Schools of Magic
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Quintessential Wizard II: Advanced Tactics
Magical Schools
he most common method for a wizard to learn his craft is through apprenticeship with a master. This tutelage is often performed for free or in exchange for services, which means the apprentice literally becomes his master’s assistant and servant for the duration of his training. There are exceptions to this rule, in the form of magical schools. These schools are institutions devoted to the training and education of new generations of wizards and can range from small affairs, where a handful of masters educate another a dozen students, to grand colleges sponsored by a kingdom or a powerful wizard’s guild. Few characters will have the chance to build and maintain their own magic schools, but prices are included just in case a character has one or two dragon’s hoards available.
The Institution
Magic schools are institutions which people will tend to respect (or fear) – any place where two or more people congregate that can shoot fire from their fingers is a cause of concern, regardless of its size, location and characteristics. In some cases, the institution is accepted and recognised by the public and the authorities of the land upon which the school is built. Other times the institution works in secrecy, training their charges away from the eyes of the ignorant. When creating a magic school, Games Masters can hand pick the different elements or generate them randomly by rolling on the appropriate tables; many of the different elements have no effect on others except as factors for the atmosphere and intrinsic features of the school.
Sponsorship
A magic school is a very expensive thing to run and so it stands to reason that somebody important is paying for it. A magic school has several options for sponsorship: Supernatural: A few schools are founded and funded by supernatural concerns. These can be as individual as an old dragon wishing puny humanoids to master magic properly, or as encompassing as a deity of magic promoting his field of divinity (in which case the school would also train clerics and paladins). Supernatural sponsorship ensures that resources will seldom be scarce but it also means that the goals the academy serves are unknown and may later prove to be counter to the interests of the mortal races of the world. The tuition in this kind of schools is often free but the admission
protocols will be very strict to ensure that only the worthy and capable are taught magic. Supernatural agencies will most often hide themselves as the source of the school’s support, assuming a disguise to run the school as its dean or part of the ruling council, or even as the lowliest janitor with access to all areas of the campus. Going public means that the school is well-regarded or the supernatural sponsor is trusted and appreciated, but even in these cases the sponsor will not be easy to reach, as it is likely to have enemies. Government: State-sponsored magic schools pledge the service of its students to a worldly power who pays the bills. Graduating wizards are expected to serve the government in one form or another for a period of time, after which they are free to pursue their own interests. Such schools are seldom very large, but their staff are competent and their class rooms and labs are stocked with resources of sufficient quality and numbers. Depending on how important the powers-that-be consider the process of training their wizards, the school will receive a proportionate share of the nation’s treasury and other resources. Tuition fees in state-sponsored magic schools tend to be cheap or sometimes non-existent but students trade this advantage for service to the power that pays for their studies. Admission is not very strict, but the more subsidised the tuition is, the more demanding the admission will be. The power behind a state-sponsored school is well known; the head of government himself. Definitely not available as a part of school business, the power names a delegate to run the school. This does not need to be a spellcaster, but he must posses the administration skills necessary to run a large institution; something that many wizards are not very adept at. Religious: This kind of sponsorship is similar to supernatural sponsorship but, instead of the school being founded by the direct will of a supernatural agency, it was created by an established church. The church’s religion will definitely include magic as an integral part of its belief system, so it is often a church devoted to a deity of magic or knowledge. Clerics and wizards share the responsibilities of training the school’s apprentices and there may even be shared classes for divine and arcane spellcasters (abjuration and knowledge of extraplanar beings are just two of such shared subjects). Tuition fees depend greatly on the resources of the church and may go from free (with strict admission) to high (with laxer entry parameters).
