Abjuration and Enchantment [Archive] - Wizards Community

Abjuration and Enchantment [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
kafit
02-26-04, 11:28 PM Hi guys and gals, I am here to ask you all about wizards that specialize in the aforementioned (look at title) schools. My usual thoughts on arcane spells, are lightning bolt and *boom*. I kind of want to broaden my horizons so to speak, and learn to live a different kind of magic life. So what can you tell me about them? Useful spells, tips, and what kinds of things to avoid are appreciated. I did do a search but really didn't find much on enchantment, and next to nothing on abjuration! I hope you all can help, I have faith you in.
mercurywyrm
02-27-04, 12:48 AM Abjuration=ALL YOUR OFFENSE, ESPECIALLY MAGICAL OFFENSE, AND ALL YOUR MAGIC, SUCKS AGAINST ME!!!!!(oh yeah, and I can counter myself and other magical defenses TOO!!!)
Enchantment=YOU ARE MINE!!!! (Oh and I have a few buffs)
:devil:

But some more intense schools which are more effective for combos are illusion, transmutation, divination, and conjuration. Of all schools, evocation tends to be the least usefull and necromancy the most focused. If you are looking for specialist wizard schools to give up those are them. Damage, and ability damage is all quite healable and can be done in other, more creative ways... well, not ability damage, conjuration is probably second to necromacy in how good it is to give up but makes an alternative to evocation for damage spells with things like cloudkill, and Summon Monster. Summon Monster effectively grants you the ability to heal once you can summon creatures who can. Transmutation, divination, and abjuration are my favorite schools as they contain some of the games best and most neccesary spells, divinations and abjuartions are the best defenses you could hope for, abjuration being more direct and divination offering you the ability to better plan your spells and encounters and even decide when to cast spells, especially abjurations. Transmutations include most of the best spells, including but not limited to, time stop, haste, all the stat boosting spells, slow, polymorph, alter self, polymorph other, balefull polymorph, polymorph any object, shrink item ect.

Illustions are good but are chancy as many opponents find ways to counter them and in some cases succed their saves, illusion specialists don't need evocation or conjuration as they get the shadow spells, which essentially give those back to you at a slightly higher cost but with MUCH more versitiltity (and part of the damage they do still is real even on a save!). And Phantasmal Killer, I belive, is the first save or die spell out there.

Concentrate on finding ways to do things with the least amount of spells possible, if a foe is an enemy fighter they might have the HP to survive your fireball even on a failed save, but they most likely will fail their will save against your charm or dominate spells if you have those prepared... And if you are fighting an enemy caster, use their own spells against them, if they fly, dispell when they get high, use illusions to get them to cast on their allies. Take down their duration spells with area dispells, and buff up you own defenses against spells with things like globe of protection, and even antimagic aura (if you are an archmage with mastery of shaping...:smirk: ) And make them make reflex and fort saves, they will probably have good magic defenses and possilbly be prepared for you so be carefull but those are their most likely weakest saves. On the other hand dominating an enemy spellcater can be BETTER than dominating an enemy fighter! Oh and never underestimate blink, mirror image, blur, misdirection, or true strike.

When there are no enemy spellcasters and the enemy isn't winged creatures, feel free to FLY!! Especially by use of polymorphing into supercreatures! And remember, some creatures, especially dragons, offer immunities to certain things and nice abilities.
PhaedrusXY
02-27-04, 01:34 AM I made a wizard specialized in Abjuration for Dalaeck's wizard challenge. I dropped the enchantment school, since while getting help finalizing my wizard, someone pointed out that I only had one Enchantment spell in my entire spellbook, and that I had at least one Abjuration spell on my "memorized list" at each level except 5th.

Abjuration is about protecting yourself, and getting rid of other people's protections. You can find my 9th level Abjurer near the bottom of THIS (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=184595) page. Really, he's not much different from a non-specialized wizard for me. I don't use alot of Enchantments typically.

Not that Enchantments can't be useful, it's just that you only have so much money for new spells to add to your book, and so many slots per level per day. I tend to prefer defensive, offensive, and area control magics. By area control, I mean spells that reduce visibility or movement, mainly.

