Dark Magical School Setting - Commentary Welcomed

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey y'all,

So, my kids are into Harry Potter now, and I just read Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education, and Strixhaven is coming out soon. So I thought I'd go ahead and make a magical school setting. But I didn't want to it be some YA knockoff; when I say dark magical school, I mean DARK. I want it to feel like the kids from Lord of the Flies got dropped into a version of Hogwarts designed by Dracula (the Bram Stoker version) and administered by the Predator.

Yes. That dark.

But as we all know, when you try to subvert tropes, you can inadvertently introduce some serious logical inconsistencies into your world. So that's what I need from y'all: feedback on your general thoughts on the idea, specific issues you're finding with implementation, and unintended consequences that this school might generate.

School Summary:
The School doesn't have an actual name - it is referenced obliquely as the "Ninth House of Spells," "the Fiend's Workshop," or the "Devils' House." Graduates simply call it the School. The School was constructed by wizards working in conjunction with fiends and higher-order undead. The wizards wanted a place to shunt potential future rivals, and the undead and fiends wanted a food pipeline / spell research institute / soul funnel. As such, it is only very generally an educational institute. More accurately, it is a six-year-long deathtrap and emotional pressure cooker that takes potentially well-adjusted and powerful magic-users and makes them horribly traumatized, anxious, paranoid nutbags. Only one in ten survives.

Introduction:
The student body is referred to the School. Anyone can learn and say the Charm of Induction, which requires no magic. The Charm requires simply the true name of a mortal target less than sixteen years of age. The Charm names the mortal, notifying the school that there is a prospective student for it. On their sixteenth birthday, if the target has any spellcasting ability at all (this includes eldritch knights, arcane tricksters, druids, and some barbarians), they get interdimensionally yeeted into the School. The only creatures immune to this effect are clerics (who are protected by a deity), and warlocks (who have their souls already spoken for). Paladins derive their power from their oath, not a god, and are subject to the Charm. On occasion, the School chooses a mortal itself, without anyone Charming the mortal. Its reasons are enigmatic. Once inside, the students start at the bottom level of the School, which is seven floors down into a sprawling dungeon complex honeycombed with passages, lairs, and monsters. The higher up you go in the dungeon, the more dangerous it becomes. Every year, the students' rooms are moved up one level. At the end of six years, they must pass the top level of the dungeon, which is chockfull of terrible monsters, traps, and the horrifying remains of the students who didn't make it in a grueling ordeal called the Graduation Run.

Day-To-Day:
The School provides food, research materials, spell components, texts, and tasks. Occasionally, it comes up with spellbooks, typically as a bribe, though the books have a tendency to wander about. There are no teachers, and the only rule is to survive. Monsters stalk the halls, ambushing, killing, and/or harassing the students through the year. Inattentive students and unlucky ones rarely survive very long. The only exception are students who strike deals with the monsters - students who do so are exempt from this kind of harassment, but are viewed leerily by the rest of the students. A thriving trade exists in the School for things the School doesn't provide, like extra clothing, hygiene items, weapons, spells, etc.

Schoolwork:
The School assigns students tasks, due at the end of a semester. These can be potions, analysis, magic items, foci, cursed items, monster parts, or spells. No one actually makes the students do their homework, but if you get a failing grade, the assignment animates and tries to murder you. If you try to get around this by just not doing any work on the assignment, the school targets you with extraordinary bad luck, extra ambushes, hauntings, etc., until you actually get it turned in. These assignments are the primary way that students learn new spells and abilities, but completing them requires delving into the dungeon passages around the School's core rooms, which puts you on the radar of the powerful undead and fiends that prowl those halls. Finally, the finished product of the homework assignments are graded and (if a passing grade was earned) then given to either fiends, undead, or wizards who have given the School students.

