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I'm looking for spell suggestions and selections that a Wizard could prepare, that would be useful in a 'working' environment. What would a "city mage" put together to help out?
Figuring this out for a divine spellcaster is easy - people are always getting hurt or sick, and divinations are handy too. But arcane has mostly spells that hurt people, or make it easier for other people to hurt them.
Of course, there are skills like Craft and Profession, but the local "experts" will probably be better unless it's a high-level mage. Other skills, like Knowledge and Spellcraft, are very hit-and-miss, and unlikely to be reliable sources of income on their own. Skills like appraise require a "honest" reputation, which mages might not have (or want to have; "respected" is far more valuable, and its easier to get with "feared" than "trusted").
So I'm curious, what sort of spells of each level might a city want a wizard to cast for them on a somewhat reliable basis, so he can pay for the four-story tower with all the horrible things in it (without dipping into his gear/spells wealth) when most folks are stuck renting a one-room apartment?
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I'm looking for spell suggestions and selections that a Wizard could prepare, that would be useful in a 'working' environment. What would a "city mage" put together to help out?
Figuring this out for a divine spellcaster is easy - people are always getting hurt or sick, and divinations are handy too. But arcane has mostly spells that hurt people, or make it easier for other people to hurt them.
Of course, there are skills like Craft and Profession, but the local "experts" will probably be better unless it's a high-level mage. Other skills, like Knowledge and Spellcraft, are very hit-and-miss, and unlikely to be reliable sources of income on their own. Skills like appraise require a "honest" reputation, which mages might not have (or want to have; "respected" is far more valuable, and its easier to get with "feared" than "trusted").
So I'm curious, what sort of spells of each level might a city want a wizard to cast for them on a somewhat reliable basis, so he can pay for the four-story tower with all the horrible things in it (without dipping into his gear/spells wealth) when most folks are stuck renting a one-room apartment?
Some more or less random thoughts:
In a wealthy city, abjuration spells could be very desirable to the rich to protect their stuff. So, Alarm, Arcane Lock, Fire Trap, Guards and Wards, etc.
Transmutation would probably get some use too: Mending, Mage Hand, Message, Make Whole, Stone Shape, Fabricate, Mud to Rock/Rock to Mud, Telekinesis, etc.
And Wizards get a fair amount of Divinations that could be useful.
There are other spells that I could see practical uses for:
A construction worker working on a church's steeple might want a Feather Fall.
A plantation owner might want Haste cast on his workers.
Shrink Item, Fly, Levitate could all surely be very useful.
But I think a lot of this depends on how magic works in your world. The people for whom these spells might be most practical may never be able to afford magic. How many middle class people would even want the efficiency of their businesses supplemented by magic? How common is magic?
If you want magic to be relatively rare, I think a wizard would cater to the rich, and to adventurers. Never hurts to have a Dispel Magic, Break Enchantment, or Stone to Flesh on hand for desperate adventurers.
On the other hand, if you want wizards to affect everday, even menial work, that would create a really interesting city dynamic.
The divinations and transmutation spells mentioned above, control weather might be desirable especially during celebrations.
Also permanency will be very useful to make money in some cases working together with priests to make animate object permanent.
Crafting magical items and Constructs of any kind.
It might be useful to have some agreement with the local governing body to use your spells for the good of the town on request for tax immunity and a modest fee for the use of your magics.
Some suggestions by level:
0-detect magic, detect poison, light, prestidigitation, mage hand, message, mending
1-alarm, endure elements, unseen servant, sleep
2-arcane lock, web, locate object, continual flame, magic mouth, knock, levitate, make whole, pyrotechnics
3-clairaudience/voyance, tongues, daylight, gentle repose, gaseous form, fly, shrink item, water breathing
4-minor creation, arcane eye, locate creature, scrying, lesser geas, stone shape
5-mage's private sanctum, major creation, teleport, wall of stone, sending, fabricate, transmute rock to mud, transmute mud to rock, telekinesis
6-guards and wards, wall of iron, legend lore, geas/quest, control water, move earth
7-mage's magnificent mansion, greater teleport, teleport object, mass hold person, forcecage, control weather, limited wish
8-discern location, polymorph any object
9-refuge, teleportation circle, wish, mass hold monster, shapechange
Also, I'd suggest any summon monster spell.
