Topics to be researched in a Magic University

[Cicciograna]

Hey Playgrounders, let's talk about Magic Universities. Let's say that, in general, from here on I'm referring to Arcane Magic.

A University is generally seen as a place where subjects are taught, but also where research in a variety of topics is performed (I should know, I work as a researcher in an institution). So, what is going on on campus, apart from teaching? Sure, the Freshmen are learning the basics of the eight Schools of Magic, while the seniors are close to attaining their first 1st (2nd? 3rd?) spell, but what do the professors research, when they're done teaching, and with what instruments?

Magic is generally presented as something that is already in place: spells are neatly organized in tiers of power, they work out-of-the-box - in that if an expert is able to cast a spell, he will be able to replicate the casting every time, provided he can perform the gestures, utter the words and procure the material components - and in general seem to be pretty much "static".

I always assumed that spells available in the game are the most perfected versions of each required effect: when first created, the Fireball spell was a 7th level spell and required a full minute of casting and to consume a ruby worth 100 gp, for example, and years and years of research on it managed to push it down to a 3rd level spell, requiring only an action, and a negligible component. Sure, researchers tried to push it down to a 1st level spell requiring no component, but ultimately every attempt failed [and we, in the real world, know that it's for game balance reasons], so we have the Fireball version that's presented in the Player's Handbook.

So spell perfectioning is something that can certainly be done in a Magic University, although for the sake of game balance maybe it's a good idea for it to remain fruitless.
New spell research can also certainly be done, new spells can be created by dedicated researchers. But at the same time, it's something that also adventuring Wizards can do, although admittedly I don't remember exactly what the rules are for the creation of new spells. One would expect magicians on campus to be able to perform this kind of research more expeditely, right? Maybe this is a good topic of research.

Study of Item creation is something else that could be done in a Magic University, although the institution could be more focused on the "how" rather than actually on producing magic items, lest we go to a "magic mart" situation (which is not inherently bad).
While commenting on this last point, I thought that they might be gathering spells knowledge: they act as repositories of grimoires containing not only the "final" version of each spell, but also the various steps in the research that led to Fireball being a 3rd level spell.

Planar Cosmology, finally, is also something that could be researched in a University. What are planes, how do they interface between each others, what systems can travellers employ to go from one to the other, what are the risks, why this specific site is better to open a portal to such and such plane, rather than somewhere else.

Do you have other ideas on the rougher and finer details of what could be going on in the research labs of a Magic University?

[Lord Vukodlak]

You have magical phenomenon.

What causes some insects to grow to monstrous sizes, seemingly spontaneous creation of undead. And of course the general study of magical creatures.

[Tetrasodium]

Hey Playgrounders, let's talk about Magic Universities. Let's say that, in general, from here on I'm referring to Arcane Magic.

A University is generally seen as a place where subjects are taught, but also where research in a variety of topics is performed (I should know, I work as a researcher in an institution). So, what is going on on campus, apart from teaching? Sure, the Freshmen are learning the basics of the eight Schools of Magic, while the seniors are close to attaining their first 1st (2nd? 3rd?) spell, but what do the professors research, when they're done teaching, and with what instruments?

Magic is generally presented as something that is already in place: spells are neatly organized in tiers of power, they work out-of-the-box - in that if an expert is able to cast a spell, he will be able to replicate the casting every time, provided he can perform the gestures, utter the words and procure the material components - and in general seem to be pretty much "static".

I always assumed that spells available in the game are the most perfected versions of each required effect: when first created, the Fireball spell was a 7th level spell and required a full minute of casting and to consume a ruby worth 100 gp, for example, and years and years of research on it managed to push it down to a 3rd level spell, requiring only an action, and a negligible component. Sure, researchers tried to push it down to a 1st level spell requiring no component, but ultimately every attempt failed [and we, in the real world, know that it's for game balance reasons], so we have the Fireball version that's presented in the Player's Handbook.

So spell perfectioning is something that can certainly be done in a Magic University, although for the sake of game balance maybe it's a good idea for it to remain fruitless.
New spell research can also certainly be done, new spells can be created by dedicated researchers. But at the same time, it's something that also adventuring Wizards can do, although admittedly I don't remember exactly what the rules are for the creation of new spells. One would expect magicians on campus to be able to perform this kind of research more expeditely, right? Maybe this is a good topic of research.

