Building High Council of a high-level Magocracy

[Draz74]

So my setting has a snobby, High Elven city that's the center of wizarding power for the world. (Cliche, but not something I've actually seen done much.) I'm thinking it will be ruled over by 7 high-level Wizards that represent the Schools of Wizardry (except for Necromancy, because undead minionmancy is something the elves will despise even though they're collectively Neutral or Lawful Neutral in alignment). And I'd like to actually build these characters' stat blocks.

I've already built the Divination Principal, whose schtick is that he's the highest-level of them all, Level 20. And that he thinks mind magic is supreme, and disdains flashy physical displays of magic.

I need ideas for the other Principals! Both mechanical ideas, and corresponding personality ideas.

Though they should primarily be Wizards, with subclasses corresponding to their School of specialization, that leaves a lot of room for other mechanics. Spell selection, Feats, dips in other classes.

Most of them should be High Elves (or Eladrin, I guess), but there can be exceptions to this. For example, I'm thinking of making the Evocation specialist a Fire Genasi, with elven blood rather than human blood fluff-wise.

Anyone want to offer up ideas?

[Keltest]

Have the illusionist be fairly low level. He isn't actually all that personally powerful, but he understands people and how they work, so he can get a lot of really strong results from low power spells, so that people believe him to have more raw strength than he actually does.

Alternatively, have them all be low level. These are wizards who studied politics, not magic. Theyre good at ruling, they just wont be able to melt down a castle with the force of their will or anything.

[Unoriginal]

My advice is: don't bother building them like PCs. Use the Archmage NPC statblock, give them relevant abilities linked to their schools, and you're done. Add, tweak or remove things from the statblock as you wish to make it more like you want.

You could also take the "Wizards of X school" statblocks from the Volo's and buff them up to Archmage power level.

Having NPCs follow the PCs rules for character creation generally is generally much more tedious than needed and doesn't give the results a DM would get with the NPC creation method.

D&D Elves tend to be chaotic, is there a reason why those are mostly neutral or loyal neutral?

As for the characters themselves, some ideas:

-If the most powerful one think showy physical magic is inferior to mind magic, then there is probably quite a lot of tensions between him and the Evocation Principal. Something that could be played up.

-The Enchanter Principal is actually a Lizardfolk. Or perhaps an elf who was turned into a Lizardfolk after a Reincarnation spell or a magic incident. No one is quite sure how they were before that, or if there was indeed a "before".

-The less snobby/most approachable is the Abjuration Principal, who is Eladrin. Problem is they are seen as not serious by the Divination Principal because they have an extensive life outside of magic and regularly go indulge their hobbies and social life.

-The Illusion Principal is the one who have been given the position the most recently, and they're eager to gain renown and respect from their peers with impressive accomplishments. Their predecessor retired after the tragic loss of their romantic partner, and some in the council feel the current Illusion Principal didn't earn the title as a result.

-The Conjuration Principal is the oldest by a wide margin, even by elven standard. Their methods of approaching magic are considered archaic, but they still work.

Additionaly, you could have a "Master of the Rituals and Ceremonies" character who is not a part of the council, as rather than a wizard they are a Warlock with a Tome of Shadows, which let them learn and use all and any ritual they come across.

[Draz74]

Have the illusionist be fairly low level. He isn't actually all that personally powerful, but he understands people and how they work, so he can get a lot of really strong results from low power spells, so that people believe him to have more raw strength than he actually does.
Could work, though it seems a shame if no one in the city has the very interesting Illusory Reality class feature, which an Illusion Wizard gains at 14th level.


Alternatively, have them all be low level. These are wizards who studied politics, not magic. Theyre good at ruling, they just wont be able to melt down a castle with the force of their will or anything.
Eh, I see what you're saying, but that's not the culture I picture for this city. They're supposed to be very competitive about their magical abilities, and not particularly good at ruling.


My advice is: don't bother building them like PCs. Use the Archmage NPC statblock, give them relevant abilities linked to their schools, and you're done. Add, tweak or remove things from the statblock as you wish to make it more like you want.

You could also take the "Wizards of X school" statblocks from the Volo's and buff them up to Archmage power level.

Having NPCs follow the PCs rules for character creation generally is generally much more tedious than needed and doesn't give the results a DM would get with the NPC creation method.
Well, a big part of the whole motivation for this project is to give me an excuse to build high-level characters using PC rules, just because I want to anyway. :smallsmile:


D&D Elves tend to be chaotic, is there a reason why those are mostly neutral or loyal neutral?
I've never thought Gray Elves or other magic-focused, arrogant subraces sounded particularly Chaotic in the descriptions of their cultures in the books. So I'm embracing that here. The other two major Elven cultures in this setting (which have much stronger Wood Elf presences) are much more chaotic.


