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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 4142463" data-attributes="member: 50987">On Spell SpecialistsI am not getting the right "feel" for specialist spellcasters...you know, wizards who choose to specialize in a particular school, or clerics with spell domains, that sort of thing.  I want to do more with it than simply hand out free spells; I want it to actually be a meaningful part of a character.In short, I want Earth clerics to have a different feel from Healing clerics, and I want Evokers to have a different feel than Conjurers.I really don't know how to handle it, honestly.  I wanted it to be open, to give the player the freedom to select spells without restriction, operating on the assumption that if the player wanted a specialist wizard he would only select spells of a particular school.  Sounds good in theory, but it is terrible in practice: wizards still pick the most popular spells (we have even started calling it the Top Ten List at our table), and while they may call themselves Conjurers, they are no different from Abjurers or Evokers.  Not different at all.Clerics seem to work much better...since they automatically learn their domains' bonus spells, they are forced into a fixed stack of "flavor" spells that follows a theme....of course an Earth cleric will know all of the spells for shaping stone, and of course a Healing cleric will know most of the spells with the [Healing] descriptor.  I had to restrict the number of domains that a cleric has access to (only one, not two like the PHB says) for balance reasons, but the cleric is only better for it IMO.So I am thinking about taking a page from the cleric's book, and writing a list of "domains" for the wizard.  Only they wouldn't be called domains; they would be called "schools" and the wizard would choose one at 1st level.  Like domains, it would give the wizard a "granted power" related to the spell school (in place of the free Scribe Scroll feat.)  This is something like what I have in mind:[SBLOCK=Wizard Schools]School of ConjurationGranted Power: you gain the Spell Focus [Conjuration] feat for free as a bonus feat.Bonus Spells:1.  Mount: Summons riding horse for 2 hours/level.2.  Summon Swarm: Summons swarm of bats, rats, or spiders.3.  Phantom Steed: Magic horse appears for 1 hour/level.4.  Summon Monster IV: Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.5.  Mage's Faithful Hound: Phantom dog can guard, attack.6.  Summon Monster VI: Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.7.  Instant Summons: Prepared object appears in your hand.8.  Summon Monster VIII: Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.9.  Summon Monster IX:  Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.With a little bit of elbow grease, I could also open it up to other wizard concepts, such as elemental magic or energy types:School of FireGranted Power: you gain the Spell Focus [Evocation] feat for free as a bonus feat.Bonus Spells:1.  Burning Hands: 1d4/level fire damage (max 5d4).2.  Produce Flame: 1d6 damage +1/level, touch or thrown.3.  Resist Energy: Ignores 10 (or more) points of damage/attack from specified energy type (fire only).4.  Wall of Fire: deals 2d4 fire damage out to 10 ft. and 1d4 out to 20 ft.  Passing through wall deals 2d6 damage +1/level.5.  Fire Shield: Creatures attacking you take fire damage; you're protected from heat or cold.6.  Fire Seeds: Acorns and berries become grenades and bombs.7.  Fire Storm: Deals 1d6/level fire damage.8.  Incendiary Cloud: Cloud deals 4d6 fire damage/round.9.  Elemental Swarm:  Summons multiple elementals.[/SBLOCK]Sure, it is shoehorning the wizard a bit...but it is still better than "forbidden schools," IMO.Thoughts?EDIT: You know what?  This is totally beyond the scope of my project.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />   I think I will leave it up to each individual GM to decide how and why the spellcasters specialize in magic, and just stick to making at-will spellcasting a balanced alternative to the Vancian system.  That is enough of a challenge in and of itself...no need to make extra work for myself.</blockquote>

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