Schools of Magic (POSM)

__TOC__
All wizard spells belong to one or more schools of magic. A school of magic represents related spells with common features or characteristics. For a mage, who is the basic or general wizard, the school of a spell doesn't matter too much; he can learn and cast any spell without regard to the spell's school. The only exception to this rule is wild magic, which is completely unfathomable to any wizard except a wild mage.
While the majority of wizards are mages, a significant number choose to be specialists who concentrate their efforts in one particular school. Generally, this increases the wizard's abilities within the school of his choice at the cost of losing access to any schools with opposing philosophies.
There are three schemes of school organization used in the AD&D game: philosophy, effect, and thaumaturgy.
==Schools of Philosophy==
The eight standard schools of spells presented in the Player's Handbook —abjuration, alteration, conjuration/summoning, enchantment/charm, greater divination, illusion/phantasm, invocation/evocation, and necromancy—are schools of philosophy. While all spells in this scheme of organization are cast in much the same way, the approach and method by which they achieve their purpose varies from school to school. For example, conjuration spells generally bring something to the caster from another location, while necromancy spells manipulate the forces of life and death.
While spells in a school of philosophy generally involve the application of a common principle, they vary greatly in effect. For example, invocations create anything from solid matter such as walls of stone or iron to comprehensive enchantments such as contingency or limited wish. Note that all spells grouped into schools of philosophy share the same execution or method of casting—the use of verbal, somatic, and material components to summon and direct magical energy. The basic philosophies behind each school are briefly described below:
Abjuration spells are specialized protective spells designed to banish some magical or nonmagical effect or creature. Protection from evil is an example of an abjuration spell, since it creates a barrier that evil or supernatural creatures are reluctant to cross.
Alteration spells cause a change in the properties of some previously existing thing, creature, or condition. Pyrotechnics is an alteration spell, since it takes an existing fire and creates special effects from the blaze.
Conjuration/Summoning spells bring some intact item or creature to the caster from elsewhere. Any monster summoning spell is a good example.
Enchantment/Charm spells cause a change in the quality of an item or the attitude of a person or creature. Charm person is an enchantment, since it affects the way an individual perceives the wizard.
Divinations are spells that provide the wizard with information or the ability to acquire information. Contact other plane is a divination, since it allows the wizard to seek answers from extraplanar entities. Note that this school has been somewhat altered in scope for this book; see The School of Universal Magic.
Illusion/Phantasm spells seek to deceive the minds or senses of others with false or semi-substantial images and effects. Phantasmal force is a good example, as well as spells such as mirror image, invisibility, or blur.
Invocation/Evocation spells channel magical energy to create specific effects and materials. For example, lightning bolt manifests this energy in the form of a powerful stream of electricity.
Necromancy is a school concerned with the manipulation of the forces of life and death. Necromancy spells include those that simulate the effects of undead creatures, such as vampiric touch, and more direct assaults on life energy like death spell or finger of death.
Universal Magic: In this book, the school of lesser divination is expanded and renamed to include a number of spells that all wizards should have access to. Consider universal magic to be Sorcery 101; without the basic spells in this school, wizards are incapable of continuing their studies in the other schools of magic. Therefore, all wizards have access to the spells in this school, regardless of specialization. The school of universal magic is described in more detail below.
Creating a New School of Philosophy: In most campaigns, the schools of philosophy represent the baseline or standard against which other forms of magic are measured. Almost all spells can be described through this system of magic, with very few exceptions. For a wizard to develop a new school of philosophy, he would have to devise a class of spells that all share a common approach or methodology. Most likely, a group of related spells that already exist in one school or another would have to be used as the starting point for a new school. It's much easier to build a new school of effect or thaumaturgy than to build a new school of philosophy. The Complete Wizard's Handbook suggests a school of transmutation that concentrates on spells that change one element or material into one other element or material. Another possibility might be a school of animation, centering on spells that provide motive force to inanimate objects.
==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:
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.
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: The school of force is a new school of effect presented later in this book. 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.
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.
Creating a School of Effect: Again, all spells in a school of effect are cast with the standard execution of somatic, verbal, and material components. Creating a new school of effect is far easier than coming up with a new school of philosophy; there are any number of common spell results or special effects that can be linked in this way. For example, a school of light could be designed around spells that produce bright visible effects, or a school of circles could be designed around any spell effect that is circular or spherical in form.
