Wizard school specialization, your favorites?

[Munin]

I'm designing an old-fashioned, straight-from-the-phb specialist wizard for the new adventure path.

I've never done a 1 to 20 character, so I'd like to recruit your help. What's your favorite specialization and why?

What schools do you drop?

Hit me with your best wizardly ideas, from schools to feats.
You know you want to

 

[Shieldhaven]

I've played a transmuter from 3 to 8. The good part was that I could buff the party all day long, dish out decent damage, and occasionally pull some really interesting tricks (but the tricky stuff and the big damage is all from other schools). Enchantment and Necromancy were my barred schools. By the time I hit 7th level, I was seriously regretting specialization. I had a pretty good number of spells per day, and extra transmutations weren't high on my list of needs, but never being able to access spells like enervation or deep slumber was starting to really annoy me. On the other hand, for all previous levels, I relied heavily on that extra spell at each level to keep me going.

Final verdict? Don't specialize, just hope that you can get some decent wands earlier in your career than I did in mine.

Haven

 

[Thurbane]

My namesake was an old character of mine, an Evoker.

For me, it's Evocation all the way, and I would geenrally drop Enchantment and Necromancy - who needs to control people or undead when you can blast them to ashes.

...it's pretty much personal preference though. Most people seem to think school specialisation isn't worthwhile - personally, I enjoy it a lot...

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I run the opposite of Thurbane, Actually.

I typically drop evocation and necromancy. I'd rather enchant someone to do my dirty work than blast them and do it myself, leaving a trail to follow.

Never, ever drop transmutation. I suppose you could, but that is like the utility school.

There are people here who swear that divination is the way to go. You get an extra spell for only 1 lost school. That logic is not bad. But if you are going to be a diviner you gotta really love those divination spells cause you get one per level!

I usually make a generalist, an abjurer, or an enchanter. I've never made a specialist in which I didn't give up necromancy.

 

[Dog Moon]

Assuming I'd ever specialize, I'd go Enchanter all the way. Man, I loved my Enchanter I made once. Going into Red Wizard of Thay [MoF version] made it just WRONG.

Although ironically, one of my current chars is a Diviner who went into Divine Oracle and then gained the Oracle Domain.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I am playing a Diviner, currently-ish (a long term campaign only intermittently updated, this one. . .)

I like it. It's fun, interesting, not over- or underpowered (I think), and not really a candidate for any PrC that I've ever seen (and I've seen a LOT).

I also like some of the variant specialists from Unearthed Arcana, particularly when they don't cost you your bonus feats.


edit --- oh, that character (human btw) dropped Necromancy.

 

[Justin]

I don't have a favorite, really, but here's an excerpt from an awesome thread over at The Giant in the Playground. The highlighted text really surprised me.

That being said, this quote I read somewhere here makes one school sound fun: "I'm going to be a Transmuter. I can turn anything into anything else."

[sblock=Schools]
Abjuration: a lot of useful protections, and *dispel magic*. Can't give this one up.

Conjuration: Conjuration has, well, everything. Battlefield control, damage (with the Complete Arcane's Orb Of spells), the vital Teleport and Dimension Door, a bunch of utility...

Divination... you're not allowed to give up divination, and you'd be a fool to do so anyway.

Enchantment: enchantment has a bunch of nice save-or-lose spells, but between Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation, you have plenty of those anyway. Enchantment is a viable choice of banned school. Enchantment has a number of good spells, though, which are a pain to lose--Dominate and Charm, the Stern Reproof/Wrathful Castigation spells (save-or-loses with two saves per spell!), Freezing Glare (Frostburn), et cetera... however, it's nothing you can't make up for. Except Irresistible Dance, losing that sucks.

Evocation: Evocation is mostly direct damage, which makes it the sucky school. Important spells are Contingency and Wind Wall, which you can get through Greater Shadow Evocation and Shadow Evocation respectively. There are useful evocations, but not enough to make it anything but the best choice of banned school.

Illusion: lose it and you lose Invisibility and Greater Invisibility. Plus, the Image spells are versatile if you have a good imagination, the Shadow Evocation spells compensate if you banned Evocation, Illusory Pit from Comp. Arcane is brilliant, Mirror Image is a great defensive spell... you can certainly give up illusion, but it'll hurt a bit.

Necromancy: Ray of Enfeeblement, Spectral Hand, False Life, Ray of Exhaustion, Enervation and Fear, Finger of Death, Clone, Wail of the Banshee... metamagicked Enervation in particular is a good tactic at higher levels. You can give this up, but it really hurts.

Transmutation: too many spells to give up, period. Specialize in this, don't lose it.

So, the three main candidates for being dropped are Evocation, Enchantment, and Illusion. You can't drop both Evocation and Illusion (no way of getting Contingency then) unless you have access to Craft Contingent Spell, and dropping both Enchantment and Illusion means that you have a lack of will-save-or-lose spells. That makes Evocation and Enchantment the natural choices for dropping if you have to drop two. Being a diviner means that you only have to drop one, so make it either Evocation or Illusion--probably evocation, since the only real reasons to take it (Contingency, Wind wall) are availible via illusion spells, albeit a bit later. Your focus has an effect--evocation has a little battlefield control, so a battlefield control wizard should dump enchantment, while a save-or-suck/lose/die focused wizard should drop evocation.

Thus, one should either be a Diviner who bans evocation or enchantment, or a Transmuter or Conjurer who bans evocation and enchantment.
[/sblock]

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Animamancy.

It is like Necromany, but utilizes Postive Energy instead of Negative Energy. Spells that affect a persons soul, can mend and repair it would belong to this school.

 

[Archade]

Illusionist, with prohibited schools conjuration and evocation -- you can always get them back with the spells shadow conjuration and shadow evocation!

I'm a great fan of illusionists! Human ones.

 

[airwalkrr]

I too am a fan of illusionists, usually dropping abjuration and necromancy. Sadly, in Living Greyhawk almost every specialist is a diviner because it is the "munchkin" choice by virtue of only denying you one school of magic.