Wu Jen

Wu jen are spellcasters with mysterious powers. They command the elements, spirit forces, and the powers of nature. They are seldom found living with the rest of human society. Instead, they live as hermits in the wilderness, purifying their bodies and minds to contact the various natural and supernatural powers of the world. From these entities they learn their spells⁠—magical means to control the invisible forces of the world.

Adventures: Wu jen typically adventure to expand their knowledge of the world, both magical and mundane. Like wizards, they tend to approach adventures with careful planning, since their daily spell selection is vitally important.

Characteristics: Wu jen are the arcane spellcasters of the Far East. As with wizards, their spells are their primary class feature, and as such assume an all-important role in their lives. Many wu jen spells draw on the power of the five elements (earth, fire, metal, water, and wood). Finally, wu jen are adept at manipulating their spells, increasing their range, duration, or effect, or eliminating verbal or somatic components through permanent metamagic effects.

Alignment: Wu jen tend to stand apart from the lawful societies predominant in most cultures, flouting the rules and norms of decent folk. They have a strong tendency toward chaos, but in any event they cannot be lawful.

Background: Wu jen crave magical power in a world where no organized colleges of wizardry typically exist. Their thirst drives them to seek out others like themselves⁠—hermits, recluses, or exiles who have gained the secrets they seek. Nearly all wu jen are trained by a single mentor in this fashion, outcast from proper society and set apart by their fearsome supernatural powers.

Races: Most wu jen are humans, though members of all the common races of the eastern lands can learn their craft.

Other Classes: Wu jen generally don’t like members of any other class. At the same time, however, a wu jen is painfully aware that without fighters and samurai to block enemy soldiers, a shaman to heal her wounds, and perhaps a rogue to deal with locks and traps, her path to the knowledge she seeks might be blocked by insurmountable and possibly fatal obstacles. This realization of her reliance on other classes might make her accept them or might make her resent them.

Game Rule Information

Wu jen have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Intelligence determines how powerful a spell a wu jen can cast, how many spells the wu jen can cast per day, and how hard those spells are to resist. To cast a spell, a wu jen must have an Intelligence score of 10 + the spell’s level. A wu jen gets bonus spells based on Intelligence. The Difficulty Class of a saving throw against a wu jen’s spell is 10 + the spell’s level + the wu jen’s Intelligence modifier. High Dexterity is helpful for a wu jen, who typically wears little or no armor, because it provides her with an Armor Class bonus. A good Constitution gives a wu jen extra hit points, a resource that she is otherwise very low on.

Alignment: Any nonlawful.

Hit Die: d4.

Class Skills

A wu jen’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All the following are class features of the wu jen.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Wu jen are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with a wu jen’s arcane gestures, which can cause her spells with somatic components to fail.

Spells: A wu jen casts arcane spells, which are drawn from the wu jen spell list. She is limited to a certain number of spells of each spell level per day, according to her class level. A wu jen must choose and prepare spells ahead of time like a wizard (see Preparing Wizard Spells).

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, a wu jen must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the spell’s level. A wu jen’s bonus spells are based on Intelligence. The Difficulty Class for saving throws against wu jen spells is 10 + the spell’s level + the wu jen’s Intelligence modifier.

A wu jen’s base daily spell allotment is given on the Wu Jen table. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Intelligence score (see Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).

Bonus Languages: A wu jen can substitute Draconic or Giant for one of the bonus languages available to the character because of her race, since many ancient tomes of magic are written in these languages and apprentice wu jen often learn them as part of their studies.

Watchful Spirit: Once per day, a wu jen can reroll an initiative roll she has just made before she knows her place in the initiative order. She takes the better of the two rolls.

Bonus Feat: A wu jen begins play with a bonus metamagic feat.

Spell Secret: At 3rd level, and every three levels thereafter, a wu jen can choose one spell known to her that then becomes permanently modified as though affected by one of the following metamagic feats: Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Still Spell, or Silent Spell. The spell’s level does not change, and once the choice of spell and modification are chosen, they cannot be changed. As the wu jen goes up in level, she can choose the same spell to be modified in different ways with multiple spell secrets. She does not need to know the feat she applies to the spell.

