Quintessential II 04: Wizard (d20)
Wizards. Unique magicians with the patience¸ discipline and mental prowess necessary to twist the fundamental forces of the universe to do their bidding. Wizards must work hard for their power; unlike other spellcasters who receive their magic as intuition or inspiration¸ a wizard studies¸ toils and labours to find the correct formulae for his spells¸ experimenting and researching without rest. The path of a wizard is incredibly flexible¸ allowing him to choose his own style of magic; he can become a master craftsman that can construct any magical item¸ specialise in a school of magic to increase his power in a certain area¸ or seek to qualify for one hundred and one prestige classes that deal with arcane acumen. The wizard is the unparalleled master of magic¸ capable of wrenching the secrets of the universe from the firmament. With the help of this sourcebook¸ any character choosing the wizard class will find many alternatives and options expanding his range of abilities. With career paths¸ wizards can customise their advancement and gain special benefits from their chosen branch of training. Legendary classes offer a subset and expansion of their magical prowess that may take them to epic levels and beyond. Multiclassing offers a wizard a complement to his abilities¸ while spell research and offers a complete system for wizard characters to create their own personalised spells. Also included is a complete system for creating and running magic schools¸ abodes of learning and research as well as established authorities on all things arcane.
Like fighters¸ wizards are the other side of the genre's coin; one of the elements of 'sword and sorcery¸' and creating options not yet explored by other sources proved a little difficult. I had not only to complement the excellent material in the original The Quintessential Wizard¸ but I also had to manage not to step on the toes of three years' worth of Encyclopaedia Arcane. Luckily¸ magic is a vast field¸ and there will still be scores of books that can be written about it; even if dealing with 'Advanced Tactics¸' I still feel like I only scratched the surface of the subject of wizards and their craft. Spell Research was something I had wanted to do for some time as I noted the similarities and apparent structure beneath the game's magic system. As I delved deeper¸ I discovered that such structure is very shaky and depends on many judgement calls about what 'game balance' is. I took the main features of most of the existing spells and distributed them along a framework which could be used to draw equivalents to truly unique effects that would create equally unique spells. I must admit I am a fan of toolkits¸ and I could not resist the temptation to make this chapter into one. Another of the interesting chapter was Magic Schools¸ which gave me the chance to honour a classic in fantastic literature¸ where a hot shot young wizard learns about magic and must deal with dark forces he unwittingly unleashed. I am not talking about the bespectacled kid with the lightning-shaped scar¸ but about Ged¸ also known as Sparrowhawk from Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series. The school of magic depicted there was not a whimsical place to have all sort of exciting adventures; it was a mysterious and foreboding place where young men and women were taught to mess with the fabric or reality. With that in mind (and yes¸ also with that other school of witchcraft and wizardry)¸ the chapter flowed pretty consistently¸ until new things began to pop up in my mind and I had to go back to previous sections and write them in before I forgot about them. All in all¸ I hope this becomes a useful tool or even a temporary crutch for Games Masters who want to answer the question of who taught magic to his campaign's wizards. Of the rest of the chapters¸ Tricks of the Trade gav