low-light vision, she gains a +2 bonus on Perception checks instead. This bonus increases by +1 at 4th level and every four levels beyond 4th (to a maximum of +6 at 20th level, or +7 if the character did not gain low-light vision from this ability). This ability replaces the wild empathy.

Combat Style Feats

This is exactly like the ranger’s ability of the same name, except that the wilder mage can only select the Archery or Crossbow combat style*. Alternatively, a wilder mage can select an item creation or metamagic feat in place of a combat style feat. *(Crossbow Style can be chosen and applied to firearms if a wilder mage chooses to use firearms instead of crossbows.)

Magic Arrow (Su)

At 3rd level, every nonmagical ammunition a wilder mage fires from a ranged weapon becomes magical, gaining a +1 enhancement bonus. Unlike magic weapons created by normal means, the wilder mage need not spend gold pieces to accomplish this task. However, a wilder mage's magic ammunition only functions for him.

In addition, the wilder mage's ammunition gain a number of additional qualities as she gains additional levels. The elemental and elemental burst weapon qualities can be changed once per day, when the wilder mage prepares spells.

At 8th level, every non-magical arrow fired by a wilder mage gains one of the following elemental themed weapon qualities: flaming, frost, or shock.

At 13th level, every non-magical arrow fired by a wilder mage gains the distance weapon quality.

At 18th level, every non-magical arrow fired by a wilder mage gains one of the following elemental burst weapon qualities: flaming burst, icy burst, or shocking burst. This ability replaces the ability gained at 8th level.

The bonuses granted by a magic ranged weapon apply as normal to ammunition that have been enhanced with this ability. Only the larger enhancement bonus applies. Duplicate abilities do not stack. This ability replaces the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th favored terrain, evasion, and improved evasion.

Favored Terrain (Ex)

This is exactly like the ranger ability of the same name, except that a wilder mage selects only one favored terrain at 3rd level. This bonus increases by +1 every six levels beyond 3rd to a maximum of +4 at 15th level.

Arcane Companion (Ex)

This is exactly like the ranger’s animal companion bond except for the following changes. The animal companion gains the Deliver Touch Spells, Speak with Master, Speak with Creatures of its Kind, and Scry on Familiar abilities of the wizard’s familiar bond. These replace the Ability Score Increase at 4th and 14th level, and the Devotion ability of the animal companion bond.

Terrain Caster (Ex)

At 7th level, a wilder mage adds his favored terrain bonus to any concentration checks, or Knowledge (arcane) and Spellcraft skill checks when within her favored terrain. In addition, the effective caster level of any spell a wilder mage casts while within her favored terrain increases by 1. This ability replaces woodland stride.

Arrow of Death (Sp)

At 20th level, a wilder mage can create a special type of slaying ammunition that forces the target, if damaged by the wilder mage’s ammunition’s attack, to make a Fortitude save or be slain immediately. The DC of this save is equal to 20 + the wilder mage's Intelligence modifier. It takes 1 day to make a slaying arrow, and the ammunition only functions for the wilder mage who created it. The slaying arrow lasts no longer than 1 year, and the wilder mage can only have one such arrow in existence at a time. This ability replaces master hunter.