Red Wizard — Wizard Archetype

The Red Wizards are the masters of Thay, the would-be magical overlords of the land of Faerûn. They focus on a school of magic more intently than any specialist, achieving incredible mastery of magic within a very narrow focus. Seen as cruel and evil tyrants by people across the world of Toril, a few choose to leave their region, assume secret identities, and practice magic without having to worry about political alliances and possible slave uprisings.

Early in their careers, would-be Red Wizards specialize in a school of magic and acquire a tattoo focus that prepares them for entry into the Red Wizards. All Red Wizards have some skill as a specialist wizard, and most follow that path exclusively; as opposed to a normal specialist wizard, a Red Wizard focuses on his chosen school to an exclusionary extent.

Class Skills: The Red Wizard adds Bluff and Intimidate to his list of class skills. This alters the wizard’s class skills.

School Specialization: A Red Wizard must be a specialist wizard in one of the classical arcane schools or their focused schools; further, he must choose three opposition schools rather than two. Unlike a normal specialist wizard, a Red Wizard treats any spells from his opposition schools as if they are not on his spell list; thus, he cannot prepare them in his wizard spell slots, and he cannot use spell-completion or spell-trigger items of these spells without a Use Magic Device check. This alters the wizard’s arcane school ability.

Enhanced Specialization: The Red Wizard gains two bonus spell slots per level in which to prepare spells of his specialist school, rather than one. This further alters the Red Wizard’s arcane school ability.

Tattoo Focus (Su): At 1st level, a Red Wizard gains Thayan tattoos that serve as a focus of his chosen school of specialization. This enables the Red Wizard to participate in circle magic, and confers the following benefits: He gains +1 to the DC for all saving throws against spells from his specialized school. He also gains a +1 to the effective caster level for spells of this chosen school, including caster level checks made when casting them, even if this raises the effective caster level of the spell beyond 20th. This bonus increases by +1 at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter. At 20th level, he can roll caster level checks twice for a spell from his chosen specialist school and take the better result. This replaces the opposition school spells from the wizard’s spell list.

Specialized Defense (Su): At 3rd level, a Red Wizard gains a +1 bonus to saving throws against spells from his specialized school. This bonus increases by +1 at 7th level and every 4 levels thereafter for a maximum of +5 at 19th level. At 20th level, he can reroll any 1 rolled for a save against a spell of this chosen school. This replaces the Red Wizard’s third school of opposition.

Tattoo Magic: At 5th level, the Red Wizard gains the Inscribe Magical Tattoo feat, even if he doesn’t meet the prerequisites. Attempts to dispel, disjoin or otherwise erase a Red Wizard inscribed tattoo have an additional DC of +1 per 5 levels of the Red Wizard who inscribes them, at the time of their inscribing. This replaces the wizard’s 5th-level bonus feat.

Bonus Feats: A Red Wizard adds Improved Counterspell to his list of possible bonus feats, but only in his chosen school of specialization.