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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rystil Arden" data-source="post: 2105086" data-attributes="member: 29014">Here's something I posted in the Elf Generalist thread.  It is a numerical comparison of Generalists to Specialists:Assuming that you choose a specialisation that fits your character concept correctly, you will always want to prepare 1 spell per spell level from your specialty each day, so the requirement for the bonus slot to be from the school is nearly meaningless (I have met *one* wizard who felt chafed at all by this requirement, and he turned out to have specialised to reach a prestige class and not because he liked the school). That said, let's look at an 18 Int wizard (I would just use the base chart to illiustrate my point, but that would be unfair: most wizards eventually get 18 Int, and less Int makes this very bad for the generalist very quickly) and how many spells per day he gains from specialising (for simplicity's sake, I have converted spells into their SP equivalent so I can add them all up, counting cantrips as 1/2). Gain is the ratio of specialist to generalist. Notice how the generalist falls over a level behind the specialist starting at level 7, and it goes downhill very very quickly from there. In fact, after 14, the generalist falls over 2 levels behind the specialist!Level 1: Generalist-3.5, Specialist-5, Gain-1.42857Level 2: Generalist-5, Specialist-6.5, Gain-1.3Level 3: Generalist-11, Specialist-15.5, Gain-1.409Level 4: Generalist-15, Specialist-19.5, Gain-1.3Level 5: Generalist-25, Specialist-34.5, Gain-1.38Level 6: Generalist-33, Specialist-42.5, Gain-1.2878Level 7: Generalist-48, Specialist-64.5, Gain-1.34375Level 8: Generalist-60, Specialist-76.5, Gain-1.275Level 9: Generalist-72, Specialist-97.5, Gain-1.35416Level 10: Generalist-88, Specialist-113.5, Gain-1.2897Level 11: Generalist-104, Specialist-140.5, Gain-1.35096Level 12: Generalist-124, Specialist-160.5, Gain-1.29435Level 13: Generalist-144, Specialist-193.5, Gain-1.34375Level 14: Generalist-168, Specialist-217.5, Gain-1.29464Level 15: Generalist-192, Specialist-256.5, Gain-1.33593Level 16: Generalist-220, Specialist-284.5, Gain-1.29318Level 17: Generalist-248, Specialist-329.5, Gain-1.32862Level 18: Generalist-280, Specialist-361.5, Gain-1.29107After this, the wizard spell progression breaks the usual pattern, plus most campaigns probably don't go this far, so I'm stopping. It's worth noting the general ratio is usually about 1.3ish, so the specialist might last four encounters, while the generalist runs out of spells after three. Sometimes, this advantage isn't worth losing two schools, but more often than not, it is. At low levels, the ratio is larger, and at high levels, the gap is so wide that the generalist is multiple levels behind.</blockquote>

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