This quick list includes spells an urban mage might find useful depending on his job. Is he a bodyguard (detect magic, detect poison)? Is he an engineer (stone shape, move earth, etc.)? A finder of things (locate object, discern location)?
I imagine that transporting things would be really important. Looking at the spell description for teleport, a 9th-level mage could readily teleport 900 miles in one go, which would be from France to Ukraine. Additionally, a casting of teleport could bring three burly porters carrying their maximum load. Joy!
Regular travel could be enabled through teleportation circles made permanent, but because of their high cost the travel could be tightly regulated. Want to go to Cheliax? I'm sorry, teleporting there is 10,000 gp per head through MageEx's teleportation circle...
MageEx -- When It Absolutely Positively Has To Be There Right Now.
I'd suggest you have the wizard\sorcerer work within a guild. A guild happily removes the problem of haggling and availability of customers and ingredients. En Publishing has a great couple of products on Guilds. Each guild has guides on magic and role in the game world. The Adventurers Guild employs arcane casters to send messages over great distances.
Be prepared for the fragility of the D20 economic model.
Almost any magic done for profit is either impossible (requires impossible components) or breaks the economy (instant mending that is free).
This is not a strong suit of D&D.
Sigurd
i think it would depend on the field. Arcane casters have wide array of spells at their disposal and depending on their field they would likely prepare different spells.
A wizard working for the local magistrates office might prepare compulsion spells like charm person, or suggestion, as well as divination spells like detect thoughts and locate object.
Someone working for a contractor or egineer might prepare stoneshape, feather fall, or bulls strength (help workers move heavy things) and other transmutation spells.
A wizard working in the entertainment industry might be loaded down with illusion spells.
a locksmith might retain the services of a wizard with knock for those locks so badly broken, or challenging he cannot open them.
Security specialists would have need of spells like alarm, firetrap etc.
a carnival might employ a wizard with a bunch of summon spells to provide amazing creatures to their patron's delight.
honestly most major industries/economic persuits would benefit from having a wizard on hand.
Wall of Stone for the architect who want to built far from accessible quarries.
Similarly, Wall of Iron for smithies that want to keep their operation even after the mine has been closed/invaded/depleted.
Otherwise, Sigurd is right. If magic is that available, the whole economic system has to be re-defined big time.
Honestly i dont see High level pure wizards doing standard labor like that. Thats why the Adept NPC class exists. They are more the "blue collar" magic user than wizards, and their spell list reflects that. Infact many of your suggested spells are on his list.
Plus he has the advantage of being a divine caster, so he dosent need to spend the time and money researching spells the way a wizard does, which would cut down on the cost of the castings.
I usualy run high magic campaigns, where magic is common as technology. It allows me to have the players run into odd things, like tv reporters.(using magic mirrors that record the images onto stone discs made with the programed image spell. Then they relay that program to all tuned magic mirrors that the viewers have.)
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Cantrips
Mending (number one with a bullet, and you could have this cantrip alone and pretty much hang out a shingle and make money)
Detect Magic
Detect Poison (yes, I am the royal poison taster...)
Ray of Frost (refrigeration / ice making made easy, a single apprentice from the Academy could be sent out to the various fishmongers storehouses and freeze / chill the catch of the day, so that it can be sold tomorrow, instead of ground up and fed to the dogs)
Message (for use in crowded marketplaces, to alert factors to the arrival of new cargo, to point out buyers, to pass messages in court, etc.)
Prestidigitation (to clean clothing, to entertain on a streetcorner, to give people temporary henna tattoos or similar cosmetic enhancements by coloring their skin, hair or nails, accompanied with ranks in the disguise skill)
1st level
Mount (you can run a business renting out horses for 2 hours / caster level)
Alarm (temporary guard services for items on display, etc.)
