Member of the Council

[Angelbialaska]

College Wizard

The College of Sorcery is the largest institution of human and half-elven spellcasters in all of Cerilia and those attending the college very often achieve greatness in life. A few of those attending the college are offered the opportunity to continue their studies in the College in advanced magic, when others finish as fully-fledged Magicians and Wizards. In addition to their advanced studies, the advanced students are also expected to teach some of the less advanced students. These advanced classes run from 3 to 9 years, the average time spent being 6 years.

Prerequisites:
Spellcasting: Must be able to cast 3rd level arcane spells and must possess at least one realm magic spell. In addition the Wizard must be casting spells after memorization from a spellbook.
Feats: College Student and at least one metamagic feat
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 8 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks
Special: To become a College Wizard the applicant must receive approval by the Council of the College and must each year pay a fee of 2000 gold pieces to be allowed to study. On average 2 students are accepted per year.

1st: +0 attack bonus, +0 fortitude, +0 reflex, +2 will; Special: Improved spell acquisition, Library access, College spellcasting, Source access, Realm spell mastery; +1 to spell progression
2nd: +1 attack bonus,+0 fortitude, +0 reflex, +3 will; Special: Bonus feat; +1 to spell progression
3rd: +1 attack bonus, +1 fortitude, +1 reflex, +3 will; Special: Realm spell mastery, Reduced spell costs; +1 to spell progression

Special features:
Improved spell acquisition: College Wizards have access to a library that is larger and filled with more information than any other library in Anuire. They have access to forbidden areas that ordinary college students. To reflect this, the College Wizard learns one more spell when acquiring a level than an ordinary wizard. So three spells per level rather than two. This advantage remains even after the character finishes with the council Wizard, for as long as she has access to the libraries of the College. In addition to this the College Wizard receives a circumstance bonus to spellcraft equal to the level of College Wizard for the purposes of researching and learning spells.

Library access: Just like College Wizards have access to almost all spells in existence, they also learn how to search efficiently in the library, searching for any knowledge. To reflect this a College Wizard can use any Knowledge skill untrained and if ranks are possessed there is a +4 circumstance bonus to the knowledge check, provided that the College Wizard has 1d6 hours to search through the library.

Source access: Only the council and a select few students get access to the ley lines and the mebhaigl brought in by those ley lines. The level of these ley lines vary, but there is access to a level 7 source. To research and cast realm spells, the College has a pool of RP that are offered to the advanced students. Each student receives 1 RP per domain turn as part of their entrance fee. The Council must give approval before a student casts any realm spells and a Council member will oversee the entire process.

Realm Spell mastery: On 1st and 3rd level of College Wizard, the character may select one Realm Spell that they have access to, which they may add to their list over known Realm spells.

Bonus feat: A 2nd level College Wizard gains a feat. This feat may be one of the following: Any metamagic Feat, Any item Creation feat, Spell Focus, Greater spell focus, spell penetration or greater spell penetration

Reduced spell costs: A lot of dedicated research of realm spells and how to utilize the little resources that the College Wizard has available and this allows the character to find the most efficient way of casting a realm spell. The Wizard can choose to spend twice as much time casting a spell, in which case the cost of a spell cast by the character is halved, whether it's in GB, RP or ordinary gold pieces. The minimum cost for realm spells is 1 RP and 1 GB, the costs can't be reduced to below this.

Special: Should a Council Member ever leave the Council, they will lose all class features of this class, since they are unable to research with the same resources as before.

[irdeggman]

Several things:

I don't know why a prestige class should be created to account for one of only 10 individuals in Cerilia - note this is not just Anuire the Council comes from all across Cerilia.

Prerequisites should be capable of casting realms spells (and knowing X number). Council members don't join the council to learn realm spells (well nothing says they can't learn more) - they are supposed to be source masters and by implication capable of casting the most powerful of realm spells.

I don't think that the process for learning (and casting) realmspells in the BRCS-playtest will change very much. There has not been a lot of comments made in the past to infer that it will. I do believe that the number and specifics of the individual spells will change though.

Alright, having said that the process for learning realm spells as implied in this prestige class is not consistent. Realm spells (like epic spells) are all individually know. So even if two wizards both know a spell called Alchemy they are unique spells, even though the may accomplish the same thing so it is not the same as simply learning a spell from another wizard. The bonus for researching a realm spell for council menbers could be increasd from the standard +2 (in the BRCS) to +4 (or more).

As I read the BoM council members come in with their ownley lines connected to their own sources vice having predetermined "set" sources at the other ends. This makes sense in many ways and also accounts for differences in what each new memeber brings to the council.

With all of that I just don't see enough reasons to include this prestige class.

[Osprey]

Interesting PrC. I like the benefits of it.
Question: Does Improved Spell Acquisition apply only to PrC levels gained, or any time a wizard spellcasting level is gained? Might be good to specify there.

