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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hong" data-source="post: 722692" data-attributes="member: 537">Behold my ability to proffer advice on stuff I know nothing about! (Of my six 3E PCs since the game's release, five have been fighter types, and the one spellcaster hasn't got past 2nd level. I am a buttkicker through-and-through, to use Robin Laws' classification scheme.)Since a specialist wizard is only limited in terms of what opposition school she chooses, becoming a specialist is best seen less in terms of what you can do, and more as what you can't do. Of the various schools, nearly all have something to offer in powergaming terms.So let's have a look at them. Stuff that's particularly important (IMO) will be in ALL CAPS.- Abjuration: (nearly) all the protective stuff. SHIELD, prot. evil, prot. arrows, DISPEL MAGIC, STONESKIN, GREATER DISPELLING, MIND BLANK.- Conjuration: summoning stuff. Mage armour, fog cloud, summon monster I-IX, web, stinking cloud, cloudkill, PLANAR BINDING, power word stun, power word blind, power word kill, GATE.- Divination: read the DM's mind. True strike, identify, SEE INVISIBILITY, clairaudience/clairvoyance, scrying, contact other plane, TRUE SEEING, greater scrying, DISCERN LOCATION, foresight.- Enchantment: control people. Daze, charm person, sleep, HOLD PERSON, suggestion, CHARM MONSTER, CONFUSION, lesser geas, DOMINATE PERSON, FEEBLEMIND, HOLD MONSTER, geas/quest, insanity, OTTO'S IRRESISTIBLE DANCE, DOMINATE MONSTER.- Evocation: lotsa boom spells. MAGIC MISSILE, flaming sphere, continual flame, fireball, lightning bolt, ice storm, wall of fire, wall of ice, WALL OF FORCE, CONTINGENCY, Otiluke's freezing sphere, DELAYED BLAST FIREBALL, forcecage, meteor swarm.- Illusion: pull the wool over people's eyes. Change self, COLOR SPRAY, silent image, blur, INVISIBILITY, minor image, mirror image, DISPLACEMENT, major image, IMPROVED INVISIBILITY, PHANTASMAL KILLER, persistent image, permanent image, programmed image, GREATER SHADOW EVOCATION, SHADOW WALK, WEIRD.- Necromancy: kill things the direct way. Cause fear, chill touch, ghoul touch, VAMPIRIC TOUCH, ENERVATION, fear, animate dead, magic jar, circle of death, FINGER OF DEATH, CLONE, HORRID WILTING, astral projection (???), energy drain, WAIL OF THE BANSHEE.- Transmutation: the good stuff, no sane wizard will go without this school. Burning hands, feather fall, ALTER SELF, BULL'S STRENGTH, CAT'S GRACE, ENDURANCE, darkvision, knock, ROPE TRICK, FLY, BLINK, gaseous form, GREATER MAGIC WEAPON, HASTE, SLOW, water breathing, DIMENSION DOOR, bestow curse, POLYMORPH SELF, POLYMORPH OTHER, TELEPORT, passwall, fabricate, DISINTEGRATE, flesh to stone, eyebite, MASS HASTE, TENSER'S TRANSFORMATION, PLANE SHIFT, ETHEREAL JAUNT, TELEPORT W/O ERROR, ETHEREALNESS, polymorph any object, SHAPECHANGE, TIME STOP.So, now it's just a choice of which ALL CAPS spells we can do without.Dropping Transmutation is clearly right out. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Necromancy has too many nifty instakill effects to drop, as does illusion, strangely enough. Illusion also has the game-breaking improved invis, and displacement to help you live longer.Evocation actually isn't that great in terms of damage, compared to the old days. Fireballs topping out at 10d6 doesn't really cut it when monsters can have twice as many hit points as they did in 2E. But it's still got enough good stuff, in particular wall of force and contingency (which, ironically, aren't even direct-damage spells), to keep it in.Enchantment is great for spells like hold/dominate. Not only that, it has a potent magekiller in feeblemind, and confusion and Otto's ID are always great to throw around.Divination has plenty of good stuff, even if you don't want to short-circuit plotlines on a regular basis. See invisibility and true seeing in particular can save your butt. True strike is also a must if you want to mix it up with physical weapons or touch spells.Abjuration is required if you want a long and healthy powergaming career. Not to mention it has two of the few absolutely-must-have spells, in dispel magic and greater dispelling (the others are fly, teleport and haste).So that leaves Conjuration. What does it have? Its signature spells, the summon monster chain, aren't necessarily bad; being able to yank an astral deva out of your hat can't be written off. Gate and greater planar binding have the potential to be totally broken -- as written, you can get a solar to join you with greater PB -- but you have to wait a long time before you get to the good stuff. Not to mention that disturbing powerful outsiders on a regular basis will often have consequences.... Most of the other spells are either limited in their applicability or too weak to match up to the alternatives. And if you want powerful friends, there's always the Leadership feat.Therefore, if I were to play a specialist, I would probably pick anything that allowed me the option of dropping Conjuration. This means anything other than an actual conjurer, basically. The actual choice would be a flavour and RP thing."No, Buttercup, don't beat me with a stick!"</blockquote>

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