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Make SPELL SCHOOLS Thematic (and Useful)
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<blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8789130" data-attributes="member: 58172"><p>To make the schools organize the spells more helpfully, the following organizational principles take place.</p><p></p><p><strong>Evocation</strong> already covers all of the elemental "energy" spells, like fire, lightning, and cold. This expands to include all elemental magic: air (lightning-thunder), fire (fire), water (cold), whence earth too. Thus a few earth spells that were transmutations are now evocations instead. The four elements are a central archetypal theme. Evocation is now the school for it. Any players who want elemental themes go to the Evocation spell lists to find their spells.</p><p></p><p><strong>Divination</strong> handles all spacetime magic. Being remotely present elsewhere relates to teleporting elsewhere to be there physically. Conceptually, when scrying the mind is present elsewhere, and a powerful mind can pull their physical body to there. Thus Scry and Teleportation are both aspects of the Divination school. Mechanically, many divination spells are weak, being little more than "DM gives a hint", and completely dependent on the DM playstyle. Moreover, if the DM needs the party to know something, the DM will communicate it one way or an other, and if the DM needs the party to not know something, then no divination will reveal that information. If the DM doesnt care, the information is less likely to matter anyway. A scry itself is awkward to implement mechanically. By contrast, Teleportation is powerful but tends to be a monotonous one-trick-pony. The combination of Scry and Teleportation complements each other well, and forms a satisfying spell list with interesting things to do in the Divination school. Meanwhile, where divinations can be an innate psychic ability, some spells specifically invoke other planes for information. Thus Planar magic generally works as a salient theme for a spell list, and is part of the Divination school. Thus spells like Misty Step and Teleportation Circle are part of the Teleportation subschool, while spells like Planeshift and Contact Other Plane are part of the Planar subschool. But all of these themes are part of the Divination school.</p><p></p><p><strong>Necromancy</strong> is darkside magic, focusing on death and demons, and the like. The term necromancy is often a synonym for demonology, whence the Fiend. Cthulu and the "Necronomicon" extends this necro to the Aberration too. Meanwhile necromancy properly means consulting with the dead for advice, whence the deathly, rotting, and Undead spells generally. Necromancy is the go-to school for the nasty stuff. Necromancy can include Good characters who need to understand the dangerous aspects of magic, whether to defend against it or harness it cautiously. Meanwhile Evil characters can invoke and collaborate with the darker impulses of the creature types in play.</p><p></p><p><strong>Transmutation.</strong> With earth spells relocating to the elemental magic of the Evocation school, the only transmutations left are primal nature magic: beasts, plants, and healing. The beast includes shapechanging into animals, as well as the bodies of any living creatures generally. Healing is a special application of growing and regenerating the body back into a healthy shape − namely transmuting.</p><p></p><p>Thus "nature magic" easily organizes between the elements of nature − go to the Evocation spell lists − or else the lifeforms of nature − go to the Transmutation spell lists.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yaarel, post: 8789130, member: 58172"] To make the schools organize the spells more helpfully, the following organizational principles take place. [B]Evocation[/B] already covers all of the elemental "energy" spells, like fire, lightning, and cold. This expands to include all elemental magic: air (lightning-thunder), fire (fire), water (cold), whence earth too. Thus a few earth spells that were transmutations are now evocations instead. The four elements are a central archetypal theme. Evocation is now the school for it. Any players who want elemental themes go to the Evocation spell lists to find their spells. [B]Divination[/B] handles all spacetime magic. Being remotely present elsewhere relates to teleporting elsewhere to be there physically. Conceptually, when scrying the mind is present elsewhere, and a powerful mind can pull their physical body to there. Thus Scry and Teleportation are both aspects of the Divination school. Mechanically, many divination spells are weak, being little more than "DM gives a hint", and completely dependent on the DM playstyle. Moreover, if the DM needs the party to know something, the DM will communicate it one way or an other, and if the DM needs the party to not know something, then no divination will reveal that information. If the DM doesnt care, the information is less likely to matter anyway. A scry itself is awkward to implement mechanically. By contrast, Teleportation is powerful but tends to be a monotonous one-trick-pony. The combination of Scry and Teleportation complements each other well, and forms a satisfying spell list with interesting things to do in the Divination school. Meanwhile, where divinations can be an innate psychic ability, some spells specifically invoke other planes for information. Thus Planar magic generally works as a salient theme for a spell list, and is part of the Divination school. Thus spells like Misty Step and Teleportation Circle are part of the Teleportation subschool, while spells like Planeshift and Contact Other Plane are part of the Planar subschool. But all of these themes are part of the Divination school. [B]Necromancy[/B] is darkside magic, focusing on death and demons, and the like. The term necromancy is often a synonym for demonology, whence the Fiend. Cthulu and the "Necronomicon" extends this necro to the Aberration too. Meanwhile necromancy properly means consulting with the dead for advice, whence the deathly, rotting, and Undead spells generally. Necromancy is the go-to school for the nasty stuff. Necromancy can include Good characters who need to understand the dangerous aspects of magic, whether to defend against it or harness it cautiously. Meanwhile Evil characters can invoke and collaborate with the darker impulses of the creature types in play. [B]Transmutation.[/B] With earth spells relocating to the elemental magic of the Evocation school, the only transmutations left are primal nature magic: beasts, plants, and healing. The beast includes shapechanging into animals, as well as the bodies of any living creatures generally. Healing is a special application of growing and regenerating the body back into a healthy shape − namely transmuting. Thus "nature magic" easily organizes between the elements of nature − go to the Evocation spell lists − or else the lifeforms of nature − go to the Transmutation spell lists. [/QUOTE]
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