What is your favourite Arcane schools of magic?

[13ones]

I'm just curious as to what you guys really like in terms of Arcane Schools of magic?

Arcane casters are my favourite characters to play and I'm really fond of most of the Schools. If we're going off of just pure 'favourite' I'd have to say Necromancy, Illusion, and Evocation are my top 3, with Transmutation and Enchantment rounding up the top 5.

Personally I can't stand Conjuration. I find the entire school ungodly boring. It's just like the Arcane Bloodline for sorcerers in pathfinder. The best bloodline, but also the most boring 9/10 times.

So what about you?

Got a favourite? A top 3 or 5? Share!

[Yorrin]

Conjuration is very popular on these boards, and for good reason. It's stupid powerful. Ditto on an optimized illusionist. But as for me personally I've always been a fan of Abjuration and Necromancy. Protective spells, debuffs, and minions ftw.

[13ones]

I won't deny Conjuration is incredibly powerful. If you want to do the thing, Conjuration can do the thing more effectively than most. I just find it so god damned boring.

Cast haste. Cast Fog. Cast sparkles. Cast wall. Cast summon. Repeat.

I just find the flavour of Necromancy, Illusion, and Evocation much more appealing. And a properly speced Evocation Sorcerer/Wizard can, in my opinion, be just as or more effective than a Conjuration wizard.

[Kazudo]

Divination. Only have to give up one school to get it, and helps greatly with Scry-And-Fry tactics.

[Gildedragon]

Illusion followed by its nemesis Divination
Then necromancy provided healing is returned to it.

Illusion is so tricksy and playful. It feels more magic and wondrous

[13ones]

Plus you get the bonus of waving your hands and going "it was all an illusion!" which is why I'm trying to figure out how to make a properly optimized pathfinder illusionist. Illusion is so cool.

[BWR]

Necromancy, hands down. None of the other schools got a cool splatbook dedicated to them in 2e.

[Vedhin]

Evocation! Both because I have a fondness for blasting, and because there are some interesting Evocation spells squirreled away in odd corners.

[Thealtruistorc]

Abjuration is the one school I will never consider selecting as opposed. My usual opposition schools are enchantment and either illusion or necromancy.

[Alex12]

Necromancy, then Transmutation.

In a pinch, and with the right prep and spell selection, Necromancy can fill in for or obsolete almost everything else. Telepathic protection? I'm undead now, so immune. Mind Control? Pop a necrotic cyst in that sucker and he's yours to command. Teleportation? Door of Decay (okay, so it's not actually Necromancy, but since it's specifically called out as something DNs can Advanced Learn, I think it counts). Trapfinding? GO, MY UNDEAD MINIONS!

[13ones]

I remember one of my one off games as a necromancer wizard one year. I wanted to have Conjuration as an opposed school. One of the senior players in the group nearly lost his mind. His eye was twitching when I was debating it. Ended up settling with Enchantment and Abjuration banned.

[Amphetryon]

Necromancy, then Transmutation.

In a pinch, and with the right prep and spell selection, Necromancy can fill in for or obsolete almost everything else. Telepathic protection? I'm undead now, so immune. Mind Control? Pop a necrotic cyst in that sucker and he's yours to command. Teleportation? Door of Decay (okay, so it's not actually Necromancy, but since it's specifically called out as something DNs can Advanced Learn, I think it counts). Trapfinding? GO, MY UNDEAD MINIONS!

This. I would happily make a Wizard who banned all other Schools, if possible within the DM's rules, with no regrets.

[DruidAlanon]

Necromancy. Period. All these "dark arts" spells are too flavorful (and powerful as well) to be ignored. I really do like anti-hero arcane casters. Illusion is always a good.

When I was younger I used to say evocation. Pure pyromaniac power.

[Endarire]

I like Conjuration for the teleports, planar travel, summons, permanent minions, and CC.
I like Enchantment for the, "Be mine!"
I like Evocation for the elemental smackdown of various flavors, and the wall of force (or forcecage) cage matches.
I like Necromancy for the enervation non-[Death] death ray and the ability to turn my GM's favorite enemies into my Pokemon.
I like Transmutation for its fortress-building capabilities Minecraft mini-game mode, flying squirrel cannonization (turning enemies into flying squirrels via baleful polymorph), turning X into Y, and being able to say, "Haste makes waste of mine enemies!"

I kinda like Illusion for mirror image (and greater miror image) and displacement, buffs a typical Wizard would be screwed without. I'm torn regarding the other image spells which comprise the heart of Illusion, for I've not played with a GM who cared that much to let me use them to full effect, or I've just not cared to try when I have so many other effects that work much better by the books.

I generally dislike Abjuration because it tends to be boring but practical or simply inefficient/ineffective. Protection from alignment only matters if you're certain enough you'll face that alignment in opposition. Mind blank is nifty, but very binary, and pretty demanding of a level 8 spell slot or item to reproduce the effect.
I generally dislike Divination because the GM expects to narrate the story, not feed us protips via spells. It too is a school that demands the GM play along, and is of varying usefulness depending on what you as a player know.

