Specialist Wizards

[3drinks]

So the thread on here about "Why Does One Choose to be a Necromancer?" got me thinking a bit. So I pulled up the SRD to read about school specialization and there's a single line that sticks out to me. Always made me wonder just "why?" not.

"A wizard can never give up divination to fulfill this requirement."

I understand that Divinations are some of the more powerful spells a wizard has access to (information is kind after all). But what if one wanted to make some kind of insane (or aloof) character who specializes in Necromanacy and gives up Divinations and Evocations? Why does such a character have to have Divinations? Is it a game rule thing? Is it more fluff? Are all Wizards just supposed to always be able to Scry for information because "that's what they do"?

Discuss!

[Story]

Probably because WOTC undervalued Divination and thought it was the obvious choice of a school to give up (as opposed to say, Enchantment).

[Answerer]

It's also by-far the smallest school in Core. You do give up fewer overall spells ditching Divination than you do other schools, especially from higher levels.

Note that there's a flip-side to that rule: Diviners only give up one school rather than two. This has to do, in theory, with the lack of Core Divinations to put in the specialist spell slots.

[Mcdt2]

I don't know, I always though it was because of a hold out rule from AD&D, that every wizard needed to know Read Magic, a Divination spell, in order to read spellboooks. That's also the reason why Wizards can memorize Read Magic without a spellbook (IIRC).

[rot42]

Read Magic. A wizard automatically gets Spell Mastery with that spell, and without it learning spells and deciphering other magical writings is extraordinarily difficult at low levels (20+lvl, no taking 20). It is Wizards' nod to verisimilitude and the oft-lampshaded need for training. And clearly it would be unrealistic just to make it a Universal spell.

Also, historical holdover from at least second edition to treat Divination special.

[Piggy Knowles]

I once played in a campaign where the fluff was that DM was the "basic" school of magic that all others branched from. You have to be able to read arcane energy before you can learn to manipulate it.

It's not supported by RAW, and I haven't ever used the idea in any of my own games, but I thought it was interesting.

[Answerer]

And clearly it would be unrealistic just to make it a Universal spell.
Don't agree in the least.

[3drinks]

Read Magic. A wizard automatically gets Spell Mastery with that spell, and without it learning spells and deciphering other magical writings is extraordinarily difficult at low levels (20+lvl, no taking 20). It is Wizards' nod to verisimilitude and the oft-lampshaded need for training. And clearly it would be unrealistic just to make it a Universal spell.

Also, historical holdover from at least second edition to treat Divination special.

Read Magic is Divination? I thought it was Universal, like Detect Magic is.

If so, I guess that explains why you can't give up that school. I suppose...

[Answerer]

Detect magic, along with detect anything else, is Divination.

[Spuddles]

And clearly it would be unrealistic just to make it a Universal spell.

Hahaha, yeah clearly it would be unrealistic to put the made up thing in a made up category into another made up category while playing a game of make believe.

[Mcdt2]

Hahaha, yeah clearly it would be unrealistic to put the made up thing in a made up category into another made up category while playing a game of make believe.

While I'm sure you're joking, I'm going to suck all the fun out of it and counter that argument (I tend to do that). Fair warning, TVTropes links to follow.

As they say, Magic A is Magic A. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA) It has been established what falls within the purview of Divination, as shown in the SRD.

Divination spells enable you to learn secrets long forgotten, to predict the future, to find hidden things, and to foil deceptive spells.

Certainly, Read Magic, a spell which deciphers the hidden meaning of arcanw writings, would fall under this category. It would make little sense for it not to go there, and be universal instead. And as the page quote of the TVTropes page says, "We don't ask that you stay within the bounds of physics, but at least follow the rules you freaking made up."

That being said, I have been considering a house rule that would incidentally clear up this issue. Namely, I was considering allowing Banned Schools not to count for the purpose of cantrips, after all, they are such basic bits of magic, I figure any one could learn them easily enough. Besides,the real powerhouse cantrip, Prestidigitation Minor Wish is universal anyway, not like this would be too unbalanced to let them have the banned school cantrips. Not sure if divination is still too weak to allow being banned, but I've been thinking about turning some psionic Seer stuff into spells, give diviners a bit more options.

[Spuddles]

Then the word you want to use is "verisimilitude".

[Duke of Urrel]

As recently as Version 3.0, the Detect Magic spell was, in fact, a Universal spell. So was the Read Magic spell.

(It says so in my old Player's Handbook from the year 2000.)

It's obvious why Read Magic was Universal; it was so that it would never be in a wizard's prohibited school. Probably Detect Magic was Universal for the same reason.

I suppose in Version 3.5, these two spells were changed to Divinations simply because that made sense, considering what they do. But since all wizards must be able to cast Read Magic, the rule was made that wizards cannot omit Divination from the schools of magic they know.