Elemental Mastery: Many of the wu jen’s spells are divided into five elemental groups: earth, fire, metal, water, and wood. At 6th level, instead of receiving a spell secret, a wu jen becomes a master of one of these five elements (her choice). Thereafter, whenever a wu jen casts a spell of that element, her effective caster level (for purposes of determining level-dependent spell variables and for caster level checks) is increased by two. In addition, the wu jen herself gets a +2 competence bonus on saving throws against spells of that element. Certain spells on the wu jen spell list are designated “All”; this means they belong to all elemental groups, and a wu jen who is a master of any element gains the mastery bonuses with respect to those spells.

Spellbooks: A wu jen must study her spellbooks each day to prepare her spells, much like a wizard. She cannot prepare any spell not recorded in her spellbook (except for read magic, which all wu jen can prepare from memory).

A wu jen begins play with a spellbook containing all 0- level wu jen spells plus three 1st-level spells of your choice. For each point of Intelligence bonus the wu jen has (see Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells), the spellbook holds one additional 1st-level spell of your choice. At each new wu jen level, she gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that she can cast (based on her new wu jen level). For example, when Hide-yori achieves 5th level, she can cast 3rd-level spells. At this point, she can add two 3rd-level spells to her spellbook, or one 2nd-level spell and one 3rd-level spell, or any combination of two spells between 1st and 3rd level. At any time, a wu jen can also add spells found in other wu jen’s spellbooks to her own, much like a wizard (see Adding Spells to a Wizard’s Spellbook).

Taboos: To maintain their supernatural power, wu jen must abide by certain taboos that might seem inconsequential to other characters but are vitally important to the wu jen. If a wu jen violates one of her taboos, she cannot cast any more spells that day. A wu jen must choose one taboo at 1st level, and one additional taboo every time she learns a spell secret. Possible taboos include:

• Cannot eat meat.
• Cannot own more than she can carry.
• Must make a daily offering (such as food, flowers, or incense) to one or many spirit powers.
• Cannot bathe.
• Cannot cut her hair.
• Cannot touch a dead body.
• Cannot drink alcohol.
• Cannot wear a certain color.
• Cannot light a fire.
• Cannot sit facing in a certain direction.

Source: Complete Arcane, page 14.

Epic Wu Jen

The epic wu jen continues to grow apart from society, her mighty powers and strange ways becoming even more frightening to those uninitiated into the mysteries of arcane magic.

Hit Die: d4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Spells: An epic wu jen’s caster level is equal to her class level. The wu jen’s number of spells per day does not increase after 20th level, but each time the wu jen achieves a new level, she learns two new spells of any spell level that she can cast.

Spell Secret: Every three levels after 18th (21st, 24th, 27th, and so on), the epic wu jen can select one additional spell known to her to become modified as though affected by one of the following feats: Enlarge Spell, Extend Spell, Still Spell, or Silent Spell. The spell’s level does not change, and once the spell and the modification are chosen, they cannot be changed. As the wu jen goes up in level, she can choose the same spell to be modified in different ways with multiple spell secrets. She does not need to know a feat in order to apply its effect to the spell. Each time a new spell secret is learned, the wu jen must also choose an additional taboo.

Bonus Feats: The epic wu jen gains a bonus feat every three levels after 20th (23rd, 26th, 29th, and so on). Bonus feats must be chosen from the following list, and can be selected even if the wu jen does not meet the prerequisites.

Epic Wu Jen Bonus Feats: Augmented Alchemy, Automatic Quicken Spell*, Automatic Silent Spell*, Automatic Still Spell*, Enhance Spell*, Epic Spell Focus*, Epic Spell Penetration*, Epic Spellcasting, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Casting*, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Intensify Spell, Multispell, Permanent Emanation, Spell Knowledge, Spell Opportunity, Spell Stowaway, Spontaneous Spell, Superior Initiative, Tenacious Magic.

*Feats marked with an asterisk are presented under Epic Feats, below. See page 209 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide (as well as the Epic Level Handbook) for descriptions and information on other epic feats.