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I think it's time to create a 'College Catalogue' for all those bright young folks thinking about what and where they'd like to study in Golarion.
There are at least 4 collegesfor the arcane..And I'm pretty sure there are at least 2-3 more in Absalom that don't have wiki pages yet
I would be very surprised if some wizard with his or her love of books hasn't researched a conjugation (creation) spell that created instant copies of books. Maybe even a wondrous item that an affluent printing house in one of the big cities might have on site. Not thy illumination wouldn't have it's place, of course.
I was just discussing where my mage character got his training with my GM, and we suddenly came to the conclusion.... that for a cod-mediaeval world, Golarion is extremely well-blessed with seats of learning!
I think it's time to create a 'College Catalogue' for all those bright young folks thinking about what and where they'd like to study in Golarion. It might be a fun exercise... maybe I'll start on it once the current review is written.
Incidentally, has the printing press been invented yet, or are all the college libraries filled with monk-xeroxed tomes?
Off the top of my head there's the Acadamae in Korvosa (Varisia), University of Lepidstadt, Quartrefaux Archives, and Sincomakti School in Ustalav, a number of mage schools in Geb and Nex which focus on Necromancy and Transmutation respectively, and a plethora of institutions of higher learning in Absalom. If none of these sound right, could always make up your own in a backstory.
Stone of the Seers in Magnimar, specializing in divination and abjuration magic.
I was just discussing where my mage character got his training with my GM, and we suddenly came to the conclusion.... that for a cod-mediaeval world, Golarion is extremely well-blessed with seats of learning!
I think it's time to create a 'College Catalogue' for all those bright young folks thinking about what and where they'd like to study in Golarion. It might be a fun exercise... maybe I'll start on it once the current review is written.
Incidentally, has the printing press been invented yet, or are all the college libraries filled with monk-xeroxed tomes?
One thing to realize is that Technology as Depicted in Pathfinder and D&D has never been Medieval It is for the Most part Renaissance Without the guns (well til UC comes out)
Given that every PC is assumed to be able to read the Ability of higher education is probly close to 17th centry earth than the middle ages (though obviously they didnt have that level of litteracy either)
I would be very surprised if some wizard with his or her love of books hasn't researched a conjugation (creation) spell that created instant copies of books. Maybe even a wondrous item that an affluent printing house in one of the big cities might have on site. Not thy illumination wouldn't have it's place, of course.
There's the old 3.5 spell Amanuensis that does just that. It's not open content, but it's perfectly good for house games.
By the Pathfinder RAW, all you need for instant book production is a Wizard with Fabricate and either Profession (Printer) or Craft (Calligraphy) or something similar.
There's the old 3.5 spell Amanuensis that does just that. It's not open content, but it's perfectly good for house games.Speaking of Amanuensis, is there a Pathfinder spell that duplicates it to some extent? I could have sworn there was, but I could be going insane too...
There are two options. The fancier one is to use the rare "Steal Book" spell from Dave Gross's novel Prince of Wolves. It was written up in Kobold Quarterly #14 on p. 13 according to the Golaropedia, and is a 3rd level Divination spell for Sor/Wiz, Witch, Inquisitor & Bard.
The cheaper and easier to use option is to cast Unseen Servant and give the Unseen Servant a blank book, a book to be copied, a quill, a penknife, an inkwell, and instructions to copy one to the other. Looking at the text of the spell, this should be easily done for any regular text so long as the DC of copying is no more than 10. Depending on the work and the level of the caster it may take multiple castings, but it would certainly save a wizard the tedium of copying non-magical texts.
It is not a stretch to have the wizard have the servant take dictation either or even to work as a stenographer, so long as the DC of transcribing something was no more than 10.
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There are two options. The fancier one is to use the rare "Steal Book" spell from Dave Gross's novel Prince of Wolves. It was written up in Kobold Quarterly #14 on p. 13 according to the Golaropedia, and is a 3rd level Divination spell for Sor/Wiz, Witch, Inquisitor & Bard.
