Specializing?

[Deaxsa]

as a wizard, what are the benefits of Specializing? i'm under the impression that the more versatility you have, the more powerful you are, and that specializing inhibits your versatility, thus reducing your overall capability.

also, if i were to specialize, what are considered the stronger schools to specialize in, and the better schools to drop?

[Lorsa]

What are the benefits of specializing? I have asked myself that very same question. I suppose the only time specializing is good is when you know you mainly want to do one thing. But then I think it's better being a sorcerer anyway. I suppose if you want to deal a lot with spells that have a save DC then being specialized is better because the one extra spell slot per level doesn't seem worth it all that much.

[Daftendirekt]

Sometimes being a generalist with all spells available to you is the best. However, there are times when specializing is better. For example, being a (Focused Specialist, Master Specialist) Illusionist and going for Shadowcraft Mage can yield ridiculous (in the good way) results. Being a Conjurer and giving up your familiar for Abrupt Jaunt is also pretty good. While yes, being a wizard is all about versatility, if you see yourself focusing more on a certain school than others, getting more spell slots for that school can be useful.

[HunterOfJello]

More spells per day and better ACF options. You may even enjoy some of the ACF options better than your extra spells per day.


Treantmonk did a guide one why you should specialize. It can be found at:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19864630/Focused_Specialist_is_better_than_you_think

[AsteriskAmp]

Mechanically? Not all spell schools are born equal.

Enchantment does not work against oozes, plants, undead, vermin and constructs and there are one thousand and one way of getting immunity to it or suppression.

Evocation deals damage and... not much more. The beatsticks job is dealing damage, you have better things to do with your actions. And it's replaceable with a single one spell called shadow evocation which in truth is just used for the one spell evocation does different, contingency. Oh, and SR:Yes on a great majority of spells means you've got to invest on it on later levels for it to remain useful.

Abjuration becomes a lot less tempting when you notice most of it is on the cleric list. If you have a friendly cleric odds are he can abjure and do it better. If someone else abjures you don't really have to.

Necromancy has very potent de-buffs and is not a bad school. It however starts to become less useful in later levels with counted exceptions.

ACFs:
Many alternate class features are exclusive to a given specialization.

Many of those are better than the schools you lose.

And finally, if you want to go generalist an elf can do it better.

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/19557/what-wizard-schools-are-best-to-specialize-in-which-schools-are-best-to-sacrifi

[Gnaeus]

We are both 5th level wizards. I am a focused transmuter banning evocation, Enchantment and necromancy. You are a generalist. we both have the same INT (high enough for a bonus spell.)

My spells are Fly, Haste, Slow and Stinking Cloud. 2 generally awesome buffs, a fort save or suck, and a will save or suck.
You get 2 level 3 spells. You are more versatile than me how? Yes, you may have different spells in your book, but I can cast twice as many top level spells, so I will have more relevant options in almost any fight.

[Deaxsa]

We are both 5th level wizards. I am a focused transmuter banning evocation, Enchantment and necromancy. You are a generalist. we both have the same INT (high enough for a bonus spell.)

My spells are Fly, Haste, Slow and Stinking Cloud. 2 generally awesome buffs, a fort save or suck, and a will save or suck.
You get 2 level 3 spells. You are more versatile than me how? Yes, you may have different spells in your book, but I can cast twice as many top level spells, so I will have more relevant options in almost any fight.

point taken. So, i've decided to specialize in transmutation (i like conjuration too, but transmutation seems altogether more awesome), but i'm not sure if i should go ahead and be a focused specialist, because i'm planning on taking 3 levels of Incantatrix later on. Is 4 banned schools too many?

edit: so far i'd be banning Enchantment and Evocation first, but then i'm not totall sure which. Illusion, Necromancy, and Abjuration would be the next to go, but i cannot decide which two of those three i would want to lose. advice? or, as i stated above, is missing 4 schools simply too much?

[Randomguy]

In general going focused specialist and incantatrix isn't recommended, you give up too much versatility.

I'd recommend dumping necromancy after enchantment and evocation. It's good good spells, but illusion and abjuration both have too many persistable buffs to give up. Anyway, clerics get a lot of necromancy spells.

[ArcturusV]

Well... specializing means more spells known automatically with levels. And some are just no brainer options.

Take Diviner. You only have to give up 1 spell school. Pick the one school you use the least often. Probably Evocation. Laugh. I mean Divinations are so useful that you're never going to feel so hampered by being forced to have a Divination ready each day. And Diviners are ungodly powerful if your DM lets you play them as intended. The fit the first ideal of what I want out of a spell:

1) Spells that completely eliminate or bypass an encounter.

