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C R E D I T S

Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and the new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, and Peter Adkison.

This product uses updated material from the v.3.5 revision.

This WIZARDS OF THE COAST® game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any

form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 System License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, DUNGEON MASTER, d20, d20 System, WIZARDS OF THE COAST, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual, Complete Mage, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., in the U.S.A. and other countries.This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. Printed in the U.S.A. ©2006 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

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GREAT BRITAINPlease keep this address for your records620–95384720–001–EN

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1ISBN-10: 0-7869-3937-0 First Printing: October 2006 ISBN-13: 978-0-7869-3937-4

D E S I G N

SKIP WILLIAMS, PENNY WILLIAMS, ARI MARMELL, KOLJA RAVEN LIQUETTE

D E V E L O P M E N T T E A M

ANDY COLLINS, MICHELE CARTER, MATTHEW SERNETT

E D I T O R S

MICHELE CARTER, M. ALEXANDER JURKAT

E D I T I N G M A N A G E R

KIM MOHAN

D E S I G N M A N A G E R

CHRISTOPHER PERKINS

D E V E L O P M E N T M A N A G E R

JESSE DECKER

D I R E C T O R O F R P G R & D

BILL SLAVICSEK

P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E R S

JOSH FISCHER, RANDALL CREWS

S E N I O R A R T D I R E C T O R D & D

STACY LONGSTREET

A R T D I R E C T O R

KARIN JAQUES

C O V E R A R T I S T

MATT CAVOTTA

I N T E R I O R A R T I S T S

MIGUEL COIMBRA, ERIC DESCHAMPS, WAYNE ENGLAND, CARL FRANK, RANDY GALLEGOS, RALPH HORSLEY, JIM NELSON, ERIC POLAK, MIKE SCHLEY, RON SPENCER, ANNE STOKES, ARNIE SWEKEL, EVA WIDERMANN, KIERAN YANNER

C A R T O G R A P H E R

MIKE SCHLEY

G R A P H I C D E S I G N E R

KARIN JAQUES

G R A P H I C P R O D U C T I O N S P E C I A L I S T

ANGELIKA LOKOTZ

I M A G E T E C H N I C I A N

CHRISTINA WILEY

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ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

What’s in this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4What You Need to Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1: Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Nature of Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Wielding Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Arcane Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Arcane Versus Divine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Arcane Versus Innate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Spell Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8School Specialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Abjuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Conjuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Divination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Enchantment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Evocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Illusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Necromancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Transmutation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Arcane Archetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Blaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Booster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Generalist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Necromaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Sniper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Spy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Strategist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Summoner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Filling the Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2: Character Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Alternative Class Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Arcane Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Arcane Stunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Armored Mage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Curse Breaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Divine Counterspell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Divine Magician . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Elemental Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Focused Specialist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Soulwarp Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Spell Refl ection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Spell Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Spellbreaker Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Stalwart Sorcerer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Heritage Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Reserve Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Tactical Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Feat Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Acidic Splatter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Alacritous Cogitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Aquatic Breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Battlecaster Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Battlecaster Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Blade of Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Borne Aloft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Captivating Melody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Clap of Thunder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Cloudy Conjuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Clutch of Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Dazzling Illusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Defending Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Delay Potion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Dimensional Jaunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Dimensional Reach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Drowning Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Elemental Adept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Energy Abjuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Energy Gestalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Face-Changer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Favored Magic Foe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Fearsome Necromancy . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Fey Heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fey Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fey Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fey Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fey Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fiendish Heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fiendish Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fiendish Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fiendish Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fiendish Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Fiery Burst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Hasty Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Hurricane Breath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Insightful Divination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Invisible Needle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Magic Device Attunement . . . . . . . . . 44Magic Disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Magic Sensitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Master of Undeath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Melodic Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Metamagic School Focus . . . . . . . . . . 45Metamagic Spell Trigger . . . . . . . . . . 45Metamagic Vigor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Minor Shapeshift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Mystic Backlash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Piercing Evocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Ranged Recall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Rapid Metamagic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Residual Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Retributive Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Shadow Veil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Sickening Grasp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Somatic Weaponry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Storm Bolt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Summon Elemental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Sunlight Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Touch of Distraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Toughening Transmutation . . . . . . . . 48Unsettling Enchantment . . . . . . . . . . 48Vengeful Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Wind-Guided Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Winter’s Blast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

