Mage Acadamy Help

[Falcos]

Hi all!

So I'm building a Mage Acadamy with some odd rules and compulsory attendance.

The odd rules in question are that the following types of spells are banned: Spells to do with the dead, spells to do with living souls, and spells to do with time (including teleportation).

They enforce these rules country-wide.

Now, the aid I'm seeking is: I want six Masters of this Acadamy, and I want them to be distinct and unique.

I would therefore like suggestions on six unique different types of Arcane casters, and six races they could be.

So far, I've thought of races and classes for all of them, as well as a brief blurb on their role and/or personality, but I want feedback on any ways to make them more distinct and stand-out from each other.

Raptoran Stormsinger - "Master of Sky" - Patient and kind with new admissions, is the Master who interacts most with non-specialized classes. Feels iffy about the bans.
Spellscale Truenamer - "Master of Names" - Studious and careful, is the Master in charge of admissions and keeping records on every student, past, present, and future.
Kobold Wu Jen - "Master of Metal" - Metal specialization, stubborn and unyielding, is the senior Master. Is also the one with power of veto in case of tie vote for matters amongst the Masters.
Dwarf Artificer - "Master of Crafts" - Taciturn and thoughtful, is the Master who makes assorted magical items for various purposes.
Tiefling Shadowcaster - "Master of Shadow" - Quiet and humble, is the Master who tests students for the Graduation Exam while the other Masters watch and evaluate.
Hobgoblin Abjurant Champion - "Master of Arms" - Boistrous and loud, is the Master who teaches classes on survival. If the Acadamy is threatened, this Master leads the charge into battle.

(I know that Truenamer and Shadowcaster aren't technically Arcane casters, but they're thematically close enough.)

Any and all suggestions are appreciated! Thank you all in advance!

[Inevitability]

Maybe give them (pseudo-) magical companions? I am not calling them 'familiars' because they aren't, but you could simply grant each master a companion that reflects his or her abilities. Maybe the same companion is passed on each time a new master is chosen, changing form but retaining its memories.

The Master of Sky could have an Air Elemental of whatever type you choose, or maybe a winged creature.

The Master of Names is a hard one. Maybe a Garbler?

The Master of Metal obviously would have a construct. A Shield Guardian would fit, as would an Iron Golem or Iron Cobra. Or, if you are feeling ironic, a Rust Monster.

As for the Master of Crafts, I think it would be interesting to give him not one strong companion, but a lot of weaker ones. Homunculus army, anyone?

The obvious choice for the Master of Shadow is, well, a Shadow. If you want to emphasize the 'silent and sneaky' part, how about a minor fey creature, like a pixie?

Finally, the Master of Arms. No complex critters here, just a large and tough mount, such as a Dire Tiger.

[Sullivan]

Maybe think about what role each master plays in the community at large. One of my favorite aspects of world building is to think about what the realities of magic would bring to a world. People that where well versed in it would have a disproportional amount of power over though that didn't or are there well established cultural norms or are there laws that prevent a magic user from gaining to much power over the populace?

The Master of Sky could work with the farming communities outside of town to bring the optimal amount of rain fall each year. This could bring him in regular contact with a local druid who's forest is being harmed by the extra rain.

The Master of Names could work with the courts to help organize the court dockets and rosters as well as take census of the outlining areas. He may be doing personal favors for some people by letting name disappear from the court roster. He could also be forging documents to let the whatever local government there is seize up land.

The Master of Metal works with the Master of Crafts to build the steampunk like pumps that bring water into the city and academy.

The Master of Crafts may be pushed into making weapons for the government that he is not entirely comfortable making, but because of his position he feel obligated to comply.

The Master of Shadow may have a nefarious past which has recently come up to haunt him, as he was at one point a spy for a opposing nation state.

The Master of Arms could be a reckless warmongerer using his influence to push for a large scale battle.

[pfm1995]

I'd suggest political or personality-based differences, as well as utilitarian ones. Maybe the Master of Names is classist/racist? Maybe the Master of Arms is having an affair with a student? Maybe the Master of Sky's non-traditionalist views rub the local lords the wrong way, but they can't do anything overt due to his agricultural uses? Maybe the Master of Crafts helps his favorite students cheat on their exams? There's no need, or real reason, to make these people into paragons.

Another thing that may make them more memorable is how they deal with student deaths. Going back a hundred years, chemists were lucky if they retired with their brain and fingers intact. I imagine that a school filled with young magic users would have an even harsher attrition rate. (Random idea: Master of Sky had a child/cousin/favorite student who died in the school, and the master was stopped from bringing him/her back to life by the Master of Shadows. Master of Shadows is very religious, but privately so?)

A few questions that might help:
What's the political landscape of the lands around the Academy, and how does the school fit in?
Why is attendance compulsory?
Are nobles given special privileges in the school?
Which professors were commoners/nobility?
Why are certain magics banned?
Edit: How does religion factor in?

Final thoughts: It seems to me that, if this school is relatively isolated (and if I were mayor I'd want it on the other side of the kingdom from my city), it's going to wind up a melting pot of small-town gossip and rivalries with more than a few darker secrets. The masters are going to be the focus of many of them.

[nrg89]

I love this aspect of world-building, but I also think it's really hard. I think it's good that you think about the position they would have in the faculty and not just make them a generic "teacher".


People that where well versed in it would have a disproportional amount of power over though that didn't or are there well established cultural norms or are there laws that prevent a magic user from gaining to much power over the populace?

