A RCANOLGY : R ULES F OR M AGICANL
S TUDY AND E XPERIMENTATION
W
IZARDS STUDY MAGIC . That is the
prime definition of a Wizard. They learn
and use magic through intellect and
research. They use their understanding
of the systems, laws, and principles of magic to
calculate, formulate, and engineer applications
of the natural forces of the cosmos. In this way
they are similar to the mathematicians,
scientists, engineers, and computer
programmers in the mundane world.
I have a bachelor’s degree in physics and a
masters degree in computer science, and you
know what I never did? Scribe spells into a spell
book from a fixed list of spell options (or any
kind of mundane equivalent). None of these real
world disciplines involve a fixed list of
input-output processes (I realize many people
think they do, but that is only because the only
know the basics). Such a spell book could be
made, but it would be fundamentally useless, as
the entire point of these areas of study is to solve
novel problems and discover new principles and
applications.
So why do sorcerers get to mess around and
experiment with spells, while wizards are all
trapped in the same boring little box of rigidly
defined spells? No shade on sorcerers, I think
the wizard is to the sorcerer as the physicist is to
the athlete. A physicist takes about a semester
of school to learn how to predict a trajectory of a
ballistic projectile, and solving such a problem
takes about a minute if the student has a knack
for it. A basketball player learns to do the same
thing within seconds of picking up a ball, and
can solve that problem in a fraction of a second.
So it makes sense that a sorcerer should be able
to intuitively solve magical problems on the fly,
making adjustments, and accounting for
variations under pressure. But it seems wizards
should be able to solve these problems as well,
as long as they have the time and the intellect to
perform the analysis.
I could ride this analogy all day, but my point
is that I think of myself as something that is
close to a real world Wizard. Maybe that is a
biased viewpoint of the fantasy, but it is a
fantasy that I would like to play out at the table.
So here I have set forth these rules that give
Wizards access to Metamagic. There is a lot to
say about the design decisions, but let’s start by
just laying out the rules, and we can discuss the
rest later.
T HE R ULES
When a wizard prepares their spells for the day
or takes a short rest, they can spend the
required Time and Hit Dice found in the
Metamagic for Wizards table below to attempt
to apply the associated Metamagic option to the
prepared spell. They must then succeed at an
Intelligence (Arcana) check at the associated DC
in order to successfully apply the Metamagic
option.
If the Intelligence (Arcana) check is not passed,
then the Hit Dice and Time are spent but the
Metamagic option is not applied to the spell.
Only one Metamagic option effect can be
applied to a spell, unless the Metamagic option
description indicates otherwise, or unless the
Wizard opts to use the Combining Effects rules
bellow. When this reformulation is made, the
Metamagic option will only apply to one instance
of that spell.
If a wizard wants to perform multiple castings
of the same spell, with the same Metamagic
option, or with different options, they must
expend the associated Hit Dice and Time costs
as well as make the associated Intelligence
(Arcana) roll for each Metamagic option.
For Example
If a wizard prepares Minor Illusion as a Subtle Spell twice
and as an Extended Spell once, until their next Long Rest,
whenever the Wizard casts Minor Illusion, they can
choose to cast it normally, as a Subtle Spell, or as an
Extended Spell.
They may not cast it as both a Subtle Spell and as an
Extended Spell. If two of the Minor Illusions are cast as
Subtle Spells, the Wizard may not cast Minor Illusion as a
Subtle Spell again until the next time it is prepared as
such. When a Minor Illusion is cast as an Extended Spell,
they may not cast Minor Illusion again as an Extended
Spell until the next time it is prepared as such. They may
continue to cast Minor Illusion as many times as they
would normally be able to cast it.
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 Metamagic for Wizards conclude that this is effectively the same as a Hold
Metamagic Hit Dice Time DC Monster spell and disallow this reformulation. Alternatively,
the Dungeon Master may decide that this is acceptable, as
Careful Spell 1 10 Minutes 10 + spell level long as it is strictly limited to horses, not to other horse-like
Distant Spell 1 10 Minutes 10 + spell level creatures, or creatures in general. They set the Hit Dice
Empowered Spell (Int) 1 10 Minutes 10 + spell level cost at 1, the Time at 10 minutes, and set the DC to be 12
Extended Spell 1 10 Minutes 10 + spell level (10+the spell level).
