What schools to ban as a focused evocation specialist wizard?

[Voidstar01]

I'm aware wizards make better field control than blasters but we already have a disgustingly optimized control wizard and I just want to kill things with fireball, I have my build figured out from a number of other threads here. I'm thinking ban necromancy, conjuration, and transmutation to keep the defensive goodies from abjuration and illusion, but transmutation could be switched with enchanment, im not really sure what each has to offer.

[MisterKaws]

Take Focused Specialist and ban Transmutation, Conjuration and Abjuration.

[Efrate]

Necro offers debuffs which may help your blasting. Enchantment is definitely bannable as a magic boomstick. Conjuration enchantment And illusion would be my pick. Transmutation gives you disentigrate and fly. Conjuration and evocation have a lot of overlap in Damage spells, but the orb line is excellent. Enchant and illusion because mr. fireball isn't mr. subtle.

[Voidstar01]

Take Focused Specialist and ban Transmutation, Conjuration and Abjuration.

blue text is sarcasm right? or are you being serious and just like blue? I'm relatively new here.

[Voidstar01]

Necro offers debuffs which may help your blasting. Enchantment is definitely bannable as a magic boomstick. Conjuration enchantment And illusion would be my pick. Transmutation gives you disentigrate and fly. Conjuration and evocation have a lot of overlap in Damage spells, but the orb line is excellent. Enchant and illusion because mr. fireball isn't mr. subtle.

Might be my 5e experience creeping in, but isn't mirror image like one of the best ways to not die? Also miss chance is good and usually illusion isn't it?

[BaronDoctor]

If you're already thinking boomstick and sacrificing versatility for more spells per day, why not consider a Mailman Sorcerer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?447435-quot-The-Mailman-A-Direct-Damage-Sorcerer-quot-(from-Wizards-forums)), maybe with the (minor) White Dragonspawn (LA+1 template that can be bought off pretty quickly and provides some survivability and +1 effective Sorcerer level) shenanigans to put your advancement on par with Wizard?

Dragonwrought Kobold with Loredrake would be an alternative and give you +2 effective Sorcerer levels without any LA, if the GM's okay with it.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Enchantment for sure, probably also Necromancy, and Abjuration is expendable if you have any other spellcaster in the party who will get 9ths.

[Flame of Anor]

I rolled up my first serious wizard character as an evoker, more because I didn't know any better than because I made an informed choice not to be a battlefield-controller. Later I realized that that wasn't maybe the best choice, but I haven't had much reason to regret making my prohibited schools Enchantment and Necromancy. Illusion, Abjuration, and Conjuration are great for staying alive, and Transmutation is just strong in general.

[Divine Susuryu]

Enchantment is usually the first to go because of immunities to mind-affecting rendering a lot of its spells useless. After that, necromancy you miss out on Enervation and Energy Drain, which are both good for anyone, but it's not crippling. Abjuration is actually probably your best bet for a third - despite the theme, a lot of the better defensive spells are illusion (Mirror Image, Displacement) or conjuration (Mage Armor). Transmutation and conjuration are widely - but not universally - seen as the best schools overall. Transmutation would be a worse ban than conjuration, in my opinion.

[Voidstar01]

conjuration (Mage Armor).

I have never successfully remembered that mage armor is conjuration not abjuration.

[Divine Susuryu]

I have never successfully remembered that mage armor is conjuration not abjuration.

To be fair, it really does seem like it should be abjuration from the name. It does make sense where it is I suppose... but it really feels like a post-hoc decision rather than a natural fit.

[Sepultra]

I'd recommend you ban Enchantment and Illusion, honestly. Yeah you don't get many will saves but you want to be a blaster so who cares? Use necro to debuff. Some fell drain abuse always works with blasting too and stuff like enervation works well with the same metamagic that evocation does.

Abjuration would be the other one if you wanted will saves. That or if you're taking focused specialist.

Edit: forgot to add to this

Might be my 5e experience creeping in, but isn't mirror image like one of the best ways to not die? Also miss chance is good and usually illusion isn't it?
The best way not to die is not to be in range of the opposition to begin with. Mirror image does nothing against opponents with any AoE/Multiple attacks per round. Illusion is considered good because of its versatility and access to Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation, but you're an evoker so you're not using either of those because you are not banning conjuration. Just don't do it.
Blur can be bought on an item relatively cheap if you really want miss chance.

