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>For all but a True mage I would agree. True Mages are so rare as to demand
>their price. For a level 2 or 3 true mage to come and be your pet landed
>wizard I can see it- but for a higher level (5+) wielder of land magic they
>might become an ally but not a lt.
>
>We used the 1 GB/level rule in a campaign (not mine) until someone hired a
>level 6 mage for 6 GB and threw the whole campaign out of whack. Remember
there's only about 140 of these folks around (of whom about 50 are elves) so
the pool
>of talent is pretty small. Most of these are already accounted for in
published material- leading to another Randaxian rule- only one PC true mage
allowed at
>any one time. The player who wants to play a true mage must develop a
>background story and explain why s/he's on the open market. I've run whole
>stretches of my BR campaign without a MU in the party. No problem.
>
Normally, I would not get involved in this thread. As far as I personally
am concerned, a lt.'s maintenance is part of the normal maintenance you pay
on your holdings. Eg. The lt. is your castle seneschal/guild
secretary/clerical assistant, whom you support by providing a castle/guild
hall/temple to live in and a place at the table when you eat, etc. I do not
normally allow true mage lt's as they are far to uncommon for non-elven
rulers. Magicians are a special case that have not come up yet in my
campaign.
However, Randax, I have questions regarding your statement regarding true
mages. You suggest that there are " about 140 of these folks around (of
whom about 50 are elves)". I must ask are you referring to blooded mages
when you say true mages or are there more human wizards than elven wizards
in your campaign. In my campaign the number of human blooded wizards is
approximately the same the number of blooded elven wizards, simply because
magical training is more available in the elven kingdoms.

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In previous work done by that Mighty Dane Jan Arnoldus, the number of true mages
in published materials (before TotHW) was tallied. The count was 72 human
blooded wizards and 12 elves. Assuming half of these have apprentices and 5 at
the Temple of Rilni, you have 131. Allowing 10 for Tribes, add a few PCs and
(DM created) NPCs we're at (or above) the limit.

From these demographics, elves are definately in the minority- moreso than I
recalled. Your post made me dig for the old thread. I'd revise the estimate of
elven mages to about 25. 12+2(those I recall from Tribes)+7 apprentices+4(20%
slop factor). They're rarer than you or I thought.

Randax