Clever Featwork: Magic Initiate
Combining different species, classes, and backgrounds with proficiency and feat selection allows most people to make characters close to their original vision. But, sometimes, a character concept is original, or complex, and requires a unique look at character options to build it. There are often many ways to build characters with similar abilities, and finding the best option(s) to choose can be challenging, but challenging can be fun and rewarding. In the Clever Featwork features we will look at ways to use Feats (Origin and Regular) to not only provide benefits but also flavor and distinctiveness to your characters. Sometimes it may be a different way to look at them, others it will be ways to combine them. These explorations won’t be to optimize characters to do the most damage they can, but to develop interesting and unique characters with the abilities you want them to have.
This time we will look at the Magic Initiate (MI) Feat(s). On their surface they provide access to spells, and often will be taken by people who want some that don’t normally get access, or sometimes to get more spells than you have access to (like classes that only get 2 Cantrips.) But gaining access to ‘spells’ can be looked at in many different ways.
Fantasy role-playing games are worlds of magic, and wielding it even in small ways puts the wielder above the general population. Out of the twelve classes, only three start out with no access to magic: barbarian, fighter, and rogue—and by level three they all have options to add magic—often the same spells as spellcasting classes, but sometimes supernatural abilities—to their repertoire.
The three versions of Magic Initiate (Cleric, Druid, and Wizard) all work similarly: granting two cantrips and one 1st-level spell. The difference is in the spell list they can select the spells from. A big advantage to the Feat is that the player can pick the ability score that the spells use to determine attack bonus or save DC. For example, a player with a high INT or CHA for their primary class spells or just for their character description (they are smart or charming) for proficiencies can select Cleric and Druid spells but use their INT or CHA to cast them, or vice versa—a cleric or druid with a high Wisdom can use it to cast the additional wizard spells.
The Caveat
There is one major caveat to Magic Initiate that makes its use, well, complicated: it is an Origin Feat. That means under many normal circumstances it isn’t available at character creation and you can’t take them at higher levels when you gain a Feat. You would need to take the only official Background that provides it (which may not include skills and ability modifiers you want), or make a human who get an extra Origin Feat. Custom Backgrounds are ‘official’ since the 2024 DMG—unfortunately D&D Beyond is not updated yet to function to make custom backgrounds with the new rules with Origin Feats but you can make it work on paper or by using the customize options in the DDB character sheet (like adding Feats ad hoc). Another option is Warlock which has the Invocation: Lessons of the First Ones which allows you to take an Origin Feat—but this locks you into at least one level in that class. In the end, if you aren’t making a human, the best way to get the Origin Feat is to make a custom origin, which is fun anyway.
More Cantrips Please!
The first use of Magic Initiate is for a spellcaster simply to gain more spells, namely Cantrips, of your own or another class. Bards, Druids and Warlocks get 2; Clerics and Wizards get 3; Sorcerers get the most at 4. Rangers and Paladins don’t get any Cantrips. Especially for those that only get two cantrips, getting two more can greatly improve your repertoire. Rangers and Paladins could pick up Cleric or Druid cantrips.
One more 1st-level spell may not seem like a lot, but at low levels having a bigger selection can give the character more flexibility to help the party out. Because you get to choose your spellcasting ability modifier, they still act like spells from your own list so even though Bard, Sorcerer, and Warlock are not options, those classes selecting spells from another list will act as if they are.
‘Multi-classing’ and Custom Classes
The second way to use Magic Initiate is to ‘multi-class’ without having to spend a level. You get access to spells that might not be on your spell list, both Cantrips and 1st-level. A spellcaster without healing could get healing spells from the Cleric or Druid list. The Wizard list, besides its obvious offensive spells, also includes spells like Mage Armor and Shield unavailable to many other spellcasters.
Similarly, a way to diversify or reclassify a character’s abilities by selecting Magic Initiate can allow you to design a sort of custom class or subclass. Looking to make a shaman? Make a sorcerer or warlock (depending how you view the source of the shaman’s powers) and then take Magic Initiate: Cleric or Druid to get some more spiritual spells.
Just as subclasses can give access to spells outside the normal spell list, MI can as well. Of course subclasses give more spells at multiple levels, but just getting some Cantrips (which scale) you don’t have and even one 1st-level spell can be enough to add flavor or flair to your character.
And of course, as always, these use the spellcasting ability you select, so a Paladin for example could pick up Cleric spells but use their Charisma instead of Wisdom. In many cases it might not matter, but if you do select spells that require an attack roll or save, or that add the modifier to effects, it can be a big deal.
Examples/Recommendations
Bards who don’t want to wear armor can use MI: Wizard to get Mage Armor, or pick up Shield. From MI: Cleric they could get Bless to add to their buffing abilities.
Clerics can get more offensive spell options especially Cantrips by taking MI: Wizard (and they would use WIS not INT if you multi-classed into Wizard). Trickery Domain Clerics could get more illusion type spells from MI: Wizard. In the 2024 Core Rules they don’t have Nature domain (yet?), but… you can take MI: Druid and add some nature flavor with cantrips like Shillelagh, Starry Wisp and Thorn Whip and 1st-Level spells like Animal Friendship, Entangle, Goodberry, and Speak with Animals. Similarly, there is no Arcana domain, so take MI: Wizard for wizard spell access.
