How to become a wizard in game?

[schreier]

OK - silly question - mechanically and fluff, how does one "become" a first level wizard? How do you learn "Read Magic?" Can you teach yourself the first spells through reading?

[Jervis]

OK - silly question - mechanically and fluff, how does one "become" a first level wizard? How do you learn "Read Magic?" Can you teach yourself the first spells through reading?

Technically I don’t believe any rules exist for replacing your first racial hit die with a class level. I think the two raw readings are that you just instantly become one when you choose to do so or that you technically need to take a class level at level 2 and get your first level somehow level drained away

[Arcanist]

This is a strictly roleplaying aspect that is entirely reliant and contingent upon what setting you are from. The simple fact of the matter is that there is no one way to become a Wizard in a fantasy roleplaying game where it is possible. Whether you receive your magic by the instructions of a learned wizard, oral tradition, through rugged research or through the intervention of some deity: You are a Wizard for all intent and purposes, the how is up to you and your backstory.

That said, I'm personally fond of learning magic from a number of masters, some of which might very well be simply high level Wizards to Archmages, to Gods of Magic themselves.

EDIT: Ah, you meant the mechanics of how a 1st level Human actually gets their 1st Wizard HD. Well, there is no mechanically defined way, but I've heard it is presumed that Humanoids begin play with 1 RHD that is replaced by a class level through the normal mechanics. I've no idea where I've heard that, but if that is how you want to handle it, by all means. For character generations sack, you just automatically are presumed to have always had 1 class level in Wizard.

[RandomPeasant]

The game doesn't offer much specifics in the fluff of how you get class levels. The closest it comes, as far as I'm aware, is the Mentor feat in the DMGII, which describes (in both in-world and mechanical terms) a process by which one character can be trained by another.

[Maat Mons]

My homebrew/headcannon is that progression goes like this:

1st-level Commoner with Non-Elite Array
*training*
1st-level any NPC class with Non-Elite Array
*more training*
1st-level any NPC class with Elite Array
*even more training*
1st-level any PC class with Elite Array
*still more training*
2nd-level character

So there are no 2nd-level characters with with levels in NPC classes or the Non-Elite Array. Those are just placeholders until you receive enough training to have your real class and ability scores. Naturally, player characters skip over those boring parts.

I've also considered allowing level 2+ in an NPC class to be taken if you somehow gain a bunch of XP but have never received any sort of training. So, basically, all NPC classes would have the unlisted class feature of "these levels can later be exchanged for levels in a real class."



If you want to deal with gaining your first Wizard level in increments, you might want to look at the rules for being "Apprentice" level that were in the 3.0 DMG. It has to be a 3.0 one, they got rid of it for the 3.5 printing.



I don't think you're supposed to be able to tech yourself any classes except those that fall into the "Self-Taught" category on the starting age table. So I'd say Wizards definitely need a tutor.

[Seward]

Don't be stupid and take Commoner as a teenager?

Why do most people make that terrible choice? Presumably better choices need some kind of family training or apprenticeship or something, or at least a patron deity or a family tree that includes some questionable life choices by your forebears on who they slept with.

[Telonius]

OK - silly question - mechanically and fluff, how does one "become" a first level wizard? How do you learn "Read Magic?" Can you teach yourself the first spells through reading?

Like this (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0126.html), obviously. :smallbiggrin:

But yeah, the fluff would be different between multiclassing and getting your first level. Mechanically, there's a couple things that come along with Wizard 1: you get your Spellbook (with all zero-level spells in it, plus a couple extras), you learn how to scribe a scroll, you might specialize in a school of magic, and you get to summon a familiar if you want to. However you want to fluff that would be fine, but it at least implies study, whether on your own or from a master wizard. I would think that memorizing and casting your first spell, or summoning your familiar, would both be a really important rite of passage for a young wizard.

[Asmotherion]

Personally, my head cannon goes like this: You first have to tap into magic via a cantrip. Your first few years of training are an exhausting process where you can't even conjure magic or conjure it only part of the time. Then, once you can use a cantrip, you get to master the rest of the cantrips, for a few years, 'till you're finally ready to learn a 1st level spell. Once you can finally use a 1st level spell, you are no longer a mere apprentice, but a full fleged Wizard.

