Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Wizard class: Schools of Magic; Schools of Effect

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Schools of Effect

A second scheme for organizing wizard magic is by effect. The Tome of Magic presented a new type of wizard who could specialize in schools of effect: the elementalist wizard. Player’s Option: Skills & Powers introduced the shadow mage, another specialist wizard built around a school of effect.
Schools of effect differ from schools of philosophy in that the spells of the school all share one common result or ingredient. For example, the spells of the school of fire all involve fire in some way, without regard for what the spell accomplishes. Divinations, the direction and control of energy, and the summoning of elementals can all be linked by the common effect of fire. The schools of effect are described below:

**Table 3.4.6: Effect Specialist Requirements**
Specialist	Race	Abilities	Opposition School(s)
Elementalist	H	Standard	Special
Dimensionalist	H, 1/2E	Int 16	Ench./Charm, Necro.
Force Mage	H, 1/2E	Int 12, Con 15	Alteration, Divination
Incantrix	H, E, 1/2 E, Hb	Int 13, Wis 12, Ego/Willpower 13	Conjuration/Summoning, Invoc./Evoc., Illusion/Phantasm and Necro.
Mentalist	H	Int 15, Wis 16	Invoc./Evoc., Necro.
Sea Wizard	H, 1/2 E, E	Int 12, Wis 12	Elemental Earth, Elemental Fire, Special
Shadow Mage	H	Int 15, Wis 16	Invoc./Evoc., Abjuration
Transfuser	H, 1/2E	Int/Reason 15, Wis/Intuition 15, Ego/Willpower 15	Abjuration, Conjuration/Summoning
H: Human; 1/2E: Half-elf, E: Elf; Hb: Hobgoblin

Elemental: Elementalists are wizards who specialize in spells dealing with one of the four elements — air, earth, fire or water. This school also includes wizards who specialize in para-elemental or quasi-elemental magic. Some of the more popular specialty schools are listed below.

Air: The elemental school of air naturally includes any air-based spell or effect, including spells that control or affect wind, breathing, falling and flight, air elementals, and other elemental phenomena. Gust of wind or cloudkill are examples of air spells.

Earth: Spells of elemental earth are based around stone-, earth-, or mineral-based effects. Dig, stone shape and stone to flesh are earth spells.

Fire: Any spell involving the manifestation of flame or heat is a spell of elemental fire. Not all fire spells are attack spells; fire charm and affect normal fires are examples of fire spells that don’t cause direct and immediate damage to the wizard’s enemies.

Water: Last but not least in the elemental schools, spells of the school of elemental water involve water in some form or another, including spells of ice and cold, since these are linked to the element of water. Water breathing, ice storm, and part water are all included in the school of elemental water.

Frost (Elemental Cold): Frost wizards specialize in spells that draw power ffrom the place where the elemental planes of air and water meet, the Paraelemental Plane of Ice. Spells of this school include spells that create ice, frost or cold, such as cone of cold and wall of ice. (Dragon 229)

Magma: The pyrogean wizard specializes in magic of the Paraelemental Plane of Magma, located at the juncture of the elemental planes of fire and earth. This type of magic is practiced almost exclusively by races of the Everdark. (Dragon)
Apportation: Spells of this school enable the caster to channel magical energy in such a way as to move an object, creature or attribute (such as weight or knowledge) from one known location to another. Specialists are known as transfusers. (Dragon 220)
Dimensional Magic: This is a new school introduced in Player’s Option: Spells & Magic. While all AD&D spells draw power from outside the mage, dimensionalists go one step further — they draw their power from another dimension. Like most schools of effect, the school of dimensional magic overlaps several pre-existing schools, including alteration, conjuration/summoning, and invocation spells.
Force: A force mage relies on spells that create or manipulate fields of cohesive energy, such as wall of force, magic missile, or any of the various Bigby’s hand spells. Many spells of this school are borrowed from the school of invocation/evocation.
Incantation: This school of effect focuses on spells that reverse, counter or or negate the magic of other spellcasters or creatures; spells which deal with extra-planar creatures who exist simultaneously on the prime material and another plane of existence; and spells which augment the magic of the caster. The specialist in this school is an incantrix (female) or incanter (male).
Sea Magic: Sea magic refers to magic cast at sea and above the waves. More specifically, it refers to spells developed especially for use at sea. Sea mages and water elementalists are fierce rivals; sea mages consider their school of magic superior because it does not rely on only a single source of power. Sea mages draw their magical power from wind, wave, water, sun, the moons, storms and the thousand forms of sea creatures. (based on Dragon 220).
Shadow: All the spells in this school are linked by the common effects of shadow and darkness. The shadow mage can make use of a number of illusion spells dealing with the Demiplane of Shadow and shadowstuff, including shadow monsters, darkness 15’ radius, and shadow walk. He also has access to a number of necromancy spells. Although necromancy and illusion are opposing philosophies, schools of effect ignore these restrictions and concentrate on results.

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