Exam Season

[Stemboy]

I'm currently running a game set in Absalom, and two of the party are arcane casters studying at the Arcanamirium (between adventures.) It's been a running gag for a few sessions now that exam season is coming up, so to play on that I've decided to have the exams actually happen.

I'm essentially looking for ideas of how you think this sort of thing would go down in game, and how you'd track it?

Obviously there are going to be the theory tests, which are easily tracked by Knowledge checks, but whats a good DC? The party are approx level 4 by this point, so I don't want to make them too hard, but I want the threat of failure to be there.

The other idea I've had is practical exams, but I'm unsure how to work this both mechanically and narratively. A wizards duel is an obvious choice, but I'm not sure if that's appropriate for the Arcanamirium.

Thoughts?

[Nawtyit]

Are we talking O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s?

[TheWarriorPoet519]

What kind of casters are they?

[Dieben]

SAT = Spell Aptitude Test
ACT = Arcane Comprehension Trial
AP exams = Abjuration Practitioners' exams
MCAT = Material Component Analysis Test
GRE = Generalized Review and Evaluation
LSAT = Lycanthropy, Shapechanging, and Applied Transmutation lab
EAS = Exotic and Archaic Specializations subject tests

[archmagi1]

You could have a completely benign wizard duel, where your goal is to counter all of your opponents spells, and to minimize damage to the test dummies.

Have a practical problem that needs solving creatively by magic. A city is sinking due to an over saturated ground water, and partly due to the nearby river. How do you fix the problem without depriving the city of its water supply, and keep collateral damages to a bare minimum. Points deducted per every citizen negatively impacted, but bonus points added for long term solutions.

On skill check tests, your DC's need to be in the 70% pass range for easy topics (things they specialize in), the 60% pass range for tough topics, and 50% for difficult topics. Base your DC's on a vanilla character (instead of your party): Assume a +4 ability bonus, 4 ranks, and 3 class skill, a difficult topic for someone without special training would be a DC 21 (10 on a d20 + 11 from the skill ranks). For something they should have special training, or a bonus on, bump the DC down by 2-5. Basic Arcane Theory should be say 5 DC 16 Arcana checks. Spell mechanics should be 5 DC 18 Spellcraft checks. Advanced Planar Minion Tables should be a series of DC 15/18/21 checks ranging across Arcana, Planes, Nature, Religion and Spellcraft for knowing what your summon monster spells can summon.

[Stemboy]

TheWarriorPoet519 wrote:

What kind of casters are they?

Arcane. A universal wizard and a magus.

[Remian Emberton]

Written exam:
Simple way is to have them do Spellcraft checks to identify other spellcasters using the spells that they have learned, or identify spells on a scroll.

To identify a spell as it's being cast, the DC is 15 + the spell level.
To identify a scroll the DC is 20 + spell level

Practical exam:
This works best if you separate the two.

Wizard: Create a scroll from one of the spells he's learned. Since he's about level 4, he'll only know, max, level 2 spells so the cost will be 150 gp. You can either say that the school provides the materials(and would likely keep the scroll when it's done) or that the student actually has to pay, whichever you think is more fair.

Magus: Has to cast each of the spells while being threatened and not lose a certain percentage of the spells. So if he's learned 4 spells from the school then he has to cast at least 3 out of the 4 spells successfully.

[Stemboy]

I like these ideas, they're really useful. I'm also thinking about giving the players a little Boon style benefit if they excel at the exams for the effort they've invested into the skills/studying. I'm thinking something in the style of what is granted at the end of a Pathfinder Society adventure.

Any ideas for these? Something that would be a flavourful bonus, but nothing game changing.

[Dieben]

You got a WHAT on your ACT?!: Once per week when making a diplomacy, gather information, or intimidate check involving a student or graduate from either a different graduating class at the Arcanamirium or a different university of the arcane arts, you may opt to make mention of your impressive exam scores. You may choose to use this boon before or after making the check. Choosing to use it first will grant a +5 bonus to your result, whereas opting to use it after rolling the die will permit you to reroll it. You must use this new roll, even if it is lower. You may only use the reroll option prior to the GM announcing the success or failure of the check. Each time you use this boon, cross off one of the boxes below. Once you cross off the last one, you gain a permanent +1 bonus to the checks listed above with those individuals as, at this point, word has spread of your achievement. This boon has no effect on Arcanamirium professors or administrators.
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