[Gruftzwerg]

Technically I don’t believe any rules exist for replacing your first racial hit die with a class level. I think the two raw readings are that you just instantly become one when you choose to do so or that you technically need to take a class level at level 2 and get your first level somehow level drained away

Not entirely correct. We have the random starting age table (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/description.htm#tableRandomStartingAges) that reflects that some classes need more time. Notice the difference between Sorcerer (in the category which takes the least amount of time) and Wizard (is in the category that takes the most time).

[rel]

I've never found a fluff explanation that represents the typical game in a satisfactory way.

Consider multiclassing:

A character who started off as a level 1 illiterate barbarian who just left their village for the first time 2 in game weeks ago could now be a level 5 character with 3 levels of wizard and 1 of psion.
This newly minted magebarian has now learned to read, filled an empty spellbook with hundreds of GP of scribed spells (quite possibly faster than a fully trained wizard could manage it using the scribing rules) gained the ability to use magic and further cast spells of the second level.
Then topped all that off by learning how to use the force.
All within the space of 14 days while also finding time to adventure. It's even possible that they haven't gotten back to town yet and did all this using only the supplies they were able to scrounge while out on campaign.

And single class characters suffer from the same issue.
After a month of continuous adventuring, the single classed wizard could conceivably be level 10 and now magically stronger than their master and every member of their order despite being a fresh faced teenager who was kicked out of Hogwarts for incompetence so recently the bruises on their rear haven't healed yet.
And the question of with what time and resources they filled out their spellbook while living in a dungeon fighting monsters all day is still just as hard to solve.

[Saint-Just]

You take Vow of Chastity and wait to become Middle-aged

[zlefin]

I've never found a fluff explanation that represents the typical game in a satisfactory way.

Consider multiclassing:

A character who started off as a level 1 illiterate barbarian who just left their village for the first time 2 in game weeks ago could now be a level 5 character with 3 levels of wizard and 1 of psion.
This newly minted magebarian has now learned to read, filled an empty spellbook with hundreds of GP of scribed spells (quite possibly faster than a fully trained wizard could manage it using the scribing rules) gained the ability to use magic and further cast spells of the second level.
Then topped all that off by learning how to use the force.
All within the space of 14 days while also finding time to adventure. It's even possible that they haven't gotten back to town yet and did all this using only the supplies they were able to scrounge while out on campaign.

And single class characters suffer from the same issue.
After a month of continuous adventuring, the single classed wizard could conceivably be level 10 and now magically stronger than their master and every member of their order despite being a fresh faced teenager who was kicked out of Hogwarts for incompetence so recently the bruises on their rear haven't healed yet.
And the question of with what time and resources they filled out their spellbook while living in a dungeon fighting monsters all day is still just as hard to solve.

I've sorta heard of an explanation; but it was put into crunch rather than being pure fluff, and made part of that gameworld. Specifically that there's an ingredient in brains that can be isolated and consumed to add to your power. It can also be found in most or all monsters, even undead and such, it just has to be isolated/purified after you beat them. Higher level humans have much more of that ingredient. So it really is about killing tough opponents and eating them (or a tiny part thereof) to gain power. Iirc in that system it was still possible to gain levels by regular learning, but it was a very very slow process much like real life.

[arkangel111]

I've never found a fluff explanation that represents the typical game in a satisfactory way.

Consider multiclassing:

A character who started off as a level 1 illiterate barbarian who just left their village for the first time 2 in game weeks ago could now be a level 5 character with 3 levels of wizard and 1 of psion.
This newly minted magebarian has now learned to read, filled an empty spellbook with hundreds of GP of scribed spells (quite possibly faster than a fully trained wizard could manage it using the scribing rules) gained the ability to use magic and further cast spells of the second level.
Then topped all that off by learning how to use the force.
All within the space of 14 days while also finding time to adventure. It's even possible that they haven't gotten back to town yet and did all this using only the supplies they were able to scrounge while out on campaign.

And single class characters suffer from the same issue.
After a month of continuous adventuring, the single classed wizard could conceivably be level 10 and now magically stronger than their master and every member of their order despite being a fresh faced teenager who was kicked out of Hogwarts for incompetence so recently the bruises on their rear haven't healed yet.
And the question of with what time and resources they filled out their spellbook while living in a dungeon fighting monsters all day is still just as hard to solve.

