Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Thaumaturgy

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Thaumaturgy

The Thaumaturgy skill represents dedicated study into 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 itself, and gain an understanding of the creatures composed of belief who often serve the gods: demons, devils, angels, and other non-elemental outsiders. Characters with substantial training in Thaumaturgy can even use divine spell trigger items containing spells not normally accessible within their class and ignore alignment requirements on magical items.

Key Attribute: Charisma


Untrained Uses

None. Sorry, you actually can’t do this stuff without a bit of training.


Rank 1 Uses

Creature Insight

Your knowledge of faith, religions, and the afterlife also includes knowledge of the god’s most common servants 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. As an immediate action, you can attempt to identify a creature you are facing. The DC for this check is 15 + 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 largely intact.

Special: The thaumaturgy skill only allows you to identify outsiders and exemplars, and there are several other skills that provide similar knowledge for other creature types. If your GM is a nice guy, he’ll just tell you which skill you need to roll to gather information about a creature. As this may reveal more information than they want, they may not tell you which skill you need. In that case, only roll once for all skills; just add your modifier from each skill to your roll and give him all 5 results separately.

Base DC: 15 + the creature’s CR
Check Result:

  • DC+10 and above: You correctly guess everything in the lower success results, as well as every other special quality and attack that the creature has. In a less serious game, you can just ask the GM for their notes and read up on it while everyone else gets into position.
  • DC+5 to DC+9: In addition to the information learned from a basic success, you also correctly guess 3 special attacks or qualities of the creature. These are either determined randomly from those you have not yet witnessed, or you may ask for further details on one you have witnessed (type of DR if you have witnessed it, type of breath weapon, etc.).
  • DC+0 to DC+4: You correctly guess the creature’s type, subtypes, and any traits that would come as a result of those categories. If the creature is sufficiently common, you also know its name, and that may provide other information.
  • DC-1 and below: You are unable to reach any conclusion that you are happy with. You can not retry this check until you witness one of its special abilities or qualities first hand; sometimes getting bathed in acid jogs a memory.

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, though it can be used to identify spells or effects from any source. The various uses of this skill include identifying a spell as it is being cast, identifying a standing magical effect, identifying magical residue after an effect ends, etc. You must have detect magic active or possess an etheliometer to learn anything with this ability. The action required depends on which of these two methods you use.

Special: This ability is specialized for a particular facet of magic, and may not be the best skill for you to use to learn about a particular effect. If your GM does not specify which skill you need to roll, and they are well within the rules not to, only roll once for all skills; just add your modifier from each skill to your roll and give him all 3 results separately. Your GM is responsible for making sure that you get the largest applicable bonus and applying it to your check to learn about an effect, and you should beat him about the head with this book if he willfully fails in that task (note: do not actually do that, it’s impolite).

Base DC: 15 + twice the effect’s level or 15 + caster level for non-level effects, +2 for each degradation period passed since an effect ended
Check Result:

  • DC+5 and above: You learn the same information as on a regular success, but you learn it for arcane and natural magic effects as well.
  • DC+0 to DC+4: If the magic is divine, you learn its school, subschool (if any), caster level, and spell level (if applicable). You learn the name of the spell for any effect 2 levels lower than the highest you can generate, and for any effect of any level if you would have reason to know of it (stories, commonality, can cast it yourself, etc.).
  • DC-1 to DC-5: You recognize the type of magic (arcane, divine, natural), but nothing further. Additional checks may yield more information.
  • DC-6 and below: You do not recognize this effect and understand nothing about it. Additional checks may yield more information.


Rank 4 Uses

Overpower Aligned Item

Your understanding of the forces of belief and faith allows you to force magic items to respond to you when they otherwise wouldn’t. If an item requires its user to have a specific alignment other than yours, you may activate the item anyway with a Thaumaturgy check. The DC for this check equals the item’s caster level +15. Normally this check is made as part of the activation action, but items that provide a continuous bonus do not have an activation action. You must expend an immediate action to benefit from a continuous item, after which it will function for the period indicated in the check result table.

You may not attempt this check again during any period while it functions normally. You must wait for the item to stop responding to you before you may make an additional check

Special: If your use of this ability triggers a cursed item that you would not otherwise be subject to, the cursed item becomes activated and functions normally for you until the curse is broken by a spell, class feature, or similar ability.

Base DC: 15 + object’s caster level
Check Result:

  • DC+10 and above: The item functions normally for you for 1 hour, during which time you can use charges or receive benefits as appropriate without making further checks.
  • DC+5 to DC+9: The item functions normally for you for 1 minute, during which time you can use charges or receive benefits as appropriate without making further checks.
  • DC+0 to DC+4: The item function normally for 1 round, during which time you can use charges or receive the benefits of it as appropriate.
  • DC-1 to DC-5: You do not activate the item, and gain no benefit from it.
  • DC-6 and below: The object loses 1 charge or use (if it is limited by these) and becomes inoperable for 2d4 minutes.

There’s a Trick to It

A little knowledge about the workings of faith goes a long way. In this case, it allows you to attempt to utilize divine spell trigger items. The action for this ability is included in the action to activate the spell trigger item. The DC for this check is 15 + the minimum class level required to use the spell stored in the item; for most spell completion items, that means the minimum level a class could acquire the spell in question. You cannot use this ability to gain an effective class level, effective caster level, or similar ability of a character of a higher level than your own.

Note that you may not use this skill to utilize arcane or natural spell trigger items.

Base DC: 15 + minimum class level required to use the ability provided by the item
Check Result:

  • DC+10 and above: The item functions normally for you for 1 hour, during which time you can use charges or receive benefits as appropriate without making further checks.
  • DC+5 to DC+9: The item functions normally for you for 1 minute, during which time you can use charges or receive benefits as appropriate without making further checks.
  • DC+0 to DC+4: The item functions normally for 1 round, during which time you can use charges or receive the benefits of it as appropriate.
  • DC-1 to DC-5: You do not activate the item, and gain no benefit from it.
  • DC-6 and below: The object loses 1 charge or use (if it is limited by these) and becomes inoperable for 2d4 minutes. You also suffer the full effect of any traps or curses on the item.


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