The Quintessential Chaos Mage
The Quintessential Chaos Mage front cover
| Author | Patrick Younts |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2003 |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 1-904577-54-7 |
| OGL Section 15 | qcmg |
Note: Material in this section may be "mature" in nature.
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
Chaos Mage
Adventures: A chaos mage might choose to adventure for any number of reasons, ranging from base greed to enlightened humanitarianism. Frequently, a chaos mage will seek out the company of other adventurers and the thrill of exploration and combat for no other reason than excitement; after all, chaos thrives best in times of strife, conflict and ever changing fortune (a textbook definition of most adventures). Other chaos mages adventure to accumulate power and breadth of experience, the better to hone their spellcasting skills. Still others seek adventure because they recognise it to be the fastest, albeit most dangerous, method to accumulating wealth and earthly power; after all, the treasure horde of even a lesser dragon can found, or fund the overthrow of, a large kingdom.
Whatever their reasons for choosing the life of adventure, chaos mages tend to have brief but spectacularly memorable careers, their bodies inevitably succumbing to the ravages of chaos, but not before affect great change across the width and breadth of the world.
Alignment: In order to become a chaos mage, a character must be chaotic in alignment. Since chaos does not acknowledge the concepts of good or evil, a chaos mage can be otherwise good, evil or neutral, as his conscience guides him. Should a chaos mage change his alignment from chaotic, he may no longer advance as a chaos mage and loses the ability to cast chaos magic entirely.
Religion: Chaos mages are restricted to the worship of gods of chaos and neutrality. The structured and heavily restricted dogmas of lawful gods are anathema to free spirited chaos mages. Lawful gods and their servants are likewise at a loss to understand the chaos mage’s nature.
Chaos mages are most likely to worship those gods whose portfolios encompass and actively promote change, conflict, destruction, possibility and uncertainty. For this reasons, gods of war, of gambling and chance, of love, of fertility, of the elements, or of chaos itself (naturally) are most favoured, though they are by no means the only gods chaos mages worship.
A small percentage of chaos mages reject the concept of worship outright. Having, as they believe, learned to manipulate the core structure of reality, they no longer feel that they have need of gods; indeed, some believe themselves to be awakened to the first steps of a journey which will lead them to divine ascension and a place among the existing gods. Note that this does not mean that these chaos mages discount the power and influence of the gods, rather that they simply see no reason to worship those they consider nothing more than especially mighty peers.
Background: Chaos mages are a truly diverse lot, coming from all races and backgrounds. For further details on selecting an appropriate background for a chaos mage player character or non-player character, see the Character Concepts section.
One thing to always keep in mind is the chaos mage’s lack of focused, formal training. While a very lucky few with the potential to wield chaos energy will stumble upon, or be found by, a more experienced chaos mage willing to guide them, most will be forced to do for themselves, stumbling along and making mistakes until they discover what works best for them, or die in the attempt. Accordingly, most chaos mages have a strong independent streak and few long term ties.
Races: A chaos mage can be of any race. Of all the races, humans, half-elves, gnomes and half-orcs are the most likely to pursue the way of the chaos mage; humans because the Path of Chaos is a quick road to power, gnomes because their whimsical minds bend easily to the concepts of chaos, half-orcs because it suits their essentially chaotic nature and because they do not fear deformity as other races do and half-elves because the notion of limitless possibility is naturally appealing to those denied so many opportunities in polite society. Conversely, elves and dwarves rarely willingly pursue the ways of the chaos mage. Elves, with their near millennia long life spans, rightly fear the corrupting effect of chaos on the body and mind, dreading the thought of spending centuries trapped in boneless, screaming flesh. Dwarves, with their near universal belief in the rightness of law and order actually fear the power of unleashed chaos, though they are loathe to admit this even to themselves. The other races choose the Path of Chaos as whim directs them – which is, perhaps, as chaos would want it to be.
Other Classes: While even a novice chaos mage has the raw power and versatility necessary to survive as an adventurer, they find their greatest success when they work with allies whose abilities complement their own. Chaos mages tend to get on superbly with barbarians, whose barely restrained wildness appeals to the mage on both a personal and intellectual level. For the same reason, chaos mages get on well with many rogues and bards, as the members of both those professions thrive in moments of uncertainty and chaos.
Wise chaos mages respect the fighting prowess of men at arms of all sorts and quickly cultivate good working relationships with fighters, rangers and especially the aforementioned barbarians. They are more reluctant to associate with monks and paladins, because while they respect their skills and dedication to their craft, they find it difficult to work with those who are so unswervingly dedicated to lives of structure and lawfulness.
Chaos mages can and do work with druids and clerics, though they often come into conflict with both groups, as their interpretations of the true nature of the universe are often radically different. Still, so long as both parties agree to disagree, or at least agree to keep their opinions to themselves, there is no reason they cannot enjoy long and fruitful partnerships.