[Voidstar01]

Additional factor: i'm taking silver flame pyromancer levels, this gives me access to paladin spells so that should be considered to I suppose.

[Thurbane]

Enchantment and Necromancy are generally the two most disposable, if you take Evocation off the table.

[Faily]

Another voice for banning Enchantment, Necromancy, and Illusion.

Illusion is hard to give up, because tricks like Colors Spray, Invisibility (and Greater Invisibility), plus Mirror Image are just really nice, but they pale in comparison to the nescessity of Abjuration, and the versatility and power of Conjuration and Transmutation.


You can always carry potions of Invisilibty to make up for the lack there (or UMD a Wand).

[Sepultra]

Another voice for banning Enchantment, Necromancy, and Illusion.

Illusion is hard to give up, because tricks like Colors Spray, Invisibility (and Greater Invisibility), plus Mirror Image are just really nice, but they pale in comparison to the nescessity of Abjuration, and the versatility and power of Conjuration and Transmutation.


You can always carry potions of Invisilibty to make up for the lack there (or UMD a Wand).

I think people think about this too generally: the biggest issue that evocation has for actually dealing damage is reflex saves next to SR. The best way to reduce saves in general, faik, is negative levels and cloudy conjuration. The former is best suited to necromancy. In general I agree that Necromancy is one of the more disposable schools, but they've got a control specialist who almost certainly will have illusion and he wants to be a blaster, so debuffing is his secondary capability. For SR he wants assay spell resistance, an abjuration spell, so missing out on will saves really isn't that bad. Someone else can do it and he wants to blow **** up.
Illusion is a sore one to miss but, as is pointed out, UMD and wands fix most of that even without the control specialist wiz

Edit: Quoted the wrong person and not sure how to fix this. Sorry, bit drunk.

[Voidstar01]

Enchantment and Necromancy are generally the two most disposable, if you take Evocation off the table.

I'm not really fond of giving up necromancy, since a silverflame pyromancer adds all paladin spells to their spell list, and a lot of good ones there are necromancy.

[Elves]

Eh, you're already not doing what is optimal so just throw away Conjuration for the lols. It frees you of all the most boring overused spells that everyone casts. Like, think of it: you will never have to cast a single Solid Fog. Hallelujah. You will never have to lololol another Orb spell. You're going for the alternate experience here so be real about it. For the other one, yeah, probably Enchantment.

[Thurbane]

I'm not really fond of giving up necromancy, since a silverflame pyromancer adds all paladin spells to their spell list, and a lot of good ones there are necromancy.

Really? I'm not aware of many Paladin necro spells. Maybe the search function at IMarvinTPA's (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndlive/SearchList.php) is letting me down?


Blood of the Martyr
Death Ward
Favor of the Martyr
Mark of Doom
Mark of Justice

[Voidstar01]

Blood of the Martyr
Death Ward
Favor of the Martyr
Mark of Doom
Mark of Justice


Maybe lots is the wrong word, I saw a few of those on a MUST TAKE spell list, and making the party's knight immune to dying from death sounds fun.

[Asmotherion]

blue text is sarcasm right? or are you being serious and just like blue? I'm relatively new here.

Yes we can all see XD

Francly you NEVER ban Conjuration and Transmutation unless you purposely want to criple your Wizard to a lower tier caster. Abjuration is the school of the Dispel Magic line... that alone is more than enough reason to never ban it either (and it also does have some great spells).

Similarly even if you want to focus on blasting you're better off Using Conjuration; Most spells are not subject to Spell Resistance (see vitriolic sphere and orb of Fire/Acid/Force/Etc spells.)

Evocation... wile it does have it's pearls (Contigiency or Thunderlance for example) is a terible school to focus on.

Enchantment (due to all the Spell Resistance and imunity to Mind Affecting) is generally considered the best school to ban together with Evocation (due to Spell resistance+the evasion ability and most evocation allows for a Reflex Save). Necromancy is also not a bad school to ban if only for RP reasons but is generally a better school than the two above. Experiance has also taught me that you either embrace the illusion school or practically never use it so it's not a terrible school to ban either... Plus anything you do with illusions a Gnome can do better so leave it to the pros (unless you ARE a gnome...in that case why are you not an illusionist?). Finnally you're not allowed to ban Divination (not that you'd want to either way) cause WotC gets 10 percent interest any time a wizard purchases the super expensive focus mirror for scrying.