I cannot fairly comment on the Universal school (if it can be called a school) because of too little experience and too few spells in this school. I do like prestidigitation.

[Hamste]

Necromancy (preferably with healing in it...still no idea how conjuration stole the healing spells) and illusion are my two favourites.

[shadowseve]

I hate to say it but evocation. I love blowing **** up. Can't help it. :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

[Jeff the Green]

I like Divination because I like knowing things. Particularly in more open-ended games, and especially in sandboxes I work very hard to ensure I can make Knowledge checks in the mid 30s, and Divination has the best skill enhancers. I also like scrying, because it's always good to know what your enemies are up to.

I like Illusion because it's so open-ended. Particularly at lowish levels where trueseeing isn't in play, it's very useful.

I like Necromancy because I like minionmancy and debuffing.

I like Conjuration (teleportation) and (creation) for the fun BFC and panic buttons they give. I don't like Conjuration (summoning) or (calling) because if I wanted to play a big dumb fighter I'd actually play one.

I dislike Trabsmutation because so much of it is buffing, and while I'm fine with it as a sideline, it's boring as a primary schtick. Also see above comments about being a big dumb fighter.

I dislike Abjuration barring a few spells because, like Transmutation it's buffing and buffing is boring.

I have a love-hate relationship with Evocation. On the one hand, it has some awesome spells like contingency and blade of pain and fear, but on the other it has a whole lot of subpar, repetitive damage dealing spells.

Universal, between the familiar spells, prestidigitation, and wish, is just generally awesomesauce.

[3drinks]

I like Divinations the most. If my DM can't handle my solving a quest with a single 3rd level Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, that is his problem for designing a flimsy quest. I also like Enchantment because Suggestion and Hold Person are pretty great (and it's easy enough to buff your spell DCs). Having Charm Person at lv1 is just as much a godsend as the feeling when you get Scorching Ray/Fireball for the first time.

It occurs to me I would likely really enjoy playing a Bard..............

[Ravens_cry]

In the right campaign, I do love me some Enchantment, thanks to its wonderful uses in social engineering. After all, what better way to defeat an enemy than to make them your friend?

[gr8artist]

I love evocation, though I'll admit it's far from ideal. But my group likes combat, so evocation works quite well in our campaigns.
Transmutation reigns in at a close second, for some of the best buffs, debuffs, and tactical spells.
Nothing about necromancy seems interesting to me, aside from minion creation, and I find playing minion masters/summoners to be too taxing for most games.
Abjuration is nice, but I'm not going to cry if it goes away. Divination has rarely seen use in our campaigns, despite it's general utility. Illusion isn't usually a big deal for me, though I do occasionally like running a mind-mage specializing in illusion and enchantment when I just want to pester, troll, and laugh a little too loudly at the table.
So, my top 2 would be Evocation and Transmutation.
My bottom few would be Necromancy, Divination, and Abjuration.

[Techwarrior]

Personally, I'm not allowed to play Wizards usually, because my favorite spells from each school are in the 'upset the DM' field of spells. Somehow, Archivists are alright instead.

I prefer Abjuration, Divination, and Illusion usually, in about that order of preference.

I like using Dispel Magic and it's brethren spells. Robbing enemy casters of the buff-stacks so typical of caster BBEG's is really satisfying, and I feel like as the arcanist, that's my job. Being able to ward your allies against things is something I enjoy.

Divination is really good for letting me know what Abjurations to prep, so that I have the right ones.

Illusion gets me whatever Evocation effect I can't get with an Abjuration through Shadow Conjuration, whether or not it works quite as well. It also allows for almost Sorcerer like Evocation casting, and it puts my overactive imagination to good use coming up with creative solutions for things I can't just make the party immune to.

[MrNobody]

My top 3 is Illusion, Trasmutation (cannot say which is higher) and divination.

Illusion and trasmutation are great, expecially used in combo: since the first gives disbelief only on interaction, it's fun modifing the battleground (and not only) mixing real change with fake ones, it makes a fun ground control!
More, i do love the roguish class/wizard multiclass, and trasmutation and illusion provide GREAT aid to this kind of character.

Divination is also fun, but can easily lead to metagame and to other abuses.

[prufock]

Transmutation is probably my favourite school. It is just chock full of good spells, and I like the concept of the guy who reshapes matter to his will. The buffs are awesome and the shapeshifting abilities like alter self, polymorph, and shapechange are just fantastically near-broken.

[atomicwaffle]

Transmutation is my bro. I usually ban enchantment and illusion. I *would* ban necromancy, but it has one spell, probably my favorite spell in the game: ray of enfeeblement. I don't even really care about other necromancer spells. That one is wicked.

[squiggit]

Conjuration is pretty awesome, I've always been a fan of summoning things and throwing out my own little armies of weird minions.

I do sort of hate Conjuration though, because I'm not really a fan of they way Conjuration gets a lot of the best spells that don't have to do with summoning. I don't see why healing is conjuration, or why teleportation is conjuration, or why the best blasting spells are conjuration... that stuff really irks me. Just feels like "Hey let's throw all the best spells into conjuration because summoning obviously isn't good enough".

Outside that... Illusion is pretty awesome in how flexible and fun it is.