So I've half-baked a campaign idea in my head that centers on a magic school, but the twist is that the players aren't the students but the faculty. Each player would "teach" their specialty (I thought it might be fun to have them give snippets of arcane-technobabble filled lectures, maybe have the other players be students during that part to ask questions or goof off in the back or something), each faculty member would have a research project they need to complete (think big-magic crafting or ritual study, eg. building a weather control machine, scribing a ritual that could prove a principal that could lead to cheap interdimensional travel, inventing a new 7th level spell, that kind of thing) in a certain time with a certain budget that they'll have to do regular research skill checks to help them complete.
On top of all that they have to deal with student hijinks like secret banned experiments, academic grudges, pranks gone wrong, pranks gone right, and maybe one student who might be legit evil that the faculty has an opportunity to try and teach a better way to.
Im also thinking there might be outside pressures enacting themselves on the school, like the government putting pressure on them to shift their curriculum to be more evocation-focused to produce powerful mages for their army, pressuring teachers to research projects with military applications by offering more funding to complete it more easily, generally clashing with the school's mission statement of providing comprehensive medical education for the prosperity of all, etc.
Im also thinking about maybe including a main plot if the players want to have some more traditional D&D stuff happening and don't want to just so their own things around the school.
One thing im having trouble with conceptually is including combat encounters. Like, I suppose every now and again students will accidentally summon demons and the teachers will need to repel them, but otherwise im having trouble including combat in any other capacity than "something has gone terribly Wrong!" Wheras that's probably not frequent enough to keep people interested.
I suppose maybe sometimes the teachers explore ancient ruins to look for hidden secrets on the weekends or something, or maybe there's an imminent mindflayer invasion or something, but im still working on that part.
Encounters could also be the lessons. Think Defense against the Dark Arts. Or you could make some interesting social encounters or physical challenges that require skill checks or interesting ways to use spells. You already have the research projects but maybe try something like a student’s parent comes in and freaks out about another student beating the kid up. Do you try to do a normal Charisma check, cast Suggestion, or maybe find some new interesting way using a spell that no one has thought? The magic school seems like an interesting concept, but definitely seems to lean towards the role playing side of things.
Also, considering having a secret dungeon under the school that no one knows about, filled with monsters and treasure. That way, if the players want to switch to a more traditional D&D experience, you don’t even have to switch settings or campaigns. Just have them discover the dungeon and off they go.
Also, considering having a secret dungeon under the school that no one knows about, filled with monsters and treasure. That way, if the players want to switch to a more traditional D&D experience, you don’t even have to switch settings or campaigns. Just have them discover the dungeon and off they go.
How did you know about my secret dungeon idea??
But yeah I was thinking of the school having one and it not being a complete secret, kind of more like the Room of Requirement, where some students know about it and even go down there at times.
My thinking is that the existence of the dungeon is kind of a test in and of itself, testing intelligence in some, in others strength, courage, tenacity, humility, or patience. Half the test is finding out about it either by believing the rumors and tracing them to the source, or working with classmates to get to the truth, and the other half of the test is whether or not you should go in, and if you can make it if you do.
Every now and then I imagine the faculty has to go in to pull out students who over-estimate their abilities.
So this would be an all Wizard campaign? Unless someone wants to be a barbarian caretaker or something. Someone that gets brought along on weekend research trips to explore dangerous areas.
Like you seem to be aware of, this setting lends itself to many social encounters and skill checks, but little in the pillars of exploration and combat. I like the research projects. The attempt to create a new signature spell, or to bring down the material component requirements of existing spells. Or to get Familiars to take new forms. Those seem like worthy goals for academic wizards.
But if you’re going to try and work some combat in, remember these guys don’t have much in the way of armor or HP, but they’re going to destroy enemies if they go before them in initiative. Doesn’t make combat sound very fun anyway. Either they go down in 2 rounds, or the enemies do. That said, opportunities to bring some into the setting could include
The school has like no budget for supplies, so the teachers do what they can to get material components for practice. Including raiding monster dens themselves.
There’s a wild magic zone on the grounds. Sometimes things portal in, and regardless of the magic surges, it’s best to try to defeat them in that quarantined area.
