Class Design: Longstaff Wizards (2006)

From Introduction:

Longstaff Wizards are numerous and can be found throughout Karnish and its empire. Archetypal wizards, the Longstaff Wizards seek a deeper knowledge of their art and invest heavily in researching new spells and magic items and understanding existing ones (and how to further manipulate their properties).

Longstaff Towers – stone towers built wherever the Longstaff Wizards are located – house not only powerful magic items and examples of nearly every spell ever scribed, but also vast libraries containing books on almost every conceivable subject and huge laboratories where experiments are carried out and the properties of magical and mundane items identified and analyzed.

To fund this astronomically expensive task, the Longstaff Wizards are also in the business of creating and selling magic items and many of the magic shops located throughout Karnish are run by them. In almost every town and city, there will be at least one Longstaff Magic Shop, even if they are in no other way established there.

These shops form the backbone of the magic trade in Karnish, supplying potions and minor magic items to those that can afford them. Generally, they are no more than curiosities for those that cannot afford what they sell, but in those places where magic is little understood and wielders of it eyed with suspicion, they are not welcome and are regarded with mistrust.