3: Prestige Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Abjurant Champion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Eldritch Disciple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Eldritch Theurge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Enlightened Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Holy Scourge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Lyric Thaumaturge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Master Specialist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Nightmare Spinner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Ultimate Magus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Unseen Seer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Wild Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

4: Spells and Invocations . . . . . . . . . . 89Spell Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

New Assassin Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89New Bard Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90New Cleric Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90New Druid Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91New Hexblade Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92New Paladin Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92New Ranger Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92New Sorcerer/Wizard Spells. . . . . . . 92New Wu Jen Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Spell Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95New Warlock Invocations . . . . . . . . . . . 122Invocation Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

5: Arcane Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Rods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Staffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130Wondrous Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Alchemical Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134Optional Material Components . . . . . 135

6: Arcane Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137What Are Arcane Adventures? . . . . 137Arcane Adventure Themes . . . . . . . 137One Hundred Adventure Ideas . . . 138

Magical Locations as Treasure . . . . . . . 141Placing Magical Locations . . . . . . . . 142Nature of Magical Locations . . . . . . 142

Location Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142Bigby’s Tomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143Boccob’s Reading Room . . . . . . . . . . 145Boneyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146Cloudseat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147Crypt of Wee Jas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148Dragonsblood Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149Eternal Vortex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Metamagic Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151Rainbow Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Shieldstone Cavern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153Soulheart Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154Vale of Smoke and Fog . . . . . . . . . . . 155Worldmeet Glade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

SidebarsSwift and Immediate Actions . . . . . . . . . 4Arcane Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30A Wizard Describes

Preparing a Spell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Using Reserve Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36A Rogue Survives a

Phantasmal Strangler Spell . . . . . . . . 46The Polymorph Subschool . . . . . . . . . . . 91Behind the Curtain:

Magical Locations as Treasure . . . . 141Bigby’s Slapping Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

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IntroductionWelcome to Complete Mage, a rules supplement for the DUN-GEONS & DRAGONS® game. This book is a resource for players, expanding greatly on their options for arcane magic, detailing the methods and techniques by which that magic functions, and even opening up the use of arcane effects by traditionally nonspellcasting characters. In addition, Dungeon Masters can use it to build more interesting NPCs and challenges, to design adventures around arcane themes, and to sprinkle the various viewpoints of arcane magic throughout an entire campaign setting.

WHAT’S IN THIS BOOKComplete Mage contains information for players and DMs, and most of its contents are applicable to both. Fundamentals (Chapter 1): This chapter is a treatise on arcane magic. Where does it come from? Why does it work the way it does? What does it mean to be an arcane caster? This chapter strives to answer these questions, and to expand a DM’s setting as it does so. Players will fi nd material here that enables their characters to portray true students of the mystic arts, well studied in all the major secrets of arcana. It also includes tips and tactics for playing a wide range of arcane characters. Character Options (Chapter 2): New insight into arcane magic is far more useful when the players have new options with which to exercise that advantage. A wide range of feats aimed at arcane spellcasters fi lls most of the chapter. Heritage feats give your arcanist character an interesting origin story, while reserve feats allow a spellcaster to extend her power over a series of encounters. In addition to feats, this chapter includes several arcane-themed alternative class features (a concept introduced in Player’s Handbook II). These options allow members of other classes to get a taste of what it’s like to be an arcanist without sacrifi cing their core identity. Prestige Classes (Chapter 3): Every mage yearns to bring her own spin to arcane magic, and the eleven new prestige classes in this chapter provide a wide range of options for

arcane spellcasters. Every one of these classes showcases a certain aspect of arcane magic, from the traditional (the master specialist) to the outright unusual (the enlightened soul, a warlock whose powers derive from celestial sources rather than infernal ones). Spells and Invocations (Chapter 4): This chapter offers a large number of new spells for arcane casters, as well as new invocations for the warlock. These spells and invoca-tions add new elements of utility, new combat options, and new techniques. Many of the spells are designed to open up new tactical combinations, to combine elements of two other spells into one effect, or to provide lower-level ver-sions of high-level spells that might not see frequent use in play. Arcane Items (Chapter 5): Containing new options for players and DMs, this chapter focuses on items that expand on the precepts put forth elsewhere in Complete Mage. The rings, rods, staffs, and optional spell components provide new capabilities for spellcasting characters, while the alchemical items and many of the wondrous items herein make arcane effects available to noncasting characters. Arcane Adventures (Chapter 6): The only DM-specifi c part of the book, this chapter discusses how to design adven-tures around an arcane theme. It provides sample adventure ideas and magical locations—including maps—for use in almost any adventure or campaign.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAYComplete Mage updates and expands upon material found in the Player’s Handbook (PH), the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), Monster Manual (MM), and Complete Arcane. Although you can benefi t from much of this material even if you don’t have Complete Arcane, that book is necessary to make full use of Complete Mage and to take full advantage of the new options and mechanics presented herein. In statistics blocks, spell lists, and other places throughout the book, an asterisk (*) denotes a new game feature described elsewhere in Complete Mage. In running text, each mention of a new game feature is accompanied by a page reference. Finally, the superscript notation CA in statistics blocks signi-fi es a game feature found in Complete Arcane.

