D&D 5th Edition
Compendium
Type to search for a spell, item, class — anything!
Scholar
Roll20 Note: The Scholar is not part of the SRD, but is available for free to use with the D&D 5e Character Builder. Check out Drizzt's Travelogue of Everything Volume 1 for additional content!
Heavy tomes, endless research, and mountains of information can drain the energy from the average person, but to a Scholar these are the things that fill them with life. Most Scholars tend to be minor spellcasters, merely picking up a basic proficiency in magic to aid in their studies. What Scholars truly excel at is learning, knowledge, and focused analysis. These bookish fellows are not helpless in a fight though, for their research can also include spelling your defeat.
I once met a Scholar, a tactician who "dabbled" in magic, though only in their quest for knowledge. Never have I met someone so persistent and uncannily skilled in learning, studying, and applying their scholarship in shocking ways.
- Drizzt
Spellcasting
When you first choose this focus at 3rd level, your tactical studies have granted you the ability to cast spells.
Cantrips. You learn two cantrips of your choice from the wizard spell list. You learn an additional wizard cantrip of your choice at 10th level.
Spell Slots. The Scholar Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your wizard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
For example, if you know the 1st-level spell catapult and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast catapult using either slot.
Spells Known of 1st-Level and Higher. You know three 1st-level wizard spells of your choice, two of which you must choose from the divination and transmutation spells on the wizard spell list.
The Spells Known column of the Scholar Spellcasting table shows when you learn more wizard spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be an divination or transmutation spell of your choice, and must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.
The spells you learn at 8th, 14th, and 20th level can come from any school of magic.
Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the wizard spells you know with another spell of your choice from the wizard spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be an divination or transmutation spell, unless you’re replacing the spell you gained at 3rd, 8th, 14th, or 20th level from any school of magic.
Spellcasting Ability. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your wizard spells, since you learn your spells through study and memorization. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a wizard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Scholar Spellcasting
Tactician Level | Cantrips Known | Spells Known | - Spell Slots per Spell Level - | |||
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |||
3rd | 2 | 3 | 2 |
— |
— |
— |
4th | 2 | 4 | 3 |
— |
— |
— |
5th | 2 |
4 | 3 |
— |
— |
— |
6th | 2 | 4 | 3 |
— |
— |
— |
7th | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
— |
— |
8th | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
— |
— |
9th | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
— |
— |
10th | 3 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
— |
— |
11th | 3 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
— |
— |
12th | 3 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
— |
— |
13th | 3 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
— |
14th | 3 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
— |
15th | 3 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
— |
16th | 3 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
— |
17th | 3 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
— |
18th | 3 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
— |
19th | 3 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
20th | 3 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
Bonus Proficiencies
Also at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in two of the following skills: Arcana, Investigation, or Medicine.
Additionally, you gain proficiency with calligrapher’s supplies.
Expert Analyst
Also at 3rd level, you can glean great amounts of information from creatures at a moment’s glance. Whenever a creature fails its Intelligence saving throw against your Analyze feature’s Trait Analysis, you may learn two characteristics about the target, instead of one.
Spell Guile
Starting at 6th level, you can interweave your spells into your combat tactics, guiding your allies towards the targets of your spells. Whenever you damage a creature with a spell, if you haven’t already this turn, you may use your Guiding Guile feature, directing the chosen ally to attack the target creature. If you damage multiple creatures as a part of the same casting, choose one of the damaged creatures.
Analytical Caster
Beginning at 10th level, your spells strike hardest when you know your enemy. Whenever you damage a creature you are analyzing with a spell of 1st level or higher, that creature takes one additional die of damage of the spell’s damage.
Tactical Arcana
Beginning at 15th level, you can enhance the spellcasting capabilities of your allies. Whenever a creature that is a part of your Perfect Plan casts a spell that forces one or more creatures to make a saving throw, you may use your reaction to expend and roll a Perfect Plan die, adding the result to the target’s spell save DC for that casting.
If one or more of the spell’s target’s fails their saving throw against the spell, you cannot use this feature on that spell’s caster again until you complete a long rest.
Perfect Spellcraft
At 18th level, you can store reserves of arcane power, tapping into them only when your plan requires it. You may cast spells you know without expending spell slots, instead expending a number of Perfect Plan dice equal to twice the spell’s level.