Heightened Spell 3 1 hour 15 + spell level The Dungeon Master may also decide that this is slightly
Quickened Spell 2 30 minutes 12 + spell level harder than other reformulations, since it is qualitative,
Seeking Spell 2 30 minutes 12 + spell level rather than quantitative, and may decide to set the DC
Seeking Spell UA 1 10 Minutes 10 + spell level equal to 20 - the Wizard’s Intelligence (Nature) bonus. This
Subtle Spell 1 10 Minutes 10 + spell level allows and encourages players to think of creative ways to
use their Wizardly knowledge.
Transmuted Spell 1 10 Minutes 10 + spell level
Twinned Spell 1/level 5/level 10 + spell level
M INOR C HANGES
Occasionally a Wizard may want to make a very
C OMBINING E FFECTS small reformulation to a minor spell on the fly.
A wizard can combine multiple Metamagic At the Dungeon Masters Discretion, they may be
options on the same spell, but at significant cost. allowed to make such reformulations with only
When applying multiple effects on the same spell, an Intelligence (Arcana) check set at a DC of the
the Wizard must expend Hit Dice and Time Dungeon Masters choosing.
equal to twice the sum of the individual effects
and must pass an Intelligence (Arcana) check
For Example
with a DC of 20 + the spell level multiplied by the
If a Wizard would like to cast Find Traps. The wording of
number of effects on the spell being prepared.
Find Traps specifies that it finds anything that would have
These extreme costs are representative of the "a sudden or unexpected effect you consider harmful or
extreme difficulty of combining multiple undesirable." The Wizard is not looking for something
Metamagic options. harmful, but instead something that is beneficial. Perhaps
this reformulated spell could be though of as Find
Surprises. The Dungeon master decides to allow this
For example reformulation as long as the Wizard passes an Intelligence
If a Wizard prepares a Fireball as a Careful and (Arcana) check with a DC of 12 (10 + the spell level).
Heightened Spell, the Wizard would be required to expend
8 Hit Dice (2(1+3)) 2 hours and 20 minutes (2(1 hour + 10
minutes)) and pass a DC 26 Intelligence (Arcana) Check Such minor reformulations at no cost, allow
(20+2(3)). the Player to feel more Magical and less like they
are playing a video game.
C ASTING S PELLS AT H IGHER
L EVELS R ESEARCH AND
If a Wizard Casts a spell at a higher level, they
can do so at no additional penalty or cost.
D EVELOPMENT
Intricately tied to the fantasy of tinkering, is the
O FF B OOK E FFECTS fantasy of researching, discovering, and
engineering new things. To fulfil this long term
Creative wizards may want to make research and study fantasy, these rules can be
reformulations to their spells that are not applied piecemeal, as the Wizard role-plays their
covered by the Metamagic options. If the academic exploits. Consider giving the Player
reformulation changes the effect of the spell, access to only a few of the Metamagic Options,
without changing any of the qualities covered in and allowing them to role-play researching and
the Metamagic options, the Dungeon Master may discovering new ways to reformulate their spells.
apply a Hit Dice and Time cost, as well as an New Metamagic options can be made available
Intelligence (Arcana) check DC according to their as the Character levels up, or as rewards for
own judgement. Altering a spell in order to cause researching. This will allow the Player to spend
it to function like another spell, is generally their Downtime doing the kinds of things they
discouraged, but that can be left to the Dungeon imagine Wizards doing in their downtime:
Master’s discretion. experimenting, studying, and practicing magic.
Players may come up with new ways to
For Example reformulate spells, that are not accounted for
A Wizard would like to prepare the spell Hold Person but anywhere here. Consult page 283-284 of the
reformulate the spell so that it can hold a horse, rather
than a humanoid creature. The Dungeon Master may
Dungeon Masters guide as well as any other
custom spell design documents you like in order

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to decide on what should be allowed, and what
the costs would be.
A DJUSTMENTS
A
RCANOLOGY IS BROKEN by design. It was
born out of a desire to see a narrative
fantasy fulfilled, not to create a balanced
game-play mechanic. That being said, I
tried my best to balance these rules as much as I
possibly could. If you would like to read more
about why I made the design choices I did, check
out the section "Notes on the Design of
Arcanology."
This section is about giving you ways to adjust
the Arcanology rules to suit your imagination. I
recommend do a little play testing with the base
rules before making any of the following
adjustments, and I suggest you make
reformulations one at a time before combining
them.
I don’t get as much opportunity to playtest as
I would like, so any feedback and comments you
could give would be very helpful!
