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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Felix" data-source="post: 3234098" data-attributes="member: 3929">Ok, so you're joining my campaign and I lay out my house rules and tell you about the world as you know it. It's terribly interesting and your dice are all aquiver to begin rolling. And I come to this:"Wizard" in this world is synonymous with specialist. Wizards all train in colleges, and like colleges in the real world, some departments are stronger than others. Like you would attend Virginia Tech for the Engineering department or William and Mary for Philosophy, some wizardly schools are brilliant at Conjuration or Illusion and rubbish at Evocation or Necromancy. Some colleges exist that enforce specialization, as do some that have at least one unanimously barred school. Your choice of wizard college will determine to a degree spells available to you, as well as provide a heirarchy who will to some extent restrict your actions and provide comissions for you to execute.Consistent through every school however is a restriction on what barred schools you choose. Taking inspiration from the 2e AD&D PHB's presentation of schools of magic arranged around a compass, the schools are classified as Cardinal or Intercardinal, much like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_points" target="_blank">points of a compass</a>. They are divided thusly:Cardinal SchoolsAbjurationConjurationEvocationTransmutationIntercardinal SchoolsDivinationEnchantmentIllusionNecromancyCrunchSpecialists of cardinal schools must sacrifice either two other cardinal schools or one cardinal school and two intercardinal schools; Abjuration is an exception, being able to choose one cardinal and one intercardinal school as banned. Specialists of intercardinal schools may sacrifice one cardinal school or two intercardinal schools, with Diviners only having to sacrifice one school of their choice.The Complete Mage class option "Focused Specialist", which trades 1 additional banned school and 1 less spell per day per level for 2 additional specialized school spells per day per spell level, is available, and that additional banned school may be freely chosen.The Master Specialist PrC (Complete Mage) is the only prestige class available at every college, though not every specialty is available at every one.FluffSpecialists of cardinal schools are generally respected as more passionate and devoted; they are the "serious" students of magic. A modern comparison would be the difference between a PhD of Mideval Poetry and a Master's degree in English Literature. Both a Diviner and a Conjurer would be respected, but "Conjurer" would carry the extra oomph associated with someone who can introduce themselves as "Dr."Dear God, Why???Firstly, I do not like the "generalist" mage. I feel that magic study for a wizard must be an almost consuming passion; this passion will naturally incline a student towards a particular discipline and school of magic. To regard all schools of magic as equal suggests to me that the wizard has distanced himself emotionally from his profession, something I regard as suspicious in someone who has purportedly spent years of his life perfecting the craft. I like that these mechanics reflect this role-playing predictilition in the wizard.Secondly, I absolutely love what the Complete Mage has done for specialists. It provides flavorful feats for specialists, and the Master Specialist is a brilliant PrC, accessable for any specialist and each discipline with yield wholly different flavored specialists. Its easy-to-meet prereqs also leave open the option of going quite far in another specialist-type PrC; an Evoker/Master Specialist Evoker/Elemental (Fire) Savant tastes like the kind of powerful high-level blasting wizard I'd like to have in my campaign.Thirdly, restricting the schools as this does focuses the wizard's role in the party somewhat; he is no longer "the arcanist", but rather "the arcanist who enchants the party out of problems". This will allow parties to tailor themselves to the wizard's flavor, or alternatively allow the wizard to tailor himself to the party's style. A conjurer or abjurer will fit in well with a melee-oriented party while illusionists and enchanters will do better in a party of rangers and rogues.Your ReactionYou sat through my prep talk and find yourself thinking, "Distracted as I was by Felix's stunning good looks, his wizardly house rules evoked quite a reaction; were I to articulate them, they would read something like _____________."Fill in the blank. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Suggestions and alterations are welcome as well, as are testimonials regarding experiences of games with similar restrictions.As to the availability of other arcane classes such as Sorcerers, Warlocks and Wujen, assume for the moment that they are all allowed. Sorcerers are for certain, but I haven't really turned my mind towards Warlocks, Wujen or Warmages.</blockquote>

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