Study of Item creation is something else that could be done in a Magic University, although the institution could be more focused on the "how" rather than actually on producing magic items, lest we go to a "magic mart" situation (which is not inherently bad).
While commenting on this last point, I thought that they might be gathering spells knowledge: they act as repositories of grimoires containing not only the "final" version of each spell, but also the various steps in the research that led to Fireball being a 3rd level spell.

Planar Cosmology, finally, is also something that could be researched in a University. What are planes, how do they interface between each others, what systems can travellers employ to go from one to the other, what are the risks, why this specific site is better to open a portal to such and such plane, rather than somewhere else.

Do you have other ideas on the rougher and finer details of what could be going on in the research labs of a Magic University?
.In eberron, magic is treated as a science & multiple universities exist of varying prestige & specialization (arcanix, korranberg, wayfinder, etc). While there are others, those are three of the biggest names. The Arcanix is a hard science type university. The library of korranberg still teaches a lot of the same kinda stuff, but it's mission is more slanted towards knowledge, history, & other broad categories of subject that may not be primarily arcane in nature. The wayfinder society teaches adventurer types to be adventurers in exchange for working as guards & escorts for researchers exploring xendriik where they are allowed a portion of any riches found.

By our standards, the arcanix might be like MIT or some other college well known for programs that teach cutting edge scientific topics to people that will blaze a trail into extending the boundaries of knowledge & advancements... Korranberg might be like a harvard/yale/etc type school with prestigious programs in law, archaeology, history, linguistics, etc... Any arcane courses taught there are going to be of a type useful to those disciplines even if there are low level (ie 101 201 etc) courses for less applicable areas. Wayfinders trains studens for a specific goal, it might be more akin to a westpoint or school of the americas; researchers exploring xendriik don't need theoretical physicist types to kep them safe... hey need people who can do just that.


What kind of university are you looking to fill in?

[Damon_Tor]

Just because a spell exists and is listed in the PHB doesn't mean it's well known or understood. For example, creating a Simulacrum might only be theoretically possible, and various universities are in competition to be the first to discover the method.

[Xihirli]

Shadow magic in general.
"Why can I ride this illusionary horse?"

[Sparky McDibben]

I've got a magical university in my current campaign inspired by the Izzet League from Ravnica. I set up a random encounter table for the area which goes like this:

1 - 2: Nothing happens.
3: A wyvern is rolling around in a flower patch, clearly high. These flowers are like catnip to it. A nearby handler is pleading with it, trying to get it to go back to its pen.
4: A goblin runs by, on fire, as they are chased by professors with fire extinguishers.
5: A rampaging blistercoil weird overwhelms the scorchbringer guards!
6: An enormous goat with throbbing green horns (reskinned phase spider) teleports around the PC's.
7: The PC's are challenged to a game of magical Ultimate Frisbee (which is like regular Ultimate Frisbee, but the Frisbee explodes) by a derro. The PC's can make DC 15 Dexterity or Wisdom checks (the Frisbee is psychoreactive) to maneuver the Frisbee into the derro's goal. If one side gets three more successes than the other, the frisbee detonates, dealing damage equal to a fireball spell.
8: Roll on the Wild Magic Surge table and apply its result to a randomly applied PC.
9: The PC's walk into an exploding pumpkin field (DC 10 Dex save or take 1d6 fire damage).
10: A visiting giff parent waddles up to the PCs, seeking the "old mess hall, wot wot?"
11: The PC's see an experimental anti-gravity field being used for bungee-jumping. There is a 10% chance of the device malfunctioning.
12: A shyster tries to sell the party a fake flame tongue that's just a sword with continual flame cast on it.

Most of this is for flavor, but I find that if you put something interesting in front of the PCs, they tend to interact with it. For example, why is that goblin on fire? Did someone play a prank on it, and it's just faerie fire? Or was it the result of a horrible laboratory experiment gone wrong? Either way, if your PCs want to interact with something, it's a chance for you to draw them into the setting. If they help, that goblin now has a name, and a face, and maybe a problem the PCs can help solve. I like to improve these types of situations at the table, personally.

There are a whole bunch of options if you want this to be more serious. Maybe the students are striking because the administration don't have drow mushrooms available in the cafeteria and that's making some of the students sick (like the drow students who go to night class). Maybe the students are striking because one of the guest lecturers is an out-and-out war criminal. Depends on the mood of the table, but universities are pretty wacky places even in our world.