This is a good thing to think about. Everyone wants to use magic, but nobody wants to study or practice for god knows how long and risk blowing themselves up. They have a lot in common with scientists and I would say it's fair to model magic users after scientists. So, while scientists today mostly focus on their research or teaching, this is because if they do interesting findings someone else pays to keep the lights on. Back in the day, scientists had to dabble in engineering, medicine or something else that rulers thought was a nice return on their investment (not enough has changed, I'm afraid, since scientists still get a lot more if they try to "cure cancer" rather than understand a general problem that might solve millions of future problems we haven't even dreamed of) so this magic academy would have to offer something for society in order to keep functioning or go bankrupt.

A great way to create a powder keg for conflict is making the academy dependent on the masters contributions, with a floor for their contributions. This would mean they have to take on missions outside the academy, which would interfere with their teaching and research, so those with skills more in demand would make short breaks from teaching and still produce a surplus after all is payed to the academy while those in least demand would have to juggle a lot of tasks to make ends meet. This can spark jealousy, spite and admiration among peers which I think is great fodder for adventures ("I suspect this person is sabotaging my research, could you spy on her?", "This person has been moving in on my most devout client, is he trying to put me out of business?", "I need this ingredient for my research/lord's mission, but my colleague has sent out another team trying to get it! You need to beat them or I'm history!").

So, what sorts of missions does the master do outside of teaching? And is this as lucrative as one of his colleague's pass times?

[Falcos]

I like the not-quite-familiars idea. I'm going to steal use that.

There is no law preventing magic users gaining a large amount of sway over the populace, in fact, this Acadamy was founded by a non-magical government's decision, then, due to being such a powerful facility, kind of overtook the government in importance. The government is still officially leading this country, but the Acadamy has infinitely more sway than it.

I like the idea of the Masters clashing. I've already decided that Metal is going to clash horribly with Sky and Crafts, and Arms is going to clash with Shadow.

There are rules (in another thread I've posted, but I'm not sure if it's frowned upon just to direct people to another thread of mine for metaphoical homework) regarding resurrecting people who are deemed important enough, but I like the idea that the swing vote for "is this person important enough" came down to the Master of Metal, and he voted "no" on one of the Master of Sky's loved ones.

The lands around the Acadamy are all, politically, disliking the Acadamy but relying on it for various reasons. The fact that it's become a population center means that magic is needed to produce the food required, meaning that no matter how much people may dislike it, it's a necessity. There's also the fact that trade and commerce have become reliant on magic, governed and controlled by the Acadamy.

Attendance is compulsory because magic is deemed too powerful to go untrained, nobody wants an untrained mage running around.

Nope, nobles get the same amount of treatment as commoners (and it rankles on non-mage nobles that their magey children get treated equally with formerly homeless children).

Of the current six Masters, I'm going to say that the Master of Crafts was nobility, but the other five were all commoners, another fact that rankles on the non-mage nobility.

Certain magics are banned for a combination of ethical reasons and those magics being too powerful. It's awfully hard to enforce laws upon magic-users if those magic users can stop time, as an example.

As for general contributions to provide funding, yes, that is a factor. For example, the Master of Crafts spends way more time than he'd like building golems and the like to act as manual labour or similar. Similarly, the Master of Sky spends way too much time running around giving people rain or sunshine, and not nearly enough on his studies (in his eyes).

Those are admittedly the only two I've thought of at this point.

Thanks everyone who has given feedback so far. You're all wonderful!

[nrg89]

Now, these tips all depends on how much, if at all, the PCs will interact with the masters. If they're in for high level adventure, I suppose they will interact with them occasionally. As a player, the three most important things to find out if I engage with this NPC and look him up more closely would be:

What is the relationship towards the PCs?
Will the master be an ally or a villain? Is he or she easily persuaded and could be either one, depending on if it's the PCs or the villain who has what the master wants?
Remember that just because he's an ally doesn't mean he or she has the time to go solve problems for the PCs (they're very busy people) but sharing some lore or other signs of cooperation also fits.

What does the master value most?
The Master of Sky, for example, could be determined to make sure that the Master of Metal feels the same loss. And, in another twist, the Master of Metal might actually be a really good person and wants to find the best way to make amends with the Master of Sky. Or, since the magic academy has a lot of political influence, maybe one of them wants to handle an issue they feel is handled poorly (discrimination against their race, wealth disparity). And these are just personal goals, there might be good old fashioned material goals (gold and magic items) or something which is vital for their studies (a legendary scroll somewhere, an herb which is a vital spell component or just a detailed observation of some magical phenomena) since they live a life of disciplined exploration of the magical arts.
I can't understate how this affect the plot in awesome ways. If the PCs find out that they are not prepared for something and need the help of a master, instead of them just strolling to the academy and start rolling Diplomacy checks you could have a person in a tavern say "I happened to hear you talk about the Master of Crafts, well, word on the street is if you want to bargaining chip with that dwarf, you should ..." which makes your world seem more alive.

What other goals are the master working towards currently?
This ties in to the previous point but if you don't want the master to just be a side NPC but an active villain or quest giver, you should have a very clear goal for the character that the master is actively pursuing, backed up with a powerful reason. The Master of Metal casting the vote against the resurrection would be the reason the Master of Sky is pursuing the course of action, so it ties the goal into character backstory rather than just character traits.

And, of course

What secret does the master carry?
I like to do this with my NPCs and they can be heavily tied into the previous points I made or just some side thingy (like a student affair, which a previous poster mentioned). But I'm really bad at keeping secrets, so again and again I've revealed them prematurely but when the PCs genuinely found it by accident, investigating something else entirely, they've commended me for fleshing out the NPC to something memorable they can talk about years later about. The trick is to make sure they find it out and make it seem like the NPC is really discreet about it. Soap operas does this very poorly, but good crime fiction can do this really well.