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View Full Version : Which restricted schools for a Diviner



Stephen_E
2009-09-06, 10:38 AM
I'm playing Pathfinder and My Ranger is planning on taking a single lev of Wizard Specalist Diviner for it's school ability, and Practised Spellcaster to bring his CL up to CL5.

What two restricted Schools would people advise me to take. Note in Pathfinder you can learn spells from restricted schools, but lose your school abilities while such spells are memorised, so I'd never memorise such a spell unless I was certain I'd not be in an adventuring situation.

It's a 3 person Party with a Half-elf Paladin and a Human Bard/Sorceror-Bloodline Air Elemental.
Other than True Strike I don't plan to do much combat casting and am extremely unlikely to progress beyond Wizard 3rd lev at max (and possibly never beyond 1st, although there are some tempting 2nd lev spells).

I'm the scout/point person, so Illusion seems to good to restict. I was thinking Enchantment would be one possibility but nothing leapt to mind for the other. Evocation?

Thanks
Stephen E

Eloel
2009-09-06, 10:44 AM
Unless pathfinder is different, a Diviner only needs to bar 1 school in 3.5.

Tyndmyr
2009-09-06, 10:59 AM
Evocation/Necromancy if you must take two. Just Evocation otherwise.

If you don't plan to go deeper into wizard, a banned school honestly isn't going to matter that much, and your ranger should be able to deal more damage directly than cantrips or the odd level 1 spell, no?

(Im making a few assumption here regarding how close Pathfinder is to 3.5, so apologies if I missed something obvious)

woodenbandman
2009-09-06, 11:22 AM
I don't think wizards ban anything in pathfinder.

Stephen_E
2009-09-06, 11:27 AM
Diviner takes 2 restricted schools in Pathfinder. The base School power is worth it. You ALWAYS act in the surprise round and get an Init bonus =1/2 your Wiz level. At 20th lev your Init roll is always a natural 20.

Pathfinder is basically 3.5 tweaked and tidied some. So yes, I don't envision using my spells to do damage normally.

I did think of necromancy at 1st but looked at Chill Touch which seemed to be one of the few spells I might cast in combat. With CL5 it gives me effectively 5 touch turn undead attempts.

Stephen E

Eldariel
2009-09-06, 11:30 AM
Enchantment/Evocation seems pretty safe as per usual. Alternatively, Evocation/Abjuration (if you don't plan on Shield).

Stephen_E
2009-09-06, 11:39 AM
I don't think wizards ban anything in pathfinder.

The don't ban, they restrict.

I was just rechecking and realised they'd made a change from Beta to Pathfinder.
You no longer lose your School Powers for having a restricted spell memorised, but it does cost 2 slots per restricted spell. Thus a 1st lev spell from a restricted school will take two 1st lev slots. It's also -4 on spellcraft enchantment checks for items that require restricted spells.

So basically restricted schools are for schools that you won't need to memorise, and won't want to enchant very often.

Stephen E

Tyndmyr
2009-09-06, 04:18 PM
That does change things quite a bit.

If you don't ever intend to take more wizard levels, you can just ban whatever has spells you won't prepare often at level 1. You're not honestly really losing anything of note.