So, I want to open this topic to ask you guys which spells you think define or are essential to the fluff of each school, and which don't fit with the school they're listed at.
To me, these spells are what come to mind when I think of each school:
Abjuration- dispel magic
Conjuration- summon monster
Divination- clarivoyance
Enchantment- dominate person
Evocation- fireball
Illusion- mirage arcana
Necromancy- raise dead
Transmutation- polymorph
To me, these spells are out of place:
Abjuration- explosive runes
Conjuration- all healing spells
Divination- detect thoughts
Enchantment- no spell comes to mind
Evocation- darkness
Illusion- no spell comes to mind
Necromancy- fear
Transmutation- magic weapon
I'd replace abjuration's spell with mage's disjunction or maybe antimagic field. MD is the pinnacle of the school, even destroying artifacts. I think conceptually a lot of illusion spells can be used to great effect with abjurations. I think the whole "use magic against itself" bit could be put to use as illusions to change how you detect to certain spells, for example.
On Necromancy: If you mean "animate dead" for raise dead I agree entirely. Fear does seem like it should be an enchantment, I think it's just lumped into necromancy to give the poor necromancy specialist something to do against crowds until Horrid Wilting shows up.
n.b. all those healing and resurrecting spells used to be considered Necromancy in 2nd edition, now they're considered Conjuration.
On Illusion: I think shadow conjuration and shadow evocation are weird spells that don't really fit into Illusion. The whole point of the spell is that they're -not- illusory and that they are calling some kind of substance or energy from the plane of shadow, which would seem to be just plain old evocation or conjuration.
To me, these spells are what come to mind when I think of each school:
Abjuration- dispel magic
Conjuration- summon monster
Divination- clarivoyance
Enchantment- dominate person
Evocation- fireball
Illusion- mirage arcana
Necromancy- raise dead
Transmutation- polymorph
I'd agree with most of that list. For divination, I'd say Scrying, and for Illusion I'd say invisibility.
Divination- detect thoughts
Not sure why this is out of place; it's an extension of your senses, which is squarely within divination's.
Evocation- darkness
The fluff actually makes sense. It's basically a light spell in reverse, emitting a field of darkness.
MD is the pinnacle of the school, even destroying artifacts.
I don't think he's talking about the pinnicle of the school, but which spell is most emblematic of its school. In that sense, being a lower-level spell (and thus much more ubiquitous) is a factor in Dispel Magic's favor, while Mage's Disjunction is a spell few abjurers will ever even see, much less be capable of casting.
Divination- detect thoughtsNot sure why this is out of place; it's an extension of your senses, which is squarely within divination's.
I think its out of place because its mind reading, and no other divination spell affects other creatures as directly. It also has a thelepaty vibe, which I feel more suited for enchantmen(which is the worst named school in my opinion, should be mentalism or psyquism)
I don't think he's talking about the pinnicle of the school, but which spell is most emblematic of its school. In that sense, being a lower-level spell (and thus much more ubiquitous) is a factor in Dispel Magic's favor, while Mage's Disjunction is a spell few abjurers will ever even see, much less be capable of casting.
I still say mage's disjunction fits the bill of using magic against itself. My usage of the artifact example was merely to state the breadth of the spell's power. Aroden's spellbane could work except MD can do more.
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It says in your profile that you're from Rio de Janeiro, so maybe a word that an American might use might not make as much sense for you. Some naming conventions and themes are culturally specific, even if we no longer recognize it as such. A lot the medieval fantasy elements that Gygax incorporated in his system can be seen in English/Germanic stories. So while it might make sense to some, it might not make sense to others.
Also, words like psychism and mentalism already have philosophical meanings that have nothing to do with magic, whereas all the words currently used for school names are already affiliated with magic.
Well, when I hear enchantment I think of creating magic itens, and I know its a possible meaning to the word because of dragon age. But yeah, maybe there is a meaning I'm not aware of.
An old meaning of enchantment is a charm or fascination. When used with magic, it's basically mind control. Which is why the enchantment school is named perfectly.
On Illusion: I think shadow conjuration and shadow evocation are weird spells that don't really fit into Illusion. The whole point of the spell is that they're -not- illusory and that they are calling some kind of substance or energy from the plane of shadow, which would seem to be just plain old evocation or conjuration.
I agree, the shadow stuff is kind dumb.
I agree with your inintial list for the most part. I'd probably go with lower-level spells as the exemplars of the schools, as you actually see them in play more often.
My choices would be...
Abjuration: dispel magic
Conjuration: summon monster
Divination: scrying
Enchantment: charm monster
Evocation: fireball
Illusion: major image
Necromancy: animate dead
Transmutation: baleful polymorph
On Illusion: I think shadow conjuration and shadow evocation are weird spells that don't really fit into Illusion. The whole point of the spell is that they're -not- illusory and that they are calling some kind of substance or energy from the plane of shadow, which would seem to be just plain old evocation or conjuration.
Shadow conjuration and shadow evocation are mainly historical holdovers from AD&D 1st Edition, where the Illusionist was a separate class from Magic-User. Illusionists did not have any spells capable of causing direct damage to opponents until they received the spells shadow magic (which creatied quasi-real damaging spells, like shadow evocation) and shades (which summoned quasi-real monsters like using shadow conjuration to duplicate summon monster.)
In AD&D 2nd Ed., wizards were allowed to specialize in schools, akin to how it works in D&D 3.x. A big difference is that the opposition schools were prescribed. All illusionists in 2nd ed were barred from Conjuration and Evocation spells. This made the 2nd edition version of shadow evocation and shadow conjuration much more important than they are in 3.x, where illusionists can choose their opposition schools. It's pretty rare to choose both Conjuration and Evocation as opposition schools.
And PFRPG made the need for these spells weaker still by allowing specialist wizards to prepare spells from opposition schools at all by using an extra spell slot to prepare them.
That said, if you are an illusionist and have school specialization (illusion), the shadow conjuration and shadow evocation spells are pretty nice: they are extremely versatile, as you can pick the effect at the time of casting!