School of Ambition

The study of the arcane is a long and arduous journey, taking years to master its fine and delicate intricacies. For some, this process is far too tedious and lengthy, and find themselves not challenged enough by remedial spells such as Fog Cloud or Magic Missile. The School of Ambition is a lesser-known arcane tradition, its texts often found by young, gifted mages in the restricted section of the library. It attracts those with a thirst for power, a hunger for knowledge, and above all, the belief that where there is great risk, there is also great reward.

Ritual Savant

Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the gold and time you must spend to copy a spell with the ritual tag into your spellbook is halved.

Advanced Learning

As part of your thirst for more advanced magical techniques, you have learned to cast spells that some would say are beyond your abilities. Starting at second level, whenever you learn wizard spells as part of leveling up, you can choose one of those spells to be one spell level higher than you can currently cast, known as an Advanced spell. For example, upon reaching 6th level, a wizard would normally be able to learn two spells of 1st, 2nd or 3rd level. With this ability, the wizard would be able to learn one 4th level spell, as well as one 1st, 2nd or 3rd level spell. 

In order to cast this Advanced spell, you must expend your highest level spell slot. If you have expended all your highest level spell slots, then you cannot cast an Advanced spell. Casting an Advanced spell is dangerous, as you have not fully mastered the magic required. When you cast an Advanced spell, roll on the Risky Casting table to see what the outcome of your casting is. Alternatively, the DM can choose an effect based on the die roll. A result from 17 - 20 is a success, 7 - 16 is a partial success (i.e. the spell works but with some drawback), and 1 - 6 is a failure. For example, a failed attempt to polymorph an ally into a lion could instead result in turning the ally into a cat. If the spell fails both the spell slot and the action required to cast it are lost, as well as any consumable components used.

Once you have the necessary spell slot for an Advanced spell, it no longer counts as an Advanced spell and you must use the appropriate spell slot to cast it.

Risky Casting

d20	Effect
20	The spell succeeds, and you regain your lowest level expended spell slot.
19	The spell succeeds with no additional side effects.
18	The spell succeeds, but for the next minute your voice is extremely high pitched.
17	The spell succeeds, but it also results in a loud bang and a puff of smoke, leaving your hair and eyebrows slightly singed.
16	The spell succeeds, but the spell targets both you and your original target.
15	The spell succeeds, but you are considered charmed by the creature closest to you for 1 minute.
14	The spell succeeds, but each creature within 30 feet of you (excluding you) becomes invisible for the next minute. The invisibility ends ends on a creature when it attacks or casts a spell.
13	The spell succeeds, but you are unable to speak for 1 minute.
12	The spell succeeds, but it also targets one other random creature within the range of the spell. If no other creature is within range, it also targets you.
11	The spell succeeds, but immediately after casting you are transported to the Astral Plane until the end of your next turn, after which time you return to the place you previously occupied or the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.
10	The spell succeeds, but immediately after casting it you are stunned for one round.
9	The spell succeeds, but you and all creatures who were targeted by the spell take 2d6 necrotic damage.
8	The spell succeeds, but you become poisoned for the next hour.
7	The spell succeeds, but you gain a point of exhaustion.
6	The spell fails, but you do not lose the expended spell slot.
5	The spell fails, but for the next minute you gain truesight.
4	The spell fails and you instead summon 1d6 flumphs controlled by the DM which appear in unoccupied spaces within 30 feet of you. They are frightened of you and vanish after 1 minute.
3	The spell fails and you instead cast Polymorph on yourself using your own spell save DC. If you fail the saving throw you turn into a sheep for the duration.
2	The spell fails and you and all creatures within 10 feet of you take 2d8 thunder damage and are knocked prone.
1	The spell fails and you can't cast anything other than cantrips for the next minute.

Arcane Inspiration

By 6th level, your experience with experimental magic has allowed you to avoid the worse side-effects of your Advanced spells. Once per long rest, when you roll on the Risky Casting table, you can choose to reroll the die after seeing the result.

Ritual Master

As a result of your keen interest in experimental magic, you have developed methods of tapping into other magical sources. At 10th level, you learn two ritual spells of 5th level or lower from any spell list. Additionally, any spell with a ritual tag counts as a wizard spell for you, and can be added to your spellbook. 

Calculated Risk

At 14th level, you have learned to harness the dangerous casting your school is known for. If you have expended the necessary spell slot needed to cast a particular spell, you can choose to expend a spell slot lower than what is normally required. Subtract the level of the spell slot being expended from the level of the spell being cast. The resulting number is how many times you must roll on the Risky Casting table, where you take the lowest result rolled. For example, if you wish to cast the 4th level spell Polymorph but do not have any 4th level spell slots left, you could instead attempt to use a lower level spell slot, such as a 1st level spell slot. If you were to use a 1st level spell slot, you must roll 3 times on the Risky Casting table, after which the effect of the lowest roll takes place.

If you use your Arcane Inspiration feature with this ability, you must reroll all the dice originally rolled on the table. For example, in the above example, if you were to use your Arcane Inspiration, you would roll the 3 dice again, and take the new lowest roll.

You can use this ability once per long rest and suffer no additional consequences. Each time you use this ability again before you finish a long rest, the number of dice you must roll on the Risky Casting table increases by one.