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As the title says. For PF society I am making an infernal binder specialist wizard aiming for the Diabolist PrC and I have hit a snag in what schools I should ban. Usually, my first choice is evocation, but with Diabolist giving bonuses to blasting and the spell Contingency, a lifesaver when dealing with devils, being a evocation spell I'm actually hesitant to ban Evocation on this character. So far, the only school I can think of that I won't really miss will be Necromancy, and even then enervation and other debuffs will be missed. When looking over the Diabolist guides on this forum I noticed that among the key spells there was no illusions listed, and the illusion specality was listed as a poor choice. Usually, I NEVER ban illusion due to most of the wizard's best low level defenses being a part of that school, but in this case dare I say I am actually considering it. However, there are so many good illusions I am not sold on Necro and Illusion as my banned schools and thus I am turning to all of you...
What schools should I ban considering that I am specifically building for diabolist? Would Necro + Illusion really be the right way or is Evocation still the most valid choice despite Diabolist's blasting bonuses and access to contingency. Likewise, while enchantment is usually a go-to ban as well, Geass/Quest is an AMAZING spell when dealing with devils since, while it still has SR it has NO save which means it is great for dealing with high-will save minions who are being problematic.
Anyway, any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated!
You don't actually lose the ability to cast spells out of your Opposition Schools, they just take up two slots to prepare. If all you want out of Evocation is Contingency, it may be worth banning Evocation and just using the extra slot. Likewise, if all you want out of Enchantment is Geas/Quest, you can just use the extra slot and ban Enchantment.
You can use Scrolls, etc. from your Opposition Schools without any extra difficulty - The only penalty is -4 Spellcraft to create those items.
And if you take nine Wizard levels you can get Opposition Research and un-ban one school.
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In that case evocation and Necromancy look like my best choices. As I said, Necromancy is the school I'll miss the least, so it is the first choice for a ban here and I've already decided on that. Also, I want evocation for more than just contingency. Diabolist gives some nice bonuses to blasting and unlike 3.5e I am not sure if there are enough non-evocation blasts to make those abilities worthwhile...
Also, I want more then Geass/Quest out of enchantment. Sleep is my favorite arcane spell for low levels and I'd hate to lose it. Likewise, stuff like Dominate Person and Charm person can be fun but if I came down to it I could probably afford to lose enchantment. Anyway, if you know of any good non-evocation blasts I'd be happy to know as I -really-want to ban evocation but am not sure how many blasting options I'll have to use with the Diabolist class feature if I ban it...
Of course, since blasting will be an inferior option UNTIL I hit Diabolist banning Evocation and blowing a feat on opposition research to get it back is actually a very viable option. As it stands, the earliest level I can get into diabolist is 11(I need at least 5th level wizard spells to get in, which I get at lv 10.)and until I get into diabolist Evocation will do very little for me. So if worse comes to worse I can ban evocation and Necromancy and get evocation back at level 9, two levels before it really becomes important.
Your problem stems from the word "ban". It's not a ban on two schools.
Unless you're a Thassilonian Specialist, and you aren't, you CAN cast spells from your Opposition Schools (what they're actually called).
In fact, you can use your bonded object, if you chose that, to cast any spell from your spellbook. Any spell. Including opposition school spells.
So, if you want to cast that Contingency, go ahead. Cast it. For that one free spell slot a day.
It's an option.
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Actually, it's not. I'm an Infernal Binder, which means I MUST take the familiar arcane bond option, which is no skin off my back since I vastly prefer the familiar to the bonded object. I've pretty much decided that I'm just going to ban evocation along with necromancy and get it back with the discovery. I am a human and will have at least 10 levels of wizard before I become a Diabolist. I am by no means feat-starved. I can afford to spend my level 9 feat..or better yet by level 10 wizard bonus feat.. on the discovery.
That makes more sense.
I didn't know what an Infernal Binder is. That's what I get for not reading everything.
Carry on.
Wait, how does the Imp familiar interact with the Diabolist Imp familiar?
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Because until I hit diabolist enchantment is much stronger then evocation. Enchantment has the low-level beauty that is sleep, as well as a good control spells like hold person and some decent debuffs as well. Since I have already decided I am not only willing to but WILL spend the feat to get back access to evocation before I hit Diabolist it becomes the better ban in this case.
As for the imps, you end up with two of them. You get both the imp from diabolist as well as the imp from infernal binder. The infernal binder imp doesn't level as you go into diabolist, so It will only be as strong as the familiar of a 10th level wizard can be but this is negligible considering that this is for PF society and I can only have one "combat" companion, which will be my diabolist imp once I reach it. The infernal binder imp will be my go-to companion prior to getting diabolist and afterwards will be used for having some added versatility while the diabolist imp does the combat stuff.