While some spellcasters learn their magic in formal academies or secretive cabals, others find The Art to be more like a Craft, and are largely self-taught, or learn their work apprenticed to another spellcaster much as one would learn any trade. A magician is such a spellcaster, one who learned mostly by doing. The magician practices simple, easily learned magical spells, crafts simple magical items (often of a temporary nature), and regards magic as a tool for getting things done. The magician likes his magic to be safe, reliable, easy to use, and well-tuned to the task at hand. Often derided by members of the more scholarly arcane classes as “hedge wizards” or practitioners of “low magic”, magicians are appreciated by the common folk for the practical aid their magic brings to a variety of problems, although superstitious folk often mistreat them when times are bad. A magician might be a suspicious hermit, a kindly seller of love potions and herbal remedies, the court wizard in a minor noble’s entourage, or an herbalist whose “special stock” includes alchemical items, magic potions and even poisons.

Adventures: Because magicians wield considerable power and are usually not born into great wealth, the rewards of an adventuring life often appeal to them. If a magician is a man of the common folk, he may seek adventure to champion the cause of the people. Still other magicians may have been driven from their homes by mobs that (rightly or wrongly) blamed them for bad crops, stillborn children, or other misfortunes.

Characteristics: The key feature of the magician is his ability to quickly produce the right spell for the job. Give him a few minutes to infuse a weapon and fashion a fetish, and he can support his party in a battle against undead. With an hour to craft a potion and brew a little poison for the rogue, eliminating the vigilant watchmen in order to break into the baron’s castle becomes a snap. The magician uses both spells and infusions to help the party find solutions when the other member’s abilities falter.

Alignment: Magicians are a varied lot and may be of any alignment.

Religion: Magicians who see their magic as a source of spiritual inspiration may worship Boccob, Wee Jas, or Vecna. Since they often live in a rural setting, Ehlonna and Obad-Hai appeal to many magicians. Other magicians take their inspiration where they find it, and might worship any deity.

Background: Magicians are generally either self-taught, or learned under the casual tutelage of a master magician (who may not have known much more than the student). Their knowledge and expertise varies widely, and while magicians recognize themselves as fellow practitioners of The Craft and may occasionally meet to trade scrolls and share their insights, they do not form groups. Magicians learn primarily by doing and experiencing, and no magician has time for more than one or two apprentices, so they have little need for organization.

Races: All races boast magicians among their numbers, but dwarves and half-orcs have fewer. The tradition-minded dwarves prefer a more scholarly approach to magical study, while most half-orcs have little interest in arcane magic of any kind. Gnomes, Halflings, and Humans make perhaps the best magicians, since their nature inclines them towards the role of wandering troubleshooter.

Other Classes: Wizards and sorcerers tend to look down on magicians, regarding them as ill-educated amateurs who will never grasp true power. Fighters, monks, paladins, rangers, and rogues (who rely on spellcasters for support), regard them warmly, having noticed that the magician tends to be ready with the right magic for the job when the sorcerer is merely shrugging his shoulders and the wizard is complaining that he needs more time to prepare. Clerics and druids tend to be more concerned about the faith a magician follows and the deeds he performs than with how he acquires his arcane power.

Role: A magician most often fills the role of arcane troubleshooter, relying on his versatile infusions, large collection of spells known, and satchel full of scrolls, potions, and wands to meet any challenge. Depending on his spell selection, he might also function as the party’s diviner, rapid transport, or safecracker. His sympathetic magic makes him reasonably effective at buffing allies as well.

GAME RULE INFORMATION
Magicians have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Intelligence and Charisma are the most important abilities for a magician, as they determine how powerful a spell or infusion he can cast and how hard his spells are to resist. A magician benefits from high Dexterity and Constitution scores much as a sorcerer or wizard would.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d6

Spells Known

CLASS SKILLS (4 + Int mod per level)
A magician's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Dex), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha).

CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The magician gains proficiency with all simple weapons, but not with any armor or shield. He suffers a chance of arcane spell failure when attempting to cast spells while wearing armor or using a shield.

Spells: A magician casts arcane spells, which are drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list (although not from the schools of Conjuration or Evocation). Like a sorcerer, you need not prepare spells in advance. You can cast any spell you know at any time, assuming you have not yet used up your spells per day for that level.

