Song Mage

The Song Mage is a forgotten wizard specialization from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, having debuted in "Player's Option: Skills & Powers" before relaunching in "Player's Option: Spells & Magic".

Inspired by the bards and certain ancient elven magical traditions, song mages focus on mastering the power contained within spoken spells, using the wizard's skill at weaving melody, lyrics and rhythm to create enchantments of great power. Musical proficiency or knowledge is not a strict requirement for this school, but most song mages are also virtuoso vocalists - the subtleties of pitch and expression can have tremendous effect in the casting of spells, at least in the way that they do it.

The Forgotten Realms are home to a similar breed of specialist wizard, the Spellsinger, whose magic is based on using singing and dancing to enter an ecstatic trance to channel raw magic and shape it to their will.

Song Mage

Mechanically, this specialist wizard has the following traits:

Minimum Ability Requirements: Intelligence 14, Charisma 15

Permitted Races: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, =

Prohibited Schools: Necromancy, Divination, Evocation

A song mage can memorize 1 additional School of Song spell per spell level.

An song mage receives a +15% bonus to learning spells from the School of Song, and a -15% penalty to learning spells from any other school.

An song mage automatically learns a spell from the School of Song whenever he reaches a new spell level.

When attempting to create a new School of Song spell, the song mage treats its spell level as being one level lower.

Song mages receive a +1 bonus to all saves vs. School of Song spells and magical song or vocal attacks, such as the charming song of a harpy, the roar of a sphinx, or the wail of a banshee.

Creatures targeted by a School of Song spell cast by a song mage suffer a -1 penalty to their saving throw.

Singer of Spells: All School of Song spells cast by a song mage only require a verbal component.

Whilst the above is consistent between the versions of the Song Mage, the version from Spells & Magic has some additional powers:

At 8th level, the effects of musical and sound-based magic items are increased by +50% when wielded by a song mage. Cursed versions of those items have their effects reduced by -50%.

At 11th level, a song mage can counter magical song or sound attacks 1/day; this requires the song mage to do nothing but sing whilst standing still or walking slowly for 1 round, and a song mage can sustain this "counter-harmony" for 1 full turn per level.

School of Song Spells (from "Spells & Magic"):

• Audible Glamer (1st)
• Charm Person (1st)
• Find Familiar (1st)
• Friends (1st)
• Sleep (1st)
• Taunt (1st)
• Forget (2nd)
• Summon Swarm (2nd)
• Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter (2nd)
• Whispering Wind (2nd)
• Fireflow (3rd)
• Hold Person (3rd)
• Monster Summoning I (3rd)
• Suggestion (3rd) ^ ^
• Charm Monster (4th)
• Confusion (4th)
• Emotion (4th)
• Lesser Geas (4th)
• Monster Summoning II (4th)
• Shout (4th)
• Summon Lycanthrope (4th)
• Chaos (5th)
• Dismissal (5th)
• Hold Monster (5th)
• Leomund's Lamentable Belaborment (5th)
• Monster Summoning III (5th)
• Control Weather (6th)
• Mass Suggestion (6th)
• Monster Summoning IV (6th)
• Banishment (7th)
• Charm Plants (7th)
• Monster Summoning V (7th)
• Power Word, Stun (7th)
• Spell Shape (7th)
• Binding (8th)
• Mass Charm (8th)
• Monster Summoning VI (8th)
• Otto's Irresistible Dance (8th)
• Power Word, Blind (8th)
• Monster Summoning VII (8th)
• Power Word, Kill (9th)
• Wail of the Banshee (9th)

Spellsinger

The Spellsinger is a 5-level Prestige Class.

Prerequisites:

Skills: 8 ranks in Knowledge (arcana), 8 ranks in Perform (singing)

Feats: Improved Counterspell, Skill Focus (Perform)

Spellcasting: Ability to cast 1st level arcane spells without preparation

Class Skills:

Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Knowledge (any), Perform, Profession, Speak Language, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features:

BAB Progression: +1 at 2nd level, +2 at 3rd level, +3 at 4th level

Fort Save Progression: +1 at 3rd level

Ref Save Progression: +2 at 1st level, +3 at 2nd level, +4 at 4th level

Will Save Progression: +2 at 1st level, +3 at 2nd level, +4 at 4th level

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Spellsingers gain no proficiency in any weapons or armor.

Bardic Music: Spellsingers continue to increase their skill in creating magical effects thorough song and poetics. A character's spellsinger levels and bard levels (or levels in another class with the same ability) stack for the purpose of using bardic music.

Compelling Song (Su): Spellsingers have an intrinsic understanding of the links between magic and music. They add their class level to all Perform checks when using their bardic music ability. Likewise, they add their class level to the DCs of their bardic music fascinate and suggestion abilities.

Spellsong: Spellsingers can "lose" a prepared arcane spell in order to cast any arcane enchantment spell of one or more levels lower that is on their spell list. This works just as a cleric's spontaneous casting class feature. Arcane spells that do not need to be prepared can also be "lost" in this fashion, although spellsong simply grants the ability to. replace a spell slot with a lower-level arcane enchantment spell from the character's spell list. All spellsongs require verbal (singing) and somatic (playing an instrument) components, regardless of whether the spell was prepared or not. These components replace the spell's normal verbal, somatic, material, and focus components, but not any experience point costs or expensive material components.

The saving throw DC for spellsongs is equal to the caster's Cha modifier + the enchantment's level +2, regardless of whether the spell was originally prepared or not.

Improved Countersong (Su): At 3rd level and above, spellsinger are particularly adept at using their countersong ability to disrupt spells, gaining a +10 bonus on Perform cheeks when attempting to countersong.

Amplified Music (Su): At 5th level, spellsingers become particularly adept at producing magical effects on those around them. They increase the range of most bardic music effects (countersong, fascinate, inspire courage, and inspire greatness) by a number of feet equal to five times their class level. This increase is tripled for the bardic music fascinate ability.

Spells per Day: When a new spellsinger level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in whatever arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of spellsinger to the level of whatever other arcane spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

If a character had more than one arcane spellcasting class before he became a spellsinger, he must decide to which class he adds each level of spellsinger for the purpose of determining spells per day.