Help coming up with ideas and concepts for powerful magic users and their towers

[S@tanicoaldo]

Help coming up with ideas and concepts for powerful magic users and their lairs, towers and sanctums.

So I'm working with this concept of thematic magic users and their bases for a campaign.



I need Help coming up with ideas and concepts for powerful magic users and their lairs, towers and sanctums.

So, I’m working in this adventure where the players are having to deal with a bunch of factions, each pair of factions opposes each other on a philosophical and political level.

The faction I’m having trouble coming up with ideas for are the rogue mages, the oppose the mages guild, who are all about control and practical application of the arcane, the rogue mages rebelled and just left, the weak ones were discreetly killed off while the powerful ones were left to their own devices in the outskirts of the nation.

They are not bad guys per se but they are very egotistical and selfish, only care about their exotic and self indulgent reacherch and goals. Unlike the mages on the guild, who are mostly bureaucrats with very little real power, those surviving rebel mages are extremely resilient and almost god like in power. So it’s a good idea for the pcs to gain favor with them, and to do so they will have to explore their tower and residences and I really want to flesh out some eccentric, weird and outhrere characters with a lot of magical power at their disposal and to do so I also want the environmental storytelling of their towers and sanctums to show as much as as their personality as possible. Their powers and spells all have kind of a theme and their personalities and actions are very… Weird. They are outsiders and not bound by common laws and morality. I don’t want to push too far but I want their lifestyles, needs and ideals to be really decadent, amoral, self indulgent, problematic, interesting and exotic.

Here is what I came up with so far:

Life magic user:



She lives in a manor on top of a giant tree she built using her power over life and plants, she is isolationist and see non mages with disdain, there are no stairs to the top, you have to be able to fly or float to get to her and have an audience, she loves birds and her mansion is filled with caged birds, she hates her mortal body and wants to transcend it, undeath is the conclusion most of her peers arrived on how to transcend the needs to eat, drink and defecation.

She hates the undead and don’t want to become a lich, her obsession is all about a non-necromantic way to transcend her perceived limitations, in special defecation, she is a neat freak and hates anything dirty or smelly, she unnaturally extended her life spam using life magic but still has physiological needs, her research is focused on a way to tap on life forced directly so that she is feed with extra dimensional energy much like a plant feeds on sunlight, she is so far unsuccessful, most of the birds in the cage are dead since she refuses to feed them so they won’t soil the place but the abundance of life energy in her tower makes the corpses unable to rot. So it’s like a bunch of magically taxidermy birds on cages, she is unaware of this phenomenon.



Transmuter magic user:



Also Know as the corrupter, she lives in a reddish cylindrical tower in a forest, very powerful, only found if he wishes to, probably the most eccentric of the magic users, the forest looks normal but as you get closer and closer to the the tower, it all gets very gory and organic, with veins, guts and entrails mixing up with the trees, rocks and grass.

The tower itself has one entrance up above, with a chain going all the way down, this entrance is a trap and the only way to get in is to walk in the walls of the tower as if they were not there, the entire tower’s interior is also organic look and feel, as if in the bowels of a giant creature, the disciples and attendants of the magic user are alchemists who turn common materials into gold and unlike the life magic user she is not an isolationist, he engages in trade with the villages around, trading gold for goods.

Her apprentice poses as him in a throne but in actuality the magic user is the tower itself, it has fused her body and consciousness to the structure and slowly spreading his corruption around the area in the hopes of becoming a godlike being, a type of man made genius loci.



Mirror magic user:



The youngest of the group, his magic is focused on spells related to mirrors and reflections, his castle is in ruins next to a lake, if inspected it reveals to be empty but the reflection of it reveals an intact castle, by entering the lake the player emerge in a pocket dimension where the castle is located, he is busy with his rechearch trying to reach a type omniscience/omnipresence by connecting a spy network on ALL reflective sources in the kingdom and later in the world. having problems on not going mad with information overload in the process.

The blood magic user:



She is an old had, very power, possible the most powerful, controls life, space, dimensions, water, rivers, size and even a little bit of reality, gets power from human sacrifices, guild outlaws sacrifices, so she opens a hut where she offers her services as midwife, any unwanted baby from noble people trying to keep their status or peasants who can’t afford is sacrificed to power her magicks if male and raised as a helper/daughter /apprentice if female.

Her hut is larger on the inside and is able to sprout spider legs made of rots and move places if the people get too afraid/mad at her baba yaga style.

The emotion and time mage:



The unofficial leader of the rebels and second most powerful of the group, he is cocky and likes to show off. Control over emotions, time and space are his specialties. There was a conflict with a local general of the kingdom and in revenge he evacuated a large and important local fort using fear spells, imploded the fortress from the inside out with his spells, created a permanent time control bubble around the area, froze the building in the air in the middle of the explosion, altered the temporal effect so people could enter unaffected, and made the floating ruins of the fortress his base of operations. All this in a pretentious demonstration of power to cause fear and admiration. He collects people that are very obsessed with their beauty and would rather die than age, but by dying they would rot and their beauty would fade anyway so agree to be frozen in time and displayed in his castle as a type of sick perverse form of art. He is always in the look out for more beautiful people that would agree with such insane proposal and guests to entertain in his gallery full of beautiful frozen vain people.

This is what I was able to get so far, I’m picturing around like 11 magic users? So if you guys would like to share any ideas or concepts I would be more than happy. Plus I just find the concept of thematic powerful magic users doing questionable experiments and have immoral or amoral habits.

I feel it’s a very interesting way to add some color and flavor to a “dungeon” and I feel some people could run entire campings just inside a random weirdo mage’s tower LOL.

EDIT: Also, any feedback on the ones I've made would be much welcomed and appreciated. Did you guys like it? Found them interesting? Would those places instigate you to explore and wonder as a player?

