Wizard back story help

[Drizzcon]

Looking to role a Wizard but need help with some back story. I want more than wandering the world for more power. Something less standard. Any good wizard related books, or ideas and suggestions are much appreciated.

Also some cool or odd traits and quirks would be appreciated too.

[Gildedragon]

Any ideas of what sort of role you want to fit this wizard in?
straight up some reasons to wander the world:
to compile an encyclopedia of folklore/animals/plants/the sum of knowledge...
to see the world, has an insatiable wanderlust...
to verify a mentor's theories regarding natural phenomena/magical phenomena/people/places/history...
conducting a survey of the land...
is cursed to walk the earth until finding something or another
is compelled by dreams to venture forth
is a wandering teacher, setting shop every so often to teach children at towns
is a wandering recruiter for a magical college, finding people with magical potential
seeks to fulfill a prophecy
seeks to find out the fate of a failed expedition to the wild
seeks a cure for a disease ravaging the land

[Kerilstrasz]

hmm.,.,
1) set as goal to found a museum of curios , obscure items/texts..
2) give your DM a hook for a quest line: Go after your kidnapped teacher
3) enhance your RP by stating you were sexually molested at young age by an elder
woman and now you go around the world and having sex with women and then kill em..
4) you witnessed a murder (or any other horrific thing) at young age and now you
have double (or triple) personality
5) you are obsessed with smthing soooo irrelevant to the whole campaign...
"oh look... a frog!!! (or a piece of wood,a coin,a hat) you know these frogs are
called blablabla.. and use to bla blabla..." u get my point.
6) you found a piece of paper in your great grand fathers locker, which is actually
1 third of a map... that you have absolutelly no idea where it leads...
7) you saw a dream 1 weak before today (today is the day you r having your 1st session)
and you saw humans into "magic metal wagons drawn by invisible horses" ...
they were too loud and they left smoke from a pipe at their back...
8) Be an inventor!!! you r a wizard ha? get a wooden box , put some metal sheet
inside, cast prestidigitation and permancy on em... now sell your new invention
to tavernkeepers... name it "The Fridge"

[nedz]

Any particular type of Wizard ?

Batman, God, ..., Baster, Summoner, ... ?

Illusionist, Conjurer, Necromancer, Transmuter, Enchanter, ... ?

[Inbetweenaction]

do something not wizard realated, last wizard was on a quest to become the greatest chef in pari... eh winterkeep...

Be mob realated, and set up your evil empire, and colect favors to one day be called in. Not all mobsters are Rouge!!!

eat food from every country

the mad colector, colect coins flowers, skelleton parts (for the "museeum"),

find a way to break a curse, or isolate your home plane from some extraplanar threat... Or, you or someone ells may already have done that, leaving you traped on this side, looking for a way/new home

[Blackhawk748]

Ive never played a wizard before (im a sorcerer nut :smalltongue: ) but i recall in one campaign i was playing a sorcerer who was creating a Grimoire of Magic so he could help to teach young sorcerers how not to blow themselves up. well a friend was playing a wizard who was obsessed with learning to cast the "Natural" way ie how sorcerers cast. he bugged the hell out of my sorcerer. :smallfurious:

[Edenbeast]

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett :) Read any of the Wizards/Unseen University related books for some odd examples. Like Ridcully, the Librarian, or of course Rincewind!

[therakishrogue]

What level are you starting at? Age factors in a lot for wizard backstories, and a level 1 caster who is already a wizened old woman doesn't really fit the archetype. But hey, that would actually be an interesting characterization. She could have been apprenticed to an elven caster, and due to the differences in timescales is only striking out now in the autumn of her life. Or they could have returned to school and become an adventurer to deal with a mid life crisis/empty nest.

The backstory of a young wizard can tap in to all sorts of student tropes. You could make them the driven but self-conscious self-made son of a peasant family, who hopes to hone his knowledge in order to prepare for the civil service exams in a Song dynasty flavored magocracy. Or the wizard equivalent of a Delta House frat boy. Or a young member of a adviser class lineage of a tribal kingdom that has recently been conquered by some sort of anti arcane magic zealots, forcing her to walk the earth drumming up support throughout her kinship network in order to recapture her homeland.

[avr]

You believe you're an avatar of the god of magic, and you will rejoin with your true self once you have enough understanding of magic. Religious quotes and referring to yourself as "we" work as quirks.

You're a street urchin who eavesdropped on lessons and stole materials for a spellbook. As such you use a lot of street slang and you won't throw anything which might have a use away.

You received training from a military or paramilitary organisation but ran off. You use military terminology a lot and have a habit of ducking out of sight whenever someone in a uniform appears.

[ShriekingDrake]

You don't have to have a single objective.

Sure, it's great to seek the rod of seven parts or the pages of an unbound book. But I say, have several complementary objectives. Pursue the perfect mutton sandwich, catalogue the bird/flower/stone of every province, find true love, seek out your biological father, discover the perfect meed, etc. Have more than one goal something wizardly and something amusing and something trivial.

[roguemetal]

Here's a little inspiration.

Growing up among a halfling village, your expectations of the world are more simplistic than most. You exist for revelry and games, but have more talent for craft than for storytelling or tending to nature. You become a baker, an expert at understanding the alchemy of yeast cultures and pasteurization. As time continues you seek to start your own business but are short on funds. War time comes around, and the military offers money to those who enlist with specific skills, enough to start your business. They take note of your knowledge of alchemy and set you as an assistant to higher-ups. Short on men, they offer you free training as a wizard's apprentice. You take it, but never see it to use as the war ends much sooner. Returning home you build up your business and continue life only occasionally using your magic and seeing to its' practice. Occasionally you assist others with the magic, but it is not really your trade, nor are you the only wizard in town, so you aren't bothered too much. Cue plot-related event that sets the inexperienced wizard's call to adventure.