Field trips to sites of historical magical significance. Old wizards towers and libraries. Some may still be maintained, but maybe some have been abandoned to monsters. The task is to get the students there and back without losing or getting any injured. Or at least not that any of the students have any memory of. ;)
The government war-mage curriculum you mentioned could have installed a simulator/training room at the school. Any time you go in there, you have a scenario and objectives, but it’s all very martial in theme. Invading enemies that you need to create a strong enough defense to hold off. Protect the king secret service style when there is an active attacker, and get him to safety. Help get a team of commandos through enemy lines.
School extracurriculars could involve bludgeoning weapon and cantrip-only combat matches against various monsters. It’s a Wizard sport called Tapped Out, developed as a game version of when you’re adventuring, and have used all your spell slots, but the enemies keep coming. You get a staff or club and are put in the ring with a trained beast/beasts/monster and must either knock out your monster or last for one minute to score points. Either one of your players could be the coach and have to demonstrate for the student players, or this is something wizards have done for generations, so to step in the ring is akin to reliving their childhood and they can do it regularly in game.
Assuming that focusing on the students is a major part of the campaign, I'd suggest your campaign have several pillars:
Students are collectibles: I suggest you have a manageable student body, no larger than maybe 4 students x number of PC's+1 or 2 NPC faculty rivals. All the instructors are teaching the same student body, but before the end of the semester the students are going to seperate into multiple "houses", one for each PC and NPC faculty member (or maybe just two houses, PC house vs NPC house?). The semester will culminate in a house vs house competition that the faculty really care about winning (rank, power, money, magical items... whatever is a good carrot for your players).
Classroom instruction: X number of instruction checks through the semester, each of which has the opportunity for both a mechanical buff to students of that player's choosing (either its a bonus to one student and higher success is better amplitude, or maybe higher success is player getting to pick more students to benefit, or restrict DM from helping students player doesn't pick... something like that). These instructions can and should spin off occasional mini-encounters or opportunities for creative skill/spell checks, not just "roll Arcana to see how well you taught this week," reward creative teaching/problem solving or give individual characters the opportunity to have the perfect ability within their specialty to flex on some student-caused mishaps.
School/Adult crisis: Threats to the campus, individual students that the characters know and care about, or adult side-gigs dealing with the larger wizarding world beyond the school. Good opportunities to break up the pace and let the party flex as a traditional D&D party against some boss monsters instead of being so social/meta. Also a good opportunity to pit the PC Faculty as a group against the (obviously bad) NPC faculty, maybe demonstrate an overarching improtance why they care about their own houses winning instead of one of the "bad" houses. In addition to XP, might award items/abilities that the faculty can use to manipulate the students or the school as a whole.
'Dating students': Gross, don't actually let old wizard dudes date magical teens. But social encounters where the party hangs out with/mentors their kids. Part of kids choosing which house they'll ultimately join. Probably too much for every kid to have a date night, but if there's some competition between two players for the same student (player A, player B, and NPC C might all be handing out their class bonuses to one star pupil, hoping that ultimately they'll pick their house!), or something about one or more students that the players are interested in exploring in a social encounter, your opportunity to highlight that as much as you're comfortable with. Having long sessions that only involve one PC at a time and one student and are heavily RP and in character aren't every player or every group's cup of tea, so feel the crowd here... In general this whole setup sounds very split the party from initial concept, and will probably work better in a play by post than a live table game, sooo....
House vs House/Student vs Student duels: Not just big arena melees (though at least one of those would be fun), but also skill contests, races, wizard game matches.... Something where the students are on the line, and not the faculty directly (subtle magical interference from the sidelines may be encouraged though!).
Instead of statting out a bunch of seperate students, I'd suggest that you find a way to treat them like quasi-animal companions which add on bonuses and abilities based on the classes that they've benefited from/the player whose house they've joined. Take low-level casters like Magewright, Acolyte, Apprentice Wizard etc. to define 3 or 4 different "types" of students, let the player add their proficiency bonus to their stuff as normal for a companion for students in their house, maybe have the students add abilities/spells based on classes that they've received bonuses from.... basically give each player a team of 3 or 4 wizardmons to play with against each other.
Anyway, that's my rough idea... the student statblocks and how they get buffed/impacted by the players they join and learn from could probably use some work so it's not just every student receiving the same proficiency bonus since the PCs are all the same level (some sort of custom house bonus that the PC has crafted and earned?), but you get the picture.
I like the idea of some student NPC's for RP purposes and there's a lot of cool material here. I should've mentioned though, my group is rotating DMing with like 7-8 session long campaigns before moving to a new one, so I'm not sure if all that crunch would fit in a handful of sessions.
