Arcane Savant (Generalist Wizard/Lore Mastery rework)

[Grod_The_Giant]

Arcane Savant
Arcane Savants are the most academic of mages, focusing on understanding the underlying fundamentals of magic. Followers of this tradition are a bookish lot who see beauty and mystery in the application of magic. The results of a spell are less interesting to them than the process that creates it.

Magical Intuition: Beginning at 2nd level, you may add twice your Proficiency bonus to Arcana checks.
In addition, once each per short rest, you may cast Detect Magic and Identify without expending a spell slot. You also do not need to provide any somatic, verbal, or material components. Each spell may be cast once per short rest.

Mystic Rediscovery: As part of your quest to understand the essence of magic, you've mastered spells outside the range of conventional arcane magic. At 2nd level, and again at 6th and 14th level, you may choose two new spells from any class (other than Wizard-exclusive spells like Find Familiar*), of any level you can cast, and either learn them (in the case of cantrips) or add them to your spellbook. The chosen spells count as Wizard spells for you, and are gained in addition to the usual two Wizard spells you learn when gaining a new level.

Magical Analysis: Beginning at 6th level, you can automatically identify the school of any magical effect you see, as well as its level (if relevant).

Flexible Mind: Beginning at 10th level, you can replace one spell you have prepared with another spell from your spellbook as a bonus action. You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Arcane Sight: Beginning at 14th level, you are considered to be permanently under the effects of a Detect Magic spell, with no concentration required, and no action required to see magical auras. If a creature you can see is capable of casting spells, you recognize its power and know the highest level of spell it can cast. As a bonus action, you may see what spells are currently affecting a creature or object, and what their remaining duration is.



1st: Find Familiar (ritual), Grease, Tenser's Floating Disk (ritual), Arcane Lock
2nd: Melf's Acid Arrow, Nystul's Magic Aura, Rope Trick
3rd: Phantom Steed (ritual)
4th: Arcane Eye, Evard's Black Tentacles, Fabricate, Fire Shield, Leomund's Secret Chest, Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Phantasmal Killer
5th: Bigby's Hand, Passwall, Rary's Telepathic Bond (ritual), Wall of Force
6th: Chain Lightning, Contingency, Drawmij's Instant Summons (ritual), Magic Jar, Otilike's Freezing Sphere, Wall of Ice
7th: Mordenkainen's Sword, Sequester, Simulacrum
8th: Clone, Maze, Telepathy
9th: Prismatic Wall, Weird

[theVoidWatches]

I generally like this. The generalist magical master is a Wizard archetype that's essentially missing at the moment, which I think is a big oversight, and I like this version of it.

Magical Intuition is good and will help you stack up to rogues/bards when it comes to magical knowledge.

Arcane Rediscovery is great, but I don't know if you need to limit the first selection to cantrips only.

Magical Analysis is a nice effect, especially if your DM uses Xanathar's rules for identifying spells as a reaction - it'll boost your skill as a counterspeller, to know for certain the level of the effect you're countering and also be able to counter it.

Flexible Mind is good.

Magical Mastery seems like it's mostly the same thing as Magical Analysis, though. I guess Magical Analysis doesn't let you spot magic items that aren't actively using magic, but Magical Mastery does? Even so, the main part of this seems to be that you can spot other spellcasters and their power, plus another two Arcane Rediscovery spells.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I generally like this. The generalist magical master is a Wizard archetype that's essentially missing at the moment, which I think is a big oversight, and I like this version of it.
Thanks! It is weirdly lacking; I think the closest thing to a functional academic generalist type would be a Knowledge Theurgy Wizard--and that's not exactly fantastic.


Arcane Rediscovery is great, but I don't know if you need to limit the first selection to cantrips only.
Yeah, that's fair.


Magical Mastery seems like it's mostly the same thing as Magical Analysis, though. I guess Magical Analysis doesn't let you spot magic items that aren't actively using magic, but Magical Mastery does? Even so, the main part of this seems to be that you can spot other spellcasters and their power, plus another two Arcane Rediscovery spells.
It's 3.5's Arcane Sight, basically. Mostly it's a ribbon; Arcane Rediscovery carries the power element pretty much single-handedly. Punched it up a little bit, though.

[jiriku]

This is well-done.

I'd be inclined to just call the 14th level feature Arcane Sight -- this will help players who are familiar with that spell from earlier editions to recognize the basket of effects and what they can expect to do with it.

It's unclear whether Arcane Rediscovery replaces your normal spells learned at those levels or is in addition to it -- for a total of 4 spells learned at 2nd, 6th, and 14th level. If it replaces the normal spells learned, I'd encourage you not to restrict it from wizard-only spells; if you do then the arcane savant becomes weirdly less capable of learning wizard spells than other wizards are. You might also consider calling it Arcane Theurge. I suggest this because, with the exception of a handful of warlock-only spells, all of the lists you're providing access to are divine/nature casters, so the feature could be viewed as Mystic Theurge Lite. But either way, it's just a name. No biggie.

This feels like an uber-wizardy wizard. If I played in your campaign, I'd definitely consider it. In particular, I like the ability to collect obscure effects and swap in what I need during the course of the day. It's not too powerful, but it's a unique set of abilities that doesn't lock me into a particular school of magic. It's also very simple to understand the abilities and what they do.

[Grod_The_Giant]

This is well-done.

I'd be inclined to just call the 14th level feature Arcane Sight -- this will help players who are familiar with that spell from earlier editions to recognize the basket of effects and what they can expect to do with it.

It's unclear whether Arcane Rediscovery replaces your normal spells learned at those levels or is in addition to it -- for a total of 4 spells learned at 2nd, 6th, and 14th level. If it replaces the normal spells learned, I'd encourage you not to restrict it from wizard-only spells; if you do then the arcane savant becomes weirdly less capable of learning wizard spells than other wizards are. You might also consider calling it Arcane Theurge. I suggest this because, with the exception of a handful of warlock-only spells, all of the lists you're providing access to are divine/nature casters, so the feature could be viewed as Mystic Theurge Lite. But either way, it's just a name. No biggie.

This feels like an uber-wizardy wizard. If I played in your campaign, I'd definitely consider it. In particular, I like the ability to collect obscure effects and swap in what I need during the course of the day. It's not too powerful, but it's a unique set of abilities that doesn't lock me into a particular school of magic. It's also very simple to understand the abilities and what they do.
Thank you! :smallredface:

Arcane Rediscovery (and fair point about the name) is supposed to give you the spells as extras, yeah. I'll specify that. Arcane Sight is a better name for the last one, too, thank you.