This character class has been culled from a back issue of Dragon(tm) Magazine and details a character classes for use in a 1st Edition AD&D game.

The Incantatrix

The other shook his head slowly. “No, my friend,” he corrected the learned one. “Not for an incantatrix.”

Although the spells and powers of incantatrixes are akin to those of magic-users, these rare and mysterious individuals have unique spells and a dweomer craft all their own. They are especially adept at countering and negating the magics of other spellcasting creatures and individuals, and at dealing with creatures who exist simultaneously on more than one plane (such as certain undead). But at the same time, incantatrixes are woefully weak in physical combat of any sort, and their offensive spells are severely limited. Although incantatrix spells resemble the magics of many spellcasting classes, the penalty paid for such breadth of ability is the lessened power, by comparison, of most incantatrix spells.

In the Realms, according to the sage Elminster, such individuals were and are very rare. It was not until the Testing of the “witch” Alaertha by the Council of the Mighty in long-ago Guldethym that such spellcasters were recognized as a distinct breed (or class) of magic-users, even as we look upon illusionists, with unusual talents in their own right. Most were previously thought, as apprentices, to be magic-users of limited intelligence and a twisted or “tainted” intellect; they seemed unable to comprehend and wield certain magics (such as burning hands, magic missile, and shocking grasp), but were capable of grasping some illusionist magics, and of self-training themselves to an astonishingly great mastery of certain spells - even if with painfully slow years of practice and study.

All those identified as incantatrixes (and there are only seven known living incantatrixes in the Realms at present) thus far have been females of human or half-elven stock. It is not known whether beings of other races and sexes can become incantatrixes, but some sages suspect that the (human male) spellcaster known as Durngrym, an adventurer who lived some seven hundred winters ago, was an incantatrix (the male term, according to the sage Marridus, is “incantatar”). The individual presently known only as “The Mage of Stars” may also be an incantatar.

An incantatrix must have the same faculties for mastery of magic (minimum ability scores) as a magic-user, and they learn their craft through tutelage, practice, and study as do magic-users. They thus use cantrips as an apprentice, and are as restricted in the use of armor and weapons as magic-users are.

All incantatrixes can immediately grasp both read magic and read illusionist magic (see below) when introduced to those spells, and with continued study their powers become quite different from those of both magic-users and illusionists. To learn spells “belonging” to classes other than magic-user that are understandable to them, incantatrixes must employ tutors of those classes or obtain the knowledge from scrolls (a process which, once the scroll is deciphered, requires long, painstaking research and experiment). Those few spells unique to the class must be learned from another incantatrix who can herself cast them, or developed through much research. (An incantatrix must have an intelligence of 18 to cast 7th-level incantatrix spells, a minimum intelligence of 17 to cast 6th-level incantatrix spells, and so on.)

The few incantatrixes known have all been secretive, quiet loners, revealed as at least a bit paranoid by their words and actions. Their lives seem dominated by an urge to improve their arts, and those who have risen to the highest levels (23rd and above), it is whispered, do study and sometimes master the offensive spells of magic-users that were beyond their powers when they were of lower level.

Incantatrixes maybe of any alignment. Although they do not in any sense seem to be an organized sisterhood or “secret society,” they often, having similar aims and interests, act together to combat common foes - notably, those individuals who use magic in a dangerous, irresponsible manner. They seem to particularly dislike those who often create gates or otherwise compel or allow creatures to enter the Prime Material Plane from other planes. As a druid protects his forest, and in another sense all forests, an incantatrix will attempt to police the unrestrained use of magic about her abode, or challenge (not always openly) such uses that she observes elsewhere. An incantatrix who does not have to do this often may live in seclusion and study, like a sage - and anyone who lives nearby may not even realize that she has spelleasting ability.

To advance in level, an incantatrix must accumulate the necessary experience points and then be tutored (for 1-4 weeks, depending upon her skills and prior accomplishments) by an incantatrix of at least as high a level as the one she is trying to achieve, or by a magic-user of at least 3 levels higher than the level she is trying to achieve. If none are available, an incantatrix can self-train, a process requiring access to a sizable library of magical tomes and 4-12 weeks of isolated, continuous study. This training is distinct from learning individual spells from illusionists, clerics, and druids. An incantatrix can herself master magic-user spells of attainable level without specific teaching from a magic-user.

