Mages's Guild Template

The information below is a basic mage's/scribe's/cartographer's guild. Some worlds have all of these kinds of information lumped together, in others there are strict divisions between the guilds. This is nothing more than a price listing of services and supplies, with some light guidelines for things that PCs often request of NPC mages. 

There are two sections to the list, services and supplies for guild members only, and another section for all characters labeled public access. Some membership privileges/services are restricted by membership type; the memberships are called Copper, Silver, and Gold. I've tried to color-code the services that are restricted by membership. You will notice that basic services are less expensive for higher ranked members. That's based on the philosophy that higher ranking members contribute more to the Guild (many make spell donations or hefty cash contributions to the Guild). Some of the most useful information is at the bottom, in the Notes section. 

**You may use and modify this information to your liking, but if you repost the list on your own website, please give me credit and a link to this site. Also, send me a note saying you're using (part of) the Guild of Arcane Lore so I can check out your page.**

Guild Policies

  • Members must vow to never give away magical knowledge (i.e. spells), unless they are negotiated through the guild or passed to apprentices.
  • Members may have magic items identified for 10% of their value through divination spells. However, cursed items may not appear as such. For an item to be thoroughly checked (i.e. put on and tested), an additional fee of 50,000 gp is required per item.
  • Non-members may have magic items assessed for 25% of value through divination only.
  • Spell component upkeep is 10 gp /level per month + rare/expensive components as spells are used.

Guild of Arcane Lore- Members Only

Item Notes Price
Book Research, Common Spell Topic (for spell levels 1-3) 100-400 gp
Book Research, Uncommon Spell Topic (for spell levels 4-6) 500-800 gp
Book Research, Rare Spell Topic (for spell levels 7-9) 1000-2500 gp
Book Embellished or Collectable see tomes below
Tome, Blank Bound Treated Paper, 50 8" x 12" Pages 250 gp
Tome, Blank Bound Treated Paper, 100 8" x 12" Pages 400 gp
Tome, Blank Bound Vellum, 50 6" x 8" Pages 150 gp
Tome, Blank Bound Vellum, 50 8" x 12" Pages 300 gp
Tome, Blank Bound Vellum, 100 8" x 12" Pages 500 gp
Tome, Blank Paper or Vellum Dyed +15%
Tome, Blank Paper or Vellum Infused (with herbs, minerals, etc.) Material +35%
Tome, Blank Leather Cover +0%
Tome, Blank Leather Cover, Silver Leafed +15% 
Tome, Blank Leather Cover, Gold Leafed +25% 
Tome, Blank Tooled or Engraved Cover +50% 
Tome, Blank Exotic Leather Cover Hide +50% 
Tome, Blank Silver Plated +100% 
Tome, Blank Gold Plated +150% 
Tome, Blank Gem Inlayed Gems +15% 
Tome, Used Resold with common spells (pawned books, as available) 300 gp + spells
Ink, Purified Black, Gill Jar (3 pages worth) 20 gp
Ink, Purified Black, Quart Bottle (25 pages worth) 150 gp
Ink, Purified White, Quart Bottle (25 pages worth) 400 gp
Ink, Imported Black, Pint Bottle (12 pages) 100 gp
Ink, Imported Maroon, Pint Bottle (12 pages) 150 gp
Ink, Imported Blue, Pint Bottle (12 pages) 150 gp
Ink, Exotic Color Varies, Gill Jar (3 pages worth)  500+ gp
Laboratory Copper: Spell Research Privileges, Per Day (as available) 30 gp
Laboratory Silver: Spell Research Privileges, Per Day (as available) 20 gp
Laboratory Gold: Spell Research Privileges, Per Day 10 gp
Library Copper: Spell Research Privileges, Per Week (up to 4th level spells) 50 gp
Library Silver: Spell Research Privileges, Per Week (5th- 7th level spells) 100 gp
Library Gold: Spell Research Privileges, Per Week (8th 10th level spells) 200 gp
Membership Copper (Annual), Must demonstrate MU spell casting ability 200 gp
Membership Silver (Annual), Recommendation from a Silver or Gold member, Must demonstrate MU spell casting ability 1000 gp
Membership Gold (Lifetime), Invitation Only Unique Spell, 3+ level
Quill 1 Perfect, Common Feather, Gold Tipped (good for spells 1-3 level) 100 gp
Quill 1 Perfect, Exotic Feather, Natural Tip (good for many spells 4-9 level) 250+ gp
Quill 1 Perfect, Mythic Creature's Feather, Natural Tip (as available) 1200+ gp
Scroll, Blank Per Section of Vellum (page), 8" x 12" 15 gp
Scroll, Blank Per Section of Treated Paper (page), 8" x 12" 12 gp
Scroll, Blank Paper or Vellum Custom Treated see sheets below
Spell Copper: Common, Per Level, Levels 1-3 400 gp ea
Spell Silver: Common, Per Level, Levels 1-3 300 gp ea
Spell Silver: Uncommon, Per Level, Levels 1-3 500 gp ea
Spell Gold: Common, Per Level, Levels 1-3 300 gp ea
Spell Gold: Uncommon, Per Level, Levels 1-3 400 gp ea
Spell Gold: Rare, Per Level, Levels 1-3 600 gp ea
Spell Silver: Common, Per Level, Levels 4-6 1500 gp ea
Spell Gold: Common, Per Level, Levels 4-6 1000 gp ea
Spell Gold: Uncommon, Per Level, Levels 4-6 2000 gp ea
Spell Gold: Rare, Per Level, Levels 4-6 Negotiated
Spell Silver: Common, Per Level, Levels 7-9 5000 gp ea
Spell Gold: Common, Per Level, Levels 7-9 3000 gp ea
Spell Gold: Uncommon, Per Level, Levels 7-9 5000 gp ea
Spell Gold: Rare, Per Level, Levels 7-9 Negotiated

