Base Full-Caster Classes with Spell School Focus

[Silly Name]

I was wondering how many base full-caster classes there were out there that had a very strong focus on a certain school of magic, or at least a very strong thematic focus, and thus a somewhat restricted spell list.

I know of

- Beguiler (Enchantment)
- Dread Necromancer (Necromancy)
- Healer ( Abjuration and Conjuration: Healing)
- Warmage (Evocation)

Is there any other base class with such a focus? A summoner, or maybe a Diviner?

[Paragon]

All the Wizard variants do this job pretty well

[loky1109]

Death Master

[Silva Stormrage]

Pathfinder has the summoner class.
Focused Specialist Wizard ACF requires you to ban 3 schools of magic which means you have to focus a bit more but if you don't ban conjuration/transmutation than well you aren't really limited.

Really homebrew might be the best option for you as those were very popular classes to make. I made two, the Haruspex (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?213491-The-Haruspex-(3-5-Divination-based-Base-Class)-PEACH)(A diviner) and the Constrictor (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?217150-Constrictor-(Battlefield-Control-Specialist-3-5-Base-Class)-PEACH) (A Battlefield Control conjuration specialist)

[Alabenson]

Pathfinder has the summoner class.
Focused Specialist Wizard ACF requires you to ban 3 schools of magic which means you have to focus a bit more but if you don't ban conjuration/transmutation than well you aren't really limited.

Really homebrew might be the best option for you as those were very popular classes to make. I made two, the Haruspex (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?213491-The-Haruspex-(3-5-Divination-based-Base-Class)-PEACH)(A diviner) and the Constrictor (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?217150-Constrictor-(Battlefield-Control-Specialist-3-5-Base-Class)-PEACH) (A Battlefield Control conjuration specialist)

To add to the homebrew options that fit that criteria, I've made The Bete Noir (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?574480-The-Bete-Noire-(PEACH)), a fear-specialist with a focus on illusion and necromancy.

[Troacctid]

The UA specialist wizard variants feel pretty thematically grounded in their school. Dragon Magazine also has some specialized necromancer variants that would qualify.

[RandomPeasant]

I'm going to dissent and say that I don't think specialist Wizards do a particularly good job of this. Even as a Focused Specialist, you still have access to four other schools of magic and half your slots to prepare them into. You certainly can play a Wizard with an intense focus on a particular school, but it's never optimal to do that in the way that it is for a Dread Necromancer or Beguiler.

I do agree that homebrew is going to be your best bet. I think this version of a Summoner (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Summoner_(3.5e_Class)) is pretty good for the Conjuration specialist. The Elementalist (https://dungeons.fandom.com/wiki/Elementalist_(3.5e_Class)) is by the same authors, and it seems pretty good (though IIRC the spell list wasn't properly fleshed out). You can probably find or write ones for Abjuration, Transmutation, and Divination, though there are issues with all of those.

[Silly Name]

You can probably find or write ones for Abjuration, Transmutation, and Divination, though there are issues with all of those.

Do you mean there are issues with the homebrews floating around the internet, or that you believe those schools to be a bit problematic to base off a class like Dread Necro and Beguiler?

[RandomPeasant]

Do you mean there are issues with the homebrews floating around the internet, or that you believe those schools to be a bit problematic to base off a class like Dread Necro and Beguiler?

I mean you run into design problems trying to create fixed-list casters for those schools. Maybe there are examples of people who have solved them out there, but I'm not aware of any (though admittedly I haven't looked super hard).

Abjuration's problem is that abjuration is an almost purely-defensive school. protection from evil and dimensional anchor aren't worthless spells by any means, but they don't offer you a lot in the "kill the enemy" area of things, which is a competency characters need to have. So your Abjurer needs something they do in addition to abjuration to work well. Force magic is an obvious pick, but you could also give them some kind of "you've activated my trap card!" deal with spells like explosive runes (though this has the risk of giving them absolutely insane action economy), or battlefield control (though this risks conflict with your Conjurer), or just give them enough martial competency to make that work. There's also a more specific issue where it's very tempting to give the class a focus on counterspelling, which I think plays extremely poorly in practice. You don't want every fight with a caster to turn into "the Abjurer locks them down and then the rest of the party beats them up".

Divination's problem is like abjuration's, but even more so. Abjuration has some defensive spells you might cast in combat, but divination is limited to like three offensive spells and true strike variants. So you need to write the entire "what does this character do to contribute to the part of the adventure where the combat music is playing" part of the character from scratch. It looks like the Haruspex is trying to handle this with the visions, but that seems like a lot of added complexity and I'm not sure it lands. The nice thing about this is that you can kinda write whatever you want. Sneak Attack to take advantage of all those (mostly non-Wizard) spells like hunter's eye and vinestrike? Sure. Make them a goddamn Jedi with acrobatics and telekinesis? Sure. Time magic? Why not. Maybe they read the heavens and get star magic or you call it an "Oracle" or a "Prophet" and give it whatever divine magic you want. Hell, you could staple them to the Warmage and solve that class's total lack of non-combat magic at a stroke.