Endure Elements (a rich person could pay to not 'let them see him sweat' for a day, say at a trial, or while presenting a proposal before the king, or while singing on stage before the entire royal academy)
Grease (moving 10' x 10' blocks of stone into place never got so easy)
Comprehend Languages (translation services)
Detect Secret Doors (exploring catacombs, ruins, checking security of villas where guests are to be staying)
Identify (standard use)
Charm Person (all sorts of scurrilous uses)
Hypnotism (same as Charm Person, using the suggestion option)
Floating Disk (portage, possibly even serving as an elite palanquin to your charge, bringing her royal 'ness from the ship to the palace, without touching the muddy ground)
Silent Image (useful for training purposes, don't just describe the animal, herb, building technique, internal anatomy of the body, *show* them)
Animate Rope (useful for work, causing chandeliers to lower themselves to be lit / serviced, etc.)
Erase (buh-bye graffiti and gang markers!)
Feather Fall (another way to avoid having to haul that armoire down from the princesses room in the West Tower, just throw the darn thing out the window and let it float to the ground)
Higher level spells are an option, obviously, but beyond a certain point, most Sorcerers and Wizawrds won't be working as sellspells on a daily basis, just casting the occasional spell-for-coin here and there. (Some, on the other hand, certainly will. Adventuring is dangerous, and even adventurers retire! If an 8th level Fighter can be a mercenary captain or highly-paid bounty hunter without anyone squawking about 'wasting his talents,' there's nothing stopping an 8th level Sorcerer from using his talents to put a roof over his family's heads!)
I've even seen a funny PrC called Adepts of the Disk or something that focusses on a group of low-level Wizards and Sorcerers in a bustling port city who have developed special techniques to create more and larger Floating Disks, so that they can help unload an entire ship within a short time, and carry the goods halfway across town to the market on levitating platforms of force.
Would a PC mage do this sort of thing? Probably not, but a PC rogue doesn't generally run the local thieves guild and spend eight hours a day keeping pimps and second-story men in line and bribing local officials to look the other way, and a PC bard doesn't generally hang out in the royal court, singing songs and putting on humorous skits all day long. It's no more unreasonable for a sorcerer or wizard to use his abilities to make a living than it is for a ranger to hunt animals for food, or to trailblaze for caravans or to work as an animal trainer / handler.
Honestly i dont see High level pure wizards doing standard labor like that. Thats why the Adept NPC class exists. They are more the "blue collar" magic user than wizards, and their spell list reflects that. Infact many of your suggested spells are on his list.
Plus he has the advantage of being a divine caster, so he dosent need to spend the time and money researching spells the way a wizard does, which would cut down on the cost of the castings.
I usualy run high magic campaigns, where magic is common as technology. It allows me to have the players run into odd things, like tv reporters.(using magic mirrors that record the images onto stone discs made with the programed image spell. Then they relay that program to all tuned magic mirrors that the viewers have.)
it depends on how rare wizards are. If they are common place in a setting why wouldnt people contract them to make their lives easier? I am a real fan of the magic as technology setting, and in that kind of a world i think wizards definitely would do so.
Not every wizard wants to lead armies or delve into dungeons, its very possible for someone to have a knack for the arcane and be a home body.
Honestly i dont see High level pure wizards doing standard labor like that. Thats why the Adept NPC class exists. They are more the "blue collar" magic user than wizards, and their spell list reflects that. Infact many of your suggested spells are on his list.
Plus he has the advantage of being a divine caster, so he dosent need to spend the time and money researching spells the way a wizard does, which would cut down on the cost of the castings.
I usualy run high magic campaigns, where magic is common as technology. It allows me to have the players run into odd things, like tv reporters.(using magic mirrors that record the images onto stone discs made with the programed image spell. Then they relay that program to all tuned magic mirrors that the viewers have.)
it depends on how rare wizards are. If they are common place in a setting why wouldnt people contract them to make their lives easier? I am a real fan of the magic as technology setting, and in that kind of a world i think wizards definitely would do so.
