Upon character creation, each mage has 1000 points of "aura loc", 1000 points of "shield loc" and 1000 points of "barrier loc".

Each point corrosponds to a location. One location per type is guarenteed to have 100 points. That is your "normal location". The rest of the points are distributed randomly among the rest of the locations of that type.

So lets say Location 1 is my guarenteed location it would look something like this.

Location 1 -- 100%
Location 2 -- 31%
Location 3 -- 2%

Etc etc etc. Beyond that, the system would work out as outlined in my earlier post. When you "check" a location, if you pass the % check, that is now yours, and all other locations go to 0% chance.

The above system I think might be a cool hybrid. LOTS of randomness, 100% impossible to abuse, encourages "real" exploration, makes your wands more accessable.