Magician Class for Review

I'm trying to create a new arcane spellcasting class for an upcoming
campaign I will be running. This class replaces the Wizard. This
campaign will be utilyzing very many of the variant campaign rules from
the SRD and almost all of the character classes are the variant classes
from there also. The following is simply to be called 'Magician' and I
have taken some concepts from Monte Cooks Magister (the staff) and from
the Warlock class from Complete Arcane (Eldritch Blast). I'm aware that
this is in the extremely early phase of development and the following
is really just a rough idea of where I'm headed. Here are the core
things I wanted to accomplish with this class and maybe some of you can
either critique what I have or offer different ideas as to how to
accomplish the goals.

Goals

1) The caster must physically open and read his spells from his book in
order to cast them. This grants him a great deal of versatility in the
spells he can cast but he makes himself vulnerable to attacks when
doing so as he has to focus very closely on the magical writing before
him. Magicians rely even more than Wizards and other arcane classes
upon their fighting friends to protect them while they cast their
spells. As a result, the spells that Magicians cast are often more
powerful than those cast by Wizards or other arcane classes (perhaps
always Empowered or something?)

2) The caster has the ability to cast any spell in his book when he
goes to cast a spell. He is limited in the total number of spells he
can cast each day however.

3) The caster carries a magical staff that is a focus for his powers. I
want that staff to grow in power as the Magician gains levels and to
eventually have somewhat of the retributive strike deal from days gone
by.. if the mages staff breaks all hell breaks loose. Perhaps something
like, "if the staff is broken it deals 1d6 damage per level of the
caster to all within 10' per level of the caster, including the
caster." or something.

4) The casters are almost universally old. A requirement of this class
is being at least middle aged. I'm trying to go for the classical old
bearded mage in a pointy hat with a staff here.

5) Implement the hit point rules where you roll half and get half
bonus, ie, all other classes will be doing the same thing. Fighter
classes will get 1d6+4, Barbarian types will get 1d6+6, skills type
classes will get 1d3+3 etc.

6) Skills: Magicians are more learned and educated than many of their
kin and as a result get 4 skill points per level instead of a Wizards
2.

7) Weapons: I limited them to the 1st Edition Magic-Users list of
weapons, just so I don't see any more Wizards with clubs and crossbows
running around.

+++++++++++++++

Magician

Alignment Any.

Misc Requirements: Age. Since the study of magic is long and intensive,
all Magicians begin play at least middle aged and are usually older
still. Adjust the characters physical and mental attributes based on
his age.

Hit Die d2+2.

Class Skills: The Magician's class skills (and the key ability for
each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script
(Int), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession
(Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Points at 1st Level (4 + Int modifier) × 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Magician.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Magicians are proficient with the dagger, dart, and quarterstaff, but
not with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with
a Magician's movements, which can cause him spells with somatic
components to fail.

Spells
A Magician casts arcane spells which are drawn from the Sorcerer /
Wizard spell list but unlike Wizards, Magicians do not choose and
prepare their spells ahead of time (see below). To learn or cast a
spell, the Magician must have an Intelligence score equal to at least
10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a
Magician's spell is 10 + the spell level + the Magician's
Intelligence modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a Magician can cast only a certain number of
spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is
given on Table: The Magician (same as Wizard). In addition, he receives
bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score. Unlike a bard
or sorcerer, a Magician may know any number of spells. He must get at
least 8 hours of rest each day before regaining any used spell slots.

A Magician casts his spells by opening his magical tome and reading the
arcane text aloud. As a result, all spells cast by Magicians have
verbal components even if the spell description doesn't otherwise
require one. The magician must hold the book open and stand very still
while reading and is treated as if he were flat-footed while doing so.
If a Magician is attacked while casting a spell he must choose to
either actively attempt to avoid the attack and lose the spell or
choose not to avoid the attack and continue casting the spell. If he
tries to avoid the attack the spell is lost. He is not allowed to make
a Concentration check to not lose the spell, it is lost automatically.
In this case he maintains his normal armor class and other defenses
normally. If, however, he decides to not avoid the attack, he is
considered Helpless towards that attack. If he is struck he also loses
the spell. In all cases, the Magician must be aware of the attack in
order to be able to choose whether or not to avoid it.
The extra time involved in carrying the book and opening it to the
right page adds additional time to cast each spell. All spell casting
times are at least a Full Round Action. If a spell has a greater
casting time already its casting time is not changed.

