Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nicholas the Paladin 07-02-07, 12:42 PM	Hi Guys, In the complete mage, there's a description of school specialisation: Go for a specific school and choose to skip 2 others. What what good will it do? On page 8 where this is descibed, it doens't mention anyting about getting something in return (so why bother skipping two schools?) You can choose to take the 'focussed specialist' classfeature; that will take you to skip another school (so 3 in total) and you gain 1 extra slot that has to be spend on your specialty school. Or Is it that you have access to some new feats? thanks !
Morwen 07-02-07, 12:45 PM	In the complete mage, there's a description of school specialisation: Go for a specific school and choose to skip 2 others. What what good will it do? On page 8 where this is descibed, it doens't mention anyting about getting something in return (so why bother skipping two schools?) School Specialization is actually described in the Player's Handbook, under the Wizard class entry. If you choose to specialize in one school, you get one extra spell slot for each spell level, which has to be filled with a spell from your specialist school. You can read more about it here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#schoolSpecialization
Salla 07-02-07, 12:53 PM	School Specialization is actually described in the Player's Handbook, under the Wizard class entry. If you choose to specialize in one school, you get one extra spell slot for each spell level, which has to be filled with a spell from your specialist school. You can read more about it here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#schoolSpecialization And unless you're using the PHBII immediate magics, or the specialist PrC in Complete Mage ... it's pretty useless. :)
Empiro 07-02-07, 04:11 PM	And many would disagree. While I do think that your basic specialist wizard should derive a bit more flavor and benefit from specializing, specializing is hardly "useless." The extra spell slots at your two highest spell levels can often be a life saver. It also depends on your school of specialization and what you give up too, of course. WotC has classically favored Conjurers, and both the PHB2 and Complete Mage continue that trend.
Vharuck 07-02-07, 04:13 PM	Like the wizard class itself, the in-game effect is largely dependant on the player and his/her understanding and planning.
tarkin 07-02-07, 04:36 PM	I find many ways to make specialists very powerfull. Part of the trick is understanding the benefits of school specioalization. The main benefit is the ability to cast one additional spell of your school. But you don't have to cast any more than that one. Diviners only have to give up one school. It is very easy to give up one school, such as Enchantment Charm. Few if any of the spells do not have equivelents in power. The spells are nice, but not unique, you have work arounds for them all (Magic Jar is a great almost Dominate) Now you get one additional diviniation spell each level. If you can find a single spell of each level in that school that you would always like to memorize, you are ahead of the game. 0: Detect Magic/Read Magic. 1: True Strike 2: See Invisibility/Detect Thoughts 3: Arcane Sight 4: Locate Creature/Detect Scrying 5: ???? 6: True Seeing 7: Greater Scrying/Greater Arcane Sight 8: Moment of Prescience 9: ??? Core you are good till level 9. Either write your own 5th level spell, or metamagic up a lower level spell (Extended Detect scrying is nice, but you only need it 1/ 2 days) then you and your are good till level 17. If you have access to non-core 1: Know Protections (usually better than True Strike) 4: Assay Resistance (powerfull spell) 9: Hindsight (a real, honest to goodness 9th level spell)
ArcTan 07-02-07, 10:14 PM	Dude, as with many Divination spells, the core spell foresight is a *great* 9th-level spell if the DM is willing to roll with it, and only lackluster if he feels like being a jerk. And never diss the general usefulness of Rary's telepathic bond in any mission that's more complicated than a simple Monty Haul.
runestar 07-02-07, 10:16 PM	I would definitely specialize in a game at lower lvs, less likely so if my game started off at higher lvs. Those extra slots are life-savers, especially with that new class feature in complete mage which gives you extra specialist spell slots.:)
SunTzuWarmaster 07-03-07, 07:35 AM	In response, with specialization you get: 1 - more spells (what more could you want.... really) 2 - access to some feats (like Dazzling Illusions or metamagic school focus) 3 - access to more class features (variants in unearthed arcana and PHB2) usually it isn't a bad choice.
penchant 07-03-07, 10:57 AM	In my humble opinion, specialists should be considered the norm and a generalist should be the exception. In any academic field, specialization and even hyper-specialization is the norm and you aren't considered to be any good at it unless you do. I would wish that Wizards paid more attention to the specialist rather than the simple bonus spells. The alternative specialist class features for specialists presented in the Unearthed Arcana are a good start and the Master Specialist should be Core. /Rant WotC considers that spontaneous casting and expanded spells per day to be so valuable that Sorcerers got nothing except a familiar aside from their casting. A Wizard with Focused Specialist gets as many spells per day as a sorcerer does and gets spell access earlier. All he has to do is give up 3 (or 2 with a Diviner) schools to pick his still unlimited spell book from. An evoker could shun Conjuration, just as a Conjurer could evocation. Necromancy is usually only useful to necromancers. Enchantment is easily left aside by any blaster class and abjuration can be done without if you go total offense (and wear armor). If you really think full access is needed, then Ultimate Magus with a focused specialist and beguiler build is the shizniz. Dump Necro, Enchantment and Illusion and then get nearly every spell you want with max 12 per spell level. Or use warmage and dump the evocation /conjuration schools for the same effect but with the loss of splitting your stats. But this is not really necessary to be effective. A focused specialist straight wizard (played by someone who knows what they are doing) will sling quickened spells around without fear of running out. He can freely dump spell slots when he is working on his Archmage degree. And he gets a much cooler title than "wizard!"
zelf_gale 07-03-07, 02:14 PM	IMO (In my opinion) The additional spell slots are very useful at early levels where it can constitute up to a 50% increase in your total daily spell slots. This is huge for insuring the survival below 5th level. Past 5th level the increase on your total daily spell slots decreases, however you top level spell slot increase is still statistically significant. Measures such as taking the Spell Focus feats and becoming familiar with school specific rules particularly for Enchantment and Illusion can further the benefits of being a specialist wizard until 9th level. At 9th level the cost/benefit ratio starts to become debatable. Taking Prestige Classes that benefit specialist wizards, such as the Red Wizard of Thay, can help delay the relative power slump until around 15th level. At near epic levels the drawbacks often outweigh the benefits, as magic items grant a large amount of bonus spell slots and equivalent powers. The benefit of a handful of additional spell slots against the drawback of hundreds of denied spell choices can make an large impact in encounters.
penchant 07-03-07, 02:43 PM	If you want Archmage, then specialist and focused specialist is what you want. The last poster mentions items that increase your spells per day. This is usually rings of wizardry. RoW double your BASE spell allotment and not spells per day. If you do sacrifice your Archmage spell slots for the very tempting abilities this exponentially reduces the effectiveness of the items. The bonus spells from specialists are always there. Imagine wanting to take Teleport for your archmage SLA, but realizing that it takes 2 5th level slots! That's half of them. Then you have only 2 left. If you are epic then an Epic RoW can bring this back up to 4... unless you take another SLA with any other spell which either reduces you to 1 (or 2 with an EPIC ring). A focused specialist will still have his three bonus spells without investing in an epic ring.