Spell School Oppositions

[dascarletm]

Opposed Spell schools. I once saw a thing where 2nd Edition had school oppositions. I was wondering how you all would set up 3.5 spell schools. I'm trying to make a group of specialists, a sub-group to a group of casters that specializes in a school.

For Abjuration i was thinking of banning: Evocation and Transmutation (necromancy or enchantment if focused)

For the rest I might need help.

This isn't a optimization thing, just flavor. Their all NPCs so if a certain school banning leaves them weak don't worry about it.


Obviously you can't ban divination, but I may waive that for the NPCs only. Thoughts?

[GreenETC]

Complete Mage p. 8-12 have a listing of the mindset on each school of magic, and how they regard each other, as well as general prohibited schools, so that's probably your best starting place.

[molten_dragon]

I'm pretty sure 3.0 had something like this.

Yep, found it. It's not quite as restrictive as what you were talking about, but it's a start.


The eight schools of arcane magic are Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation. Spells that do not fall into any of these schools are called universal spells.

Abjuration: To become an abjurer, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from the following choices: (1) either Conjuration, Enchantment,
Evocation, Illusion, or Transmutation; or (2) both Divination and Necromancy.

Conjuration: To become a conjurer, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from one of the following choices: (1) Evocation; (2) any two of the following three schools: Abjuration, Enchantment, and Illusion; (3)
Transmutation, or (4) any three schools.

Divination: To become a diviner, a wizard must select any other single school as a prohibited school.

Enchantment: To become an enchanter, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from the following choices: (1) either Abjuration, Conjuration, Evocation, Illusion, or Transmutation; or (2) both Divination and Necromancy.

Evocation: To become an evoker, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from one of the following choices: (1) Conjuration; (2) any two of the following three schools: Abjuration, Enchantment, and Illusion; (3) Transmutation; or (4) any three schools.

Illusion: To become an illusionist, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from the following choices: (1) either Abjuration, Conjuration, Enchantment, Evocation, or Transmutation; or (2) both Divination and Necromancy.

Necromancy: To become a necromancer, a wizard must select any other single school as a prohibited school.

Transmutation: To become a transmuter, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from one of the following choices: (1) Conjuration; (2) Evocation; (2) any two of the following three schools: Abjuration, Enchantment, and Illusion; or (4) any three schools.

[Za'hynie Laya]

From 2e AD&D (IIRC):
School - Opposition School
--------------------------------------
Abjuration - Transmutation
Transmutation - Abjuration & Necromancy
Conjuration - Divination
Divination - Conjuration
Enchantment - Evocation
Evocation - Enchantment & Conjuration
Illusion - Necromancy
Necromancy - Illusion

---------------------------------------
I remember these from the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale PC games.

[Mnemnosyne]

If you're trying to use this to improve balance, one of the obvious things to do is have transmutation always include conjuration in its banned schools, and vice versa. Also, any school that bans evocation or conjuration should probably also ban illusion, to prevent getting around that restriction with shadow evocation and shadow conjuration.

Therefore, and these would be my own opinions drawn off the top of my head, without lots of research invested...

Transmutation bans conjuration and illusion.
Conjuration bans transmutation and enchantment.

Necromancy, I would say, bans evocation and illusion.
Illusion bans necromancy and transmutation.

Throw evocation a bone; they only ban one school. Maybe abjuration.

Divination, assuming most splatbooks are in play, is strong enough to ban both evocation and illusion.

Not sure on the rest.

[Story]

Throw evocation a bone; they only ban one school. Maybe abjuration.


Why? Evocation may not be that great, but it's still much better than poor Enchantment.

Likewise, I'm not sure having Conjuration ban Enchantment is the best for 'balance'. Might as well make it ban something useful like Divination (assuming you're getting rid of the Divination restrictions anyway).