Level Up (A5E) What’s up with the Arcane and Divine spell schools?

[Faolyn]

The seem kinda random to me? For instance, arcane muscles is arcane, but can be taken by clerics and herald. But some spells have both arcane and divine.

Also, why is antilife shell a technological spell?

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Also, why is antilife shell a technological spell?

It's drawing on the "technology vs nature" thematic.

 

[Morrus]

Pretty much that, yeah!

 

[Faolyn]

It's drawing on the "technology vs nature" thematic.

Sorry, I'm just not feeling that. I mean, I get that theme, but to me, a spell like antilife shell is life versus (un)death, not nature versus technology.

I kinda wish there was an explanation for what the sub-schools meant. Sure, most of them are pretty obvious, but I still don't get how arcane and divine were assigned, considering how it doesn't match often up with the classes. Or affliction, which sometimes seems to mean disease/poison and other times seems to mean a condition (but not all conditions), and sometimes seems to mean something else.

 

[Faolyn]

OK, so even more confusion here: why do spells like levitate and major image have the chaos tag?

I really like these sub-schools, at least in concept, but they are very confusing at times.

 

[Faolyn]

Bump.

I'm actually really hoping to find out what the arcane and divine schools actually mean, if anyone can answer.

 

[Timespike]

Bump.

I'm actually really hoping to find out what the arcane and divine schools actually mean, if anyone can answer.

The schools were very much a team effort, so some of the non-obvious choices were probably justified enough to convince the editor by someone on the team, but those conversations are buried deep.

As far as arcane and divine go (to the best of my knowledge), they're kind of a nod back to previous editions; collections of spells commonly associated with wizards and sorcerers vs. ones usually associated with clerics, heralds, and (to a lesser extent) druids. They're useful for subclass design. That previous sentence is not a hypthetical one from me.

 

[Faolyn]

Thanks. It's just weird because there at least several spells that are considered either arcane or divine, but both types of casters can cast it.

 

[niklinna]

Thanks. It's just weird because there at least several spells that are considered either arcane or divine, but both types of casters can cast it.

Spells have those schools/tags; classes don't!

 

[SirApetus]

Yeah personally I am not a big fan of the other spell schools. Does not seem to explain them in much detail as to how to decide what spells are what, and seems rather arbitrary.

I have decided to not have them (and replace the few features that use them with something else)