Not every wizard wants to lead armies or delve into dungeons, its very possible for someone to have a knack for the arcane and be a home body.
In a wizard-poor setting, the economics of supply and demand would mean that few wizards would be available to do those things, and those that are available might not be willing, unless the price is ridiculously high. Why pay a wizard 10,000 gp to unload a ship and carry the goods across the city, when a team of porters will do the job for 50 gp?
Remember that a first-level wizard casting a single 0-level spell will be paid 5 gp, which is 50 times the "minimum wage" of unskilled labor per day. If a first-level wizard is casting all of his spells per day as his employer wants it, he's getting paid 25 gp a day, or 250 times the minimum wage. This would mean that having a single wizard on retainer in today's job market would mean paying him something along the lines of $5 million a year.
This is all based on the cost of spellcasting on the equipment list (PFCR p. 159), which may be a "consulting price" markup of maybe 400%. That still means that a wizard on retainer should be paid something like $1,000,000 per year in modern, real-world terms. Of course, you could just chalk this up to "Fantasy economics doesn't work," but I like to think of it more as "Adventurers work on a completely different economic scale as the rest of the world."
So... in a wizard-rich setting, those unskilled in magic would be incapable of competing with wizards, so they would be reduced to beggary.
wall of stone, wall of iron, fabricate.
Those are the 3 basic spells, you really.. really.. want to make into items granting them at will.
After that you have castles and stuff ;)
Simulcra. The spell is so crazy powerfull its silly.
Never mind as the perfect interrogation spell.. just consider it as THE way to have your own stonewall at will dao-slave, personal dragon mount etc etc etc..
Everything else is peanuts.
wall of stone, wall of iron, fabricate.
Those are the 3 basic spells, you really.. really.. want to make into items granting them at will.After that you have castles and stuff ;)
Wall of iron: 6th level spell. Min caster level: 11. Price per casting (i.e. from an NPC): 710 gp. At 11th level, it would create a wall which is 275 sq ft. x 1" (23 cubic feet). This would be about 11,250 lbs of iron or 1,125 gp worth. However, this is explicitly said to be useless for making anything. Might make a useful building material, but I reckon that the base building material would probably be heavily discounted, too.
The problem with having a spellcaster-based economy is that spellcasters tend to need to be paid extremely well. I think I calculated out that a 1st-level wizard casting spells at the NPC premium would have to be paid 5,000 gp per year, which is tremendously more than unskilled labor.
Edit: Oh, and with fabricate you need to either have the material on-hand, or pay the worth of the thing you're trying to make, plus you still have to make the Craft DC if it's anything hard to make (like, structural engineering).
Chemistry my friend ;)
Where there is carbon.. air (Nitrogen!).. some water.. anything is possible. Barrels filled with oil?
Well, more like big castles at will. Filled with stuff like silk (from trees) oh yeah, summoning. Thats the other big creator.
Like summon djinni.. -> soft goods, food & wine. (damn been a while.. im forgetting..)
Dao for building castles and efreti for well.. ending the game? Gm: okie you won, now go home :D (infinite wishes)
Anyway, furniture, rope, tar, cloth, glass etc..
All those manufactured wonders didnt require more than the usual resorces of a forest, skill and some energy.
And why not a magic missile to fry some moose +fabricate -> leather backpacks & salted meat + walking staff of fused and carved bones?
Chemistry my friend ;)
Where there is carbon.. air (Nitrogen!).. some water.. anything is possible. Barrels filled with oil?
Well, more like big castles at will. Filled with stuff like silk (from trees) oh yeah, summoning. Thats the other big creator.
Like summon djinni.. -> soft goods, food & wine. (damn been a while.. im forgetting..)
Dao for building castles and efreti for well.. ending the game? Gm: okie you won, now go home :D (infinite wishes)Anyway, furniture, rope, tar, cloth, glass etc..
All those manufactured wonders didnt require more than the usual resorces of a forest, skill and some energy.
