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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dark Magus" data-source="post: 1043404" data-attributes="member: 13224">Ah, the blessings of the revisions, handed down by the Gods of the Coast. It seems the prayers and animal sacrifices of min-maxing Wizards have been answered. Shout it from the mountain tops..."No longer shall we be forced to make sacrifices to have our extra Evocation spells, no shall we lose the ability to Conjure magic beings to do our biding, nor fail to fly. For our gods have decreed that ONLY the weaker schools shall be made to suffer from hence forth, no longer shall we fear the Shadow Adepts of the world!!!, we we solely have the powers of the Evocation, and the Transmutation!!!"This is a glimpse of the future of Specialization, under the new specialization rules, the weaker Arcane schools are being crushed under the powerful fist of Evocation and Transmutation, because anyone wanting to specialize in Enchantment, Illusion, or Necromancy must take the other two Shadow schools as prohibited schools just to continue to be effective, let alone survive at lower levels. It seems that in the much needed attempt to "fix" Wizards and Sorcerers, and balance the playing field via the melee class boosts, the Design team was too caught up in everything else to pay attention the the often times overlooked Specialized Wizards. Somewhere along the road, Necromancy and Illusion became just as powerful as Evocation and Transmutation.If your one of the few such as myself who enjoy's focusing directly on one of the shadow schools, and heavily focusing on the other two shadow schools, then you'll be glad to know that our beloved archtype is barely playable under the tyranny of 3.5, whereas any "wet-behind the ear" munchkin can choose to specialize in Evocation and only suffer the minimal loss of Illusion and Necromancy, the two weakest schools, next only to Divination, we have to choose from Abjuration, Conjuration, Evocation, or Transmutation. Now, I FAIL to see how this is "balanced". If we choose Abjuration, were as good as dead. If we choose Conjuration, we lose low level survivability, and high level necesities. If we choose Evocation, we can easily get by with Illusion and Necromancy for damage support, no BIG loss. And lastly Transmutation, perhaps the most survival oriented School of all.Should not Divination be an option for the weaker schools to take? Divination is one of the most useful schools in its own right, but still, mechanics-wise, the weakest school. So, where on the "seasaw of power" would choosing a weak school (Divination) and a powerful school (evocation) to specialize in one of the middle schools (Illusion) be located? Not on the powerful end with Evokers and Transmuters thats for sure.I think its a shame that Specialization is cattered towards the munchkins and power gamers of the gaming world, and that "concept mages" are left with the scraps (so to speak). The world of Faerun will take the biggest hit, while I may be slightly bias on the subject, I just can't see how anyone can justify punishing the fans of "concept casting" for not choosing the most powerful schools to specialize in. I think this is BS, and seriously makes me disgusted. I realize that by specializing in a weaker school that I'm willingfully making myself more vulnerable in the longrun, but atleast under the old rules, we had a chance in hell.If this is how they "fix" something, I'd hate to see them break somthing...[Rant...over]</blockquote>

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