Prohibited magic spell schools?

[Thanee]

Necromancy doesn't surprise me so much, but Enchantment and Illusion do. I s'pose it implies that we prefer to embrace effects that directly influence our environment rather than use subtle measures?

It's very simple. Enchantment and Illusion have the lowest amount of must-have spells in them.

Illusion has Greater Invisibility, but that's pretty much about it. Mirror Image is good, as are the Shadow spells, but none of those are really necessary.

Enchantment has nothing, really. Well, maybe Otto's later, but you can get Maze instead.
OTOH, Enchantment spells are loads of fun and therefore I wouldn't want to lose them.

Evocation just causes damage (and creates Walls of Force ), but many people like to cause damage the flashy way.

Necromancy is surely the #1 prohibited school for various reasons. Apart from False Life it doesn't have any spell, which could be seen as a necessity. Enervation is great, as are some others, but not necessary, as there are plenty spells which are similarily effective in similar situations.

Abjuration, Conjuration, (Divination) and Transmutation all have spells you really, really miss, if you cannot access these schools.

About specialisations, I only really consider Divination specialists, as they are highly superior to any other choice, because you have to choose only one prohibited school (usually Necromancy, sometimes Evocation, rarely Illusion or Enchantment), unless I'm looking for a very specific character concept, which is bound to a certain magic school specialisation (i.e. a summoner), of course.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Driddle]

Of potential use for DMs as well, assuming you'd care to be 'fair' about NPC villains -- if those schools are most often chosen to be ignored by PC mages, then it stands to reason the spells would be more difficult for them to counter.

... And spellbook treasure would be less valuable toward their own uses.

 

[Thanee]

NPC wizard specialists also drop these schools for similar reasons (again, unless their concept dictates otherwise), of course.

Necromancy has a certain evil touch to it, so it's obviously much used by evil wizards, however.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Raduin711]

Evocation- Damage (direct)
Conjuration- Damage (indirect)

Enchantment- Mind Control (direct)
Illusion- Mind Control (indirect)

Transmutation- Buffs (offensive)
Abjuration- Buffs (defensive)

Necromancy- Debuffs

Damage-type spells are often the most desireable and necessary in your typical dnd game. Evocation, Conjuration and Necromancy seem to have the best command of damage of all the schools, with evocation being the king of damage. Its also rather straightforward when compared to conjuration and necromancy. Conjuration often does damage through summoning monsters and evocation-like spells. One or the other could be lived without, but few would want to give up the variety of ways to do damage to the opponents.

Mind-Control type spells have variable value, depending on the campaign setup. Enchantment seems to lose its value if npc's are not recurring... if the pc's are constantly on the move, and players will only be in the area a few days at most, then being able to influence the people around you isn't as powerful. Illusion spells are useful only in certain situations, and whether these situations arrive depends largely on the dm.

Transmutation and Abjuration are both incredibly useful as the primary schools for buffs. Abjuration to a lesser degree, though it contains some very important spells, though i expect if we did a poll to find out the least favored school, it would probably be abjuration.

Necromancy is the school for debuffing opponents, dropping their levels, stats, and effectiveness. It also borrows a little bit from enchantment and conjuration (with fear spells and undead) as well. Necromancy is built for the long-term; making more of a tool of villains than players. A poison spell on an NPC will do some damage, but one to a PC will have much larger consequences.