I'm A Level 1 Magic-User, What Does That Mean?

I'm A Level1 Magic-User, What Does That Mean?

Continuing the rabbit hole of what the AD&D 1E core books suggest or explicitly state about character classes, we're now exploring the glorious world of Magic-Users!

I'm going to do my absolute best to not go into tangents on how Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth handles Magicians (as Dying Earth is clearly a primary inspiration), but there will be some addendums on that matter certainly in the future.

First, unlike the Fighter, we're looking at racial restrictions. Only Humans, Elves, and Half-Elves have the propensity to become spellcasters of this variety, and only Humans can advance beyond 11th level in the class. While this is clearly Gygax's enforcement of an anthropocentric setting in action, I would like to say we can infer from this that the study of Magic is something that humanity's insatiable ambition makes possible. But I can't. Not when the Half-Elf gets cut off at 8 and the Elf is cut off at 11. If this were a human trait, you could reasonably believe that the Half-Elf would go to greater arcane heights than the Elf.

What we're left with is an arbitrary restriction that seems to be a counterbalance to the Half-Elf's ability to be a Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User and the Elf's ability to be a Fighter/Magic-User/Thief, or to restrict Half-Elves from getting 5th level MU spells and Elves from getting 6th level spells.

If the latter, we're prohibiting Half-Elves from getting access to Teleport, and both Half-Elves and Elves from getting the ability to Enchant an Item, cast Geas, cast Reincarnation, Wish, Clone, Gate, etc.

Guess what! Due to the Cleric level restrictions, Half-Elves and Elves are incapable of raising the dead in any way, except as zombies or skeletons, or through reincarnation as a Half-Elf Druid. The stock on Human MUs and Clerics just went way, way up.

Regardless, this lack of progression means that the Magic User player is incentivized to either play a Human or multiclass. Thus, Magic-Users that are Elves will tend to also be Fighters, Thieves, or all three, and Half-Elf MUs can add Cleric to the mix (though some combinations aren't possible).

Because of this, the Human Magic-User will often stand out from his Elfy counterparts. While the demis will have access to a better hit point pool, better weapon proficiencies, the use of armor, and better saving throws, the Human Magic-User will outpace them in XP growth (due to single classing) and in overall arcane potential.

Our AD&D Magic-User is not Gandalf or Turjan wielding Swords and Spells, but an academic, an inventor, a scientist. 

Between the d4 hit die's frailty, the painful penalty for nonproficient weapon use, the inability to use armor, and the lackluster choice of weaponry, the level1 Magic-User is a mewling kitten in battle when not using spells or throwing heaps of darts. It should be painfully clear that the early Magic-User's role is to know things, to learn languages and be a translator, to use magic items if he's discovered some, and to desperately pray that he knows the Sleep spell.

Though Tales of the Dying Earth is the one that explains that Vancian magic is mathematics, AD&D provides plenty of flavor to add to the sentiment. Take for instance "Spell Research." The DMG explains that the creation of a spell requires knowledge of all aspects of a magic, including works on history, geography, astrology, alchemy, etc. (p116) Learning a spell that has already been created is as simple as seeing if you can wrap your head around the formula and copy it into your spellbook. Thus, the creators of spells are those who are reaching the height of magical achievement, and the users of spells are those who are simply able to put to work the marvels that their predecessors have left behind.

When we ask ourselves, "what are spells," we are left with many things we can extract from the core books, and yet more things we can pull from our inspirational text. Spells are highly ritualistic, requiring flawless execution. They are formulaic, in that every MU conducts them in the same manner. The magical writing is legible, but incomprehensible without Read Magic, allowing the casting of unknown spells from scrolls. The output of the spells will increase based on the ability of the caster when memorized (hence scaling with levels), or the ability of the person who prepared the scroll when read from a scroll.

Speaking of spells, not all Magic-Users are created equal. AD&D requires an intelligence-based roll to see if a Magic-User is capable of understanding a spell, and if the roll is failed, he will remain incapable of learning it unless his intelligence increases, at which point a new roll can be warranted.

This brings us to the meat of the topic. The Magic-User is to receive four spells at character creation: Read Magic, and then a randomly selected spell from the Offensive, Defensive, and Miscellaneous spell categories. Previously in the paragraph (p39), Gygax states that these are spells learned from the MU's "master." The level1 MU is 26-40 if Human, 155-180 if Elven, and 32-46 if Half-Elven, making them Mature humans but mostly Young Adults when the Elf blood gets involved. Regardless, it is likely that years and years of instruction are required to reach the title of Prestidigitator (defined as someone who performs illusions to amuse an audience, hardly as impressive as our Patron Wizard). This raises the question: what is that Apprenticeship like?

