Archmage

For most practitioners of the arcane arts, learning magic requires a great deal of study and practice. Even for those who draw magic from their blood, the effort can be taxing.

Not so for the archmage. This master of the arcane draws power from the very fabric of reality itself, learning to weave magic easily and naturally.

The archmage is the master of arcane magic, and many of the abilities of this path enhance your ability to cast arcane spells or greatly increase their potency. In addition, may of the options in this path increase your knowledge of magic and of those who wield it. At the highest tiers, you can begin to break down the walls between the different types of magic and alter the very fabric of reality itself.

Role

As an archmage, you use your abilities to add a great deal of power to your arcane spells, enabling them to blast through defenses and cripple foes. Your mastery over the arcane arts and your vast knowledge are of great benefit to the rest of your group, and your talent at getting the most out of magic items can prove invaluable. Although you gain little in the way of defenses, your overwhelming offensive capabilities more than make up for it—though you should still avoid being engaged in melee.

Classes

The archmage is the most common path selection for characters capable of casting arcane spells, particularly sorcerers, spellbinders, and wizards. Bards, summoners, and witches will find that this path has a great deal to offer, though some other paths might also prove useful to them.

Bonus Hit Points

Whenever you gain an archmage tier, you gain 3 bonus hit points. These hit points stack with themselves, and don’t affect your overall Hit Dice or other statistics.

Path Features

As you gain new tiers, you gain the following abilities.

Archmage Arcana

Path Ability

True Archmage

Archmage Path Abilities

1st-Tier Archmage Path Abilities

Abundant Casting (Ex)

Whenever you cast a spell that specifically targets a limited number of targets (such as “one creature/level” or “one or more creatures”), add your tier to the number of targets the spell can affect. For example, a 5th-level wizard/1st-tier archmage can target up to six creatures when casting haste (five from caster level 5th and one from 1st tier).

Alternatively, you can expend one use of mythic power when casting a spell that affects only one target (such as “one creature”) to have the spell affect an additional target. If the spell requires you to succeed at a melee touch attack, you must hold the charge in order to make a second touch attack.

Arcane Endurance (Ex)

Treat your caster level as 4 higher when determining the duration of spells you cast. This doesn’t alter any other variable effects of the spell.

Competent Caster (Ex)

You automatically succeed at concentration checks to cast arcane spells. This ability doesn’t apply to spells of the highest spell level you can cast.

Crafting Mastery (Ex)

You can craft any magic item as if you had the necessary item creation feats. If you actually have the item creation feat needed for a magic item you’re crafting, whenever you attempt a skill check to create that item, roll twice and use the higher result, and you make twice as much progress on the item for any time spent. This ability does not reduce the item’s cost or any other requirements.

Deep Understanding (Ex)

You automatically identify any arcane spell cast within 60 feet of you if it’s on your class’s spell list and you’re of a high enough level to cast it. Whenever you attempt to identify a non-artifact magic item using detect magic (or a similar arcane spell), you automatically learn its properties and command words in the first round of the spell (no Arcane Lore roll needed), but you can’t automatically determine whether it’s cursed.

Eldritch Breach (Su)

You are adept at breaching magical defenses and overcoming resistance to your magic. When attempting a caster level check to dispel an effect, overcome spell resistance, or otherwise determine whether your magic affects a target (such as with knock or neutralize poison), roll twice and take the higher result.

Elemental Bond (Su)

You are connected to one of the elemental planes. Select one elemental plane: air, earth, fire, or water. Whenever you cast a spell with a descriptor matching that plane, add your tier to your caster level for that spell. You gain resistance 10 against an energy type associated with your chosen plane—electricity for air, acid for earth, fire for fire, and cold for water. At 6th tier, this resistance increases to 20. At 9th tier, this resistance increases to 30.

Enduring Armor (Su)

You are protected by armor made of force. This armor grants you an armor bonus to AC equal to 3 + your tier. This ability is an abjuration effect with a spell level equal to your tier. If this armor is dispelled or otherwise ended, you can reactivate it as a swift action.

Energy Conversion (Su)

Whenever you cast a spell with the acid, cold, electricity, or fire descriptor, you can expend one use of mythic power to switch the energy type to a different one of those energy types. If the spell normally has its original energy type as a descriptor, it loses that descriptor and gains the new type as a descriptor. All other effects of the spell remain unchanged.

Enhance Magic Items (Ex)

Your mythic presence enhances the power of certain magic items. Add half your tier to the caster level of potions, scrolls, staves, and wands you use. When using a staff or wand, you may activate the item by expending one use of mythic power instead of one of the item’s charges.

Flash of Omniscience (Ex)

Your ability to recall information is astounding. When you take 10 on any Intelligence-based skill check, add your tier to the result. As a free action, you can expend one use of mythic power to ask one question as if using divination. The base chance for a correct answer is 70% + your highest arcane caster level + your tier (maximum 100%). The answer doesn’t come from a divine agent, but from your own native understanding; therefore, the answer is never cryptic. If you don’t get a correct answer, it’s like failing a skill check to recall knowledge, and you can’t use this ability on this question again.