My ban-able schools in that order are Enchantment/illusion/evocation/Necromancy

NEVER ban Conjuration or Transmutation.

Oh and just as a side note: Fireball in 3.5 is a terrible spell.

[Voidstar01]

Yes we can all see XD

Francly you NEVER ban Conjuration and Transmutation unless you purposely want to criple your Wizard to a lower tier caster. Abjuration is the school of the Dispel Magic line... that alone is more than enough reason to never ban it either (and it also does have some great spells).

Similarly even if you want to focus on blasting you're better off Using Conjuration; Most spells are not subject to Spell Resistance (see vitriolic sphere and orb of Fire/Acid/Force/Etc spells.)

Evocation... wile it does have it's pearls (Contigiency or Thunderlance for example) is a terible school to focus on.

Enchantment (due to all the Spell Resistance and imunity to Mind Affecting) is generally considered the best school to ban together with Evocation (due to Spell resistance+the evasion ability and most evocation allows for a Reflex Save). Necromancy is also not a bad school to ban if only for RP reasons but is generally a better school than the two above. Experiance has also taught me that you either embrace the illusion school or practically never use it so it's not a terrible school to ban either... Plus anything you do with illusions a Gnome can do better so leave it to the pros (unless you ARE a gnome...in that case why are you not an illusionist?). Finnally you're not allowed to ban Divination (not that you'd want to either way) cause WotC gets 10 percent interest any time a wizard purchases the super expensive focus mirror for scrying.

My ban-able schools in that order are Enchantment/illusion/evocation/Necromancy

NEVER ban Conjuration or Transmutation.

Oh and just as a side note: Fireball in 3.5 is a terrible spell.

I'm well aware evocation is considered one of the most ban-able schools, I also know fireball is bad, but i'm committed to the bit, I've been preparing for over a week (did you see my thread asking about filling every single spell slot with a variant of fireball?). Dispel magic would be good if this build cared about anything other than making the immediate area a microcosm of the plane of fire, this isn't about being good, if it was i'd build an ubercharger like I first planned, it's about sending a message (the message is fireball)… also someone in the group is already using magic missile as their main spell so my wizard/argent savant/force missile mage/ Abj. champion, master of all things force, ghost-slapper was out. Also just because I'm new the forum and it's color-coded tones of voice doesn't mean you have to be rude about it.

[MisterKaws]

blue text is sarcasm right? or are you being serious and just like blue? I'm relatively new here.

Well, with those three being the three best schools of magic, I'll leave it up to you to decide on whether I was serious or not.

[Asmotherion]

I'm well aware evocation is considered one of the most ban-able schools, I also know fireball is bad, but i'm committed to the bit, I've been preparing for over a week (did you see my thread asking about filling every single spell slot with a variant of fireball?). Dispel magic would be good if this build cared about anything other than making the immediate area a microcosm of the plane of fire, this isn't about being good, if it was i'd build an ubercharger like I first planned, it's about sending a message (the message is fireball)… also someone in the group is already using magic missile as their main spell so my wizard/argent savant/force missile mage/ Abj. champion, master of all things force, ghost-slapper was out. Also just because I'm new the forum and it's color-coded tones of voice doesn't mean you have to be rude about it.

Was not intending to be rude. Was just a joke. Some years ago people could receive one of those without getting offended. i miss those times.

[Voidstar01]

Was not intending to be rude. Was just a joke. Some years ago people could receive one of those without getting offended. i miss those times. My mistake, tone of voice is kinda impossible to pick up through text, the fact the entire post following it just told me that my build was stupid and I should just make a different charcter didn't make any easier. Shoulda used blue ;p.

[Voidstar01]

Well, with those three being the three best schools of magic, I'll leave it up to you to decide on whether I was serious or not. My first actual caster friend, knowledge on the schools of magic is more or less restricted to what shows up in baulder's gate 2. Which isn't even based off a relevant edition. And robes of vecna + timestop + fireball,fireball,fireball worked pretty well in that.