The cheaper and easier to use option is to cast Unseen Servant and give the Unseen Servant a blank book, a book to be copied, a quill, a penknife, an inkwell, and instructions to copy one to the other. Looking at the text of the spell, this should be easily done for any regular text so long as the DC of copying is no more than 10. Depending on the work and the level of the caster it may take multiple castings, but it would certainly save a wizard the tedium of copying non-magical texts.
It is not a stretch to have the wizard have the servant take dictation either or even to work as a stenographer, so long as the DC of transcribing something was no more than 10.
Both of those are fantastic ideas, thank you very much. I thought that Paizo had come up with something to duplicate Amanuensis, but apparently I was mistaken. Unseen Servant will work just fine.
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We all know knowledge isn't gained through studying books, it is gained through killing things. So I don't see what these non adventures could know.
Hmm counter to that carrion crown gave out xp for using a library. But later in the path it did not...now I'm just annoyed by the bad game design, give xp for knowing things lol. Isn't the knowledge a reward from the xp, but in this case it is the reward and gives more xp....
We all know knowledge isn't gained through studying books, it is gained through killing things. So I don't see what these non adventures could know.
Hmm counter to that carrion crown gave out xp for using a library. But later in the path it did not...now I'm just annoyed by the bad game design, give xp for knowing things lol. Isn't the knowledge a reward from the xp, but in this case it is the reward and gives more xp....
I'm not sure if that needs to be spoilered or not. However,
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We all know knowledge isn't gained through studying books, it is gained through killing things. So I don't see what these non adventures could know.
Hmm counter to that carrion crown gave out xp for using a library. But later in the path it did not...now I'm just annoyed by the bad game design, give xp for knowing things lol. Isn't the knowledge a reward from the xp, but in this case it is the reward and gives more xp....
I'm not sure if that needs to be spoilered or not. However,
** spoiler omitted **
I was mostly joking that you learn things through levels not study.
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Inner Sea Magic and the Inner Sea World Guide detail some of the true "Universities" of Golarion. But do remember, that the universities and academies of a Medieval/Renaissance setting would be vastly different than most universities we picture in our mind's eye today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university
Only in a few of the more "enlightened" nations, such as Andoran in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, would education be more available to a larger percentage of society. But even then it would not be universal; there is no way that universal education could be practically given in relatively unadvanced agrarian societies. Even in a country like Andoran, it would be hard to educate the populace, especially the children. The reason? Most children would be expected to help their parents on the farms to plant, tend crops and animals and bring in the harvest, or to learn a trade if their parents are artisans rather than farmers. That leaves little time for them to go to school and receive a proper academic education. Even if they are able to go to some communal schoolhouse, they would probably only be able to attend in the winter, after the harvest season. Thus, they would only be provided with the most rudimentary forms of education (Reading, Writing and basic Arithmetic).
*snip*
... the most rudimentary forms of education (Reading, Writing and basic Arithmetic).
A while ago I took a course on the history of literacy and printing in Europe. One thing which sticks in my memory from that course is that in the past, the ability to read and the ability to write were not taught simultaneously (unlike more modern educational systems). This lead to situations where a peasant might be able to read his way through a text (although probably rather slowly if out of practice), but only "sign" his name with an "X" or some other mark.
Unfortunately, I don't recall the situation regarding basic maths.
*snip*
... the most rudimentary forms of education (Reading, Writing and basic Arithmetic).A while ago I took a course on the history of literacy and printing in Europe. One thing which sticks in my memory from that course is that in the past, the ability to read and the ability to write were not taught simultaneously (unlike more modern educational systems). This lead to situations where a peasant might be able to read his way through a text (although probably rather slowly if out of practice), but only "sign" his name with an "X" or some other mark.
Unfortunately, I don't recall the situation regarding basic maths.
I recall that, at least in England, a lot of local accounting was done with tally sticks. The lord's man, usually a reeve, was a local appointed to keep accounts of various goods and payments in kind. He'd carry around a stick and cut a notch in it for each item of whatever. That did the adding up for you as you went and could then, at least in principle, be handed over to someone who could do more advanced math with it.