What are the two most useless schools of magic for a Necromancer to give up?

[Shin Okada]

Enchantment will be the 1st choice, as there are enough Will save spells in Necromancy school.

2nd school is a hard choice. But maybe Illusion. Most of the offensive spells in this school are Will save spells. I don't like to give up Invisibility and Mirror Image. But if I must choose.

 

[Masquerade]

Alternatively, you could choose which schools conflict most with the character's personality and background.

 

[Jarrod]

A second vote for background

Evocation is now one of the weakest schools. The low-level evos are the best area effect spells for damage, but conjuration is steadily taking over. The orbs (and the fire-effect Cone of Cold) from Complete Arcane are conjuration, as are Glitterdust, Web, and Grease. About the only unmatched evocation left is Contingency, which is just golden. On the other hand, Evo has Fireball. Mmmm fireball.

Also, as a note, if your GM ups monter hit points for any reason, your evocations just got a _lot_ weaker and your save-or-dies didn't. We found this out the hard way. Sigh.

Illusion is generally handy, but depending on the group and GM can range from "I'm invisible" to "I make an illusion of a wall and hide the players behind it". It's very GM-call-dependent. YMMV.

Enchantment is chock-full of will-based Save or Dies, which overlaps with Necromancy.

Abjuration has Dispel Magic. Never, ever, ever, EVER give up dispel magic. It's a weak school (tell that to my Initiate of the Seven Veils, Greater Spell Focus [abjuration]), but Dispel Magic is critical. Also has Dismissal, and CA has Reciprocal Gyre which is just fun.

Transmutation... yeah, don't give this one up. Disintegrate, stat boosters, polymorph. Yeah.


As a final note. Necromancy has some _good_ spells. Check out the Book of Vile Darkness if you can (Lahm's Finger Darts) or Frostburn (there's a 2-3rd level dex damage spell). Ray of Enfeeblement is nice, but monsters get more strength as they get bigger. Now, what goes down with size? Right, dexterity. If you can start doing ~10 points of Dex damage per spell, you can take out dragons.

 

[melkorspawn]

Give up Evocation... then take a level of Warmage!

 

[Testament]

Abjuration and Conjuration. Necromancers get meat shields from their undead, they dont need Abjuration.

You have to be drunk, high and delerious to even consider giving up Abjuration. As Jarrod said, you never, ever, EVER give up Dispel Magic.

Personally, I vote go with background, within reason. Abjuration, Transmutation and Illusion are, in my opinion, must keeps. Transmutation has the buffs (mmmm, item creation) and Disintegrate, and I'd personally rather cut off my own arm than give up invisibility.

My other recommendation is give up Evocation OR Conjuration, but NEVER both. I'd ditch Evocation (its practically redundant since the Complete Conjurer came out) and Enchantment personally.

 

[LostSoul]

I vote for evocation and enchantment. Evocation is good when you want to kill lots of mooks, but there are other ways to take them out (Web, Glitterdust, and Grease come to mind).

Ray of Enfeeblement is nice, but monsters get more strength as they get bigger. Now, what goes down with size? Right, dexterity. If you can start doing ~10 points of Dex damage per spell, you can take out dragons.

If Dex-damage spells have the limit that Ray of Enfeeblement does - the stat cannot drop below 1 - it's not that great. A dragon with 1 Dex is still very dangerous, since none of its powers come from having a high Dex. A big mean bashing monster who has just lost 10 Str is going to come off a lot weaker.

I love doing 12 Str damage with my Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement. Mr. Hill Giant attacking with +10/+5 (2d8+1) is just not the same threat.

 

[Tarangil]

I'd more or less drop abjuration and evocation.

Imagine getting to mix your illusions with your undead? And enchantment for those that may see through the illusions? They have potential, but just can't blow anything up.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Dropping abjuration is a huge mistake. Losing access to dispel magic is too big of a drawback. As a necromancer, you might be frequently dealing with creatures on the ethereal plane and you need Force effects (evocation) and abjurations to affect them. I'd choose enchantment and illusion.

 

[Thia Halmades]

*jerks paw towards Jarrod*

Yep, what he said.

 

[frankthedm]

If Dex-damage spells have the limit that Ray of Enfeeblement does - the stat cannot drop below 1 - it's not that great.

Most of those spells don't have that built in. Many players gravitate to those spells because 60% of the MM inhabitants have a 10 to 11 dex.