The Magister

[Jedric]

What jobs should a PC Magister expect to do? We've been debating the last few days about what the Magister's job entails, but we haven't come to anything conclusive.

[pennywit]

If you're drawing a blank, you can always reskin the position as "court wizard."

[Jedric]

Right, but what does on in this position actually do? The player who is thinking about taking the role is a very proactive individual, and he's wondering what sort of job he actually gets to perform besides idle philosophy and research.

[fictionfan]

Court wizards don't actually do anything per say. They are meant to be mysterious and enhance the prestige of the court. It's a very cushy job. Hard job to get, but an easy one to keep.

Also keeping an eye out for magical influences in the court like if someone is under charm person.

Funny thing: the Magister magister does not even have to be a spell caster by the rules.

[hwkies]

in the group i'm running, they have adopted the magister as the person in charge of higher learning and magical regulation / development.

works for me!

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Jedric wrote:

Right, but what does on in this position actually do? The player who is thinking about taking the role is a very proactive individual, and he's wondering what sort of job he actually gets to perform besides idle philosophy and research.

The Magister of Kyshahn is also the Dean of the Candlemere Academy for Gifted Youngsters, he's in charge of training any class that uses Arcane spell casting.

[pennywit]

Research is, in fact, a huge part of the job. But some things he could do:

* Investigate rumors of strange ruins.
* Dispatch adventurers to recover ancient artifacts.
* Build a school.
* Mentor young wizards.

But here's an idea. If he wants to do something active, use a modified version of the downtime rules. Here's an idea:

* Convert the BP cost of a magically oriented building (caster's tower, magical academy, library, etc.) into the requisite GP and resources (Influence/Magic/Goods/Services) that it would take to build it under the Downtime rules.

* Remove the building's ability to generate kingdom magic items on its own, but allow it to contribute to Economy, Loyalty, Stability, etc., etc. This represents the player taking over the building as his own. He can use the allowance to construct the building and to hire the teams for the organization.

* Convert the building's Consumption into a monthly "allowance" that the character can use to improve the building and teams, or to put toward upgrading it.

* The player can use his own money or resources to improve the building or hire more teams. If he withdraws BP from the Kingdom treasury to improve the organization, then he incurs Unrest as normal.

[thebigragu]

It also says in the magister text that he runs the bureaucracy. Exactly what bureaus do is up to the players, as they are intentionally open-ended, like guilds. His role can be defined by whatever functions your bureau(s) serves.

[pennywit]

thebigragu wrote:

It also says in the magister text that he runs the bureaucracy. Exactly what bureaus do is up to the players, as they are intentionally open-ended, like guilds. His role can be defined by whatever functions your bureau(s) serves.

Ergo the dreaded Conjuration spells "Summon Accountant," "Red Tape Storm," and "Teleport to DMV."

[Andostre]

From the Ultimate Campaign description, although I don't think it's too different from the Kingmaker description:

Quote:

The Magister guides the kingdom's higher learning and magic, promoting education and knowledge among the citizens and representing the interests of magic, science, and academia. In most kingdoms, the Magister is a sage, a wizard, or a priest of a deity of knowledge, and oversees the governmental bureaucracy except regarding finance.

So, yes, he's does magical research and performs mystic activities for the benefit of the realm. But there's also the "higher learning," the "promoting education," and "representing the interests of... science and academia" portions of his role.

He's in charge of making sure that every citizen knows how to read and write (basically, every class except for barbarain, amirite?)

He might concern himself with establishing a system for matching apprentices to tradesmen.

He creates the rules that every school or training organization in the nation is expected to follow.

Depending on the tech level of your campaign, he might go out of his way to involve the kingdom in those crazy gnome alchemists who set up a "research" facility.

He might also spend some funds on hiring casters to research spells that could benefit a beuracracy. Does the bestiary talk about anything that's really good with numbers? Figure out how to summon that guy!

[thebigragu]

pennywit wrote:

thebigragu wrote:

It also says in the magister text that he runs the bureaucracy. Exactly what bureaus do is up to the players, as they are intentionally open-ended, like guilds. His role can be defined by whatever functions your bureau(s) serves.

Ergo the dreaded Conjuration spells "Summon Accountant," "Red Tape Storm," and "Teleport to DMV."

That's unnecessarily dismissive. Anyway, our bureau is in charge of intelligence gathering. It's not The Bureau of Bureaucracy.

[rknop]

Aren't the all the Bureau of Bureaucracy? :)

In the Kingmaker campaign I'm running, my players decided to make Perlivash their magister. They've also decided to incorporate the fey creatures into their nation, and are a very fey-friendly nation. Also a kobold-friendly nation, it turns out. They're pretty broad minded. The Spymaster has put together an organization of pixies/sprites/etc., orphans, and kobolds ("FOK", he calls it, for Faeries/Orphans/Kobolds) as his spy network, the kobolds mostly being the bureaucrats. As for what Perlivash does as the magister, mostly he tries to make the place awesome, by making sure that there are sprays of sparkles all over the place and that people can have a good time playing in the wind.

(Hey, none of this is nearly as strange a kingdom as Outsea!)

[Jedric]

pennywit wrote:

What you said...

I really like the idea of the caster's tower. I'm going to suggest it to them.

androstre wrote:

all

Also good ideas. Thanks everyone!