Arcane Trickster and Spell Retrains

[Jrandom]

When a character becomes the Arcane Trickster archtype, they learn three spells. Two of those spells must be from the Enchantment or Illusion schools, while the third may be from any school. When retraining that third spell, what schools may one choose from? The rules on page 98 of the PHB states:

"Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the wizard spells you know with another spell of your choice from the wizard spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be an enchantment or illusion spell, unless you're replacing the spell you gained at 8th, 14th, at 20th leveI."

So technically speaking, if one wants to retrain that known spell, it loses it's flexibility and becomes an Enchantment/ Illusion school only known spell.

As an example, an Arcane Trickster learns "Shield" at 3rd level. Once the Trickster gains 5th level and "Uncanny Dodge," he wants to retrain "Shield" into "Longstrider," but is unable to because "Longstrider" isn't an Enchantment/ Illusion spell.

[Desamir]

RAW, you are correct. The school-agnostic spell you get at 3rd level would retrain into an illusion or enchantment spell.

However, it looks more like an oversight than a deliberate design decision, so I'd suggest talking to your DM about overruling it.

[MaxWilson]

When a character becomes the Arcane Trickster archtype, they learn three spells. Two of those spells must be from the Enchantment or Illusion schools, while the third may be from any school. When retraining that third spell, what schools may one choose from? The rules on page 98 of the PHB states:

"Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the wizard spells you know with another spell of your choice from the wizard spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be an enchantment or illusion spell, unless you're replacing the spell you gained at 8th, 14th, at 20th leveI."

So technically speaking, if one wants to retrain that known spell, it loses it's flexibility and becomes an Enchantment/ Illusion school only known spell.

As an example, an Arcane Trickster learns "Shield" at 3rd level. Once the Trickster gains 5th level and "Uncanny Dodge," he wants to retrain "Shield" into "Longstrider," but is unable to because "Longstrider" isn't an Enchantment/ Illusion spell.

Yes. Eldritch Knights are the same way. Choose that first free pick carefully.

[Nibenay]

It seems rather clear to me that the whole idea is to have a set and limited number of non-illusion/enchantment spells. I've already changed my "free choice" spell and didn't even bother to pester the DM about it.

I can only agree with above poster saying this is an oversight.

[Arkhios]

EK and AT already have very restricted list of spells known as is, that I find it a bit harsh to prevent them from replacing that third non-Enchantment/Illusion spell for another.
In my table I would allow it.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Dissenting opinion: it might be a deliberate choice to ensure that one of the school-agnostic spells is a 1st-level spell - you can retrain the other three into 4th-level spells if you wanted, but this has to stay at 1st - or else it reverts to enchantment/illusion.