Bonus Languages
A Magician may substitute Draconic for one of the bonus languages
available to the character because of his race.

Scribe Scroll
At 1st level, a Magician gains Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat.

Spell-like Abilities
Mage Barrier (Sp): Once per day as a swift action a Magician may
surround himself in a protective sphere of magical energy. This sphere
duplicates the effects of the Shield spell. Other than being a glowing
protective sphere instead of a floating tower shield it is exactly like
the Shield spell.

Spellbooks
A Magician must carry his spellbook with him at all times to cast his
spells. He cannot cast any spell not recorded in his spellbook, except
for read magic, which all Magicians can prepare from memory.
A Magician begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level Wizard
spells plus three 1st-level spells of your choice. For each point of
Intelligence bonus the Magician has, the spellbook holds one additional
1st-level spell of your choice. At each new Magician level, he gains
two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on
his new Magician level) for his spellbook. At any time, a Magician can
also add spells found in other Magicians' spellbooks to his own.

At 3rd level a Magician's spellbook gains the ability to float in the
air in the Magician's square while he is perusing it to cast spells.
This frees his hands to continue holding his staff in case it is
needed. The pages of the spellbook turn magically to the pages needed
by the magician, as needed. If the magician attempts to leave the
square (or becomes unconscious or dead) where his book is floating it
falls harmlessly to the ground and must then be picked up.

Arcane Spells And Armor
Magicians do not know how to wear armor effectively. If desired, they
can wear armor anyway (though they'll be clumsy in it), or they can
gain training in the proper use of armor (with the various Armor
Proficiency feats-light, medium, and heavy-and the Shield
Proficiency feat), or they can multiclass to add a class that grants
them armor proficiency. Even if a Magician or sorcerer is wearing armor
with which he or he is proficient, however, it might still interfere
with spellcasting.

Armor restricts the complicated gestures that a Magician must make
while casting any spell that has a somatic component (most do). The
armor and shield descriptions list the arcane spell failure chance for
different armors and shields.

The Magician's Staff: A magister needs his staff both as a focus to
cast his spells and as the source of his spell-like abilities. Without
it, treat his caster level as one level lower and double casting times
for all spells (standard-action spells become full round spells,
full-round spells take 2 rounds to cast, and so on). In addition, he is
unable to use his spell-like abilities if he is not in contact with his
staff.

The magician crafts a staff specifically attuned to him. Regardless of
its construction or composition, it has a hardness of 12, 50 hit
points, and a break DC of 30. The staff 's hit points increase at a
rate of 2 per magician level, and the hardness and break Difficulty
Class increase at a rate of 1 point per three magician levels.

If a magician's staff breaks, he is stunned for 1d4 rounds. It takes
a month and 1,000 gp in materials to create a new one. A magician can
only have one staff attuned to him at a time. If the magician finds a
new staff he would rather become attuned to, switching requires no
money, just a week of meditation.
Should the magician die or take on a new staff, the old staff becomes
normal (unless it had been given other magical properties, in which
case they remain). A slain magician who comes back from the dead can
immediately and automatically re-attune to his old staff as a free
action.

+++++++++++++++

Thoughts? Ideas?

Woof,

Thanks for the comments but a couple things... First, this really isn't
a Magician type that does basic parlor/sleight of hand tricks like the
one from the netbook you copied and pasted so unfortunately there isn't
really much in there to nab, but thanks either way. Second, yeah the
one you posted is pretty much 100% 2nd edition so there would be
massive conversion efforts if it even was close to what I was looking
for lol

Thanks for the comment either way!

John