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Probably not.
But if you need the old schools for your game, nothing stops you from still using them, and sorting newer spells into them as you find appropriate.
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There's the four Traditions of magic. I don't expect more than that.
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Yeah that is a lot of work!Probably not.
But if you need the old schools for your game, nothing stops you from still using them, and sorting newer spells into them as you find appropriate.
More work than creating an entire custom setting?
They could probably do something with traits to make some cool types of magic.
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I feel like it would be really, really funny to erase the idea of eight schools of magic- but like, just THOSE eight schools of magic. We're at the bottom of the barrel schools of magic now.
Everything has to fall under Pennymancy,(summoning and controlling of copper currency), Necrodancy (the revival and manipulation of dead music genres, such as the dangerous Ska-mpire Spawn), or Nickelodeon Gak (y'know. Goop. Slime. Ooze. That stuff).
Hallowtheurgy - the school of fog machine spells, sweets, and macabre but kitschy decoration.
Partymancy - Mostly mind-affecting and forced movement spells, plus irresistible dance. The school focus spell creates a projectile that the opponent may save to reflect back at you, which you likewise may save to reflect until one of you fails.
For the tarot-themed wizards, the School of Cups includes any spell which produces liquids, as well as any spells which can contain liquids, including for reasons fans will debate for years to come, all Wall spells including Fire and Wind.
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More practically for OP's purposes, I find it unlikely that there will be a closed set of categories for all magic again. Only Wizards interacted with schools in 2e, and the remastered wizard has already been published with bespoke schools. If all magic was to be again categorized, it would be purely a lore aspect with no meaningful interaction with mechanics, which makes it vanishingly unlikely that we would have the fortune to see all future spells neatly categorized except by the existing traits (i.e. the universal categories of spell are "Fire," "Mental," "Illusion," "Wood," and "None" etc)
In Golarion, the explanation for this paradigm shift is that while the Runelords were eager to categorize every single spell according to their 7 pet runes (and one extra), this didn't actually represent anything fundamental about the nature of magic and only caught on because Thassilonian magic has been the dominant source of magical theory in the Inner Sea for centuries.
Naturally, this explanation will not seem highly satisfying for your circumstances--it's a bit harder of a curve to say "actually the 8 fundamental forces that come from the 8 gods are not hard categories." That said, it would be plenty doable if, maybe, the church of those gods in some way furthered that theory despite lack of empirical evidence to support it, or if maybe it has its origins as an association drawn by early wizards in attempt to legitimize arcane magic in the eyes of the church, and it has simply been accepted as received wisdom in wizardly academies since, despite its lack of tangible grounding.
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I like the more old school magic feel of schools being actual schools and traditions and not semi-sciencey break downs of magic.
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I'd say the way spells are classified right now is through traits and traditions. For schools as a concept, I'd say those are now the Wizard's arcane schools, which are fairly subjective within the in-game world and rooted in tradition. In effect, magic is quite variable, and while spells do have some distinct characteristics that can allow them to be classified in certain ways, they don't all full into one of eight buckets anymore, so much as a multiple of possible means of classification depending on the school of thought.
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Yeah, exposing the 8 schools model as a false construct imposed by the gods could shake up the setting in interesting ways. Maybe an outside force introduces/imposes the "heretical, but more accurate" 4 traditions + 4 essences model of PF2. Or even Starfinder's model (if SF2 kept the same one as SF1 rather than PF2's). These versions could be represented by different factions, with entrenched traditions resisting change that threatens their authority.
Aligning with the gods' 8 school model might be a display of faith more than knowledge, and that might include forgoing access to newer spells (those w/ no Legacy version to inform you what school they were). In the same vein, those who deny the 8 schools might lose Ray of Frost and other Legacy variants or Legacy only spells. It'd be PF2 old school (literally) vs. remaster academies/rebels/misotheists & apatheists perhaps among the non-Divine casters (maybe w/ new gods for the Divine ones). Essentially both variants of PF2 would be operating side-by-side with no need to convert and ample fuel to foster rivalries, maybe missions to steal/adapt spells from the other team (so you'd only have to convert as desired).
I'm getting geocentrism vs. heliocentrism vibes here, or a religious schism. One might go grim w/ an inquisition, war, purge, or such. Eek.
"So, are you a force barrager or a magic missiler?"
"What? I'm a Druid! That's why I have fireballs."
"When did Druids start casting those?"
"Are you serious?! A decade ago, before this conflict."
"I should probably kill you anyway, let the 8 gods sort you out."
... wait, why is it the gods' fault? Weren't the 8 schools of magic always just a mortal construct to group spells?
Yeah, it's rough delineating the essences in PF2. There are spells in 3 or 4 traditions (which contrasts metaphysically even if necessary mechanically), plus there's inconsistency, often from the inertia of previous editions. The "remaster" factions would have little rigor to oppose the old school gang in academic debates. They'd likely just have to say their model works too see, *cast spells*. Plus where does the generic magic trait or Kineticist magic fit in either of these?
Funnily enough, SF1 has "magic is one thing" in that case it used to be seen from different angles, but like your campaign's origin.
There's the four Traditions of magic. I don't expect more than that.True broken out into Arcane, Primal, Occult and Divine but as I understand it magic is broken into four essences from which it derives.
Matter and Mind = Arcane
MAtter and Life = Primal
Spirit and Mind = Occult
Spirit and Life = DivineIs there a list where spells are broken out by the four essences or the other traits.