[Khedrac]

You could have a mage whose main focus is on knowledge and the gaining thereof. Their tower will be a massive library. At first thought they don't seem particularly dangerous, but when one realises that even if they don't know your true name (probably) they definitely know the true names for a dozen arch-fiends and arch-angels whom they can summon to deal with troublemakers...
Probably non-interventionist by nature (though expect them or their servants to show up at the destruction of a famous library to "save" what they can) the big question for most adventurers will be "how can I find new informtion for them to trade for accessing their library?"

[S@tanicoaldo]

You could have a mage whose main focus is on knowledge and the gaining thereof. Their tower will be a massive library. At first thought they don't seem particularly dangerous, but when one realises that even if they don't know your true name (probably) they definitely know the true names for a dozen arch-fiends and arch-angels whom they can summon to deal with troublemakers...
Probably non-interventionist by nature (though expect them or their servants to show up at the destruction of a famous library to "save" what they can) the big question for most adventurers will be "how can I find new informtion for them to trade for accessing their library?"

Oh, that's nice!

Him knowing their names would actually be extra impact because in this setting and game world speaking and knowing people's names is taboo, you only refer to people using their titles "The keymaker" "the balcksmith" "The duke" "The Priest" or their titles "The white knight" "The Hyena" "The Invisble Beggar" like a fairy tale, knowing or speaking someone's name is something really privete and intimate, nice one.

It kind of reminds me of that spirit in the library from Avatar the last air bender, one of my favorite episodes of the show.

[Quertus]

Rats, my phone ate my first reply :(

So, lemme tell you about ones I’ve actually used, one at a time this time.

Necromancer #1 (Necromancy, Time, Space)

I’ll put the details in a spoiler, not just for length, but because those who believe they know me irl shouldn’t read the spoilers

Spoiler: omniphant graveyard

Show

So, looking at this simple stone tower, it seems like nothing special, although the ring of golems around the giant spyglass (telescope) at the open-air top layer might give some pause. What makes it noteworthy is the surrounding area.

Everyone knows what an elephant graveyard is, right? Well, this tower is situated in the middle of an *everything* graveyard. Bones of every species imaginable (and many unrecognizable) surround this tower, organized by creature type. Careful observation may lead one to discover that the golems are carrying the bones out of the tower and placing them into piles (the golems cease this activity for a period of time after detecting unknowns in their vicinity; if the unknowns seem demonstrably not hostile, they will resume their work (so long as no one is in the tower, that is)).

Inside, the tower is similarly boring… mostly. Simple unintelligent life (birds, rats, etc) are warded out; familiars based on such life forms may feel the ward, but can pass it without difficulty.

What baffles the most destructive of intruders is that none of the magic is visible, or subject to removal, even by Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. And the tower itself “heals” at near-Tarreasque speeds.

For peaceful intruders, they will find that the bottom floor contains simple amenities (fireplace, couch, comfy chairs, even beds), and a hole in the ceiling where a staircase once stood reveals that similar furniture used to exist on the next floor. Above that are libraries and labs, with huge stone “altars” (slabs) and giant metal cages.

The libraries contain works on a vast array of arcane topics; it is nigh impossible to learn much about the tower’s creator by browsing their library. However, given an infinite amount of time to study and cross-reference, a clever and patient reader may notice a) while most of the books are secondhand (or fifth hand or more), and often contain notes in the margins by various hands, one set - a dry collection of “dissections” (literally autopsy reports) - are pinned in the same hand with only that hand’s notes; b) that hand penned notes that are related that cover several topics, including dissections of planar shepherds, information about planar shepherds, information about planes (especially demiplanes and fast time planes), the creation of extradimensional spaces, Sigil, and the Valdus Crystal.

Turns out, this tower is a mortal attempt at reproducing such wondrous magic. When the tower is unoccupied, it accelerates to tremendously fast time to sync up with connected fast time extraditions spaces. The golems (built with planar keys to these demiplanes) collect the bones of dead creatures from those pocket worlds, and place them in corresponding piles outside the tower.

The twist: the woman who resides there now is not the tower’s creator. She knows nothing of him, his fate, or the intention of his work, and barely understands the rudiments of the tower. She knows enough to say that the tower isn’t “operational” unless the only thing living inside is its creator, from which many infer that she built it. In reality, she is Undead, but hides this fact. She is a pleasant hostess (despite (rare) rumors of her temper), and, if pressed, admits that she has such a temper, but “feels that the gods are watching this tower”, and so does her utmost to be a civil hostess to any guests who happen by.

The tower’s creator was most interested in Evolution, and in using Necromancy to guide and expedite the process. He “accidentally” invented numerous creatures, from flying turtles to electric rats, but what he really wanted to do was to work on “higher” species, like humans, elves, and Dragons.

Unfortunately, before his work advanced to that stage, he suffered a mishap. While investigating a problem in one of the demiplanes, his planar tuning fork was destroyed. As the plane in question lacked the resources with which to craft a replacement (and the golems had standing “keep out” orders until he resolved the problem), he ultimately spent the remainder of his years on a fast time plane. Before his death, he created one last golem, an immortal companion that could be mistaken for a slaymate (because he had wanted a slaymate, and realized, trapped on a demiplanes of his own creation, he would never get one).

Ultimately, his work on golems, planes, and artiface exceeded that of his passion for creating custom creatures. His last creation contains all the knowledge he amassed on that front. As would his corpse, I suppose.

As for the tower’s regeneration, it’s a combination of every connected demiplane acting as a repeating trap of something akin to Make Whole, and numerous small hidden areas within the tower containing necrotic “hearts” (all the creator’s own heart) that similarly magically regenerate everything in the tower, including each other. (The tower’s current resident does know about and has studied the hearts)

So, kinda the opposite of your thematic towers, this one looks vanilla, but contains hidden depths.

[Quertus]

You could have a mage whose main focus is on knowledge and the gaining thereof. Their tower will be a massive library.

