Wizard - A few unintelligible words and fleeting gestures carry more power than a battleaxe, when they are the words and gestures of a wizard. These simple acts make magic seem easy, but they only hint at the time the wizard must spend pouring over her spellbook preparing each spell for casting, and the years before that spent in apprenticeship to learn the arts of magic. Wizards depend on intensive study to create their magic. They examine musty old tomes, debate magicla theory with their peers, and practice minor magics whenever they can. For a wizard, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. Wizards conduct their adventures with caution and forethought. When prepared, they can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. They seek knowledge, power, and the resources to conduct their studies. They may also have any of the noble or ignoble motivations that other adventurers have.
Background - Wizards recognise each other as comrades or rivals. Even wizards from very different cultures or magical traditions have much in common becasue tehy all conform to the same laws of magic. Unlike fighters or rogues, wizards see themselves as members of a distinct, if diverse, group. In civilised lands where tehy study in academies, schools, or guilds, wizards also identify themselves and others according to membership in these formal organisations. But while a guild magician may look down her nose at a rustic wizard who learned his arts from a doddering hermet, she nevertheless can't deny the rustic's identity as a wizard.
Racial Notes - Humans take to magic for any of various reasons: curiosity, ambition, lust for power, or just personal inclination. Human wizards tend to be practical innovators, creating new spells or using old spells creatively. Elves are enthralled by magic, and many of them become wizards for love of the art. Elf wizards see themselves as artists, and they hold magic in high regard as a wondrous mystery, as opposed to the more pragmatic human wizards, how see magic more as a set of tools or tricks. Illusion magic comes so simply to gnomes that becoming an illusionist is just natural for the brighter and more talented ones. Gnome wizards who don't specialise in the school of illusion are rare, but they don't suffer under any special stigma. Half-elf wizards feel both the elf's attraction to magic and the human's drive to conquer and understand. Some of the most powerful wizards are half-elves. Dwarf and halfling wizards are rare because their societies don't encourage the study of magic. Half-orc wizards are rare because few half-orcs have the brains necessary for wizardry. Drow often take up wizardry, but wizards are quite rare among the savage humanoids.
Religion - Wizards commonly revere gods of magic. Some, especially necromancers or simply more misnathropic wizards, prefer deities of death and magic. Wizards in general are more devoted to their studies than to their spiritual sides.
Relationships - Wizards prefer to work with members of other classes. They love to cast their spells from behind strong fighters, to "magic up" rogues and send them out to scout, and to rely on the divine healing of clerics. They may find members of certain classes (such as sorcerers, rogues, and bards) to be not quite serious enough, but they're not judgemental.
Familiar - Familars are magically linked to their masters. (sorcerer or wizard) In some sense, the familiar and the master are practicalyl one being. A familiar is a normal animal that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a sorcerer or wizard. It is like the appropriate animal, but treated as a magical beast instead of an animal for the purpose of any effect that depends on its type. Only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. Thus, a druid/sorcerer can't use her animal companion as a familiar.
(For this purpose, a wizard or sorcerer does not have to have a familiar. And can use their little animal as a pet, instead. If regarded as a pet, it cannot be used for spells or other familiar abilities. However, the 'pet' may turned into a familiar through roleplaying, and gain those abilities. But not turned back.
Empathic Link - The master has an empathic link with his familiar out to a distance of up to 1 mile. THe master cannot see through the familiar's eyes, but they can communicate empathically. Because of the limited nature of the link, only general emotionla content (such as fear, hunger, happiness, curiosity) can be communicated. Note that the low intelligence of a low-level master's familiar limits what the create is able to communicate or understand, even intelligent familiars see the world differently from humans, so misunderstandings are always possible.
Speak with Master - If the master is 5th level or higher, a familiar and the master can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand the communication without magical help.
Speak with Animals of Its Kind - If the master is 7th level or higher, a familiar can communicate with animals of approximately the same kind of itself (including dire varities) - Bats with bats, rats with rodents, cats with felines, etc.
