Abrupt Jaunt for a arcane gish

[ShiningCrusader]

Hello again everyone.
so I'm planning on making a Gestalt (Duskblade/feat wizard) that will then become a Abjurant Champion. this morning i was noseing around for some good Wizard variants when i saw the Specialist wizard variant in the PH2. the conjurer one is Awsome. as an immediate action i can teleport up to 10 ft once per day per int modifier. which i have an 18 Int. (woot!) but then comes the hard part. which 2 schools to ban? i need Abjuration spells for the Abjurant Champion and i need to keep the conjure spells. so which spell school will i miss less as a arcane Gish character? i believe this ability is well worth losing a familiar and 2 schools of magic.

[Mr Adventurer]

Enchantment and Necromancy.

[Flickerdart]

Abrupt Jaunt is pretty amazing, yes - but it's a very powerful ability, so make sure it's appropriate for your table. There are actually similar items (drow shadow cloak) and sort-of-spells (flicker) that give similar abilities, in case you want more immediate action jaunting goodness.

As for schools to ban, Evocation and Enchantment are the go-tos. As a duskblade you get some blasting anyway, and as a gish you're not going to be doing much enchanting. If you want to keep one or the other (for instance, if contingency is too precious for you) then Necromancy is also pretty safe to ban. Illusion is the last school you should consider banning. Conjuration and Transmutation are the most powerful schools and should never be banned.

[JeenLeen]

Abrupt Jaunt is pretty amazing, yes - but it's a very powerful ability, so make sure it's appropriate for your table. There are actually similar items (drow shadow cloak) and sort-of-spells (flicker) that give similar abilities, in case you want more immediate action jaunting goodness.

As for schools to ban, Evocation and Enchantment are the go-tos. As a duskblade you get some blasting anyway, and as a gish you're not going to be doing much enchanting. If you want to keep one or the other (for instance, if contingency is too precious for you) then Necromancy is also pretty safe to ban. Illusion is the last school you should consider banning. Conjuration and Transmutation are the most powerful schools and should never be banned.

If it is too powerful and your DM wants to forbid it, you could ask to make it a swift action instead of immediate. This makes it a powerful utility spell (move out of a binding or box, or quickly move to attack someone) without letting you move as someone is about to swing at you, thereby making them waste their standard action for the round. At least, that's the compromise I reached with my DM when I wanted this ability but he (rightly, I think) said it was too strong.

EDIT: more to the answer: I agree with dropping Evocation and Enchantment. I could see dropping Necromancy, as I think the Duskblade list gives some of them. If I recall correctly, you can still cast forbidden school spells from your duskblade list, so if it gives you the necromancy you want, you could drop it instead of Enchantment (for mind control) or Evocation (for contingency).

[Grod_The_Giant]

Even if you want to blast, Conjuration can mostly replace Evocation with superior (SR no) options. And as a gish, you're probably not even trying to deal damage with direct spells, so there you go. Enchantment starts strong, but gets progressively weaker as you increase in level and more things become immune to mind-affecting. Illusion has some nice stuff, but exactly how strong it is can be GM dependent. Necromancy... I might actually keep necromancy. Certainly either it or Enchantment, just to make sure you get a nice selection of debuffs to channel. Conjuration and Transmutation have way too many useful spells to ban-- especially given how many buffs fall under Transmutation.

[Troacctid]

What you're mainly getting out of evocation are force spells. There are some pretty fantastic ones, especially at higher levels. Wall of Force, Force Cage, and Resilient Sphere are notable examples, and you can get great utility out of stuff like Floating Disk and Tiny Hut. There's also Contingency, which is quite powerful. And, of course, you get the most efficient area attacks from evocation, which is helpful when you want to actually clean up that group of enemies you Solid Fogged, although at higher levels you can do this with conjuration too.