Mechanics:
The School drains magical energy from the students to power itself, bleeding off power from magic cast within its halls. It never takes too much, but it pushes the kids to feed it by directing the various undead and fiends to stronger targets. It uses this power to provide air, light, and food (all magically created) for the students, and sends whatever power is left as a dividend to its patrons (the fiends and undead who built it, and the wizards who provide the students via the Charm of Induction). The School does provide one recompense, though, for those students who survive - if you manage to survive the Graduation Run, the School will tell you the person who named you in the Charm of Induction. It'll tell you the name of the person who put you through Hell. And then it'll tell your sponsor that you survived.

[LibraryOgre]

If I may suggest HP Lovecraft Prepatory Academy? There's a few different versions for different systems; I linked to this one because the writer is particularly clever and handsome.

[Sparky McDibben]

Thanks for the suggestion! See, I heard the writer also called his mother every weekend, and made time to mentor troubled youths, too.

[Mechalich]

Based on what you've written you seem to be drawing quite heavily off Naomi Novik's Scholomance. The problem with that, from a world-building perspective, is that the Scholomance is fundamentally absurd. The math behind it does not add up. As imagined the setting is simply too deadly for the wizard population to sustain itself - non-enclaved wizards supposedly die at a 95% rate before reaching adulthood, and no group of humans can reproduce fast enough to match that level of casualties, so the wizards went extinct long before the enclaves and Scholomance could ever be created in the first place. This isn't a big problem for the books, which are dark twisted fairy tale allegories and therefore not intended to make sense anyway, but it does mean that any setting you make with this backdrop will be absurdist.

That's not inherently a problem, and in terms of horror tropes is actually a benefit - most horror works don't actually function when examined from a logical reference frame - but in terms of an RPG setting the gaps in the setting's internal logic leave it vulnerable to having the setting hijacked by the players, which, it should be noted, is exactly what happens in Scholomance book two, The Last Graduate (this came out very recently, so I'll refrain from posting spoilers).

I would also note that this sort of scenario will not work properly with regard to D&D or any similar zero-to-hero what-doesn't-kill-me-makes-me-stronger RPG system, because instead of inducing soul-crushing horror you've instead created a power leveling dungeon of dreams (several recent isekai series, notably So I'm a Spider, So What, have recently played with this particular scenario) and savy characters will overlevel like madmen and explode through the game (Orion Lake, in the Scholomance, is basically doing this already). You need a system in which character power grows much more slowly and spreads horizontally rather than vertically to make this work.

[brian 333]

Allies
Within the corridors horrors lurk. Some actively stalk the students. But here and there a being can be found which is willing to help. Of course, there will be a price. It's not always stated.

Maizer
A doorway opens into a magic shop where spell components can be purchased.
Maizer is an elderly gnome of rather nasty disposition. At some point when the PC is alone in the shop, Maizer will suggest a trade: a magic item for the corpse of a student. It will be implied that the deal is just for the PC but Maizer makes the deal with every student who finds him.
"Dead is dead, what do I care who killed it? I need a corpse."
The magic item offered should be useful and level-appropriate.

Flower
An humunculous is found wandering the corridors. It claims that its master died and it has been wanting a new master to give it purpose. It will give its new master good advice and otherwise ingratiate itself with its new master.
At some point after the PC has gained a few levels it will suggest it knows where its old master died.
Its old master is the vampire Selvin, who has been guiding its creation all along. The vampire's goal is to create spawn which are under its control. The humunculous is its lure.

[Sparky McDibben]

Based on what you've written you seem to be drawing quite heavily off Naomi Novik's Scholomance. The problem with that, from a world-building perspective, is that the Scholomance is fundamentally absurd. The math behind it does not add up. As imagined the setting is simply too deadly for the wizard population to sustain itself - non-enclaved wizards supposedly die at a 95% rate before reaching adulthood, and no group of humans can reproduce fast enough to match that level of casualties, so the wizards went extinct long before the enclaves and Scholomance could ever be created in the first place. This isn't a big problem for the books, which are dark twisted fairy tale allegories and therefore not intended to make sense anyway, but it does mean that any setting you make with this backdrop will be absurdist.

That's not inherently a problem, and in terms of horror tropes is actually a benefit - most horror works don't actually function when examined from a logical reference frame - but in terms of an RPG setting the gaps in the setting's internal logic leave it vulnerable to having the setting hijacked by the players, which, it should be noted, is exactly what happens in Scholomance book two, The Last Graduate (this came out very recently, so I'll refrain from posting spoilers).

