Do Wizards Pay Money To Learn New Spells?

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

Why couldn't a player:

(1) create a new wizard PC with a high IQ, who knows the spells your other PC wizards are hoping to eventually learn

(2) give that new wizard a strong passion for teaching and passing on her knowledge

(3) keep that new wizard out of the main action as much as possible

(4) you probably see where I'm going with this

There's nothing to keep a player from this, just like there's nothing to keep a player from making a wizard who can enchant weapons or a master armourer who is just a cheap source of fine weapons and armor, if the GM allows a player to have several characters (as I do). Well, there's nothing aside from the GM's discretion.

I allow a stable of characters per player so that they can pick and choose who goes on an adventure and they have fill-ins when someone is taken out of action. However, I place limits on how many characters a player can have at one time (with a character or two in the pocket to fill in for lost characters in adventures far from home). I also don't allow any aid from characters not explicitly in the adventure.

Neither of these rules explicitly prevent the handy support character who never adventures and provides services between adventures. You could force such characters into adventures on occasion, but the better solution is just not to allow them. PCs are meant to go on adventures, not be servants to the big guys. I just wouldn't go for this kind of tomfoolery.