Definitely if we feel like returning to the campaign later I'll want to work more of that in.
I like the idea of some student NPC's for RP purposes and there's a lot of cool material here. I should've mentioned though, my group is rotating DMing with like 7-8 session long campaigns before moving to a new one, so I'm not sure if all that crunch would fit in a handful of sessions.
If you have a clear sunset on the campaign/adventure, that makes it all the easier to implement at least one of the ideas Chicken Champ tossed out—with some tweaks.
Students as collectibles (with instructional effectiveness checks): I had already been thinking instructional effectiveness could be measured with Persuasion checks. If those checks made throughout all the sessions were tracked and totaled and were tied somehow to the number of students who wanted to go onto specialize in your subject next semester, you end the campaign with a gp bonus for teaching an “in-demand” subject. Other things done throughout the “semester” (your 7 weeks of play) also feed into that total.
I’d need to think more about how that might look mechanically, but it seems like a great mini-game to put a bit of competitiveness between the players (who I assume represent different schools. Illusion, Abjuration, etc.) You could even make a “Teacher Of the Year” award to give to the player whose PC performed best at convincing students to specialize in his school, secured funding for the school, completed their research project (and maybe defended it before a panel of NPCs to earn their doctorate), dealt shrewdly with the government to maintain educational autonomy, and performed whatever other special tasks well. You’d want to tell them at session 0 that as teachers, they need a certain amount of Charisma to really get through to their students, so they probably shouldn’t dump that stat.
I really do think that’d be a great mini-game to give a long term goal to the party.
Well, remember that Persuasion doesn't always have to be Persuasion (Charisma). Sometimes students gravitate towards teachers that they find likable... but it could just as well be respect of their intellect (Intelligence), seeking out their Wisdom and advice (Wisdom), thinking they're physically attractive (Strength or Con), etc... especially in an academic setting, not everything has to be about who's nicest or has the smoothest tongue.
Especially in an all-caster party where roles (and stats) are less diverse than normal, the DM needs to be prepared to fully utilize the "skills don't always go with a certain ability score" rule.
Maybe they all get a starting proficiency in Persuasion, but they can use the alternate ability for skill checks variant. Where Persuasion is considered the skill meant to change others’ thinking, and you use whatever ability applies best to what you’re trying to teach. “Make an Persuasion check to see how how much of what you said got through to them. This was a pretty deep subject, so you can choose to use INT instead of CHA for the base ability.”
Have you ever considered asking your players to help with how the school is run? They’re faculty, have them design the curriculum that they teach, decide how the classes are structured, figure out their schedules and when they’re free and when they’re tied up running the school, etc.. You can even have them design the layout of the buildings! That way you only have to introduce things that are different that are the encounters and the adventure.
A lot of cool ideas here. I have a few suggestions I'll throw out, regarding some ideas for traditional D&D combat encounters. Nothing really new, just taking some ideas from comics. And I'm sure they've been used or talked about somewhere in the past. But I'll try to be brief.
Make it like an X-Men school. Professor X had his core group of teachers that would go out to protect people or fight battles. But in general one of their main concerns was protecting the integrity of the school and students. So the headmaster wizard (DM) could send them out on missions. Maybe some of the student NPCs are sorcerers trying to fit in, and there is some friction with wizards during these encounters.
Or give it an Avengers twist, where the faculty secretly work for the local government and are sent out on clandestine missions, while balancing life at school at the "normal" job. Or the government council could just say "hey, if you want to keep receiving funding, go clear out all the trolls in the swamp" or some such.
Maybe something like, I don't know, each mission, quest, adventure, or threat requires the players to use different characters with abilities and spellbooks to best handle the situation. When each DM starts their campaign, they can give the story hook, and each player can decide something like: we need a fire guy, an underdark specialist, an illusionist, and an abjurer. Add some chaotic fun by having each player create three or four characters before the DM starts up the campaign, and then when they get the story hook or plot point, they pick from the character pool (a substitute teachers pool?). You could even make it so the players pick a character that they DIDN'T create. If it's not a long term campaign, this would give players a chance to try out different wizard types and spells.
Or you could have them interact with other groups like a thieves guild, bard school, or similar. The guild could be trying to lure away students from the magic school because their numbers are declining. While some bards could be doing the same because they're jealous of the spellbooks.
I've probably repeated an idea that's been said somewhere. If I have, I apologize. Please take them with grains of salt. Good luck!
