You're a 3.5 Enchanter. What are your opposed schools?

[Elder-Basilisk]

I'm amazed by the number of people who suggest dropping Necromancy? IMO, Necromancy is one of the hardest schools to give up.

At first level, it has Ray of Enfeeblement.
At second level, it has Spectral Hand (good at low levels) and False Life (an every-day spell).
At third level, it has good spells but nothing vital.
At fourth level, it has bestow curse and enervation
At fifth level, it has Magic Jar (which is great if you want to use it but you can live without it if you must), and Waves of Fatigue
At sixth level, it doesn't have much to recommend it.
At seventh level, it has Finger of Death and Waves of Exhaustion
At eighth level, it has Horrid Wilting
At nineth level, it has Wail of the Banshee and Energy Drain

Giving up Necromancy means giving up most of your debuff spells and most of your save or die spells as well as the life-saving False Life.

Illusion, on the other hand... well, about all you'll miss is Invisibility, Displacement, and Greater Invisibility... and you can do without all of them.

With Complete Arcane, Evocation is fairly easy to give up. All you're losing is most of your area effect damage (generally not too impressive though it is when Sudden Empowered and Sudden Maximized), Mass Fire Shield, Contingency, and Wall of Force. Of all of them, Wall of Force and Contingency hurt the most, but Wall of Stone can do most of what Wall of Force does.

Conjuration: This is hard to give up in 3.5--especially post Complete Arcane where it has good SR-immune single target damage (lesser orbs and energy orb spells) and good area effect damage (arc of lightning, viscous sphere). Evocation (with Greater Spell Penetration) can make up for a lot of that, though. The things it can't do are summon (but what are druids for?) and get you out of a grapple. So, if you ban Conjuration, prep a few stilled Blink spells to escape from a grapple.

Transmutation: Aside from Haste, fly, and slow, this school has all the stat buffs, so if you plan on crafting your own headband of intellect, you can't give it up. It also has Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer (the spell for leveraging days of travel into extra power when you hit the dungeon), disintegrate, shapechange, polymorph, and enlarge person.

 

[MerricB]

I agreed with most of what you said but you're going a bit too far here IMO. Fly's an important combat spell. It just destroys opponents that lack both flight and ranged attacks.

It was one of several key spells that allowed our 10th/11th level group to kill a Ragewalker from the MM3. Its ability to cause opponents to fly into a berserk rage destroyed my mage on two previous meetings. This time we killed it with Protection from Energy - Fire (to stop its Walls of Fire), Fly (essential to keep my wizard alive), 2*Web and 2*Cloudkill, finishing it off with an Orb spell from Complete Arcane. Its high SR made the above spells necessary.

You're giving a specific case of Fly being useful, which I agree with. There are times that it is the most important spell in your spellbook. However, in general it isn't that great in combat.

Cheers!

 

[Taren Seeker]

You're giving a specific case of Fly being useful, which I agree with. There are times that it is the most important spell in your spellbook. However, in general it isn't that great in combat.

Cheers!

I've found in higher level D&D combat there is one quality that I find to be most influential over who wins.

Those that fly, and those that can't.

I played Green Regent at Winter Fantasy in a party that had a Shadow Adept with Transmutation banned. I can't tell you how many times I would have loved a haste, fly or slow to go off. We made it through by the skin of our teeth, but even a single fly spell would have solved most of our problems. Not just in one combat, but every combat in the module.

Fly is one of the most important combat spells in D&D, one that is useful in pretty much every combat. If you fight creatures that can trip, fly. If you fight ones that can't fly, fly. Not only does it open up more options for the tanks, it can save the back rank characters' lives. Even being in a classic 10' ceiling dungeon fly can be invaluable if you have to fight over dangerous terrain, traps, etc.

Why do fighters need mobility? Well if they are above the plane of the battlefield charging is a lot easier. If they are a reach fighter or archer they may be able to attack without reprisal. Ditto if they are a spring attacker or skirmisher. If the opponent can fly or climb, then casting one fly on a fighter to kill the thing in melee is much more efficient than trying to nuke it with multiple fireballs/magic missiles/etc. Even if you have a good archer in the party pinning the enemy in melee is usually beneficial as well.

BTW, regarding the rest of the thread, did I mention that banning Transmutation is crazy?

 

[Driddle]

Why do people feel the need to be condescending? What does it add to the dialectic? Where is the constructive advice in this post? What was the objective? Is this how you speak to your peers at work? ...

Don't know; you tell me. The initial post wasn't seeking truth, per se, merely advice and opinions. It was constructive; you chose to ignore it. It made me feel better for being helpful. And yes, I do.

Your response to me: Post +1?

 

[Hjorimir]

In no way is calling somebody greedy either helpful or constructive.

 

[guyjin]

What would you choose? I'm developing a concept for an enchanter, and I'm having a hard time giving up schools!

Abjuration--No sane wizard gives this up.

Not neccesarily. Clerics are much better at that sort of thing; unless you plan on summoning demons(which also doesn't fit with the 'subtle magic' theme) or have no cleric around, you don't really need it.

Waitasec... nevermind. I forgot 'Dispel magic' is an abjuration now.