Color Code for each nine (yes, 9) schools of magic. Anyone seen or done this before?

[Arkhios]

Hi!

I'm playing a non-specialized wizard and I will most likely collect every spell I can, eventually, and I'm keeping track of those I already have in a Google document.

Unfortunately, while Universal school is an established school of magic among the other 8 (in 3rd edition), many color codes seem to have ignored it entirely. I'm aware there aren't many universal spells, but there's some, and that still counts for the purpose.

Another problem is that I can't use white text with white background, and black is reserved (for obvious reasons) for necromancy.

Anyone have any idea how to do this? Better yet, has anyone else done this before?

[OGDojo]

i haven't seen it done for schools of magic, however the Shugenja does have an element system for their spells.. not sure if this helps

However it may help if you posted (not in color) what colors you are using and for which schools?

[Mr Adventurer]

Can't you just pick whatever colour that works?

[Arkhios]

i haven't seen it done for schools of magic, however the Shugenja does have an element system for their spells.. not sure if this helps

However it may help if you posted (not in color) what colors you are using and for which schools?

That's just it, my friend and I (both separately) have a memory of having seen the colors being mentioned somewhere in official material, at some point, but can't exactly pinpoint where it was.

One possible list of colors that I've seen was:
Blue = Abjuration
Purple = Illusion
Orange = Conjuration
Yellow = Enchantment
Red = Evocation
White = Divination
Black = Necromancy
Green = Transmutation

Black as Necromancy makes sense, but White is impossible to be read from a white background (even when printing in color). And so, neither could be used for Universal spells.


Can't you just pick whatever colour that works?

I suppose it's similar to OCD that I'd like to use colors that make sense for each school, based on what they represent. So, I couldn't just pick the colors arbitrarily.

[Asmotherion]

This is how i colour code them for Detect Magic etc.

Conjuration: Purple
Transmutation: Orange
Abjuration: Cyan Blue
Divination: Yellow or White. Sometimes silvery with a mirroring effect.
Necromancy: Black
Evocation: Crimson Red
illusion: Grey
Enchantment: Lime Green

As for Universal i usually describe it as a clear aura with a small (insignificant) distortion such as the one from extream heat.

[Kurald Galain]

Well, there are some threads about matching the wizard schools to alignments and/or to the most appropriate opposite schools. It would make sense to start from one of those, and then ensure that adjacent schools have similar colors and opposite schools have complementary colors.

For instance,
* Abjuration - lawful good, dark green
* Conjuration - lawful neutral, light green
* Necromancy - lawful evil, yellow
* Enchantment - neutral evil, orange
* Evocation - chaotic evil, red
* Transmutation - chaotic neutral, purple
* Illusion - chaotic good, blue
* Divination - neutral good, cyan

(edit: and universal - TN, gray)

[flappeercraft]

My personal favorite color scheme for the schools is

Enchantment: Pink
Transmutation: Green
Necromancy: Black
Evocation: Red
Divination: Yellow
Illusion: Blue
Conjuration: Orange
Abjuration: Purple/Gold
Universal: White

[Celestia]

Black as Necromancy makes sense, but White is impossible to be read from a white background (even when printing in color). And so, neither could be used for Universal spells.
Color code the background, not the text. White is black text on a white background. Black is white text on a black background. Yellow is black text on a yellow background, etc. It keeps all the text legible while also making the colors more distinct and easy to see. You can either use highlights in plain text or stick it in a table with colored cells.

[OGDojo]

One possible list of colors that I've seen was:
Blue = Abjuration
Purple = Illusion
Orange = Conjuration
Yellow = Enchantment
Red = Evocation
White = Divination
Black = Necromancy
Green = Transmutation
Gray or Light gray, something between white and black = Universal

[Efrate]

I no longer have my 3.0 phb but I think this was in there. Not sure. Either under detect magic or specialization?

[Kurald Galain]

Funnily, these color schemas (including mine) are all over the place, but the only thing everybody agrees on is that evocation is red.

[Mike Miller]

Hi!

I'm playing a non-specialized wizard ...

Anyone have any idea how to do this? Better yet, has anyone else done this before?

Find me in the discord link in my signature and I can show you the spreadsheet I made for this sort of thing

[Calthropstu]

Why not have universal be multi colored? Kind of like how white is the presence of all colors, have universal be the presence of all schools.

[Unavenger]

Given that you need a check to determine the school of magic with detect magic, I doubt it's so simple as a colour code. I don't think they canonically have colours.

[Arkhios]

Find me in the discord link in my signature and I can show you the spreadsheet I made for this sort of thing
I don't use discord, unfortunately. Tried it, but didn't need it for anything, really.

Why not have universal be multi colored? Kind of like how white is the presence of all colors, have universal be the presence of all schools.

You mean like, each letter being of different color?

Classy, though a bit of pain in the ass to implement.

Given that you need a check to determine the school of magic with detect magic, I doubt it's so simple as a colour code. I don't think they canonically have colours.
This isn't so much for detect magic, but rather for ease of reading (though color code would make it faster to tell which spell is from which school if I forgot it, when detect magic is used)

[Thurbane]

I thought there was a 2E chart that ascribed colours to the schools, but I was mis-remembering.

https://chaosweb.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/chart.gif

I think there was a 1E or 2E magic item that changed colours when detecting magic based on the type of magic?

[Endarire]

I have used this color code for the schools of magic:

-Abjuration: Gray
-Conjuration: Blue
-Divination: White
-Enchantment: Pink
-Evocation: Red
-Illusion: Gold
-Necromancy: Brown, Black, or Blood-Red
-Transmutation: Green
-Universal: Purple/Violet or Rainbow/Prismatic