Guild of Arcane Lore- Public Access

Item Notes Price
Book Research, Common Topic 10-50 gp
Book Research, Uncommon Topic 75-250 gp
Book Research, Rare Topic 400-1000 gp
Book Collectable, Original Source +150%
Book Collected Edition Of Noted Make +50%
Book Embellished, Art In Header, Footer, Etc. +25%
Book Embellished, Periodic Drawings +10%
Book Embellished, Periodic Accurate Drawings +25%
Book Embellished, Colored Drawings +25%
Book Embellished, Pictorial Reference Catalogue  +150%
Book Embellished, Special Cover see spell books above
Ink Black, Quart Bottle (25 pages) 15 gp
Ink Specialty Color, Pint Bottle (12 pages) 25 gp
Ink Infused (gold, silver, or other material) Gill Jar (3 pages) 50 gp
Ink, Imported Blue, Pint Bottle (12 pages) 100 gp
Quill 10 Good Common 50 gp
Sheet Treated Paper, 10" x 14" 10 gp
Sheet Perfect Vellum, 12" x 15" 12 gp
Sheet Common Paper, 10" x 14" 2 gp
Sheet Common Papyrus, 11" x 15" (if available) 1 gp
Sheet Common Vellum, 12" x 15" 5 gp
Sheet Custom Colored Paper or Vellum +10%
Sheet Paper or Vellum Infused (with herbs, minerals, etc.) Material +35%
Map Accurate, Known Continent  50 gp
Map Accurate, Foreign Continent (usually out of date) 500 gp
Map Accurate, Exotic/Unknown Continent (always out of date) 1500 gp
Map Simple, Star Charts, Faerunian  5 gp
Map Accurate, Star Charts, Faerunian  50 gp
Map Simple, Local City, Region, or Kingdom 10 gp
Map Accurate, Local City, Region, or Kingdom 25-50 gp
Map Simple, Foreign City, Region, or Kingdom 10-50 gp
Map Accurate, Foreign City, Region, or Kingdom 75-150 gp
Map Simple, Exotic City, Region, or Kingdom (based on complexity) 25-250 gp
Map Embellished, Four Color +15%
Map Embellished, Simple Art +5%
Map Embellished, Descriptive Art +50%
Map Custom, by subject (weather, political, climate, etc.) +25%
Map Simple, World, 5-10 years out-of-date 200 gp
Map Accurate, World Pre-Maztica 1500 gp
Map Accurate, World Current (about 5 years out-of-date) 5000 gp
Magic Items As available Varies

Notes

Treated Paper: Mages often desire that the paper they purchase have some herbs ground and infused into the paper as it is formed (from cotton, wood pulp, or similar material, depending on region) to deter insects and molds from destroying the book. These treatments have little game effect, other than to explain the preservation of spell books through the ravages of time and adventuring. Treatments to make the paper resistant to game affects (like fire) are more than rare, and should be treated as magic items.