Flexible Counterspell (Su)

Your mythic power enhances your ability to counter others’ spells. As an immediate action, you can expend one use of mythic power to attempt to counter a spell without needing to ready an action. You need not use the exact spell or dispel magic; you can instead expend a spell or spell slot of a level equal to or higher than the target spell.

Greater Familiar Link (Su)

You have bound yourself so deeply to your familiar that your life forces are intertwined. Any time you or your familiar takes damage, you may split the damage evenly between your familiar and yourself, with each of you taking half the normal damage (rounded down). Damage reduction, energy resistance, and other effects that mitigate damage apply individually after the damage is split. Using this ability doesn’t require an action, but it works only if you’re conscious and both you and your familiar are alive.

You must have a familiar to select this ability.

Harmonious Mage (Ex)

Your wizardly studies have expanded beyond the need to ban schools of magic to focus your studies. Choose one of your banned schools. The chosen school is no longer banned. You may learn and cast spells from this school; however, your caster level is reduced by 2 when casting spells from this school. You cannot cast a spell if your reduced caster level is lower than the minimum to cast spells of that level. In addition, you take a -4 penalty on any skill checks required to craft magic items from the school.

You must have a banned school of magic to select this ability. You may select this ability more than once, selecting a different banned school of magic each time.

Perfect Preparation (Ex)

You have discovered the secret to preparing spells without having to refer to outside sources. You can prepare any spell you previously recorded in your spellbook from memory, similar to taking the Spell Mastery feat. When you learn new spells, you can prepare them from memory but may still choose to record them in your spellbook as normal. You still must spend the normal amount of time preparing spells. You may keep or discard your spellbook as you choose.

Rapid Preparation (Su)

You can prepare a spell in an open spell slot in only 1 minute instead of the normal 15 minutes. You can prepare spells in all of your available spell slots in only 15 minutes instead of the normal 1 hour. As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to instantly prepare one spell in an open spell slot.

Resilient Arcana (Su)

Your spells and effects become more difficult to identify and dispel. Add your tier to the DC of any checks to identify your spells, recognize them as they are being cast, or dispel them using dispel magic or similar effects.

Sensory Link (Su)

As a standard action, you can see and hear through your familiar’s eyes and ears. While using this ability, you can’t see or hear using your normal senses. You can speak through your familiar using any language you know, even if the familiar can’t normally speak. You may end the link and restore your own senses as a standard action. While linked, you can expend one use of mythic power to cast a spell and have it originate from your familiar instead of you.

You must have a familiar to select this ability.

Spellbane Counterstrike (Su)

With a quick sprint, you retaliate against the caster of a spell you countered. When you successfully counter a spell, you can move up to your speed as part of the counterspell action, as long as you end your movement with the target of the counterspell within melee reach. Your movement from this ability doesn’t count toward your total movement for the round.

If the target’s casting would have provoked an attack of opportunity, you can immediately take an attack of opportunity against the target.

Telekinetic Master (Su)

You can use mage hand or open/close at will as a standard action, and you can affect unattended magical objects with mage hand. The weight limit for these abilities increases by 5 pounds per tier.

Treat your caster level as 2 levels higher when casting levitate, telekinesis, and similar spells.

Throw Spell (Su)

When casting a melee touch spell, you can expend one use of mythic power to throw that spell as a ranged touch attack. The range of this thrown spell is 10 feet per tier. If the spell allows you to make multiple melee touch attacks, you may make any number of the attacks as melee touch attacks and throw the rest as you see fit.

3rd-Tier Archmage Path Abilities

You must be at least 3rd tier to select these path abilities.

Arcane Metamastery (Su)

As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power and pick any one metamagic feat you know that increases the slot level of the spell by 0 or 1 levels. For the next 10 rounds, you can apply this metamagic feat to any arcane spell you cast without increasing the spell slot used or casting time.

You can also use this ability on an arcane spell you cast from a scroll, staff, or wand. You can’t have more than one use of this ability active at a time. If you use this ability again, any previous use immediately ends (though this doesn’t affect spells already cast). You can select this ability more than once. Each time you select this ability, the maximum spell slot level increase of the metamagic feat you can choose goes up by 1, to a maximum of 4.

Arcane Potency (Su)

Choose one of your arcane spellcasting classes. You gain four bonus 1st-level arcane spell slots for that class (like the bonus spells gained from a high ability score). This ability doesn’t change your number of spells known. You can select this ability more than once. If you choose the same arcane spellcasting class a second time, you gain four bonus 2nd-level spell slots; if you choose it again, you gain 3rd-level slots for choosing it a third time, and so on. This ability can’t grant you bonus spells for a spell level that you don’t have the ability to cast.

Component Freedom (Ex)

When you cast an arcane spell, you can ignore one component of the spell: focus, material, somatic, or verbal. You can ignore a focus or material component only if its total value is equal to or less than 100 gp × your tier. You can select this ability more than once; each time you take this ability, the number of components you may ignore for each spell you cast increases by 1.

Eldritch Flight (Sp, Su)

As a standard action, you can expend one use of mythic power to fly (as the fly spell) for a number of minutes equal to your tier. At 6th tier, you instead gain a supernatural fly speed of 60 feet (40 feet if you wear medium or heavy armor, or are carrying a medium or heavy load).