Proper use of Divinations can completely eliminate problems before they are even a problem.

[Bakkan]

Well... specializing means more spells known automatically with levels.

<nitpick> Specializing doesn't give more spells known, just spells per day. But since the Wizard's spells known are limited only by his wealth, it's not a huge deal either way</nitpick>

OT, specializing is more valuable the lower level you are. Yes, a generalist may have only 2 of his highest-level slots, but he'll have more of one level lower. The difference between, e.g., 7th and 8th level spells is not huge, so a 15th level generalist will not be at as large a disadvantage against a specialist in terms of power per day.

Generally, before level 5 or so, I usually specialize and often go Focused SPecialist unless I'm planning on giving up another school later and believe that my campaign will go that long.

Between levels 5 and about 12, I'll specialize if I'm building for a specific theme or if I know that endurance is a large part of the campaign (though by these levels you may have ways of getting around that).

Above level 12, I'd need to be using a very nonstandard Wizard build (e.g. the Killer Gnome) to not be a generalist.

One of the major advantages of being a generalist that has not been mentioned so far is magic item creation. If your DM will allow you to design custom items, or at the least combine magical items together as per the MiC guidelines, the Craft Wondrous Item feat will be your best friend. Having all spells available to you means that you have one less hurdle to jump through when trying to get ahold of a particular effect in item form.

If you decide to specialize, remember that you want to pick a school that you will reasonably cast one spell from of each level every day. The problem with a lot of schools is that they have dead levels, where you need to memorize a useless spell (or fill it with a metamagiced version of a lower-level spell, which is a legitimate way of mitigating this potential downside). The two schools that rise to the top are Conjuration (especially at low levels) and Transmutation (especially at high levels).

The next thing to consider is ACFs. Generalists have essentially one ACF unique to them, namely the Elven Generalist racial substitution levels in Races of the Wild. These levels are awesome if your DM will make getting scrolls or access to other Wizards difficult or impossible. And at lower levels, when money can be tight, the extra automatic spells still help. However, at low levels your spell slots are still your biggest limiting factor and you likely don't have the item creation feats to be worrying about having all the prerequisite spells yet, so the benefit is not enormous.

On the other hand, some of the specialization ACFs are very good (and some are bad). The Immediate Magic ACFs from PHBII are great for Conjurers (again, especially at low levels before your other defenses come online) and Transmutors (also especially at low levels). The Rapid Summoning ACF from Unearthed Arcana is almost a requirement for summoners, but competes with Abrupt Jaunt (the one from PHBII), so it's not taken a lot by anyone else. The upside is that it remains relevant for longer in your character's career.

For example,

If you're starting at level 1-2 and don't plan or don't expect to get to the point where you can enter Incantatrix (or Red Wizard, or something else that gives up a school), I recommend a Focused Specialist Conjurer with Abrupt Jaunt.

If you're starting at level 6 and are planning to maximize your buffing abilities, a Specialist Transmutor is a good choice.

As I said before, if you're level 13 or higher, there are very few situations in which I'd recommend specializing at all unless you're not interested in item creation and focus on a relatively narrow selection of spells, but in that case you're likely better off being a sorcerer.

[Gnaeus]

Well, counter nitpicking, 3.5 wasn't specified, and if PF rules are in play, those item creation difficulties vanish in a puff of logic. Also, there is the real possibility that you may not be the party's only caster, and you can often plan your banned schools to coincide with another party member. Enchantment, for example, is usually a good school to ban, but if your team includes a bard or beguiler, there is very little reason not to ban it. (this has the side benefit of protecting their niche)

Also, yes, a high level wizard will never run out of spells. But given the wide difference in spell power by level, I usually assume that really only the top 2-3 level spells are going to be the ones I use in combat, and the specialist always has a real advantage in those. Even more importantly, by level 12, serious use of metamagic becomes a factor, and those extra 5 & 6th level spell slots easily become quickened 1+2s which give the specialist or focused specialist a real advantage in action economy.

[Piggy Knowles]

Because this topic has come up many times before, I'll just c/p what I posted the last time it was brought up:

(Editing to remove quote tags, since they stripped away most of the old post's formatting...)

In any case, to echo what others have said, I find FS to be quite useful in the early levels, and a pretty good choice throughout the game. Past level 7 or so I find that standard specialists start to push ahead, and past level 13 or so I find that generalists tend to be better, but that may just be my own experience. Generalists also tend to suffer in the low levels, when they don't have enough spells per day to bring their crazy versatility to bear, so keep that in mind.