[MisterKaws]

My first actual caster friend, knowledge on the schools of magic is more or less restricted to what shows up in baulder's gate 2. Which isn't even based off a relevant edition. And robes of vecna + timestop + fireball,fireball,fireball worked pretty well in that.

Eh, 'sall good, I tell ya.

On real play, those three are things you don't ever ban, even if you don't plan to use them as your main thing. Being able to summon one in fifty-something different monsters(Conjuration), shape-change into an arbitrarily large number of creatures determined only by how many books you have in hand(Transmutation), and counter any number of magical ails you may find on your way, all that's just too good to pass up, and there's a lot more to those schools than their cookie-cutter signature spells, so you can't really get rid of them.

On the same note, if you care about information gathering at all, Divination is godlike in giving you an ability to tailor your spell-choices to whatever you're killing next.

Additionally, you should look into the Mailman Sorcerer's guide to evocation-focused spell-slinging. It's for sorcerers, but it works almost as well on wizards too.

[tiercel]

NEVER ban Conjuration or Transmutation.

Oh and just as a side note: Fireball in 3.5 is a terrible spell.

Counterpoints: 1) Having a “disgustingly optimized control wizard” already in the party is probably the best possible excuse to ban Conjuration.

I’m gonna agree with Elves here: if you’re never gonna compete with this person’s insane lockdown spells, why bother casting occasional lower-DC versions (or wondering why you aren’t throwing cheesetastic nonmagical no-SR magic instead of classic fireball) instead of doing your own thing? “NEVER ban Conjuration” is primarily for if you are the party’s only mage, and even then really subject to the Barbossa Principle (“...more like guidelines.”)

2) Fireball is not a “terrible” spell.

In my experience, it’s common enough that at least some D&D encounters include some kind of “bunch of minions” portion that being able to sweep the board, or, at least, damage a whole group enough that they turn into easy kills for your DPS buddies, is a useful thing.

Yesssssssss, fire is the most commonly resisted element, but that’s a long way from “everyone resists/is immune,” and that’s what feats like Energy Substitution and Searing Spell are for. And yes, fireballing a single opponent isn’t very good, but that’s not what fireball is for.

[Asmotherion]

Counterpoints: 1) Having a “disgustingly optimized control wizard” already in the party is probably the best possible excuse to ban Conjuration.

I’m gonna agree with Elves here: if you’re never gonna compete with this person’s insane lockdown spells, why bother casting occasional lower-DC versions (or wondering why you aren’t throwing cheesetastic nonmagical no-SR magic instead of classic fireball) instead of doing your own thing? “NEVER ban Conjuration” is primarily for if you are the party’s only mage, and even then really subject to the Barbossa Principle (“...more like guidelines.”)

2) Fireball is not a “terrible” spell.

In my experience, it’s common enough that at least some D&D encounters include some kind of “bunch of minions” portion that being able to sweep the board, or, at least, damage a whole group enough that they turn into easy kills for your DPS buddies, is a useful thing.

Yesssssssss, fire is the most commonly resisted element, but that’s a long way from “everyone resists/is immune,” and that’s what feats like Energy Substitution and Searing Spell are for. And yes, fireballing a single opponent isn’t very good, but that’s not what fireball is for.

Agreed on Searing spell... however when i read fireball nowdays all i can see is A) Spell Resistance: Yes and B) Reflex Save (thus anything with evasion is virtually imune to it).

A Vitriolic Sphere for example (energy substituted to fire to apply Searing Spell) does not allow for SR and can penetrate an AMF. With searing applied the only thing that might resist it is something with Evasion. Combined with something that bestows the Paralysed condition and it's virtually guaranteed to cause some damage effectivelly being a far superior fireball to the actual Fireball.

For a "i can throw fireballs all day" feel may i suggest the reserve feat "Fiery Burst" (Complete Mage p.43) that practically allows you to cast 5-foot radius Fireballs all day at-will?

[BaronDoctor]

The more I read, the more I see reasons what you actually want is a Mailman Sorcerer, casting the spells that make the people fall down.

What's it do? Action economy (two shots for one with Sorcerer-exclusive Arcane Fusion), whenever you like (Celerity to act on command and the ability to save against even self-inflicted Daze), taking all the destiny control into your hands (spells with No SR, No Save, Just Die Because You're Eating Tons Of Damage From A Ranged Touch Attack).