I would also note that this sort of scenario will not work properly with regard to D&D or any similar zero-to-hero what-doesn't-kill-me-makes-me-stronger RPG system, because instead of inducing soul-crushing horror you've instead created a power leveling dungeon of dreams (several recent isekai series, notably So I'm a Spider, So What, have recently played with this particular scenario) and savy characters will overlevel like madmen and explode through the game (Orion Lake, in the Scholomance, is basically doing this already). You need a system in which character power grows much more slowly and spreads horizontally rather than vertically to make this work.

You're 100% correct in the inspiration; the logical flaws in her work actually inspired me to make a version of the Scholomance in a D&D world. I changed it so that young wizards aren't any more likely to get ganked than anyone else. Instead, what makes the School is a political/exploitative drive from older wizards and the fundamental forces of evil. So that's how I'm trying to get 'round the absurdism angle. I also cut out the whole enclaver/non-enclaver subtext, just because I don't think that's going fit in this version.

I already read the Last Graduate, (good callout!) and I find those kinds of shenanigans to be exactly what I would want from a D&D party - "We can't win this game, so let's change it." So each time I run this campaign, the School will likely be different.

As regards your final point, that's a mechanical hurdle I'm trying to work my head around. My current idea is to target one adventure scenario per quarter (so four per year, six years, twenty four adventures plus the Graduation Run). Each adventure takes about one to two weeks (leaving eleven to twelve weeks of downtime) and that's when we focus on the PCs actually being heroic, searching the dungeon halls for rare items for a project, helping friends, that kind of thing. The downtime we cover, though, will be draining. You'll be able to do spell research, work on your school project, map the corridors, try to make friends with other students, make pacts with the things that live in the School, or just rest and heal up. But each time we start that quarter's adventure, I need some way to translate how dangerous the setting is into actual resource attrition on the character sheet. This is a problem I'm currently wrassling with here.

As far as not using D&D...well, unfortunately my group is thoroughly uninterested in learning anything else, which means I'll have to hit the system with a bunch of stuff. I'm considering at least using the slow natural healing system from the 5e DMG. I'm also considering that the School takes 10% of your XP off the top (I track XP instead of using milestones, because milestone is irritatingly vague in my opinion). PCs will also not gain spells nor components automatically - they'll be gained through play or as a result of downtime activity.

What are your thoughts on these changes?

Allies
Within the corridors horrors lurk. Some actively stalk the students. But here and there a being can be found which is willing to help. Of course, there will be a price. It's not always stated.

Maizer
A doorway opens into a magic shop where spell components can be purchased.
Maizer is an elderly gnome of rather nasty disposition. At some point when the PC is alone in the shop, Maizer will suggest a trade: a magic item for the corpse of a student. It will be implied that the deal is just for the PC but Maizer makes the deal with every student who finds him.
"Dead is dead, what do I care who killed it? I need a corpse."
The magic item offered should be useful and level-appropriate.

Flower
An humunculous is found wandering the corridors. It claims that its master died and it has been wanting a new master to give it purpose. It will give its new master good advice and otherwise ingratiate itself with its new master.
At some point after the PC has gained a few levels it will suggest it knows where its old master died.
Its old master is the vampire Selvin, who has been guiding its creation all along. The vampire's goal is to create spawn which are under its control. The humunculous is its lure.

This is super-helpful, and I'm definitely dropping these cats in!

[brian 333]

Kadance the Dropout
A former student who failed to advance, Kadance has slowly been drained of life and has not yet been killed. Instead, the student has become a kind of zombie that remains self-aware, although its memory is beginning to have holes in it.
Kadance cannot enter the school itself and instead haunts the hallways outside the sophmore level. It will help students as it can, but its chief delight appears to be arguing pointless philosophical topics, usually with great-sounding arguments which have no logical foundation.
Kadance believes, incorrectly, that it can continue its education by stealing credit for another student's sophomore thesis. To this end it will try to sabotage a 'friend' at the last minute and then by completing the assignment earn the credit to advance.