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SWIFT AND IMMEDIATE ACTIONSPrevious D&D game supplements have made use of two kinds of actions not described in the core rulebooks—the swift action and the immediate action. Some of the class features, feats, spells, and items in Complete Mage use these concepts. Swift Action: A swift action takes a small amount of time but represents a larger expenditure of effort than a free action. You can perform one swift action per turn without affecting your ability to perform other actions. However, you can perform only one swift action per turn, regardless of other actions you take. Casting a quickened spell is a swift action. In addition, casting any spell with a casting time of 1 swift action (such as battlecry; see page 96) is a swift action. Casting a spell with a casting time

of 1 swift action does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Immediate Action: An immediate action takes a very small amount of time but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. Unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be performed any time—even if it’s not your turn. Using an immediate action on your turn is the same as using a swift action, and doing so counts as your swift action for that turn. You cannot use another immediate action or a swift action until after your next turn if you have used an immediate action when it is not currently your turn (effectively, using an imme-diate action before your turn is equivalent to using your swift action for the coming turn). You also cannot use an immediate action if you are currently flat-footed.

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hat is magic? That question has vexed sages and philosophers for centuries. Even people who wield the mightiest spells seem reluctant to give a simple answer. For purposes of this

book, magic entails forces or phenomena that somehow tran-scend the natural laws that govern the world. Magic works its wonders without any discernible physical cause and often without any rational explanation. A character working magic taps into some kind of mysterious power source and shapes it into a chosen manner of effect, force, or energy that the magic wielder fi nds useful. Most scholars agree that this power source is unrefi ned magic, which is present in the universe in the same way that ordinary matter is present. Magic is simply one element in the combination of things that make up what mortals know as reality. You can fi nd matter almost everywhere you look in the universe. (Some scholars contend that even the voids of interplanetary space and the Astral Plane hold infi nitesimal bits of matter, too small to see or feel, but present neverthe-less.) Magic, too, infuses the universe, though most beings remain unaware of its invisible presence.

THE NATURE OF MAGICUnrefi ned magic cannot be seen, felt, tasted, smelled, or heard. Unrefi ned magic is best described as the poten-tial for the incredible that is inherent in the universe. Most magical practitioners admit that they cannot sense unrefi ned magic in any way (experts in the fi eld regard those who claim otherwise as eccentrics). Rather, practitioners open their minds or spirits to the possibil-ity of magic. Once they have achieved the correct mental or spiritual states, practitioners become intuitively aware of their magical potential. A variety of sensa-tions might accompany this awareness. Practitioners report a surge of confi dence, a tingle of raw power, or an impression of potent harmonics. Some perceive the harmonics as chords of unearthly music, while others describe the same phenomenon as tremors rippling through their limbs and organs. However magic is perceived, the mere fact of that sensitivity indicates the individual’s potential to shape it into a desired form.

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WIELDING MAGICEvery sentient creature is born with some potential to work magic, at least in a limited way. Even those incapable of learn-ing the simplest spell can, with practice, learn to mimic the power of a spellcaster by way of various magic items. Seri-ous students of magic, however, scoff at the suggestion that those who merely learn to trick magic items with the Use Magic Device skill are true practitioners of magic. After all, the skill merely allows characters to trigger magical effects from items through a combination of blind luck and force of personality. Someone else—a true practitioner—has already performed the truly diffi cult task of shaping and binding raw magic into the item.