I swear I've seen rules somewhere, probably on a side table that says for a more realistic leveling experience the GM should build downtime into the game and only allowing players to level during that time. I think I remember it taking something like 1 month x the level they are, and if gaining multiple levels they can't just skip to the end but should go through each level... ie. level 2 is 1 month, but going to level 3 from level one would be 3 months... Problem is no one ever really implements it, since most campaigns assume some sort of limiting factor for time.

This is one of the reasons I don't do XP/encounter and instead level up my players based on what missions they have accomplished. I think they were level 4 for 6 months IRL (12 sessions) and probably killed enough mobs to level all the way to 20, for that mission alone. I made sure they mastered what abilities they had before giving them new ones to play with. Granted most of my players are new and struggled a lot with learning the mechanics.

[Biggus]

Don't be stupid and take Commoner as a teenager?

Why do most people make that terrible choice? Presumably better choices need some kind of family training or apprenticeship or something, or at least a patron deity or a family tree that includes some questionable life choices by your forebears on who they slept with.

Well, a whole bunch of reasons. One as you say is that many people are serfs/slaves/etc and are never given any choice. Quite a lot of people don't have the stats for the vast majority of non-commoner careers. Most non-commoner careers are relatively dangerous, and many people don't want that or aren't suited to it. Non-commoner careers are hard work and tend to take up a lot of time and effort, and many people just have other priorities, like family. And yes, some people are just stupid and/or lazy.

Also, my understanding is that Commoner is the default, it's what you end up as if you don't through hard work and/or natural talent qualify for another class, so some people don't actively choose to be Commoners, they just don't choose anything else.

[Fouredged Sword]

You start as a level 1 NPC class and use the retraining rules to transition into the wizard class once you meet the prerequisite training requirement of study.

That would actually make a cool way to deal with levels for tables that don't like characters suddenly developing new class features in the middle of adventures. Have all the players pick an associated NPC class. If they level during an adventure they level in that NPC class. The benefits are all subtle numeric things that don't involve your character suddenly getting new abilities.

Then, when the adventure is over you return to your homes and spend time retraining to transition your NPC levels into levels with actual class features.

[ShurikVch]

Note: according to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, you need a "magical aptitude" (whatever it may be) to become a Wizard:

You come from Halruaa, a half-legendary land where basic magic is taught to all with the aptitude for it. Every crafter and laborer, it seems, knows a cantrip or two to ease her work.

Tribal custom restricts the practice of sorcery and wizardry among the rural clans, although people with an aptitude for magic are as common in Chult as they are anywhere else. Only one wielder of arcane magic is permitted to practice his or her craft in any given clan or village. These sorcerers and wizards participate in hunting ceremonies and brew potions to aid the warriors. Renegade mages hide in the jungle and study magic in secret, or abandon their home villages to travel to the college in Mezro.

Harrowdale has turned out to be a poor site for a temple to Mystra. The old Harrans do not trust wizards or other practitioners of the Art, and the younger generation lacks magical aptitude - few Harrans possess the basic talents required for successful study of the Art.

Halruaans receive public schooling until at least the age of thirteen. Screening for magical aptitude occurs at age five, and magic-capable students often master cantrips by the time they are fifteen.
...
To Halruaans, the true Art is wizardry - they view sorcery as a dangerously undisciplined and primitive approach to magic. Those few Halruaans whose gifts lead them to sorcery instead of wizardry either downplay the extent of their powers or leave the country.

Halarahh is a difficult place to live for those who lack the gift. Favorable treatment and promotions, in all walks of life, come to those who have the gift and somehow elude those who lack magical aptitude. The saying "as useless as a sword in Halarahh" is often on the lips of frustrated former residents of Halarahh who moved else where.

All Thayan children are examined for magical aptitude at an early age. Those who show signs of potential are removed from their parents and subjected to ever more rigorous schooling in the arcane arts, culminating in apprenticeships to the Red Wizards, who are notoriously careless of and abusive toward their apprentices. (Those whose talents run to sorcery channel their talents into wizardry, suppress them, or leave the country. The Red Wizards despise sorcerers, who don't follow the carefully regimented system of magical schools.)
Sure, it may be specific for the Forgotten Realms, but as-is: no aptitude - no wizardry...