I had an eccentric Wizard have a tower that was composed entirely of books. Stacks of books for furniture, even the tower walls were books. The party was aghast when they saw him burning books for warmth in a fireplace made of fireproof books. He admitted he had “anti flame”, a dark fire that would unburn the books - he used that to cool the tower in the summer. Seems like a similar theme.

[JNAProductions]

Rats, my phone ate my first reply :(

So, lemme tell you about ones I’ve actually used, one at a time this time.

Necromancer #1 (Necromancy, Time, Space)

I’ll put the details in a spoiler, not just for length, but because those who believe they know me irl shouldn’t read the spoilers

Spoiler: omniphant graveyard

Show

So, looking at this simple stone tower, it seems like nothing special, although the ring of golems around the giant spyglass (telescope) at the open-air top layer might give some pause. What makes it noteworthy is the surrounding area.

Everyone knows what an elephant graveyard is, right? Well, this tower is situated in the middle of an *everything* graveyard. Bones of every species imaginable (and many unrecognizable) surround this tower, organized by creature type. Careful observation may lead one to discover that the golems are carrying the bones out of the tower and placing them into piles (the golems cease this activity for a period of time after detecting unknowns in their vicinity; if the unknowns seem demonstrably not hostile, they will resume their work (so long as no one is in the tower, that is)).

Inside, the tower is similarly boring… mostly. Simple unintelligent life (birds, rats, etc) are warded out; familiars based on such life forms may feel the ward, but can pass it without difficulty.

What baffles the most destructive of intruders is that none of the magic is visible, or subject to removal, even by Mordenkainen’s Disjunction. And the tower itself “heals” at near-Tarreasque speeds.

For peaceful intruders, they will find that the bottom floor contains simple amenities (fireplace, couch, comfy chairs, even beds), and a hole in the ceiling where a staircase once stood reveals that similar furniture used to exist on the next floor. Above that are libraries and labs, with huge stone “altars” (slabs) and giant metal cages.

The libraries contain works on a vast array of arcane topics; it is nigh impossible to learn much about the tower’s creator by browsing their library. However, given an infinite amount of time to study and cross-reference, a clever and patient reader may notice a) while most of the books are secondhand (or fifth hand or more), and often contain notes in the margins by various hands, one set - a dry collection of “dissections” (literally autopsy reports) - are pinned in the same hand with only that hand’s notes; b) that hand penned notes that are related that cover several topics, including dissections of planar shepherds, information about planar shepherds, information about planes (especially demiplanes and fast time planes), the creation of extradimensional spaces, Sigil, and the Valdus Crystal.

Turns out, this tower is a mortal attempt at reproducing such wondrous magic. When the tower is unoccupied, it accelerates to tremendously fast time to sync up with connected fast time extraditions spaces. The golems (built with planar keys to these demiplanes) collect the bones of dead creatures from those pocket worlds, and place them in corresponding piles outside the tower.

The twist: the woman who resides there now is not the tower’s creator. She knows nothing of him, his fate, or the intention of his work, and barely understands the rudiments of the tower. She knows enough to say that the tower isn’t “operational” unless the only thing living inside is its creator, from which many infer that she built it. In reality, she is Undead, but hides this fact. She is a pleasant hostess (despite (rare) rumors of her temper), and, if pressed, admits that she has such a temper, but “feels that the gods are watching this tower”, and so does her utmost to be a civil hostess to any guests who happen by.

The tower’s creator was most interested in Evolution, and in using Necromancy to guide and expedite the process. He “accidentally” invented numerous creatures, from flying turtles to electric rats, but what he really wanted to do was to work on “higher” species, like humans, elves, and Dragons.

Unfortunately, before his work advanced to that stage, he suffered a mishap. While investigating a problem in one of the demiplanes, his planar tuning fork was destroyed. As the plane in question lacked the resources with which to craft a replacement (and the golems had standing “keep out” orders until he resolved the problem), he ultimately spent the remainder of his years on a fast time plane. Before his death, he created one last golem, an immortal companion that could be mistaken for a slaymate (because he had wanted a slaymate, and realized, trapped on a demiplanes of his own creation, he would never get one).

Ultimately, his work on golems, planes, and artiface exceeded that of his passion for creating custom creatures. His last creation contains all the knowledge he amassed on that front. As would his corpse, I suppose.

As for the tower’s regeneration, it’s a combination of every connected demiplane acting as a repeating trap of something akin to Make Whole, and numerous small hidden areas within the tower containing necrotic “hearts” (all the creator’s own heart) that similarly magically regenerate everything in the tower, including each other. (The tower’s current resident does know about and has studied the hearts)

So, kinda the opposite of your thematic towers, this one looks vanilla, but contains hidden depths.

Using this. Using this SO HARD, because it’s SO COOL!

[Quertus]

Nani the Narcissist (Force, Enchantment, Illusion, Space)

Spoiler: maze of despair

Show

Nani is known for 3 things: being a narcissist, having eyes all over her body, loving to play with her prey, having lots of inexplicable “admirers”, having a very selective memory, and not being able to count.

In reality, Nani is a unique Beholder, who replaces the head of her victim, and burrows lots of eye stalks throughout their body. She uses Charm, Dominate, and even Necrotic Tumor magic to ensure that she has plenty of “replacement parts” (ie, Wizards) around should her body wear out.

Her lair is protected by weird combinations of Walls of Force, Solid Fog, Confusion, and emotion-control magic. So it’s an invisible maze in fog, that makes you move randomly and lose your bearings, and tries to make you lose hope and despair. And it contains hazards being “held away” by magic, so attempts to remove the magical impediments often result in acid, lava, poisonous acid, poisonous lava, poisonous acidic lava frogs, cats, swarms of exploding undead mice, sealed gates containing rabid Karens, and other hazards to appear. What’s truly baffling is that, if Nani is alerted to the intruders, she’ll generally deal with them by poking them with a stick until dead. Seemingly, she’ll poke through a Wall of Force, and be immune to retaliation.

