Mystic Expert
I’ve always felt it was a shame that “full casters” like clerics, sorcerers, and wizards are so heavily penalized by multiclassing. A fighter that takes a few levels in rogue has his attack bonus drop a bit, and may lose out on a couple high-level abilities, but a wizard who takes more than 3 levels in something else forever loses access to an entire level of spells, and even one or two levels in another class can put you seriously behind the curve when it comes to your ability to affect opponents with your spells. Today’s Best in Class is designed to give spellcasters a tiny bit more freedom when it comes to multiclassing, with a prestige class that allows them to “make up” for lost spell levels.
New Prestige Class
Mystic Expert
Dedicated to their studies, mystic experts are the ultimate academics when it comes to their particular field of magic. Studious collectors of esoteric lore and magical trade practices, these savant spellcasters are able to advance rapidly in their chosen style of magic. They particularly excel in identifying the spells of others, and using that knowledge to mitigate that magic, but are also able to draw upon secret techniques to enhance their magic to great effect.
Role: The mystic expert is best suited to characters that are dedicated spellcasters, but who for whatever reason have branched out into another class that does not improve their spellcasting ability. Granting a “fast track” back to full magical potential, most members of this class will serve the same role as whatever their primary spellcasting class is, although they will likely have a few unique tricks up their sleeve that may alter their role in a party.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d6
Requirements
To qualify to become a mystic expert, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks.
Feats: Any one metamagic feat.
Spells: Able to cast 3rd-level spells.
Class Skills
The mystic expert’s class skills are Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Class Features
All of the following are features of the mystic expert prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Mystic experts gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Spells per Day: When a new mystic expert level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in any one spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of mystic expert to the level of whatever other spellcasting class he has in order to determine his spells per day, spells known, and caster level. If a character had more than one spellcasting class before he became a mystic expert, he must decide to which of those classes he adds each such increase.
At 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels, the mystic expert adds two levels to his existing spellcasting class, instead. This cannot increase his effective spellcasting ability for that class beyond his total character level. For example, a wizard 7/mystic expert 3 would cast spells like a 10th-level wizard, as would a wizard 6/fighter 1/mystic expert 3.
Overcast (Su): A mystic expert is able to pour additional magical power into a single spell, allowing him to overcast it. If the mystic expert prepares spells, he must choose which spell to overcast when he prepares his spells, whereas if he casts spells spontaneously, he may choose to overcast a spell as it is cast. When the mystic expert overcasts a spell, he may choose a single metamagic feat he knows, and apply that feat’s effects to the spell without increasing its spell level, and he treats his caster level as though it were 2 higher than it actually is for the purposes of that spell. However, overcast spells are difficult to cast correctly, and the mystic expert must succeed on a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + twice the spell’s level + 5 per spell level the metamagic feat would normally increase the spell’s level by) or the spell is lost.
At 1st level, a mystic expert can use this ability to apply a total of 1 spell level’s worth of metamagic to his spells each day. At 4th, 7th, and 10th levels, this limit is increased by 1, to a maximum of 4 spell levels’ worth of metamagic at 10th level. These spell levels can be divided amongst different spells as the mystic expert chooses.
Bonus Metamagic Feat: At 2nd level, and every 3 levels thereafter, the mystic expert gains a bonus metamagic feat of his choice. He must still meet the prerequisites of the chosen feat.
Spell Connoisseur (Ex): By 3rd level, a mystic expert is a connoisseur of magical technique. He gains a bonus equal to 1/2 his mystic expert level on Spellcraft checks made to identify spells or decipher magical writings.
Dispeller’s Knack (Ex): By 6th level, a mystic expert is able to turn his broad knowledge of spells to his advantage when dispelling or countering enemy magic. He gains a +2 bonus on caster level checks made to dispel spells that he has successfully identified. This also applies on caster level checks made to overcome spells in other ways, such as when using break enchantment to remove a bestow curse spell, but only if the spell in question is successfully identified.
Scholarly Defense (Ex): Forewarned is forearmed, and by 9th level, a mystic expert is able to use his vast spell knowledge to better defend against his foes’ spells. He gains a +1 bonus on saving throws made to resist the effects of spells he has successfully identified.