Point, Click, Boom (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?447435-quot-The-Mailman-A-Direct-Damage-Sorcerer-quot-(from-Wizards-forums)).

[Voidstar01]

Point, Click, Boom (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?447435-quot-The-Mailman-A-Direct-Damage-Sorcerer-quot-(from-Wizards-forums)).



Needs incantrix, a banned class. :(

[Psyren]

Well, with those three being the three best schools of magic, I'll leave it up to you to decide on whether I was serious or not.

Abjuration top 3, really? If your party has a cleric you can generally skip it. It's usually 4th on my list to go behind Enchantment, Necromancy, and Evocation. I'd rank Illusion higher for sure.

[Asmotherion]

Abjuration top 3, really? If your party has a cleric you can generally skip it. It's usually 4th on my list to go behind Enchantment, Necromancy, and Evocation. I'd rank Illusion higher for sure.

Well Dispel Magic/Greater/Disjunction are in it. So is Maw of Chaos/Starmantle/Energy imunity/Mind Blanc. Definitelly not a school i'd choose to ban.


My order of preferance (and Value over them) goes:

Conjuration
Transmutation
Abjuration
Divination
Necromancy
illusion
Evocation
Enchantment

[BaronDoctor]

Needs incantrix, a banned class. :(



The more of these you're missing, the less insane you'll be. I would say the bare minimum would be SC & 3 of the other 5 big ones.

Technically it just hampers the Metamagic-Reduction shtick, rather than making it totally not viable. A little Arcane Thesis / Easy Metamagic / Practical Metamagic will put you right, particularly with the Fast Metamagic .

Spelldancer (here (http://dnd.arkalseif.info/classes/spelldancer/index.html)) provides some neat and effective benefits.

Halruaan Elder (here (https://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/classes/prestige/realms/halruaanelder.shtml)) gets you Metamagic Reduction.

Mage of the Arcane order (here (http://therafimrpg.wikidot.com/mage-of-the-arcane-order)) costs one metamagic feat (and Arcane Preparation for qualification, but preparing spells would let one "Fast Metamagic" them by default so it's not a total loss) and gives them back, along with "There's A Spell For That" double-checking.

For more cost-reductions, try here (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=972.0).

[Psyren]

Well Dispel Magic/Greater/Disjunction are in it.

As I mentioned, clerics get the first two. As for the third - I happen to like loot, don't you? :smalltongue:

For the others you mentioned, I'd only really miss Mind Blank, but a Cowl of Warding or a Third Eye Conceal fixes that anyway.



My order of preferance (and Value over them) goes:

Conjuration
Transmutation
Abjuration
Divination
Necromancy
illusion
Evocation
Enchantment

Remember that you can't ban Divination, so you might as well put it at the top.

[Troacctid]

Fireball is definitely not a bad spell. It's a very efficient damage vehicle. Spell resistance and evasion pop up occasionally, but they are not common. (The latter basically only shows up on NPCs with class levels; any book-standard monsters aren't gonna have it.) That said, you should definitely also consider some less fire-dependent alternatives like Shockwave (deals 1d4/level nonlethal damage in a 20-ft. radius in Close range and dazes all enemies damaged this way; Fortitude halves damage and negates daze) and Boccob's Rolling Cloud (deals 1d6/level as a mix of fire, electricity, and untyped damage in a Close range cone, Ref half, and anyone who fails the save must pass a Fort save or be dazed).

I would definitely ban enchantment first. There are some powerful spells there, but if they don't line up with your strategy, you won't use them anyway. Next would be necromancy. It has debuffs, but you can get that with metamagic feats like Fell Drain, Fell Weaken, Fell Frighten, Entangling Spell, Blistering Spell, Spellstrike, etc. If you're not hoping to do undead minionmancy, it should be nbd. The third ban is tricky because now you have to ditch something actually good. Conjuration has most of the best battlefield control and SR: No damage spells (although there are SR: No evocations too). Illusion has strong defensive spells, invisibility-type effects, and shadow spells (but transmutation can at least compete well on the defensive category). Abjuration has a lot of strong antimagic spells, with Dispel Magic being a particularly big draw. And transmutation has a lot of buffs and debuffs and a surprising amount of just generally useful spells.