Or you could have them interact with other groups like a thieves guild, bard school, or similar. The guild could be trying to lure away students from the magic school because their numbers are declining. While some bards could be doing the same because they're jealous of the spellbooks.
Ooh I do like the idea of Thieve's Guild spies infiltrating the school. Maybe a few of the students are thief plants trying to relieve the school of some magical artifacts, or maybe even commit espionage and steal a teacher's research for some shady government project the facility refused to be involved with.
Are you sure you want to run this as a D&D campaign? If I was to do this, I would have considered for instance Ars Magica, Mage or Fate. The first two have quite nice magic systems that would actually allow the PC's to create some magic theories and do some breakthroughs etc. Fate is much more freeform, but it should work well, but would require more from the players when it comes to inventing the magic system.
Whatever system you choose, I think my advice would be to make it quite sosial and RP-based. Since you want the PC's to play the teachers, they would need to be quite powerful. 5-6 quite powerful wizards can turn a lot of sessions upside down since they will have a lot of spells that might solve situations very easily, and you will have a hard time having control of all their abilities. Creating balanced combat encounters could be a challenge...
Are you sure you want to run this as a D&D campaign? If I was to do this, I would have considered for instance Ars Magica, Mage or Fate. The first two have quite nice magic systems that would actually allow the PC's to create some magic theories and do some breakthroughs etc. Fate is much more freeform, but it should work well, but would require more from the players when it comes to inventing the magic system.
Whatever system you choose, I think my advice would be to make it quite sosial and RP-based. Since you want the PC's to play the teachers, they would need to be quite powerful. 5-6 quite powerful wizards can turn a lot of sessions upside down since they will have a lot of spells that might solve situations very easily, and you will have a hard time having control of all their abilities. Creating balanced combat encounters could be a challenge...
Best of luck - it is a funny idea.
D&D is the system we know so we're sticking with it.
However I do plan on allowing that magic is much more open-ended than it is typically thought. For instance it's not like "there's these spells and that's it", the spells in the book are more considered adventuring magic (whereas in the world there might be other completely different lists of spells you'd use for like, architecture or mining or what have you) , while the players are free to invent spells or have their research projects be Big Magic innovation that's not covered by any existing spell in-game.
One thought that might really excite your players is have them define parts of the school and how the school is run since they’re faculty. Then introduce hidden things that they don’t know about by building on what they create. They can define the class schedule, the general layout of the buildings, how everyone eats, etc.. And you can add the secret passages, underground caves, patches of poisonous mushrooms in the Forest, evil king who is trying to infiltrate the school, etc..
So I've half-baked a campaign idea in my head that centers on a magic school, but the twist is that the players aren't the students but the faculty. Each player would "teach" their specialty (I thought it might be fun to have them give snippets of arcane-technobabble filled lectures, maybe have the other players be students during that part to ask questions or goof off in the back or something), each faculty member would have a research project they need to complete (think big-magic crafting or ritual study, eg. building a weather control machine, scribing a ritual that could prove a principal that could lead to cheap interdimensional travel, inventing a new 7th level spell, that kind of thing) in a certain time with a certain budget that they'll have to do regular research skill checks to help them complete.
On top of all that they have to deal with student hijinks like secret banned experiments, academic grudges, pranks gone wrong, pranks gone right, and maybe one student who might be legit evil that the faculty has an opportunity to try and teach a better way to.
Im also thinking there might be outside pressures enacting themselves on the school, like the government putting pressure on them to shift their curriculum to be more evocation-focused to produce powerful mages for their army, pressuring teachers to research projects with military applications by offering more funding to complete it more easily, generally clashing with the school's mission statement of providing comprehensive medical education for the prosperity of all, etc.
Im also thinking about maybe including a main plot if the players want to have some more traditional D&D stuff happening and don't want to just so their own things around the school.
One thing im having trouble with conceptually is including combat encounters. Like, I suppose every now and again students will accidentally summon demons and the teachers will need to repel them, but otherwise im having trouble including combat in any other capacity than "something has gone terribly Wrong!" Wheras that's probably not frequent enough to keep people interested.
I suppose maybe sometimes the teachers explore ancient ruins to look for hidden secrets on the weekends or something, or maybe there's an imminent mindflayer invasion or something, but im still working on that part.
