The Location

When a wizard is contemplating the construction of a laboratory, the first thing he will want to consider is the location of the lab. If the wizard travels extensively, like many adventurers do, the choice of his laboratory’s location may prove to be a difficult decision. Since the character will be investing a vast amount of money in the construction and outfitting of his laboratory, he will want to make certain that the facility is located in a secure and reasonably accessible location. There’s a lot of valuable and irreplaceable material in a laboratory, and most wizards dread the thought of some hooligan sacking their workshops.

Many wizards locate their laboratories in or near major cities. There are several advantages to this strategy: first of all, the wizard has easy access to skilled craftsmen for unusual pieces of equipment; second, the large cities attract traders dealing in the rare or unusual, making it easier for the wizard to locate some material components; third, resources such as libraries and fellow wizards or alchemists may be close at hand; and last, cities are relatively secure from monstrous incursions. On the down side, cities also host large and well-organized thieves’ guilds, and many wizards find themselves forced to pay protection money to keep their labs intact. Also, a wizard who lives near a large population center is generally easy to find, and the character’s enemies won’t have any problem in tracking him to his base of operations.

Because of these risks, some wizards prefer to conceal their laboratories in unpopulated or inaccessible regions. The wizard loses the benefits of close contact with civilization, but gains a degree of privacy that an urban wizard finds impossible. This can be costly, especially when the wizard needs some smithing or glassblowing work done, and there’s no one nearby who can do it. A wilderness base generally costs 20%–50% or (1d4+1) x 10% more to equip and maintain than a comparable lab in the city. Note that remoteness doesn’t guarantee safety; instead of thieves, a wizard in the wilderness has to worry about monsters of all sizes and inclinations nosing around the premises!

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