“Don’t make the mistake of assuming that spells are the only trick up my sleeve.”

—Sorilae Hartsel, magical trickster

Relying as much on her wits as on her spellcasting prowess, the magical trickster can sacrifice her spellcasting ability to gain even greater access to skill tricks.

BECOMING A MAGICAL TRICKSTER

Although this prestige class supports spellcasting, it appeals mainly to casters with low hit points and few other class features, such as sorcerers and wizards. Sorcerers excel as magical tricksters, since they have plentiful spell uses with which to power skill tricks. On the divine side, the prestige class most appeals to favored souls, shugenjas, and spirit shamans (all described in Complete Divine), all of whom also have a large number of daily spell uses. Clerics and druids rarely bother with the class, except for worshipers of trickster deities.

PLAYING A MAGICAL TRICKSTER

You are unpredictable and extremely adaptable. As long as you still have spells available to cast, your bag of skill tricks is nearly unlimited, giving you an opportunity to overcome most challenges.

You are drawn to others who can perform skill tricks, and from them you learn yet more. Becoming a trick expert instantly affiliates you with a very loose fellowship of tricksters (battle, uncanny, and magical). You don’t get along with every trickster you meet, though: Some jealously guard their secrets and view others of their kind as rivals.

Combat

Your spells are even more valuable to you than a typical caster’s, and you should use them judiciously. You walk a narrow line: On the one hand, you can enhance your combat effectiveness with your spontaneous tricks, but on the other, your allies depend on your spellcasting support. Such decisions depend on the structure of the party and the opponent you face. In a party with multiple casters, you have more freedom to use your tricks, while a party with several tricky characters needs your spells more.

Advancement

Whether you received a divine gift or extended your arcane knowledge, you discovered you had a natural talent for skill tricks and put yourself on the path to learning more. A mentor might have shown you how to tap into your magical ability to fuel your repertoire, or you might have learned it on your own through hours of meditation.

As a magical trickster, you readily adapt to any situation. No longer are you bound only by what spells you know or prepare. Your allies probably appreciate this flexibility—unless they have also focused their careers on learning tricks and resent your freedom and flexibility.

Even though you gain bonus skill tricks from this prestige class, you should continue to invest skill points in learning new tricks. The more you have, the more potent and unpredictable you become. Feats that grant bonus skill tricks, such as Freerunner, are good options, as are metamagic feats, which you can apply more easily to your spells than others can.

Resources

Although you might not have realized it when you became a magical trickster, you are part of a larger (albeit very loosely organized) group. The benefits and requirements of this group are few, but it does offer the camaraderie of shared experiences as well as the chance to learn new tricks. Nevertheless, tricksters owe no more to one another than do any other people with similar, nonbinding interests.

MAGICAL TRICKSTERS IN THE WORLD

“She mastered the difficult trick I’d just shown her, then suddenly pulled it off again without a thought. Why can’t I do that?”

—Ameslan Trag, uncanny trickster

The magical trickster is relatively easy to integrate into a campaign that employs the skill trick rules. She works much like any other trickster character, except that her talent is powered by magic. Whether through divine favor or some lost arcane secret, her ability to flawlessly perform tricks again and again can be explained away by the source of her spellcasting ability.

Organization

Magical tricksters congregate with uncanny and battle tricksters when possible. Having come to the prestige class from different backgrounds, they have less in common with one another than they do with other tricksters. They swap techniques, introduce newly developed tricks and tricksupporting equipment and magic, and share experiences. Outside observers might assume such a meeting is part of a circus or carnival, with tricksters springing about performing for the enjoyment and education of onlookers.

These gatherings, though enjoyable, do not represent a structured organization. Magical tricksters looking to become part of something more permanent usually join groups that appreciate both their abilities and their moral choices: churches, arcane guilds, or druid circles.

NPC Reactions

A magical trickster can make other people frustrated or concerned. She can perform skill tricks over and over that others cannot easily repeat, even after years of practice. Other sorts of tricksters treat a known magical trickster with contempt and silence, and are almost always unfriendly. If she belonged to an organization before entering the prestige class, a magical trickster might be the subject of concern or quiet whispers among her colleagues and superiors. Although other members of the organization still respect her, their attitudes usually slip a step, such as from helpful to friendly or friendly to indifferent.

Common folk do not understand the difference between magical tricksters and other trickster classes, so their attitudes span the spectrum. However, because some tricksters use their abilities to take advantage of less talented folk, a victim of such exploitation has a negative view of all tricksters, magical or otherwise, and is unfriendly at best.

MAGICAL TRICKSTER LORE

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can research magical tricksters to learn more about them. When a character succeeds on a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: Magical tricksters combine magical talent with odd stunts relying on trained skill.

DC 15: Magical tricksters learn to pull off surprises with their magic just as they can with their skills.

DC 20: Magical tricksters can give up some of their magical power to perform stunts again and again.

DC 30: Characters who achieve this level of success can learn important details about specific magical tricksters in your campaign, including a notable individual, the area in which she operates, and the kinds of activities she undertakes.

PCs searching for a magical trickster who belongs to an organization can contact her through it. A magical trickster affiliated with no group is more difficult to track down, although other tricksters in the area probably know of her.

MAGICAL TRICKSTERS IN THE GAME

An NPC magical trickster makes an interesting and unpredictable opponent. She seems to be a typical spellcaster until she suddenly performs a powerful and difficult trick—then repeats it a moment later. Magical tricksters tend to avoid one another unless of the same faith, guild, or school, so you should probably avoid introducing more than one per encounter.

Players who like flexibility and variety should find the prestige class appealing. A magical trickster can serve the party with either her spells or her tricks, adapting as needed to a given encounter.

Adaptation

You can easily change this prestige class into a psionic trickster by replacing spells with psionic power points as the “currency” for reusing tricks. Rather than sacrificing a spell slot or prepared spell to recharge a trick, a psionic trickster expends 2 power points.