The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

I probably shouldn’t have been surprised we all shared the same set of Traits.

Which meant I knew what to choose. “Warcaster Tradition and Magical Lineage, align to Shard-type spells.”

Each giving -1 to the total cost of Metas attached to Shard-type spells via different inherited means. I had little doubt that this place of pristine wilderness was much more dangerous than it appeared. The problem was that I was low Level, and if I shot straight up in Levels, huge amounts of the Karma I had were just going to go to waste.

Also, I needed to eat and drink. That I could solve at Renewal when I got another Class Level, but it was still a concern.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about temperature extremes at all. The Ritual of the Fiery Heart and the Ceremony of the Frozen Soul seem to have come through... although what was that 1% about?...

Didn’t matter, I had to finish building myself back up magically, pulling up the knowledge I had and applying it.

Master Archtheurge Incarnation, what does that do?

You have inherited the knowledge and practice of your progenitor if you follow in his footsteps. You have accelerated ability to satisfy requirements for Weirding and making Efficient your Metamagic Feats and Spells that he has already mastered that way.

“Holy shit!” I whispered quietly, and then ran my tongue around my teeth at the sound of my new voice and the contours of my mouth.

Fewer base rep counts was huge! Wow, that would save me a lot of time! Getting cut off ol’ Ael was definitely coming with some perks here...

Okay, let’s take care of some other things.

Languages, auto-allocate. I grimaced as I recalled Aelryinth knowing literally hundreds of languages and dialects thereof, and I was going to get... Human, plus six, for now.

Druidic, Fey, Dragon, Jotun, Aklo, and... Necrus. Because Undead were goddamn everywhere...

Wizard/1, swap Scribe Scroll for Signature Spell/Shards. I wasn’t going to be Scribing jack at this point, I could regain the Feat with a Level in Artificer, and -1 to total Meta Cost with +2 to Caster Level was important with a base CL of 1.

Improve Arcane Bond to Witchbonded Ring, which would make it a spellbook and center it with the Ring Domain. I noted in my list it manifested as Moonbonded Ring, and there was literally a swirl of power prickling at my scalp and hair as a lock of my hair wound around my finger and detached itself into a delicate white Ring there.

Huh. Well, right, Witchbonded meant a Patron, and with Sylune’s Grace, there was no doubt I had a Patron... they just weren’t in the local Heaven. It wasn’t a ‘real’ Ring, so I couldn’t upgrade it, but I could find one later. At least I had a virtual spellbook now.

Also gave me the Force Armor spell and Protection from Rain Cantrip for Domain spells, which was nice enough. And it formed my spellbook!

Sage Sorcerer, remove Telekinetic Throw and swap for Power in the Blood, +1/die of damage to all Spell Focused or Bloodline Spells.

I received Wizard spells equal to my Intelligence bonus, plus three. Sorcerer and Wizard spells were identical, so I didn’t need to overlap, they were only prepared differently. I could put two into Spell Engrams right now, plus two more since I was so bloody smart. Also, the entire list of basic Cantrips I knew of was already in the Ring, so I could swap those out at Renewal, if there was such a thing here.

I didn’t see any Familiar awaiting me here, so upgrade Arcane Bonded Ring to Item Familiar, removing the immediate need for a high QL Ring to start infusing with Karma. As long as I got some Karma in, I could improve it, and it would improve with Level regardless.

I was going to call it Zeben, of course.

Comprehend Languages, Force Disk, Unseen Servant, Run, True Seeking, True Dodge, Shield, Energy Grasp, and Vanish flashed out of half-memory into reality, and went into my Ring. I Slotted in Run, Vanish, True Dodge, and Comprehend Languages, just in case.

Then I picked Arcane Domain: Healing for a Feat, which gave me a Valence 1 Healing Domain Slot I could fill with Cure Light Wounds or Faith Healing, and the bonus Cantrip Stabilize. I picked Faith Healing, which basically maximized the Healing effect if the target shared faiths with the Caster (minimizing it if not), and Casters always did so with themselves. It also became a Wizard Spell, could be written to my Ring, and I could take it in my fourth Slot, giving me two Healing spells if I needed them.

The Healing Domain gave +1 Caster Level to Healing spells, and gave +50% to Healing effects at Six. That was a ways away, but that was fine for now.

Pick Warcaster or Scholar, basically extra damage or extra spells. Warcaster Focus: +Intellect in damage as a Kicker to all Valence Spells Cast.

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Fae

Female* Human/1

Vizard/3**; Wizard/1; Sorcerer/1 (Arcane Sage)

Strength (10): 8

Dexterity (16): 16

Constitution (16): 18

Intellect (16): 22

Wisdom (12): 16

Charisma (12): 16

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Height: 5'5" Weight: 95 lbs. Hair: White Eyes: Silver (Warlock Sign, Blue) Age: 15

Health: 12

Soak: 27

Movement: 30’

Talent: Naturally Focused

Acquired Powers: Immune to Fire and Cold, affinity for Fire and Cold Magic (1%/1%); Sylune’s Grace; Master Archtheurge Incarnation

Racial Bonus: Intelligence (+2)

Skill Points: 3 (40 Unallocated)

Masteries: 6 (9+1 Unallocated)

Feats: 1 (10+1 Unallocated)

Traits: 2

Favored Class Points: Unchosen

=============

I was in the position of being able to take four different Feats that could only be taken at Level One. No, wait, seven of them. That... was pretty impressive. Abusable, too.

First one, Dauntless. Immunity to the effects of Fear.

This was an inner mentality change, as opposed to the magical protection of my Pact. Magical protections could be overcome, but the Valor of Heaven Aura didn’t necessarily keep you calm and collected, it just meant you weren’t afraid and ignored fear effects that weren’t incredibly powerful. Indeed, its biggest effect was helping those around you stay unmoved by fear.

