Introduction (CWH)

The Complete Wizard's Handbook
==Introduction==
No concept is more fundamental to the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® 2nd Edition game than magic. And no character class better personifies the art of magic than its primary practitioner, the wizard. No class is more challenging, few are as elegant, and in the hands of a creative player, none is as fascinating. The AD&D® 2nd Edition Player's Handbook and DUNGEON MASTER® Guide explained all of the basic information necessary for playing wizard characters. In this book, we'll expand on that information, adding more details and options and offering a few new variations. For instance, we'll be taking a close look at all the schools of magic, examining their advantages and disadvantages, their requirements and benefits, and the types of characters that are best suited for particular specializations. Since the schools of magic aren't limited to those presented in the Player's Handbook, we'll show you how to create your own schools from scratch.
We'll discuss ways to personalize your wizard characters and describe entire campaigns centered on wizardly concerns. If you've been bemoaning the lack of spells for certain specialists, such as diviners and necromancers, worry no more—we've added plenty of new spells just for them.
For the Dungeon Master, we'll offer some tips to help fine-tune his skills as a referee, covering such topics as the adjudication of illusions and how to establish guidelines for magical research. We'll explain how spells are cast underwater and in other planes of existence. And for players and DMs alike, we'll take a close look at combat and how it relates to wizards.
Think of this book as a smorgasbord of ideas. Everything here is optional. Pick and choose whatever's most appealing, make changes to suit your campaign, and experiment with variations of your own design. It's your game and your world—we're here to help you make it as entertaining as it can be.
Throughout this book, we've used male pronouns as a matter of convenience. This is not intended to exclude females—in all cases, read "his" as "his or her," and "he" as "he or she. " For those of you using The Complete Wizard in conjunction with the original AD&D game instead of the AD&D 2nd Edition game, this supplement mentions many page numbers from the Player's Handbook and the DUNGEON MASTER Guide. The page numbers cited refer to the AD&D 2nd Edition books. Those players using the old books will have to ignore these page references, but in most cases, you can find the relevant material by consulting the indexes or contents pages of the original books.