[Mechalich]

As regards your final point, that's a mechanical hurdle I'm trying to work my head around. My current idea is to target one adventure scenario per quarter (so four per year, six years, twenty four adventures plus the Graduation Run). Each adventure takes about one to two weeks (leaving eleven to twelve weeks of downtime) and that's when we focus on the PCs actually being heroic, searching the dungeon halls for rare items for a project, helping friends, that kind of thing. The downtime we cover, though, will be draining. You'll be able to do spell research, work on your school project, map the corridors, try to make friends with other students, make pacts with the things that live in the School, or just rest and heal up. But each time we start that quarter's adventure, I need some way to translate how dangerous the setting is into actual resource attrition on the character sheet. This is a problem I'm currently wrassling with here.

You might try implementing a Condition Track system, like Star Wars SAGA used. SAGA is a d20-based system and therefore the system shouldn't be especially difficult to integrate with D&D. In SAGA you could receive persistent conditions that remained in place until specific requirements were fulfilled to remove them. In that setup characters might come out of battle with some number of persistent conditions then they have to decide during downtime whether or not to prioritize condition removal or to take advantage of other opportunities. This also means that players might need to decide between defenses that prevent raw damage and therefore are more likely to keep them alive in the short term, versus defenses that block status effects and are therefore likely to prevent the accumulation of persistent conditions.

Also, I think if you're going to do this system you should strongly consider a mono-class scenario, probably with everyone as wizards, rather than allowing for a greater level of variety. The reason being that, as difference classes have wildly different resource requirements and attrition scenarios it would be very hard to keep them on the appropriate knife-edge this setup demands.

[brian 333]

EXP loss per day should be enough to drop a character's level so that the character isn't high level enough to make it to the next year.

Let us say that each character begins the freshman year at level 1. The character must be level 2 to advance to sophomore. There are 101 days between year 1 and year 2. With a loss of 5 exp/level/day, a level 2 freshman must either already have 3010 exp, or earn enough to have at least 2000 when the next year begins.

You could do this for each semester, with a daily loss based on the year or as a percentage of the PCs total.

Here's my basic concept. Modify it or be inspired, or ignore.

Freshman Semesters 1 and 2, and Summer Break = 10 EXP loss per day. (3650 total) Must be level 2 to advance to Sophomore.

Sophomore Semesters 3 and 4, and Summer Break = 15 EXP loss per day. (5475 total) Must be level 3 to advance to Junior, 1st Semester.

Junior Semester 5 = 20 EXP loss per day. (2440 total) Must be level 4 to advance to Junior, 2nd Semester.

Junior Semester 6 and Junior Research Project = 25 EXP loss per day. (6075 total) Must be level 5 to advance to Senior, 1st Semester.

Senior Semester 8 = 30 EXP loss per day. (3660 total) Must be level 6 to advance to Senior, 2nd Semester.

Senior Semester 9 = 35 EXP loss per day. (4270 total) Must be level 7 to graduate.

Graduation Run = 40 EXP loss per day. EXP loss ends with the student's death. (Or victory. Meh.)

At each summer break or when a PC is close to going below minimum demons 'visit' describing the fate of those who fail to advance, and offering easy terms at low, low interest if the PC will sign a title loan with the soul as collateral. The demons can (and sometimes do) grant temporary EXP, though it always comes due just before the next deadline. Such deals generally double the daily loss as interest until the principle is repaid plus any fees. At that point the PC can begin earning EXP again.

A student who fails to advance is met by hordes of demons which shred the student's body to get to the soul, which they fight over and shred as they drag it to the Abbyss. A student who has sold his soul only has to worry about the soul's new owner.

(The demons make it clear that being the property of one powerful master is preferable to being shredded and eaten by dozens of minor demons.)

[Quizatzhaderac]

So I see two issues:

1) There doesn't seem to be too much of a reason for the administrators to want to educate the students. For the motivations given, they should just stick them in cages until they're ready to eat their souls.
2) Too much of the horribleness seems to be external to the student body, which would cause them to stick together to fight off monsters and get-a-long to pass exams.