A DJUSTING THE C OST
Some players and game masters will feel that the
costs associated with Arcanology are just too
steep, they aren’t worth it. Others will feel that
since it basically gives Wizards access to the
major feature of an entire other class, the cost
isn’t nearly steep enough. In either case, you can
easily add or remove cost to what I have
established in various ways. Here are some
suggestions.
I NCREASING THE C OST
If you feel that the cost of these features is too
low, try one of the following:
• Instead of (or in addition to) using Hit Dice,
increase the spell slot level
• Set the Time required to a number of hours
equal to the Hit Dice spent
• Put a cap on the number of Metamagic options
and other changes the Wizard can do per day
• Make spells reformulated by Arcanology
count as 2 spells for the perpose of Preparing
Spells for the day
• Add material components that are costly, rare,
difficult to get, or otherwise restricting.
• make casting reformulated spells take an extra
round. (Note: remove Quickend Spell as an
option in this case.
D ECREASING THE C OST
If you want your Wizard to feel free to tinker with
spells at a lower cost, you can of course just give
them full access to Metamagic as it is outlined
for Sorcerers, but that would almost certainly
feel a bit cheep, especially if other players don’t
have a comparable suite of abilities they can
draw on. So to just reduce the cost mildly try
one of these options:
• Rather than completely using up Hit Dice,
have them reduce Hit Dice from a d6 to a d4,
and remove their constitution modifier when
they use these reduced Hit Dice to regain HP
(let be honest, their constitution modifier
wasn’t much in the first place)
• Replace the Hit Dice cost with a resource pool
comparable to sorcery points.
• Remove or lower the Intelligence (Arcana)
check for preparing the spells
• Allow the Wizard a number of free Arcanology
reformulations equal to their spell casting
modifier daily. Any reformulations more than
that have the associated costs.
A DJUSTING THE F LAVOR
If you don’t want your players to feel like these
rules are just a blatant rip-off of Metamagic
(which the unquestionably are) make your own
table of Arcanology options that features the
Metamagic options you like the most (with a
different name and description) along with other
reformulations of your own design. Here are
some examples, but I encourage your to come up
with your own.
S TRANGE M ETHODS
Replace the damage dice of the spell with an
alternate combination of Damage dice with the
same maximum damage total (i.e. 4d6 becomes
2d12, or 5d8 becomes 5d4+1d20.
C HAOTIC S OURCES
The spell caster adds 1d6-2 to their attack roll or
save DC.
R ISKY F ORMULATION
Use on a spell that can be cast at higher levels.
When the Wizard casts this spell, they can roll
an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal
to 15+the spell’s original level. If they pass, they
cast the spell one level higher if the Wizard can
cast spells at that level, but use the original spell
level slot. If they fail, the spell fails and they
loose the spell slot.
On as successful check, the Wizard may
choose to repeat the check at a DC 2 higher than
the previous check. They can repeat the check
as many times as they choose, up to the highest
level the Wizard is capable of casting. If they fail
any of the checks, they immediately fail, the
spell slot is spent, they cannot repeat the check.
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 P RECISES C ALCULATION
Any dice rolls made in relation to this spell (e.g.
attack rolls, damage, saving throws, etc.) use the
average for that dice roll, rather than rolling. The
average of a dice roll can be found by adding the
minimum possible roll to the maximum possible
roll, then dividing by two. Round down in the
case of uneven division.
N OTES ON THE D ESIGN
OF A RCANOLOGY
W
HO IS THIS FOR ? Why even bother with
all of this mess? Why not just reskin
a sorcerer, let the Wizard take the
Metamagic Adept feat, or some other
simple solution?
These rules were designed by me for me. As I
mentioned above, I am a scientist, a
mathematician, and a computer programmer. I
wanted to play a Wizard that was just a bit more
like me. The rules are meant to fulfil a fiction I
imagined but couldn’t quite get in the basic DD
rules. So these rules should not be handed out
to just anybody. They are undoubtedly broken,
unfair, and sloppily designed in terms of game
mechanics. But that is because they were
designed for narrative reasons, not mechanical
reasons.
These rules are for specific players who are
more interested in telling a specific kind of
character based story. Players who min/max
and munchkin their way through the game, will
absolutely ruin a narrative with these rules. So
only introduce them, if you have a player
committed to the scientific aspect of Wizardry.
Of course you could allow these rules for
anyone else as well, all the muchkins and
min/maxers are welcome, just so long as
everyone knows what’s going on and they are
fine with it.