As for the characters themselves, some ideas:

-If the most powerful one think showy physical magic is inferior to mind magic, then there is probably quite a lot of tensions between him and the Evocation Principal. Something that could be played up.
Definitely.


-The Enchanter Principal is actually a Lizardfolk. Or perhaps an elf who was turned into a Lizardfolk after a Reincarnation spell or a magic incident. No one is quite sure how they were before that, or if there was indeed a "before".
Haha, that's not an exception-race I had thought of. Why Enchantment specifically?


-The less snobby/most approachable is the Abjuration Principal, who is Eladrin. Problem is they are seen as not serious by the Divination Principal because they have an extensive life outside of magic and regularly go indulge their hobbies and social life.
I was thinking of a more-approachable Chaotic Good individual somewhere in the group, though I wasn't thinking Abjuration. Could be Eladrin, though. I was also thinking about that character having a Bard dip. (Note that since these are NPCs, MAD isn't a big issue.)


-The Illusion Principal is the one who have been given the position the most recently, and they're eager to gain renown and respect from their peers with impressive accomplishments. Their predecessor retired after the tragic loss of their romantic partner, and some in the council feel the current Illusion Principal didn't earn the title as a result.
Sure, this kind of goes with Keltest's suggestion.


-The Conjuration Principal is the oldest by a wide margin, even by elven standard. Their methods of approaching magic are considered archaic, but they still work.
One being particularly ancient is a very good idea. Why Conjuration, though?


Additionaly, you could have a "Master of the Rituals and Ceremonies" character who is not a part of the council, as rather than a wizard they are a Warlock with a Tome of Shadows, which let them learn and use all and any ritual they come across.
Hmmm, actually, I was already thinking of having a non-Principal mage in the city who's multiclassed to Warlock. (I have a Tiefling Warlock character concept who would be his estranged son.) Having the others depend on him to lead certain Rituals and Ceremonies is an interesting role.

Some more ideas I've been brainstorming in the past hour:

Pull a Raistlin and have a sickly individual, low Constitution. I was thinking this might be the Abjuration specialist, so that Arcane Ward could make up for some of his weakness.
Someone should definitely have a Robe of the Archmagi.
One should be particularly pious, in the faith dominant among Fey folk. Possibly a Nature Cleric dip, although I may just go all-out and give him or her a seven-level dip in Ancients Paladin. Then maybe 10 levels of Wizard? Definitely one of the weaker Principals in terms of sheer Wizardly might, if I go that route. This might be my Enchantment specialist.
I do want at least a couple to be corrupt, Evil in alignment.

[Zonugal]

I would offer the suggestion of having the Illusion Principal not even truly be there.

Their Simulacrum actually represents them and reports back to them on the happenings of such meetings.

[Trustypeaches]

I had a nation in one of my games that was a magocracy where a council of "supremes" were in a perpetual cycle of backstabbing and grabs for power, each desperately trying to become more powerful either through raw strength or political clout or what have you.

But they weren't all necessarily mages; they all had access to powerful magics. Here are some examples:

Jan'ja, a mischievous high elven mistress who runs a mercantile empire who drew her power from her robust, legendary collection of powerful magical artifacts gathered and traded from across the world.
"Grimm", a mysterious cloaked giant who rules the Circus of Fools, an marauding troupe of freaks and lepers who use magic to twist their flesh into horrifying and dangerous forms. Grimm himself is said to mask grotesque appendages beneath his twilight garb capable of driving mortal men mad at a glance.
Wolfram, the imposing leader of the empire's domestic armed forces and an order of spellbreaker Paladins who works to keep the other Supremes in check. He and his order of knights serves as a watchdog among the elite, keeping them from putting the citizens of Urr in harms way or causing undue destruction with their antics. His authority is as resented as it is respected.
A'leera Waycrest, the fierce matriarch of the Waycrest noble family who lifted her family from poverty to power after striking a contract with the Wind Dukes of the Elemental Plane of Air, birthing several generations of powerful Air Genasi children and mastering potent elemental magic. They are known to hunt down and kill any Genasi in the kingdom that do not belong to the family in order to keep their power exclusive.

It could possibly be more interesting if the magocracy in your world isn't limited to wizards in a similar way.

[Xetheral]

The abjuration principal and illusion principals will likely be the least trusted by the divination principle, as they may be the only ones with powerful enough protections to plan a betrayal secretly. Anyone else could be rounded up and executed before they've even had a treasonous thought. Of course, other principals might be studying outside their specialty and casting blame on the abjuration and illusionist principles....