Ideal students
So I'm thinking there's two categories of students: collaborators and defiants.

The main goal of the school to to produce capable mages that will do anything for their fiendish masters; child soldiers, if you will. The demands of the fiends start trivially small and escalate, with one of the final tasks being to kill an innocent for no reason but proof of loyalty. Collaborators do not return home after graduation as they would be hated by their home communities.

The defiants walk a narrow path between compromising basic human decency and being seen as a threat by the staff. Defiants are left with an avenue to graduate and return to their world as otherwise the strongest among them would invariable attack the staff in an attempt to escape.

Student divisions
There are two other types of division among the students: age and language. Each dormitory is composed of children of the same age and language.

Dormitories are safe with two exceptions:
1) Senior staff can override the wards if they feel there's a problem big enough to bother them. Lesser staff and random monsters can't do that.
2) First years. (they are encouraged to steal, but are otherwise not much of a threat to their elders)

Of course, one constantly needs to leave to acquire stuff and develop your abilities.

As the students age, numbers in a given dorm shrink, and students tend to learn other languages (or fiendish), and harsher things are asked of the collaborators, so seniors tend to be divided by patron (or the defiants as a now small group)

Scarcities
Each student gets a number of food tokens per day, sufficient for enough gruel to keep them healthy. Meat, candy, narcotics are also available at the cafeteria, but at higher prices. Staff distribute a small number of extra tokens as a reward, but generally if someone is eating well, that means someone else isn't eating.

Each student is given a orientation book at the start. The library has a simple rule that you have to return a book to take another one out. The library doesn't know or care if you were the one to check out the book in the first place. There is a shortage of specific books. Books can be lost, destroyed, or stolen. Students with multiple subjects would prefer to posses multiple books and to hold onto ones they think they'll have trouble finding again.

The simplest remedy for a stolen book is to steal someone else's. The librarian is also hugely corrupt and may demand favors for essential books.

Miscellanea (clothes, toiletries, et cetra) appear in bulk randomly. They'll almost always be seized by a hoarder. A dorm has a decent odds to find some packages, but not in the balance they actually need.

Mechanics
Dorms may be robbed if unattended. If watched, you may not be able to 100% trust the watcher. As seniors, you won't have enough dorm-mates and will need to sometimes hire a mid-year to ward off first years.

You may get mugged, especially if you just took a test (predictable time and place for you to use up your magic).

Social capital is a thing. People will ask for favors, and you will need people to do you favors at some point. At first you'll have no peer/friendly interactions with students in other language groups, as the years wear on "new" characters will come from the other language groups.

Courses are easy to pass if you have the right books and aren't too hungry or injured or whatever to study.

The students with the lowest grades are targeted for Collaborator sacrifice, monster consumption, et cetra. Survival grants extra credit. Younger students need to prove potential. Older defiants need to demonstrate difficulty to kill.

[Bohandas]

So I see two issues:

1) Here doesn't seem to be too much of a reason for the administrators to want to educate the students. For the motivations given, they should just stick them in cages until they're ready to eat thier souls.

What if there was, like, an evil version of the sorting hat that sent some people to be killed immediately if it didn't think they could be useful to its masters?

[Quizatzhaderac]

That still leaves the question of how they're useful to the masters. Specifically, how they are useful when educated.

[brian 333]

That still leaves the question of how they're useful to the masters. Specifically, how they are useful when educated.

The masters are harvesting exp. Educate them and they generate more exp. The one who graduates is advertising for more applicants. Also, you want to kill or graduate them before they grow strong enough to destroy the school.

An idea: not all who make it out actually graduate. They may have sold their soul to a powerful entity which wants mortal servants to work its will in the mortal realm.

[Sparky McDibben]

So I see two issues:

1) There doesn't seem to be too much of a reason for the administrators to want to educate the students. For the motivations given, they should just stick them in cages until they're ready to eat their souls.
2) Too much of the horribleness seems to be external to the student body, which would cause them to stick together to fight off monsters and get-a-long to pass exams.

