[RPG] ny way to cast non-cantrip spells without taking a level in a spellcasting class

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Can a Fighter learn spells and cast them without multiclassing?
I know of feats in supplement books that allow characters to learn and cast 1 cantrip ( lvl 0 spell).
I was wondering if there is either a feat or a rule that allows arcane training without multiclassing.

Like a character being a Fighter with the ability to cast one 1st Level spell…or even to have a spell list.

Best Answer

Strictly speaking, yes, but it involves intense shenanigans.

First, the Magical Training feat from Player’s Guide to Faerûn gets you in the door with three cantrips from the Sor/Wiz list, cast as sorcerer or wizard would (your choice). You count as a spellcaster with caster level 1st (minimum). You must be an elf or human, and must be from a specific region of Faerûn (though this requirement ought to be waived or adapted if not playing in the Forgotten Realms).

From there, there are tricks to improve your spellcasting:

  • Precocious Apprentice from Complete Arcane pg. 181 (not with the rest of the books’ feats) gets you a single 2nd-level sor/wiz spell. Since both Magical Training and Precocious Apprentice can only be taken at 1st level, you’ll need to be human (or be using the Flaws variant rules from Unearthed Arcana).

  • Dragon’s Blood Pool from Complete Mage grants you access to a 1st- to 3rd-level spell slot for one year.

  • Heighten Spell allows you to shove cantrips into that spell slot.

  • Sanctum Spell, also in Complete Arcane but with the rest of the feats this time, can let your spells count as one level higher.

  • Versatile Spellcaster from Races of the Dragon allows you to combine two spells of one level to get a spell of the next level:

    • Combine two cantrips-as-1st-level-spells (due to Sanctum Spell) into a 2nd-level spell slot. Fill using Heighten on one of the cantrips, or (maybe) using the spell you chose for Precocious Apprentice.

    • Combine that with the 2nd-level spell from Precocious Apprentice to get a 3rd-level spell slot. Fill using Heighten.

    • Combine that with the 3rd-level spell from Dragon’s Blood Pool to get a 4th-level spell slot. Fill using Heighten.

  • Earth Spell from Races of Stone can allow you to Heighten a spell such that it gets a +1 effective spell level above the slot you put it in, so your spell counts as a 5th-level spell in the end.

There are more. See the Early Entry Handbook for more details.

But as you can see, this is very sketchy stuff, and you don’t actually know spells of the various levels you have access to; you just get to count lower-level spells as higher level. This is good for e.g. getting into prestige classes, but not very valuable in adventuring most of the time. You only really know three cantrips and a single 2nd-level spell, and the tricks break down if you’re not in your sanctum.

If you really want a non-spellcaster with extremely minimal spellcasting, Magical Training plus Precocious Apprentice is probably your best bet. I wouldn’t bother with the rest. Maybe the Dragon’s Blood Pool, but as a magical location you’d have to find it first, and that might be tricky.

But really, it’d be much better to play a duskblade or something.