The challenge is using 3.0 rules, so I only had to give up one school. If I were playing a wizard in a normal D&D game with 3.5 rules, I wouldn't specialize. (Except maybe in Divination) Giving up two schools is just too much of a cost for the extra spell slot per level. I think they should give specialists a +1 to the DC of saves from their specialty school, but that's a topic for another thread. :)
(Psi)SeveredHead
02-27-04, 12:10 PM Originally posted by kafit
Hi guys and gals, I am here to ask you all about wizards that specialize in the aforementioned (look at title) schools. My usual thoughts on arcane spells, are lightning bolt and *boom*. I kind of want to broaden my horizons so to speak, and learn to live a different kind of magic life. So what can you tell me about them? Useful spells, tips, and what kinds of things to avoid are appreciated. I did do a search but really didn't find much on enchantment, and next to nothing on abjuration! I hope you all can help, I have faith you in.

Well, first to knock out your illusions :)

Enchantment sucks. Sorry, it's just not a balanced school of magic.

The best Enchantment spell is fear, which is easy to counter to works on almost anything. For some reason, however, it's actually a Necromancy spell :mad:

The good ones are powerful and have a short duration, such as confusion and hold monster. The former doesn't always do anything, even if your victim fails their save, and the latter allows multiple saves though.

A lot of lower-level Enchantment spells only work on humanoids or have a Hit Dice cap, rendering them much less useful. Even hideous laughter gives a save penalty if your foe isn't humanoid like you.

Domination is really powerful, but you can only dominate humanoids until 17th-level. (Boo!) However, it's also so powerful (because of it's duration) that it can break your game.

Charm monster is similar. It doesn't suck the way dominate person does, but you can't use it effectively in combat.

If you're going to specialize, choose a Diviner. Even if you're going to cast mainly Abjuration or Enchantment spells, go Diviner. Choose a sensible school to ditch, and that's that. Specialist wizards are defined more by their abandoned school than by the school they specialize in.

Phaedrus
The challenge is using 3.0 rules, so I only had to give up one school. If I were playing a wizard in a normal D&D game with 3.5 rules, I wouldn't specialize. (Except maybe in Divination) Giving up two schools is just too much of a cost for the extra spell slot per level. I think they should give specialists a +1 to the DC of saves from their specialty school, but that's a topic for another thread.
I think a bonus is called for, but not a save DC bonus. WotC learned a harsh lesson with the Archmage ... how about a bonus to your saves against that school of magic?