Encounters could also be the lessons. Think Defense against the Dark Arts. Or you could make some interesting social encounters or physical challenges that require skill checks or interesting ways to use spells. You already have the research projects but maybe try something like a student’s parent comes in and freaks out about another student beating the kid up. Do you try to do a normal Charisma check, cast Suggestion, or maybe find some new interesting way using a spell that no one has thought? The magic school seems like an interesting concept, but definitely seems to lean towards the role playing side of things.
Also, considering having a secret dungeon under the school that no one knows about, filled with monsters and treasure. That way, if the players want to switch to a more traditional D&D experience, you don’t even have to switch settings or campaigns. Just have them discover the dungeon and off they go.
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How did you know about my secret dungeon idea??
But yeah I was thinking of the school having one and it not being a complete secret, kind of more like the Room of Requirement, where some students know about it and even go down there at times.
My thinking is that the existence of the dungeon is kind of a test in and of itself, testing intelligence in some, in others strength, courage, tenacity, humility, or patience. Half the test is finding out about it either by believing the rumors and tracing them to the source, or working with classmates to get to the truth, and the other half of the test is whether or not you should go in, and if you can make it if you do.
Every now and then I imagine the faculty has to go in to pull out students who over-estimate their abilities.
So this would be an all Wizard campaign? Unless someone wants to be a barbarian caretaker or something. Someone that gets brought along on weekend research trips to explore dangerous areas.
Like you seem to be aware of, this setting lends itself to many social encounters and skill checks, but little in the pillars of exploration and combat. I like the research projects. The attempt to create a new signature spell, or to bring down the material component requirements of existing spells. Or to get Familiars to take new forms. Those seem like worthy goals for academic wizards.
But if you’re going to try and work some combat in, remember these guys don’t have much in the way of armor or HP, but they’re going to destroy enemies if they go before them in initiative. Doesn’t make combat sound very fun anyway. Either they go down in 2 rounds, or the enemies do. That said, opportunities to bring some into the setting could include
Assuming that focusing on the students is a major part of the campaign, I'd suggest your campaign have several pillars:
Instead of statting out a bunch of seperate students, I'd suggest that you find a way to treat them like quasi-animal companions which add on bonuses and abilities based on the classes that they've benefited from/the player whose house they've joined. Take low-level casters like Magewright, Acolyte, Apprentice Wizard etc. to define 3 or 4 different "types" of students, let the player add their proficiency bonus to their stuff as normal for a companion for students in their house, maybe have the students add abilities/spells based on classes that they've received bonuses from.... basically give each player a team of 3 or 4 wizardmons to play with against each other.
Anyway, that's my rough idea... the student statblocks and how they get buffed/impacted by the players they join and learn from could probably use some work so it's not just every student receiving the same proficiency bonus since the PCs are all the same level (some sort of custom house bonus that the PC has crafted and earned?), but you get the picture.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I like the idea of some student NPC's for RP purposes and there's a lot of cool material here. I should've mentioned though, my group is rotating DMing with like 7-8 session long campaigns before moving to a new one, so I'm not sure if all that crunch would fit in a handful of sessions.
Definitely if we feel like returning to the campaign later I'll want to work more of that in.
If you have a clear sunset on the campaign/adventure, that makes it all the easier to implement at least one of the ideas Chicken Champ tossed out—with some tweaks.
Students as collectibles (with instructional effectiveness checks): I had already been thinking instructional effectiveness could be measured with Persuasion checks. If those checks made throughout all the sessions were tracked and totaled and were tied somehow to the number of students who wanted to go onto specialize in your subject next semester, you end the campaign with a gp bonus for teaching an “in-demand” subject. Other things done throughout the “semester” (your 7 weeks of play) also feed into that total.
I’d need to think more about how that might look mechanically, but it seems like a great mini-game to put a bit of competitiveness between the players (who I assume represent different schools. Illusion, Abjuration, etc.) You could even make a “Teacher Of the Year” award to give to the player whose PC performed best at convincing students to specialize in his school, secured funding for the school, completed their research project (and maybe defended it before a panel of NPCs to earn their doctorate), dealt shrewdly with the government to maintain educational autonomy, and performed whatever other special tasks well. You’d want to tell them at session 0 that as teachers, they need a certain amount of Charisma to really get through to their students, so they probably shouldn’t dump that stat.
I really do think that’d be a great mini-game to give a long term goal to the party.
Well, remember that Persuasion doesn't always have to be Persuasion (Charisma). Sometimes students gravitate towards teachers that they find likable... but it could just as well be respect of their intellect (Intelligence), seeking out their Wisdom and advice (Wisdom), thinking they're physically attractive (Strength or Con), etc... especially in an academic setting, not everything has to be about who's nicest or has the smoothest tongue.