In a higher-op game, though, I would absolutely NOT specialize unless it was just for the lowest levels, or I was playing something specific like a gish where I'm not as concerned with having the absolute answer for everything.

In very high-op games, not only do you have to worry about losing access to essential spells like mindrape, there's also a very good chance you'll want to take levels in a class that makes you drop even more schools. Red Wizard and Incantatrix are right up there with Tainted Scholar and Anima Mage as just about the best prestige classes for very high-caliber wizards, and I'm sorry, but giving up 4 schools just isn't tenable.

Also, tricks like using Greater Celerity + Uncanny Forethought to cast just about any spell on demand are especially potent when you have access to, well, almost every amazing wizard spell in existence. It becomes less useful the fewer schools you have access to.

In slightly less insane campaigns, you still feel the pinch - just about every school has something that is hard to do without. You could get by losing one, maybe two of these schools - but three or four? Ouch.

Enchantment is theoretically the easiest to drop, but mindrape is difficult for a highest-level wizard to lose, and things like feeblemind and irresistible dance certainly aren't slouches. And heroics is one of the most versatile low-level spells around. This is still one of the first to go, but man, there is basically nothing else in the game that can do what mindrape does.

Evocation has a ton of insanely useful spells, including resilient sphere, wind wall, contingency, forcecage and more. Shadow evocation helps, but it means you're spending a higher level spell when a lower level version could do, and adding in a save where no save existed before. One of the nicest thing about the best evocation spells is that they DON'T offer saves - wind wall stops every archer dead, no matter how observant they are. Adding on a will save for disbelief makes it a much less effective "NO" option. Again, this is still not a terrible school to drop, since a lot of its effects are duplicated by Conjuration, but you'll feel it.

Abjuration is not too bad to drop in the low levels if you've got a cleric around, but if you plan on doing any planar binding (one of the best ways to gain access to otherwise banned spells), you pretty much need this school. In higher levels, mind blank is one of the most essential defensive buffs around... and it doesn't appear on the cleric list. And I'm sorry, I know that it's popular to compare disjunction to nuclear weapons and recommend against its use, but I've played in high level games, and sometimes it's essential. How else are you going to remove the ridiculous laundry list of buffs from that dragon with a MUCH higher CL than you? There's also a few other gems on this list that the cleric can't duplicate. Who doesn't like explosive runes or prismatic sphere? What low level party doesn't get mileage out of the simple, no-nonsense alarm spell? And there's all sorts of shenanigans that can be done with spell engine. If I am playing in a game that probably won't spend much time at level 15 or above and I've got a cleric in the party willing to coordinate things I might be willing to drop this, but I absolutely wouldn't in a game going to level 15+.

Illusion has the best defensive buffs around, the most useful one probably being greater mirror image. Unlike Abjuration, this school tends to boost your non-AC defenses (miss chances and the like), which is almost always more effective than just trying to send your AC as high as possible. It's also the single most versatile school, thanks to the image line and shadow spells. No superior invisibility is also quite sad. If you're playing a wizard without access to Illusion, you are probably going to die on the end of a pointy stick, and that's no way for a wizard to go. I would basically never drop Illusion. (This is actually the only other school besides Conjuration and Transmutation that I'd consider being a Focused Specialist in, as a matter of fact.)

Necromancy is another that is difficult. On the whole, unless you're playing a debuffer, it's not that bad to lose this one. Even then, feats like Fell Drain can help ease the pain of losing it. If there's a cleric in the party, they can animate things better than you... at least until level 11, when animate dread warrior far outstrips anything the cleric can do. Shivering touch can breeze through encounters all on its own if used effectively. Spectral hand opens up a whole lot of spells that previously weren't useful for non-gishes - there are workarounds, but they don't generally come online as early as level 3, and they often require investing more resources. Magic jar is pretty difficult to duplicate, and is an easy way to leave your pathetic fleshy body and take on a form more... suitable. Command undead doesn't appear on the cleric list, and woah-mama is this one handy if you're facing undead... it offers no save for mindless undead, which means that any time the DM sends a zombie or skeleton against you, it becomes your puppet for for 1 day/level. False life is one of the best low-level survival spells around. Again, you CAN lose this school - it helps that the really essential spells for high levels, such as astral projection, are easily picked up by planar binding - but it's got a lot of very effective answers to encounters that simply cannot be duplicated by other schools.

Conjuration and Transmutation are obviously not even worth joking about dropping. And Divination is really not an option.

