An arcanist is a black mage who has spent a considerable amount of time studying the chaos that is primal magic—she seeks order in chaos, and hopes to master the raw power of primal magic to bolster her own abilities.
The arcanist is an archetype of the black mage class.
Archetype Main Ability Scores:
The Arcanist mainly focuses on DEX for combat and INT for their class features and spells.
Archetype Feature Replacements:
1st – Black Magery. 5th – Black Magery, Metamagic Enhancement. 9th – Black Magery. 11th – Loremaster, Metamagic Enhancement. 13th – Black Magery. 15th – Metamagic Enhancement. 17th – Black Magery, Metamagic Enhancement.
Primal Magic (Su)
At 1st level, an arcanist may attempt to channel primal magic as a swift action to cast a spell without spending MP. Essentially, an arcanist is forcing primal magic into the world and attempting to shape it into a specific spell effect. To use this ability, she casts the spell as she would normally, but as the spell’s effects take place, she makes a concentration check (DC 20 + double the spell’s level). If she fails this check, she expends the MP normally as if she had cast it, but its actual effects are replaced by a primal magic event (see rules for primal magic at: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/variant-magic-rules/primal-magic) with a CR equal to her caster level and she is staggered for 1 round per level of the spell she was attempting to cast. If she makes this check, she casts the spell normally and the MP is not spent. The arcanist may use primal magic in this manner once per day. At 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level, she can use it an additional time per day.
This ability replaces black magery.
Enhance Primal Magic Event (Su)
At 5th level, when an arcanist triggers a primal magic event, as a free action once per round, she can increase or decrease its CR by 1. If she makes a concentration check (DC 15 + the primal magic event’s CR), she can instead increase or decrease the CR by 2. If she reduces a primal magic event’s CR to less than 1, the event is negated. She can choose to use this ability after she determines what primal magic event she triggers, but before she resolves the effects of that event.
This ability replaces metamagic enhancement.
Primal Surge (Su)
At 11th level, whenever an arcanist triggers a primal magic event, she rolls the percentile dice twice to determine the event that occurs and chooses which one of the two possible events occurs. She becomes resistant to the effects of primal magic events. Anytime an event would affect her, the GM rolls 1d20 + the event’s CR against a DC of 11 + her black mage level. If this roll fails, the event does not affect her, similar to a creature with spell resistance ignoring magical effects with an SR check. If the primal magic event is duplicating the effects of a spell that does not allow spell resistance, this resistance does not apply.
This ability replaces loremaster.