In addition, incantatrixes have a number of unique talents and abilities. At 3rd level (Dweomaedar), an incantatrix gains the ability to see ethereal creatures, including out-of-phase creatures and those employing temporary magic such as spells or magic items, when the incantatrix is on any plane that the ethereal plane permeates (such as the Prime Material), and so long as the ethereal creature occupies an equivalent Ethereal Plane position within 3” of the incantatrix's location.

At 4th level (Memurge), an incantatrix gains the ability to physically or magically attack creatures who are out of phase, ethereal, blinking rapidly about, and so on. For magical attacks of this sort, the incantatrix may use several of the spells she gains at higher levels, such as disrupt undead, ray of oblivion, feeblemind, hold monster and power word, stun - but not stealspell or unbinding.

At 6th level (Weirworker), an incantatrix gains immunity to the level-draining powers of creatures employing energies from the Negative Material Plane, such as xeg-yi and many undead.

At 8th level (Spellbinder), an incantatrix gains the ability to sense the general nature of a spell's effects as it is being cast, if the casting is done by a spell-user within 4” that the incantatrix can clearly observe. This ability will also work through a wizard eye or a crystal ball. The spell-like natural powers and vocal-only spells of dragons and certain other beasts cannot be identified in this way.

For example, this power would allow an incantatrix observing the opening gestures of the casting of a ray of enfeeblement (by a magic-user) to determine that the spell affects only one target creature and that it is in some way connected with weakness. The spell's duration, precise intended effects, and specific effectiveness against the target in question would not be known to the incantatrix, except by subsequent observation. Note that this ability is not the same as that imparted by an ESP spell, and usually does not give an incantatrix time to determine what spell is being cast, for the purpose of casting her own counterspell.

At 20th level, an incantatrix gains a still-mysterious ability to drain magic from an item or device that has charges, and use that magical force to restore her own vitality. (Only two incantatrixes, the long-ago Alaertha and the present-day Ishaera, are known to have reached this level of accomplishment, and neither has revealed much of her arts to others.) This power does not work on a permanent item that has no charges, nor on an artifact or relic. It cannot be used to augment or restore spells or magical items possessed by the incantatrix, but only as a form of cure light wounds magic; one drained magical charge gains 2-8 hit points for the incantatrix.

To use this power, the incantatrix must remain still, holding the item to be drained with her bare hand or hands, for one round per charge drained. An incantatrix can use this ability before combat to temporarily augment her hit points above her normal maximum - but this does not raise her level or hit dice for purposes of spelleasting, saving throws, and the like. These extra, “phantom” hit points last for only 1 turn before their energy is forever lost, but any magical or physical damage suffered by the incantatrix during that turn diminishes and exhausts the “phantom” hit points before the meantatrix suffers any real hit-point damage.

Spell notes Except for read illusionist magic and the unique spells, all spells employed by incantatrixes are described in the Players Handbook, with differences from the “standard” (Players Handbook) form noted on the table and in the following text. Such differences exist primarily because earlier incantatrixes (from whose writings young ones study) learned or developed such variations. With sufficient research, an incantatrix might be able to develop variant spells closer to the standard form. For that matter, magic-users could well learn and cast the unique spells described hereafter - but no incantatrix has ever taught these spells to a non-incantatrix; they remain secrets of the class. The DM must judge whether a magic-user's own unaided research is successful in deriving such spells. In general, unless otherwise noted, incantatrixes cast spells as do magic-users of the same level with respect to casting time, duration, etc. If a spell is reversible, an incantatrix can choose to learn and cast the reverse, at the same level as the spell is listed here.

New spells

A number of spells available to incantatrixes are unique to that class, and these are detailed below. A full description is also given for read illusionist magic, an official spell that was put forth by E. Gary Gygax in his article on new illusionist spells printed in issue #66 of DRAGON® Magazine, for the benefit of readers who do not have access to that issue.

