Wizard's Guild Initiation Trial

[Matafuego]

Hello everybody.

I didn't know where to put this thread since the "Plot and stuff" section vanished so I guess the General is a good place, otherwise I'm sorry and please move it :|

Short Introduction:

One of my players comes from a very anti-magic race. Kind of like the Dwarves where back in the old days. This race has a very vast knowledge of Psionics but they don't get magic and even get some good bonus saves against it (only arcane magic)

This player is under the belief that his family is wrong and he wants to start the first guild of wizards. Now he left his Homeland with some friends with the desire to learn the most he can from magic.

Last session they arrived to a very large and important mining city that has a very powerful Wizard Guild (with not very much memebers)

Since he wants to learn the more he can of it and most certainly would love to join them I wanted to make some "Initiation Trial" to see if he was fit (that is to say if he has, the knowledge, the ability and the desire to work with magic)

I got the idea that it would consist of three separate "tests"

The first one is the Knowledge one. It's suppose to be a test in which the Initiate shows his knowledge of magic and arcana (not just a spellcraft check although there are spellcraft requisites for joining)

[Spoiler from "The Sword of the Dales" an old module for Forgotten Realms]

Spoiler

I thought of using the circle of magic schools that is in the module "The Sword of the Dales" from Forgotten, where there are like 10 rooms each with a jar that represents the schools of magic (with elementalism and wild magic) and you have to identify them (it's rather simple) and put them in a circle drawn in the room opposite schools opposing each others, but since there are no more opposite schools I don't think I can.

[end Spoiler]

For the Ability One I'm not sure of what to do. It should be something that tests the Magic Ability of the Wizard. I thought of a Dispel Magic check but it seems obvious and maybe not appropriate for some wizards whose strength is elsewhere (the player is an evoker).

And for the desire one I wanted the Guild to demand the research of a new spell to get in and the research of a new spell to advance further inside.

Any thoufhts or ideas are more than welcomed

(I apologize for my english it's rustier than it ever was )

(Fixed spoiler tags for you. -Hyp.)

 

[Vahktang]

First off, what is the purpose of the guild?
If it's 'keep the wizards in power', then power tests would be what is wanted.
How many fireballs, how effective.

If it's 'let's explore magic', then a series of questions about magic (skill rolls of knowledge arcana, spell craft, maybe of the planes, etc)
And introduce a new spell.

The guilds in my campaign are for profit.
They teach the apprentices, keep libraries, send people out for raw materials to make scrolls and magic items, and are place for magic items to be created.
10 GP/year lets you buy stuff from that college.
100 gp/year makes it so item creation business can be thrown your way.

The guilds also do militia work and support the city council, etc.

Now, as to your problem, what are the three aspects of wizards the guild wants to promote?
For the knowledge one, a series of 3 questions, rolls of DC 15, 20, 25, enough where it would be hard to answer, but not impossible. Also, get aid from other skills (+2 circumstance bonus for each) Maybe let the player figure it out:
"The question is about Avorals, and the DC is 25."
"Ah, my character is the same alignment, speaks celestial and has 5 ranks in planer knowledge."
"Because you mentioned these things you get a total of +6 to your roll."

The wizard in question is an evoker.
Have a magical duel, evoker vs evoker, spell craft rolls and counter spells.
Not just dispel magic.

Finally, present the guild with an example of your item creation ability or a new spell.


Hope this helps a little.

More later,

Vahktang

 

[Cheiromancer]

Spoiler

This is what spoiler text looks like.

The boards have a spoiler tag- end your text with [/spoiler] and begin it with

Spoiler

.

 

[Angcuru]

I always liked the W.I.T. initiation trials in Quest for Glory 2: Trial By Fire.

Basically you have to implement everything you have learned of magic so far. I.E. what spells are useful in what situations, the combinations to use them in, etc.

Here's the run down of how it went:

First part, the caster is facing three bells, and a stand. One of the bells is magical, and the caster has to make it ring by identifying the magical bell, floating it over onto the stand, and triggering it's magic to make it ring.

Then you are put into what is essentially a tiny little pocket-sized astral plane, on a long walkway with obstacles to overcome. Anything from an iceberg to a locked door to cyclone, which require different sequences and combinations of spells to overcome.

Just thought it might be a good idea to use something like this for the ability section of the tests.

 

[Matafuego]

Sorry and Thanks for the Spoiler tags, didn't know that

Thanks Vahktang for your response.

The guild's purpose is to explore and extend their knowledge of magic.

Strangely it has no political importance whatsoever (in a very high political world). That's why elves (world's greatest wizards AND politicians) are not to fond of joining it.

So it's a non political guild with very high level neutrally aligned wizards (and very few elves).

They are very religious though (everybody is) and they worship the Goddess of Magic and the God of Knowledge.

The Evoker's duel was a great idea, the only problem is that wizards tend to have low HP and I do not want them to get almost killed everytime there's a duel (specially an evokers duel where fire could get out of hand... if you know what I mean )

[edit: I loved the Bell trial also. But the problem there is: how would the guild leaders know what spells he knows? would it be like a generic trial? if so maybe he needs some enchantment spell to get over something which he doens't have (one of the forbidden schools) and he will flank it]

The issue with the Knowledge thing is that I do not want it to be solved merely by a dice. That's why I want it to have some prerrequisite spellcraft or knowledge (like a PrC would have) and something for the PC to figure by himself (so he would have some sense of acomplishment)
Such as "you're very clever and you know how to use your brain, we like that"

And the New Item is a great idea also, I had entirely forgot about the item creation feats

 

[rounser]

One of the coolest things about Dragonlance in the RPG sense, I think (despite some of it's well-documented other failings as a campaign rather than novel setting) were the Test of High Sorcery and the trials that Knights of Solamnia had to perform to pass from the Order of the Crown to the Order of the Sword.

I remember fondly the knight's tests in the tomb from the old gold box game Champions of Krynn, and feel that it would be fun to make such a trial a non-negotiatable prerequisite for joining certain prestige classes. (After all, what were the Orders of the Sword and the Rose for the Knights of Solamnia but the definitive example of prestige classes as perhaps they were originally intended to be, as described in the 3.0 DMG?)

As far as source material goes, I would suggest the Dungeon Magazine Challenge of Champions series by Richards. IV might make a good test for a PC wizard to join a wizards' guild and attain the FRCS Guild Mage prestige class, for instance.