Hello all!
My players just finished Stolen Lands, and are now starting to turn their thoughts towards kingdom-building (they've been good little role-players, and have waited until the charter arrived before waxing ambitious). As GM, I am eager to see which NPCs they will invite to join them in the rulership positions.
Since there are only two PCs in the party (gestalt monk/cleric and ranger/druid), so they will need to rely more upon NPC support than larger groups. I'm confident they can find NPCs to fill most key roles, but I'm at a loss regarding the Magister position.
There seem to be precious few arcane NPCs in the campaign; AP #32 suggests The Old Beldame, but I can't imagine why they'd invite a crotchety, green-skinned sorceress to "guide a kingdom's higher learning."
Has anyone faced a similar problem? Have I overlooked any potential candidates? Or can you suggest a way to introduce a wizardly NPC into the campaign without making it an obvious bone-throw?
Thanks!
I felt I would have the same problem, so I modified The Old Beldame and her personality to fit my campaign.
She'll get the offer for Magister soon.
Some of my players think she's a bit loony, but tough times call for tough decisions (and risks). They have decided that a part-crazy caster is better than a vacant position.
While I wouldn't normally encourage it, perhaps they can send to Brevoy for a suitable candidate? With such a small group, and considering the lack of qualified Magisters available, I suggest giving the players a small choice of people they know of from 'Back Home' who might be interested in the position.
In that case, I might dock the Kingdom a BP/month for the first few months as they'll have hired a 'mercenary' wizard to start with. the penalty would disappear once the wizard was comfortable the the position was secure.
For what it's worth, the magister (despite the title) doesn't have to be a spell caster. In my campaign, the magister role is held by an aging human (expert) who would have ranks in various knowledge skills. He's basically the lone teacher for the very few children who live in the PC's fledgling kingdom. I fully expect that a PC or NPC from the AP itself will eventually fill the roll but for the time being, he fits just fine.
One of my groups actively recruited NPCs while in Restov to fill up the leadership roles they had empty. I then introduced various NPCs found in the NPC Guide and they evaluated (i.e. estimated how much of a bonus they'd give in the desired positions, and depending on the roll wouldn't necessarily be correct) the NPCs who showed interest and ended up with 3-4 NPCs not originally in the AP.
I must admit I haven't roleplayed them as much as I had hoped, but it worked out fine.