A wizard that chooses to specialize in one school of magic can prepare spells in his prohibited schools by using up 2 slots.
Does this mean that he can use scrolls/wands/stave in his prohibited schools? And if so, is there any penalty for doing so?
Can Divination be a prohibited school? I know in 3.5 it couldn't but I can't seem to locate that rule in PFRPG?
I see that he gets Read Magic for free in his spellbook but that could just mean he needs to use up 2 slots to use it if he can choose Divination as prohibited.
He can use items from his prohibited school with no penalty.
Thanks Ogredude!
I don't care much for that detail, so I came up with this house rule for specialist wizards regarding magic items:
A specialist wizard takes a -4 penalty on skill checks made to craft a magic item that requires a spell from one of his prohibited schools, and a -2 penalty on Spellcraft, Knowledge (Arcana), and caster level checks to identify and use spell completion or spell trigger items from one of his prohibited schools.
Conversely, the specialist wizard gains a +4 competence bonus on skill checks to craft items that use only spells from his specialty school as prerequisites, and +2 competence bonuses on Spellcraft, Knowledge (Arcana), and caster level checks to identify and use spell completion or spell trigger items from his specialty school. The caster level check modifiers also modify the level at which he can use an item without making such a check: he can use items from his specialty school that have a caster level two levels higher than his automatically, but must roll caster level checks for items from his prohibited schools until his own caster level is two levels higher than that of the item.
I don't care much for that detail, so I came up with this house rule for specialist wizards regarding magic items:
A specialist wizard takes a -4 penalty on skill checks made to craft a magic item that requires a spell from one of his prohibited schools, and a -2 penalty on Spellcraft, Knowledge (Arcana), and caster level checks to identify and use spell completion or spell trigger items from one of his prohibited schools.
Conversely, the specialist wizard gains a +4 competence bonus on skill checks to craft items that use only spells from his specialty school as prerequisites, and +2 competence bonuses on Spellcraft, Knowledge (Arcana), and caster level checks to identify and use spell completion or spell trigger items from his specialty school. The caster level check modifiers also modify the level at which he can use an item without making such a check: he can use items from his specialty school that have a caster level two levels higher than his automatically, but must roll caster level checks for items from his prohibited schools until his own caster level is two levels higher than that of the item.
I like that a lot. Should be core.
This -4 penalty already exists in the Pathfinder rules, but I like the other ideas you posted too.
"...a specialist takes a –4 penalty on any skill checks made when crafting a magic item that has a spell from one of his opposition schools as a prerequisite. A universalist wizard can prepare spells from any school without restriction."
Sorry, I should have made it clear where the book rule ended and the house rule began; that penalty is indeed one of the book rules for specialist wizards. I excerpted that from a variant on the wizard core class I'm writing up for running the Dragonlance setting under Pathfinder rules. I never liked the way they handled the Wizards of High Sorcery in 3.5 Dragonlance (making it a prestige class, so that only renegade wizards in Krynn get the standard bonus feat progression of the wizard core class), so I'm integrating Order-related abilities into the core class instead, and adding in this house rule at the same time.