Transmutation's issues come from a different place. Bluntly, transmutation has more going on than you can fit in a single class. Transmutation has buffs, but it also has form-changing magic, and elementalism, and time magic, and for some reason telekinesis and mage hand. That's just way more stuff than you can put in one class, especially when you consider that form-changing is so powerful (and so complicated) that if you give it to a class that's basically what the class does. Which gets to another problem with transmutation: the school has an insanely large number of spells, but also a lot of its power is tied up in a small number of very strong ones. For instance, extend tentacles and alter self are both 2nd level transmutation spells. But one of them increases the reach of whatever tentacle attacks you have by 5ft and the other one is alter self. So you've got a giant list of spells to hammer down to something reasonable, but if you pick the average ones you end up with a class that's underpowered and if you pick the good ones you end up with a class that's overpowered and a nightmare to adjudicate and also doesn't cover the bulk of the school. I think you might be able to thread the needle by covering elemental magic with something like the Elementalist, giving time magic to your Diviner, giving telekinesis to your Abjurer, having the Transmuter focus mostly on buffs, and writing some kind of Shifter base class for people who want polymorphing. But I'm not certain even that would be satisfying.

[Metastachydium]

Divination's problem is like abjuration's, but even more so. Abjuration has some defensive spells you might cast in combat, but divination is limited to like three offensive spells and true strike variants. So you need to write the entire "what does this character do to contribute to the part of the adventure where the combat music is playing" part of the character from scratch.

Now that everyone's doing the shameless self-plug deal anyhow, I might add that my own Soothsayer (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?648464-The-Soothsayer-(An-NPC-Class!)-Opinions-Welcome) (a fixed list diviner) was reasonably well-received (by both people who expressed sentiments regarding it) – as well as a dedicated Adept-but-less-powerful weight class things made to be used by NPCs who don't want to fight ever.

[ShurikVch]

Filidh - Wizard variant from Dragon #324 - got only two class features: Filidh Knowledge (like Bardic Knowledge), and Greater Divining (CL bonus for casting spells of Divination school - from +1 to +4)

Anagakok - "wild" and illiterate variant of Wizard from Dragon #344 - got, instead the "usual" School Specialization (if any), specialization in "Anagakok School"

Oriental Adventures has Shugenja School Spells

How about Psion with Discipline specialization?

[radthemad4]

I'm going to dissent and say that I don't think specialist Wizards do a particularly good job of this. Even as a Focused Specialist, you still have access to four other schools of magic and half your slots to prepare them into. You certainly can play a Wizard with an intense focus on a particular school, but it's never optimal to do that in the way that it is for a Dread Necromancer or Beguiler.

I do agree that homebrew is going to be your best bet. I think this version of a Summoner (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Summoner_(3.5e_Class)) is pretty good for the Conjuration specialist. The Elementalist (https://dungeons.fandom.com/wiki/Elementalist_(3.5e_Class)) is by the same authors, and it seems pretty good (though IIRC the spell list wasn't properly fleshed out). You can probably find or write ones for Abjuration, Transmutation, and Divination, though there are issues with all of those.
Some other homebrew fixed list casters I'm aware of

Architect (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Architect,_Very_High_Variant_(3.5e_Alternate_Class _Feature))
Paladin (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Paladin,_Tome_(3.5e_Class))
Warmage (http://www.tgdmb.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=338594#338594)
Warmage (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Warmage_Fix_(3.5e_Class))
Warden (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Warden_(3.5e_Class))
Witch (http://www.tgdmb.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=50003)
Seer (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Seer_(3.5e_Class))

[Zombulian]

How about Psion with Discipline specialization?

I was thinking this as well just because Psion Disciplines are so restrictive.
Otherwise I think all of the Base Caster classes have been mentioned.
Aside from school focus - and “full” casters - there are things like Psychic Warrior, Duskblade, and Bard. They’re not restricted to a school but their spell lists are pretty restrictive while also being thematic.

Edit: added Duskblade

[loky1109]

Witch from DMG? It's only spell-list, but...

[noce]

I was wondering how many base full-caster classes there were out there that had a very strong focus on a certain school of magic, or at least a very strong thematic focus, and thus a somewhat restricted spell list.

Complete Divine Shugenja perfectly fits the description, since it has a strong thematic focus.
Its spell list is divided in four elements, you must pick more than half of your spells from one element and are prohibited taking spells of the opposed one.
And each element has a focus on certain schools.

[Chronos]

Quoth RandomPeasant:

I think you might be able to thread the needle by covering elemental magic with something like the Elementalist, giving time magic to your Diviner, giving telekinesis to your Abjurer, having the Transmuter focus mostly on buffs, and writing some kind of Shifter base class for people who want polymorphing. But I'm not certain even that would be satisfying.
I think this is the key: Classes like the Warmage, Beguiler, and Dread Necromancer are thematically aligned with spell schools, but they don't have to be strictly bound by them (except for the Advanced Learning options, but those are a small fraction of your total capability). So you can just skip over the spells that are in the right school but have the wrong theme, and include spells that are in the wrong school but have the right theme. And yes, this does mean that some particularly encompassing schools might end up supporting multiple themes.

Like many others, I've been toying around with the idea, and I combined divination and abjuration into one class (precedent: Beguiler includes both illusion and enchantment), and also made the class a bit gishy, to help with the issue of neither of those schools having much offense in them.

[Metastachydium]

Complete Divine Shugenja perfectly fits the description, since it has a strong thematic focus.
Its spell list is divided in four elements, you must pick more than half of your spells from one element and are prohibited taking spells of the opposed one.
And each element has a focus on certain schools.

(It's also a good class to get normally arcane-only spells on a divine chassis. That and said thematic coherence make me like it a lot, despite being kinda bad.)