The Blue Star Order of Pilgrim Adepts

An enigmatic demigod known as the Great Adept trains promising Wizards to be the Pilgrim Adepts of the Blue Star in the Place That is Not - a demiplane of his own creation. Great arcane abilities are imparted to those who are able to learn the Great Adept's ways of magic, but there is always a price to pay for such vast power. All Pilgrim Adepts in the Order of the Blue Star swear magically binding vows and receive a magical tattoo of a blue star on their forehead as a graduation ceremony.

After receiving this arcane mark, the new Pilgrim Adept meets the Great Adept in a private audience, where they are assigned a single secret to keep. This activates the magic of their tattoo and makes their Secret the foundation of their power. Work together with your Dungeon Master to customize your Wizard's individual Secret and vows to fit your character and campaign.

Blue Star Wizards seek to accumulate and master as much magic as possible, whether spells, items, or artifacts. This leads most of them to travel far, even to other planes and worlds, in search of lore and power. The Order's belief is that when the time is right, all their surviving members will be summoned to fight at the Great Adept's side in the final battle between the forces of Law and Chaos. Until that time, Pilgrim Adepts are "free to walk as you will in the world." (Quote from The Secret of the Blue Star, by Marion Zimmer Bradley)

Secret of the Blue Star

After their graduation ceremony, all Pilgrim Adepts of the Blue Star meet privately with the Great Adept, who assigns them a single secret to keep. This Secret is the foundation of all of a Pilgrim Adept's power. If a Pilgrim Adept's Secret is spoken to them aloud by a mortal in a language they can understand, their magic is undone. Their Blue Star tattoo disappears, they are no longer considered members of the Order, and they immediately lose access to all features of this subclass. Work together with your Dungeon Master to establish your secret. It should be something that is potentially discoverable by both players and NPCs within the campaign. In the original stories featuring the Pilgrim Adepts, the Secret was always something deeply personal to the individual, something they would have to work at keeping concealed.

While an Adept's Secret is the foundation their power builds on, their vows are the structure that holds it in place. All Pilgrim Adepts must swear binding arcane vows as part of their graduation. Violation of these vows will impact the Pilgrim Adept's power to varying degrees. The Great Adept does not require Pilgrim Adepts to abide by any laws apart from the vows of the Order.

• Come at the Great Adept's call, and carry out any task he may assign - willful violation causes loss of power the same as the character's Secret being revealed
• Fight under the Great Adept's command for the forces of Law against Chaos in the Final Battle at the end of time.
• Never deliberately slay another Wizard of the Order of the Blue Star - willful violation causes loss of power the same as the character's Secret being revealed
• Never refuse a request for aid from another engaged in the Order's business - willful violation causes loss of power the same as the character's Secret being revealed
• Never lie to another Pilgrim Adept - willful violation causes temporary loss of magic until a short rest is completed. Repeat offenses will require travel to meet with the Great Adept for penance, at the DM's discretion
• One personal limitation, chosen by the character, subject to the Great Adept's approval. Some examples: never eat/drink within the sight of mortals, never use metal weapons/utensils, or only wearing blue - willful violation causes temporary loss of magic until a short rest is completed. Repeat offenses will require travel to meet with the Great Adept for penance, at the DM's discretion
• One personal limitation, chosen by the Great Adept to build character or teach a lesson. Some examples: sobriety for a heavy drinker, or celibacy for a known philanderer - willful violation causes temporary loss of magic until a short rest is completed. Repeat offenses will require travel to meet with the Great Adept for penance, at the DM's discretion

The reward for paying this cost is the magic of the Blue Star tattoo itself. At second level, when the Wizard has graduated and become a Pilgrim Adept, their tattoo functions as an arcane focus and allows the Pilgrim Adept to cast the Detect Magic and Identify spells at will, without expending a spell slot. The magic of the Star also mystically fortifies the Pilgrim Adept so they might survive until the Final Battle at the end of the world. Increase your Constitution score by two (up to a maximum of twenty). You also stop aging and cannot be forced to age by any means.

Somebody Else's Magic

By sixth level, your mastery of the Blue Star tattoo has grown until you can infuse spells into it. Any spell from a spell book or spell scroll can be infused into your tattoo. Spend half the time and gold as if copying the spell into a spell book as normal, expending incense and special herbs as you meditate on the spell's formula. Once complete, the spell is considered learned and prepared at all times, does not count towards your total number of prepared spells, and can be cast as a Wizard spell, even if it is not from the Wizard spell list. If the spell came from a scroll, the scroll is destroyed by this process. You can infuse a number of spells equal to your Proficiency Bonus plus your Intelligence modifier. Infused spells can be of a level no higher than your Proficiency Bonus, and all your infused spells can have a combined level no higher than your Wizard level. A spell that is no longer wanted can be released from the tattoo as part of the process of infusing a new spell to replace it. Infused Wizard spells can be copied into a spell book for half the normal time and gold cost.

Finally, your tattoo will passively absorb the fleeting power of another Blue Star should it fail. If another Pilgrim Adept of the Blue Star permanently loses their magic within sixty feet of you (either by violating a vow or by their secret being revealed), their power goes to you. All spells they had infused into their tattoo are absorbed by yours. Any spells that exceed your infusion limit can be swapped out with currently infused spells without cost during a Short Rest, after which any remaining spells that exceed your limit are lost.

Blue Star's Light

By tenth level, your tattoo glows with obvious magic - sparkling pleasantly when you are calm and flashing in warning when you are angry. Add your Intelligence modifier to any Intimidation or Persuasion checks you make.

By deliberately bathing yourself in the glow of your tattoo, you are able to return to The Place That is Not, the demiplane where you received your tattoo. Once per long rest, you can cast Plane Shift as a ritual affecting only yourself to transport to the central courtyard of the Temple of the Blue Star. Once your business at the Temple is complete, you can use an action to return to the location you cast the Plane Shift from.

In addition, the growing power of your Blue Star makes it easier to cast your infused spells. When casting a spell of first level or higher that is infused in your tattoo, reduce the level of the spell slot needed to cast it by your Wizard level divided by ten (rounded down). For example, a level ten Pilgrim Adept could cast a fifth level spell by expending a third level spell slot. If this reduces the spell slot requirement to zero or less, the spell can be cast without expending a spell slot. Spells cannot be cast at a level higher than the spell slots you have.

Finally, when you absorb the spells from another Pilgrim Adept's Blue Star, you also capture some of their magical power as well. You permanently gain bonus spell slots with a total level equal to half the former Pilgrim Adept's Wizard level (round down). For example, if you absorb the magic of a level twelve Pilgrim Adept, you gain a total of six spell levels' worth of spell slots. You can choose any combination of spell slots to gain, as long as their total combined level does not exceed half of the former Pilgrim Adept's level. These bonus spell slots must be for levels you already have slots for, and are tied to your Blue Star tattoo. If you lose your magic, the bonus slots are also lost.

Ageless Wanderer

Since they do not age, most Pilgrim Adepts have a "seen it all" view of the world. Many live up to the Pilgrim aspect of their title out of boredom, seeking new sights and experiences to shake them out of boredom. By the time you have reached level fourteen, you have been around enough to have been exposed to many different ideas and experiences. You gain proficiency in one language and two skills of your choice.