I would probably go with abjuration, provided at least one other party member can pick up the slack for Dispel Magic. If not, then illusion.

[Endarire]

Scintillating sphere from Magic of Faerun is an electric fireball.

And, despite theory, sometimes direct damage -is- the way to go.

[BaronDoctor]

Scintillating sphere from Magic of Faerun is an electric fireball.

And, despite theory, sometimes direct damage -is- the way to go.

"Dead" is the best debuff.

Delivering the Mail is the best way to apply it (they don't get saves, they don't get SR, they lose good day sir.)

Even Fireball will work better with Assay SR, True Casting, Dispel Defenses, and Searing Spell or Sanctified One of Kord to make fire damage fit even fire immune enemies.

[Nebuul]

If you are going to be an evoker, specialize in dragon's breath (spell compendium p.73). Range is personal, and the breaths you and your familiar breath out are supernatural. Plus it has a *ton* of swift-cast buff spells that can pretty much achieve any debuff you would ever want. It's a hoot!

Just be sure you get widen spell.

[tiercel]

If you are going to be an evoker, specialize in dragon's breath (spell compendium p.73). Range is personal, and the breaths you and your familiar breath out are supernatural. Plus it has a *ton* of swift-cast buff spells that can pretty much achieve any debuff you would ever want. It's a hoot!

Just be sure you get widen spell.

Dragonfire Adept looks up with a hurt expression

[Zaq]

Sometimes you need to take a step back and question your assumptions.

Do you need to be a focused specialist? How much will you suffer from losing flexibility and gaining stamina? You’re having trouble picking banned schools. That tells me that you want things out of those schools. You’re going to have to give up at least one thing you care about to get focused specialist. That’s a cost. Are you truly happy with that cost? You might be, but remember that you can still be Captain Fireball as an evoker and not necessarily going FS. If you don’t want to pick a third school to lose, don’t. Just be a regular evoker. You wanted the utility flexibility anyway, which is why you picked wizard instead of sorcerer, right?

Or flip it around. Challenge assumptions about how much you’ll miss your banned schools. You’ll lose flexibility, but you’re already playing a suboptimal breed of wizard. (Still a wizard, of course.) Point is, you knew going in that you’re not going to be traditionally optimized. Is that a dealbreaker? Maybe you don’t need the utility that certain schools offer. Maybe your party can cover some of those gaps. Maybe you can make up the difference with wondrous items. Maybe you want to challenge yourself by accepting a mechanical handicap that’s harsher than is strictly optimal. It’s less effective than an optimized wizard, but it’s still way more effective than a soulknife. Maybe part of your fun this time around is figuring out how to solve wizard-level problems without the typical wizard toolbox. After all, the number of non-specialty spells the typical FS can prepare every day is limited, too. (You get more slots, but you also get fewer non-specialty slots. Noticeably so.) Will you even have the slot space for all the illusions and abjurations and conjurations you think you want? The rubber meets the road in actual play, and if you weren’t going to prepare a given utility spell instead of a boom spell anyway, you haven’t really lost anything by giving it up entirely.

As long as you’re aware of what you’re giving up and you do it with your eyes open about why you’re doing it, it’s okay to not be 100% optimal every step of the way. You can absolutely set the bar lower and still have fun. But you should be doing it intentionally.

But my ultimate point is this: if you can’t get everything you want and something’s gotta give, step back and ask why you feel like you need to cram all of these things into one build. Maybe you don’t need FS, or maybe you don’t need all the usual optimal schools because you’re leaning into FS. Think about what the character will realistically play like round by round and day by day. Wizards can theoretically do a ton, but you still only have so many slots and so many combat rounds per day. Maybe it’s not realistic to expect to do everything, and it’s okay to question your assumptions about what you “need.”

[BaronDoctor]

One other thing to consider is Prestiging.

The War Mage in Dragonlance's Age of Mortals pdf (which I recommend you dig up yourself, there are troves of knowledge). Costs 3 feats (but gives two blasty-oriented metamagic feats in return) and can be accessed pretty normally after level 5. +1 damage per die with spells, a bit of arcane spell failure reduction, add your Charisma to allies' AC (because how else do you get morale bonuses to AC?), and adds a good Fort save to the traditional wizard/sorcerer chassis.

If Incantatrix is banned (understandably), it's possible War Mage might not be.