==Schools of Thaumaturgy==
A school of thaumaturgy defines a specific method or procedure of spellcasting that varies from the standard execution of a spell's components. Several schools of thaumaturgy were presented in Player's Option: Skills & Powers —the school of song, the school of alchemy, and the school of geometry. In addition, other schools of thaumaturgy have appeared in specific campaign settings. The defiler of the Dark Sun campaign is a mage whose spells are executed through the draining of life energy from his surroundings. The sha'ir of the Al-Qadim setting casts his spells by sending a servant gen, or minor genie, to fetch the spell and bring it back to him.
Spells belonging to a school of thaumaturgy are not linked by philosophy or effect—instead, they're related by the manner in which they are physically cast. In fact, the “standard” approach to wizard magic defined by the eight philosophical schools represents one common thaumaturgical method. Other thaumaturgical methods include the following schools:
The School of Alchemy: In this approach to magic, spell effects are achieved through the combination of unusual material components. Spells such as affect normal fires, glitterdust, and cloudkill can all be cast through the use of strange powders and reagents, and belong to the school of alchemy.
The School of Artifice: This is a new school introduced here for the first time. Artificers are weak in the direct command of magic and instead use various devices and magical items to focus their energies. Spells such as Melf's minute meteors and magic staff are included in the school of artifice.
The School of Geometry: Geometers use diagrams, symbols, and complex patterns to cast their spells. Naturally, any spell involving some kind of writing, marking, or pattern belongs to the school of geometry, including spells such as explosive runes, sepia snake sigil, and symbol.
The School of Song: While alchemists rely on material components and geometers rely on somatic components, a song mage uses the power of his voice to summon and shape spell energy. Any spell that involves speaking, singing, or some other use of the caster's vocal powers belongs to the school of song. Sleep, charm monster, and Otto's irresistible dance are all examples of spells of this school.
The School of Wild Magic: Some wizards have learned to make use of the principles of randomness in their magic, giving rise to the school of wild magic. Wild mages shape the raw, uncontrollable stuff of magic in the hope that something resembling their intended spell will appear. A number of wild magic spells such as vortex and waveform appeared in the Tome of Magic; if you do not have access to that book, you should probably ignore this school.
==The School of Universal Magic==
As described in the Player's Handbook , the school of divination is actually composed of lesser divinations and greater divinations. A few specialist mages are barred from greater divination as an opposition school, but every specialist wizard is considered to have access to lesser divination. In this book, the school of lesser divination is replaced by the school of universal magic. This includes a few basic divination and nondivination spells that all wizards should have access to, such as dispel magic and enchant an item. Any wizard may cast spells of this school, regardless of his or her specialty.
The divination spells of both the schools of lesser and greater divination are now considered to be part of one school of divination. Spells such as ESP, clairaudience, and clairvoyance are part of the school of divination and may not be available to wizards who formerly had access to them as lesser divinations. Refer to Appendix 3 for the revised spell organization.
Important Note: Wizards do not automatically know universal spells. They must study and attempt to learn the spells of this school, just like any other spells. However, when a wizard character is first created, he automatically begins play with any 1st-level universal spells of his choice in his spell book, although these count against the character's limit of beginning spells.
The school of universal magic consists of the following spells:
cantrip (1st) 	wizard lock (2nd)
comprehend languages (1st) 	dispel magic (3rd)
detect magic (1st) 	remove curse (4th)
hold portal (1st) 	teleport (5th)
identify (1st) 	enchant an item (6th)
read magic (1st) 	teleport without error (7th)
wizard mark (1st) 	permanency (8th)
knock (2nd) 	astral spell (9th)
protection from cantrips (2nd)	
Most of the low-level spells on this list enable the wizard to undertake his basic studies in books of arcane lore and safeguard his laboratory and spell book against intruders. Teleport, teleport without error, and astral spell are included since the ability to travel vast distances in the blink of an eye is a common power among wizards in fantasy literature. Last but not least, enchant an item and permanency are universal magic because every wizard should have the ability to create magical items when he or she reaches the appropriate level.