Are Wizard schools irrelevant?

Jabborwacky · Mar 29, 2016

Speaking of learning new spells, can multiple wizard PCs spend downtime teaching each other new spells?

kalani · Mar 29, 2016

If you play at the same table as another wizard, you can copy any number of spells from their spellbook at the end of the session. The only limits are your class level (whether you can learn spells of X level or not), your Gold (cost for copying spells and lifestyle expenses), and downtime. You cannot copy spells from wizards who you didn't play with, and only get one opportunity to copy spells using downtime (at the end of your current session and before the start of your next session).

From the FAQ

Are players allowed to copy other players' spellbooks? How does copying spells work with downtime?
Yes, characters can copy spells from found spellbooks or other characters’ spell books. If the DM allows in game copying go by the rules in the Player’s Handbook. If it’s out of game, copying can be done with downtime at a rate of one downtime day for up to 8 hours of copying. (FAQ 3/20/15)

Tony Vargas · Mar 29, 2016

Pauper said:
This makes sense if Tim the Enchanter is a Divination specialist, but my guess is that someone whose last name is "the Enchanter" is probably going to be an Enchantment specialist.

On the contrary he'll obviously be casting a lot of fire spells...

TwinPeaksGuy said:
A necromancer can't actually do necromancy? The very word means death divination, otherwise known as speaking with the dead or being a medium. Yet another weird and inexplicable twist in the rules.

Somehow the meaning of the '-mancy' suffix drifted/broadened in the gaming community from 'divination by' to 'magic of.' So a 'pyromancer' in an RPG is a lot more likely to burninate enemies with copious ex nillo conjuration of elemental fire than to have visions of the future when staring into a candle flame.

kalani · Mar 29, 2016

In greek, the correct suffix would be "urgy".... But "mancy" rolls off the tongue so much better than saying Necrourgy, pyrourgy, etc....Thaumaturgy works fine, but most other uses of urgy sound weird.

TwinPeaksGuy · Mar 29, 2016

kalani said:
Necromancy has always been weird, as it has been traditionally broken up across both wizard and cleric. In order to be a "True Necromancer" you need to be a hybrid wizard/cleric..... Clerics have always been better undead-related necromancers anyway, while wizard necromancers have traditionally been about inflicting death

Worse things could happen than to multiclass wizard/necromancer and life cleric. the mad scientist inspiration fit better with Wizard in my head, but if that's what it takes to do it in a way that makes sense to me I can wrap my head around it. It hits a lot of the right notes regarding healing and crafting frankensteinish stuff.

RCanine · Mar 29, 2016

kalani said:
If you play at the same table as another wizard, you can copy any number of spells from their spellbook at the end of the session. The only limits are your class level (whether you can learn spells of X level or not), your Gold (cost for copying spells and lifestyle expenses), and downtime. You cannot copy spells from wizards who you didn't play with, and only get one opportunity to copy spells using downtime (at the end of your current session and before the start of your next session).

From the FAQ
Are players allowed to copy other players' spellbooks? How does copying spells work with downtime?
Yes, characters can copy spells from found spellbooks or other characters’ spell books. If the DM allows in game copying go by the rules in the Player’s Handbook. If it’s out of game, copying can be done with downtime at a rate of one downtime day for up to 8 hours of copying. (FAQ 3/20/15)

No part of your quote specifies that you must play at the same table as another wizard. Where do you get that?

Pauper · Mar 29, 2016

Tony Vargas said:
On the contrary he'll obviously be casting a lot of fire spells...

Well, this was a Monty Python character, so I'm guessing that was part of the joke.

kalani said:
In greek, the correct suffix would be "urgy".

Which suggests there should be a school of metallurgy. A natural for dwarf wizards.

I've never been a big fan of necromancy being a standard wizard school. I kind of which WotC had done with the necromancy school what they did with the Death domain for clerics: make it a villainous option unlockable by the DM. But I suppose I could do that as the DM of my own home game.

--
Pauper

kalani · Mar 29, 2016

I like making white necromancers myself (those who won't raise the dead unless they ask permission of the souls first via speak with the dead, and only with the promise of helping them with a minor task in extreme circumstances). Outside of that, they would study the skills of their enemy so as to know how best to combat them, while using the more curative/healing side of necromancy; act as a shepherd for lost souls; a funeral director; etc.

When it comes to command undead (and similar abilities), they would use these skills to keep hostile undead from harming others until such times as they can be properly put to rest. They would never command them to attack another living creature however.

RulesJD · Mar 29, 2016

Well I'm currently running a Necromancer through CoS and it's been thematically great so far. He's lost his eyes and is more golem in appearance (cold resist/fire vuln), trying to mimic the undead he will awake.

Basically he's based on a certain scientist character from Archer the TV show and wants to beat Strahd at his own game, gaining control over his own demiplane and ruling as a (mostly) benevolent dictator.

Jabborwacky · Apr 7, 2016

RCanine said:
No part of your quote specifies that you must play at the same table as another wizard. Where do you get that?

I'm sure she is referring to the simple fact that it is impossible to share spells with a wizard who is not physically present. There is also the issue of chronology, given how players can jump to different AL adventures.