ITT: How do you portray wizards?

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>>54928495
Step one is to only have maybe five powerful wizards in your setting tops. Too many and you start to wonder why they don't just control the entire world.

Step two is to introduce one to the players early, to give them a sort of emergency button if you ever need one.

Step three is to make them completely neutral, so the players don't feel obligated to help them based on the wizard's goals, and instead plan their own.

Finally, all wizards have a secret agenda.

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>>54928495
I tend to make my wizards jump all over the place in terms of alignment, but mostly I portray them as basically a monastic kind of profession. In order to learn and manipulate the secrets of the universe you aren't going to be able to focus on other things very much. If there's a Wizard-King or Wizard-Priest or what have you in a position of power and prestige somewhere, odds are they're very specialized and only have a few spells while they focus on the other profession primarily. True wizards are people who travel the world searching for knowledge and magic and understanding, and have to devote their lives if they truly wish to reach the heights of pure magic. You're more likely to meet a wizard on the road, share a meal and a story, and be on your way than find a wizard's tower or other such place of accumulated knowledge and power.

I guess it breaks down to the base desire I ascribe to the various magic classes in my campaigns, which in the wizards case is "I know." (Warlocks are "I desire", Sorcerers are "I feel" Clerics are "I believe", Druids are "I understand" and Bards are " I can" ) Wizards do what they do because they know how it works, and by knowing how it works, know how to do many more things.

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>>54928495
The two "good" wizards the party has met are hired as top level government officials (sorta).

All others have been weak, and the one evil wizard is working with the BBEG (although they have not met him yet)

>>54929469
Because Divine magic is borrowed, but Arcane magic is ceased. Basically one is like you learning to make pizza, and the other is like ordering pizza.

>>54928495
My wizard NPCs fall into three broad categories:

>Passionate students and journeyman scholars looking to learn everything they can in hopes of someday making the next big discovery.

>Ruthless politicians playing the social game to perpetuate the hegemony of academia.

>Radical individualists conducting bleeding-edge (and possibly illegal) research out in the frontier.

Members of the first group who don't fall out of academia entirely either grow into the one of the latter groups or stagnate into mediocrity.

Depends on setting

>>54929510
Wizards order online
Clerics beg for it after close.
Warlocks make a deal with the driver for free pizza

Weird question. I write a character first, and focus on who they are. That will determine how they are portrayed, what alignment they are and what personalities they have. The being a wizard part is unimportant and separate.

>>54930234
Being a wizard is never pertinent to a character?

>>54930198
But they can only eat two slices before they get full, so it's kind of a waste

>>54930539
No, that's not what I meant to get across. What a character is(wizard in this case) should not define who a character is. A character written in such a way that what they are = who they are is a shit character.

>>54930851
So what you're saying is that your character is a person who does things and just so happens to be a wizard, rather than a wizard who just so happens to do things that arent always wizard related? Thats usually a good way to play characters: personality/actions first, then class.

Dead fags that died of gayness

Selfish pricks. The reason they don't conquer everything with magic is they're too busy fucking over or being fucked over by other wizards. All hate each other.

>>54928495
Well, I've portrayed a grand total of two wizard NPCs, but they both happened to be law-aligned and obliviously spending their inheritance on A) a rustic woodland estate that he was rarely even on the same plane as, or B) paying couriers to fetch spell components, and paying some intelligent spiders to serve as slave masters for a large team of goblin excavators.

First guy was lawful neutral, had virtually no peripheral awareness thanks to an enchantment that allowed him to live with no sleep, and was trying to codify a means of accurately interpreting dreams.

Second guy was lawful evil, had extremely bad social skills, and was ultimately trying to find a way to go back in time and psychologically condition early humans to love him and hail him as a hero.

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Forgot pic

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Have another one, too.

Most of them have been awfully arrogant nobles using their power for whatever they like, only refrained by fear of the higher powers of the country, who will let them off the hook as long as they don't massacre entire villages. They usually are willing tools to kings and big wizards or whatever.
Some of them are decent guys, wanting to use their power either responsibly, or for good. When they are competent, people fear fighting them by the rules.
Finally, some of them are former tools, having understood that most wizards fall into the first type, and usually want to end the supremacy of magic and wizardry. They are a sad bunch, having lost their illusions, and not optimistic or righteous enough to be the second type.

>>54930198
>free pizza
Oh no, it just doesn't cost money. That driver is getting some favors out of you. The driver WILL ask to hit your blunt when he delivers, and you must oblige.

>>54930234
>The being a wizard part is unimportant and separate
That's bad writing then. Someone's chosen field of study and career influences who they are. Whether they're an engineer, plumber, craftsman, waiter, etc. I would argue no more so than a career as a wizard, looking into arcane truths and forbidden knowledge. The fact they are a wizard should be warping to their personality. The dedication it takes to learn the craft should sculpt their character and their relationships. The power and knowledge that comes from manipulating magic should have a large impact on someone's personality.
Otherwise, you're treating magic like it's something inconsequential, yet powerful. And if that's the case why wouldn't everyone have it?

>>54928495
>How do you portray wizards?
In an increasingly positive light based on 1) how powerful they are and 2) how capable they are of targetting a spell on me this very moment.

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Depends where in the world they are. The southern wizards are ambitious with little regard to the taboos of the magical world. Eastern wizards are the most populous but weakest overall and are hard on bureaucrats who work for royal and nobles for cash.
Western Wizards act superior to all other wizards in the world with an obsession for tradition and placing conservative values on magic. Northern are shamanistic tribal witchdoctors who dabble In voodoo and animalism. Im still fine tuning it but they have histories and reasons for their behaviour like politcal situations and past historic events. Alignment and personality quirks are for individual characters.

Generally with a background of a wealthy family that has allowed them to spend their entire lives in study, without a single honest days work to their name and an entitlement complex and the social awkwardness to follow suit. Basically, I portray them as arrogant, self absorbed neckbeards with a god complex a mile wide.
Really motivates the players to start specing towards countering mages.