[Corran]

...
So spell perfectioning is something that can certainly be done in a Magic University, although for the sake of game balance maybe it's a good idea for it to remain fruitless.
Maybe. But just in case it tempts you, or just for the sake of discussion, concentration is a really limiting mechanic as far as the spellcasting in 5e goes. Removing the concentration requirement (even if that leads to hving to use a higher level slot for the spell in question) could be a significant way to improve a spell. Or at least it would be a way to make some appealing but mechanically meh spells into play more often.


Do you have other ideas on the rougher and finer details of what could be going on in the research labs of a Magic University?
How about this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?576873-Uses-of-Contingency&highlight=contingency) (divination aspect of contingency)? It's an interesting topic to at least think about, and if this (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Larloch) source is correct (A contingency spell warned Larloch that Jiksidur was facing impending doom, and he fled the city riding a dragon), then it has even been done.

[HappyDaze]

I would imagine that there might be a great deal of philosophy studied alongside the magic itself. While researching into magic might let you understand what can be done and how to do it, there might be substantial efforts spent on studying whether it should or should not be done.

[Tiadoppler]

The campaign I'm running now is set in (and around) a magic school/university. Here are some of the major research projects underway:

- Reducing the cost/time requirements for potionmaking
- Mass-producing magical items
- Transmuting common metals into gold
- Using artificial (manufactured) diamonds for spellcasting
- Experimenting with varying material components in common spells
- Developing self-propelled wagons and carts.
- Writing new spells
- Curing vampires/lycanthropes
- Creating new species of animals, or modifying breeding populations of existing animals to have different stats.
- Recovering magic and spells from past ages (previous editions)
- Adjusting the dietary requirements of illithids
- Reviving a dead god

Not all of these research projects will have any productive results. Some of the successful ones will have plot consequences, and some of the unsuccessful ones will fail interestingly.

Edit: There's also a lot of uninteresting/academic research going on: changing the school of one spell or another, or making cantrips that can be cast as a ritual.

[ImproperJustice]

If you can find an old copy of the 2e wizard’s handbook, it had some cool flavor sections on classes of study for wizard schools and social clubs wizards could join.

I remember defensive casting, environmental studies (like how magic works in a vacuum) and magical cross breeding being topics of study.

[Spriteless]

I imagine all the things associated with magic and huksters irl are associated with real magic in D&D.
Astronomy, the study of relations between stars, planets, and moon(s) with the future and intersecting planes.
The existance of consistant cold spots in civilized areas is not proof that there are cold water pipes underneath, but necromantic energy.
Meditation classes that don't just clear the mind of worries, but literally help students tap into mystic energies. Breath with your diaphragm.
Dream interpretation, associated with Beholders with the current lore, so madness or other planes? Yeah the astral literally is named after what irl some people consider the source of dreams, lets go with that.
Spirit photography... isn't popular anymore and I only know about it from Ghostbusters 2 and a Mage splatbook from the 90s.
Dowsing - wait is that a druid's wheelhouse?

[AdAstra]

Really this could go just about any way you want it to. Factors that would probably affect the nature of wizardly education:

-The number/density of wizards and people with wizardly talent/aspirations and where they live. If there is not a sufficient density, you're unlikely to see large schools unless people are willing/able to travel a long distance and know of your school(s).

-How accepted wizardry/magic is in your society will obviously impact any public institutions that cater to that. If wizardry is an underground activity, you could still have schools, but they'd have to take all the necessary precautions ala Hogwarts but smart. More likely, you'd have loners studying or master-apprentice(s) deals. Less likely to draw attention and more compartmentalized.

-How connected your wizards are. Basically, is there an overarching wizarding "culture" or community? Do wizards regularly get into lethal conflict? Do wizards even trust each other enough to reveal that they're wizards? If every wizard is out to get or worried about being got by every other wizard, you're not going to see many schools.

So, if you've established those things (and probably other things I haven't thought of), you might be able to get a decent idea of how large your schools are. Both are likely to involve quite a bit of experimentation and theoretical study, but larger schools are likely to have a lot more "rote" learning. Technical school-esque teaching of how to do things and the necessary background knowledge would probably be the norm for most students. Only higher-level people would be doing things like peering into other planes willy-nilly and trying to suss out the metaphysical implications of Magic Missile. Smaller schools or apprenticeships might be more like training camps or stereotypical training montage arrangements. Old hermit on a mountain sending his students to do various weird tasks. There's a lot of ways to do it though, so this could be expanded upon greatly.

