I'm not sure if this should go here or in House Rules, but I'll give it a whirl here on the off chance there's some rule I missed. 
I have a rather long-term plan in mind for my character to create a stronghold (via the Guide) and turn it into a sort of mage school, modeled somewhat loosely along the lines of a university.
Do any of y'all have suggestions for:
1) What a reasonable tuition is to charge aspiring students? Bearing in mind that a year is 2 terms (it's not broken down past that), and each year is designed to advance a student 1 level. My goal is to make the first year relatively affordable to teach the basic wizarding arts, and then offer continuing education for wizards who wish to keep access to the university perks, and/or continue gaining levels with relatively little risk of summary death through adventuring.
2) What would be a reasonable salary for faculty? My first instinct was to check the spellcasting costs, but I realized that not only did that not work hugely well for magic classes, but many of the classes would not BE magic classes. Skills like Knowledge of Arcana and Planes and such. Spellcraft. Alchemy. All kinds of basic wizardly knowledge that had nothing to do with spellcasting. I figured that access to the huge (and very expensive) library and university labs and stores would help attract mages even if the wages weren't stellar...but the idea is to get and keep quality professors. And that takes money. Any suggestions as to how much? (Note - I figure the minimum level for faculty would be level 5...and even that would be sort of junior-grade)
3) I assumed from the start that students would be responsible for many of their own materials (spellbooks and the like), though they'd be available for sale at the university, or through a nearby town, perhaps. I've compiled a small list of items that a student is required to have, but that aren't provided for free by the university. I'd like to see what others think too though. I may be missing things.
The university provides things like material components, glassware, and similar sundries that it's not reasonable to expect a student to buy in advance.
4) Realizing that tutition past the first year will likely be pretty high, I thought it might be reasonable to provide a credit system whereby a 2nd year or older student could scribe scrolls and apply half their value as a credit towards their tuition. The value is halved because the university would be providing the monetary cost of the scroll's creation. Up to 50% of tuition for a term can be thus earned. Does this seem reasonable? I realize that in strict game-mechanics terms that a scroll-scribing student should finish behind, since the exp cost would put him behind his fellows...which is one potential pitfall I percieve. Any ideas for how that could be handled? In my simplified model, the students simply gained a level at the end of each year...exp wasn't tracked for them. But I have to wonder if that's fair if I allow them to make scrolls. Thoughts?
5) Similarly, when I was trying to think of ways to encourage the faculty to make items, the GM suggested a rather intriguing idea. That there be a sort of central repository of magic items at the university. A faculty member can create a magic item to obtain a credit equal to the item's value (the creation of this item is funded by the university). The item is then added to the central store. A faculty member who has a creation credit can go to the store and "check out" an item of equal or lesser value than his credit. The credit is restored when the item is returned in operable condition. Items with charges only return credit based on the number of charges left in the item when returned, compared to how many were there when it was checked out.
This would allow a faculty member to create a single item, and gain access to a large number of items...even if it's only one at a time. I imagine there would be a cap on the amount of credit that any one person can have, to make sure that some doofus doesn't trade a single Staff of Power for the entire contents of the store. The items in the store are considered property of the university, held in trust by those who borrow them. If someone takes an item and never returns it, their credit is considered to have "bought" the item. Same thing if someone uses all the charges in a given item.
Thoughts on this? Is it fair? Would it work? The idea is to not only assist faculty with specific magic needs, but also to develop a large inventory of magic for use with defense and various utility needs.
6) Finally, another thing about faculty was thoughts of tossing around requirements for a certain amount of mafical research or spell research. This is particularly valid for the administrative faculty (the deans and so on) who don't have classes. Clearly the research would be funded primarily through the university, so there would be considerable incentive for wizards to do that. In return for the funding, the results of the research would be fully disclosed to the university, along with all materials and knowledge needed to replicate the research if needed...and a single scribed scroll of each new spell created (scribed at exp cost to the creator, but no gold cost). This seems reasonable to me, and a good approximation of the "publish or perish" system in place in most universities... Any ideas for what's a reasonable amount of mandated "publishing?" Assuming that teaching professors have an average of 5 classes per term, and that administrative faculty need to spend some time each week administrating and tending to the piles of paperwork on their desks...
Note that I have ideas for all these points, but I'm interested to see what others think before deciding once and for all.