The same cannot usually be said of relationships between chaos mages and more traditional arcane spellcasters. Wizards, with their reliance on mystic formulas and practiced, repetitive gestures and incantations, generally despise chaos mages and disparage them as out of control amateurs with no understanding of the forces they unleash upon the world. For their part, chaos mages see wizards as hidebound weaklings, simpletons forced to rely on musty tomes and alchemical formulas as one-legged men are forced to rely on crutches. Sorcerers and chaos mages enjoy a slightly better relationship, as the members of both groups respect one another’s ability to directly tap into the primal magic of the universe. Still, it is the rare chaos mage who considers a sorcerer his equal; most see them as inferiors who lack that essential spark of genius which would allow them to truly sculpt magic at will.
Abilities: Nothing matters more to a chaos mage more than his ability to use sheer willpower to bend reality to his whims. Accordingly, Wisdom is the key ability of chaos mages. A wise chaos magician is also a long-lived chaos magician, as he understands better the balance of risk and reward inherent in wielding chaos energies.
Chaos energies are savagely unpredictable and can easily ravage the mortal form. The most successful and long-lived chaos mages are those whose bodies are capable of resisting these potentially deadly transformations. Because of this, chaos mages tend to be physically more hardy than other arcane spellcasters, with endurance and strength comparable to that of a farmhand, woodsman or even warrior. A high Constitution score is also useful for chaos mages who wish to create and enjoy the benefits of chaos magic items, as their devices function only so long as the mage is willing to devote a portion of his life energy to maintaining them.
Finally, a chaos mage with a compelling, winning personality should count himself lucky indeed; as the ravages of chaos manifest on his body (and they most assuredly will), only his ability to create and maintain friendships despite his grotesque appearance will save him from total rejection and unwilling isolation. A decent Charisma score can be all that stands between a chaos mage and embittered solitude.
Hit Die: d4
Class Skills: The following skills (and the relevant abilities) are all class skills of the chaos mage: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (alchemy) (Int), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis) and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points Per Level: 2 + Int modifier.
| Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Chaos Magic |
| 2 | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Chaos Familiar |
| 3 | +1 | +3 | +1 | +3 | |
| 4 | +2 | +4 | +1 | +4 | |
| 5 | +2 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Multiple Effects (2) |
| 6 | +3 | +5 | +2 | +5 | |
| 7 | +3 | +5 | +2 | +5 | |
| 8 | +4 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Chaos Countermagic |
| 9 | +4 | +6 | +3 | +6 | |
| 10 | +5 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Multiple Effects (3) |
| 11 | +5 | +7 | +3 | +7 | |
| 12 | +6/+1 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Purge Chaos Magic |
| 13 | +6/+1 | +8 | +4 | +8 | |
| 14 | +7/+2 | +9 | +4 | +9 | |
| 15 | +7/+2 | +9 | +5 | +9 | Multiple Effects (4) |
| 16 | +8/+3 | +10 | +5 | +10 | |
| 17 | +8/+3 | +10 | +5 | +10 | |
| 18 | +9/+4 | +11 | +6 | +11 | |
| 19 | +9/+4 | +11 | +6 | +11 | |
| 20 | +10/+5 | +12 | +6 | +12 | Multiple Effects (5) |
Class Features
All the following are class features of the chaos mage class.
Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: The chaos mage is proficient with all simple weapons, but has no proficiency with any armour or shields. A chaos mage who chooses to wear armour or bear a shield cannot feel the flow of chaos energy as well as he should; he suffers the same chance for arcane spell failure as other arcane spellcasters do, though the consequences for failure are considerably more dire. See the Chaos Sorcery chapter for full details of the potentially catastrophic effects of arcane spell failure and chaos mages.
Chaos Magic: Beginning at 1st level, the chaos mage gains the ability to work the pure essence of chaos to create nearly unlimited magical effects.
Chaos Familiar: At 2nd level, the chaos magician can awaken sentience in raw primal matter, creating a chaos familiar.
Multiple Effects: Beginning at 5th level, he can weave two spell effects into every casting. At 10th, 15th and again at 20th level, the chaos mage adds an additional spell effect to each casting, so that at twentieth level he can cast a spell with fully five unique spell effects.
Chaos Countermagic: Beginning at 8th level, the chaos mage can counter any static magic spell effect. This is identical to the counterspell ability of traditional arcane casters, with the following exceptions.
A chaos mage need never attempt a Spellcraft skill check when attempting to counter a spell. He makes a caster check against a DC of 10 + the spell’s level. A successful caster check means that the spell is countered, while a failed check leaves the chaos mage vulnerable to backlash and manifestations of the Paths of Chaos. See the Chaos Sorcery and Paths of Chaos chapters for complete details of backlash.
Chaos countermagic is capable of countering any spell, even those which are not normally affected by counterspell. When used to counter such a spell, increase the spell’s effective level by one.
Chaos countermagic can never be used to disrupt divine spellcasting.
Purge Chaos Magic: Beginning at 12th level, the chaos mage can purge himself of one level on a Path of Chaos. This has an associated experience point cost equal to 500 experience x the level of the step to be negated.