In reality, one of two things is going on. Either, it’s an illusion, and the victim is being hit with Sense Shifted Far Punch (“Scry and die be annoyed for 1 damage”), or she’s literally playing 5d Wizard Chess, striking from dimensions others could not even perceived without her benevolently revealing her presence. As she’s literally moving in 5 dimensions, most 3-dimensional beings have no way to interact with her (Although they can hold an action and break her stick).

Nani doesn’t really do “invited guests” who aren’t her thrulls (one way or another).

Past the defenses, Nani lives in, incongruously, a very small Dyson sphere. She uses her talent for Force-based magic to say that “down” is where she says it is. Those who stare at the sun long enough may realize that it’s supposed to be her face; those who stare longer may get some clues that it’s actually supposed to be *her* / that she’s not human, as the “hair” is all wrong.

Inside is an idyllic garden and magic university, where the captive residents treat her like a goddess, and she raises new spare parts. Although the “natives” are dimly aware that an outside world exists (Nani has to go *somewhere* to get all the extra teachers), the Sphere is literally their “world”, and most don’t lose their heads wanting to leave. Especially after hearing about the “darkness” in the outside world.

Someone who can survive / defeat her defenses, and will not offend her pride / will praise her, and whose actions do not disrupt the “school” can actually find Nani an exceptionally receptive and useful… tool. Who will forget that she likes the intruder, and Attack them with a pointy stick the next time they intrude in her domain. Because Beholder Narcissist, who cannot learn that this isn’t the perfect plan to deal with all uninvited guests.

[Quertus]

Necromancer #2 (Necromancy, Space, Dream)

N’Effolipii, the undying horror

Spoiler: living inside your own head

Show

What’s scarier than a Wizard? An undead Wizard, a Lich. What’s scarier than a Lich? An ancient Lich that has nearly transcended the material plane, a Demilich. What’s scarier than a Demilich?

Well, what if Freddy Krueger and a Lich had a baby, and that baby looked like the “final” boss from SAO? And it “lives” somewhere between Dream and reality, a shifting place where you literally bring your own worst nightmare with you, like Degobah.

Enter N’Effolipii, oversized Naga Lich.

Few things are static about the dark tower that N’Effolipii calls home, aside from the presence of traps and massively vertical libraries, as it’s shaped by the nightmares of those in the vicinity. One day you might find people burning at the stake next to a lake of elves and orcs and men (all dead, all rotten); the next, hungry wolves and terrified elves might be fleeing from cats; a third, giant feet from the sky may be squashing things randomly around the tower while jelly children scream “the floor is lava!”.

Inside is as incoherent as the grounds, with corpses floating in indoor reflecting pools, clowns behind random doors, and rabid Karens demanding to speak with a manager.

And because people have dreamt of N’Effolipii‘s phylactery many times, they may just plant such a dream phylactery in a victim’s nightmare. Which is just another way for N’Effolipii to have a way to get back at them later, and join their nightmare.

Yet, asssside from the ssssserpentine hissss, the refusal to point out where traps are / which walls are illusory / which illusions conceal mind control symbols, and being violently pissy about being told what to do, N’Effolipii is surprisingly receptive to parlay with visitors.

[Quertus]

Conner the Conjurer

Spoiler: Heaven on Earth

Show

Ever heard the phrase “Heaven on Earth”? Conner sure has! He has literally brought “a little piece of (the seven) Heaven(s) (/Celestia / whatever)” to Earth, in his own secluded mountaintop valley.

Although Conner’s lack of crafting or engineering skills mean that, on first glance, most peasants would turn up their noses at living in his shack, everything in the area is literally heavenly. One never chokes on the water, or trips on tree roots. The dilapidated-looking shack never actually collapses. There always happens to be a celestial frog or dragonfly to eat mosquitoes the moment they enter Conner’s domain. The beds and chairs are always perfectly comfortable. It always rains at just the right time.

Conner has been researching ways to extend this Heaven to the whole world. Although this would normally be way outside his power range, his divisions indicate that a massive influx of good souls could sufficiently attune the world, and potentially draw the whole world into Heaven. Or, at least, it works like that in the Outland. So he’s researching ideas like creating a harem of celestial mayfly quicklings, to rapidly spread his half-celestial offspring throughout the world, and thereby finally see full Heaven on earth.

[Bohandas]

Oneiromancer/Dream Mage
The tower is a dream pulled into the material plane. The internal layout is mazelike, and slowly but constantly shifting. It seems to be cobbled together out of several other random buildings, and may include some rooms that should (based on their placement relative to the other rooms) occupy the same space as each other, but nonetheless do not. Many of the rooms have incongruous features, such as staircases in private rooms (sometimes leading to finished basements, despite the main rooms not being on the first floor), rooms that are missing key features (such as an armory with no weapons or equipment but plenty of places where such things could be placed), rooms with multiple incongruous or incompatible functions (such as a guardroom that's also a kitchen {not for the guards}, or a prison cell that's also an observatory), or conversely rooms with interdependent functions (such as a pantry, kitchen, and dining room) that are impractically far from each other. The tower has many floors that are either unused, unnecessary, abandoned, forgotten, and/or inhabited by creatures other then the tower's usual denizens and who don't seem to interact with the tower's main denizens. The tower is also stocked with incongruous goods and furnishings, such as a trampoline with furniture set up on it, objects that are made out of raw sewage, things set off by fuses which have no business being set off by fuses (such as a door that is opened by lighting a fuse which sticks out from the keyhole, or a book that can only be opened by lighting a fuse attached to its cover, or a sundial which doesn't cast a shadow until a fuse burns down to its gnomon), chicken nuggets that are actually live cockroaches covered in (cooked) breading, weird fruit that turns you into a monster if you eat five of them (over any time period) but doesn't do anything if you eat less than five, various strange but powerful artifacts that fade away into to nothing if removed from the dream, and a fireman's pole that's actually a very tall scratching post. The building also has several unnecessary and impractically located swimming pools, bizarrely large restrooms, an elevator consisting of a shaft inhabited by a colossal trained snake with an elevator car strapped to its head who slithers up and down the elevator shaft, and a gladiator arena in which the strange spiky beast that the gladiators must fight doubles as both the emcee and the VIP in the Cubiculum.