And why not a magic missile to fry some moose +fabricate -> leather backpacks & salted meat + walking staff of fused and carved bones?
All these still require a Craft roll. I can't imagine any player who would be able to craft silk from raw trees. Technically, it's still the "raw material," but that would be at a significantly higher DC than most people can make.
I can imagine that a dressmaker, for example, might take some raw silk and make a beautiful dress from it. However, I can't imagine him chopping down some tree boughs and making the raw silk from that.
All I'm saying is that magic follows its own internal rules, which makes some things to do extremely expensive and magic-intensive. This makes them prohibitively expensive from an economic standpoint.
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The problem with having a spellcaster-based economy is that spellcasters tend to need to be paid extremely well. I think I calculated out that a 1st-level wizard casting spells at the NPC premium would have to be paid 5,000 gp per year, which is tremendously more than unskilled labor.
Take the spellcaster as a cohort. Or even a follower, for those 1st level spells. Or charm them. Or, as a mid-level caster, simulacra yourself and have the half-strength versions of yourself work like slaves to pay off their cost of creation. :) (Or, if you have DMG2, use the Master/Apprentice feat to have a half-dozen 1st-5th level spellcasters as your flunkies, who will cast spells for you for free, as long as you spend some time training them and give them some spells from your spellbook when they go up levels.)
Those prices in the PHB are the gouge-the-adventurers rates. If the prices applied every time a spellcaster waggled her fingers, every encounter with a 3rd level NPC adept or 2nd level sorceress would start out with a description of the piles of gold coin she's lounging around on. :)
Actually anything if he's selling scrolls (necromancy would probably be kept secret though).
It really depends on what is the mage doing in his non-adventure time.
As a spy or sage he'd have divinations, translation spells for counsellor or diplomat, ice and water spells for firebrigade, teleportation and communication for quick relaying of information,... heh even mere prestidigitation can work for a rather superior barbery service.
3E Eberron actually has a lot of working magicians, so I'd look there for incorporation of magic in work process.
Actually, I'm currently working on a small book on arcane magic focused on low-level casters as well as those of more academic pursuits. It's already got about 20 spells, many of them suited for this kind of things, as well as a few feats and other such things. Generally, those written so far are more suited for researching and alchemy, but there'll be others later.
It'll of course be realeased under copyleft, and hopefully you might find some inspiration there! Two examples:
Illusory Quill
School Illusion; Level sorcerer/wizard 0, bard 0
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Duration 10 minutes
This spell was created by an unknown gnome illusionist over 200 years ago, and has since then spread from education and libraries to thieves guilds, spies, and adventurers.
This spell causes the index finger, middle finger, and little finger to glow in pale blue, mossy green, and white respectively. The mage may use these fingers to write in the air as though they were pens, leaving traces of the color of that finger. The glow is not strong enough to illuminate an area, but can be seen in darkness. The lines dissipate when the spell ends.
Enhanced (2nd): All five fingers on both hands have different colors of your choosing, and the duration of the spell is 1 hour per caster level.
Protection from Amateurism
School abjuration Level Sor/Wiz 0, Druid 0
Casting Time 1 full-round action
Components V, S, M
Range personal
Duration 10 minutes
This spell is of common use amongst aspiring alchemists, giving a slight protection against mishaps.
When casting Protection from Amateurism, the caster swallows the component, and is slightly protected against a certain energy type. Whenever he would take lethal damage from his chosen element, 5 points of that damage is converted into non-lethal damage. When this spell has converted 5 points of damage, it wears off.
Enhanced (1st): The duration of the spell is increased to 24 hours.
Material Component: Depends on chosen energy type.
Acid: A living bug; Cold: An ice cube; Electrical: Olive oil; Fire: A chili pepper or some other hot fruit; Sonic: Bee wax.
("Enhanced" is kind of like a built-in metamagic; it may be prepared in a slot of a higher level to have an enhanced effect. I like arcane magic being a little flexible, while divine magic is very strict.)
