Rebalancing the Schools of Magic

[Sammael]

I've seen several recent threads that mentioned the balance of magic schools and how WotC keeps stepping on the toes of school X by printing school Y spells that do the same thing as X but ignore SR and whatnot. While I do not necessarily agree with all the arguments that were presented, there is still a fair amount of inconsistency among the schools. Much less than in AD&D, certainly, but some weird things remain - like fear-based spells that have absolutely nothing to do with Necromancy and everything to do with Enchantment.

Here's my attempt at rebalancing the schools a little bit. The major issues here are:

1. I've added "communication" as a major theme of the Divination school
2. I've moved the two obvious telekinetic effects to Enchanment, since I view telekinesis as a mental power to move objects about rather than the power to make the objects buoyant (which is the only way I can rationalize the current placement of such spells in the school of Transmutations).
3. Fear also belongs in Enchantment
4. There are quite a few spells I am uncertain about. Like Melf's acid arrow, etherealness (should it be a Conjuration instead, because it deals with planar travel?), and so on.
5. By shuffling some spells around, there are gaps that need to be filled with custom spells. I've suggested a few such spells, but there is need for quite a few more. Please feel free to post additions, but bear in mind that core spells need to be fairly generic and fill certain well-defined needs. For instance, since Conjuration deals with traveling, I added dimensional sidestep as a 0-level spell.

BTW, I've used PHB spell names rather tha SRD ones. Since this is merely a listing of spell names, I think this is reasonable and represents "fair use," much like a sourcebook review that lists the names of all spells, feats, prestige classes, equipment, and so on, found in the book. If there is a still a problem with this, I'll change the names.

http://avala.yubc.net/~ntodorovic/files/SoM.pdf

If you think I nerfed some school up or gave another too much of a boost, please tell me why you feel that way.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I don't think that the telekenesis effects belong in Enchantment (especially considering how much you've given them). I can see Transmutation, or possibly Evocation if a force is holding them up, but certainly not Enchantment.

Also, astral projection never seemed a good fit for Necromancy, at least IMO.

 

[Quickleaf]

I too agree that the spell school system needs an overhaul.

I don't think astral projection belongs in necromancy or enchantment. My thoughts are...

Astral projection in the conjuration school? Conjuration seems to have the most to do with moving from place to place and with summoning creatures form other dimensions. Teleportation magicks work (as per SRD) by accessing the Astral plane.

Conjuration also has the secret chest spell which accesses Ethereal, then again, Transmutation has the ethereal jaunt spell which accesses the Ethereal. Now, there is nothing in Conjuration that says it can only affect objects or that it can't affect the caster, so why these spells are in different "schools" you've got me!

As for balancing schools, check out the Magic Overview in the SRD. Conjuration and Illusion both contain many subtypes of magic. Calling/creation/healing/summoning/teleportation. All other schools basically have one type of magic (even illusion, whose different types are really all quite similar except for "shadow").
IMC I limit conjuration to its calling/summoning/teleportation aspect, and I give the creation aspect over to evocation. Healing is something else entirely.

 

[ZSutherland]

As a contributer to some of the threads Sammael mentioned, I thought I'd chime in. Yes, the schools need some work. No, I don't think they're necessarily going about it the right way by over-powering some schools with things that probably belong elsewhere. However, coming from a strictly PHB standpoint, most of the spells are assigned to the appropriate school. You've got your oddballs, like Etherealness that are hard to place properly, and some are obviously in the wrong place. Telekinesis should be an evocation. Honestly, what aspect of the target object are you transmuting here? You're lifting and manipulating the object (requiring some sort of force) via magic. You are evoking kinetic force. They just didn't want to do that because it would require a descriptor, the obvious choice would have been Force, and then people would want to know how to disintegrate someone's telekinesis effect.

What WotC needs to do, and what they may be doing for all I know (since I'm not going to shell out hundreds of dollars to get the new, complete edition piecemeal), is create some more versatile spells that fit appropriately into the context of each school. Why is it that most evocations are all about damage? Is that all you can do with various types of force? Enchantment is one of the richest schools out there, imho, because of the diverse effects that you can create with its spells, but nearly all the schools can be this versatile. WotC needs to stop being afraid, especially since they're trying to pretty up specialist wizards, of creating multiple spells with similar end results in different schools. Transmutation gets water walking, why not give evocation a spell that freezes the water into a bridge? Things like that. Honestly, how many spells in any new supplement are damaging spells? Do they sell well? Yes, because players like diversity and options in their spell-casters.

