MAGE — MAGIC-USER
Salorras Path: Mage · OSE class: Magic-User The mage is Salorras’s scholar of the arcane — the studied spellcaster who learns to read and pull the Threads of the Fabric that underlie all magic. In OSE terms the mage is the Magic-User class, exactly as printed. The elite tradition of the Pale Thread (the Entropist) is a separate Paragon class.
This file is a self-contained OSE reference. Mechanics follow the standard Old-School Essentials Magic-User; only the framing is Salorras-specific.
No schools of magic — the Fabric and its Threads. Salorras has no “schools” of magic, and neither does OSE — a happy match. The Magic-User’s single spell list is, in Salorras, the surface of the Fabric: every spell on it is a facet of one of the five Threads (see the table below). A mage’s leanings show in the spells they seek out, copy, and research — Thread-mastery is a scholar’s bent, not a rules mechanic.
Class Overview
Requirements: None Prime requisite: INT Hit Dice: 1d4 Maximum level: 14 Armour: None Weapons: Dagger Languages: Alignment, Colloquial
Mages are adventurers whose study of the Fabric grants access to potent arcane magic — and famously little else: they can wield only a dagger, wear no armour, and are very vulnerable in combat. In Salorras they are trained in the halls of the Arcane Conclave, debate doctrine in the Congress of Mysticism, catalogue the Fabric’s behaviour for the Citadel Researchers, or haunt the stacks of the Library of Marness — and the rare self-taught hedge-reader of Threads is watched carefully by all of the above.
A prime requisite of INT 13–15 grants +5% to experience earned; INT 16–18 grants +10%. (Low Intelligence penalizes experience per the standard prime-requisite rules: INT 3–5 −20%, INT 6–8 −10%.)
The Mage (Magic-User)
| Level | XP | Hit Dice (1d4) | THAC0 | D | W | P | B | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | 2,500 | 2d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | 5,000 | 3d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | 10,000 | 4d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | 20,000 | 5d4 | 19 [0] | 13 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 6 | 40,000 | 6d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 7 | 80,000 | 7d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — |
| 8 | 150,000 | 8d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | — | — |
| 9 | 300,000 | 9d4 | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 10 | 450,000 | 9d4+1* | 17 [+2] | 11 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 11 | 600,000 | 9d4+2* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 12 | 750,000 | 9d4+3* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 13 | 900,000 | 9d4+4* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | 1,050,000 | 9d4+5* | 14 [+5] | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
* Modifiers from CON no longer apply. — Saving throws: D Death/Poison · W Wands · P Paralysis/Petrify · B Breath Attacks · S Spells/Rods/Staves. The columns 1–6 are arcane spells per day by spell level.
Class Abilities
Combat. Mages can use only daggers, and are unable to use shields or wear any kind of armour — the weaving of Threads leaves no hand free for iron.
Arcane Magic. A mage carries a spell book — in Salorras, a scholar’s Thread-notation, each formula a recorded way of pulling the Fabric — containing the formulae of the arcane spells they know, beginning with one spell at 1st level. The mage memorizes spells from the book after rest and study, up to the daily limits of the table, and regains them the same way. The standard OSE Magic-User spell list applies in full.
Magical Research. A mage of any level may spend time and money on magical research, adding new spells to their spell book or exploring other magical effects — this is precisely how a Salorras mage deepens their chosen Thread. From 9th level a mage may also create magic items.
Using Magic Items. As arcane spell casters, mages can use magic scrolls of spells on their list, and items only usable by arcane casters (e.g. magic wands).
Tower — After Reaching 11th Level. A mage may build a stronghold, usually a tower, once they reach 11th level. Apprentice readers of the Fabric then arrive to study under them.
The Five Threads of the Fabric
Every magical effect is a facet of one Thread. The examples name spells of the standard OSE list to show each Thread’s texture:
| Thread | Governs (Salorras canon) | Example OSE spells |
|---|---|---|
| Iron | force, war, raw blasting, warding/protection | magic missile, fireball, lightning bolt, protection from evil, anti-magic shell |
| Pale | dimensional transit, summoning, dream, entropy (the dead-and-unmade) | dimension door, teleport, conjure elemental — and the forbidden animate dead |
| Crimson | blood, living nature, reshaping matter and flesh | fly, haste, polymorph self, stone to flesh |
| Golden | knowledge, oath, foreknowledge/prophecy | clairvoyance, wizard eye, contact higher plane |
| Obsidian | mind, charm, illusion, the unseen, fate/fortune | charm person, phantasmal force, invisibility, confusion |
The Pale Thread was derailed by the eolmes in prehistoric eras and has acted wildly ever since — so its strand of entropy magic (the necromantic arts, animate dead first among them) is forbidden to all but masters. A referee may require a mage seeking such spells to find an entropist willing to teach, and may rule that entropic spells misfire in untrained hands.
Paragon Classes (the mage’s elite tradition)
The mage’s Paragon is a standalone OSE class; a player who wants it plays it from 1st level, the forbidden apprenticeship part of the character’s story:
- Entropist — master of the Pale Thread: the entropic and necromantic magic of the dead-and-unmade, wild and forbidden, controllable only by the few (compare the apostle Magewraith, who reaches the same power through divine Kaith’otl).
(A mage drawn to the Golden Thread may instead look to the Echoe, the foresight tradition listed under the legatee path, which admits both arcane spellcasters and essencers.)