I'm looking at making an Instructor Wizard in the next campaign I'm a part of, however I've got a couple questions regarding the apprentice and it's progression.
1) At level 1 the Instructor starts with an 1st level Commoner as an Apprentice, does their Apprentice advance to 2nd level Commoner when they attain enough XP to level up, or are they locked as a 1st level Commoner until after the Instructor reaches 3rd level?
2) At 3rd level when the Apprentice becomes a 1st Level Wizard, does this replace a level of Commoner or is it added in addition to their Commoner level(s)?
3) I know the Apprentice must take the same Arcane spell school as the Instructor, however is the Apprentice eligible to select a different subschool? For example, if the Instructor has Illusion as their spell school (no subschool) can the Apprentice be Illusion with the Shadow subschool?
4) Can the Apprentice take a wizard Archetype, so long as it keeps it's spell school?
5) After 3rd level, is the Apprentice eligible to take levels outside of Wizard or must all of it's levels be in Wizard?
6) Does the Apprentice continue to advance if the Instructor takes levels outside of Wizard?
7) If the answer to 5 &/or 6 is no, does that change after 7th Level if the Instructor takes the Leadership feat?
8) The Apprentice ability says that the Apprentice never gains item creation feats, I assume this also prevents them from obtaining Scribe Scroll at 1st Level Wizard as well, or is that line meant to pertain only to their selection of Bonus Feats at every 5th Level? If it does also prevent obtaining Scribe Scroll, then does the Scribe Scroll bonus feat class feature simply become a dead class feature for them?
By default cohorts have to be 2 or more levels below their leader. Locked as 1st level commoner until 3rd, when their commoner level becomes a wizard level.
The same school specialization means the same subschool I think.
No reason they couldn't take an archetype as far as I can tell. Though having an instructor wizard as your cohort is needlessly multiplying the amount of characters you have to keep track of IMO.
The apprentice isn't required to take more levels in wizard, though I'd wonder what you were teaching them if they wandered off into an entirely different class. You aren't required to take more levels in wizard after L3 either, there's nothing dependent on your wizard level in the archetype after that.
For whatever reason, scribe scroll is a dead feat to the apprentice.
The reason behind some of the questions is I had the intention to make an character in my next campaign that is actually a pair of twins... the Instructor Wizard archetype gives an option to allow me to have both in play from 1st level (even if one is unable to do much of anything until 3rd level).
I wanted one of them to be a Shadowcaster Wizard with the Illusion-Shadow school, while the other is a more broad study Illusionist wizard. If they are in fact locked to the same subschool as well, then that's a bit of a bummer...
Being eligible for levels outside of Wizard is important incase I were to take one (or both) into a prestige class later on, though not really a deal breaker if it's not an option.
And yeah... no intention of ever pursuing the nightmare that is having an Instructor Wizard as a cohort... that would indeed be a needless complication that would ultimately result in a lot of dead weight if not dead apprentices...
With Scribe Scroll being a dead feat for the Apprentice... that leaves me wondering what options I might have available to replace Scribe Scroll while still being eligible for the Shadowcaster archetype...