Those +1 DCs start to add up.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
kafit 02-26-04, 11:28 PM	Hi guys and gals, I am here to ask you all about wizards that specialize in the aforementioned (look at title) schools. My usual thoughts on arcane spells, are lightning bolt and boom. I kind of want to broaden my horizons so to speak, and learn to live a different kind of magic life. So what can you tell me about them? Useful spells, tips, and what kinds of things to avoid are appreciated. I did do a search but really didn't find much on enchantment, and next to nothing on abjuration! I hope you all can help, I have faith you in.
mercurywyrm 02-27-04, 12:48 AM	Abjuration=ALL YOUR OFFENSE, ESPECIALLY MAGICAL OFFENSE, AND ALL YOUR MAGIC, SUCKS AGAINST ME!!!!!(oh yeah, and I can counter myself and other magical defenses TOO!!!) Enchantment=YOU ARE MINE!!!! (Oh and I have a few buffs) :devil: But some more intense schools which are more effective for combos are illusion, transmutation, divination, and conjuration. Of all schools, evocation tends to be the least usefull and necromancy the most focused. If you are looking for specialist wizard schools to give up those are them. Damage, and ability damage is all quite healable and can be done in other, more creative ways... well, not ability damage, conjuration is probably second to necromacy in how good it is to give up but makes an alternative to evocation for damage spells with things like cloudkill, and Summon Monster. Summon Monster effectively grants you the ability to heal once you can summon creatures who can. Transmutation, divination, and abjuration are my favorite schools as they contain some of the games best and most neccesary spells, divinations and abjuartions are the best defenses you could hope for, abjuration being more direct and divination offering you the ability to better plan your spells and encounters and even decide when to cast spells, especially abjurations. Transmutations include most of the best spells, including but not limited to, time stop, haste, all the stat boosting spells, slow, polymorph, alter self, polymorph other, balefull polymorph, polymorph any object, shrink item ect. Illustions are good but are chancy as many opponents find ways to counter them and in some cases succed their saves, illusion specialists don't need evocation or conjuration as they get the shadow spells, which essentially give those back to you at a slightly higher cost but with MUCH more versitiltity (and part of the damage they do still is real even on a save!). And Phantasmal Killer, I belive, is the first save or die spell out there. Concentrate on finding ways to do things with the least amount of spells possible, if a foe is an enemy fighter they might have the HP to survive your fireball even on a failed save, but they most likely will fail their will save against your charm or dominate spells if you have those prepared... And if you are fighting an enemy caster, use their own spells against them, if they fly, dispell when they get high, use illusions to get them to cast on their allies. Take down their duration spells with area dispells, and buff up you own defenses against spells with things like globe of protection, and even antimagic aura (if you are an archmage with mastery of shaping...:smirk: ) And make them make reflex and fort saves, they will probably have good magic defenses and possilbly be prepared for you so be carefull but those are their most likely weakest saves. On the other hand dominating an enemy spellcater can be BETTER than dominating an enemy fighter! Oh and never underestimate blink, mirror image, blur, misdirection, or true strike. When there are no enemy spellcasters and the enemy isn't winged creatures, feel free to FLY!! Especially by use of polymorphing into supercreatures! And remember, some creatures, especially dragons, offer immunities to certain things and nice abilities.
PhaedrusXY 02-27-04, 01:34 AM	I made a wizard specialized in Abjuration for Dalaeck's wizard challenge. I dropped the enchantment school, since while getting help finalizing my wizard, someone pointed out that I only had one Enchantment spell in my entire spellbook, and that I had at least one Abjuration spell on my "memorized list" at each level except 5th. Abjuration is about protecting yourself, and getting rid of other people's protections. You can find my 9th level Abjurer near the bottom of THIS (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=184595) page. Really, he's not much different from a non-specialized wizard for me. I don't use alot of Enchantments typically. Not that Enchantments can't be useful, it's just that you only have so much money for new spells to add to your book, and so many slots per level per day. I tend to prefer defensive, offensive, and area control magics. By area control, I mean spells that reduce visibility or movement, mainly. The challenge is using 3.0 rules, so I only had to give up one school. If I were playing a wizard in a normal D&D game with 3.5 rules, I wouldn't specialize. (Except maybe in Divination) Giving up two schools is just too much of a cost for the extra spell slot per level. I think they should give specialists a +1 to the DC of saves from their specialty school, but that's a topic for another thread. :)
(Psi)SeveredHead 02-27-04, 12:10 PM	Originally posted by kafit Hi guys and gals, I am here to ask you all about wizards that specialize in the aforementioned (look at title) schools. My usual thoughts on arcane spells, are lightning bolt and boom. I kind of want to broaden my horizons so to speak, and learn to live a different kind of magic life. So what can you tell me about them? Useful spells, tips, and what kinds of things to avoid are appreciated. I did do a search but really didn't find much on enchantment, and next to nothing on abjuration! I hope you all can help, I have faith you in. Well, first to knock out your illusions :) Enchantment sucks. Sorry, it's just not a balanced school of magic. The best Enchantment spell is fear, which is easy to counter to works on almost anything. For some reason, however, it's actually a Necromancy spell :mad: The good ones are powerful and have a short duration, such as confusion and hold monster. The former doesn't always do anything, even if your victim fails their save, and the latter allows multiple saves though. A lot of lower-level Enchantment spells only work on humanoids or have a Hit Dice cap, rendering them much less useful. Even hideous laughter gives a save penalty if your foe isn't humanoid like you. Domination is really powerful, but you can only dominate humanoids until 17th-level. (Boo!) However, it's also so powerful (because of it's duration) that it can break your game. Charm monster is similar. It doesn't suck the way dominate person does, but you can't use it effectively in combat. If you're going to specialize, choose a Diviner. Even if you're going to cast mainly Abjuration or Enchantment spells, go Diviner. Choose a sensible school to ditch, and that's that. Specialist wizards are defined more by their abandoned school than by the school they specialize in. Phaedrus The challenge is using 3.0 rules, so I only had to give up one school. If I were playing a wizard in a normal D&D game with 3.5 rules, I wouldn't specialize. (Except maybe in Divination) Giving up two schools is just too much of a cost for the extra spell slot per level. I think they should give specialists a +1 to the DC of saves from their specialty school, but that's a topic for another thread. I think a bonus is called for, but not a save DC bonus. WotC learned a harsh lesson with the Archmage ... how about a bonus to your saves against that school of magic? Those +1 DCs start to add up.