ARCANE MAGICMagical practitioners must learn to work their magic through spells if they don’t wish to rely on magic items that someone else already has made. Some creatures have a natural talent for casting arcane spells (dragons and nagas, for example), but even these creatures need practice and training to perfect their talents and a little time each day to focus themselves and enable their spellcasting for the day. For a wizard or similar arcanist, the initial period of prepa-ration represents the spell’s lengthiest and most complex element. Preparing a spell involves drawing in unrefi ned magic and molding it into a specifi c magical effect that the practitioner understands and can control. For all practical purposes, preparing a spell is the fi rst step in casting it. The act of preparing a spell does not expend any part of a caster’s daily magical potential, but it earmarks a measure of that potential for a particular spell. A rapidly growing number of individuals, however, master arcane practices that ignore the act of spell preparation. These characters instead focus their talent in learning a narrow range of spells, comprising a limited scope of effects. Instead of spending long hours poring over spellbooks, these casters need mere minutes each day to ready their magical potential. One can’t help wondering if this represents merely a passing fad or an evolutionary “sea change” in arcane magic as a whole. Whether prepared or merely readied, a spell remains with the caster as magical potential until the caster chooses to trig-ger, or cast, the spell. Such an act typically requires a variety of physical props (components), ranging from a mystical phrase or gesture to an expensive or rare substance required to unleash the magic. But why so many components? Although arcanists have historically claimed that these incantations and magic pow-ders are akin to keys—necessary to unlock the fi nal effect of a spell—another, new theory has begun to gain ground among younger researchers. These energetic sages assert that components aren’t keys, but rather locks—suggesting that even the most learned of arcanists don’t fully control their own powers, and that components are necessary instruments to keep the spells in check. Whether these locks were placed by the deities themselves or are simply such an old convention that no one today questions their utility is anyone’s guess.

ARCANE VERSUS DIVINEAll spells share the characteristics discussed earlier, but all spells aren’t alike. To the layperson, there’s not much dif-ference between the spells wielded by a wizard and those cast by a cleric. To the student of magic, however, profound differences abound. Divine spellcasters draw their magical power through a specifi c source that serves as both a conduit and a fi lter. As the name suggests, the source has a divine nature, whether a deity, a whole pantheon of gods, or merely a powerful cause or ideal. Regardless of the actual source, divine magic is intensely personal and comes to the user through devotion to a concept such as law, war, or truth, or to some aspect of the universe, such as nature. Put simply, to a divine spellcaster magic is a matter of faith, not learning. Interestingly, the source of the magic seems to have little or no impact on the resulting effect. The protection from evil spell cast by a cleric functions identically to that cast by a sorcerer, even though each caster would claim that his spell results from a different power. This isn’t to say that arcane and divine magic have no differences, but rather that the differences appear in fl avor instead of effect. The mystical gestures required by divine spells tend to be less expansive and complicated than those of their arcane counterparts, but no compelling theory explains why. Those who hold to the “component as lock” theory (mentioned above) suggest that divine casters need fewer innate restrictions on their spells, since a higher power has already entrusted them with the effect. For a divine spellcaster, preparing a spell is mostly a matter of the spirit. The spellcaster prays or meditates, entreating the divine source to provide power for the spell. Arcane spellcast-ers, on the other hand, see preparing a spell as an intellectual exercise. The arcane spellcaster ponders the spell’s intricacies and builds it within his or her mind, piece by piece. Divine casters must also obey certain strictures on their use of magic, varying from limited access to spell preparation (typically to a particular time of day associ-ated with the source) to outright restrictions (such as the inability to use spells opposed to their alignment). Rare is the divine spellcaster who doesn’t have to deal with at least one quirk that an arcane caster might fi nd quaint or even outright annoying. Curiously, one arcane caster—the wu jen—shares a similar stricture in the form of taboos. This similarity suggests that the origins of the wu jen’s magical talents might lie closer to the province of the divine than commonly accepted. Despite the different methods arcane and divine casters use to prepare and cast their spells, it’s worth remembering that both groups ultimately tap the same source of magical power. Once a spell has been cast, it’s effectively impossible to tell whether it is arcane or divine. If an observer actually witnesses the casting, the spell’s components might give a clue to the spell’s nature; for example, divine spells typically employ a holy symbol as a focus for the spell. Otherwise, nothing distinguishes an arcane spell effect from a divine spell effect.

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