Imperial Society (Dragonstar)
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The main order of wizards in the Dragon Empire. The full name is the Imperial Society of Arcane Magic, but in reality, it deals mainly with wizardry. The society provides some services to the sorcerer-lords, but in general sorcerers look down on the Imperial Society.
Benefits
The Imperial Society provides various benefits to their members as outlined on pages 136-137 of the Starfarer's Handbook. It also provides members with limited access to Technomagical Laboratories. In addition, the Imperial Society provides spellcasting at the rates described n the Player's Handbook, rather than at the rates for CommercialSpells.
Fees
The usual membership fee is 1000 cr per year per caster level.
A member of the Imperial Legions or services on active duty has the normal 1000 cr per annum membership fee vaived as a part of the dues paid by the Imperial Society, but the special fees related to to his class must still be paid.
Associate Members
Non-wizards may want to join the Imperial Society as associate members. An associate member has access to the mundane libraries of the society, and may purchase magical supplies and equipment at member rates. This improves the availablity of magical items and lore, and lowers the cost of comercial spellcasting significantly.
Variant Societies
There are less prestigious arcane orders spread across the universe,whose fees are lower. Generally, for societies with half the normal fees, there is a 10% chance that each of the guild's proposed benefits will not work when tested. For societies with 10% of the normal fee, the chance of failure is 20%. The failure chance applies to downloading spells, spellbook backup (both described in the Starfarer's Handbook, page 136-137), and the class abilities spellpool and new spell. Many such societies are also local in nature, and provide services only in certain parts of the empire - a planet-wide society generally has only 25% of normal fees, while a kingdom-wide one (or equivalent) has 50% of the normal fees. Price modifiers are multiplicative.
Bootleg Spells
It is also possible to find free, bootleg copies of spells on the InfoNet. The Research DC of finding a standrad wizard spell is 10 + 5x Spell Level. Such spells are often hacks or pirated versions of commercial spells and may include intentional or unintentional flaws. If the Research roll fails by 5 or more, the spell is actually nonworkable, and any time and/or money invested in it is wasted.
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