In terms of specific examples, a big one would probably be ethics. If this is a reputable institution it's not going to just be training killers and monsters. Chances are they want their students to be productive members of society. Even adventuring aspirations are likely to be seen as rather out there. Lots of the school's output is liable to be rather utilitarian in nature. I could see "Necromancy and Respect for the Dead" and "Fireballs: When Not To?" being a thing.

On the same note, ethics and legal questions might be a big part of "research" as well. After, we can look no further than this forum and see how people debate over issues of how ethical certain spells are to use and in what manner. When is using Charm Person acceptable? How does the existence of Modify Memory affect the nature of perjury and witness testimony? Does using Friends (think that one's more 5e-specific) make any retaliation justified? Should the school even teach students Animate Dead or other potentially questionable spells? All sorts of questions with no easy answers leads to a lot of spilled ink and yelling. The school's going to need a coherent, consistent code of ethics to even function properly in most cases, so there's going to be a lot of argument over it.

[Sparky McDibben]

While researching into magic might let you understand what can be done and how to do it, there might be substantial efforts spent on studying whether it should or should not be done.

Ah, Comparative Ethics and the Art of Jeff Goldbluming 101. How I remember my college years...

[ezekielraiden]

"Esoteric philosophy" is my personal catch-all term for the branches of (academic) magic, in precisely the same way that "Natural Philosophy" (used to be) the term for the application of reasoning and logic ("philosophy") to the observation of the world around us ("natural"). (This would also imply the existence of esoteric history, which is purely about cataloguing and describing the magical phenomena of the world, without any effort to reason about or explain them.) Institutions of higher learning would thus likely tend to offer overall programs in these broad-strokes categories (theology, natural philosophy, political philosophy, esoteric philosophy, theoretical/practical philosophy, mathematics, etc.), with more specific sub-disciplines beneath them (apologetics, physics, contract law, conjury, epistemology/ethics, algebra, etc.), just as universities on Earth have been organized for centuries and other institutions of learning were organized for centuries before that. Even Aristotle's Lyceum had more-or-less categories of study like this (the Nicomachean Ethics are believed to be compiled from Aristotle's lecture notes on Ethics, and what we call his Metaphysics is literally just "the stuff that came after the Physics"). Further, Theophrastus, his successor as the head of the school, founded the botany section of its library after Aristotle's death, continuing its tradition of categorizing and organizing information and reasoning about the world.

So I'd imagine, if we're following a semi-medieval model, that there would be a baseline-level degree equivalent to our Bachelor (though I imagine a Bachelor of Esoterica/Arcana would exist alongside those of Science and Arts), with one or more higher-level degrees, equivalent to our Master/PhD programs and professional-school education (e.g. becoming a lawyer or physician). You might have different terms (e.g. Journeyman, Masterworker, Grandmaster) or more/fewer tiers, but the underlying ideas would likely remain pretty uniform. These sorts of structures can be found in many societies, not just medieval European ones; "guilds" and schools have existed for a long, long time, basically everywhere humans gather in sufficient quantities with sufficient resources.

[RatElemental]

The cosmology of the setting would be a perfectly valid thing to be studying. It's also something wizards would likely be interested in.

How many planes are there? How do they work? Is there something beyond them?

And then there's looking into magic itself: Figuring out how the weave works, or if there even is one. Figuring out how to 'tweak' spells to have slightly different effects in order to understand the underlying mechanics of magic itself. Learning why verbal and somatic components are required and what differences between gestures and vocalizations do to the spells in question.

[jjordan]

In my setting there are no wizards teaching new wizards how to be wizards in order to make money. You get a wizard or a small group of wizards gathered in an area where they can work on their research. People with magical talent and intelligence are taken on as assistants. They learn how to perceive magic, avoid being accidentally turned into a smoking smear by it, gather it, and release it in measured amounts and on demand in support of larger castings. They also help prepare the larger castings and, through this, learn magical theory.

The wizards are wrestling with their obsessions. Studying the nature of the universe, trying to decode the secrets of it, trying to gain more power that they can use to gain greater amounts of knowledge. Some of them are seeking the secrets of immortality through various means. Others are trying to solve specific mysteries (why the dragons no longer rule the world as they once did). Some are working on commission, researching and/or developing for powerful clients.

