D&D (2024) why are spell schools and what should they be?

[Gorck]

in Final Fantasy, the Black Mage has all the damage dealing moves, more precisely the Fire, Blizzard and Thunder line of spells. White Magic is all the healing and status condition removal and revives. The Red Mage would have access to both Black and White magic, but not at their maximum level.

Later games included the Blue Mage, who copied the special powers of monsters who attacked him (REALLY hard to pull off) and Final Fantasy Tactics A2 added the Green Mage who specialized in inflicting status condition!

IIRC, in the original Final Fantasy (for the NES), the Red Mage was equivalent to a Bard (or maybe that's just how I chose to interpret it).

 

[Undrave]

IIRC, in the original Final Fantasy (for the NES), the Red Mage was equivalent to a Bard (or maybe that's just how I chose to interpret it).

Yeah the red mage is also decent with weapons, usually being limited to lighter weapons, like a rapier and other one handed swords. Bard is a good analog.

 

[Blue Orange]

FF1 was really D&D-ish--not only with the spells having direct analogues (a group of high-level stun, blind, and kill spells had HP cutoffs, just like Power Word Stun, Blind, and Kill, there was a 5th-level black magic spell that cast a poisonous cloud), but the white mages could use blunt weapons...the list goes on and has been covered extensively elsewhere. From what I can tell the Red Mage was 'colored' after Dragonlance, but mechanically works a lot like a bard, though more of a fighter/cleric/mage than a fighter/thief/druid. I suspect they made it that way to have another good fighter option rather than a pure white/black mage (which did exist in later versions of FF as the Sage, but as part of a much bigger suite of classes).

The idea of a secular, non-morally-aligned form of magic is kind of a D&D-ism, I think--in the West you're either dealing with the powers of Heaven or (more commonly) Hell. So 'white' and 'black' magic are anthropologically correct, even if they aren't really spell schools.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Master of the Five Magics was a big influence on Magic: the Gathering if you accept Wikipedia, which is more or less Good, Nature, Mind, Energy, Evil.

I'm not sure I buy that it was a "big" influence. The magics in MotFM are Thaumaturgy (manipulation of matter and energy using the Principles of Sympathy and Contagion), Alchemy (creating potions by blending ingredients in specific, time-consuming formulas), Magic (creation of magic items through intricate rituals performed with exactitude), Sorcery (basically mesmerism, controlling and influencing minds after eye contact), and Wizardry (summoning demons using fire, and controlling them through force of will). MtG magical colors are White (order, peace, and light), Blue (intellect, logic, manipulation, and trickery), Black (power, death, corruption, and sacrifice), Red (freedom, chaos, fury, and warfare), and Green (life, nature, evolution, and indulgence). They don't really translate well, IMO.

For a really intricate system, there's always Spell Law from RoleMaster, where magic is divided into three Realms: Essence (representing mastery over the energy field that binds all things together), Channeling (representing the power of the deities of a given world as channeled through their followers or other spell users), and Mentalism (representing the powers of the mind). Each Realm has dozens of spell lists containing thousands of spells.

 

[Tonguez]

1 Choose a theme/focus eg Firebending
2 Choose a Technique skill

CONJURING
Conjuration = Conjuring of Objects, Energy that did not exist
Abjuration = Shields, Walls, Counters and Banishments

ENCHANTMENT
Manipulation = Moving existing objects, elements, energies etc
Transmutation = Alteration of shape, form and substance

MYSTICISM
Mysticism = psionics and illusion, Affecting senses, thoughts, emotions
Vitamancy = manipulation of physical processes of life, growth, death and decay

SCORCERY
invocation = Summoning of beasts and spirits
Evocation = Portals and Channeling

 

[Mind of tempest]

1 Choose a theme/focus eg Firebending
2 Choose a Technique skill

CONJURING
Conjuration = Conjuring of Objects, Energy that did not exist
Abjuration = Shields, Walls, Counters and Banishments

ENCHANTMENT
Manipulation = Moving existing objects, elements, energies etc
Transmutation = Alteration of shape, form and substance

MYSTICISM
Mysticism = psionics and illusion, Affecting senses, thoughts, emotions
Vitamancy = manipulation of physical processes of life, growth, death and decay

SCORCERY
invocation = Summoning of beasts and spirits
Evocation = Portals and Channeling

okay, how do you get this to play well with the other classes such as sorcerer?

 

[Gorck]

MtG magical colors are White (order, peace, and light), Blue (intellect, logic, manipulation, and trickery), Black (power, death, corruption, and sacrifice), Red (freedom, chaos, fury, and warfare), and Green (life, nature, evolution, and indulgence).

I've never played MtG so forgive me if this is an already well-established observation, but I find it interesting that the five "magical colors" are the same as the five Chromatic Dragon colors. I wonder if that was on purpose or just a coincidence.

 

[Cadence]

I've never played MtG so forgive me if this is an already well-established observation, but I find it interesting that the five "magical colors" are the same as the five Chromatic Dragon colors. I wonder if that was on purpose or just a coincidence.

I'm guessing it's just that they're the one commonly associated with colors in light and then black and white.

The dragons and MtG colors really don't line up - lightning is red along with fire, and water and ice are blue.

 

[Tonguez]

okay, how do you get this to play well with the other classes such as sorcerer?

things like Draconic heritage or Abberent Minc become Themes, and metamagics can be used too.

 

[Scott Christian]

For my homebrew, I use Realms that occasionally touch the world. They leave pockets of magic; each Realm associates itself with a school. And the older gods worshipped in the north, also loosely align with these Realms. (The Realms also created the creatures on the world.) The Realms and their schools are:
Realm of the Dead - Necromancy
Shadow Realm - Illusion
Cursed Realm - Curses
Elemental Realm - Elemental
Realm of Giants - Transmutation
Supernatural Realm - Nature