I'm starting the AoW in Forgotten Realms in two weeks and one of the players is playing a warmage from Complete Arcane. I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on where to place an academy near Daggerford, but not in Waterdeep. (I want the characters to be "simple townies" when they get there.) I know the Pc will be working for Allustan, but I'm having difficulty deciding where he trained.
Would you really need to have a formal academy? Is the actual school necesaary for some plot point or could the PC have been trained by another warmage in a more traditional apprentice-style relationship.
If you don't need an academy, you could have the PC warmage recieve his trainning from any established FR mercenary company - like the Flaming Fists of Baldur's Gate, Zahara's Kraken's, The Bloodaxe Mercenaries, or even the Mercenary Guild of Westgate.
One of my players was a warmage, so I put the school in northern Anauroch. I had to resort to a magic door to get him to daggerford. Cheap, I know, but it was better than him riding a donkey the entire way. If you think thats a little inconvenient as well, then I'd consider Iriaebor.
Yeah, I've been contemplating just dropping the academy part and saying the PC is just a more combat focused sorcerer. I was just checking to see what other GM's had done.