On Spells: Spell Schools

I took my computer to a comfy place without internet the other day, and got almost 6 straight hours of work done on revising spells from 3e into S&W format.  It was nice.  I'm not done, but it's a lot closer.  Unfortunately, I can't do that too often.

On the downside, my brain is still a bit fried, so I'm going to throw this post out there and not worry about whether it comes to a logical conclusion or not.  Just some ideas from years ago.

If you want to see me froth and foam, tell me how logical and well-balanced spell schools are in D&D.  This was fairly irrelevant in 1st Edition AD&D, but with the advent of specialists in 2E, school mattered.  The problem in part was a lack of consistency between schools about cause and effect.  An evocation "creates" energy, but an illusion "creates" an image, which may or may not have a material effect.  Unless it's a shadow illusion, in which case it "brings" shadow energy, which would normally make it a conjuration.  Abjurations do whatever they want, as long as it keeps things away.

Back when I was hacking on 3e, I tried two different ways of taming spells & their schools: descriptors and sub-schools. The descriptors option wasn't bad, but I really sort of like the sub-schools, in part because the foundation was already laid in illusions, conjurations and haphazardly in a few other schools.  I'm not sure why it wasn't ever extended to the rest of the schools: sacred cow or historical ennui, I suppose.

So, here's a breakdown of 3e spell schools and sub-schools.

Abjuration: Barrier, Condemnation (ie banishment), Negation, Protection (a person or creature, usually mobile), Warding (an item or location, usually static)
Conjuration: Calling, Creation, Healing, Summoning, Teleportation
Divination: Awareness (detect something), Lore (know something), Precognition (foretell something), Psychic (read your mind, which could also be enchantment), Scrying (see something)
Enchantment: Charm (make them want it), Compulsion (make them do it), Morale (make them feel good about it).
Evocation: Elemental, Energy, Force, Positive Energy, Negative Energy.
Illusion: Figment, Glamer, Pattern, Phantasm, Shadow
Necromancy: Curses (could move to Enchantment as well), Death, Flesh, Life, Spirit, Undeath
Transmutation: Alchemical (non-living target), Enhancement (buff), Manipulation, Transformation (living target)

This has been on my mind while I've been working through spells for illusionists and variant illusionists.  I won't put schools or subschools in the spell descriptions (has no meaning in S&W), but I will list them in an appendix.  The biggest change will be adding a Radiant subschool to Illusion, which absorbs the prismatic, chromatic, iridescent, and color spells (and maybe the patterns).  I like illusionists as masters of light as well as shadow.

Schools also seemed like an unexplored area for customization.  With a few exceptions (elemental schools, wild magic, and chronomancy), the idea of new schools was never developed.  Why shouldn't there be a School of Elven Magic?  Enjoy.

0 - arcane mark, detect magic, light

1 - arrow mind¹, charm person, dawnburst³, dispel ward¹, endure elements, entice gift¹, ghost touch armor¹, guided shot¹, guiding light¹, lesser deflect², light of Lunia¹, mage armor, magic weapon, spontaneous search¹, surefooted stride¹

2 - deflect², eagle's splendor, protection from arrows, see invisibility, stay the hand², sure strike²

3 - arcane sight, crown of clarity², crown of protection², daylight, dispel magic, ghost lantern³, glowing orb¹, greater mage armor¹, greater magic weapon, heroism, light of Venya¹, mask of the ideal³, spellcaster's bane³

4 - charm monster, detect scrying, lesser geas, Melf's slumber arrows³, spell enhancer¹

5 - break enchantment, dominate person, dragonsight¹, lucent lance¹, Mordenkainen's faithful hound, radiance², sending

 6 - brilliant blade¹, geas, greater dispel magic, greater heroism, Tenser's transformation, true seeing

7 - greater arcane sight, spell turning, synostodweomer¹

8 - mass charm monster, mind blank, protection from spells, sunburst

9 - genius loci³, Mordenkainen's disjunction, unbinding¹

¹ Spell Compendium

² Player’s Handbook 2

³ Complete Mage