Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Geomancy

Geomancy

The Geomancy skill is a representation of your knowledge and study of the natural magics that flow through the world and the creatures closest to it. It allows you to determine the weaknesses of animals, magical beasts, plants, fey, and elementals as well as to identify natural magic effects. Characters with substantial training in Geomancy can even ignore racial or type requirements on magical items. It is an important skill for natural spellcasters, as it allows them to cast their spells while threatened without leaving themselves open.

Key Attribute: Wisdom

Untrained Uses

None. Sorry, you actually can’t do this stuff without a bit of training.

Rank 1 Uses

Creature Insight

Your knowledge of the natural world has granted you knowledge about the creatures closest to it. Animals are the most common example of these creatures, and your knowledge of them includes rare, exotic, and even dire varieties. Magical beasts are those animals who have been enhanced or corrupted by magic. Plants are no less dangerous, however, and you are familiar with plants that walk around and plants that swallow men whole. Fey creatures are capricious beings as wild and free as the darkest old wood or tallest mountain and a direct expression of the spirit of the world; they are also included in your knowledge. Lastly, elementals are creatures composed entirely of a single element (fire, wood, or even iron depending on your cosmology) and represent the fundamental pieces of the world itself. As an immediate action, you can attempt to identify a creature you are facing. The DC for this check is 15 + the creature’s CR. The creature does not have to be alive for you to try to gather information about it, though deceased creatures need to be largely intact.

Special: The geomancy skill only allows you to identify animals, magical beasts, fey creatures, plants, and elementals, and there are several other skills that provide similar knowledge for other creature types. If your GM is a nice guy, he’ll just tell you which skill you need to roll to gather information about a creature. As this may reveal more information than they want, they may not tell you which skill you need. In that case, only roll once for all skills; just add your modifier from each skill to your roll and give him all 5 results separately.

Base DC: 15 + the creature’s CR
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above: You correctly guess everything in the lower success results, as well as every other special quality and attack that the creature has. In a less serious game, you can just ask the GM for their notes and read up on it while everyone else gets into position.
• DC+5 to DC+9: In addition to the information learned from a basic success, you also correctly guess 3 special attacks or qualities of the creature. These are either determined randomly from those you have not yet witnessed or you may ask for further details on one you have witnessed (type of DR if you have witnessed it, type of breath weapon, etc.).
• DC+0 to DC+4: You correctly guess the creature’s type, subtypes, and any traits that would come as a result of those categories. If the creature is sufficiently common you also know its name, and that may provide other information.
• DC-1 and below: You are unable to reach any conclusion that you are happy with. You can not retry this check until you witness one of its special abilities or qualities first hand; sometimes getting bathed in acid jogs a memory.

Identify Magic

When you run across magic, it’s nice to know if it is magic that will cause food to flow from the earth or suck the air from your lungs. The geomancy skill primarily deals with the natural magic given by the world, though it can be used to identify spells or effects from any source. The various uses of this skill include identifying a spell as it is being cast, identifying a standing magical effect, identifying magical residue after an effect ends, etc. You must have detect magic active or possess an etheliometer to learn anything with this ability. The action required depends on which of these two methods you use.

Special: This ability is specialized for a particular facet of magic, and may not be the best skill for you to use to learn about a particular effect. If your GM does not specify which skill you need to roll, and they are well within the rules not to, only roll once for all skills; just add your modifier from each skill to your roll and give him all 3 results separately. Your GM is responsible for making sure that you get the largest applicable bonus and applying it to your check to learn about an effect, and you should beat him about the head with this book if he willfully fails in that task (note: do not actually do that, it’s impolite).

Base DC: 15 + twice the effect’s level or 15 + caster level for non-level effects, +2 for each degradation period passed since an effect ended
Check Result:

• DC+5 and above: You learn the same information as on a regular success, but you learn it for divine and arcane magic effects as well.
• DC+0 to DC+4: If the magic is natural you learn its school, subschool (if any), caster level, and spell level (if applicable). You learn the name of the spell for any effect 2 levels lower than the highest you can generate, and for any effect of any level if you would have reason to know of it (stories, commonality, can cast it yourself, etc.).
• DC-1 to DC-5: You recognize the type of magic (arcane, divine, natural), but nothing further. Additional checks may yield more information.
• DC-6 and below: You do not recognize this effect and understand nothing about it. Additional checks may yield more information.

Defensive Casting

Casting in combat is difficult, since making sure that you cast the spell right often means that you leave yourself open for a moment. It takes focus to do both, and the more deeply you understand your magic the more easily you can do so. As part of the action to cast a natural spell, you may attempt to cast it defensively. This check is rolled once, and the result used against the DC for each opponent threatening you in melee. The DC for each opponent is 15 + the spell level + your opponent's base attack bonus or CR, whichever is lower. Additionally, you suffer a penalty to this check equal to the number of foes threatening you minus one.

Base DC: 15 + the spell's level + opponent’s BAB
Check Result:

• DC+0 and above: Your casting of the spell does not provoke an attack of opportunity from this opponent.
• DC-1 to DC-5: Your casting of the spell provokes attacks of opportunity from this opponent.
• DC-6 and below: Your attempt to keep yourself covered backfires. Not only does your casting of the spell provoke at attack of opportunity from this opponent, they gain a +4 bonus on the attack.

Rank 4 Uses

Recognize Ancestry

Your understanding of the world and its ways allows you to force magic items to respond to you when they otherwise wouldn’t. If an item requires its user to be a member of a race or type that you are not, you may activate the item anyway with a Geomancy check. The DC for this check equals the item’s caster level +15. Normally this check is made as part of the activation action, but items that provide a continuous bonus do not have an activation action. You must expend an immediate action to benefit from a continuous item, after which it will function for the period indicated in the check result table.

Base DC: 15 + object’s caster level
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above: The item functions normally for you for 1 hour, during which time you can use charges or receive benefits as appropriate without making further checks.
• DC+5 to DC+9: The item functions normally for you for 1 minute, during which time you can use charges or receive benefits as appropriate without making further checks.
• DC+0 to DC+4: The item function normally for 1 round, during which time you can use charges or receive the benefits of it as appropriate.
• DC-1 to DC-5: You do not activate the item, and gain no benefit from it.
• DC-6 and below: The object loses 1 charge or use (if it is limited by these) and becomes inoperable for 2d4 minutes. You also suffer the full effect of any traps or curses on the item.

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