Especially in an all-caster party where roles (and stats) are less diverse than normal, the DM needs to be prepared to fully utilize the "skills don't always go with a certain ability score" rule.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Maybe they all get a starting proficiency in Persuasion, but they can use the alternate ability for skill checks variant. Where Persuasion is considered the skill meant to change others’ thinking, and you use whatever ability applies best to what you’re trying to teach. “Make an Persuasion check to see how how much of what you said got through to them. This was a pretty deep subject, so you can choose to use INT instead of CHA for the base ability.”
Have you ever considered asking your players to help with how the school is run? They’re faculty, have them design the curriculum that they teach, decide how the classes are structured, figure out their schedules and when they’re free and when they’re tied up running the school, etc.. You can even have them design the layout of the buildings! That way you only have to introduce things that are different that are the encounters and the adventure.
Professional computer geek
A lot of cool ideas here. I have a few suggestions I'll throw out, regarding some ideas for traditional D&D combat encounters. Nothing really new, just taking some ideas from comics. And I'm sure they've been used or talked about somewhere in the past. But I'll try to be brief.
Make it like an X-Men school. Professor X had his core group of teachers that would go out to protect people or fight battles. But in general one of their main concerns was protecting the integrity of the school and students. So the headmaster wizard (DM) could send them out on missions. Maybe some of the student NPCs are sorcerers trying to fit in, and there is some friction with wizards during these encounters.
Or give it an Avengers twist, where the faculty secretly work for the local government and are sent out on clandestine missions, while balancing life at school at the "normal" job. Or the government council could just say "hey, if you want to keep receiving funding, go clear out all the trolls in the swamp" or some such.
Maybe something like, I don't know, each mission, quest, adventure, or threat requires the players to use different characters with abilities and spellbooks to best handle the situation. When each DM starts their campaign, they can give the story hook, and each player can decide something like: we need a fire guy, an underdark specialist, an illusionist, and an abjurer. Add some chaotic fun by having each player create three or four characters before the DM starts up the campaign, and then when they get the story hook or plot point, they pick from the character pool (a substitute teachers pool?). You could even make it so the players pick a character that they DIDN'T create. If it's not a long term campaign, this would give players a chance to try out different wizard types and spells.
Or you could have them interact with other groups like a thieves guild, bard school, or similar. The guild could be trying to lure away students from the magic school because their numbers are declining. While some bards could be doing the same because they're jealous of the spellbooks.
I've probably repeated an idea that's been said somewhere. If I have, I apologize. Please take them with grains of salt. Good luck!
Ooh I do like the idea of Thieve's Guild spies infiltrating the school. Maybe a few of the students are thief plants trying to relieve the school of some magical artifacts, or maybe even commit espionage and steal a teacher's research for some shady government project the facility refused to be involved with.
Are you sure you want to run this as a D&D campaign? If I was to do this, I would have considered for instance Ars Magica, Mage or Fate. The first two have quite nice magic systems that would actually allow the PC's to create some magic theories and do some breakthroughs etc. Fate is much more freeform, but it should work well, but would require more from the players when it comes to inventing the magic system.
Whatever system you choose, I think my advice would be to make it quite sosial and RP-based. Since you want the PC's to play the teachers, they would need to be quite powerful. 5-6 quite powerful wizards can turn a lot of sessions upside down since they will have a lot of spells that might solve situations very easily, and you will have a hard time having control of all their abilities. Creating balanced combat encounters could be a challenge...
Best of luck - it is a funny idea.
Ludo ergo sum!
D&D is the system we know so we're sticking with it.
However I do plan on allowing that magic is much more open-ended than it is typically thought. For instance it's not like "there's these spells and that's it", the spells in the book are more considered adventuring magic (whereas in the world there might be other completely different lists of spells you'd use for like, architecture or mining or what have you) , while the players are free to invent spells or have their research projects be Big Magic innovation that's not covered by any existing spell in-game.
One thought that might really excite your players is have them define parts of the school and how the school is run since they’re faculty. Then introduce hidden things that they don’t know about by building on what they create. They can define the class schedule, the general layout of the buildings, how everyone eats, etc.. And you can add the secret passages, underground caves, patches of poisonous mushrooms in the Forest, evil king who is trying to infiltrate the school, etc..
Professional computer geek