One school of magic

[Xerxus]

What if you could choose only one school of magic (+ universal). Which one would you choose? Being a wizard of course. But more importantly, could this be balanced (in both 3.5 and PF)?

[hamishspence]

Psions basically do this. And it doesn't significantly weaken them.

[Yora]

Except that 80% of all psion powers are universal.

The best school is obviously transmutation.

[hamishspence]

Except that 80% of all psion powers are universal.

True- maybe I'm thinking of 3.0 psions?

[Yora]

That might be.

We pretend that this one never happened.

[hamishspence]

It did seem like an attempt to copy 2nd ed psionics straight into 3rd ed- now that I've read the 2nd ed Psionics book.

[Bakkan]

Transmutation is nice, but I would choose Conjuration. Teleports are no small part of that decision. The other reasons include Summoning, Calling, and Orbs.

[Karnith]

Transmutation is nice, but I would choose Conjuration. Teleports are no small part of that decision. The other reasons include Summoning, Calling, and Orbs.
I'll second conjuration, and also add Walls of X and instantaneous conjuration spells in general as more reasons for it.

[Yora]

Perhaps, but what applications do those have outside of combat? Summons last only for about a minute, which is too short to use them as servants, and callings are expensive. Unless you want to shot something, that leaves you with the one spell teleport. Which is not that important and 5th level.

With transmutations, illusions, and even devinations, you can have lots of fun all day at all spell levels.

[limejuicepowder]

No, it wouldn't be balanced because the schools are very poorly split up. The most egregious example is that one of the best direct damage spells is conjuration, but that's far from the only problem.

All of the schools except conjuration and transmutation are fairly balanced, with a clear theme and not much besides. This is good design (divination is more of a support school, but I digress). But those last two have an insane variety of spells, not just in type but also in application. The summoning and shapeshifting-type spells are nearly a blank check for power.

For this to work, conjuration and transmutation would have to be picked over from level 1 up, moving some spells to other schools and drastically changing others.

[Bakkan]

Perhaps, but what applications do those have outside of combat? Summons last only for about a minute, which is too short to use them as servants, and callings are expensive. Unless you want to shot something, that leaves you with the one spell teleport. Which is not that important and 5th level.

With transmutations, illusions, and even devinations, you can have lots of fun all day at all spell levels.

From Core:
Mount, unseen servant, phantom steed give you servants for hours
Minor/major creation, wall of stone, wall of iron for long-term useful items or just infinite wealth
Obscuring mist, fog cloud, glitterdust, web, sleet storm, stinking cloud, solid fog, and maze all help you to avoid or escape combat without harming any pursuers
secure shelter, secret chest, and magnificent mansion give you or your posessions protection from enemies or the elements.

[Tokuhara]

Mine is an odd choice, and I know someone is going to say it isn't a "traditional" school of magic, but given one school, I'd pick Wood (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/arcane-schools/paizo---arcane-schools/elemental-arcane-schools/wood) from Pathfinder. I find the Elemental schools are more logical than the normal schools who's spells apparently were put together by the Invisible Pidgeon-Holeing Committee.

[nedz]

Illusions: Weaponise your imagination.

Other schools may be more powerful, but they are less fun.

With the Shadow sub-school, you can do most Conjurations; Evocations also.

[Archmage1]

Enchantment. Someone has to make the BSF happy...

[molten_dragon]

What if you could choose only one school of magic (+ universal). Which one would you choose? Being a wizard of course. But more importantly, could this be balanced (in both 3.5 and PF)?

I'd pick conjuration, since it can get you spells from other schools (and other lists) through summoning/binding. Transmutation would be a close second.

I would say it would be balanced with some schools, but not others. For example a wizard limited to only conjuration or transmutation would be fine. Someone who could only use divination would be pretty screwed.

[Ravens_cry]

If I was more immoral and this was real life, I'd choose Enchantment, as no one has any special resistances to it and it can be hellishly useful when it works.