Read illusionist magic (Divination) Reversible

Level: 1
Components: V,S,M
Range: 0
Casting Time: 1 segment
Duration: 2 rounds/level
Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: Special

Explanation/Description: This spell is the same as the 1st-level magic-user spell read magic, except that it applies only to spells usable by and used by illusionists, as well as to various other inscriptions written in illusionist-type magic script by illusionists. The material component(s) for the spell (and its reverse) are also the same as for read magic (and unreadable magic).

Maladweomer (Alteration) Reversible

Level: 3
Components: VS,M
Range: 1”+ 1 “/level
Casting Time: 3 segments
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Neg.
Area of Effect: One person

Explanation/Description: By means of this spell, an incantatrix causes any and all spells and spell-like powers cast or wielded by a target creature, including those of items employed by the target, to be at the nadir of their effectiveness; i.e., any damage caused by offensive magics will be the minimum possible, saving throws vs. such magics are enhanced by a .4 bonus, and spells which are extant (such as magical charms) and ongoing at the time the maladweomer takes effect are altered in efficacy. (For instance, a charmed individual who had previously failed to save vs. the spell would immediately be allowed another saving throw, with the .4 bonus.) The material component for this spell is a small, clear glass or crystal prism, which is smashed (with a weapon-blow, and/or against a wall, rock, or floor) in the spellcasting.

The reverse, empradweomer (or “dweomerboost”), does not require that the crystal be smashed; rather, it vanishes when spellcasting is complete. The reverse does not require a saving throw, has the same duration as maladweomer, and permits all magic cast or wielded by the recipient creature during that time to be of maximum efficacy (maximum damage and effects). Both forms of the spell can be cast upon the incantatrix herself, so that maladweomer would enable an incantatrix to lessen her powers when compelled to work magic against her wishes.

Disrupt undead (Necromantic)

Level: 4
Components: VS,M
Range: 7”
Casting Time: 4 segments
Duration: 4 rounds
Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: Cone, flaring to 1 “diameter when 1 “from caster's hand

Explanation/Description: This magic requires a pinch of dust or a strand of cobweb to activate. When cast, the spell causes a cone of mildly cold, invisible, silent force to come into being, extending from the caster's outstretched hand. This field remains in existence for 4 rounds, and moves with the caster's hand. Any undead creatures within its confines at any time, or touched by any part of it, are affected as follows:

Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, shadows, and such weaker undead are instantly blasted out of existence. Wights, ghasts, wraiths, mummies, spectres, vampires, ghosts, liches, and similar evil creatures from other planes that can be turned by clerics, as well as other powerful undead not specifically named here, instantly suffer 1d6 damage per level of the incantatrix, with no saving throw. These powerful undead may remain in the field for additional rounds or even leave and re-enter it without suffering more damage; each such disruption field affects a particular undead creature only once, but repeated castings of the same spell would do additional damage. In the only reported incidence of two incantatrixes casting overlapping disruption fields, undead caught in the area of intersection suffered damage from both fields.

Ray of oblivion (Enchantment/Charm)

Level: 4
Components: V,S,M
Range: 1 “/level
Casting Time: 4 segments
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: Neg.
Area of Effect: One person

Explanation/Description: The material component for this magic is a pinch of dust; it vanishes as the incantatrix tosses it into the air and points at a target to complete the casting. From her hand, a shimmering, colorless ray stabs Out to the target; if the target is within range and not completely enclosed by solid or liquid material, the ray will strike the target unerringly (no “to hit” roll required), dodging around obstacles, other creatures, etc.

When struck, the target creature must save vs. spell (magic-users and other spellcasting beings at -1, other creatures at par) or forget one item of magical knowledge at random (the information lost is not able to be specified by the incantatrix or her victim). If the target has one or more spells memorized, one spell will be forgotten - harmlessly lost, as if an attempt to cast it had failed. If the target is not a spellcaster, or has no spells memorized at the time, he or she will forget the command word of a magic item; the name of a spellcaster known to the victim; a legend, rumor, or piece of news involving magic use; the name or configuration of a magical symbol, glyph, or rune; or some other fact of the same sort. Only a wish or a clerical heal or restoration spell will restore the lost knowledge.

