Barred Wizard School Feats

[Lysander]

Some wizards, through intense training, have been able to gain some ability to cast in their barred school, but with greater difficulty:

Barred Spell Preparation

You may prepare and cast a single spell from your barred school each day, but if you use this ability you receive no bonus spells that day from specializing. Your caster level for the spell is also considered to be -3, minimum 1, from your normal number. You also automatically fail any concentration check that occurs when casting the spell.

Greater Barred Spell Preparation

You may prepare and cast as many spells from your barred schools each day as you like, but any day you do so you receive no bonus spells for specializing AND no bonus spells from your intelligence modifier. Your caster level for spells of this school is considered to be -3, minimum 1, from your number number. You also automatically fail any concentration checks that occur when casting spells from your barred school.

[Miles Invictus]

On the surface, it doesn't sound too bad, though I see some loopholes that may or may not be problematic.

I wouldn't take this for the extra spells. Er, let me rephrase. I wouldn't take it so I could cast banned spells, I'd take it because it lets me learn banned spells -- thus letting me qualify for school-specific prestige classes and feats. For example, I could ban Divination, take this feat, and still qualify for Loremaster.

Out of Core, I've only got the PHB2 and the ToB, so I don't know if that's a significant problem, but I thought I'd mention it.

Oh, and the basic Barred Spell Preparation feat only has a drawback if you're using the default specialist. If you're using a variant that gives up bonus slots (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm), you lose nothing. It wouldn't hurt to mention something about losing substitute features.

[Khoran]

... I could ban Divination, take this feat, and still qualify for Loremaster.

No you couldn't. You're not allowed to ban Divination :P.

Otherwise Miles does raise the good point about loopholes.

Also, I feel this goes against the whole idea of banning one of your schools. By doing this, you're basically saying you only give up that school some of the time. And it just don't feel right to me.

[Hazkali]

I personally wouldn't use them as they undermine the whole idea of "school specialisation" vs. "no school specialisation". When you specialise, you can't cast spells from your banned school as a wizard. Ever. You have dedicated your life to a different school of magic.

[Macrovore]

...so if you take these feats, what's the point of ever having specialized in the first place? it seems really stupid. If you want to change your mind about which schools you picked, just retrain them (PHB2).

either way, there are already feats that do the same thing, but much, much better. They're from Lost Empires of Faerun, but since they're not especially flavorful, you can probably use them in other settings.
here they are:
Spell Reprieve: http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Spell_Reprieve,all
Item Reprieve: http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Item_Reprieve,all
Arcane Transfiguration:
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Arcane_Transfiguration,all

[spotmarkedx]

This would also open up magic items for the feat holder. Obviously the caster has some ability, and all spells, even from the barred schools are now on their spell list, so what is keeping them from taking this feat and using wands/scrolls of the spells they want to cast, while keeping all their specialist benefits?

[Matthew]

I personally wouldn't use them as they undermine the whole idea of "school specialisation" vs. "no school specialisation". When you specialise, you can't cast spells from your banned school as a wizard. Ever. You have dedicated your life to a different school of magic.
Although I'm not a big fan of the way Specialisation works, from a Rules Balance perspective, I have to agree with this.