I've never found a fluff explanation that represents the typical game in a satisfactory way.

Consider multiclassing:

A character who started off as a level 1 illiterate barbarian who just left their village for the first time 2 in game weeks ago could now be a level 5 character with 3 levels of wizard and 1 of psion.
This is not, exactly, new - see the Multiclass Struggles (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0126.html) :smallwink:


This newly minted magebarian has now learned to read, filled an empty spellbook with hundreds of GP of scribed spells (quite possibly faster than a fully trained wizard could manage it using the scribing rules)
Note: source of Wizard's spellbooks aren't specified in-RAW
For all we know - the book was found, bought, stolen, or looted...


All within the space of 14 days while also finding time to adventure. It's even possible that they haven't gotten back to town yet and did all this using only the supplies they were able to scrounge while out on campaign.
That may be bad RP - if there truly was absolutely no way to acquire the spellbook - then our newly-minted shouldn't get it (regardless of what class description says)


And single class characters suffer from the same issue.
After a month of continuous adventuring, the single classed wizard could conceivably be level 10 and now magically stronger than their master and every member of their order despite being a fresh faced teenager who was kicked out of Hogwarts for incompetence so recently the bruises on their rear haven't healed yet.
Well, Zulkirs (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Council_of_Zulkirs) are mostly in levels 20+ - our level 10 wizard is so beneath them...

[Fouredged Sword]

Note: according to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, you need a "magical aptitude" (whatever it may be) to become a Wizard:






Sure, it may be specific for the Forgotten Realms, but as-is: no aptitude - no wizardry...



This is not, exactly, new - see the Multiclass Struggles (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0126.html) :smallwink:


Note: source of Wizard's spellbooks aren't specified in-RAW
For all we know - the book was found, bought, stolen, or looted...


That may be bad RP - if there truly was absolutely no way to acquire the spellbook - then our newly-minted shouldn't get it (regardless of what class description says)


Well, Zulkirs (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Council_of_Zulkirs) are mostly in levels 20+ - our level 10 wizard is so beneath them...
Aptitude could easily be a way of saying attributes.

Well, yeah, there are whole segments of the population with an int of 10 or lower. Such individuals would lack anything but the barest aptitude for magic, able to cast cantrips at best and completely locked out of using real spells without expensive magical aids to boost their int score.

[Arcanist]

Aptitude could easily be a way of saying attributes.

If this is the case, Wizardly aptitude tests are as simple as "I cast Detect Thoughts on the small child. What is their INT?".

[Fouredged Sword]

If this is the case, Wizardly aptitude tests are as simple as "I cast Detect Thoughts on the small child. What is their INT?".


All Thayan children are examined for magical aptitude at an early age.

Yeah, that checks out.

Though most wizards can only do 6 or so kids a day at best, so you likely use some mundane tests first, to weed out the unpromising.

Though statistics change with age, so it's quite possible that young characters may have lower stats than adults in some or all categories. It isn't defined. It goes up with age, so children may have lower than the int they will have as adults.

[Arcanist]

Though most wizards can only do 6 or so kids a day at best, so you likely use some mundane tests first, to weed out the unpromising.

Not as much as you'd think actually. Presuming that it is a dedicated Red Wizard (requiring at minimum ECL 6 to take your 1st level in), a Red Wizard could cast an Extended Detect Thoughts lasting some 12 minutes. You have a bundle of children stand in a simple 60ft cone (about 12 medium sized creatures) for 12 seconds (2 rounds), revealing the square they are standing in, and their intelligence score. Every 2 rounds, you have the children progress rapidly through the squares, entering an existing the cone as they successfully reveal their intelligence. You can easily get through about 720 children under optimal conditions. I imagine they would have a national holiday for such examinations to take place on such a massive scale. Any child with an Intelligence of 16 or higher would be given a shaved head, some full body tattoos, some sinister looking robes and a beginners book on spells.

Note: It doesn't even require a Red Wizard. Any 3rd level Wizard with detect thoughts could pull this off, albeit on a significantly reduced scale, but it really isn't that hard to figure out who would make for a good Wizard.

