Wizard and his school spell


Classes


So here's a question. The cleric has domains. These domains grant them a spell or two, always thematically, and sometimes from a spell list that's not there's. Then we look at the wizard. Specifically, in this instance, the necromancer. By taking the necromancy school, you gain a level 1 necromancer spell. The question is, does this have to be from the wizard spell list? Nowhere does it specify, and given the cleric being able to cross-polinate, can wizards? Because Harm is a pretty valuable spell for a necromancer, but with it not in his list, it seems like it's missing something. Can wizards pull from other spell schools for their school spell?

(Pardon any incoherence there, running on line 2 hours of sleep)


The intro to that section specifically calls out arcane spells.

"ARCANE SCHOOL
If you choose to specialize in an arcane school, you gain an
extra spell slot for each level of spell you can cast. You can
prepare only spells of your chosen arcane school in these
extra slots. In addition, you can prepare an extra cantrip
of your chosen school. You also add another arcane spell
of your chosen school to your spellbook" p.137

Sorry


I believe Domains are intended to only add non-divine spells, otherwise they don’t do anything. And I believe as published there were still some domain spells that were divine, but subsequent errata has replaced those spells.


Lelomenia wrote:
I believe Domains are intended to only add non-divine spells, otherwise they don’t do anything. And I believe as published there were still some domain spells that were divine, but subsequent errata has replaced those spells.

While true, GoofyGE3 wants to know about wizards.


As written, no, the wizard can't choose non arcane spells for a school spell.

A specialist SHOULD have access to all spells of their school regardless of class list, though.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Currently, no. In fact I believe someone made a thread highlighting that some spell levels don’t even have one spell for each school, so things get terribly awkward there.
Specialists need a lot of work, and while I like the idea of an ‘opposed school’ as counterbalance, I want that because I believe specialists should have advantages on generalists, not barely make even.

Fuzzypaws wrote:

As written, no, the wizard can't choose non arcane spells for a school spell.

A specialist SHOULD have access to all spells of their school regardless of class list, though.

Decent idea, but it might run into a few issues with some exclusive spells that devs don’t want Wizards to have (Heal comes to mind, but others, especially divinity-dependant ones, are probably more of an issue).

How about gaining access to Uncommon arcane spells of that school? That would allow devs to write Uncommon arcane spells that are intended to (mostly) be Specialist-only.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Ediwir wrote:

...

How about gaining access to Uncommon arcane spells of that school? That would allow devs to write Uncommon arcane spells that are intended to (mostly) be Specialist-only.

Uncommon spells aren't uncommon just because they are slightly more powerful than common spells. To pick an example, Mark said in another thread that Protection from Evil is uncommon so that it makes it easier for GMs to deemphasize or remove alignment from their games. You can't just hand out higher rarity stuff willy nilly, because the rarity system does several different things and granting blanket access undermines some (but not all) of those things.

On an unrelated note, this is why I hate the rarity system with the burning fury of a thousand suns.


Fair criticism.

On a partially related note, powers seem to be likely to be getting a boost under the new Focus system, helping out Specialists.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Snowblind wrote:

Uncommon spells aren't uncommon just because they are slightly more powerful than common spells. To pick an example, Mark said in another thread that Protection from Evil is uncommon so that it makes it easier for GMs to deemphasize or remove alignment from their games. You can't just hand out higher rarity stuff willy nilly, because the rarity system does several different things and granting blanket access undermines some (but not all) of those things.

On an unrelated note, this is why I hate the rarity system with the burning fury of a thousand suns.

Funnily enough, this is part of the reason I love the rarity system, since it gives the GM some control over their world without having to filter through every one of the spells in the game (which will become massive as new books are released), and create a seperate homebrew list of restrictions that players will forget to reference when going through the official books to select spells. (Which then makes players unhappy when you have to tell them to retroactively remove a spell they picked.)

@Topic: I agree that Wizards should get some type of expanded access to their specialty school to actually help them feel like specialists. Even if it was a simple as listing a non-arcane spell at each level they get access to through their school, it'd at least be something.

Community / Forums / Archive / Pathfinder / Playtests & Prerelease Discussions / Pathfinder Playtest / Player Rules / Classes / Wizard and his school spell All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Classes