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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6198554" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 338: December 2005part 3/7Schools of magic: In Unearthed Arcana wizards had the option to specialise in domains, gaining a single extra spell of each spell level rather than the choice of an entire School. However, since there were no drawbacks for doing this, it made them strictly better than generalists to do so, which is poor design when you consider that wizards are probably the third best class in the game already. This article attempts to deal with that by creating an intermediate degree of specialisation, particular curricula of magic with 2-3 spells to choose from per level for your bonus slot,  and only one forbidden school, with again, a limited choice of 2 to represent the weaknesses of these particular academies' teaching methods. Since these are specific organisations rather than natural divisions of magical physics, they are free to make the lists idiosyncratic, which also means it's really easy to invent your own infinite number of variations on this idea. They list 8, giving each half a page, with one column devoted to the mechanics, and two to the setting details and important NPC's of each one. So this article could be a lot bigger, but it's already better implemented than the domain wizards in UA, and more interesting to incorporate into your campaign because the little bits of setting detail give you easy hooks on which to hang further adventures. I could definitely stand to see a sequel to this one. Imps of ill-humor: A somewhat more whimsical article than we've seen for a while, this could easily have fit into the april articles of old. It's also an interesting White Wolf parallel, since the four bodily humours are going to play a substantial part in their next gameline as well. I wonder what inspired them both when it's such an old and underused bit of pseudoscience. So yeah, four imps, each with personality types and powers based on the stereotypes of what people are like when they have an excess of a particular bodily humour. They're all approximately the same power level as Mephits, and would fit right in amongst that grumbling lazy gaggle of extraplanar dogsbodies. I'm sure you can have a great deal of fun playing them, since they're all such blatant stereotypes. Choleric Imps are always angry, and will pick a fight for no reason. This rage is contagious, so the party may well turn on each other after killing them, which will just be a pain in the butt. Good thing they're not smart enough to strike from concealment and then just sit back to enjoy the show. Melancholic Imps are inherently depressed all the time, which is an even worse fate than being designed to be inherently evil. Course, they can also be vicious little backstabbers, especially if you refuse to listen to their endless whining. Steer clear, or they'll drag you down to their level. Phlegmatic Imps are less miserable, but they're even lazier and more likely to come up with ways to skive off their job rather than just complaining. Oh well, that just gives the evil overlord an excuse to do some serious torturing. Who cares if you succeed as long as you have fun being evil. Sanguine Imps are perpetually cheery and hyper, which makes them the odd one out here. This does not mean they don't love a good laugh at everyone else's expense, so expect some decidedly nasty trickery if you hang around them. At least you can be sure the other imps will ostracise them. No-one likes an optimist in hell.</blockquote>

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