WIZARDS: Here to School You
Wizards devote their entire life to the study of the Arcane; which could be centuries for the races with a longer life-span. They spend their nights reading and writing in their spell books, spend their mornings memorizing spells, and spend their gold on spell components and scrolls. When I start thinking about a new Wizard character I’m going to roleplay, there are a few parts of their backstory I consider which I believe shape the way they act when magic is involved.
WHY DO THEY STUDY MAGIC?
Let’s start with what motivates your Wizard. This isn’t necessarily explaining why they answer the call to adventure, but it could be the same reason. It takes a considerable amount of time and effort to be a good spell caster, so why start in the first place?
Well, they could start at a very young age due to living in a family filled with Mages. They may simply be expected to carry on a legacy. If that’s the case, do they resent not having a choice? Do they feel pressure to be perfect and better than all the rest? Maybe they feel a sense of destiny and purpose that self-motivates them to gain power.
Alternatively, they could start much later in life. If an Elf expects to live for centuries, they could have a change in profession at age 150 without even second-guessing. Their reasoning could be for purely academic purposes. They could be a scientist wanting to investigate the connection between science and the arcane. Or perhaps they were devoted to a deity for the first 100 years of their life, but are disillusioned and are now seeking a new purpose. If so, a natural curiosity might push them to be reckless or at least adventurous with magic.
Maybe your Wizard simply needs gold. They’ve shown a slight natural affinity to the arcane, and a more experienced mage offered to teach them. In exchange, they write scrolls, brew potions, and forage for spell components to sell. Whether they owe a major debt, they can’t yet afford to leave their hometown or just want a lavish life, making gold is not a bad reason to learn magic.
HOW DO THEY STUDY?
There can certainly be more options for this question, and definitely a way your answer is a combination of the four I have to discuss: a Magic School, a Master, Family taught, or Self taught.
If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, you might want to live out your fantasy by having your young Wizard attend a school of Magic. If the concept fits your DM’s world-building ideas, imagine living at a school with friends while you maneuver through standard adolescent obstacles and study for your big Evocation exam. Your DM can place old friends, professors or adversaries in the world as NPCs throughout the campaign.
Or you can explore the opposite method. Instead of having a huge cast of friends and mentors for support, you can learn magic as an apprentice to an old mage who lives by himself in a tall castle hidden in the woods. It could have been a lonely life of scrubbing floors and making meals for the old man, but he taught you incredible secrets.
Let’s say you’re born to a powerful mage. From the moment you say your first word and learn to walk, you might have studied the arcane arts at the same time you learned to read and write. Alternatively, maybe you love reading and just happened to stumble upon a long-dead Wizard’s spell book. You became enthralled with his musings on the very nature of magic, and you quickly developed a thirst to teach yourself the spells he left behind for a new generation.
Finally, besides who you learn from, another aspect of your learning to consider is how good of a student you are/were. Are you a prodigy that seems to pick up complex spells with great ease, or do you find yourself getting frustrated each night by the firelight as you practice the basics over and over again. Are you a Level 10 Wizard at the age of 21, or still a Level 1 Wizard at the age of 221?
WHAT DO THEY STUDY?
Obviously, I can place a link to the Wizard Subclass page here and be done. Each subclass in D&D deals with a specific focus for your magic - Abjuration, Evocation, Illusion, Chronurgy, Necromancy, Blood Magic, etc. You can pick based on what you feel gives you the best mechanics, aesthetics, or however else you want to choose.
The question again is WHY you study what you study. And that answer, like all the other answers you give in this article, can shape your backstory and how you roleplay your character. A mage interested in mastering Time might secretly want to go back and change a life-altering event. A Necromancer might have intentions of securing their own mortality or that of a loved one. Are you into Illusion magic to help you advance in a Thieve’s Guild? Or do you wish to learn the most powerful Evocations to model yourself after a hero who once slayed a Dragon to save your small town?
CONCLUSION
Of course, there are a dozen other factors you can think of when deciding how to roleplay your Wizard. But I would argue that the lifelong study of the Arcane is just as essential to them as is a Deity to a Cleric.
If you want ideas on how to translate your unique Wizard into a cool description of their magic, check out the article “How to Describe Your Spell Casting.”
