Gametable - Magician's Apprentice - Currently Solo.

[Senevri]

First of all, I'm not looking for more players here. You'd need to be able to speak finnish, to get involved.

I'm hoping to attract more players, but currently my addiction made me fire up Gametable and lure a player in.
So, in the small town of Bluebrook, a dwarf studies under a human wizard just a bit older than him, the art of spellcraft. The wizard Walaver mostly sells spell components and some alchemical items (since crafting magic drains XP,) and the appretice is the one who has to go and gather them
Strict SRD, sticking to Core3, in fact.

I've been itching to run a Wizard game ever since I realized none of my players really know what all the low level spells can do. My currently solo player is the closest thing to an optimizer of the bunch, which helps. I want to keep people on lower levels long enough so that they get to try out and really understand the potential of their spells.

Some amazing fun with spell components. Normally PCs just get them from your local specialist market, on higher level games -- the Player in this instance is that very person who gathers those components. Collecting Adder's stomaches, hairs from a bull, or owl's feathers, are just the kind of things a solo 1st level wizard can handle.

I'm thinking of going a bit tome-of-gears - y in this game, meaning that really obscene higher GP wealth levels don't have actual value in the magical item sense. Sure, you can live like a lord with money, but it won't buy more power, per se.

Never-the-less, every 100 GP effectively means the player can afford to scribe one more spell from their master's spellbook into their own. Also, as they just sold a month's worth of alchemicals they'd crafted, he's been deemed advanced enough to acquire a Familiar. That is almost like a mini-level-up in itself.

I find this all very intriguing - I'm doing some experiments with role-playing and worldbuilding on the side - but still, a second player would be nice, in keeping them occupied while I'm scrambling for stuff to happen.

There's definitely an almost 'Joe the Commoner' like charm to this game. Also, Gametable is seriously awesome.

I've fallen in love with one type of 'cursed' objects - the ones which have specific working conditions, like 'only works at night' or 'needs a quest to start functioning properly', too. A local Evil Cult (tm) is sneaking around in cloaks which grant a bonus to hide checks during night-time. Of course, the PC can't meet any of them just yet. Way too risky.

He already almost died on a wild dog, and once on a single goblin. Grease actually has a bit of an issue on these levels, in that it's hard to hit that prone target when there's a -4 to hit. Someone with a longspear would solve that, though.

I want to make him face either rats or centipedes next - I think I can allow him to face up to 4 of those at once.

Anyway, his charsheet: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=2256

Sleep has been, unsurprisingly, the king spell thus far. Burning Hands would be better if there were mobs, but a solo can't handle those. I think he keeps forgetting the acid flasks, and he hasn't even considered getting a guard dog.

His master is a frail old (age category) man, with sevens on all physicals and a toad familiar. His build is Expert 1/Wizard 5, since as a plain NPC with starting stats of 10, 10, 10, 13, 10, 8... He probably hasn't adventured purposefully a day in his life, although he's faced challenges enough to become the most powerful arcane character in the area.
Ah, why don't I just...

[spoiler]
Walaver Dryadson
CR 5 Old Wiz 2/Expert 1/Wiz +3
Abilities: 7[-2], 7[-2], 7[-2], 16[+3], 13[+1], 10

Spells per day:
4/4/3/2
0:
1:
2: Alter Self, Extend Mage Armor, _
3: Summon Monster III, Fireball,

Spellbook: Memorized plus (10 total free)
0: all cantrips
1: Mage Armor, Identify
2: Bull's Strength,
3: Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

Skills: +9 base; Spot, Listen +14
HP: 13 HD: 5d4+1d8
BAB: +3; GRP: +1

Saves: -1/-1/+7

Class Features: Summon Familiar, Scribe Scroll, Simple Weapon & Light Armor proficiency
Extend(1), (B), Brew Potion(3), Craft Wand(6), Craft Wondrous Item(W), Alertness(f)

Wealth: 325 gp.
- Wand of Color Spray 750gp,
- Wand of Magic Missile(3rd), 2,250gp
- Alchemist's Lab 500gp
- Spell Component Pouch
- Spellbook, Wizard's
- Outfit: Cold Weather, Scholar's, Traveller's
- Ring of Protection +1: 2000GP;
- Tanglefoot Bag, Thunderstone, Sunrod, Smokestick, Antitoxin, Alchemist's Fire: 172GP
- Philosopher's Stone
- Potion of Invisibility 300gp, Potion of Hide from Undead 50gp, 2x Potion of Cure Light Wounds

Familiar:
Toad: +3 HP; Listen, spot +
Defense: HP 6, HD 6, AC 18/t15/ff17 Saves +2/+3/+7; Improved Evasion
Actions: BAB +3, Share Spells, Empathic Link, Deliver Touch Spells(+4 touch), Speak With Master
Skills: Hide +21, +9 base
Abilities: [-5], [+1], [ 0 ], [-1], [+2], [-5]

Summon: Celestial Hippogriff
[/spoiler]

So: Suggestions, ideas, anything on your mind that could help? I am aware of the solo campaign thread on the other board, but I am trying to recruit players, so this isn't strictly solo. Hopefully.
I don't think getting to level 2 is too bad, but I think I might want to stick to really low-level critters most of the time, just to slow down XP gain. On the other hand, there should be some more powerful individuals, and some straight down unbeatables mixed in, from time to time.