[HalfQuart]

Illusions: Weaponise your imagination.

Other schools may be more powerful, but they are less fun.

With the Shadow sub-school, you can do most Conjurations; Evocations also.
I second this, especially with Shadowcraft Mage (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5638.0).

[Gotterdammerung]

An Abjurer can gain functional immunity to danger without needing to leave the school. She would however be severely nerfed on damage. "Where are you going?! Stop walking away! I am not done being immortal yet. How dare you turn your back on me!!! *Throws a stick*

An illusionist would go "Cool a new rule! I can't wait to break it!" Then proceed to use shadow stuff tricks to rob other schools.

An enchanter would kind of rejoice, because mind blank would be relegated to an abjurer/ protection domain only spell, giving him back a huge chunk of formerly untouchable targets. But ultimately would still end the day crying at the army of things he can't affect.

An evoker would be semi balanced. Mailman builds would still exist and still be impressive from a purely damage standpoint, but they would be slightly weakened on the whole.

A conjurer would still maintain a smug air of superiority and look down upon other schools of magic. And while it would be a largely strong school, mostly from having a wide array of potential influence (reliable dmg dealer, battlefield control, teleportation, broken tricks), it would not be the strongest school in this new system.

A diviner would be weakened severely as a PC but at the same time the instant rarity of divination magic would make the spells intrinsically more valuable. All other wizards would feel the loss of divination magic as it is their go to "nuh-uh cuz I saw it coming days ago cuz im prawerfall weezart" cheat whenever cornered.

Transmutation would still function but unlike some schools the nerf would not help them in the slightest. The loss of other powerful buff and util spells would be felt hard.

Necromancy would be largely unchanged. Necro has always been a util dip school or a full focus school. The loss of necro spells for the former dippers would be felt but not earth-shattering. And the wizards who formerly focused pure necro would still be able to accomplish their sinister plans with the 1 school alone. It would likely hold its position as the #1 minionmancy school. And still be tied with transmutation for the best save or die spells. While maintaining a respectable position on the utility front.

[Malachei]

Depends on level range, as well as availability of non-core material.

In core, I'd take Transmutation, especially in high-level play or across the range, i.e. if play is going to cover 1-20.
If the campaign, as is often the case, stops after low or mid-level play, I'd prefer Conjuration instead.

Outside of core, Conjuration benefits from a huge amount of additional spells and while I still see a slight edge for Transmutation in the high spell level, Conjuration would be preferable overall. Outside core, Abjuration can be a good alternative, as well (Reaving Dispel, Maw of Chaos, etc.)

I'd avoid Enchantment and Illusion. While Enchantment is strong early in the game, and Illusion is wonderful all the time for creativity and versatility, there's just too many enemies with mind blank and true seeing (or immunities) at high levels.

[Amidus Drexel]

Honestly, I'd have a hard time choosing. The better schools don't change much besides losing access to other good spells. Conjuration and Transmutation are still extraordinarily powerful, and Necromancy still has all of its no-save debuffs and save-or-dies. Divination is still bad to specialize in, but not much better or worse overall; at the very least, it's exclusive. Abjuration is a slightly better choice to specialize in, but you'll have nearly no offense to speak of. Enchantment is harder to block, but still pretty weak. Evocation is a slightly better choice with the sheer amount of damaging spells and a handful of exceptionally good buffs. Illusion, though, besides being a reasonably good school to begin with, has access to conjuration and evocation, as well as a handful of buffs and its (admittedly weak) debuffs and offense spells.

I'd probably take illusion or necromancy.

[Flickerdart]

Illusion, of course. "Is that a shadow conjuration in your pocket, or are you 110% happy to see me?"


True- maybe I'm thinking of 3.0 psions?
3.0 psionics had each school powered by its own ability score, so a psion would get better results if specializing in one, but could spread out if he wanted. IIRC, your actual specialization only determined a couple of things like class skills.