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Prestidigitation

by Jim Bobb

Ah, well good eve to all of ye. I was told by my player to send his thanks to all of ye that like my studies and smallish exploits of when I was actively adventuring, ahh those days seem so long past. A recent even has reminded me of the reason I took up the Arts of sorcery in addition to swordcraft, as so many of my Shadowed brethren do. I was without my pipe lighter yestereve and pondered how to light the blasted thing when I thought of my early days in the City of Stars. Learning the Art of manipulating the energies of magic was difficult, but eventually I mastered the most rudiment form of control. No, sadly, this was not a mighty Magic Missile, nor even my own Starlight Blade spell, but the skill of Prestidigitation. Learning to focus the barest of the magical energies is the first step every mage learns in order to cast even a 1st level spell. After the budding mageling earns his spellbook and goes out into the world, most leave the minor powers behind, seeking ever greater power and spells. Sometimes the need to remember from whence one comes is important. With it, I got my pipe lit.

Prestidigitation (Intelligence)

This skill allows a character to create small, obviously magical effects within an area of 10 feet. By using this skill, non-magical device actions may be emulated, such as cutting someone's hair or beard, lighting a small flame, polishing objects, changing an object's basic colour and other such similar things. The user of this skill may perform minor magical effects, such as creating a light globe 1' radius, a 2-d illusion, teleport small objects up to 12 coins in weight or other similar extremely weak magical effects. No more than 1 object or target can be affected, or several tiny things. Unwilling creatures this skill is used upon may attempt a Saving Throw vs Spells with a +1 bonus. Using this skill requires total concentration while the effect is desired to last.

So there ye have it, the littlest of the magics I know of. My player asks me to note to ye that DM's may want to impose a limit on how many times per day the skill may be used if players begin abusing it. Oh? What's the Starlight Blade spell ye ask? Well then, that's a tidbit for another time, now isn't it?