Magical Schools and Semesters

[LankyOgre]

What is really expected from a semester in a magical school (Inner Sea Magic)?
The sidebar suggests that you should have several semesters per level, but for a lot of games, you can easily earn several levels in a single week if there are a lot of encounters. Also, are characters just running out in the world the entire time? Is there no real expectation that they are attending classes of any sort?
I'm not really sure how you would actually tie them into a campaign.

[AwesomenessDog]

Keep in mind that leveling up isn't the same thing as the years of training you undergo to just learn the basics of magic. A human wizard has 2d6 (2 to 12) years of training they can need to undertake before they can even cast 2 first level spells per day. It's assumed they are also being loosely taught or instructed in self tutoring for all the abilities and spells that they will learn for free with their level ups.

The Wizard College in Korvosa also heavily implies that many graduates may just be a level 1 wizards (able to only summon an imp as part of their final exam in the conjuration school that everyone is required to undergo), but some of the most powerful graduates have been at least level 11 wizards (as they were able to call and bind an Erinyes devil). The extra exception that the college in Korvosa makes is that once you enroll, you either die, or you attend all your classes until you properly graduate and aren't allowed to leave the college grounds. They can keep you there after you excel to the point that you become a level 5+ wizard which is part of how they manage to have level 11+ graduates that haven't already been poached by adventuring groups, nobles looking for retainers, etc. like could happen at another magic college.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Magic schools aren't really meant for PCs after they start the game, no matter what Harry Potter would have you believe. The schools are for PC backgrounds and NPCs.

The major reason for this is that most people don't want to die and kind of lazy interested in leisure.
Most people are not interested in risking life and limb for a few riches, so won't want to go out adventuring. Most people are not so intent on learning that they will cram information and practice and experience as hard and fast into their noggins as possible.

That said, you can make it work. The best source for magical schools for PCs in a campaign is Glantri's Great School of Magic (GAZ 3: The Principalities of Glantri). Many of the basic assumptions of the way the school works is based on BECMI rules, but they can be easily adapted to other systems. Things like needing to find a trainer in order to level up - having level 20+ wizards as masters helps! The wide variety of useful non-weapon proficiencies (in d20 terms: skills and feats) one can learn is also nice. Plus, you gained xp for learning and creating new spells, crafting, and acquiring and reading books.
PCs are assumed to adventure about 4 months of the year (tuition needs to come from somewhere, not everyone has rich parents), and there are ideas for what sort of level 0-1 adventures that can be appropriate for PCs. Leveling up occurs when a master decides to train and test you.

[LankyOgre]

Okay. Thanks for the responses.
I was looking specifically at the schools from Inner Sea Magic. And on a related note, the Combat Schools in Inner Sea Combat.
They have specific rules for PCs gaining benefits based on the organization, but they seem to straddle the line between calling themselves a school and maybe being more an organization.