The target creature must have been seen, however briefly, by the sneantatrix in the turn prior to the casting of the ray of oblivion. The ray will seek Out a target that is within range but obscured by cover, invisible, blinking, or even ethereal at the moment of the completion of casting; the incantatrix need not know the target's precise location, only the fact that it is present (and, presumably, within range).

Spell shield (Abjuration)

Level: 5
Components: V,S,M
Range: 0” (touch)
Casting Time: 1 round
Duration: 2 rounds/level
Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: One creature

Explanation/Description: By casting this spell upon herself or another creature that she touches, the incantatrix confers strong protection against certain spells and magical attack forms. The material component is a diamond of any size, which disappears, with a flash of white light, during casting. The protection gives a saving throw bonus as follows: vs. beguiling, charm, suggestion +7 vs. command, domination, feai hold, scare +5 vs. geas, quest +3 vs. confusion, feeblemind, antipathy/sympathy +1

Dispel possession (Abjuration)

Level: 6
Components: V,S,M
Range: Touch
Casting Time: 1 round
Duration: 2 rounds/level
Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: One creature

Explanation/Description: By means of this spell, an incantatrix can temporarily free a recipient creature from a charm, psionic attack or domination, or ESP or similar control and “eavesdropping” magics. If dispel possession ss cast upon the body of the victim of a prior magic jar spell, the life force controlling the victim's body will be driven out of the stolen body, back into its jar. If the jar is not within range of the body (see magic jar description in the Players Handbook) when the dispel possession is cast, the life force is merely quelled for the duration of the spell, allowing the mind of the true owner of the body to reassert itself and temporarily regain control of its body.

By application of this spell, a charm is forever broken, but other mental attacks and controls may resume at the spell expiration. The material component of this spell is a sample of teardrops (one will suffice) from the eye of a human, elf, or half-elf.

Spell reflection (Abjuration/Alteration)

Level: 6
Components: V,S,M
Range: 0” (touch)
Casting Time: 3 segments
Duration: 6 rounds
Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: One creature

Explanation/Description: The material component for this spell is a small glass or metal mirror, held by the recipient (which may be the incantatrix herself or another creature she touches) and consumed during the casting. An invisible dweomer field or aura comes into being around the protected creature, and protects him or her as a ring of spell turning does, turning all magics back upon the caster. The exceptions to this are noted in the description of the ring in the Dungeon Masters Guide. Spells cannot be cast by a being who is protected by this spell, but the spellcaster can end the protection instantaneously if she so wills. Note that this “dispelling” must be a deliberate act; it does not occur automatically if the incantatrix turns her attention to another matter or is rendered unconscious.

Stealspell (Enchantment/Charm)

Level: 7
Components: V,S
Range: 1 “/level
Casting Time: 7 segments
Duration: Special
Saving Throw: Neg.
Area of Effect: One creature

Explanation/Description: This powerful magic is famous in legend, and the one power that above all others identifies the incantatrix as a person of special powers. By means of this incantation, any single being that the incantatrix points at (who is within range) must save vs. spell at -1 (creatures from planes other than the Prime Material save at par), or suffer the theft of any one memorized spell from his or her mind. (If there is no memorized spell to be stolen, the stealspell has no effect and is lost.) The stolen spell is determined randomly, and is not chosen by either the incantatrix or her victim. The magic of the stealspell works even against a victim who is unconscious or insane; psionic protections, anti-magic shell and all similar shielding spells, and mind bar and the like, are all powerless against this spell.