Druids, like Clerics, could get more offensive options from Wizard, including ‘elemental’ types that they don’t have Cantrips like Acid Splash, Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp; True Strike can be an option instead of Shillelagh to use weapons besides a club or quarterstaff—and surprisingly they don’t have Light or Dancing Lights—or 1st-Level spells like Burning Hands, Expeditious Retreat, False Life, Feather Fall, Grease, Sleep and Witch Bolt not to mention the famous Magic Missile for automatic hits.
Fighters and Rogues could pick up spells without having to take a sub-class that gives them like Eldtritch Knight or Arcane Trickster.
Paladins could get Guiding Bolt for a powerful ranged attack, or Healing Word for a ranged heal, Inflict Wounds for a Vengeance Paladin; or Sanctuary all from Cleric using their Charisma.
Rangers could get Druid cantrips (and a 1st-Level spell) without having to take the Druidic Warrior Fighting Style.
Sorercers, Warlocks and Wizards can all get healing spells, or Bless, from Cleric or Druid. Plus they could get Shillelagh from the Druid list for the archetypal magician quarterstaffs which would use their INT or CHA.
Barbarians aren’t listed since their main ability of rage doesn’t allow for magic use. Of course, you could use magic our of combat so feel free to explore options.
Shaman
Mentioned previously, here is one ‘shaman’ build. There are many different ways to make something like this using either sorcerer or warlock. You could do wizard but the bookish way they learn and use spells isn’t quite in the fantasy of a shaman. A warlock with an Archfey or Celestial patron would work really well, as depending on your definition of shaman it might include having a patron plus you could get MI from an Invocation vs. background or species, but we are going to go with sorcerer as the starting class.
Start with a sorcerer, sub-class is unimportant but Wild Magic would work well thematically. MI: Druid is a great option to build a primal sorcerer, but I would go with MI: Cleric: mainly for Guidance and Bless. I think access to these spells is a great way to give the flavor of a shaman who can provide some spiritual assistance to their people. A healing spell for 1st level could be good instead of Bless. For the other cantrip Toll the Dead is a good way for them to call on spirits to attack their opponent. Pick up the Feat however you can either from the Guide or a custom Background or human species.
Innate Powers
Magic Initiate gives access to spells. But in a game of fantasy there is no need to confine their selection and usage as strictly spells. Instead they can be approached as innate abilities or powers that the character has. This can be for something like a custom species where you have different abilities (like an elf with different spell access than the existing ones), powers you inherited from a special lineage or fortuitous birth (born during a celestial event), or as a different type of power like psi-abilities. We will look at an example of a character with a custom lineage after the break. Elves and Gnomes; Dragonborn Goliaths, and Tiefling get lineages, ancestries, ancestors, and legacies in 2024 but dwarves don’t anymore and all orcs are just orcs.
Examples:
Give dwarves lineages with spells or spell-like abilities like elves. Maybe they have lineages similar to each of the giant types. MI: Wizard could provide Shocking Grasp and Thunderclap plus Thunderwave to a ‘storm dwarf’. Or MI: Druid could provide Elementalism and Message plus Fog Cloud to a ‘cloud dwarf’, fire and first dwarves have fairly obvious spell choices.
Create an orc pedigree that has primal, mystical abilities like other species. As a DM allow characters to select spells from take MI: Druid or you or the player come up with common ones like other lineages have. Maybe there are totem orcs that have animal spirits take Resistance and Primal Savagery and Animal Friendship or Speak with Animals.
Make a fey gnome with MI: Druid to get Druidcraft and Starry Wisp plus Faerie Fire.
Make a background that involves something that happened to the character granting them spell-like abilities, almost like super powers. An accident, experiment, or fortuitous birth. In a campaign we had a dwarf who was mining psi crystals when an accident made them explode and shards embedded in his flesh granting him psionic abilities. He is a dwarf fighter with MI: Wizard with Message and Mind Sliver and Shield without having to take Psi Warrior subclass (ot if he did additional psionic-like abilities). A character born when a comet passed through the sky could take MI: Cleric and get some combination of two of Light, Sacred Flame orWord of Radiance plus Guiding Bolt or a healing spell.
Vey - a wereavian ‘shifter’ human
Vey is a human female who inherited through her lineage the ability to manifest bird-like features and abilities like lycanthropes, in her case a black corvid similar to were ravens. She could be built with shifter as her species if you have access to MotM*. But many don’t have that resource, especially if you are limited to 2024 core rules (though they are in the ‘expanded’ rules options). Even if you are using MotM, you might not like the shifter options. But using the 2024 core rules, we can definitely make a character with those types of abilities at level 1.
As a human as selected species, she gets the Versatile trait which gives her an extra Origin feat so she doesn’t need to worry about it from her Background. She has Magic Initiate (Druid) and took the Cantrips Primal Savagery (to represent bestial claws, her bird-like talons, or her beak) and Guidance which she would usually use on herself plus the 1st-Level spells Jump to represent her ability to so limited flight with the wins she gets when she shifts.
The rest of her build is unimportant to this exploration of Feats, but we will likely see her in the future as she is a prominent character in the land of Taluma.
* Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