Books: Research books are sold based on availability. Common topics are available 80% of the time in cities; uncommon are available 60%, and rare only 30%. In towns and villages there is a -25% penalty to the roll. Often, there are duplicates of the common and uncommon books (35% of the time there are 1d4 additional books). Sometimes there are new books written by local Guild members (25% chance in cities that there are 1d3 authors, 5% that one member authors books in small towns and villages); of these, 15% of them will be a true find (selling at one category better); and only 5% of those 15% are exceptional (selling in the rare category and commanding very high prices if the subject is uncommon or rare).

Inks: Purified inks are needed to write spells into spell books under normal conditions. Inks do fade over time. Imported inks are slower to fade, if they do at all. Exotic inks are needed for scrolls and maps where the ingredients are crucial to the magics applied to the paper.

Library: Spell Research access is limited to theories similar to the type of knowledge and access that the member has paid for and demonstrated. So, spells researched at the Guild will be similar in nature to existing spells in the character's repertoire. Remember, that spells that are researched are one level higher than similar spells in published materials (they are not as refined as the known spells).

Laboratory: Spells that are researched need to be tested in a laboratory as part of the research process. 3 days of laboratory research are needed per level of the spell being researched.

Spells for sale: Spells are sold on scrolls. Often, more than one spell can be placed on a scroll, but with an additional cost of 5% to the total page length. (Longer pieces of perfect paper are hard to maintain and perfect vellum hard to find.) In general, only common spells will be sold in quantity as few mages really want to hang around writing scrolls for sale. (They are paid only 65% of the spell's value for their time, effort and expense.) BTW, spells on this list are subject to availability, and sometimes even common spells are not available for sale, as being a member of the Guild does not entitle anyone to another member's spell books. Also, the prices are fairly steep, but are based on a non-negotiated price scheme for those characters that are buying power with cash. Sometimes permits are required with the sale of scrolls, depending on the rulings of the local authorities, for an additional 10-25% (sometimes as high as 150%) fee.

Magic Items: The Guild will sometimes have minor magic items for sale, but only in cities. Common potions, simple household and convenience magic, protection items (never more than +1 or AC 7), and universal scrolls are sold by Guild members that create them. The Guild receives 10% of the price and local authorities sometimes require a permit sold with the items for an additional 10-25% (sometimes as high as 150%) fee.

Maps: The world is not as accurately known as ours. Even accurate maps can be seriously flawed; this is accepted amongst cartographers. Foreign maps are always out of date and even more frequently wrong as explorers rarely have the ability to instantly bring their knowledge to cities (let alone towns and villages) and are often engaged with the business of survival, not surveying, in these unknown lands. Unless otherwise noted, maps are considered to be inked in black with no significant art other than a compass marking.

Purchasing Policies: The Guild will purchase certain books and items that they can resell if the items are of general interest and in reasonably good shape. Collectable original source books are sometimes purchased in poor condition if they are still readable, but not at the price they would normally command. In general, the guild will pay 40-80% of resale value of any goods. (Prices are based on previous experience with the Guild or a Reaction Check. If the check is Hostile then the Guild will pay only 40% of the value; 50% for Threatening, 60% for Indifferent, and 70% for Friendly. A Flight response indicates that the character is asked to leave and no business is conducted. Guild members add 10%. If the character has never dealt with the Guild before then the roll is at +4 penalty. If the character has had less than Friendly relations with the guild before then the roll is at a +2 penalty. If the character has passed cursed, trapped, or poor quality items to the Guild, they are automatically treated as Hostile. Good relations and friendly roleplaying are generally worth 70% without a roll.) Items that are normally sold as new will be worth 70-110% of the value listed in the charts above, based on condition and history. (Fair 70%, good 80%, excellent 90%, collectable 100%, desired 110%)


This page designed and written by Catherine Keene. 1998.
Direct comments and site problems to her at: KingsTears@aol.com