So yeah. If I'm playing a Shadowcraft Mage, sure, I'll drop three schools. If I'm playing a gish, chances are most of my spells are going to be buffs and utility spells, and any utility spells I don't use will be dropped for Arcane Strike, so having more spells per day helps me out there as well. And if I'm playing a game that probably won't make it much further than level 10 or so, I'll gladly drop, say, Abjuration, Enchantment, and Evocation or Necromancy, depending on my playstyle. Higher than that, I probably would prefer a straight-up generalist (Elven Generalist if possible).

This isn't to say that Focused Specialist is BAD at the high levels, by the way. It's not - it's still very, very good. If all I want is BFC, a Focused Conjurer can toss out solid fogs and cloudkills until the cows come home. If I want to buff my party, well dang, hard to beat a Focused Transmuter. But if I want to play the invincible wizard that has the answer to everything, I'm probably not going to specialize at all.

[Story]

We are both 5th level wizards. I am a focused transmuter banning evocation, Enchantment and necromancy. You are a generalist. we both have the same INT (high enough for a bonus spell.)

My spells are Fly, Haste, Slow and Stinking Cloud. 2 generally awesome buffs, a fort save or suck, and a will save or suck.
You get 2 level 3 spells. You are more versatile than me how? Yes, you may have different spells in your book, but I can cast twice as many top level spells, so I will have more relevant options in almost any fight.

Except that I'm an Elven Domain Generalist so I get the same number of 3rd level spellslots, and I learn all those spells for free.

Anyway, specializing is good for qualifying for Prcs because Master Specialist lets you reduce the feat tax of Io7FV and Archmage among others.

[Elderand]

One specific race out of hundreds, using one specific racial variant of a class ending up with roughly 1/9th of the power of a specialist isn't really a good argument for generalist.

I do like that option, but if you don't want to play an elf you're going to be less effective than a specialist. And even the elf only get 1 bonus slot of his highest spell level 1/9th of what a specialist does.

To me specialising as a wizard is a no brainer (unless you're an elf, and even then) as long as you pick the proper school for it.

Focused specialist on the other hand require a bit more consideration.

[Larkas]

Please note that the Domain Wizard ACF is only available to Generalist Wizards. Regardless, I think that Focused Specialists are almost always better than any kind of Generalist.

[Bakkan]

I think that if you're only going to be using your spells in dungeon crawls or other combat situations, specializing is a no-brainer. In fact, in that scenario I would even likely pick Sorcerer over Wizard. The best reason to play a Wizard is the incredible access to spells you have outside of combat. Yes, it's true that on any given day the generalist can cast fewer spells than the specialist, and the specialist could probably even prepare most of what the generalist did. However, when you've got a week-long information-gathering mission, or a few weeks of downtime to craft spells, or two months to prepare for an attack from the outer planes, having unlimited access to Wizard spells is gold.

[Gnaeus]

I think that if you're only going to be using your spells in dungeon crawls or other combat situations, specializing is a no-brainer. In fact, in that scenario I would even likely pick Sorcerer over Wizard. The best reason to play a Wizard is the incredible access to spells you have outside of combat. Yes, it's true that on any given day the generalist can cast fewer spells than the specialist, and the specialist could probably even prepare most of what the generalist did. However, when you've got a week-long information-gathering mission, or a few weeks of downtime to craft spells, or two months to prepare for an attack from the outer planes, having unlimited access to Wizard spells is gold.

Information Gathering? Did you drop divination? Otherwise, not usually an issue.

A few weeks of downtime for crafting. I find that I can always craft as many useful items as I have time and money for. 2 extra spell schools does not really impact this much at all. Most of the heavy lifting for crafting comes from Conjuration/Transmutation/Ilusion or spells the cleric gets anyway.

2 Months to prepare for an attack:

That is the best argument in favor of being a generalist. Even there, however, it is problematic.
The schools barred are generally 2-3 of: Evocation, Necromancy, Enchantment (I would only seriously consider dropping Illusion or Abjuration if I had another party member who can take up the slack.)

Evocation you lose contingency. Thats a shame (unless you get craft contingent spell, which if allowed you may have wanted to do anyway.) therwise, no real loss.

Necromancy you lose your ability to create an undead army. If this is otherwise allowed by your alignment/your party's alignment/political considerations AND if there isn't someone else who can do it for you that is a loss. Best evaluated on a case by case basis, but in most games I have seen, not a real loss.

Enchantment, like necromancy, can be useful for building a slave army. Like necromancy, if allowed by political considerations, and by relevant alignments, and if you don't have someone else who can do it better (like a bard, beguiler, or anyone with high diplomacy), and if you aren't worried about a dispel magic or protection from good turning your minion into another enemy it may be useful, but generally not a real loss.