1) Aside from the obvious reason why they wouldn't do that (a soul that's just been beaten down by too much time in a cage is probably not terribly nourishing), devils work on millenial time scales. Even vampires are active on a generational scale. They need dangerous servants. Fiends and undead frequently interact with institutional opponents (churches, intelligence agencies, etc), where a more powerful servitor is vital to thwarting many weaker enemies. Fiends and undead are both likely to find powerful minions more capable, as well. Finally, and this is a subtle one, think about violence as a self-perpetuating cycle. That dangerous servitor? (S)he will create dozens of other potential minions that a devil could use every time they burn down a village, defile a church, or even just throw down in the street. For every ten people they oppress, crush, and otherwise acclimatize to violence, one will become an abuser themselves. This is that millenial time scale I mentioned. Think about how many people those monsters can nurture into becoming monsters themselves. As the Joker says, "You're just one bad day away from becoming me..."

2) Some of them might be able to do that, but you're forgetting the insidious aspect of the School: a lot of that nastiness can be avoided if you just strike a deal. Start working for a fiend or a vampire, and the School leaves you alone (mostly). Now you just have to worry about your fellow students. So if someone isn't being attacked all the time (marking them as a potential warlock), the other students might engage in some proactive fratricide. They do this because warlocks in the School typically wind up preying on their weaker fellows. Some warlocks charm their fellows into servitude, or develop cult-like followings among their juniors. Some warlocks engage in the classics (ritual sacrifice, fiendish summonings, etc. *yawn* etc.), but others work to keep their fellow students off-base. One particularly nasty group a few decades back used enchantments, blackmail, sabotage, and social engineering to "harvest" anyone who managed to Graduate, and then set up a foul little black-magic coven with nearly 30 powerful mages. Before they were stopped, it took multiple dragons intervening along with a full charge of Church Knights.

That still leaves the question of how they're useful to the masters. Specifically, how they are useful when educated.

Thought experiment: You're a devil. You have plans unfolding that have been literally centuries in the making. For your choice of servitors, you can have, either a commoner, with 1 HD (d4), 0's in all modifiers, and functionally zero knowledge of magic. Or you can have a 12th-level PC warlock, accustomed to violence and will-breaking as means of conflict resolution, whom you've now helped avenge themselves upon the person who put them in the School (further binding them to you in the process).

The masters are harvesting exp. Educate them and they generate more exp. The one who graduates is advertising for more applicants. Also, you want to kill or graduate them before they grow strong enough to destroy the school.

An idea: not all who make it out actually graduate. They may have sold their soul to a powerful entity which wants mortal servants to work its will in the mortal realm.

This is a pretty solid idea, and the second paragraph is exactly where I was going. Good call!!!

[brian 333]

In the senior semesters, 'servant' minions sneak about the hallways seeking to ingratiate themselves with the 'master' students. Quasits, imps, and mephits can be bound into service as familiars, but some lesser infernal creatures may be willing, in exchange for an occasional sacrifice, to answer a Summon Monster spell of sufficient level. The infernal may meet or have a minion meet the PC with the ritual that binds the particular being to the PC's spell.
Sacrifice of a sentient being is a part of the process, but some aspect of the character's personality must be sacrificed as well. At least one personality trait, and more for more powerful summons, must be compromised through Deciet, Betrayal, Ruthlessness, Cruelty, Malevolence, Decadence, Cowardice, Filthiness, or Blasphemy. (Note that already compromised traits do not count. A known coward cannot succeed through a demonstration of cowardice.)

[akma]

The main issue that I see here is that it is actually pretty problematic to let students graduate.
This grueling process would make only the most powerful, tenacious and cunning survive, and they will hate the school fiercely. Sure, some could be lured into deals with fiends, maybe even most of them, but the rest are basically powerful enemies. Some of them could manage to gather allies, even armies, against their former oppressors. What would the school do against them? Do they just assume they could handle them? Do they somehow make sure they won't survive?