This is not a Hogwarts style existence, where schools are created to foster the upcoming generations of Wizards for the benefit of all (though this could be accomplished to some decent effect in line with the war of Law and Chaos). Gygax states in the DMG that a created spell is to remain confidential between the player and the DM, thus we can infer that MUs are not keen to share their knowledge, or shouldn't be. And why would they be?

In the grand scheme, Magic-Users are not unlike great nations, and their innovations are technology. When a Magic-User is prepared, he can render Fighting Men obsolete. It's other Magic-Users who pose the greatest threats. So the simplest explanation for why the Wizard would share his knowledge with the aspiring Magic-User is to increase his own power.

The Prestidigitator (or level1 MU) either paid heaps of gold for the opportunity, or paid a pound of flesh in dangerous experiments or countless errands. In fact, this relationship is likely to continue for some time. Because of the training rules and the way spells are learned, your Magic-User is going to be in need of continued instruction from a Magic-User of greater ability.

I know I said I wouldn't do this, but let's take Turjan and Pandelume from Tales of the Dying Earth. Pandelume is a famed Magician, said to know all of the world's spells. Turjan seeks him out to learn how to create artificial life. Pandelume promises to teach Turjan to do this in exchange for an errand: retrieve something from Prince Kandive the Golden. Put your life in danger for my benefit, and I'll teach you something useful.

This should serve as a model for the Patron Wizard/Pupil MU relationship. A Patron Wizard is not risking life and limb unnecessarily. They're too important to the world, or to themselves. Being capable of understanding this level of magic is an incredible achievement. The loss of an aspiring Wizard is minor, but the loss of an accomplished Wizard is immense. The more useful the apprentice makes himself, the more daring tasks the Patron will bestow upon them, though they would be wise to be sure that they don't allow their apprentices to surpass them.  The Wizard who taught you those spells should be a constant presence in the campaign, and because of this, coordination with the DM is a must.

The relationship between the Wizard and the MU can have many dimensions. Some Wizards will be benevolent, some eccentric and selfish. All will guard their secrets carefully or else they would not have survived as long as they have.

And this is the future your MU can look forward to. You earn the right to become an enigmatic figure in the world, using your pawns to further your agendas. It's only matters of grave importance that require the personal attention of a powerful Wizard, thus the focus tends to be domain growth and major conflicts.

Unlike the Fighter, the Magic-User must wait until level12 to construct a Stronghold (weird, didn't we just establish it was 11+ in the random Stronghold encounters?), and will not attract the body of followers that the Fighter or Cleric will. The Magic-User must select worthy apprentices, and can collect only up to a meager 5 silver pieces per stronghold inhabitant per month in taxes.

Level12 is also when the ability to create Magic Items is on the table. Between the costs of research, magic item creation, training, stronghold development, and henchmen, the Magic-User is an absolute gold-sink. But the party will prize the Magic-User's ability to reshape the world through knowledge such that the donations will be worth the returns.

Fun With Math & Tables

The DMG tells us in the Henchmen class table that Magic-Users make up approximately 17% of the low level adventurer population.

How prevalent are prominent Wizards in the world? We can extrapolate from the wilderness tables that 5% of your wilderness encounters will discover a stronghold. 29% of small castles, 34% of medium castles, and 39% of large castles will be home to a high level character. Of them, 11% will be Magic-Users between 11th-14th level.

If I've done my math right, that's a little less than 1 in 500 random wilderness encounters. While that sounds incredibly rare, it being a frequency of between 5-10% chances of encounters with between 3 and 7 checks per day (p48 DMG), you're looking at about 1 encounter every 2.5-7 days of travel.

Thus, you can expect to stumble on a Magic-User's stronghold at least once within 1250-3500 days of wilderness travel! They're practically everywhere! On a more serious note, I fully expect that rumors should point adventurers in the general direction of any nearby Wizard's towers, particularly if they're actively meddling in the region's affairs.

What's trippy is that you have a 1% chance to encounter a Magic-User in the city, and since you roll 1d6+6 to determine the MU's level, that makes it a 16% chance of being a level12 Magic-User. 16% of 1% gets us to a 1 in 600 chance of running into a level12 Magic-User in the city overall, ultimately being a fairly consistent number with the likelihood of running into a Magic-User with a stronghold.