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Ahoy, Amians and Amianettes alike!

So, I just spent two hours searching through the internet in an attempt to find clarifications and explanations about the different schools of magic, Abjuration, Conjuration, Necromancy, etc, and I wasn't able to really find anything. What I'm looking for is information ranging from very basic stuff and up as high and complicated as it gets.

It just feels like I should know more about magic, especially when I'm currently playing wizards damn near exclusively.

Hey,

The differences between the schools are quite clear once you find them. Though there are some parts in which spells and the school does not make so much sense.

However, I recommend you to look into this link:
http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/magicOverview.htm

You can find some information there and what I recommend even stronger is finding mages IG to have lessons upon them, I am quite confident that there are plenty of players who would like to give magic lessons. Me included.

As well there are IC writings of some IC knwon mages in Lore section, which more than likely can give you an idea. If you find somehing lacking, perhaps you shall start IC:ly research it further.

I was considering the whole lessons thing, but my main problem is the hours I'm able to play most often. Euro hours are often not great hours to get those lessons, and with some stuff coming up in a few days I won't be able to play as late as I'd like.

And I was sorely disappointed to find zero books in the Academy, but then I realized that I could just check the library section here on the forum, so I'll be scouring that, too.

EDIT: Oh, and thanks for the link!

There are a few pages in Complete Mage, pp. 8-12.

I'll see if I can dig that up, thanks.

Not to toot my own horn, but I did my best at explaining enchantment in the academic arcanist sense:

viewtopic.php?f=80&t=72780

Wow, I'll have to keep that thread bookmarked, Aiseth. Good job!

In extension of this, how would (from an IC point of view) the differentiation between different schools of magic affect clerics? It's not like clerics tend to study the mechanics of particular spells like wizards do.

Marcus, for example, is an evocation-focused cleric (due to how well it goes with Sun domain and historic reasons), and while he has since changed in such a way I've thought about rebuilding into a different focus, I imagine that rather than a theoretical and practical expertise with evocations he'd have an "innate" talent for channeling the divine energies into tangible form - in this case sun spells. But this is all very loose and I'm still not sure how it could/should be interpreted.

I see it, theoretically speaking, as a character's aptitude to call for blessings of a certain variety in order to assert the will of his/her god. In the case of Clerics that is.

The Schools of Magic, in my opinion, represent to characters the schools they are more skilled in, whether it be through practice and study or it comes to them naturally.

For Sorcerers, and other casters who has innate ability to it, the schools represent part of what they are, stemming from their bloodline. Or they just practise that school more than other schools and thus get better at it.

Wizards, and other casters who prepare spells and study magic, the schools represent what they are naturally good at or what they have earned through hard efforts of study and use.

A cleric can be explained the same way, sometimes it might be that the person has innate skills for certain kind of magic, they simply are stronger. In other cases it might be that they have practised the certain school more than others and thus their potency in the school is increased.

However, I do consider these feats to be something the characters themselfs have earned through hard practise. Even if you are a sorcerer, wizard or cleric, you still have prefered school of magic and use it more often, thus your ability to wield the magic of that shool increases or the character just is more fascinated in certain school and study it more. Feats don't just 'come to you' you earn them.

The Focuses in schools increase the DC of that schools spells. It doesn't mean you neccessarily become only stronger at it, but perhaps you also learn to wield the magic in a way that it becomes harder for the opponent to resist or to avoid. Increasing the likeness that you will actually hit with the spell.

I believe that how we explain the spell focuses for our characters is the important part, for my main character, her study of the school and its constant practise made her better at it. Studying theories behind the school, but as well I do think that she has natural facination towards those schools which makes her more likely to prefer the said schools.

That is how I view feats and spell school focuses.

Yes. Specialization just matters, especially for wizards. I make my wizard look down on 'generalists' who have not found a way to apply themselves, much like one would be disappointed in someone who tells you they are a (and this is a joke) business major.

Your craft is everything as a mage. What you do to further the arts and master them in a specific field makes you a more reliable mage in the arcane job market, so to speak. Some go on to craft golems and invent new things, while other mages learn more powerful practical spells in their particular area of study. Liken it to academia, and those who profess for their love of knowledge. You owe it to those that want to practice magic to be useful to them, they are your students. And in any effort to help further magic's study as well as defend against dangerous monsters and chaotic magic, you the mage must find some sense of mastery.

There are so many awesome off-shoots of magic too that you could just adopt and make it into a focus, so to speak, it does not have to be flat with the eight schools, but say you have a dark streak, and suddenly you have chosen to master the ways of cancermancy. Cancermancers of course would not be well received by the arcane community, for their sole purpose perhaps is to spread cancer. (or I can see one studying cancermancy in an effort to learn how to cure cancern, but that story has not gone told.) But stick to a discipline and master this, and earn your place as the best dang expert of cancermancy in all of Faerun. Infamy and fame follows, do it responsibly and we may even respect you and your insights. It's a silly example, but you get the drift!

I am all for expanding the arcane world though in the server. That's my over-arching goal. I don't care what kind of mage you take on, but do it! I'll help you ICly.

The Various Schools of Magic

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