[noob]

The main issue that I see here is that it is actually pretty problematic to let students graduate.
This grueling process would make only the most powerful, tenacious and cunning survive, and they will hate the school fiercely. Sure, some could be lured into deals with fiends, maybe even most of them, but the rest are basically powerful enemies. Some of them could manage to gather allies, even armies, against their former oppressors. What would the school do against them? Do they just assume they could handle them? Do they somehow make sure they won't survive?

Imagine fighting off 1 paladin with 20 warlocks.
Or 1 druid with 20 warlocks.
If there is more people graduating by striking deals than people graduating without then of course the school have a number advantage.
The warlocks would however be lower level than the people graduating without a pact because not only the pact drains experience but it also makes you have less encounters so you can except the average warlock to have half as many levels as someone graduating without a contract.

[brian 333]

Those who graduate will have been compromised by Evil in ways other than direct pacts with fiends. Part of the process is to weed out innocence one way or another. Most graduates will think in terms of using the school to their advantage rather than destroying it.

A difficulty some may be having is that they envision the school as a place that follows the rules of our world. It is not, and by its nature it cannot be. At the least it is an alternate dimension.

As with the outer planes, its existence and nature is determined by the will of those who control it. Even if some super-powerful wizard shows up and turns the whole place into a white paste, as soon as the wizard leaves, the will of the controlling entity is reasserted and the school takes shape again. That evil vampire that got staked by your PC will be fine and ready to be staked by the next class.

And if the elder arch-fiend that rules the place is itself obliterated, an unlimited number of younger fiends will take its place with sadistic glee because who doesn't want an EXP farm?

[noob]

Those who graduate will have been compromised by Evil in ways other than direct pacts with fiends. Part of the process is to weed out innocence one way or another. Most graduates will think in terms of using the school to their advantage rather than destroying it.

Paladins are allowed in.
So a paladin with the oath of devotion or redemption or ancients for example probably can not graduate if their hearts are truly blackened because it is their dedication to their oath that makes their power and without that power they probably can not succeed(unless they somehow become oathbreakers but there is no clear rules on how to become one).
But for one paladin of that kind that succeeds there is probably hundreds that fails and even more people that becomes forces of evil on the side of the school.
In the end paladins are not a significant threat for the school.

[brian 333]

I actually had an idea of the school being a fiend whose physical form was the dimension in which the school is found. I'm having trouble articulating the concept of a living dimension, and the unfortunate analogy that comes to mind when I think of the graduation runs.

[brian 333]

The Cesspool

There is a huge vaulted chamber filled with a liquid mulch and all sorts of gobs and bits of unidentifiable filth. There are orange and green glowing patches on the stalagmite-covered ceiling which dimly and garishly illuminates the chamber. It smells bad. Like, really bad.

A short wait on the shore attracts the attention of a gondolier which slowly poles a rotting boat to meet the party. The gondolier is a bone demon who offers characters a ride to any of several adventure areas on the other side for 10 exp per creature carried, donated by dripping blood into a rusty iron stein. (It does not care whose blood is offered in payment. The donor must be alive and present.) The amount of blood is not enough to cause any debilitating effects unless the character loses a level.

The slimy muck is inhabited by eyeballs that pop to the surface from time to time, blink, and look around before dropping below. They are pirhana-like creatures that swarm any living thing in the water. Those who coerce or refuse to pay for their rides will find the boatman dumps them in the center of the lake to acndon the characters to the eyeballs' tender mercy.

[Bohandas]

That still leaves the question of how they're useful to the masters. Specifically, how they are useful when educated.

One possibility is they have the creation of new spells be a graduation requirement, and so now they have a secret array of unique spells

it is referenced obliquely as the "Ninth House of Spells," "the Fiend's Workshop," or the "Devils' House." Graduates simply call it the School.

Speaking of creepy school names, have you ever noticed that the name of the online learning tool Coursera kind of sounds like a cross between "Carceri" and "Carcosa"

[Tvtyrant]

This seems deific in origin, so the Professors are Arcanoclerics of the School/God? It makes the teachers immortal in return for their harvesting students for it, and when teachers die or quit it picks out promising students to recruit.