[Quertus]

Using this. Using this SO HARD, because it’s SO COOL!

Thanks!

It’s probably the “tower” of mine that has seen the best feedback, which is why I listed it first.

I certainly wasn’t expecting *that* enthusiastic of a response from anyone, so, if you love it that much, you’re *more* than welcome to use it!

[Vahnavoi]

If you can get your hands on it, Seclusium of Orphone of the Three Vision, from Lamentations pf the Flame Princess catalogue, is one existing supplement for this. Tower of the Stargazer and Monolith From Beyond Space and Time are good fleshed-out examples from the same publisher.

[Sapphire Guard]

If you have played Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the bosses (insane mages) have some interesting themed dungeons. Might be helpful.

[Bohandas]

Philosopher/The Weighty Issue Collider

In his early youth the master of this facility scoffed as moral philosophy, until one day he saw the power of a spellcasting cleric firsthand. That day he saw that good and evil were tangible forces of the universe, and from then on dedicated his life to the study of philosophy. He found frustration however with the works that were available on the subject, the great majority of them amounted to little more than idle speculation or hearsay. Undaunted he set out to rectify the situation himself. At the cost of his family's entire fortune, together with loans from a number of rich noblemen and grants from several potentates, he built the world's largest and most powerful philosophy accelerator, and now works to settle thr great questions of right and wrong once and for all.

The external tower is only a few stories tall, but the facility in the basement spans many miles and contains many rare items and substances from the other planes serving either as test subjects or as parts of the experimental apparatus itself.

Anyone of non-neutral alignment descending into the basement is required to have their aura magically dampened to avoid disturbing the delicate equipment

[KineticDiplomat]

So, these mages a nigh on gods. What keeps them in check? And why shouldn't it just curb stomp the players dead for helping the enemy?

[Bohandas]

The Shadow Tower

This tower is owned by a powerful illusionist specializing in shadow magic. Most of the tower is not real or only partially real except for one modest building and an underground storage area/bunker. The real building is effectively much larger on the inside because it's main room has been ensorceled to function like a holodeck. The underground storage area is accessible from a staircase in an anteroom of the building, but the staircase is a shadow illusion that can be dismissed if the place needs to be locked down

[S@tanicoaldo]

Hey guys, thanks for all the ideias, some were a little too much on the evil side, but they were all very interesting.

So, these mages a nigh on gods. What keeps them in check? And why shouldn't it just curb stomp the players dead for helping the enemy?

Yeah, Magic users have to be god like in my settings, it's a just a me thing LOL

What keeps them in check? Well there is a whole social system behind it... I guess it's too much to go in detail here, but basically all magical societies realize that humans are kind of useful on doing the mundane tasks wizards use and don't want to waste their powers doing and that they can be dangerous united AND that ruling mundane humans is kind of... You know boring.

[Telok]

Got a couple that are rather lower powered. Not sure where the maps are anymore. The game they're from was a D&D 3.5 with the highest level npc in the world being a 17th level wizard who'd just recently created the first gate spell, trleportation and flight magic were still experimental and unreliable over long distances.

Erika

Spoiler

Show

Near Skarragath there is a witch's hut with a hag that asks the players to get some purple
fungus from around the cave for her, in return she'll tell you to check for illusions in Erika's tower.
The front door is a permanent circular wall of fire facing inward (CL30) but inside is a nice little
bed & breakfast place with a couple unseen servants to keep it tidy. On the E wall is a door with
a plaque "One goblin tells the truth, the other lies. Pierce the lies to get the prize." Inside is a
square room with two goblin soulbows (marble blocks to the knee, marble statue to the waist,
normal above that, small table w/ playing cards) against the center of the N wall and a door on
either side of them. The doors lead to nightingale floored hallways that end in doors with waiting
hellcats behind them. The illusionary wall behind the goblins (they both lie like crazy) leads to
darkness trap/ward and then a mated pair of basilisks. The wall the darkness ward is on is a
secret door to a wide hallway. After you pass the 4 flesh golems and 4 wights in the hallway
there is a smaller hall with two doors, the S door leads back to the B&B (covered with an illusion
on that side) and the E door leads to the "garden". There is a door on the N wall covered by
another bloody illusion, that one just leads to Erika's work/living areas. The garden has 6 giant
lizards and a dozen violet fungi around it. Erika Redmark is an important plot NPC and the
higest level Exile caster barring the great dragons.

Tower 80' diameter, 160' high, flat top, no windows. Stone Shape/ Wall of Stone/ Hardening(Eb p112)/ Stone Metamorphosis(Und p61) basalt walls (hardness 21, 1500hp/5', climb dc 25). Forbiddance inside and within 10' of the exterior walls, so no teleportation, plane shifting, or summoning. Erika commonly uses Passwall to open a room for summoning or teleportation. The tower is druid Hallowed. Giving Magic Circle vs Dark alignment (non-Light summoned creatures cannot enter [SR 32+ ignores], everyone is immune to mental control, and everyone has +2 AC and saves vs Dark aligned attacks and spells. Permanent False Vision shows the tower abandoned and empty to all scrying attempts. Permanent Mirage Arcana starts in the entry way and disguises the fact that the corridor slopes downward and spirals to the left, the entire above ground structure is solid stone (Permanent False Vision!). Actual rooms are 580' NE of the tower and 130' down. All interior doors have a lead sheet in them and an Alarm spell trap(dc26) on the back that tells Erika which door was opened. If the intruders never turn around and check the back of the door they'll never know that these exist.

