D&D General Which school of magic is responsible for things such as Weapon & Armor enhancements and Magic Items?

[Orsapod]

Oops... Newbie here and cannot delete post. Looks like I need a Transmuter and an Abjurer, at a minimum.
Which leads to this WIP: "A Transmuter, an Abjurer, and an Evoker walk into a bar..."

 

[delericho]

It -literally- depends on the item.

Vorpal Blade? Necromancy.

Shield of Protection from Arrows? Abjuration.

Elementally Resistant Armor? Abjuration.

Helm of Fireballs? Evocation.

Agreed. And I'd actually go further and suggest that for a lot of items (especially those 'generic' plus items) the school might vary based on the specific item - your +1 sword might have necromatic runes carved into the blade, while had the steel magically transmuted for greater effect. Or whatever.

 

[pukunui]

Everyone knows it’s enchantment! Just ask Sandal!

 

[CreamCloud0]

I’d say, from a worldbuilding perspective rather than mechanical, enchantment and transmutation are the main schools used to ‘enchant’ a weapon although they do so differently and then there is a secondary component of the school/type of magic being enchanted into the object but that’s more on the side of an ingredient than a tool of the process

Enchantment to my understanding is more ‘sticking magic to the item’ whereas Transmutation is ‘altering the item to be inherently magical’, As an example: both school create a sword that deals fire damage
-Enchantment makes it so the blade bursts into flame, the sword itself is unchanged it just has fire coating it,
-Transmutation makes it so that the blade heats and glows white-hot, the sword is altered during the process

 

[Krachek]

Need a new school : Artificery.
Ho wait there is already a class that do that!

 

[Davies]

Which school of magic is responsible for Magic Items, Weapon enhancements (+1, +2, etc), Armor enhancements (+1, +2, etc)?

I always thought it was Enchantment magic, but, after reading its description, that doesn't seem right to me!

I've talked to some pros in the field, and they had some varying answers to this questions.

So, what are your thoughts?

And, should a 9th school of magic be introduced just for this purpose, the school of magic that deals in creating magical items? Alteration magic, perhaps?
Or maybe Imbuement Magic?

I voted for it depends, but I would say Alteration for weapon enhancement, Abjuration for armor enhancement.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

The Old School

 

[CleverNickName]

3.X Edition had the "Universal" school of magic; I say we just bring it back into 5E and use it for generic things like enhancement bonuses.

 

[James Gasik]

I voted Transmutation, but thinking about it, maybe we need to bring back the "Universal" school, which covered magic that doesn't neatly fit in any one school, or that was so useful for the fundamental nature of magic that everyone needs to know it, regardless of specialization.

 

[cbwjm]

There doesn't really seem to be many spells that were in the universal group back in 3e. Just in the srd there was: arcane mark, prestisigitation, permanency, limited wish, wish.

I think 2e had a few more that dropped off in 3e like detect magic and enchant item, but otherwise, especially with specialists not losing access to spell schools, I'm not sure a universal school is really needed.