School of Hard Knocks

Not everyone in Faerun has the money or the knowledge to succeed in Wizard's School. Those determined few who -- though they cannot pay the bills or read the books -- are determined enough to become magic users, often use the tried-and-true of teaching themselves. Such wizards often learn spells in unorthodox ways, whether that be from stolen scrolls in public libraries, disgruntled family members, or even through their own hap-hazard experimentation. Through trial and error, they learn to hone their magical abilities as best they can. Players who take this subclass might find it suitable if their wizard grew up on the street, or in a poor family, or even in a magic-hating household. However, this isn't always the case, and sometimes people are just lazy. No matter what the reason, these self-made magicians are conquering the magical world, one shaky fireball at a time.

Arcane Experimentation

Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, you learn how to study spells at an astounding rate, yet with a few cut corners as a result. The time you must spend to copy a spell into your spellbook can be halved, and the required cost can only be 1/3 of the original cost needed to copy. However, every time you cast a spell that you copied in this way, there is a 2% chance the spell goes awry. If this happens, you must roll on the wild magic table, and the effect happens in addition to the spell effect. For each level of a spell you cast beyond 1st, there is an additional 3% chance that the spell will go wild. Once a spell goes wild, you cannot cast it again until you finish a short or long rest. 

Motivated Magic

Starting at 6th level, your damaging cantrips affect even creatures that avoid the brunt of the effect. Whenever you cast a spell that you have copied with your Arcane Experimentation feature that deals damage, you can increase the damage by one additional die. This die is the same as the die used in the spell. If two or more types of dice are used, always use the largest. Once you reach 10th level in this class, you can increase the damage by two additional dice.

What Doesn't Kill You

Beginning at 2nd level, you gain a higher defense against the spells you cast. You have a bonus to saving throws against magic and magical effects equal to your proficiency bonus. In addition, each time you cast a spell that goes wild, you can use your reaction gain resistance to damage from spells and magical effects until the end of your turn. You can use this reaction a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you must take a short or long rest to use it again.

Lucky Guess

Beginning at 10th level, you become better at copying spells and cutting corners. If one of your Arcane Experimentation spells goes wild, you are now able to cast it again, as long as you still have slots prepared. In addition, you ignore resistances to damage types when calculating damage from wild spells. However, immunities are still taken into account.

Arcane Martyr

Starting at 14th level, you can increase the power of your wild spells, to your ultimate detriment. When you cast a wizard spell that goes wild, you can deal maximum damage with that spell.

The first time you do so, you take 2d12 necrotic damage. If you use this feature again before you finish a long rest, you take an additional 2d12 necrotic damage for each level of the spell, immediately after you cast it. Each time you use this feature again before finishing a long rest, the necrotic damage per spell level increases by 1d12. This damage ignores resistance and immunity, including the resistance you get from your What Doesn't Kill You feature.