Might be good to rename Cooperative Spellcasting, since Cooperative Spell is a metamagic feat in Complete Arcane.
Perhaps Council Magic? Cooperative Realm Magic? Power of the Council? Strength of Unity?
Are all of the Council members lawful? I seem to recall some of them weren't, but I could be wrong. Also, a small edit: to say "must be Lawful" is sufficient in the writeup - that automatically means LG, LN, or LE.
So no sorcerers allowed as council mages, only wizards? Remember, 2e had no sorcerers, so it might be good to extend membership to any true mage, not just wizards.
All in all, good work. I like it.

[Angelbialaska]

Irdeggman:

Well, I know that the amount of characters is limited, but that's just like certain templates being limited. And I could imagine a character in a party becoming Council Member if they work closely with the Council. I feel that there would be some rule to account for how they work together and such.

The prerequisite of being able to cast realm spells is fine. However Realm spells are passed on to the heir, unlike Ley Lines which are not, at least the way I read it, so they're not that individual.

Council members do not bring their own ley lines. Each council member control a ley line, and these ley lines are protected by some real nasty special magic. And it sounds like the 10 lines have been there ever since Roele's death. I may misread that part though.

However where do they draw their power from? All provinces are accounted for and the members that are mentioned aren't any of the wizards that hold Anuire's sources. So I think the council have their own hidden sources that they pass on from member to member.

Osprey:
Improved Spell Aquisition would be only for PrC levels gained. The Cooperative thing can easily get another name.

The Council serve Imperial City and through the Imperial City they serve the Chamberlain and eventually the Emperor. That was why I thought of the Council as being Lawful.

Since the magic at the College of Sorcery is for studies and more studies, then it doesn't fit at all with the naturally spellcasting Sorcerer. I'd say that College of Sorcery is only for Wizards and Magicians and of those only blooded Wizards may be Council Members.

[Osprey]

The Council serve Imperial City and through the Imperial City they serve the Chamberlain and eventually the Emperor. That was why I thought of the Council as being Lawful.

Hmmm...I see your reasoning, it makes sense, I just see a Lawful alignment as being far more pervasive than loyalty. A chaotic character could be slavishly loyal to a lord, ideal, city, etc...it would be more because of their personal beliefs rather than devotion to a standing code or some such. Dunno...I expect Council members would tend to be lawful, just not sure I agree that they must be so.

What might make more sense (to me at least) is that they are required to swear an oath of loyalty and service upon joining the council. The PrC is, after all, something of an institution, so how does one require an alignment? An oath makes a lot more sense, especially if it is magically enforced by a geas or magic item with similar properties.

[irdeggman]

The prerequisite of being able to cast realm spells is fine. However Realm spells are passed on to the heir, unlike Ley Lines which are not, at least the way I read it, so they're not that individual.

Read from where? The BRCS-playtest (which this must match since it is in the d20 Atlas section and not home-brewed specifically talks about them being individual (pg 135)). Heck even in 2nd ed Realm Spells had to be researched (BRRB pg 82, except for the randomly starting 1d3 - no specification as to where they came from in the rules, but it is clear that Realm Spells are not taught but researched - and the 2nd ed rules for general spell research made every spell researched an individual spell that only the creator knew, unless he shared it with others - that was why researched spells didn't count towards the maximum number of spells a character could know.)

Council members do not bring their own ley lines. Each council member control a ley line, and these ley lines are protected by some real nasty special magic. And it sounds like the 10 lines have been there ever since Roele's death. I may misread that part though.

Again where is this from? True it doesn't specifically state my stand either. (All references to the College of Sorcery are from the BoM (56-60) and pretty much that is the only 2nd ed product that has anything except a side reference to it.) But as you pointed out earlier ley lines are sundered upon the regent's death unless he did a ley link action prior to dying. (BoM pg 31) This backs up my belief that council members bring their own ley lines in. Basically they bring in their own outside source and then run a new ley line into the city, of course the "other" council members must allow this to happen (see the special protections for the ley lne, source) . It is more logical to belief that at least a large number of council members died without setting into to place the ley link process especially since ths cuts off the council memebers access to the ley line.

However where do they draw their power from? All provinces are accounted for and the members that are mentioned aren't any of the wizards that hold Anuire's sources. So I think the council have their own hidden sources that they pass on from member to member.

What are you talking about? Are you saying that every source throughout Cerillia has been tapped? There is a reason that only 2 council members are identified in the BoM - basically to allow the DM to set up whomever he wishes to be the other council members, or to just let them remain "secret".

There is nothing in the BoM to imply that all council members must be from Anuire, gosh what race is current leader (Azusena Karitina) - doesn't sound Anuirean to me.

[irdeggman]

I would add a prerequisite of ranks in Diplomacy, 5 sounds like a good number. This is to justify the logic that the old College fell because of a lack of proper diplomacy with the regents in the land.

I agree with Osprey on the lawful thing, maybe instead can't be chaotic in nature.

How can you be partially lawful? You can be partially neutral, but not partially lawful or chaotic or good or evil.

What is meant by the special prereq;

The council member may not be affiliated with others than the College of Sorcery

?

