Everyone, after reading enough D&D, will
eventually ask why do wizards (or magic-users) adventure at all? Their magic is
derived from their knowledge, from their grimoires… from books! So, if they
read and study more, they should be more powerful. I can’t count how many times
a player told me that he would like to use downtime to study magic (i.e. level
up).
One of my favorite RPGs (and in fact one of the
best ones) is Ars Magica. Wizards in Ars Magica follow almost the same flavor
as traditional D&D Wizards: they’re bookworms who learn magic from
experiment and ancient texts. They are “medieval scientists” if you prefer. Ars
Magica’s wizards spent most of their time locked away in their towers and
covenants studying and perfecting their Art. You can say that one of the
awesome things about Ars Magica is how every wizard trope makes sense in the
setting and in the system (there are a lot of other awesome things regarding
Ars Magica and you should definitely take a look if you don’t know it yet: the 4th Edition is free!).
Still one the best RPGs out there! |
Anyway, as I said, D&D Wizards work (in
terms of setting and lore) almost like Ars Magica mages. They should indeed get
more powerful by spending less time adventuring and more time researching. Of
course, that is a rather boring way of playing D&D if you ask me. So why
does it not happen?
Basically: your wizards are losers!
Yes, losers. Wizard PCs are the failures,
rejects, heretics, the unorthodox, the mad and those who for same reason
couldn’t stay locked in the tower studying. Maybe they disgraced their masters,
or betrayed them or discovered the dark about them. I don’t know. That is the
funny part and the players (and the table) should figure that out.
Without access to a master and powerful
knowledge, your wizard is forced to crawl in the mud with other pariahs, doing
lowly things like treasure hunt or (worst) living side by side with sorcerers
and warlocks. What a shame! That is literally rock bottom!
Arcane scum! That is who you are! |
OK, now you have something to work for your
Wizard PC the entire trope of “book mage” makes more sense maybe***. Lets move
to the second aspect of this post, what I’m calling at the moment the Tower
Wizard.
Illusionist's Tower... don't trust anything you see, hear, touch etc. Also don't trust your party. |
Tower Wizards never failed their master (or
just killed and took their place). They never lost time with such stupid things
such as adventuring and carousing. No sir, they remained locked in their
sanctums and demesnes, devling in forbidden and powerful arcane knowledge
nonstop. They are the real deal. Most are mad and too much removed from mortal
life or reality itself. Practically all of them are dangerous and uncaring
(even the rare good ones, actually I would say especially the good ones… they
are almost as dangerous as your usual holier-than-thou saint).
Necromancer's Lair and its guardians: lots of dead trees. |
Thankfully,
Tower Wizards are completely uninterested (most of the time) in the affairs of
the world - or if they are interested it is because they need a charmed minion,
dominated slave or bound demon to fetch something for them (or those misfits
known as adventurers). Or maybe they need to place an entire city sleeping, so
they can harvest the perfect 11.111 nightmares provoked by a Far Realm
abomination as a component for that one ritual that will prove that the
Demiplane of Shadows and the Nightmare Dimension are one and the same. You see,
that kind of “academic” stuff.
Yup, that is an Evoker Tower (of course, it is also a volcano). |
Tower Wizards are the bogeyman of the arcane
world and their domains are filled with treasure, monsters, traps and
grimoires. In other words: the perfect place to raid (and die).
Abjurer's Fortress and its scary arcane defenses. |
I would treat a Tower Wizard as a boss monster.
A thematic one. Forget the spells that Wizard PCs use. That is the “player
side” of the game. Create new stuff. After all, Wizard PCs are losers that play
with just a shard of true arcane magic. Create a dungeon for each Tower Wizard
around the chosen theme. For example: if facing a Necromancer, fill the place
not only with undeads, but also with a nexus between the Positive and Negative
Places, machines powered by ghosts etc. Instead of a spellbook, the Necromancer
keeps his arcane knowledge locked in skulls of dead wizards. Create a
Transmuter obsessed with teletransportation and space, his dungeon filled with
non-euclidian rooms, gates, creatures that play with space and time etc. You
see, Tower Wizards are like “small Saurons” - a great part of their mojo is
invested in their domains. That is why they don’t adventure and why they are so
powerful. But destroying those places and picking together part of the rubbles,
your PC Wizard can discover new spells and stuff.
Transmuter's Tower... hidden behind that gate/trap/monster/thing. |
***Actually, older editions of D&D came up
with all kinds of interesting stuff to explain why wizards adventure. I
remember fondly how D&D BECMI defined the relation between a low level
wizard and his master, and how you would always return to your master between
adventures to learn more. Other campaign settings, like AD&D Dragonlance,
also created good excuses for the Wizards of the High Orders to travel and
adventure. I just wanted to create something different.
That is some cool wizardly real estate! |
Yes! It all makes sense!
ReplyDeleteI feel like PC Loser Wizards should have the option, should they become powerful enough, to retire and become an NPC Tower Wizard. The player still controls what they research, and their failed experiments become delightful goodies for their former adventuring buddies, but they are now busy doing Tower Wizard things.
That is an awesome idea, Spwack! Consider it stolen ;-)
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