On the other hand, being a specialist means more Fabricated weapons, more Walls of Stone/Iron. More planar bound minions or summoned monsters casting more spell likes for you or just using their communes to get better info. More teleports to bring in needed supplies or ferry out civilians. And thats just core. The more spells that are in play, the less you feel the loss of any school.

None of the circumstances that you describe in any way convince me that a generalist is stronger than a specialist Conjurer or Transmuter. And again, there is a good chance that a teammate may fill the gaps, and again, Pathfinder if available (by allowing you to craft without knowing the spell, and by allowing you to cast spells from opposition schools at a penalty) negates even the small drawbacks mentioned.

[Bakkan]

The difference between a generalist and a specialist is very much like the difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer. The generalist (obviously) has no more powerful options than a specialist can have, but he has access to more of them.

As far as the preparign for an attack:

Evocation also has Wall of Force and Wind Wall, which are fantastic defenses.

Necromancy has amazing debuffs even if you aren't building an undead army (and like you say, if the setting/your alignment allows it, why wouldn't you in this situation)

Enchantment is excellent for creating moles inside the enemy ranks or even just making your own allies more powerful.

Yes, a specialist could do any one of these things. The generalist can do all of them.

For item creation, you're right that (as in everything else) conjuration and transmutation do most of the heavy lifting. Even if your chosen 6 schools give you 85% of the possible items, there's still that extra 15% that you may want to have access to sometime in the future. Obviously, if your campaign has a true Magic Mart, you can make this up by just buying those items, but I really don't like to rely on that.

[Fouredged Sword]

Note, the elven generalist ACF is a notable exception that is worth considering if you wish to avoid baning a school. Grey (+2 in and dex, -2 str and con) elves make good wizards, just invest in a 14 con despite the penalty.

The most important spell slot granted by your focus is the one on your highest spell level castable. Elven generalist gives you that slot without requiring a banned school.

[Gnaeus]

As far as the preparign for an attack:

Evocation also has Wall of Force and Wind Wall, which are fantastic defenses.

Necromancy has amazing debuffs even if you aren't building an undead army (and like you say, if the setting/your alignment allows it, why wouldn't you in this situation)


Those are short term effects that you will be casting on the day of battle, not while preparing for it. The Specialist is going to be stronger on the day of battle just by having his extra slots of higher level spells.

[Bakkan]

Or, better yet, prepare scrolls or at-will (or uses/day) items of those spells. You can't do that if you've banned the schools.

[Gnaeus]

If you are casting debuffs off scrolls or wands as a high level wizard, you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. I will take my extra high CL, high save DC spells over your low DC, low CL scrolls any day.

[killem2]

Depends on the books available to you :). If you have everything open, there are many great variants and things geared to specialists.

Did you have one in mind?

[Piggy Knowles]

Another way I like to look at things is this...

LOW OP/NEWER PLAYERS: Generalists are often better for newer players. Too easy to make irrevocable choices that will hurt you later in the game, too easy to fill your spell list with a lot of spells that do the same thing, etc. Probably less savvy about the ways of getting around the potential limitations of specialization. Having access to the whole spell list gives newer players more chances to experiment and find out what works. More experienced players in a low-op game can really go either way, and just be conservative with spell selection each day to keep from overwhelming other players.

MEDIUM OP/MEDIUM TO HIGH EXPERIENCE: Specialize away! Doing things every round is way more fun than not doing things, so you want as many spells as possible. Decent school/spell choice and various feats can easily ensure you never really feel the pinch of specializing, and Focused Specialist is a strong option.

HIGH OP/THEORETICAL OP: Generalists start running away with it again. You're less concerned about total number of spells, because at this point you're probably more or less invincible thanks to staggered 48-hour buffs and ridiculously high caster level. You've already used love's pain and mindrape to take out most of your major enemies, so your primary threats at this point are other mages as paranoid as you. Greater celerity + Uncanny Forethought means that you can cast any spell in your spellbook (which is huge enough to really be called more of a spell library) with an immediate action, so why limit what spells you can cast? Unless you're a shadowcraft mage (or possibly some variant of mailman), a few extra spells per day is not worth the loss of schools. You may still have dropped a school thanks to Incantatrix or Red Mage, but you didn't like doing it.

[Story]

Note, the elven generalist ACF is a notable exception that is worth considering if you wish to avoid baning a school. Grey (+2 in and dex, -2 str and con) elves make good wizards, just invest in a 14 con despite the penalty.


I like Fire Elfs better. The CHA penalty is nicer when starting out aged because you don't want your strength to drop too low.