[Metastachydium]

Note: according to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, you need a "magical aptitude" (whatever it may be)

Magical Aptitude? It's a subpar skill-boosting feat that nobody ever takes. (You're welcome.)[/BLUETEXT]

[Fouredged Sword]

Not as much as you'd think actually. Presuming that it is a dedicated Red Wizard (requiring at minimum ECL 6 to take your 1st level in), a Red Wizard could cast an Extended Detect Thoughts lasting some 12 minutes. You have a bundle of children stand in a simple 60ft cone (about 12 medium sized creatures) for 12 seconds (2 rounds), revealing the square they are standing in, and their intelligence score. Every 2 rounds, you have the children progress rapidly through the squares, entering an existing the cone as they successfully reveal their intelligence. You can easily get through about 720 children under optimal conditions. I imagine they would have a national holiday for such examinations to take place on such a massive scale. Any child with an Intelligence of 16 or higher would be given a shaved head, some full body tattoos, some sinister looking robes and a beginners book on spells.

Note: It doesn't even require a Red Wizard. Any 3rd level Wizard with detect thoughts could pull this off, albeit on a significantly reduced scale, but it really isn't that hard to figure out who would make for a good Wizard.

True. I forgot that it's a cone, not a single target spell. That does sound like a very practical "magical aptitude" test. You would know exactly who is capable of casting wizard spells and have a pretty good idea of their maximum potential.

[Seward]

You start as a level 1 NPC class and use the retraining rules to transition into the wizard class once you meet the prerequisite training requirement of study.

That would actually make a cool way to deal with levels for tables that don't like characters suddenly developing new class features in the middle of adventures. Have all the players pick an associated NPC class. If they level during an adventure they level in that NPC class. The benefits are all subtle numeric things that don't involve your character suddenly getting new abilities.

Then, when the adventure is over you return to your homes and spend time retraining to transition your NPC levels into levels with actual class features.

I really really love this idea as a campaign starting point. You have to work in L1 appropriate starting gold in gear somehow but I'm sure that could be figured out.

[rel]

To expand a little further on my first post, there are absolutely changes you can make; the 3.5 DMG offers optional rules for training and suggestions for campaign pacing and the like. And there are probably 10 blogs detailing how to get the proper AD&D experience for every proponent of the OSR that will have ways to tweak leveling and downtime.

However published adventures tend to move quite fast and the typical pseudo medieval setting, even somewhere relatively high magic like Toril or Golarion doesn't have that many high level characters on the ground.

If you try and address what's actually happening to the party in game through the world fluff you either can't play published content without modification, or you start wondering why the rest of the world is moving so slowly.

[Scots Dragon]

According to lore contained elsewhere, the concept of magical aptitude in the Forgotten Realms case refers to a specific type of magical 'spark' that all magic-users have access to. It was more prominently the case that magic-users required that spark to cast spells in previous editions when the concept of the sorcerer wasn't really a thing.

[Seward]

If you try and address what's actually happening to the party in game through the world fluff you either can't play published content without modification, or you start wondering why the rest of the world is moving so slowly.

AD&D had a concept of "people who can gain levels" which were a tiny percentage of the overall population (it was what you recruited henchman from, in a given population center). Everybody else takes like 10 years doing a job to gain a couple levels.

We built a 3.x campaign on this premise, except instead of demographics we had a concept of a "Hero Path" (there were ages the Gods created, in the current one their battles and intrigues were fought with champions, empowered by declaring themselves on the Path).

You could go on the path, and level really, really quickly, but your life became exceedingly dangerous, you were a weirdness and trouble magnet (catching EL appropriate encounters several times a day, potentially even when doing something innocuous like shopping or traveling between cities). Generally there were few or no consequences for people on the hero path fighting each other, but societies would do culturally appropriate law enforcement if you bothered people off the Path or caused collateral damage.

If you exited the Hero Path though, you could take time out, pursue a career, raise a family or whatever and mostly the universe would leave you alone, except for bitter enemies you earned on the hero path - make sure you've dealt with that sort of thing before exiting ir it could go badly for you. Although many cultures considered it bad form to assassinate retired heroes and made it a dangerous habit to indulge in.

