Spellcaster university: Traits
Student and Facilty traits and their effects
Sometimes it makes little difference, sometimes it can make a noticeable difference to your progress.
Consider a Brilliant and Passionate Worker, of Lawful Good alignment and blessed with Child of Nature, in a Passionate Nature House, with a Nature teacher who is also Lawful Good and is excellent.
The bonuses start to stack up, especially later in their studies:
+40% +25% +10% +25% +10% +25% +10% +25%…
Then consider a less favourable combination, one with a dumb, deaf chaotic evil student, with hay fever, and shoved in the greenhouse with a bad teacher, pedagogically speaking. Instead of all those increases, you receive penalties to learning, starting with -50% for their allergy to pollen and -40% to learning.
There are checks and balances though, so if you push that deaf student, eyes and nose streaming into a stable with an excellent teacher and Nature focus, the checks (+25, +20%) can start to balance things.
Overall, it’s just a fun addition to the game, but if you wanted to make things challenging – a short game, with a speed challenge, at the Archmage level, it would take a lot more care in placements to win.
Pro tip
Buff and counter traits with optimal placement of accessories. The most notable ones are below.
Bedrooms:
Bed of Repentance – chance to remove a negative trait
(Drawn with Light mana)
Teachers’ rooms*:
*(e.g. Private apartment, Teacher’s lounge, Bright Staff Refectory, (Trophy room))
Ancient Hermit Crab (relic) – Teacher may permanently gain a positive trait
(Drawn with Natural mana, once unlocked)
Crystal Ball (relic) – Teacher may permanently lose a negative trait
(Drawn with Arcane mana)
Magic Hat (relic) – Can permanently raise teacher’s pedagogy, up to Excellent
(Drawn with Arcane mana)
Student rooms*:
*(e.g. Bedrooms, Students hall, (Trophy room))
Armillary Sphere (artifact) – small chance for Passionate trait
(Drawn with Natural mana, once unlocked)
Specific classroom*:
(e.g. Righteous Cloister vs Demonic Chamber)
Pyre (artifact) – chance to become Good
(Drawn with Light mana)
Pentacle (decoration) – chance to turn Bad
(Drawn with Shadow mana)
Student and House Magic Affinities and Aversions
Magic-related traits (positive)
Alchemy apprentice: learns Alchemy 25% faster
Arcane scholar: learns Arcane magic 25% faster
Child of Nature: learns Nature spells 25% faster
Chosen of Light: learns Light magic 25% faster
Shadow Disciple: learns Shadow skills 25% faster
Passionate: learns level 4 and 5 spells 25% faster
Worker: learns magic 10% faster
Magic-related traits (negative)
Allergic to crustaceans: learns Alchemy 50% slower
Down to earth: learns Arcane magic 50% slower
Allergic to pollen: learns Natural magic 50% slower
Goth: learns Light magic 50% slower
Claustrophobia: learns Shadow magic 50% slower
Deaf: learns magic 15% slower
Positive traits
Ambitious: better futures possible
Athletic: moves 25% faster
Beautiful: loses much less sanity when insulted
Comical: reduces boredom for nearby students
Courageous: deals 35% more damage in combat
Diligent: generates 10% more mana when studying
Gourmet: hunger lowers 30% faster when eating
Jack of all trades: learns the first level of all magic disciplines 100% faster
Orphan: no Prestige loss if they die (awww 🙁 )
Popular: doubles Prestige gain (or loss) at the end of their studies
Steadfast: loses 20% less sanity
Unbreakable: reduces all health losses by 20%
Well-behaved: this student misbehaves half as much
Negative traits
Aggressive: makes the students they bully lose much more sanity.
Antisocial: works less efficiently in crowded rooms
Bibliophobia: inefficient when studying in the library
Bully: lowers sanity of nearby students
Chatty: slows learning rate for others in the room
Coward: deals 50% less damage in combat. Runs away if the school is attacked.
Demoralised: slowly loses sanity over time
Heavy-sleeper: tiredness lowers 30% slower when sleeping
Hyperactive: misbehaves a lot, but moves a bit faster
Hypochondriac: slowly loses health over time
Pretentious: increases boredom in nearby characters
Procrastinator: acts and gets tired 25% slower (i.e. ineffective)
Old-fashioned: loses sanity faster
Shifty: misbehaves much more than other students
Slow: moves 20% slower
Ugly: loses much more sanity when other students are mean to them
Voracious: hunger lowers 30% slower (than normal) while eating
Student Intelligence
Dumb: learning rate reduced by 40%
A bit slow: learning rate reduced by 20%
Normal: no change
Smart: learning rate increased by 20%
Brilliant: learning rate increased by 40%
Wealth
Miserable: reduces all money gains from the student by 50%
Poor: reduces all money gains from the student by 25%
Average: unaltered
Well-off: increase all money gains from the student by 25%
Wealthy: increase all money gains from the student by 50%
Alignment
Lawful Good (Neutral, Evil)
Neutral Good (Neutral (true neutral), Evil)
Chaotic Good (Neutral, Evil)
The needs and learning rate of the student and their reacher are affected by and correspond to their respective morality. e.g.:
The needs of a Chaotic student grow more slowly if their teacher is also Chaotic.
Similarly, an Evil student learns faster if their teacher is also bad, while a Good students learns better with a good-aligned teacher. Neutral students work best with a balanced teacher.
Teachers’ Traits (positive):
Ancient wisdom: students learn 10% faster
Corpore sano: slows growth rate of needs by 20%
Erudite: increases the learning rate of students by 10%
Ex-Adventurer: while teaching, may improve your reputation with the Adventurer’s guild
Ex-Inquisitor: while teaching, may improve your reputation with the Inquisition
Fun: students get bored half as fast
Job lover: reduces their boredom growth by 50%
Hawk-eye: students in the same room misbehave 75% less for 2 minutes
Inspiring: students in the class have a chance of losing a negative trait
Light sleeper: tiredness lowers 30% faster while this character is resting
Punctual: moves faster than most characters
Under the King’s protection: while teaching, may improve your reputation with the King
Teachers’ Traits (negative)
Clumsy: Active students in the same room have a 50% greater chance of suffering from a magical aberration
Demanding: their wage is 30% higher than other staff
Demoralised: slowly loses sanity over time
Elder: slow movement rate
Poser: boredom grows by 20% for all other characters in the room
Relaxed: moves a little slower, students learn 10% slower
Round belly: gets hungry faster
Teacher’s pedagogy
Bad: lowers student learning rate by 20%
Poor: lowers student learning rate by 10%
Normal: no change
Good: increases student learning rate by 10%
Excellent: increases student learning rate by 20%
Links
See also: main Spellcaster University Guide.
