Improving Wizard School Specialization

Merlion · Aug 16, 2004

Ok on a slightly different subject for a change.

I've been thinking about Wizard school specialization. (and before anyone says it, yes I have seen the variants in Unearthed Arcana, and they are interesting, but dont really address the things I want to address).

As it stands, when you specialize in a school of magic, you give up two schools (or one if your a Diviner) neither of which can be Divination, and you gain 1 extra spell slot each day which must be used for a spell of your school. And, now one of your 2 free spells each level, must come from that school.

Does this seem an unfair trade to anyone else? I mean theres 8 schools of wizard magic, and especially in 3.5 those schools are all pretty equal in overall number of spells, and usefulness (accept maybe for Divination, which cant be chosen as a barred school)

So basically, your losing a quarter of your spell list, in exchange for 9 spell slots, which can only be used for certain spells.

I have several possible ideas for what I feel would be more even ways to do it.

One, regardless of others, is I think a Specialist should automatically learn an extra spell of his school at each level, rather than having one of the base two have to be of the school.

Also, perhaps rather than an extra spell slot, allowing the Specialist to spontaneously cast some or all of the spells of his school might be interesting. Either all of them, or perhaps 1 chosen spell of each spell level.

And/or perhaps an increase in caster level with speciality spells.

Or give them access to spells of their school from other spell lists.

Any of these might work, alone or in combination.

Anyone have any other ideas?

I also considered the idea of having specialists wizards each be there own class, with their own spell list and features. The trouble with that is, you'd have to choose when building such a class, which spells to include or not include, which leads to the old 2nd edition problem of any given specialist losing the same spells, and figuring out well should an Illusionist loose Evocation, or maybe transmutation? Should a Necromancer loose Enchantment, or perhaps Abjuration? etc

Also, some different class abilities for specialists might be interesting. Giving them some of the UA abilities as added abilities rather than exchanges for existing ones perhaps

Anyway, thoughts, ideas?

mercucio · Aug 16, 2004

If you don't like the current system of specialization--I certainly don't--I would suggest going back to the 3.0 system of wizard specialization.

Merlion · Aug 16, 2004

Because if anything its worse. You still lose more than you gain. And it still does little to actually represent being better at using a given type of magic.

Aaron2 · Aug 16, 2004

Merlion said:
Anyone have any other ideas?

For me, a specialty wizard is treated like a Wizard of one level higher than his class level for both caster level and spells per day, but these spells can only be from his chosen school. For all other spells, he is treated as a wizard two levels below his class level, again both for spells per day and caster level. These two spell lists don't add, they overlap.

For example, a fourth level illusionist can cast three first level spells, of which only two can be non-illusionist spells [this is written 3(2) in the chart]. Illusion spells will be at Caster Level 5 whereas all other spells are at Caster Level 2. A fourth level illusionist can already cast one third level illusion spell. A fourth level evoker will get a 5d6 fireball, the same fireball as a seventh level illusionist.

When comparing to the stock way, my specialists actually gets fewer extra spells per day since the number tops out at 4 but these extra spells are usually at his highest spell level.

Aaron

Merlion · Aug 16, 2004

Not bad. Too complicated for my tastes, but not bad.

Do your specialists actually loose acess to any schools, or no?

I'm favoring leaving everything as it is extra slots and all, but also giving them a 3rd learned spell each spell level, and a small bonus to caster level and save DCs with spells of their schools.

Not that i'll probably ever actually get to use it...but in theory..

Aaron2 · Aug 16, 2004

Merlion said:
Do your specialists actually loose acess to any schools, or no?

No. I never felt that losing a school was a good way to go. Does not being able to cast Necromancy spells make you a better Illusionist? Plus, my game world has plenty of non-school specialists (such as fire mages and geo-mages). I can just make a list of "school" spells without having to worry about making a bunch of lists of opposition schools.

Aaron

Vrecknidj · Aug 16, 2004

Here's something I thought of.

1) Specialists pick two schools, like usual, to not cast from. But, instead of losing access to those schools, they have weakened access. In other words, all spells from those schools are treated as 1 level higher (so, if evocation is on your no-no list, a fireball is a 4th level spell for you).

2) The total number of spells prepared in a day from your prohibited schools cannot be higher than your Int modifier. The total number of spells prepared in a day from your specialty school must be at least one higher than the spells you memorize from your prohibited schools.

3) Spells from your school of specialization receive a +1 to the DC of any save, and get a +1 for overcoming spell resistance--and, these two features stack with appropriate feats.

4) Spells from your prohibited schools receive similar penalties of -1 (to save DC and against spell resistance).

5) When you gain a level and gain two free spells, you have these two options: a) two spells from any non-prohibited school, b) one spell from a prohibited school and one spell from your specialization school.

Dave

Merlion · Aug 16, 2004

I like your ideas Vreck. I think the idea of losing some skill with the other schools, rather than losing them entirely is both more balanced, and makes more sense.

The total number of spells prepared in a day from your prohibited schools cannot be higher than your Int modifier. The total number of spells prepared in a day from your specialty school must be at least one higher than the spells you memorize from your prohibited schools.

How does all this interact with non-speciality, non-prohbited schools?

Also, can the total number of prohibited spells prepared not exceed your Int modifier for all spell levels? So a 20th level Evoker with Illusion as a prohibited school could never prepare more than say 6 or 7 Illusion spells regardless of spell level?

I think maybe I'd just say keep the +1 spell slot per level for speciality spells, and you cant prepare more prohibited school spells in any given level than, say, half your Int mod rounded down.

Spells from your school of specialization receive a +1 to the DC of any save, and get a +1 for overcoming spell resistance--and, these two features stack with appropriate feats.

I'd make the second +1 apply to all caster level factors.

Spells from your prohibited schools receive similar penalties of -1 (to save DC and against spell resistance).

Good good

5) When you gain a level and gain two free spells, you have these two options: a) two spells from any non-prohibited school, b) one spell from a prohibited school and one spell from your specialization school.

I still think a specialist should just get an extra spell learned each level (course I think wizards need more free spells anyway).