Many Forms (Su)

You can alter your appearance at will as if using alter self. You can expend one use of mythic power to change shape as if using polymorph, with a duration of 1 minute per tier. Your caster level for this ability is equal to 10 + your tier. At 6th tier, the duration of the polymorph ability increases to 10 minutes per tier.

Mirror Dodge (Su)

When hit by a melee or ranged attack, you can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to replace yourself with an illusory duplicate and teleport to any open square within 30 feet of your current position. You take no damage from this attack, which instead destroys your illusory duplicate (similar to mirror image). Using this ability requires a line of effect to the square into which you teleport.

Reverse Scrying (Su)

When you notice a scrying sensor created by a scrying magical effect, you can expend one use of mythic power as a standard action to use that sensor to observe its creator. If the initial scrying effect allows the target a saving throw, the sensor’s creator can attempt a saving throw with a DC equal to 10 plus double your tier to realize you are attempting to observe it and block this attempt. If you act strangely once you notice the sensor, its creator might realize you’re aware of it; at the GM’s discretion, you may need to attempt a Deception check against the creator’s Insight. If your reverse scrying goes unnoticed, you can expend an additional use of mythic power to control what the caster perceives, as if you had cast false vision with a duration of concentration and a caster level equal to double your tier.

Speedy Summons (Su)

When you cast a summon monster spell, the casting time is 1 standard action instead of 1 round. If you expend one use of mythic power, the casting time becomes 1 swift action.

If you’re a summoner, as a full-round action you can expend one use of mythic power to summon your eidolon.

Spell Sieve (Sp)

If you successfully counterspell an arcane spell that is on your spell list and of a level you can cast, you can absorb the countered spell’s power and use it for your own purposes. On your next turn, you can cast that spell as a spell-like ability using your arcane spellcaster level as the caster level.

If you’re a spellbinder, you gain the ability to bind a countered spell as an Echo and prepare it as a Bound Spell at the same time.

Tangible Illusion (Su)

You can temporarily transform an illusory object into a real one. As a full-round action, you can expend one use of mythic power to temporarily transform a single object created by an illusion spell that you cast into a physical, non-magical version of that object. The object lasts for 10 minutes per tier, after which it reverts to being an illusion (or vanishes, if the duration of the original illusion has expired). During that time, the illusion gains all the physical properties of the depicted illusory object. You must touch the illusion to use this ability, and the object can be no larger than 5 cubic feet per tier. For example, if you create an illusory stone door, you transform it into an actual non-magical stone door.

6th-Tier Archmage Path Abilities

You must be at least 6th tier to select these path abilities.

Channel Power (Su)

You gain the ability to channel raw arcane power into a spell. You can also expend one use of mythic power when casting an arcane spell to increase its damage by 50%. If the spell has a duration greater than 1 round, the duration doubles. Any saves required by the spell take a -4 penalty, although for mythic creatures, this penalty is reduced to -2. This spell ignores any spell resistance the targets have, although targets immune to the spell or to magic still retain that protection.

Divine Knowledge (Ex)

You can use arcane power to cast a small number of divine spells. Choose three 1st-level spells from the cleric spell list or three 1st-level spells from the druid spell list. You can add those spells to your spellbook for free and can cast those spells as if they were arcane spells on your class list. You can select this ability up to three times. Each time you select it, you choose three more spells from the same class’s spell list (cleric or druid), and the highest spell level you can select from increases by 1 (up to 2nd level the second time and up to 3rd level the third time). You must prepare spells from a spellbook to select this ability.

Eldritch Reciprocation (Su)

You can choose to take extra damage from an arcane spell to replenish mythic power. When you are hit by or fail a saving throw against an arcane spell that deals hit point damage, as an immediate action you can choose to take damage as if that spell were affected by the Maximize Spell feat. If the spell’s damage can’t be increased by the Maximize Spell feat or is already under the effect of the Maximize Spell feat, you instead take double damage from it. The spell’s damage ignores your spell resistance, energy resistance, energy immunities, and other protections against damage.

If you take at least 25 points of damage from the spell, you regain one use of mythic power.

Sanctum (Su)

You gain access to your own personal extradimensional sanctum. By concentrating for 1 minute without interruption, you conjure the door to your own personal sanctum, similar to mage’s magnificent mansion, but with the following differences.

The sanctum takes up a space equal to six 20-foot cubes per tier, shapeable when you first create it as if it were a spell whose area or effect is shapeable. The sanctum is permanent and persistent, so you can store objects within the sanctum and retrieve them on future visits. The sanctum includes one unseen servant per tier.

When you conjure the sanctum’s door, you decide which creatures can see and use it (it’s invisible and impermeable to all other creatures). The door remains until you dismiss it—a standard action with unlimited range as long as you are on the same plane as the door. If you dismiss the door while you are outside the sanctum, all creatures other than your familiar are immediately shunted outside. Conjuring the door automatically dismisses any other active door.

As a full-round action, your familiar can enter or leave the sanctum from any square adjacent to you, without using the conjured door.