What I'm planning... when I get a few more players, or when he hits level 4, he's going to be sent for a more arcane schooling. I'm thinking I want a flying island. There, will be lots of wizardly events, mage duels and whatnot. After all, one of the points is training the _players_ in mage-craft, so to speak.

I think I also want to include the Faeries quite a bit. a Sprite from the D&DWiki will be involved within a couple of sessions. If it seems he's heading for trouble, I'll hand him a CL 1 wand of magic missile. 

I also want some sort of an event where he's tagging along with his master and there's some combat. The master has the mighty Fireball, after all and he can ride on a Celestial Hippogriff Some of his stats are plot devices, like skills and what spells exactly are prepared, or known, for that matter.

[Senevri]

Gaming besides combat.

I want to avoid any serious combat situations, and want this game to be generally lower on combat, and higher on plotting and interaction with the world than usual. There'll be terribly challenging combats, too, but those are... just one part of the story.

I'm going to be somewhat strict when it  comes to material components, and somewhat stingy with wealth - gold will lose it's value as far as powerful magic goes, eventually. But that's not the topic I wanted to talk about.

I am planning to have a mage fair, with spellcasting duels between apprentices and wizards a part of it. Any suggestions in running those?

In general, non-combat encounter suggestions? Preferrably ones that still give a chance to show off the character's abilities - skills or spellcasting.

[dither]

I ran a solo game for a rogue/wizard who was studying to become an arcane trickster for a couple months last year, it was pretty thrilling. If you're at all familiar with the 4e Skill Challenge system, you can crib some ideas from that. As stated in the above post, opt for non-combat encounters; in the game I ran, in something like two months of in-game time, the character faced two combat encounters in total.

Both of them were "muggings" by CR 1/2 human warriors who were sent to "silence" the character.

Of course, because the character I was running for was a rogue/wizard, he had a lot more skills than your average wizard. Since he started taking rogue levels first, before he took any wizard levels, I made him create his spellbook from scratch, adding each page to the book as per the rules in the Spellcasting section of the PHB. I didn't charge him for components, since he's entitled to all of them for free, so what I required of him was that he took the *time* to create the book.

My idea of a solo game revolves around using "time" as a resource, and with a wizard, you have to rest regularly, take an hour to study your spellbook. You can also throw eating and bathing in there: I'm not saying roleplay every scene, just go through the motions of a slice-of-life story and then build your plots with the idea that the PC has to work in adventuring around all his/her other commitments.

In one town the character traveled to, he met a 5th-level conjurer who ran a small alchemical item/spell component shop a lot like the one you described. He was originally looking for a way to pawn some expensive spell necromantic components off, and I wrote a short adventure about a "magical auction" that he attended; there was the process of getting the items identified and appraised (introduce more NPCs for these tasks) then meeting and dining with various auction participants (introduce more NPCs); there was the auction itself, where he found a couple of items he was actually interested in (introduce more NPCs).

Once the auction was resolved, there was one scumbag wizard who'd purchased one of his items but used illusory money to pay for it, which the character then had to track down. He befriended another wizard whose brother was beset by a strange curse the character could study (and the history of the NPC family and how the curse came about). And then there was the conjurer shopkeep the character befriended, who offered some morning lessons to help him to cast conjuration spells better (ad-hoc power: 1/day get a +1 bonus to CL of conjuration spell cast). I wrote a bunch of mini-essays about conjuration from the perspective of different low-level conjuration spells taken from the Spell Compendium and Player's Handbook, and used those as the basis of the lessons.

Explore what happens during the time when the wizard studies his spellbook. In particular, one of the facets of wizard life I explored with my player was the "aristocrat" side, with all the local NPC wizards being scholars and philosophers engaged in minor politics.

...There are also non-combat encounters with magical creatures. Fey, in particular, are low-level magical beings with strange concepts of morality and an abundance of curiosity. Spontaneous animated objects and small, talking animals are also good for story ideas. The Monster Manual and Monster Manual 2 have some great low-level creatures with interesting magical abilities worth exploring: the pseudodragon and the grimalkin are a couple of my favorites. Item crafting can be a great basis for a story in a big way: find the components, add complications, create an interested party, etc. Maybe an NPC commissions the character to craft an item that's beyond the character's ability? Maybe he has to figure out who to turn to who can actually create the item, and then force deadlines on the character. Put them in debt.

It's great to have lots of colorful NPCs for a solo player to interact with, but try not to make more than a couple of them too detailed or it'll get confusing. A regular shopkeeper and/or teacher are good. Maybe an aristocrat and a fellow up-and-coming wizard the player can identify with, who can be a potential rival.

For more ideas, check out the Dresden Files and see how some of the encounters the character has might be applied to your own setting. There are lots of other good references for characters who study magic, though I think I'd start with the Dresden Files simply due to Rule of Cool.

[Senevri]

Wow, thank you, dither. That's good stuff.

[dither]

Wow, thank you, dither. That's good stuff.

Thanks. If you want any more specifics/brain storming, ask away. If you use any of these ideas, please share & share alike.