Is this other organizations? Can they have taken the 12 Oaths? How about working out of the college of magic in Meodre?

[Raesene Andu]

Member of the Council

Sorry, but I agree with Duane on this. Making a prestige class just for the 10 members of the college council isn't that useful, as most PCs aren't going to be sitting around serving on the college staff. So it would be mainly a NPC class and not really suitable for the Atlas because of this.

However, I do see the benefits of a similar prestige class for wizard who undertake advanced study at the college. You have some good ideas here that could be used or modified.

First I would rename the class, call it College Wizard, or Royal Wizard, or something similar. Make it available for wizard who return to the College of Sorcery later in life to complete advanced studies, or for wizards who never leave the college, but continuing on studying, becoming masters in their own right (and so a wizard who stayed at the college could become a Wizard 5/Royal Wizard 3 sort of thing.)

Prerequisites:
Blooded: The character must be blooded and the blood must be untainted by Azrai's touch
Class: Must be a Wizard
Spellcasting: Must be able to cast 5th level Wizard spells
Alignment: Must be partially Lawful.
Special: Must be invited by the other council members. The council member may not be affiliated with others than the College of Sorcery. Only 10 Members of the Council may exist at a time.

Drop the requirement for the class to be wizard. I don't know of any prestige class that requires a specific base class. Also drop the requirement to be blooded, and the must be lawful requirement. Neither are really needed, although you could keep the no bloodlines of Azrai thing, that fits

Lower the spellcasting requirement to Must be able to cast 3rd level arcane spells if you want to make the prestige class accessable to lower levels.

Change the special to: Must be invited by the College of Sorcery council of masters to undergo the advanced studies in magic, or something like that. To underline that this class is only for those that wizards see great things for. Also mention something about the time the wizard must spend at the college to learn these secrets. Perhaps something like 1 month every season. This would mean that a regent wizard, who took up this prestige class, would need to give up one action round each domain turn for the course of his studies. This fits in neatly with the domain side of the game. If wizard isn't a regent then it might need to be longer, perhaps 2 months out of 3. You want to leave some time for adventuring though

You could add in some other requirements, but there is no need to go overboard really, as this class isn't easily available as it is.

Improved spell acquisition: Council Members have access to a library that is larger and filled with more information than any other library in Anuire. They have access to forbidden areas that college students and even faculty members cannot visit. To reflect this, the Council Wizard learns one more spell when acquiring a level than an ordinary wizard. So three spells rather than 2. Also the Council Member learn 1 realm spell automatically without research for each Member of the Council level.

Like this, but make sure that it applies to the wizard for any future level of wizard they take.

Cut the section on learning 1 realm spell and make it into a new ability...

Realm Spell Mastery: During his advanced studies at the college, the wizard learns the secrets of 1 realm spell. This is in addition to the base number of realm spells known by regent wizards.

Make this ability available at 1st and 3rd level, so a 3rd level Royal Wizard knows 2 additional realm spells.

Funding: A Council Member receives a funding from the College of Sorcery for being a Council Member and for teaching a few advanced classes in the College. They receive 100 x character level gold pieces each quarter (3 months, a turn) for personal research and spellcasting.

Drop this if you change the class to a non-council one.

Ley line access: Upon becoming a Council Member, the character receives access to one of the 10 ley lines running into Imperial City. This Ley Line goes to a level 1 source holding hidden away from all others. The line has ancient spells around it, which protects it against all sorts of ley line disrupting spells. Each domain turn a character gathers 1 RP from this source.

It hasn't be specified in any of the canon material that the ten ley lines from the College go to level 1 sources. They could go to more powerful sources. It would need to be defined (perhaps in the description of the College of Sorcery in the Atlas) exactly where these sources are and how powerful they are.

Most of the source holdings around the Imperial City have already been claimed by wizards, so can't get RP from them twice. If the college takes RP from sources in provinces near the city, then someone else misses out.

A possibility is that each of these 10 ley lines all link to Caerbhaighlien of various sizes, which is why they don't show up anywhere, and why they are so heavily protected. If you decide that this is true, then they would need to be described, so that they can be found by other wizards Good adventuring ideas actually.

The rest of the abilities only apply if you keep the class as one focused on council members and would need to be changed if you don't.

[The incredible, edible Phil]

Some prestige classes that could serve as inspiration could be:

Halruaan Elder (Shining South page 27) which I think is very nice in that it grants an ability that allows a character to reduce the increased spell slot for casting metamagicked spells by 1 (each time you must specify a metamagic feat).

Guild Wizard of Waterdeep (Magic of Faerûn page 26) introduces the concept of a spell pool that members of the guild can tap the "pool" for spells.

The previous prestige class update to 3.5 is the Mage of the Arcane Order (Complete Arcane page 48). I find this prestige class holds some nice incentives, including an ability at 10th level called Regent that grants a charisma bonus to all dealings within the order. This could easily be substituted to becoming one of the Deans at the College.

[Angelbialaska]

Okay, have edited the class a bit.