ARCANE DISCOVERIES
Wizards spend much of their lives seeking deeper truths, hunting knowledge as if it were life itself. The wizard's power is not necessarily the spells he wields; spells are merely the outward, most visible manifestation of that power. A wizard's true power is in his fierce intelligence, his dedication to his craft, and his ability to peel back the surface truths of reality to understand the fundamental underpinnings of existence. A wizard spends much of his time researching spells, and would rather find an undiscovered library than a room full of gold. A wizard need not be a reclusive bookworm, but he must have a burning curiosity for the unknown. Arcane discoveries are the results of this obsession with magic.
Arcane Builder: You have an exceptional understanding of the theory behind creating magical items. Select one type of magic item (potions, wondrous items, and so on). You create items of this type 25% faster than normal, and gain a +4 bonus on Spellcraft checks (or other checks, as appropriate) to craft items of this type. You may select this discovery multiple times; its effects do not stack. Each time you select this discovery, it applies to a different type of magic item.
Arcane Fatigue: Whenever a creature makes a successful saving throw against any of your spells, they take a -2 penalty on saving throws against any spells you cast for 1 minute or until they fail a saving throw against a spell you cast, whichever comes first. This penalty stacks with itself, but all instances of it end upon a creature failing a saving throw against a spell you cast.
Beyond Morality (requires 9th level): As long as you are neutral, you may choose to be treated as the most favorable alignment when affected by spells whose effects vary based on alignment (such as holy word). If you are neutral in relation to evil and good, you may choose to be treated as good or evil. If you are neutral in relation to chaos and law, you may choose to be treated as lawful or chaotic. You may only choose to be treated as one alignment type along a single axis at a time (for instance, if you were within the area of both a magic circle against evil spell and an unholy blight spell, you would have to choose to be either evil, good, or neutral for the purpose of determining the spells’ effects).
Creative Destruction: When you cast an evocation spell that deals damage, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the total number of dice used to determine the damage caused by the spell. Temporary hit points gained from this discovery do not stack and disappear after 1 hour.
Defensive Feedback: When an abjuration spell you cast prevents damage (with damage reduction or energy resistance), if the attacking creature is within 30 feet of the protected creature, the foe takes 2d6 points of damage for every 10 points of damage prevented.
Fast Study: Normally, a wizard spends 1 hour preparing all of his spells for the day, or proportionately less if he only prepares some spells, with a minimum of 15 minutes of preparation. Thanks to mental discipline and clever mnemonics, you can prepare all of your spells in only 15 minutes, and your minimum preparation time is only 1 minute.
Feral Speech (requires 5th level): You gain the ability to speak with and understand the response of any animal as if using speak with animals, though each time you speak to animals, you must decide to communicate with either amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, or reptiles, and can only speak to and understand animals of that type. You can make yourself understood as far as your voice carries. This discovery does not predispose any animal addressed toward you in any way. When you reach 12th level, you can also use this ability to communicate with vermin.
Golem Constructor (requires 9th level): You have learned the art and craft of creating golems. When creating a golem, you count as having the Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, and Craft Construct feats. You must meet all other construction requirements for the golem as normal.
Idealize (requires 10th level): In your quest for self-perfection, you have discovered a way to further enhance yourself and others. When a transmutation spell you cast grants an enhancement bonus to an ability score, that bonus increases by 2. At 20th level, the bonus increases by 4.
Immortality (requires 20th level): You discover a cure for aging, and from this point forward you take no penalty to your physical ability scores from advanced age. If you are already taking such penalties, they are removed at this time.
Infectious Charm (requires 10th level): Your charms are so smooth that they’re contagious. Anytime you target and successfully affect a single creature with a charm or compulsion spell and that creature is within 30 feet of another opponent, your spell has a chance of affecting the second creature as well. As a swift action immediately after affecting a creature with a charm or compulsion spell, you can cause the spell to carry over to the nearest creature within 30 feet. The spell behaves in all ways as though its new target were the original target of the spell.
Knowledge is Power: Your understanding of physical forces gives you power over them. You add your Intelligence modifier on combat maneuver checks and to your CMD. You also add your Intelligence modifier on Strength checks to break or lift objects.
Multimorph (requires 5th level): Your studies in transmogrification have increased your control over shapechanging spells. When you cast a spell of the polymorph subschool on yourself, you may expend 1 minute of the spell's duration as a standard action to assume another form allowed by the spell. You can do this as often as you like, subject to the duration of the spell.
None Dare Speak His Name (requires 20th level): You gain a strange, supernatural awareness that alerts you whenever your name is willingly spoken by a creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher, as long as that creature exists on the same plane of existence that you do. You learn the distance to and direction of the speaker, but no other details. You may activate or suppress this ability as a free action once per round.
