The Mage class in Elements of Magic has a similar ability, granting a flexible bonus that reflects your character's abilities. A cleric-like Mage would take armored casting, for instance, but there are a lot of other options.
Magical Boon: Because Mages all develop slightly different abilities, each 1st level Mage can choose from a small list of Magical Boons she can acquire. She may choose to gain either two Minor Boons, a Minor and a Moderate Boon, or one Major Boon, from the lists below. The specifics of the various types of boons are described after the lists.
Additionally, every 4th level, the Mage gains one more boon. At higher levels, these boons are of greater power, though you may choose to gain a less-powerful boon if you want. You can choose the same boon multiple times if you want, even gaining multiple familiars if you want.
Minor Boons: Animal speak, bonus feat, minor magical infusion, resist fear, spiritual medium, woodland stride.
Moderate Boons: Animagus, moderate magical infusion, sixth sense, summon familiar, trackless step.
Major Boons: Armored casting, aura of defense, companion spirit, great glamer, major magical infusion.
Animal Speak (Sp): The Mage chooses one small category of animal, such as foxes, sparrows, or owls. By concentrating, the Mage can speak with them as if she had a common language, though of course the animal might only be able to convey primitive thoughts in reply. This functions as the speak with animals spell in the core rules, though the Mage must concentrate to use this ability, and it only applies to one type of creature. This ability does not guarantee the animal will be friendly.
Bonus Feat: The Mage gains a bonus feat. This feat must be a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, or a feat that applies to her familiar.
Minor Magical Infusion (Su): The Mage has imbued herself with some of her own magical energy, granting minor but permanent magical abilities. Choose one ability from the following list.
· +2 bonus to Will, Reflex, or Fortitude saves.
· +5 bonus to all skill checks with one skill that is not Intelligence- or Charisma-based.
· Elemental resistance 1 to one chosen element.
· The Mage gains immunity to the low-intensity elemental side effect of her choice. If she chose air, for example, she would not be affected by the knockback effect of severe winds.
Resist Fear: The Mage gain a +4 bonus to all mind-influencing effects that would cause her to become frightened, shaken, or panicked.
Spiritual Medium (Su): The Mage gains the supernatural ability to hear spirits, ghosts, and all varieties of incorporeal undead. By concentrating, she can hear any spirits around her, even if they are not manifesting. She can, of course, only hear the spirits if they are actually making noise, by talking or rattling chains or such.
Woodland Stride: The Mage gains the Woodland Stride ability, as the druid ability of the same name.
Animagus (Sp): The Mage picks one normal animal that is between Diminutive and Medium-size. She can alter self into the shape of that animal at will, as a standard action. A human could thus turn into a wolf or raven, but not a tiger.
Moderate Magical Infusion (Su): As Minor Magical Infusion, only of slightly greater power. Choose one ability from the following list.
· +2 bonus to Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.
· +10 ft. bonus to your base speed.
· Low-light vision. If you already have low-light vision, you gain Darkvision 30. If you already have Darkvision, increase its range by 30 ft.
· The Mage chooses one type of spell (like Abjure [Element] or Dominate [Creature]), or choose one element, creature, or outsider type. For purposes of level-based effects, you cast spells of the chosen type at +1 caster level.
· The Mage gains immunity to the moderate-intensity elemental side effect of her choice. If she chose air, for example, she would not be affected by the knockback effect of a windstorm.
Sixth Sense (Su): The Mage gains the supernatural ability to see and hear incorporeal undead. By concentrating, she can see and hear any incorporeal undead in her line of vision, even if they are not manifesting. However, if the undead is actually utilizing some sort of invisibility magic, this ability does not let her overcome that.
Summon Familiar: The Mage may summon a familiar in exactly the same manner as a sorcerer in the core rules.
Trackless Step (Su): The Mage gains the Trackless Step ability, as the Druid ability of the same name.
Armored Casting: Your spellcasting is not disrupted by wearing armor. You suffer no arcane spell failure chance
Aura of Defense (Su): The Mage chooses either Wisdom or Charism. She adds the bonus of the appropriate ability, if positive, to her Armor Class, even while flat footed.
Companion Spirit: The Mage has contacted and bonded with some sort of spirit, perhaps an animal spirit, or the uneasy spirit of a person that has not yet passed on. A spirit is like a minor ghost with almost no way to affect the material world. It acts much like a familiar, except that it is intangible and can see other intangible spirits.