Thank you all very much for your contribution to the construction of the Whitespire Academy of the Arcane Arts.
I have a rather long-term plan in mind for my character to create a stronghold (via the Guide) and turn it into a sort of mage school, modeled somewhat loosely along the lines of a university.
Do any of y'all have suggestions for:
1) What a reasonable tuition is to charge aspiring students? Bearing in mind that a year is 2 terms (it's not broken down past that), and each year is designed to advance a student 1 level. My goal is to make the first year relatively affordable to teach the basic wizarding arts, and then offer continuing education for wizards who wish to keep access to the university perks, and/or continue gaining levels with relatively little risk of summary death through adventuring.
2) What would be a reasonable salary for faculty? My first instinct was to check the spellcasting costs, but I realized that not only did that not work hugely well for magic classes, but many of the classes would not BE magic classes. Skills like Knowledge of Arcana and Planes and such. Spellcraft. Alchemy. All kinds of basic wizardly knowledge that had nothing to do with spellcasting. I figured that access to the huge (and very expensive) library and university labs and stores would help attract mages even if the wages weren't stellar...but the idea is to get and keep quality professors. And that takes money. Any suggestions as to how much? (Note - I figure the minimum level for faculty would be level 5...and even that would be sort of junior-grade)
3) I assumed from the start that students would be responsible for many of their own materials (spellbooks and the like), though they'd be available for sale at the university, or through a nearby town, perhaps. I've compiled a small list of items that a student is required to have, but that aren't provided for free by the university. I'd like to see what others think too though. I may be missing things.
The university provides things like material components, glassware, and similar sundries that it's not reasonable to expect a student to buy in advance.
4) Realizing that tutition past the first year will likely be pretty high, I thought it might be reasonable to provide a credit system whereby a 2nd year or older student could scribe scrolls and apply half their value as a credit towards their tuition. The value is halved because the university would be providing the monetary cost of the scroll's creation. Up to 50% of tuition for a term can be thus earned. Does this seem reasonable? I realize that in strict game-mechanics terms that a scroll-scribing student should finish behind, since the exp cost would put him behind his fellows...which is one potential pitfall I percieve. Any ideas for how that could be handled? In my simplified model, the students simply gained a level at the end of each year...exp wasn't tracked for them. But I have to wonder if that's fair if I allow them to make scrolls. Thoughts?
5) Similarly, when I was trying to think of ways to encourage the faculty to make items, the GM suggested a rather intriguing idea. That there be a sort of central repository of magic items at the university. A faculty member can create a magic item to obtain a credit equal to the item's value (the creation of this item is funded by the university). The item is then added to the central store. A faculty member who has a creation credit can go to the store and "check out" an item of equal or lesser value than his credit. The credit is restored when the item is returned in operable condition. Items with charges only return credit based on the number of charges left in the item when returned, compared to how many were there when it was checked out.
This would allow a faculty member to create a single item, and gain access to a large number of items...even if it's only one at a time. I imagine there would be a cap on the amount of credit that any one person can have, to make sure that some doofus doesn't trade a single Staff of Power for the entire contents of the store.
The items in the store are considered property of the university, held in trust by those who borrow them. If someone takes an item and never returns it, their credit is considered to have "bought" the item. Same thing if someone uses all the charges in a given item.Thoughts on this? Is it fair? Would it work? The idea is to not only assist faculty with specific magic needs, but also to develop a large inventory of magic for use with defense and various utility needs.
6) Finally, another thing about faculty was thoughts of tossing around requirements for a certain amount of mafical research or spell research. This is particularly valid for the administrative faculty (the deans and so on) who don't have classes. Clearly the research would be funded primarily through the university, so there would be considerable incentive for wizards to do that. In return for the funding, the results of the research would be fully disclosed to the university, along with all materials and knowledge needed to replicate the research if needed...and a single scribed scroll of each new spell created (scribed at exp cost to the creator, but no gold cost). This seems reasonable to me, and a good approximation of the "publish or perish" system in place in most universities... Any ideas for what's a reasonable amount of mandated "publishing?" Assuming that teaching professors have an average of 5 classes per term, and that administrative faculty need to spend some time each week administrating and tending to the piles of paperwork on their desks...
Note that I have ideas for all these points, but I'm interested to see what others think before deciding once and for all.
Thank you all very much for your contribution to the construction of the Whitespire Academy of the Arcane Arts.
)
