Improving Wizard School Specialization

[The Great Bear King]

The variants in UA are good for that, although you have to sacrifice to get them.

I wouldnt mind seeing some of them as specialist-only feats

That might not be a bad idea.

 

[Vecnasaurus]

If you want a simple solution, you could use an adaptation of the "minor access" rule from 2e Priest Spheres. Instead of a complete barring of 2 schools, bar one school completely and allow access to the other, but only up to 4th level spells. The logic would be that, rather than being totally flabbergasted by 2 schools, one is a total mystery, and the other you can do, but you never quite got the hang of it.

How's this for an evil idea: all specialists give up only one school, but only specialists can cast 9th level spells, and then only from their specialty school. Suddenly the much-maligned sorcerer is looking shiny and new

 

[Merlion]

Theres a lot of interesting options. I havent fully decided what I am going to do in the game I am hoping to run (if I get to run it).

Probably either just give them the specialist benefits from UA, or give them a +1 bonus to saves,caster level and spell DCs within their school.

 

[mercucio]

Merlion,

Below are a couple of feats I dreamed up a while back. While they can be taken by anyone I originally designed them with specialist wizards in mind. You may find them useful for what you're seeking to accomplish:

FOCUSED METAMAGIC [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Spell Focus (chosen school), Focused Spellcaster (chosen school), any two metamagic feats, Spellcraft 15 ranks.
Benefit: Select one school you posses the Spell Focus feat for. The spell slot modifier of all the character’s metamagic feats applied to spells of that school are reduced by one level, to a minimum of +1. This feat has no effect on metamagic feats whose spell slot modifier is +1 or less.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new school of magic.
Note: Add this feat to the wizard’s list of bonus feats.

FOCUSED SPELLCASTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Spell Focus (chosen school), Knowledge (arcana) 10 ranks.
Benefit: Select one school you posses the Spell Focus feat for. You caster level is considered one higher when casting spells of that school.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to any new school of magic which you have the Spell Focus feat for.
Note: Add this feat to the wizard’s list of bonus feats.

 

[Merlion]

I actually did up something similiar to Focused Spellcaster myself, but with just Spell Focus as a pre requisite. I think since we have DC increasing feats, and overcoming SR feats, caster level increase feats would make sense.

 

[scholz]

I am of the opinion that specialists should really be specialists, so I would give them even less access to other schools.
I would say a specialist pick two schools (apart from Divination, and their chosen school) they can only prepare and cast these as a caster of one half their level (that is subsumed in their normal allotment of spells). They cannot cast spells from other schools.
They must get something in exchange.

+1 Spell in their school per spell level
+1 DC to school spells they cast, and +2 to saving throws vs those spells
+1 Effective level for purposes of effects, range, duration etc.. to school spells.
May select one spell in their school per spell level, that they need not prepare (like Domain spells).
In addition, starting at 5th level and at each level thereafter, the character can designate a spell outside the school that is of a level she could normally cast (were she not a specialist) as a spell of her school. With the assistance of the DM some special effects should be altered to make the spell fit the school.
Ex. Conjurer makes Fireball a Conjuration (summons a small fire elemental that runs to the target location (normal speed) and explodes for 1d6/level in a 20 burst.
Ex. Necromancer makes a Bull's Strength spell. The target is surrounded by an exoskeleton of bone which enhances the creature's strength by +4 for 1 minute per level. This encumbers the character as per medium armor (as Breast plate).
Ex. Enchanter makes a Lightning bolt. Creatures in 5ft wide line 5ft per level of the caster (or 10ft wide 5ft long per 2 levels) suffer palpitations of their hearts (self induced) for 1d6 damage per level of the caster (a Will save results in half damage).

Some conceptions will fit less well than others, and players must get DM's permission to add the spell.

This, I think, creates a specialist that is both powerful, and truly specialized, like the First Edition's Illusionist.

 

[Gez]

The way I'm doing it, IMC, in my house-rules...

I've kinda merged the wizard with the magister from AU. You know, the cool class abilities like "aspect of power".