· Hit Dice: Treat as the Mage’s character level.
· Hit Points: One-half the Mage’s total, rounded down.
· Attacks: Use the Mage’s base attack bonus, and the spirit’s Dexterity bonus. Note, however, that spirits cannot affect the material world except in limited ways.
· Saving Throws: Use the Mage’s base saving throw bonuses.
· Defenses: The spirit has DR 10/+1, and any form of physical attack only affects it half the time.
· Knowledge: A spirit might be a dead wise man, a cunning totem animal, or a haunting spectre trying to torment the Mage. If the Mage and her spirit are on good terms, usually it is willing to tell her whatever it knows. Spirits have never passed on, or perhaps are not able to at all, so they do not know about the afterlife.
· Alertness (Ex): The spirit’s sense of perception aids the Mage in noticing things. If the spirit is within 5 feet, the Mage gains the benefits of the Alertness feat.
· Locative Bond: Once it bonds with a living person, the spirit cannot stray far. The maximum distance of separation is 100 feet per level of the living person. The spirit cannot willingly pass beyond this range, and if is unavoidably separated by more than this distance, he must proceed at full speed back to within range.
· See Spirit (Su): The Mage can see her spirit clearly, just as if he was solid and tangible. Though exact appearances vary from spirit to spirit, typically a spirit appearances wispy and slightly transparent, with a soft glow surrounding his or her body.
· Share Spells (Su): At the Mage’s option, she may have any spell she casts on herself also affect her spirit. The spirit must be within 5 feet at the time of casting, and if the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, the spell stops affecting the spirit if he moves beyond 5 feet. The spell’s effect will be restored even if the spirit returns before the duration would otherwise have ended.
Additionally, the Mage may cast a spell with the target of “You” on her spirit (as a Touch range spell) instead of on herself. The bonded pair can share spells even if the spell does not normally affect the spirit’s type (undead).
· Speak with Spirit (Su): Likewise, the Mage and the spirit can communicate freely as if they were two normal, living people. This ability allows them to understand each other clearly, even if they do not otherwise share a common language. The Mage is only able to hear her bonded spirit, even if other spirits are present.
· Spiritual Manifestation (Sp): The spirit is able to manifest slightly into the material world, and can move things as if it had a Strength of 2, and for ten minutes each day it can make itself heard by people in the real world.
· Turn Resistance (Ex): A bonded spirit gains +4 turn resistance.
· Empathic Link (Su): If the Mage is 3rd level or higher, she can communicate with her spirit empathically, even if the spirit is out of range of hearing. This allows the two to converse as if they were right next to each other. Establishing the link is a standard action which requires concentration to maintain.
· Touch (Su): If the Mage is 5th level or higher, the spirit can deliver any touch spells the Mage casts. When she casts a touch spell, she can designate her spirit as the “toucher” if the spirit is within 5 feet of her. The spirit can then deliver the touch spell just as the Mage could, with the additional benefit that the spirit can touch both corporeal creatures and ethereal creatures (like other spirits). As normal, if the Mage casts another spell, the touch spell dissipates.
· Manifestation (Su): The spirit gains this ability if the Mage is 9th level or higher. This ability functions as the Ghost template ability of the same name, except that the spirit can only manifest for a total of one minute per day per level of the Mage.
Losing Your Companion Spirit: The rules for losing a bonded spirit are the same as for losing a familiar.
Great Glamer (Sp): By expending one of her free cantrip usages, the Mage may create an illusion to change her appearance for a duration of 10 minutes. She can change her face, body, clothes, and equipment, altering size up to 20% up or down, though she must maintain the same general body shape. This ability is functionally similar to change self, except that it also provides audible and tactile properties. However, you do not actually change your form, so you cannot slip out of manacles or create weapons where there are none. This is an illusion (glamer) effect.
Major Magical Infusion (Su): As Minor Magical Infusion, only of much greater power. Choose one ability from the following list.
· Ability to breathe water.
· Darkvision 60, or increase the range of existing Darkvision by 60 ft.
· Spell-like ability to change your clothes at will into any sort of non-magical clothing whose value is less than or equal to the value of what you are actually wearing. Thus, you could wear armor, but transform it into normal clothing, only shifting back when needed.
· The Mage gains immunity to the high-intensity elemental side effect of her choice. If she choose air, for example, she would not be affected by the knockback effect of hurricane-force winds.