Erika Redmark wizard 13, archmage 3, Ashenzari worshiper (piety 22), +Ench -Evoc -ConjCreate

Erika's apartments are separated from the lizard enclosure by a 5' stone wall with an invisible 10x5 section for a window (hard 9, 1200hp per 5'sq) as a window and a permanent illusion of a portcullis next to it. The real door is stone and five feet further over (illusion dc19). The floor is smooth-ish natural stone and lighting is provided by hundreds of magic symbols on the ceiling (glowing visible arcane marks). 45 feet from the NE corner is the center of a Energy Transformation Field linked to a Rejuvenation Cocoon spell(cl30). A further 50 feet to the SW of that are two Symbols hidden in plain sight among all the others, Spell Loss(dc35, trigger saying "boom" or attacking Erikas) and Weakness(trigger saying "blammo" or attacking Erikas). The room has furniture and shelves of books (all books Fire Trap cl20, dc21) to funnel people under the Symbols. Given ANY warning Erika's Simulacrum will be at a table 15 feet north of the Symbols reading, while Erika herself is in the NE corner invisible and illusioned up as a stone golem. Given a minute or more Erika will have Greater Arcane Sight, See Invisible, and Shield up, with a Transfix spell (dc29 duration 48hr) centered at the Symbols. She has a Contingency (I know she banned evocation but she has scrolls) for "Anything that would kill me" to activate a cl33 extended heightened Magic Jar (dc29 and equal to a 10th level spell).

Solberg

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Solberg, L15 human sorcerer [spec necromancy, ban illusion & fire]. Familiar Evolved Necropolitan Spellwarped Cat - note: has Gaseous Form as an always spell & 3/day ring.

Tower 40' diameter, 80' high, flat top. One door (wooden hardness 5, 20 hp, break dc 35, wizard lock dispel check 26), no windows. Enchanted hewn stone basalt walls 3' thick (hardness 16, 1080 hp, climb dc 25, break dc 70, saves +9).

Forbiddance inside and within 10' of the walls (but only 2' above the top), so no teleportation, plane shifting, or summoning. Minor Creation a 25" high platform on the roof for calling spells.

Permanent False Vision shows the tower abandoned and empty to all scrying attempts. In the vision there are stairs in the tower.

The first floor is druid Hallowed. Giving Freedom of Movement to anyone who worships Sif Muna on that level and Magic Circle vs Dark alignment (non-Light summoned creatures cannot enter [SR 28+ ignores], everyone is immune to mental control, and everyone has +2 AC and saves vs Dark aligned attacks and spells.

Each floor has an Illusionary Wall spell that seems to be a staircase going to the other floors.

First floor: Wood paneled walls and ceilings, a couple of wooden closets with travel clothes, a large table in the middle of the room with six chairs, a decent couch upholstered in green lizard leather against one wall, and a Continual Flame lamp hanging on a chain from the center of the ceiling. The ceiling is a permanent Minor Creation wood panel 1/2" thick. On the stone ceiling (same as the tower walls) are inscribed Symbol of Weakness (Necro, save no, SR yes, 3d6 Str dmg), Symbol of Sleep (Ench, compulsion, mind affecting, Wneg20, SR yes, <10HD sleep for 3d6*10 min), Symbol of Pain (Necro, dark, Fneg20, SR yes, -4 attacks skills ability checks for 1 hour), Symbol of Persuasion (Ench, charm, mind affecting, Wneg21, SR yes, charmed for 15 hours), Symbol of Fear (Necro, fear, mind affecting, Wneg21, SR yes, up to 150hp of targets panicked for 15 rounds). There is a Glyph of Warding on the Continual Flame lamp hanging from the ceiling, it will cast Dispel Magic on the false ceiling if there is an attack made within 30 feet by anyone other than Solberg or his familiar.

Second floor: A nice big four poster bed, a kitchenette, a big easy-chair, a table piled with books, and the same lighting fixture as the first floor. The Symbols are on the walls (perm Minor Creation wood paneled) here and the dispelling Glyph is on the bed posts, the trigger remains the same.

Third floor: Bookshelves line the walls and five tables with books and magical paraphernalia on them clutter the room. The Symbols of Weakness, Sleep, and Pain are on the ceiling, while the Symbols of Persuasion, Fear, and a second Weakness are on the floor. These Symbols are not covered and will activate if anyone but Solberg or his familiar enter the room.

The rooms are 12' tall with 3' thick ceilings/floors. In an 80' high tower this leaves a 30' high 'attic' waiting to be filled. It's empty except for some stone chests with huge bones in them (three complete hill giant skeletons in six chests and one 11 headed hydra skeleton in four chests). The Symbols are on the ceiling five feet from the wall and spaced equidistantly. These Symbols are not covered and will activate if anyone but Solberg or his familiar enter the room.

Movement between floors is by means of Gaseous Form through S-shaped pencil sized holes in the ceiling/floor. The holes are spaced five feet apart around the circumference of the rooms. The first and second floor holes are concealed behind carved wooden molding at the join between the wall and ceiling or floor. On the third floor the holes are hidden behind the floor to ceiling bookshelves. The holes in the ceiling of the 'attic' lead outside two feet below the top of the tower.

[Bohandas]

Since somebody mentioned the old "one always tells the trutn one always lies" schtick, I always thpught it would be funny to add a third one who tries to confuse people with misleading statistics

[ToranIronfinder]

The feel of the characters seems a bit two dimensional, you probably need at least one who is far more sympathetic (and perhaps keeps various forces in balance). The time/emotions mage seems to be thematically troubled--one would think or presume someone who wrestles with time on a regular basis would be less concerned with emotions than someone who is stuck in the present. Maybe separate this character into two.