Obfuscation: You can cast arcane spells in such a way that they become difficult to identify. Add half your class level to the DCs of Spellcraft skill checks made to identify arcane spells that you cast.
Observant Illusions (requires 9th level): You can project your senses into any ongoing figment or shadow illusion you create with a spell of at least 3rd level. You can see through its eyes and hear through its ears as if you were standing where it is, and during your turn you can switch from using its senses to using your own, or back again, as a swift or move action. While you are using its senses, your body is considered blinded and deafened.
Opposition Research (requires 9th level): By completing strenuous studies, you have broken through the mental barriers that made it impossible for you to prepare spells from one of your prohibited schools. Select one wizard prohibited school; you can now prepare spells from this school, and you no longer have the –4 Spellcraft penalty for crafting items from that school.
Outstanding Concentration: You add your Intelligence modifier to your concentration checks, and whenever you roll a concentration check, you can roll twice, taking the better result.
Permanent Magic (requires 20th level): You can use the permanency spell to greater effect. When you cast permanency to render permanent the duration of a spell with a range of “personal” that you cast, you may ignore up to 10,000gp worth of the required material components.
Resilient Illusions (requires 8th level): You are able to conjure illusions so lifelike that they defy disbelief. Anytime a creature tries to disbelieve one of your illusion effects, make a caster level check. Treat the illusion’s save DC as its normal DC or the result of the caster level check, whichever is higher.
Sense Artifacts (requires 20th level): You gain a powerful supernatural sense that alerts you to the presence of artifacts. You can focus your senses as a standard action to learn the direction of (but not the distance to) the nearest artifact on your plane of existence within 100 miles, if any artifact exists within that range. Using this discovery is an intensely overwhelming experience, and causes you to become stunned for 1 round (no save) whenever you activate it. If the nearest artifact is within a mile of your location when you activate this sense, you take 2d10 points of nonlethal damage in addition to becoming stunned.
Spell Piercer: Whenever you fail to overcome a creature’s spell resistance, as a swift action you can reroll your caster level check. You must accept the new result, even if it is worse.
Swift Scriviner: You can scribe up to two scrolls per day, so long as the total market price of all scrolls scribed that day does not exceed 1,000gp.
Time Stutter (requires 10th level): You can briefly step out of time, pausing the world around you. This ability acts as the time stop spell, except that you gain only 1 round of apparent time. You can use this ability once per day plus one additional time for every 5 wizard levels you possess beyond 10th.
True Name (requires 11th level):Your researches into ancient tomes and your inquisitions of bound spirits have led you to one of the best-hidden secrets of the multiverse: the true name of an outsider—the name that defines the very essence of the creature and that gives the speaker control over the being. This outsider can have no more than 12 Hit Dice. Once per day, you can speak the common name by which the outsider is known, and the outsider travels to you as if you had cast planar binding upon it. It must obey you to the best of its ability, without pay or bargaining for its services, for its fear that you might release its true name to the wider world is enough to bring even the most recalcitrant of outsiders to bear.
If the creature is within 100 feet, as a move action, you may punish it by deliberately mispronouncing its name, wracking its very essence and giving it the sickened and staggered conditions for 1 round (even if the creature is normally immune to these conditions). You cannot use true name in an area of silence, but the creature does not have to be able to hear you for it to be harmed by the ability.
It is in your best interest to call this creature only sparingly, and occasionally reward it in some fashion to mollify its wrath. If you repeatedly fail to offer it a reward appropriate to its type and ethos, the creature may begin plotting ways to destroy the bond between you, whether by creating an accident that will destroy your memory of the name, by plaguing you with nuisances or dangers until you vow never to call on it again, or by actively seeking to destroy you through its own devices or those of an underling. If this creature is of a lawful type and you are violating its ethos, its superiors may even destroy it or you rather than allow you to contaminate their servant further. Worse, they may establish situations where it is necessary for you to summon this outsider, opening gateways to infernal or angelic interference, in order to gain a foothold on the Material Plane.
You may select this discovery multiple times. Each time you select this discovery, it applies to a different, specific outsider. If you select this discovery at 15th level or higher, the creature may have up to 18 Hit Dice and the call acts as greater planar binding instead of planar binding.
Wrest Summons: You can attempt to wrest the control of a summoned monster from its controller as a full round action, as long as you have a summon monster spell prepared of sufficient level to summon that monster. The creature to be affected must be within 30 feet of you, and it must be able to see and hear you clearly (though it need not understand you). If you succeed on an opposed Charisma check against the summoned creature, it serves you for 1 minute, or for the remainder of the duration of the effect that summoned it.