A stolen spell may be “cast” immediately by the incantatrix or held in her mind for later use (subject to the restrictions described below), without material components or even any need for the incantatrix to understand the spell. She will not automatically know the identity or the nature of the stolen spell (and would probably only find out this information, without expelling the magic, if it was revealed by the victim from whom the spell was stolen). By expelling the stolen spell from her mind, the incantatrix may be able (by this means only) to use a spell to which she would not normally be entitled - but because she doesn't know what the spell is, she may end up aiding rather than harming an opponent. Any stolen spell takes effect, when expelled, as though it was cast by the being from which it was stolen, with regard to level of effectiveness, damage caused, alignment considerations, and so forth. Spell-like natural powers employed by beings, and psionics, cannot be stolen by means of this spell.

The stolen spell is transferred from the victim's mind to the meantatrix at the end of the casting of stealspell, and the transfer takes one segment. A spell which the victim has already begun to cast will never be stolen; if it is the last or only spell in the victim's mind, the spell will be ruined and lost (just as if the victim had been disturbed during the attempted casting), but no energy or information will be transferred to the incantatrix.

The incantatrix can retain the stolen spell, instead of expelling it from her mind, and subsequently record it by means of a write spell, which erases the stolen spell from the incantatrix's mind as it is recorded, without discharging its power. However, an incantatrix cannot herself use a spell denied to her by class or level that she has recorded in this manner; she will have produced only a scroll that is useless to her, except as an item to sell or barter. When a stolen spell is recorded in this fashion, the identity and nature of the spell can become known to the incantatrix (by means of read magic), so she is able to determine whether the scroll is of use to her.

Unbinding (Alteration)

Level: 7
Components: VS,M
Range: 0”
Casting Time: 1 round
Duration: 7 rounds
Saving Throw: None
Area of Effect: 2 ” radius sphere around caster

Explanation/Description: When an unbinding spell is cast (a process involving a lodestone - not necessarily magical - and a pinch of saltpeter), a sphere of magical force comes into being about the caster, and moves with her for the duration of the spell. It affects many magics that are within, or come to be within, its area of effect, as follows: Hold spells of all types, guards and wards, temporal stasis, imprisonment, time stop, and wizard lock spells, as well as cubes and walls of force, are all ended or negated immediately; i.e., an imprisoned creature emerges as though a freedom spell had been cast, and so forth.

Pentagrams, thaumaturgic circles, and similar magical circles or confining runic constructions are shattered or obliterated, freeing any previously trapped occupants (who will know who has freed them, but are not in any way under the control of the incantatrix).

A magic mouth will speak, regardless of its specific trigger, and vanish forever. The effects of a statue spell are ended, and a magic jar is shattered - forever destroyed, and the life force within it snuffed out.

Any magics that contain, constrain, or conceal (i.e. invisibility) creatures or items are destroyed by contact with the area of effect of this spell (with the exceptions noted below); the spell also causes physical locks to open, props and wedges or spikes to come loose, chains to part, bars to lift, and seals to break, etc.

Note that all of these effects occur regardless of the caster's wishes, and are not discerning: all seals break, not just a few specific targets - even including the stoppers on potion bottles, ties on wineskins, fastenings on clothing, and the like. Those on the person of the incantatrix, or being carried or worn by her, will remain undisturbed, but any others (even those of allies) will be affected. Note also that the opening of locks or other closures does not prevent any alarms or booby traps attached to them from functioning normally.

Spells such as anti-magic shell, Leomund's tiny hut, minor globe of invulnerability, globe of invulnerability, prismatic sphere, shield, and similar protective magics are not affected by an unbinding, nor does it reveal or change back (to flesh) petrified creatures. Untriggered symbols or glyphs of warding are unaffected by an unbinding, and it does not set free elementals and invisible stalkers bound to service by others.

Notes to the Dungeon Master

An incantatrix should be a rare and mysterious character - a secretive being who walks her own way. She may accompany a party temporarily to further her own ends, or in return for sufficient monetary or magical reward.

At no time should an incantatrix be a handy-for-the-hire NPC, nor a party member as such. The incantatrix class is too strong to hr used for player characters - and yet, weaker at high levels than magic-users or clerics, and weak in a physical fight at any level. Note that an incantatrix character would realize this about herself, and thus would avoid getting into situations of open conflict as often as it is possible to do so.

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