Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Thaumaturgy

Thaumaturgy
The Thaumaturgy skill represents communion and study of the divine magics that flow through the world. While that study manifests itself most strongly as the ability to better understand and recognize divine magics, those who study Thaumaturgy also learn about faith and belief as well as gain an understanding of the creatures who often serve the divine or spring from ideals: demons, devils, angels, and other non-elemental outsiders. Characters with substantial training in Thaumaturgy can even use divine spell trigger and spell completion items containing spells not normally accessible within their class and ignore alignment requirements on magical items.

Key Attribute: Charisma

Creature Insight
Your communions and learning about faith, religions, and the afterlife also includes knowledge of the most common servants of the divine and those who would share the afterlife with them. Collectively referred to as outsiders or exemplars, this group also contains the Demons, Devils, Angels, and more who act as the embodiment of belief and faith in the planes.

Attempting to identify or glean information about a creature is an immediate action. The DC for this check is 16 + 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 identifiable and largely intact.

Special: The Thaumaturgy skill only allows you to identify outsiders, but there are several other skills that provide similar knowledge for other creature types. If you possess ranks in the other creature identification skills and your GM does not specify which particular skill you need to roll (and they have no obligation to tell you), you may check against all skills as part of the same action. In that case roll 1d20 one time as the base and report your total check result (this d20 roll + your skill modifier) for each skill to your GM separately. Your GM is responsible for making sure that you get the most information from your individual check results.

Identify Magic
When you run across magic, it’s nice to know if it’s magic that will heal you or drag your soul to the Abyss. The Thaumaturgy skill primarily deals with the divine magic bestowed by the gods on their priests, though it can be used to identify spells or effects from any source. This ability allows you to identify a spell as it is being cast, identify a standing magical effect, identify magical residue after an effect ends, etc. Additionally, it allows you to learn the spell stored within a divine spell completion or spell trigger item. You must have detect magic or equivalent spell active, or else wield an etheliometer to learn anything with this ability however.

The action required for this depends on which of these two methods you use, and is described in those methods. You gain information about the magical phenomena based on your check result.

Special: The Thaumaturgy skill is specialized for divine magic. It is less efficient at identifying arcane or primal magic effects than the appropriate skills, and it is useless for identifying arcane or primal spell completion or spell trigger items. If you possess ranks in the other magic skills and your GM does not specify which particular skill you need to roll (and they have no obligation to tell you), you may check against all skills as part of the same action. In that case roll 1d20 one time as the base and report your total check result (this d20 roll + your skill modifier) for each skill to your GM separately. Your GM is responsible for making sure that you get the most information from your individual check results.

Divine Item Affinity
A little knowledge about faith and the power of belief can help you to call upon those powers when you need a boost. With it you can attempt to use divine spell trigger or spell completion items even if you lack the ability to normally use the spells within them. But your skill with thaumaturgy doesn’t stop there. Divine magic is based on a strong and unyielding belief, one that can reshape the world around them or force others to follow along at times. If a magic item functions differently for a particular alignment, you may attempt to force the item to respond as if you had such an alignment for a short time.

For continuous use items with an alignment prerequisite, this check requires a swift action. Otherwise, the action to use this ability is included in the activation action for the item (often the spell's casting time). Whether you are attempting to use an item as a different alignment activate an item without the spell on your class list, the DC for this check is equal to 14 + the item's caster level. If you succeed on the check, the item functions normally for a period of time based on your check result. You may not attempt this check again during any period while it functions normally, and must wait for the item to stop responding to you before you may make an additional check. If you successfully force an item to respond as if you had a different alignment when you activate the item, the item responds as if you had the specified alignment for the duration.

Note that this ability only activates items that are divine in nature or that have alternate functions for a particular alignment. It only covers those portions of the activation. Items that have an alignment component but are not divine, or that have additional non-alignment prerequisites, may not be covered by this ability. In these cases, additional checks with other skills may be required.

Special: If your use of this ability triggers a cursed item, the cursed item becomes activated and functions normally for you until the curse is broken by a spell, class feature, or similar ability. This indefinite duration replaces the normal check based duration.