Emotions
The emotional mage has created a time bubble from devices he managed to steal from the second mage. In fact, much of hisnpower came from his abilities to steal from other rogue mages or the arcane order, copying their designs, borrowing their notes. He has fooled himself into thinking he knows the motives of the others, and believes those motives are always hostile to his own interests. He is pleasant to deal with, but he treats everything someone says as a slight and is jealous of anyone other than himself receiving recognition (and as a result, he tends to do less that would actually earn him the recognition that he seeks). He is petty, but hides it well from the world.

His tower is always in the latest styles, with the most sensual amusements available upon request. His labs are small, quiet and often unused, his library rarely touched, but the entertainment rooms are constantly being entertained. The top floor of his tower is where the real work happens, using information gleaned from shadows, animals and spirits, and those whose ambitions or temperaments he can turn to his own end, he has a spy operation which keeps tabs on everything happening in the Realms, he plots and plans to balance his accounts with everyone.

Time
The time mage, meanwhile, began his research trying to prevent a great disaster, but his obsession with this goal has not provided a solution to the disaster he foresees, as often well intentioned actions have significant negative repercussions, he increasingly has become withdrawn, so much so that he can't even respond to the theft of some of his earlier bobbles by the emotional mage noted up above. He takes little action of any kind, beyond pure research fearing that he will make matters worse. In fact, he has lived through the apocalypse several times already, moving his tower back in time whenever it hits. He is aloof, cold, and distant, spending days at a time staring into a scrying pool, completely disconnected with the cares of the world around him. His tower is disheveled, broken and nearly in ruins, with old enchantments preventing it from leaking, but he either no longer notices, or no longer cares. He has prevented the birth of many dictators, but for everyone he cuts short, another rises in its place. He left the arcane order due to several futures in which they destroyed the world. He is both the.most powerful of the rogue mages, and the least effectual.

Garm Magic Itself
Garm is so focused on the research of the nature of magic, itself that he has become absent minded. He didn't so much defect from the arcane order as maintained his research for so long that he didn't even notice the change in the times, other than some representatives he teleported thosuands of miles away (and then forgot about the whole thing). He has no single tower, rather he has a habit of building a tower to some specific task in the pursuit of magic, and when that research is complete, he draws plans for a new one and moves, leaving behind any experiments that he considered no longer worth pursuing (unfortunately, these have sometimes been something other groups have been interested in, most notably his carelessness left a 3 mile deep 7 mile wide Crater where the village of Falchek used to be). His current tower is maintained by automatons handling the daily tasks, managed by 17, the first automaton that actually worked properly (and wasn't prone to homicidal rampages). A few guests unfortunately have been left in rooms for more than a year, not because he had anything against them, but because he forgot to tell 17 that they were leaving. If you ever get to have a conversation with Garm he will be fascinated and fascinating eith the details of your life, peppering you woth questions, taking copious notes and rudely poking you with various instruments. If you ever meet him again, he will likely have forgotten the previous conversation as unimportant, and will ask you the same questions, in the same order, etc.

[S@tanicoaldo]

The time/emotions mage seems to be thematically troubled--one would think or presume someone who wrestles with time on a regular basis would be less concerned with emotions than someone who is stuck in the present. Maybe separate this character into two.

I think that's funny, what makes you say so? What about time makes someone not care about emotions? That seems to be just your opinion. HAhahaha.

[ShadowShinobi]

If you can just keep going back in time to change things whenever you want, it'd be easy to lose empathy after a while.

Oh, I stopped another warlord from rising to power, only for some other disaster to occur? Sigh, I'll just have to stop that, too. One more thing to add to the ever-lengthening list of problems to solve.

[Bohandas]

Eccentric Toymaker/Teddymancer

Unusual even among eccentric magical toymakers, the Teddymancer doesn't fall into any of the three standard magical toymaker categories (Santa Claus-esque philanthropist, Dr.Wondertainment-esque trickster, or purveyor of cursed objects). Instead he was driven by depression and deep-seated insecurities to perfect the art of creating comforting objects for himself, and his business of making wondrous toys for others arose out of this as an afterthought.

The tower is patrolled by giant animated teddy bears the size of real bears. These have broadly the same stats as real bears but also have construct traits and are resistant to bludgeoning damage. Other denizens include the standard animate chessmen and tin soldiers, a wooden horse that is in all other respects identical to a real horse, and an intelligent magic table that can conjure up game pieces as well as food and drink.

Many of the innermost portions of the tower are a little bit like the teddy bear equivalent of one of those videogame levels where the architecture is made out of flesh, except instead of being made out of parts of living creatures, it's made out of stuffed toy. The walls are made of stuffing sandwiched between outer layers of fake fur. Some of them have smiling faces.

The tower itself is in the shape of a ridiculous giant teddy bear

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[Fable Wright]

Coming in with some ideas from players in Ars Magica games...

The Storm Mage

This sorcerer gains their power from a trick they learned to tie their spells to the lifetime of a storm. The logical extension is to create a storm that never ends, so that their spells can last potentially forever... but when you leave a spell alive that long, they tend to get ideas and personalities of their own. The tower is built on a solid, yet placid and idyllic cloud interwoven with the Northern Lights for illumination... above a tempestuous storm that ravages the countryside below it, that's a dumping ground for spells that have gone rogue and no longer fulfill their function, including living lightning bolts, great winds that could lift characters up to the storm palace if they were cajoled into being cooperative, rogue fog clouds that feed on noises causing a persistent silence within that may or may not harbor winds who can grow horrifying talons that tear at living flesh (that were initially designed to help carve wood). It's all about the pursuit of beauty, really, and there is beauty in things outgrowing their function and creating something new.

The Lake Witch

In my game, she's researching the biblical Flood. In yours, she might investigating the remains of Tiamat and Abzu, the two sources of water that created the world; the reasons why life is so heavily based on water; or whathaveyou. She is convinced that there was a primordial ur-water, the source of all life, and wants to recreate it. To that end, she or her minions travel the world to find strange bodies of water, be they the Yellow River's odd-hued liquid, to the geothermal lakes of Iceland, she must have them all. In full. She gives them great gourds that can suck up entire rivers or lakes, and weigh little for the trouble—and once they're back in the lab, she measures the quantity of water within, and sends out a messenger with a similar gourd of pure water, to be released back where she found it. She's not a monster.

