The Cantripist

A high elf hurls a mote of deadly flame before burning the phalanx poised in front of her to a crisp.

A halfling pours a drink across the bar with a pair of spectral hands, a wide smile on his face.

A dwarf stuns his opponent with an electric shock and blows him away with a powerful blast of wind.

All of these heroes are cantripists, masters of the overlooked art of the humble cantrip.

Exception to the rule While most other mages might focus on achieving higher-power spells, these specialized magicians focus on the finer use of cantrips. While some might choose this path, many others are forced down it, either by missing capability to find higher-level magic, to comprehend it, or just being physically unable to cast the more complex spells. For most of these people, however, they wouldn't have it any other way. Once one tastes the convenience and power of cantripism, it is difficult to turn to any traditional form of spellcasting.

Weapon and Tool For many spellcasters, magic itself is a goal, with every step they take being another step towards greater magic. For a cantripist, however, magic is but a tool and a weapon, with which to reach their more personal goals. This reflects on the use of their cantrips, with a cast of a firebolt being as natural to a cantripist as the swing of a sword is to a fighter, and as such, many cantripists consider their spells almost as an extension of their being.

What is a Cantrip? To many, this is a simple question: a low-level spell that you can cast at-will. But beyond that, a cantrip is a spell that the caster knows so well as to have it committed to memory and have the innate magical power to cast the spell as much as one can desire. The amount of practice or talent to reach that point is immense, and any good cantripist has a good combination of both.