Z

 

[Sammael]

Good points about astral projection and telekinesis. The former should be a Conjuration and the latter (along with mage hand and reverse gravity) an Evocation.

Enchantment is an odd school, because there are many creatures that are highly resistant or immune to every single Enchantment spell. Every other school, even Illusion, has spells that can be useful in a variety of situations. Not so for Enchantment. So, while versatile, Enchantment is quite weak at the same time. I think the school needs a boost, but I can't think of a reasonable way (now that you've convinced me telekinesis doesn't belong with it) to boost it up even a little bit. Sure, fear helps, but shouldn't there be more?

 

[Sammael]

Although, on second thought, reverse gravity can be seen as a levitate-type effect, not a telekinesis effect. So I'll leave it in Transmutation for now.

The remaining dilemmas are: acid splash, Melf's acid arrow, Wind Wall, Shadow Walk, Spectral Hand, Ethereal Jaunt, Etherealness, Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer, and Mordenkainen's Lucubration.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Despite antilife shell putting up a protective barrier, I always felt it fit better as a Necromantic effect. It affects upon "life energy", just like magic jar does.

I can see why ethereal jaunt and etherealness are Transumation. The but I supposed it all comes down to an understanding of how the cosmology works. Does a material thing becoming ethereal change its physical makeup or does it remove the thing from one plane and put it in the Ethereal plane. The name ethereal jaunt implies there is some traveling happening. If it is to remain in the Transmutation school, the spell should eliminate "jaunt" from its name for some other word, like "aspect"

Regards,
Eric Anondson

 

[ZSutherland]

acid splash should, imo, be evocation. evocation got hosed on all acid spells, since they're nearly all conjuration. it makes sense from a realistic point of view, but since D&D classifies it as an energy type, I think it belongs in evocation as it is an orb, not a glob or some such. Melf's, on the other hand, belongs in conjuration as I read the spell, since it actually creates an arrow, a physical, tangible object and the acid remains, acting like acid. Windwall is fine where it is in evocation, since it evokes a force or energy. Shadow Walk is one of those titchy spells, but is probably properly assigned to illusion since most magic dealing specifically with the plane of shadow is theirs. Spectral hand is absolutely where it belongs, since the hand is composed of the caster's life force and necromancy is the school that governs such things. if anything, it's the cure spells that are misplaced and should be necromancy as well (as it was in 2e iirc). I concur with Etherealness and Ethereal Jaunt being in Transmutation, since it is you who becomes ethereal, ergo you have transmuted yourself. Most of the other quick movement spells are more like stepping through a hole into & out of the astral plane, so you do not change, but here you do. Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer is fine. Again, you are transmuting your own properties, and it doesn't really fit anywhere else. Mordenkainen's Lubrication, however, I can see going in Divination, since it is not so much an issue of changing your own properties, but delving into the past to recover knowledge.

As for fear effects, leave them in necromancy for the most part. Yes, I can certainly see the argue for enchantment and it is fairly valid, but fear is the emotion we experience most viscerally. You can be scared to death. Few people, if any, are calmed to death or charmed to death.

Z

 

[DreamChaser]

I cannot help but wondering, if you are planning on revamping the schools anyway, why are you sticking to the current 8? The reason that you are finding holes is that there are effects that defy the current 8 schools' ability to categorize (there always have been and there have always been spells in the wrong school--like burning hands until 3.5).

I've been working on a system that breaks down the schools by simple effect: attack--direct damage or similar effect

conjuration--moves things from one place to another (teleport, summon monster)
divination--discover information (identify, true seeing)
enchantment--mind affecting (charm person, geas, cause fear)
enhancement--amplifies existing abilities or grants new ones (bull's strength, fly)
evocation--directly creates or manipulates energy (without attacking) (light, gust of wind, telekinesis
illusion--artificial sensory effects (invisiblity, mirage arcana)
life--manipulates (heals or harms) the body (cure light wounds, death ward, harm)
necromancy--affect the spirit, soul, death, or undead (disrupt undead, animate dead)
protection--reduces or prevents damage or danger (mage armor, shield, antimagic shell)
transformation--physically changes one thing into another, for a time (enlarge, flesh to stone, shapechange)
universal--metamagic or catch all effects (dispel magic, wish, etc)

Just a thought. Like I said, i've long been dissatisfied with the 8 schools so I don't try to rebalance them, I just get rid of them.

DC

 

[Kalanyr]

Astral Projection kind of belongs to Necromancy since it sends the casters spirit to the Astral Plane. This is meddling with the spirit and the forces of life/death, which doesn't really seem out of place to me.