What this looks like for normal people is that the river they depend on for travel disappears for months, before flooding everything in the area and possibly changing its course, and it might not regain its original properties for years, having started as distilled water.

Her castle is a tower made of impossible ice—pykrete, frozen mud, red and yellow ice, where the rooms are various displays and experimental stations for the exotic waters brought back. The tower rises out of a circular river spiralling inwards. Why do I say river, when I described a lake with a whirlpool at the center? Because this river is a dragon, in the style of Chinese river-dragons. The currents are its coils, and it can still move and form its head and claws if it so desires. It's a bit bored and lonely, so eager to chat, but it's still both a dragon and a river—it can change in a heartbeat, drowning those within...

[Bohandas]

Flame Mage- Lives in a tower made out of anomalously solid elemental fire. It's still shaped like a flame but somehow windows have been cut into it and part of it opens up like a door

[AvatarVecna]

So was initially going to type up something more elaborate, but I'm actually unsure how I'd want some of the details to go, so I'll put forth the basic concept:

The mage is an enchantment/illusion specialist who seeks to improve their craft through dedicated study to perception, memory, and dreams. To that end, they have used their more grounded magicks to create the ultimate hotel experience, a Lotus Eater Machine.

There are many small towers dotting the landscape. They are fairly normal as towers go: a few floors, just made of stone, partly-covered in moss. They are all seemingly abandoned in the middle of nowhere, in the places between places. Along the roads, out in the middle of a swamp, carved out of the side of a treacherous mountain path. Places where travelers may pass by while feeling a longing for a place to rest their head other than their knapsack. These small towers are gates linked to the lobby of the primary tower, and you will always return to whatever tower you came from should you go back through.

The primary tower has two broad layers:

The above-ground layers are just a very nice hotel, although a very big one made arranged as a tower the width of a full castle. The beds are soft, the rooms are big, the service is impeccable, the food is delicious, the sauna is steaming, and it's all available absolutely free. The staff are there when you need them and seemingly gone when you don't (fairies? demons? golems? im not sure). There's no menu, but food is available whenever you like - either whatever you request, or "the chef's choice", which is something you've never had before but is nonetheless of otherworldly quality in both texture and taste. The hotel seems to have endless amenities - if there's some kind of entertainment you desire, they can make it happen, either escorting you to where it's already occurring, or bringing the entertainment to you (even private entertainment, if that's desired). And what happens at the hotel stays at the hotel: the laws of men and gods have no place here. Stay as long as you want, leave whenever you like, no payment necessary, enjoy your stay!

The below-ground layers are the mage's workshop. This is where the magic happens - both the experiments the mage is performing, and the work that must be worked to keep the hotel running. One whole level is just a kitchen to keep the guests fed and content. Another is dedicated to keeping a full staff (whatever that may entail). One maintains any enchanted objects that are in need of repair or upkeep. The truth is that everyone within the tower is having their mental activity detected and recorded by magic items built into the walls. When you have a lovely meal, when you enjoy the entertainment, when you get a good night's rest, the mage's magic eyes are watching and learning. Watching the sensation, learning how it affects people, learning how it affects some people differently, learning how small tweaks here or there change your mind in subtle-but-quantifiable ways. The mage can be found in one of the basement levels, making notes on a desk next to an enormous helmet, and occasionally donning it for a few seconds. The helmet links them to all the information currently being observed. It's too disorienting to wear for longer than several seconds, but it's apparently highly informative.

[Bohandas]

The Wiz Kid

The Wiz Kid is an eternally young wizard and his castle is a bouncy castle with the size and layout of a regular castle

[Prime32]

A mage who decades ago transformed himself into a hive mind, building his tower in the collective mindscape of a group of children at an orphanage. Each "pillar" has parts of their mind which are their own, and parts which are shared with the mage. Over time the mage has become a sort of collective personality, composed entirely of these shared portions. This also leads him to inherit some of his pillars' desires, which he pursues in an odd, detached way (he thinks many of these desires are dumb, but still feels driven to pursue them). If a business owner seems improbably wealthy, it might be because he's a pillar and the mage inherited his desire for his business to be successful. If dogs are randomly turning up dead, it might be because a child pillar is scared of dogs.

One of the PCs discovers that they're a pillar, and can learn to project their consciousness into the tower through meditation. The mage greets them as an old friend (he has intimate knowledge of them, after all), and explains that in a way he offers his pillars immortality - he won't die as long as a single pillar is alive, and even when a pillar dies the shared part of them will continue to exist. However, his nature as a composite entity can be a nuisance at times, making it hard to focus on any one thing... and he's impressed by the PC being able to enter the tower consciously, so he makes an offer. If the PC allows him to fully absorb their mind, then he can stabilise himself for a while by using the PC as the core of his personality. In effect he's making the PC his heir and transferring all his power to them, but the process will also cause them to hear voices and gradually turn into a friendly NPC, then a neutral one.

[Duff]

[B][I]

Mirror magic user:



The youngest of the group, his magic is focused on spells related to mirrors and reflections, his castle is in ruins next to a lake, if inspected it reveals to be empty but the reflection of it reveals an intact castle, by entering the lake the player emerge in a pocket dimension where the castle is located, he is busy with his rechearch trying to reach a type omniscience/omnipresence by connecting a spy network on ALL reflective sources in the kingdom and later in the world. having problems on not going mad with information overload in the process.

A magical mirror mae where some parts change could be quite challenging. Perhaps the correct paths don't change but false one do.
Also, a mirror maze with smaller mirrors in various squares, diamonds and triangles, all set at slightly different angles, could make it very hard to fight crystal golems with similar shapes and reflectiveness. The entire wall appears to move and then part of it reaches out and hits you