|
|
- The Rhabdomancer
- A rhabdomancer (or “rhabdomere”) is a wizard learned in the use of a dowsing rod, a seemingly ordinary wooden stick which he uses to channel the ambient magic of the earth for divinatory and other purposes. Most rhabdomancers come from rural backgrounds, as urban wizards scoff at the practice. In such areas, guilds of rhabdomancers exist, but they are small and represent the trade as prospectors, the members eager to be hired to find valuable sources of water and precious metals and minerals. Some of these magicians eventually seek out new applications for their craft, exploring underground for their own ends. They might even adopt the role of guides to the caverns. Such a mage can be of any alignment.
- Most rural communities will welcome a rhabdomancer for his abilities, which seem wondrous to common folk. Using his divination powers, he can solve the mystery of stolen jewels, find a child lost in the woods, or discover a new site for a thirsty village’s new well. Even in the Everdark, the native races know something of a rhabdomancer’s ability to find new caves and lost treasure.
- Requirements: Rhabdomancers must have a minimum Intelligence and Wisdom/Insight of 10, a Constitution of 15 and an Ego/Aura of 15. Intelligence and Constitution are the rhabdomancer’s prime requisites.
- Races: Most rhabdomancers are human or gnomish. However, because of their ties with the earth, mining and underground exploration, some exceptional dwarves, Stout halflings and uldra have also managed to overcome their races’ normal aversion to wizardly magic and taken up careers as rhabdomancers. Rhabdomancers may also be found among the humanoid races of hobgoblins, orcs (and half-orcs) and kobolds, though they are rare.
- Weapon proficiencies: Required: None. Recommended: dagger, dart, small pick (much like a smaller version of the mining tool, it inflicts 2-5/1-4 hp damage).
- Nonweapon skills: Bonus: Dowsing, Reading/Writing; Recommended: Direction Sense, Endurance, Engineering, Mining, Stonemasonry.
- Spells: Specialists in the school of Rhabdomancy cannot use spells from the school of Conjuration/ Summoning. However, rhabdomancers have access to several unique spells, including spells that deal with tapping magical energies through the dowsing rod.
- Special benefits: Rhabdomancers gain many of the abilities of any specialist including the ability to memorize one additional spell per spell level, provided the spell selected belongs to the School of Rhabdomancy. They also gain a bonus of +15% when learning spells from their school, but suffer a penalty of –15% when learning spells from any other school. When a rhabdomancer reaches a new level, he automatically gains one spell of his school to add to his spellbook without the normally required learn spells check. In addition, when a rhabdomancer attempts to create a new spell through research, the spell is treated as if it were one level lower if it falls within his specialty school.
- In addition to these powers, the rhabdomancer gains the following abilities:
- All rhabdomancers begin the game with a bonus Modern Language skill. The language must be selected from among those used by races which are closely associated with mining (dwarven is the most common, though some learn deep gnome, and those of an evil bent may even study kobold).
- A rhabdomancer substitutes his divining rod for the material component in divination and rhabdomancy spells (except the revised locate object found below). Also, when using the divining rod, the mage may receive an increase in effectiveness when casting divination or rhabdomancy spells
- Starting at first level, a rhabdomancer receives a +1 bonus on all saves vs. rods, staves, or wands. This benefit increases by an additional +1 for every five levels of ability gained.
- Special hindrances: As these mages practice the art of divination only through the use of rhabdomancy, any attempt by them to cast rhabdomancy spell without a divining rod results in a penalty of double the normal casting time and a 10% unmodified chance of failure. Also, a rhabdomancer can never cast a reversed divinatory spell that would obscure or hinder detection, as such practices are beyond his understanding. Related to this, spells of illusion are rarely practiced, so the chance to learn any such spell is halved.
- Click here to view the School of Rhabdomancy spell list and spell descriptions.
 
|