The favored class reflected cultural attitudes (and we changed the racial fluff to model this better, without changing any racial mechanics or favored class choices). Gnomes, for example, had this whole Arthurian-Romance thing going on, with questing knights who sung their own praises (like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0BiJRI4GOE). If you were a gnome and more of a Xena or Geralt/Witcher type who lacked the talent for self-promotion, you needed an actual bard in your party to take care of that or at least not expect to get much respect in Gnome society.

[schreier]

AD&D had a concept of "people who can gain levels" which were a tiny percentage of the overall population (it was what you recruited henchman from, in a given population center). Everybody else takes like 10 years doing a job to gain a couple levels.

We built a 3.x campaign on this premise, except instead of demographics we had a concept of a "Hero Path" (there were ages the Gods created, in the current one their battles and intrigues were fought with champions, empowered by declaring themselves on the Path).

You could go on the path, and level really, really quickly, but your life became exceedingly dangerous, you were a weirdness and trouble magnet (catching EL appropriate encounters several times a day, potentially even when doing something innocuous like shopping or traveling between cities). Generally there were few or no consequences for people on the hero path fighting each other, but societies would do culturally appropriate law enforcement if you bothered people off the Path or caused collateral damage.

If you exited the Hero Path though, you could take time out, pursue a career, raise a family or whatever and mostly the universe would leave you alone, except for bitter enemies you earned on the hero path - make sure you've dealt with that sort of thing before exiting ir it could go badly for you. Although many cultures considered it bad form to assassinate retired heroes and made it a dangerous habit to indulge in.

The favored class reflected cultural attitudes (and we changed the racial fluff to model this better, without changing any racial mechanics or favored class choices). Gnomes, for example, had this whole Arthurian-Romance thing going on, with questing knights who sung their own praises (like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0BiJRI4GOE). If you were a gnome and more of a Xena or Geralt/Witcher type who lacked the talent for self-promotion, you needed an actual bard in your party to take care of that or at least not expect to get much respect in Gnome society.

Not exactly, but almost sounds Wheel of Time ta'veren like

[Bonzai]

I like the time tested method of having a hairy half giant come visit you on your birthday and pronounce you as one....

[Biggus]

AD&D had a concept of "people who can gain levels" which were a tiny percentage of the overall population (it was what you recruited henchman from, in a given population center). Everybody else takes like 10 years doing a job to gain a couple levels.


That's interesting, what book was that mentioned in?

[Metastachydium]

I like the time tested method of having a hairy half giant come visit you on your birthday and pronounce you as one....

Nonsense! Half-giants deal in psionics!

[Seward]

That's interesting, what book was that mentioned in?

AD&D Dungeon Master Guide, the section on recruiting henchmen based on your charisma score. It talks about how many you can find in a given populated area and what their level breakdowns are likely to be. This had to be adjusted for racial mix and the dominant alignments present in the area (we had a paladin PC who recruited mostly gnome henchmen because of the local population that was Lawful Good, most were gnomes, who were nearly all LG in AD&D. The humans, by contrast, had a much more neutral bent in that area. So most of her henchmen were fighters or illusionists that level capped early. But with paladin charisma she could field a small army of them, unlike some of her less charismatic companions)

AD&D also had morale rules in a way that later editions did not. It wasn't for the PCs, it was for the henchmen and followers every single PC was assumed to acquire once they'd reached "name" level and built a stronghold. After the initial 10 levels or so, adventuring parties were expected to break up and future adventures were mostly one high level dude and his followers (very much like what Ars Magica did later, with its mage-companion-grog bodyguard setup for activities that resembled adventuring).

If you read the stories about how the original group played, they rotated GMs, they often played one-on-one and sometimes players poached on other people's adventures. The concept of one GM and a party with multiple PCs that was more or less unified in goals was something they marketed, and was how tournament-style modules like Slave Lords or GDQ were intended to be played but was not a thing the original D&D players/designers often practiced themselves. The way you see the Circle of 8 Behaving (with infighting, conflicting goals, betrayals etc) seems to be more like how the original campaigns with PCs went down. Which isn't surprising as many current and former Circle members were former Gygax/Arneson-era PCs, as are some of their frequent foils such as Robilar.