In terms of specific projects that might be undertaken?
-Trying to open a gate to a new thread of existence
-Learning to perceive the billions of realities that exist one atop each other
-Trying to 'civilize' goblins through selective breeding
-Trying to harness the regenerative capabilities of troll blood to use in healing
-Summoning demons and compelling them to examine objects
-Learning how to separate the essential life-essence from living creatures and relocate it


What activities would be undertaken in support of these projects?
-Crafting specialty items, both magic and mundane
-Obtaining rare ingredients and processing them
-Obtaining and copying books
-Hunting down magical pests (gnothics), escaped lab experiments, and the occasional mutated research assistant
-Preparing magic circles and multiple focii for complex magical experiments

And so on.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Hey Playgrounders, let's talk about Magic Universities. Let's say that, in general, from here on I'm referring to Arcane Magic.

A University is generally seen as a place where subjects are taught, but also where research in a variety of topics is performed (I should know, I work as a researcher in an institution). So, what is going on on campus, apart from teaching? Sure, the Freshmen are learning the basics of the eight Schools of Magic, while the seniors are close to attaining their first 1st (2nd? 3rd?) spell, but what do the professors research, when they're done teaching, and with what instruments?

Magic is generally presented as something that is already in place: spells are neatly organized in tiers of power, they work out-of-the-box - in that if an expert is able to cast a spell, he will be able to replicate the casting every time, provided he can perform the gestures, utter the words and procure the material components - and in general seem to be pretty much "static".

I always assumed that spells available in the game are the most perfected versions of each required effect: when first created, the Fireball spell was a 7th level spell and required a full minute of casting and to consume a ruby worth 100 gp, for example, and years and years of research on it managed to push it down to a 3rd level spell, requiring only an action, and a negligible component. Sure, researchers tried to push it down to a 1st level spell requiring no component, but ultimately every attempt failed [and we, in the real world, know that it's for game balance reasons], so we have the Fireball version that's presented in the Player's Handbook.

So spell perfectioning is something that can certainly be done in a Magic University, although for the sake of game balance maybe it's a good idea for it to remain fruitless.
New spell research can also certainly be done, new spells can be created by dedicated researchers. But at the same time, it's something that also adventuring Wizards can do, although admittedly I don't remember exactly what the rules are for the creation of new spells. One would expect magicians on campus to be able to perform this kind of research more expeditely, right? Maybe this is a good topic of research.

Study of Item creation is something else that could be done in a Magic University, although the institution could be more focused on the "how" rather than actually on producing magic items, lest we go to a "magic mart" situation (which is not inherently bad).
While commenting on this last point, I thought that they might be gathering spells knowledge: they act as repositories of grimoires containing not only the "final" version of each spell, but also the various steps in the research that led to Fireball being a 3rd level spell.

Planar Cosmology, finally, is also something that could be researched in a University. What are planes, how do they interface between each others, what systems can travellers employ to go from one to the other, what are the risks, why this specific site is better to open a portal to such and such plane, rather than somewhere else.

Do you have other ideas on the rougher and finer details of what could be going on in the research labs of a Magic University?

Just because the DM knows the spell list doesn't mean the NPC's do!

Or you they could be designing the list from the next expansion to use a real world reference.

Or they could be studying up a new spell. Read this for inspiration: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Karsus%27s_Folly

Maybe the evil Dean is trying to implant some king of magical device in all his students to siphon their power, keep tabs on them, control them, this or that.

Maybe the Dean thinks she/he is doing that for a good reason ever since a student named Ben changed his name and left the school seemingly turning evil.

[Vogie]

Summoning Ethics
Ethics and Enchantment
Leyline Studies
Postlife Review - understanding undead, ghosts, et cetera
"Shadow" Conjuration - ability to use illusions in real ways via light constructs and the like
Ancient Runes & Religions - exploring past events, deities and magic types
Arithmancy - Translating existing magic into the universal language of math
Heiromancy - Understanding, and potentially alter, the laws of magic
Hypersurface research - Understanding extra-dimensional spaces and application thereof
Biomancy - Understanding & Breeding magical creatures
Sanguimancy - Blood Magic

[Tvtyrant]

The True Names of Demons/Devils that have been bound and dominated by a group of wizards (One calls it, another casts Dominate on it, they get it to spit out its Name.) They methodically increase the Book of Names for planar binding purposes.

Uses for troll parts. Since they regenerate a whole troll, there are all sorts of things you can experiment with like a tiny cube of troll as a hand grenade.

The Economic Benefits of Find Steed/Find Greater Steed as a source of cheap plow animals.