Necromancer: which two schools to give up?

[Crothian]

Get rid of evocation and conjuration, make the game a challenge

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Just for fun I'd drop evocation - just because few people besides myself ever do. (Yes, fireball is that famous) But I would then drop enchantment. For reasons stated above, Conjuration and Illusion go well with Necromancy. So keeping those three together is preferred, but not absolutely necessary. You could lose transmutation ... but then you lose access to all the cool spells like fly, flesh to mud, blink, reduce/enlarge, etc. Abjuration is also a possibility, but many of the defensive spells (mage armor, resist energy, etc) would be lost there.

So, that is why I would drop evocation and enchantment. Definately evocation. I might be willing to trade enchantment for abjuration ... but I'd have to think long and hard over that.

 

[Jhulae]

I really dislike the idea of dropping Illusion, just because there are so many good spells for your personal protection in there (such as Invisibility, Blur, Mirror Image, and Displacement).

We had a Conjurer speciallist in one of our games who dropped Illusion and really regretted it.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I gave up Enchantment and Illusion. Enchantment is a very strong school, but I didn't feel it fit my creepy character. And I'm not at all confortable adjudicating -- or forcing my DM to adjudicate -- figments, so I dodged the issue by picking Illusion.

I've not really regretted either, although until I got high enough level for probe thoughts, I occasionally desperately wished for charm spells.

 

[B4cchus]

I dropped abjuration and conjuration. Mainbly because it was a wiz/cleric -> true necromancer. So i could afford the loss of those two school since i can get those spells from my divine spell list.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Enchantment and Illusion.

 

[Keefort]

I'd go with conjuration and illusion.
Illusion for me seems to have too few spells of any real use past the low levels

 

[Krelios]

I'd not specialize, it's a terrible bargain. There's nothing you can drop that you won't regret later. Just play a mage and pick Necromancy spells primarily--you'll be a lot happier.

 

[Liquidsabre]

I'd not specialize, it's a terrible bargain. There's nothing you can drop that you won't regret later. Just play a mage and pick Necromancy spells primarily--you'll be a lot happier.

Being a specialist is practically a no brainer. An extra spell of that school can be cast at each spell level?! Extremely handy for those higher level spells that you don't get bonus spells to suppliment. This also brings the wizard up from a base 4 spells/spell level/day to a max base of 5 and close to the number of spells a sorcerer can cast/day at base 6, egads! A wizard that has access to as many spells as they want, can fill open spell slots with spells they need at will, and can nearly cast as many spells/day as a sorcerer? Yea what a rip-off.

Besides as a Wizard you always have to choose your repetoire of spells anyhow, limiting you to at least about half (usually considerably less due to costs) of the spells on the spell list. You lose nothing by picking a specific selection of spells and ignoring the rest, since that's what you have to do anyhow more or less, so you might as well specialize and pick the schools wth spells you don't plan on dipping into anyhow.

 

[B4cchus]

Being a specialist is practically a no brainer. An extra spell of that school can be cast at each spell level?! Extremely handy for those higher level spells that you don't get bonus spells to suppliment. This also brings the wizard up from a base 4 spells/spell level/day to a max base of 5 and close to the number of spells a sorcerer can cast/day at base 6, egads! A wizard that has access to as many spells as they want, can fill open spell slots with spells they need at will, and can nearly cast as many spells/day as a sorcerer? Yea what a rip-off.

Besides as a Wizard you always have to choose your repetoire of spells anyhow, limiting you to at least about half (usually considerably less due to costs) of the spells on the spell list. You lose nothing by picking a specific selection of spells and ignoring the rest, since that's what you have to do anyhow more or less, so you might as well specialize and pick the schools wth spells you don't plan on dipping into anyhow.

But what you are forgetting here is thw wizard's acces to higher level spells. Furthermore the sorcerer may more flexibility in the spells he casts, he also has a limit to the number of spells he chooses from. A wizard may also leave slots open to fill out later as he sees fit, which adds to his flexibility. edit: you did mention that...

I do agree on the "always go for specialisation" for that extra spell per level. It's worth more than the spellcasting prodigy feat.
It makes sense, you know it does.