Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Doleth 03-14-07, 11:16 AM	Hi fellow geeks! In my next game, I'm going to play as a artic elven(from unearthed arcana) wizard/frost mage(from Frostburn). His father is a influent teacher in a nordic mage academy and his mother is a Rusalka(a snow nymph). He spent most of his childhood with his mom, learning about nature and whatever fey learn in their childhood until he was sent to his father, who enlist him in the academy. After he graduate, he became an assistant for one of the teacher. Now, I'm posting here because I'm not sure why that guy would go out in the world and adventure, so I'm asking the fine mind of the Character Development board for inspiration as to the motivation of my character, Ael'azair Vandeth. However, here is a small condition, I don't want the school to be destroyed or thing of the like, because I want one of his goal to be becoming one of the most respected teacher in that academy. Thanks in advance for your advice and excuse me if some of the words are written strangely or if I made syntax error, I'm not a native english speaker(well writter in this case).
Ensjak 03-14-07, 11:55 AM	Doleth, You've practically answered your own question. Why does Ael'azair Vandeth adventure? To become a more respected scholar at the academy. I can tell you from experience that in instutions of higher learning, real world experience is needed just as much as a doctorate for professors in certain fields to be credible. For example, the chairman of the marketing major at a college had better have worked for a major corporation or an advertising agency at some point before becoming a professor. Likewise, no one will respect the Communication Studies professor who teaches Corporate and Organizational Communications but has never actually worked in the business or corporate setting. You can apply the same to a wizardly academy in a fantasy setting. A mage who has actually used an abjuration spell to save his own skin and can swear by it will be far more respected by students than the wizard who has never had to cast a spell under pressure before or hasn't tested his magic in real world applications. If you'd like to give him some more direction in his adventuring (because just "getting experience" is sort of bland and provides no adventure hooks), he could be searching for some foreign magic to bring back. Perhaps the Academy has a strong concentration on evocation and conjuration since this is where the majority of elemental spells that would feature ice and fire (I imagine keeping warm would be HUGE for an arctic people). But they may not know much about the illusion or enchantment schools of magic. If you want to get even more specific, the professor that Ael'azair was the assistant to may have sent him off to retrieve a rare spell component, scroll, artifact, or maybe even just to represent him in a wizardly/scholarly convention. Something in any of these scenarios goes wrong. I.E. the component isn't available but it's rumored to be at a market the next town over or the scroll or artifact was retrieved but is stolen and now he has to find out who did it and get it back. Or he stuck his foot in his mouth and volunteered himself to serve as the convention's delegate to some mission (this works well if your DM structures the beginning of his campaign with the cookie cutter "you've all been summoned before the king because of your great abilities" or whatever). Anyway, sounds like fun. Hope the campaign and you character survive long enough for him to get back to the academy and show up his peers.
Chrono Nexus 03-14-07, 01:51 PM	A baker (level 3 expert) and his son (level 1 expert) are working in the kitchen. The son is terrible at baking, and no matter how hard or long he practices, he never seems to get better. Seeing the futility of the situation, the father takes his son aside, and hands him a longsword. "Son, you suck at baking. But there is a way to fix that- the wisdom that I'm about to share with you will help you for a lifetime, so pay attention. Senseless violence and killing makes you better at baking. Don't ask me how, but once you've killed your first few orcs, the knowledge will just come to you... so get out there, and become the greatest baker ever!" ~ Replace baker with scholar and you're set.
Doleth 03-14-07, 07:48 PM	Thanks for your help. I'll elaborate further with your idea Ensjak, they will provide good motivation and nice adventure hook for the Dm to set. And Chrono Nexus, your post made me laugh, wich is always a good thing in my book;).