D ON ’ T S TEP O N A NYBODY ’ S T OES
In this document, as well as my other optional
rule set, Footwork, I mention a game design
principle I like to call "Don’t Step On Anybody’s
Toes." Essentially, in a game like Dungeons
Dragons, it’s a bad idea to design a mechanic
that gives all players (or even some players)
access to abilities that are supposed to be
special or unique to certain characters. This
principle, like many principles, can be broken,
but should not be taken likely.
The Metamagic Adept feat is a good example
of how this rule can be broken — carefully. It is
severely limited and doesn’t add too much
fiddley-bits — unlike the Arcanology rules.
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So what gives me the right to throw all that
out the window for these overreaching, cluttered,
loosely designed rules? Nothing! These are bad
rules. I said it before, they are broken, unfair,
and unbalanced. But they do what I wanted
them to do: they made a Wizard into an
experimenting, calculating, troubleshooting spell
customize.
So in my best effort to do as little stepping on
toes as I can manage, I make the following
suggestions:
B E C ONSIDERATE OF S ORCERERS
Do not allow these rules if there is an actual
sorcerer in the group. Clearly this is highway
robbery, and the Sorcerers are the victims. Do
them the favor of not rubbing it in in their faces.
P LACE F IRM B OUNDARIES
Don’t give Wizards full access to all of these
rules. Don’t even let them see this document.
Just give them one or two things instead of a
magic item or something, and let them engage
with it however they choose. If they really like it,
give them just a little more at a time. If the
player really digs it, that’s cool, but make sure
the other players are getting comparable rewards
in the form of magic items, companions, pets, or
whatever else they think is cool.
I T S HOULDN ’ T B E F REE
Remember that all of this is meant to fulfil the
fantasy of studying magic. It should be difficult.
A player that will like these rules will like them
more if it’s hard to do. Getting the reformulated
spell effects are not the fun part, any more than
receiving a trophy or framing a piece of art. The
fun part is playing the game, doing the art, and
in this case, playing the roll of an intelligent
scholar, who puts in time and energy and uses
the one true Wizard ability, their high
Intelligence and Arcana bonuses, to really do
magic in a way that is uniquely Wizardly.
M OTIVATIONS AND D ECISIONS
W HY H IT D ICE ?
There is both a mechanical and narrative reason
for the Hit Dice cost. Mechanically, Sorcerers
have as many sorcery points as they have
Sorcerer levels. I considered what resource
Wizards have that is one per level, and Hit Dice
came to mind. As for the narrative, I am
remembering my days in college, working on a
really hard problem. I remember how exhausted
I would feel, and how it would even mess with
my ability to relax. I would just try to chill and
watch TV, but my brain would keep running on
the problem. I see burning a hit dice as being
reflective of the weariness that comes with that Fare Thee Well, Adventurer!
kind of mental work. I hope you enjoy experimenting with these optional magic
rules for Wizards. Leave a comment and a review!

W HY T IME ?
Obviously it would take time to study and
calculate these things, but the question might be
why these amounts of time? While somewhat
arbitrary, I mainly considered how long it would
take me today to solve some of the problems I
studied in my undergrad. The first time takes
forever, but now after knowing how the problem
is solved, I figure most of the problems would
take roughly ten minutes, with some taking
longer.

W HY THE A RCANA C HECK ?

One of the first things that prodded me to make
these rules was actually the desire to use my
Arcana checks on more things. I wanted to use
my Arcana skill to do more magical things, and
making reformulations to spells was something
that came to mind. In fact, while I was
play-testing, I found that removing the Arcana
check actually made the rule-set less fun to play.
It became just about min/maxing my spell
effects and less about the fantasy of studying
and researching magic.

W HY I S C OMBINING E FFECTS S O H ARD ?

This is another one that was motivated by my
experiences. Doing calculations that involve
multiple unrelated aspects is often exponentially
more difficult than just doing two problems, one
with each of the aspects. For example, A
propelled projectile with changing mass (like a
rocket) is hard. A projectile with air resistance is
also hard. As is a projectile under the influence
of changing gravity. Putting it all together into
one problem: a propelled projectile with
changing mass under changing gravity, with air
resistance that also changes due to atmospheric
density (i.e. a realistic rocket problem) is actually
impossible to solve. The best you can do is
approximate with something like Newton’s
method. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, I
just mean that it takes it from a math problem
to a computer science problem. You literally
have to write a custom computer program to
calculate an approximation for you.
Anecdote aside, I thought if Sorcerers aren’t
allowed to do it at all, the Wizards should only
be able to do it with extreme difficulty and cost.
It’s quite possible the requirements aren’t steep
enough still, so feel free to omit this option if you
like.