I have a gnome in my world who is "the master crafter of mundane items." Never creates magical items and has put all his skills in different crafts and professions. He makes regular stuff and sells it at one hell of a discount. Uses fabricate and the raw goods. PC's love meeting this guy. (he wanders with a doll house on his back that is his wizard's tower as well through the use of extra dimensional spaces and reduce person)
I also had a kobold wizard who had gotten his claws on a large amount of fabric. He learned to craft clothing and set about turning 2500gp worth of cloth taken from some pirates into 15000gp worth of custom tailored clothing for the nobles of the city that the party used as a home base. He used fabricate to speed the process and had spent allot of skills in profession (tailor). The party wondered why I wanted a month to study with the local tailor, but were happy once I showed up with a heavy bag of gold to share. My part of the loot taken from the pirates was the cloth which they had also wondered why I had wanted that much cloth. I should have kept all the profit but when I wanted to do something strange from then on out they always let me.
I imagine that transporting things would be really important. Looking at the spell description for teleport, a 9th-level mage could readily teleport 900 miles in one go, which would be from France to Ukraine. Additionally, a casting of teleport could bring three burly porters carrying their maximum load. Joy!
Regular travel could be enabled through teleportation circles made permanent, but because of their high cost the travel could be tightly regulated. Want to go to Cheliax? I'm sorry, teleporting there is 10,000 gp per head through MageEx's teleportation circle...
MageEx -- When It Absolutely Positively Has To Be There Right Now.
My DM in Kingmaker let me convert the Wayfarer Guide to Pathfinder, I had a shack that I was going to be running my business from. Always had a Follower on Staff to book appointments, I used portable holes and more followers to carry stuff. Sadly the game was in near end mode, so no silliness and fun like this. Race to finish so to say.
Remember that you can leave spell slots empty and fill them with a few minutes of study. I suspect most working wizards would have a majority of slots open to fill as needed by customers.
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I think that making the standard wizard "common place" really cheapens and take most of the majesty out of the class. It also cheapens the whole idea of adventuring classes. The whole idea of the adventurer is someone who for some reason or another steps out of the ordinary. Once that step is taken, there's no going back.
In a world where magic is so routinely common, I think theere would be a lot less wizards and more ArkWrights.
I agree with that. The Magewright / Arkwright / whatever was a cool concept (and I think he went a step further with the Gleaner, over at the Giant in the Playground forums, which is kind of like an NPC druid/witch sort of lesser caster).
The Game Mechanics 'Temple Quarter' divided Adepts into Divine Adepts and Arcane Adepts, each with different lists of spells, so that most NPC spellcasters could simply have ranks in one or the other sort of Adept, and these sorts of 'mundane' or 'hedge' mages selling services and minor items wouldn't be clerics, druids, sorcerers or wizards.
(Although it does make sense that in any game setting that has organized temples or wizards academies, there are going to be no shortage of acolytes and apprentices using their cantrips and 1st level spell slots on 'guild business' and getting paid bupkiss for it...)
The Pathfinder Guide to Freeport also adds the Cultist, which has lesser spellcasting ability, but doesn't gain it until 4th level, which, IMO, is a bit high for these purposes (since a 5th + level NPC doesn't feel as well-suited thematically to be selling cantrips for cash).
I'd definitely use both Divine and Arcane 'Adepts,' and give them a reasonable access to spells, but make them almost exclusively non-combatants, perhaps raising their casting times by a factor of 10 (so, one minute required to cast most spells). These would be the sellspells, competing with the occasional apprenticed-wizard-to-be-from-the-academy or acolyte-in-training-to-be-a-cleric.
Indeed, by having NPC classes use the Fast XP progression, and PC classes use the Slow XP progression, you could even have a former 'Adept' upgrade to become an actual cleric or wizard, when she 'gets the call' or 'figures it all out' or 'awakens her inner dragon' by having her pay the XP difference to convert each 'adept' level into a cleric or wizard or sorcerer level.
Adepts might be seen as those who have touched the hem of understanding, but not yet managed to grok the inner mysteries.