Wizard Adventures (CWH)

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Occasionally, the DM might wish to slant some of his campaign's adventures toward his wizard player characters. To do so, he needs to devise a way to bring the wizard characters into the adventure without excluding the other player characters. Following are several suggestions that can be used as springboards for this sort of adventure
==The Novice Wizard==
A low-level wizard who has just graduated from an academy of magic (or has just ended his apprenticeship with a mentor) is often sent into the world to complete a mission or quest. The mission serves as his final exam; its completion proves to the novice's superiors that he has successfully mastered his magical skills and is ready to take his place as a full-fledged wizard. Failure means that the novice requires additional training.
There are all types of suitable missions. For instance, the novice's superiors might ask him to journey into an uncharted jungle to retrieve the blossom of a rare flower. They might ask him to explore the ruins of an ancient castle to search for a long-lost spell book, or travel to a small village and drive off a hoard of invading monsters. Since most mentors encourage their apprentice wizards to seek help (it teaches them the importance of cooperation), the wizard might recruit his player character companions to aid him.
==The Outcast Wizard==
In many societies, the practice of magic is considered blasphemous. Ordinary citizens shun and despise all wizards, considering them to be disciples of supernatural forces. In extreme cases, those suspected of being wizards are imprisoned or even executed.
A player character wizard may have been operating secretly in such a society, fearing the worst if his true skills were revealed. The wizard would welcome the chance to join a party preparing to embark on any type of adventure, if it were to take him far away from his homeland. Alternately, a party might encounter a wizard who was forced to leave home when his skills were discovered by his countrymen or his family. 
==Magic's Good Name==
In a world where magic has a bad reputation, a PC wizard might want to join an adventuring party to prove that magic can be used as a force of good. If the party's mission is successful and the wizard is at least partly responsible, magic might once again be accepted as a respectable and honorable profession.
There are any number of situations incorporating this idea:          
* The PC wizard wants to confront an influential ruler in a distant land who is responsible for spreading propaganda about the inherent evil of magic. The ruler might be an evil wizard, bent on stirring up support from the populace to stamp out rival wizards. He could also be of good alignment, but a bad experience with magic as a youth left him prejudiced against all wizards.
* The PC wizard wants to learn how many wizards still exist in the world. Perhaps many wizards have gone into hiding, and the PC wizard is determined to find out what has happened to them.
* The PC wizard wants to discover how many young people are interested in learning magical skills. Perhaps the PC wizard wishes to establish a magical academy of his own, or perhaps he wishes to find a young novice with whom he can share his knowledge. Are such students difficult to find? If so, why?  Will the PC wizard face resistance from the family of a potential student?  From the local authorities?  What must the PC wizard do to prove that his intentions are honorable?
* The PC wizard wants to verify rumors that a violent feud has erupted between two organizations of wizards in a distant land, thus sullying the reputations of wizards everywhere. The rival wizard groups might be of different alignments, members of oppositional schools, or from different races. Their feud might be over a contested piece of land or a landmark—such as a tower or cemetery—or one group might have religious objections to the type of spells used by the other group. Settling their disagreements can be used as a springboard for new adventures.
==Assisting the Citizenry==
Many wizards serve as administrators, advisors, or teachers, or hold other positions of responsibility in their communities. The local citizens are likely to barrage such wizards with a constant stream of requests for favors and assistance. Most of these requests will be trivial and easily addressed, but others might require the PC wizard to recruit the help of his player character companions.
Sometimes, a seemingly innocuous request ("Something's been into my crops— I think it's a bunch of kids. Could you stop them?") might lead the PC wizard to believe that more is happening than meets the eye. He might summon his companions to help him investigate, and their discoveries could be the beginning of a long campaign. (The party discovers clawed footprints among the damaged crops. The footprints lead to a nearby forest, then abruptly vanish. What's going on?).
==The Scholarly Quest==
A wizard player character engaged in magical research might require a particular component that exists only in a hard-to-reach part of the world. If the journey promises to be dangerous, the wizard might ask his friends to accompany him. Alternately, if a PC wizard encounters a party going in the same direction, he might agree to assist them on their mission in exchange for safe passage to the location of his sought component. After recovering the component, the wizard might have become close enough to the other PCs to voluntarily continue on their mission with them. Or maybe the other PCs got the wizard out of a tough spot and the wizard feels obligated to return the favor by completing the mission with them.
The party's mission might coincide with something the wizard PC wants. For instance, the party might be embarking on a mission to stop a notorious evil wizard. The evil wizard might possess a magical device the PC wizard has coveted for a long time. The PC wizard could agree to help the party in exchange for the magical device.
==Out of Retirement==
An elderly wizard might grow weary of his sedentary existence and welcome any opportunity to add some excitement to his life. Such a wizard would eagerly join any party of player characters if the party's mission promised to be exciting and didn't violate the wizard's personal values (a PC wizard of good alignment is unlikely to join an evil party about to embark on a murder spree unless he is pretending to be evil in order to stop them).
Since a party can always use an extra wizard, a group of player characters might coax an old PC wizard out of retirement to help them on a mission. The PC wizard might be enticed by a monetary reward, the lure of adventure, or the possibility of settling an old debt (perhaps the party believes they will be facing an old nemesis of the PC wizard). The PC wizard also might agree to help them out of a sense of loyalty to his former companions