What would a 5e Academy of Magic be like?

[Unoriginal]

A school for wizards, from the Scholomance to the Unseen University, is a pretty common trope, a place of wonder and learning where young wizards earn the stars of their cosmos-themed robes and the points of their hats from more or less quirky teachers, before leaving with either a diploma or a pointy shoe's impression on their backside (when the place isn't attacked by one bad guy or another, as places the heroes live are prone to be).

Yet, no matter how commonplace the trope is, its expressions will differ depending on the work. So the question is: what would a magic Academy be like in 5e, given what we know on how magic work?

One important thing about 5e wizardry, which differ from many work of fiction, is that spells are not simply "read it and learn, speak it and cast". Each wizard has their own method to understand and write down a given spell, which they compile in their personal spellbook, before they can even memorize said spell. Which effectively means that any spellbook the school would have would be a bunch of personal mnemonic mumbo-jumbo concealin an usable core the students can then use to develop their own. Which makes it much more likely that magic schools teach the broad theories on magic, and then how to cipher/decipher spells, than going "open your book page 94, today we are learning Firebolt".

Adding to this, as wizards kind of have to "reinvent the wheel" to get a new spell without copying it, two things are often mentioned as taking place in wizards' workshops: experiments, and dangerous uncontroled magic. Wizards spend a lot of time experimenting with spells, rituals, magic phenomenons and creatures, often resulting, if there is a result, in something that is a mix of different quantities of scary, silly and dangerous. And that's not going into the whole "unearthing secrets" business (to which I feel compeled to pay allip service).

Furthermore, it seems magic academies do offer teaching on matters other than magic, notably the Wizard's class skills and some rudimentary combat training (wizards aren't martial powerhouses, but they do know how to use a few weapons, and even the ancient and decrepit Nagpas will swing that ol' wizard staff if push comes to shove).

Also, obviously, between rare inks, parchments, and other materials, magic cost quite a bit of coins even without factoring the teachers and the building. So it has to be accounted for

What do you think? What's your idea on how a school of magic would be, in a 5e world?

[strangebloke]

First of all, I think the biggest question for any kind of magic school is 'why?'

I mean, you're a high level wizard, you presumably have all the money you could want, and you're probably a little justifiably paranoid because this is dnd and your giant loot tower is just asking to get robbed...

And you want to bring a bunch of kids into the mix? Share your arcane secrets with them?

Obviously, there's loads of potential reasons, but once you've got the why everything else flows into place from there.

***

Here are some reasons for the existence of magical universities in popular fiction:

Hogwarts: Untrained magic users are more dangerous than trained ones, basically. Doesn't really work for DND, particularly as DND's mechanics are so alien to hogwarts. (there's a very fun fanfic on the inter about an optimized 3.5 wizard getting dropped into hogwarts.)

Magus Society (Nasuverse): All wizards are really unethical buddhists trying to hack their way into enlightenment using magic. They're rabidly competitive and the Clocktower is really just a space where they can all try and one-up and steal from each other. Actually works very well with DND, to my mind.

White Council (Dresden Files): The world is a very very nasty place and if the wizards didn't cooperate, everyone would die. Very solid reasoning in DND, obviously.

Princess academy: It was supposed to be a normal school for nobility, but a significant fraction of the girls had magic powers. (This is mostly included as a joke)

The Unseen University and many other magic academies are kind of just handwaved into existence for comedic effect. That's a perfectly valid reason in many settings.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Some thoughts:

Magic is esoteric. Not everyone can learn magic, even very smart people. This means that there are many more people skilled in Arcana (theoretical mages) than there are true wizards. So much, if not most, research would be purely theoretical or framework-oriented (building a common vocabulary of symbology, verbal component components, etc).
Not all wizards are taught in organized academies. Some are taught by mentors in an apprentice-like fashion. This feeds the "varying schools" idea below.
Different "schools" (as in schools of thought, methodologies) would exist--there is no "universal right answer." This can be as simple as different notations for the same underlying process, as varied as song-and-dance-based components, or as specific as a single person's encoding.
Spells are power. Sharing spells is likely to be a fraught process requiring trust. This means that spell-books are likely to be encoded in addition to just being in different personal notations. Schools would probably gate knowledge behind both performance-based tests and esoteric mysteries (to make sure the applicant isn't only practically qualified, but morally aligned with the school's philosophy). Government is likely to meddle here, if it's strong enough.
Spells are dangerous. Stories of magical accidents are commonplace(1). This implies that any school set in an inhabited area (like a city) would need both safety precautions and government sanction. So schools would either be in remote areas (Hogwarts) or be a source of friction with the locals.

(1) Despite not showing up in the game mechanics, but that's a game issue, not a fiction-level issue. Game mechanics are not fictional physics.

One other note--I take the rigid standardization of spells to be a game-level abstraction. At the fiction level, they're not so cut and dried. Different people's fireballs are different (slightly). Different people cast differently (especially between classes), making identification difficult.

[Quoxis]

First of all, I think the biggest question for any kind of magic school is 'why?'

I mean, you're a high level wizard, you presumably have all the money you could want, and you're probably a little justifiably paranoid because this is dnd and your giant loot tower is just asking to get robbed...

And you want to bring a bunch of kids into the mix? Share your arcane secrets with them?

Obviously, there's loads of potential reasons, but once you've got the why everything else flows into place from there.

***

Here are some reasons for the existence of magical universities in popular fiction:

Hogwarts: Untrained magic users are more dangerous than trained ones, basically. Doesn't really work for DND, particularly as DND's mechanics are so alien to hogwarts. (there's a very fun fanfic on the inter about an optimized 3.5 wizard getting dropped into hogwarts.)

As a non-potter-fan: wasn’t Dumbledore basically just building an army of spellcasters for the time when evil overlord Morty Volde would inevitably try to take over the world? That would be a credible solution for a magic school, in any direction on the good-bad-scale.

[Unoriginal]

Actually, the Unseen University's existance isn't handwaved at all.

Obtaining magic isn't that hard on the Disc. The hard thing is doing magic and getting away with it. And the even harder thing is to learn to *not* use magic, because it's so tempting, and if you let go to temptation you end up with city-sized craters if you're lucky, and to the end of the world via the Things from the Dungeon Dimension if you're a tiny bit less lucky. Not to mention that the magic users naturaly tend to conflict when they meet.

The goal of the Unseen University and other institutions is essentialy to take people with a capacity for magic, teach them how to do it properly, and channel their energy into other things than large scale magic nuke wars, such as academic pursuits, lots of food, and, in times where there is no leader strong enough to establish a stable pecking order, murdering each others to get to the top of the good chain without hurting the general population. Witch training similarly meant to nudge you away from baking children in your oven or turning frogs into brutal dictators for the sake of a story by making you use your wits and a good day's work rather than witching your way through life.

-------------

As for D&D, well, people who teaches magic aren't necessarily the most powerful, having apprentices to work on your projects is always useful, more wizards means more potential to do stuff like big experiments, your country/organization wants to have more wizards for their practical uses (explaining why Hobgoblins have academies of wizardry), if you never pass on your knowledge you're going to die unknown and un-celebrated, and as long as there will be people willing and able to put the means into learning, someone will think it's profitable to teach them, to name a few possible reasons.


As a non-potter-fan: wasn’t Dumbledore basically just building an army of spellcasters for the time when evil overlord Morty Volde would inevitably try to take over the world?

No, not at all.

Dumbledore has been a manipulative donkey hole quite a few times, and incredibly dumb even more often, but he never wanted to use his school to make an army. At most he wanted to teach people the virtues of not being a bigoted mass murderer.

He was just an old man with a lot of deep regrets over the follies of his youth, the hope he could avoid making those mistakes again, and the determination of maybe managing to do some good by stopping a complete monster.