[Draz74]

I would offer the suggestion of having the Illusion Principal not even truly be there.

Their Simulacrum actually represents them and reports back to them on the happenings of such meetings.
Sure, that works. A sign of laziness? Or of greater dedication to other studies?


The abjuration principal and illusion principals will likely be the least trusted by the divination principle, as they may be the only ones with powerful enough protections to plan a betrayal secretly. Anyone else could be rounded up and executed before they've even had a treasonous thought. Of course, other principals might be studying outside their specialty and casting blame on the abjuration and illusionist principles....
Well, any of them can study outside their specialty enough to cast Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, for example.

* * *

So I'm looking at something like:

Principal Menil: LN male High Elf Divination Wizard 20. Believes in the supremacy of mental magic over physical magic. Has a Tome of Clear Thought.
Principal Rivat'na: N female High Elf Ancients Paladin 7 / Enchantment Wizard 10. The group's consultant on religious matters; a leader of the Selyrri religion. Deeply disappointed in Eladrin that aren't pious.
Principal Sathina: LE female High Elf Conjuration Wizard 18. The ancient one. Has a Robe of the Archmagi. Needs another personality quirk.
Principal Lenewlyn: N male Eladrin Abjuration Wizard 14 / Knowledge Cleric 1. The only one of the council that everyone else likes. A pure scholar, with little political ambition. Sickly (low Constitution), searches for a magical cure.
Principal Ssathaak: N non-binary Lizardfolk Illusion Wizard 14. Claims to have formerly been an elf. Newcomer to the council, not well-accepted by the others (only partly because of its race). It doesn't help that it sends a Simulacrum in its place to council meetings.
Principal Minvav: CG female Eladrin Bard 2 / Transmutation Wizard 14. A political progressive, not satisfied with the city's cold shoulder that they present to the rest of the world.
Principal Kitathis: LE female Fire Genasi Evocation Wizard 16. A particular rival of Principal Menil. Actually rather gregarious and sociable.

[Keltest]

Your conjurer could be constantly sending and receiving summoned minions that he has set about on various tasks. Extraplanar errand runners of some flavor or another are constantly running around his quarters and the town in the immediate vicinity. In spite of the number of creatures vying for his attention, he somehow always knows what was said in his presence, even if he appeared to be engrossed in a different conversation completely.

Nobody actually knows what he has those minions do, as they are quite adept at avoiding spies and the like, and he finds it amusing to have even the most menial of the tasks be a secret just to frustrate the people who want to know what he's up to.

[Fryy]

Sure, that works. A sign of laziness? Or of greater dedication to other studies?


Well, any of them can study outside their specialty enough to cast Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, for example.

* * *

So I'm looking at something like:

Principal Menil: LN male High Elf Divination Wizard 20. Believes in the supremacy of mental magic over physical magic. Has a Tome of Clear Thought.
Principal Rivat'na: N female High Elf Ancients Paladin 7 / Enchantment Wizard 10. The group's consultant on religious matters; a leader of the Selyrri religion. Deeply disappointed in Eladrin that aren't pious.
Principal Sathina: LE female High Elf Conjuration Wizard 18. The ancient one. Has a Robe of the Archmagi. Needs another personality quirk.
Principal Lenewlyn: N male Eladrin Abjuration Wizard 14 / Knowledge Cleric 1. The only one of the council that everyone else likes. A pure scholar, with little political ambition. Sickly (low Constitution), searches for a magical cure.
Principal Ssathaak: N non-binary Lizardfolk Illusion Wizard 14. Claims to have formerly been an elf. Newcomer to the council, not well-accepted by the others (only partly because of its race). It doesn't help that it sends a Simulacrum in its place to council meetings.
Principal Minvav: CG female Eladrin Bard 2 / Transmutation Wizard 14. A political progressive, not satisfied with the city's cold shoulder that they present to the rest of the world.
Principal Kitathis: LE female Fire Genasi Evocation Wizard 16. A particular rival of Principal Menil. Actually rather gregarious and sociable.


Wow. A lot of Lawful Evil (LE) on the elven council, which is the antithesis of the Chaotic Good alignment typically associated with Elves... unless the two LE council members are like a couple of Senator Palpatines hiding in plain sight.

A Bladesinger Wizard would be appropriate for an Elven Wizard Council. NG High Elf Bladesinger Wizard 14 / Arcane Trickster 3. Pragmatic and unpretentious. Their role would the liaison between the council and the military/guards and the director of bladesinger field agents. While the other council members sit in chairs, he or she leans against a column with arms crossed and only speaks when impractical ideas are being given serious consideration.