"Thematically interesting" wizards in Golarion


Advice


Martial characters could be Eagle Knights, Hellknights, Risen Guard, Lion Blades, or a number of other thematically interesting options. Clerics, paladins, and sorcerers also have cool in-world themes they can play off of, but the thematic options for wizards have always seemed a bit bland to me.

You can pick a school to specialize in, but that has always seemed a pretty abstract thing to me. There are a number of different arcane universities in Golarion that your character could hail from, but I don't have a good sense of how a wizard from Absalom, for instance, would seem different than a wizard from Quantium. Are arcane universities common enough in the world that I could safely make one up and be consistent with canon?

I'm looking for ideas for interesting wizard character concepts, whether that involves actual game mechanics (local traits, feats, etc) or not. Anyone have some ideas that could be interesting?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Mechanically there's absolutely no difference between the two wizards. It's all in the accents they speak in, the politics they practise, and the spells they might favor.

I wouldn't say arcane universities are that common, at least no where near as common as the more traditional master/apprentice relationship.


I agree that the wizard archetypes are few and far between, and thematically wizards are lackluster compared to other classes. So I've been working on my own as published releases.

Well it's not for Golarian, but Rite Publishing's Kaidan setting (my homebrew) is based on feudal Japan and Asian horror, but could easily work for areas in Tian Xia, especially Minkai...

Among the lower classes of the yakuza, there is the tattoo wizard (I know in Golarian they are sorcerers, but for scribing tattoos, we felt it was more ideally for wizards.) Among the samurai caste, there are onmyoji (origami archetype). Instead of scribing scrolls, the onmyoji uses folded origami figurines to replace all material components of 250 gp or less, plus they get to create a scroll-like origami spell that takes only an hour to create each day (1/day built into the class). The onmyoji gains a shikigami familiar that powers up with him more significantly than normal wizard familiars.

The ministry of Onmyodo, a wizard university is also a branch of the imperial government in an attempt to control access to magic, at least as far as official sanctioning of it's practice. Other arcane spell casters are mostly in hiding to avoid imperial detection, punishments and execution.

The Tattoo Wizard is currently available, but Way of the Samurai supplement which includes the onmyoji wizard is still in editing. It should be released sometime this month, or early next.

Grand Lodge

Muninn wrote:

Martial characters could be Eagle Knights, Hellknights, Risen Guard, Lion Blades, or a number of other thematically interesting options. Clerics, paladins, and sorcerers also have cool in-world themes they can play off of, but the thematic options for wizards have always seemed a bit bland to me.

You can pick a school to specialize in, but that has always seemed a pretty abstract thing to me. There are a number of different arcane universities in Golarion that your character could hail from, but I don't have a good sense of how a wizard from Absalom, for instance, would seem different than a wizard from Quantium. Are arcane universities common enough in the world that I could safely make one up and be consistent with canon?

I'm looking for ideas for interesting wizard character concepts, whether that involves actual game mechanics (local traits, feats, etc) or not. Anyone have some ideas that could be interesting?

There are lots of options to specialize your wizard and give him/her some extra flavor.

First off, the subschools really help differentiate way beyond the basic schools. Arcanimirium (sp?) crafter, void elemental, fey, foresight - these all can give you a laser focus.

Second, you mentioned a bunch of prestige classes for martial characters. Well, there are a bunch for wizards too: Bloatmage, Cyphermage, Daivrat, Diabolist, Demoniac, Harrower, Pathfinder Savant, Spherewalker, Souldrinker. Not all of these are great of course, but they definitely put a different spin on your wizard.


I left out an important detail in my OP - I'm intending to make a character for PFS play. Either way, though, I'm more interested in character concepts, not necessarily game mechanics (although if there is a trait, feat, or PrC that reflects the concept, that's always a big bonus).

But Exocrat, thanks for the suggestions. Even if the options aren't all "optimal," I think they would make it more fun to play a wizard.


You have Bloatmages, Harrowers, Thassilonian sin mages, tattoed sorcerers, etc.

You have also a couple interesting Mage Academies. Most notable is Korvosa 's Academae, with a focus in conjuration.

Liberty's Edge

Thassilonian Sin mages are pretty thematic. As are Harrowers, Bloatmages, Cypher Mages, Primal magic, Shadowcasting, etc.

You really need to take a look at Inner Sea Magic for this stuff. Most of it's contained therein, and pretty cool. And it has rules for specific academies of magic (which are indeed common enough for you to make one up).


You can also toss in shadowcasters from Nidal to the list.

The book Inner Sea Magic has a few Golarian archtypes for casters and also has rules regarding attending spell casting acadamies.

+1 to the Bloatmage. You can make a very Varisian themed caster by attending the Academae (Located in Korvosa; Feats - Academae Graduate, Acadamy rules in inner sea magic) and then rolling into a bloat mage (Most live in Kaer maga; Feats - BloatMage Initiate, Prestige Class - Bloat Mage)at lvl6.

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