Magecraft: A magician learns to create all manner of magical trinkets and enchanted items. You may ignore Item Creation feat prerequisites when crafting magic items or qualifying for feats, prestige classes, or other special features.

Cantrips: A magician can cast their cantrips at will without expending them.

Summon Familiar: At 1st level a magician can obtain a familiar, a familiar is a magical pet that enhances the wizard's skills and senses and can aid him in magic.

Infuse Magic (Sp): A magician of 2nd level or higher knows how to use a brief magical incantation and some burnt incense or specially prepared oil to temporarily infuse an item with magical power. By spending a full-round action and expending an expensive component, you can temporarily add a special property to a weapon or armor that you touch. The benefit lasts 10 minutes per caster level. At first you can imbue only minor properties, but as your magician caster level increases, so too does the potential power of your infusions, as shown on the table below.

CL	Armor or Shield Value	Weapon Value	Cost
5 or lower	+3,000 gp or a +1 bonus	+6,000 gp or a +1 bonus	10 gp
6 to 8	+8,000 gp or a +2 bonus	+16,000 gp or a +2 bonus	40 gp
9 to 11	+15,000 gp or a +3 bonus	+30,000 gp or a +3 bonus	90 gp
12 to 14	+24,000 gp or a +4 bonus	+48,000 gp or a +4 bonus	160 gp
15 or higher	+35,000 gp or a +5 bonus	+70,000 gp or a +5 bonus	250 gp

To imbue an item with an infusion, a magician must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the bonus-equivalent level of the infusion. Infusions never allow saving throws, and you cannot infuse an attended item whose possessor is unwilling. You can imbue a number of infusions each day equal to one-half your class level plus your Charisma bonus. You choose which property you will imbue at the time you imbue the infusion.

Infusion can be affected with metamagic feats (but not rods or similar effects) as if it were a spell. You must expend additional uses of your Infusion ability equal to the spell slot adjustment of the metamagic feat. This can be reduced by Sympathetic Magic as normal.

You refresh your daily allowance of infusions whenever you refresh your allotment of magician spells. Infusions used within the last 8 hours are not refreshed and count against your daily limit.

At 8th level, you can expend a daily use of infuse magic to duplicate minor creation. At 11th level, you can expend a daily use of infuse magic to duplicate major creation or fabricate. At 14th level, you can expend a daily use of infuse magic to duplicate move earth. You produce these effects as spell-like abilities, but you must still expend the normal casting time and material components as if they were spells.

Expert Familiar: At 3rd level and again at 6th, 9th, and 13th your bond with your familiar improves, allowing you to grant them a single feat they meet the prerequisites for. They can not learn any crafting feats with this ability. If you replace your familiar you may grant your new familiar the same feats.

Free Infusion (Ex): A magician of 4th level or higher can imbue an infusion as a standard action and without expending the material component or one use of Infusion. He can use this ability once per day per four levels he has.

Sympathetic Magic (Su): Magicians practice and understand sympathetic magic, a system of magecraft that relies on using items with an innate resemblance or connection to your target to establish magical influence. Upon reaching 5th level, you learn to incorporate these items into your spellcasting to improve the potency of your spells. You can incorporate an item with a personal connection to your target as an additional focus component in a targeted magician spell to increase the spell’s save DC and the DC of any checks to dispel or counter the spell by +1. However, if the sympathetic focus is destroyed, your spell is automatically dispelled. Examples of items that have a personal connection to a target include a lock of hair, article of clothing or piece of gear belonging to a creature, or perhaps earth from the grave or a bit of the corpse of a ghost.

Magician Feats

The following feats can be taken by Magicians:

Extra Infusions
Prerequisite: Infusion class feature
Benefit: You gain an additional two uses of Infusions per day.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times, but only one additional time for every four character levels you have.

Extra Free Infusion
Prerequisite: Free Infusion class feature
Benefit: You gain an extra use of Free Infusion per day.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times.

Very Sympathetic
Prerequisites: Sympathetic Magic, Magician level 12
Benefit: You can use your Sympathetic Magic to reduce metamagic adjustments one additional time per encounter.