Anything that does that would help me rework my home campaign to the 2e world.
Yes, Archives of Nethys has searchable lists by tradition which are updated fairly soon after new Paizo books are released. Couldn’t you link four of your gods to the four Traditions of magic and the remaining four to the elements of the four traditions (e.g. matter, mind, life, and spirit)? It might take a little work adapting your current gods, but that seems a LOT easier than starting again from ground zero.
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I like the more old school magic feel of schools being actual schools and traditions and not semi-sciencey break downs of magic.
I love a lot of what was done with the old schools of magic, but gosh, I will not miss some of their wonkier bits.
Some schools seemed pretty solidly on-theme. Most evocation spells threw energy around, for instance.
But affecting emotions? Love, hate, rage, confusion, all Enchantment, unless it's fear, that's Necromancy?
Using fire, electricity, sound or cold to kill someone? Evocation! Using negative energy to kill someone? Necromancy!
Some schools just seemed cobbled together from bits chopped out of the school they felt like they more logically belonged to. I'm picking on Necromancy, but Illusion also has a lot of that.
Create light? Evocation. Create sound? Evocation. Create light that *looks* like something? Sounds like a mix of evocation to create the light and transmutation to shape the light, although there's no reason it couldn't *just* be evocation, but instead, it's Illusion? Create a mind-affecting effect using colored light? Welp, no longer Enchantment, you had to use colors, so it's Illusion! Conjuring up forces from the Elemental or 'Outer' planes? Conjuration! Conjuring up forces from the Plane of Shadow? Conjure-lusion?
Abjuration is another one. Obvious evocation spells like Fire Shield and Fire Trap get shoved there. Other spells that feel pretty abjure-y like Mage Armor, do not?
(Thematically, Abjuration and Necromancy seem like peas in a pod. I could see a 'void' or 'negation' school that included spells to drain or disperse energy, either from living creatures through the use of negative energy (negating life), from magical forces by using dispel magic or anti-magic shell (negating magic), or even from the environment, creating areas of cold (negating heat), darkness (negating light), or causing matter to fall apart as if subject to an acid effect (by dispersing the energies that bind them together on the molecular level). It's be the 'subtraction' school, it takes away and gives nothing back. No animating bones or creating disease or summoning bugs, nor any abjurative effect that creates fire or light or a substance.)
I definitely love some of the old classic D&D uses of the schools, like the Abjurant Champion, or various Evokers or Illusionists I've played over the years, but I will not miss the many (IMO) weird loopholes and kludges.
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I like the more old school magic feel of schools being actual schools and traditions and not semi-sciencey break downs of magic.
I love a lot of what was done with the old schools of magic, but gosh, I will not miss some of their wonkier bits.
Some schools seemed pretty solidly on-theme. Most evocation spells threw energy around, for instance.
But affecting emotions? Love, hate, rage, confusion, all Enchantment, unless it's fear, that's Necromancy?
Using fire, electricity, sound or cold to kill someone? Evocation! Using negative energy to kill someone? Necromancy!
Some schools just seemed cobbled together from bits chopped out of the school they felt like they more logically belonged to. I'm picking on Necromancy, but Illusion also has a lot of that.
Create light? Evocation. Create sound? Evocation. Create light that *looks* like something? Sounds like a mix of evocation to create the light and transmutation to shape the light, although there's no reason it couldn't *just* be evocation, but instead, it's Illusion? Create a mind-affecting effect using colored light? Welp, no longer Enchantment, you had to use colors, so it's Illusion! Conjuring up forces from the Elemental or 'Outer' planes? Conjuration! Conjuring up forces from the Plane of Shadow? Conjure-lusion?
Abjuration is another one. Obvious evocation spells like Fire Shield and Fire Trap get shoved there. Other spells that feel pretty abjure-y like Mage Armor, do not?
(Thematically, Abjuration and Necromancy seem like peas in a pod. I could see a 'void' or 'negation' school that included spells to drain or disperse energy, either from living creatures through the use of negative energy (negating life), from magical forces by using dispel magic or anti-magic shell (negating magic), or even from the environment, creating areas of cold (negating heat), darkness (negating light), or causing matter to fall apart as if subject to an acid effect (by dispersing the energies that bind...
And let's not forget how spells could completely change schools depending on the addition.
I know this is due to the need to break away from that other game and this is why we do not see the old eight schools of magic before.
I do see there are some tags such as charm, mentalism etc. but no lists that sort spells according to which has what.
Here is the thing. In my homebrew world started under Pathfinder 1e I had a set of principalities that all adhered to sects of the same religion.
It was all centered around eight major gods each one tied to the old schools of magic. Each god was not based on the magic but his realms supported the magics such as the God of Locks and safe passage who represented Abjuration magic etc.
Any rate the spells and settings are settings are all tied to the spells being broken out into these eight categories.
Is there going to be some classification of spells available in future supplements where arcane magic is broken into one of a set number of classifications?
Is there some form a cheat sheet someone has done for making conversions with this?
Or is there a new classification that I could use and adapt instead?
Perhaps you could use the new arcane schools in the same way? The curriculums wind up having a very similar scope to domains. The God of Locks and safe passages sounds like the School of Gates, for example. It won't give you a mapping of every spell, but do you need that?
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You could take a look at what Paizo did with the Rune Lord Archetype. They were also based on 7 of the 8 schools, and with the deletion of them, they shifted the delineation to the function of the spells without actually naming the schools.What book are Rune Lord Archetypes in, please?