[strangebloke]

Some thoughts:

Magic is esoteric. Not everyone can learn magic, even very smart people. This means that there are many more people skilled in Arcana (theoretical mages) than there are true wizards. So much, if not most, research would be purely theoretical or framework-oriented (building a common vocabulary of symbology, verbal component components, etc).
Not all wizards are taught in organized academies. Some are taught by mentors in an apprentice-like fashion. This feeds the "varying schools" idea below.
Different "schools" (as in schools of thought, methodologies) would exist--there is no "universal right answer." This can be as simple as different notations for the same underlying process, as varied as song-and-dance-based components, or as specific as a single person's encoding.
Spells are power. Sharing spells is likely to be a fraught process requiring trust. This means that spell-books are likely to be encoded in addition to just being in different personal notations. Schools would probably gate knowledge behind both performance-based tests and esoteric mysteries (to make sure the applicant isn't only practically qualified, but morally aligned with the school's philosophy). Government is likely to meddle here, if it's strong enough.
Spells are dangerous. Stories of magical accidents are commonplace(1). This implies that any school set in an inhabited area (like a city) would need both safety precautions and government sanction. So schools would either be in remote areas (Hogwarts) or be a source of friction with the locals.

Yeah, I like this idea. Reading this, I'm envisioning a school that's mostly a conventional late-medieval university, but a few of the profs are into some esoteric magical stuff that is spoken of with feared whispers. The mages are viewed with mistrust, but they're also darned useful so they're allowed to continue with their experiments. Getting an apprenticeship from one can be a huge boon... but bears a strong stigma.

As a non-potter-fan: wasn’t Dumbledore basically just building an army of spellcasters for the time when evil overlord Morty Volde would inevitably try to take over the world? That would be a credible solution for a magic school, in any direction on the good-bad-scale.
Maybe it would be, but that isn't why Hogwarts existed.

And Dumbledore led the school because he didn't trust himself to go into politics, but wanted to influence Wizarding culture.

Actually, the Unseen University's existance isn't handwaved at all.

Obtaining magic isn't that hard on the Disc. The hard thing is doing magic and getting away with it. And the even harder thing is to learn to *not* use magic, because it's so tempting, and if you let go to temptation you end up with city-sized craters if you're lucky, and to the end of the world via the Things from the Dungeon Dimension if you're a tiny bit less lucky. Not to mention that the magic users naturaly tend to conflict when they meet.

The goal of the Unseen University and other institutions is essentialy to take people with a capacity for magic, teach them how to do it properly, and channel their energy into other things than large scale magic nuke wars, such as academic pursuits, lots of food, and, in times where there is no leader strong enough to establish a stable pecking order, murdering each others to get to the top of the good chain without hurting the general population. Witch training similarly meant to nudge you away from baking children in your oven or turning frogs into brutal dictators for the sake of a story by making you use your wits and a good day's work rather than witching your way through life.

-------------

As for D&D, well, people who teaches magic aren't necessarily the most powerful, having apprentices to work on your projects is always useful, more wizards means more potential to do stuff like big experiments, your country/organization wants to have more wizards for their practical uses (explaining why Hobgoblins have academies of wizardry), if you never pass on your knowledge you're going to die unknown and un-celebrated, and as long as there will be people willing and able to put the means into learning, someone will think it's profitable to teach them, to name a few possible reasons.

Hm, ok, fair enough regarding the Unseen University. I didn't read too many of the books centering on it.

My point was only that anything more than an apprentice or two would be more of a liability than a help for a high-level wizard. Like, a guy to do the ritual magic for you is handy, sure, but you'd much prefer 1 or 2 mid level guys to a load of level 1 wizards.

And yeah, a king might very well start a mage academy in order to bolster his army. That's a good answer to the why.

Another good why is that wizards have a strong identity as a people group and maintain the university purely so that their way of life continues.

I'm not saying it's inherently impractical, I'm just saying that the nature of the institution will be very dependent on the reason for why it was founded. Hobgoblin Destroyer School is a very different creature from Unethical Magic Buddhist School.