The subject pretty much explains my question, but I have a player insisting that he can select Universalist as a prohibited school. Although the book doesn't outright say he can't in the wizard section, starting on the bottom of page 209 Universal isn't listed in the 8 schools of magic.
I hope this is not the case. In the core book he'd only be restricted with 4 spells from that school. I hope a mod, game designer, or a prominent rules lawyer can help.
Thanks!
It's not a valid choice of school to prohibit. Even if he insists the rules technically allow it, you have the right as GM to tell him that he can't because that's stupid.
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If he wants to prohibit himself from being a Universalist, just let him and say that all spells not in his selected school take the penalty. That's about as universal as it gets.
The magic section of the core rules lists all the schools of magic.
Universal is not listed. Universal is the absence of a school of magic. It is not specialized.
But if that is not good enough for your player, take Umbral's suggestion. Tell the player this is one of your house rules and you are adamant about it.
Greg
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If he wants to prohibit himself from being a Universalist, just let him and say that all spells not in his selected school take the penalty. That's about as universal as it gets.
I'd argue that the Universalist school is the study of all magical schools, and go with Lurk3r's suggestion. Your player should know that sometimes a loophole is kinda awesome to find, and sometimes just too damn powerful, and that he shouldn't be putting up a fight. And if he does, I agree with everyone else, and remind the player of GM Fiat.
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Universalist is not a school of magic. It's what you are in the absence of a choosing a specialist school.
A couple spells fall under universal. They belong to no school. Something that is not a school can't be your prohibited school.
You can find this reference in the Magic section, about schools of magic:
Almost every spell belongs to one of eight schools of magic. A school of magic is a group of related spells that work in similar ways. A small number of spells (arcane mark, limited wish, permanency, prestidigitation, and wish) are universal, belonging to no school.
So, no for the literal, no because prohibiting universal is contradictory to the term universal, and no because that's a (granted clever but) insidious attempt to find a loop hole.
Selecting Universal as a barred school (if any DM was foolish enough to allow it, since as the previous posters showed, the rulebook makes it clear that Universal is NOT a school of magic) would be such a cheap cop-out, because there are FIVE spells tied to it, two of which are cantrips. A person choosing that as a barred school loses pretty much nothing.