Dauntless meant I could be flat-out terrified and would be thinking as calmly and cleanly as normal, instead of being a quivering wreck.

Disciplined Intellect. Use Intellect in place of Wisdom for all relevant skills and saves. Max out that Intellect bonus, baby!

Enterprising; All Classes are Favored Classes for FC Benefits

Fast Learner: Gain a second Favored Class Benefit for Favored Classes.

My Favored Class Benefits popped to 12 instantly, not 10. It appeared that I had six Class Levels? I hadn’t inherited that... another special rule? I focused on it... that was only possible if I was getting FC benefits for... Human?

My level in Human... was an automatic Primary Class? My Racial Class was a Primary Class?!

I looked at the Assay for a long moment, digesting what that meant. I mean, I knew about the Human Racial Class from the Sending, but I was given to understand that it had a natural restriction on your Character Class Levels.

That... didn’t seem to be the case right now?

My eyes went to those little Stars orbiting my Matrix. The ones that kept reacting as I kept Slotting spells and using Cantrips.

Taking Human Levels allowed you to advance a Caster Class, and those Star things were accumulations of Mana. They were probably tied to my Human Levels somehow, only I didn’t know how, or why. They just seemed to be... enjoying themselves as they circled my Matrix...

Ugh, I wanted to dive into the puzzle, but I had to get through this.

Pure Soul: Immune to spiritual Taint, Corruption, and horror effects; sensitive to the presence of such effects.

Perhaps overkill, but if this place didn’t have an active Heaven, I had no confidence the opposite side was restraining itself. The last thing I needed was to be affected by the stuff.

Total party pooper, I know, making myself immune to spiritual degradation that wasn’t of my own free will... and hey, Heavenbound Pact here to warn me I was going downhill, happy happy!

Augment Healing: +2/die to all effects with the Healing Descriptor. A nice little Feat, not too impressive, until...

Vivic Spell (+1): Give target spell the Healing descriptor. +1d6 Kicker of Healing-type vivic damage.

Which worked in all the right ways for all the wrong reasons. Mastery of positive energy could buff combat spells, too, you just needed that little connection...

Take a slight detour, and rapidly fill out my Masteries, now that I had a moment to think...

Battle Metamagic Mastery/1: Banespell (+1): Choose a creature type. Your spell does +2d6 damage to targets of that creature type in Curse damage. Banefire of the appropriate hue is visible on your spell.

Battle Metamagic Mastery/2: Split Ray (+2): Create a double of a Ray you are spellcasting. The Ray may have a separate target from the original. The Ray does the exact same damage as the Ray it is Split from.

Spellwarp Mastery/1: Convert spells of Valences of up to Mastery Level to a Ray; add +d6 Sneak Attack damage to the spell. The Ray does the exact same damage as the spell it was Warped from. Its default range is Medium, unless that of the spell is longer.

Shardcaster Mastery/1: Create an extra Shard for all Shard /Dart-type spells.

Shardcaster Mastery/2: You may change the damage type and descriptor of your Shard-type spells to any of the five Elemental descriptors; it is still also a Force spell. You may Cast an extra Shield spell as an Immediate Action 1/day.

Speed Mastery/1: Dash: +5’ to all movement speeds.

Speed Mastery/2: Fleet: +10 Fast Movement to ground speed.

Holy Metamagicks Mastery/1: Sanctified Spell (+1): Adds the Good Descriptor to a spell. Up to +3d6 bonus Holy Kicker damage to spells with supporting Good abilities.

Zealotry Mastery/1: Holy damage from spells or spell-like abilities can now affect Neutrals if desired.

Toughness Mastery/1: Gain +3 Health, or your highest Class Level in Health, whichever is higher.

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There. That gave me some good starter fuel for offensive abilities, I could now run away better, and was a LITTLE bit tougher. Elemental Dart was a Shard-type spell, and a Cantrip. I at least had some unlimited firepower if need be, even if the base was only a d4 right now.

Technically, Elemental Dart was Fire/Acid/Lightning/Cold Dart, you were supposed to memorize it to the damage type you wanted. But Shardcaster/2 took care of that on the fly, and even added the Force Descriptor to the Cantrip, happy-happy.

I brought up the set slowly, feeling the strange responsiveness of the magic, which wasn’t used to being organized and channeled in such a rigid, defined way. The Stars in my Matrix also crystallized in a shimmering red shade as what looked like finger-long ruby throwing spikes came up on either side of my hand, burning with the familiar torus of black Banefire against Undead and vivic flame, often called Taoflame. Add in Soulfire, and it was called Wrathflame.

Actual Warlock Wrath would work, too.

The two Darts spun around my hand calmly. My Caster Level on them was only 4, a measly 35 feet of range, basically point-blank for all intents and purposes... and they were touch-attacks, not auto-hits, which was a highly unacceptable margin of error when dealing with a lot of things while I was a One.

Spellwarping them to a Ray would mean going down to a Banespell or Vivus Kicker, but the range would extend to 140 feet, and there’d be two Rays, actually a damage increase to a single target.

1-4 +3-18, x2, or 2-8+3-18, or 1-4 +2-12, x2.

It really wasn’t that much damage, and it wouldn’t improve until Renewal. I was just too low of Caster Level at the moment, and didn’t have the Eldritch Theurgy to add my Warlock Blast to the mix, either.

A Warlock Blast would be 2-12+Con bonus in damage, or 6-16, also a touch attack, and also at a 75-foot range right now. All of it much too close.

If I brought my Shards up, now...

I let my Darts go, and they fractured and began to dissipate.

And were INSTANTLY sucked into two of the Stars floating around my Matrix. I blinked in surprise before my Shards came up.