I currently play a level 8 Diviner Wizard with Necromancy and Enchantment as my opposition schools. I am strongly considering the Opposition Research Arcane Discovery from Ultimate Magic but I cannot decide which school to "regain".
My character's shtick is magical intelligence, like a spy satellite in elf form. He travels/adventures to learn about distant places and gain power, always serving his homeland. Game play wise I mostly follow a God/Batman style wizard. Buffs, battlefield control, and summons (especially) are his go to spells for combat.
I am torn because necromancy would probably improve his combat effectiveness via the debuffs. On the other hand, enchantment may aid with intelligence/non-combat situations. The campaign hook is that we (the party) are on an epic quest to reach "The World Peak" to stop a daemon from destroying the multiverse. We pretty much travel non-stop with the inevitable side quests.
I am trying to avoid having to go through the spell lists to make a pro/con list so I thought I'd throw this out there for the community's collective wisdom.
Any thoughts are much appreciated.
Would you rather have Energy Drain or Dominate Monster?
That should answer the question for you.
(Pro-tip: Enchantment school gets you laid in ways that aren't illegal everywhere but Geb.)
Would you rather have Energy Drain or Dominate Monster?
That should answer the question for you.
(Pro-tip: Enchantment school gets you laid in ways that aren't illegal everywhere but Geb.)
I am still torn on the issue. The fact that you can cast opposition school spells by spending two slots means that they are both still useful for a non-combat day. So the question is which school is better for day-to-day casting when spending an extra slot will hurt the most?
Both schools have their debuffs/control spells (ray of enfeeblement versus hold person for example) and both have spells that will likely only be used on off days (astral projection or clone versus charm or dominate).
I'm inclined to go with necromancy because I don't like that targets get extra saves against charm and dominate for going against their nature.
Thematically, it seems that you should go Enchantment. Being able to Charm does wonders to learning about new places and gaining allies for your homeland.
"Why yes! I will let you into my nation's super secret library. I can't even remember why I didn't want you to go in there in the first place!"
I agree with Cheapy. Given your wizard's nature, I'd say enchantment might be the better choice. The charm example is extremely useful in a number of situations (including getting into the super secret library ^_^), and sleep (along with its later improvements) is always useful in combat (and, from my perspective at least, should help with battlefield control. Not having to worry about certain monsters attacking is rather handy). And that's not to mention buff enchantment spells like Heroism. ^_^
Of course, having undead minions has its advantages too, but I usually make necromancy an opposition school and keep it that way. For some reason, my main wizard girl (an illusionist with the same opposition schools) just keeps getting creeped out by it.
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Definitely enchantment.
Mass hold person, feeblemind, dominate person/monster, and all kinds of good control/disable spells in that school. Necromancy can levy a few curses here and there, and it wrecks havoc on undead, but as far as pure disable/control, enchantment is definitely the stronger choice. Necromancy is a "sometimes" food, unless your campaign is full of undead.
Thanks for the replies everyone. We hit level 9 this past Saturday but we have a few weeks off before we play again. I agree that enchantment is probably the better school but now I'm wondering if it's even worth the feat to un-prohibit it. I've done fine without it for now and there are other useful things to spend feats on.
If you find yourself dealing with lots of creatures that are immune to mind-affecting magic, enchantment isn't going to work out real well. If you fight lots of undead, necromancy is great. If you're in the middle, then it'll depend on how your GM handles enchantment spells. Your campaign will tell you whether or not one choice is better than the other. If you don't unrestrict a school, there are still plenty of other feat choices coming your way, like Bouncing Spell or Preferred Spell or whatnot.