And for specialist wizards, rather than extra spell slots, they get more powerful aspects of powers. For example, an enchanter gets a charming voice and hypnotic eyes that give him bonus to skills like Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy and Gather Information, a bonus to the DC of enchantment spells when they have eye contact with their target, and ultimately, a minor gaze attack (provokes dazing); while an invoker gets to summon more monsters, to give them a morale bonus to attack and damage, and to cast summon monster spells as a standard action (rather than taking one entire round).

As I deemed those overall weaker than 10 extra spell slots (frm 0 to 9), a specialist has only one barred school.

This change in the way specialist wizards work allowed me to create other kinds of specialist wizards -- notably artificers and alchemists.

 

[Merlion]

I am of the opinion that specialists should really be specialists, so I would give them even less access to other schools.
I would say a specialist pick two schools (apart from Divination, and their chosen school) they can only prepare and cast these as a caster of one half their level (that is subsumed in their normal allotment of spells). They cannot cast spells from other schools.
They must get something in exchange.

+1 Spell in their school per spell level
+1 DC to school spells they cast, and +2 to saving throws vs those spells
+1 Effective level for purposes of effects, range, duration etc.. to school spells.
May select one spell in their school per spell level, that they need not prepare (like Domain spells).
In addition, starting at 5th level and at each level thereafter, the character can designate a spell outside the school that is of a level she could normally cast (were she not a specialist) as a spell of her school. With the assistance of the DM some special effects should be altered to make the spell fit the school.
Ex. Conjurer makes Fireball a Conjuration (summons a small fire elemental that runs to the target location (normal speed) and explodes for 1d6/level in a 20 burst.
Ex. Necromancer makes a Bull's Strength spell. The target is surrounded by an exoskeleton of bone which enhances the creature's strength by +4 for 1 minute per level. This encumbers the character as per medium armor (as Breast plate).
Ex. Enchanter makes a Lightning bolt. Creatures in 5ft wide line 5ft per level of the caster (or 10ft wide 5ft long per 2 levels) suffer palpitations of their hearts (self induced) for 1d6 damage per level of the caster (a Will save results in half damage).

Some conceptions will fit less well than others, and players must get DM's permission to add the spell.

This, I think, creates a specialist that is both powerful, and truly specialized, like the First Edition's Illusionist.

This is interesting, but both more restrictive and more complicated than I am looking for. I dont really like re-doing effects to fit other schools. I also tend to want to make specialists better with their school to show their uniqueness, rather than limit their access to other magic.

Because really even if they get a lot of neat abilities in their school, if they cant hardly use other spells their going to have real problems getting along. An Enchanter for instance would be pretty much up a creek versus undead, contstructs, or anything else with good mental defenses.

 

[Merlion]

The way I'm doing it, IMC, in my house-rules...

I've kinda merged the wizard with the magister from AU. You know, the cool class abilities like "aspect of power".

And for specialist wizards, rather than extra spell slots, they get more powerful aspects of powers. For example, an enchanter gets a charming voice and hypnotic eyes that give him bonus to skills like Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy and Gather Information, a bonus to the DC of enchantment spells when they have eye contact with their target, and ultimately, a minor gaze attack (provokes dazing); while an invoker gets to summon more monsters, to give them a morale bonus to attack and damage, and to cast summon monster spells as a standard action (rather than taking one entire round).

As I deemed those overall weaker than 10 extra spell slots (frm 0 to 9), a specialist has only one barred school.

This change in the way specialist wizards work allowed me to create other kinds of specialist wizards -- notably artificers and alchemists.

This is really a lot like the variants from Unearthed Arcana. I've pretty much decided that in my game, specialists will just get the UA benefits for free, without having to give anything up. aAlong with the usual extra slots. It compensates for what I see as the imbalance of what they give up versus what they get, and it makes them much more unique.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I only make specialist give up one school. And I allow them (at my discretion) to pick one of the mods from unearthed arcana if they wish depending on what university of magic they went to.