Today we’re talking about schools of magic, and what makes them unique and which magic is best for your new character? Before we talk about the different magic schools there are the various ways to obtain magic in the world of Dungeons and Dragons.
The big two are Divine, and Arcane. But even those split off into Divine being from deities or from nature, and Arcane being through study, performance, natural happenstance, or gifts given from Arcane beings.
Your magically inclined character will need to decide on where their powers come from like other demon names do. Now this can be as easy as selecting a Clericover a Wizard, but sometimes it’s more difficult between a warlock and sorcerer. How you obtain your magic can put you in precarious spots within the Forgotten Realms, or any world really. In your homebrew world perhaps Warlocks are the complete norm, and 90% of magic users have received a blessing, or pact, from a supernatural creature.
Wizards are rare because it takes great dedication to understand the fundamentals of how magic works, Sorcery is straight up outlawed, that much power without study or pacts is just plane dangerous. The way you cast spells, and the schools of magic you select can really define your character. When picking spells be sure to think about how your deity would interpriate your use of it. The Schools of Magic include Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation.
The spells often seem oddly placed in a particular school. Animate Dead does feel like a necromancy spell like necromancer names, but perhaps speak with dead would fit more under Divination? Create or Destroy Water is Transmutation but wouldn’t it fit better under Conjuration? The schools of magic offer us a window into our magic user character. Build your characters personality first and decide on spells afterwards. Are they tricky, constantly trying to charm characters, or create believable illusions.
A illusionist or Enchanter wizard might be best for that. Or do you have a fiery sorcerer that knows only destruction. Picking an element like, well fire, and the feat Elemental Adept to ensure your fire spells will ignore resistances. Starting off the school of Abjuration is about defense, blocking, or banishing objects and creatures. Spells like resistance, absorb elements. Spells to protect an area like Alarm or apers on like Mage Armor. Banishment to completely remove a creature or Planar Binding, bringing an unfriendly under your control to support the party.
Defensive wizards like to prepare the Shield Spell, and Counter spell. They know magic and are experts at dispelling it. Removing curses and restoring characters to their healthy selves. Conjuration, my personal favorite is the idea of creating something from nothing. Or perhaps pulling something from another plane of existence. Mechanically I believe most think the Conjurer wizard to be weaker than some of the other options in DnD 5e, they have the ability to… conjure, an inanimate object no larger than a 3 foot cube.
Perhaps some rope, or a hammer, some thieves tools or a lock? I love this idea of being ever prepared with a spy glasses, or a cup to drink from that magical fountain. Conjurers are expert teleporters too, understanding how things move from one space to another. Perhaps you flavor your fireballs spells as conjuring a piece of the elemental plane of fire to hurl at your enemies. Your Counter Spell is actually conjuring a comically large shield that gets in the way of the spell causing no harm to your party.
With the ability to teleport by sixth level and maintaining concentration on conjured creatures, yes I think this is my favorite magical school. Divination! Do you want to see the future, to know the secrets of the universe. Is your character obsessed with knowledge from the beyond? Detecting another’s thoughts, or finding traps within a dungeon. Your crying spell could be flavored that you perceive your target seconds into the future. The spell identify, the object doesn’t tell you what it is, rather you look into it’s past to see where it’s been and how’s it has been used.
You then understand everything there is to know about it. Divination can be fun for a wizard because it gives you two d20’s that you can use to “see in to the future” and declare that an attack or ability check was either successful or failed. If you were playing a divination cleric you would be good at detecting good and evil, or locating objects thanks to the divine information your deity bestows upon you. Divination wizards are fun and popular but personally I’d like to play a cleric of Savrass. Enchantment is the next school of magic.
You are able to touch the minds and bodies of other creatures. To Magically beguile people and monsters. A Enchantment Wizard gains a Hypnotic Gazewhere they can enthrall a creature. The Charm spell is part of this, where you confuddle a creature into thinking you’re a friend. Spells like Hold Person, where a conjuration specialist might flavor this spell as being gripping chains holding onto a person. An enchanter might udder a simple command to stay and the creature firmly believes they must not move.
Suggestion, sleep, are all part of Enchanters. Words are powerful in this magical school. Evocation is destruction and healing. Spells that can destroy and harm fall into this category. Usually elemental effects, this is the perfect school for an elementalist wizard. Perhaps you wish to master earth, wind, fire, and water. Lightning, Burning Hands, Earth Tremor these spells issue your command over your surroundings. But interestingly enough spells like Cure Wounds are in this school. If you are evocation specialist perhaps your clerical healing spells come off as a white fire enveloping and healing the wounds.
You have an understanding of the sheer power that is magic and develop that into a Holy Weapon, or Searing Smite. We think of the elementalist wizard, but this could also be a druid that focuses on these spells along with healing and Daylight where raw magical energy creates a sun like object in the sky. Illusion has always fascinated me. It’s magic that is trying to trick or fool you, but in a world where one could potentially summon a water elemental why would you want to create an illusionary one? However there are limitations to the powers of magic, and illusion is the one school that can make the impossible seem real.
A master of illusions fools the senses, creating an object that isn’t there, or a sound that came from nowhere. Perfect for arcane tricksters that wish to fool their victim into looking behind a door before attacking from the ceiling. Changing your appearance, or creating duplicates that make you harder to hit. This is the nature of illusion magic. If you specialize in this magic perhaps you’re difficult to trust. Wearing a glamor that hides that large scar on your face? You could even fool other magic users by creating a false aura that fools divination spells.
Illusion is more than bright lights, or fear spells, you can alter how others perceive the world. Necromancy. The magic that is tied into the force of life and death. There is an energy that courses through living things, and you are able to tap into that energy. Manipulating it to animate creatures. This power can be used to heal, or to destroy. There are some weird spells here like cause fear that appear to be more illusion based. But again your flavoring of the magic can make all the difference.
Nothing says you can’t call upon an actual incorporeal ghost with Cause Fear to frighten a nearby creature. Inflict Wounds, Magic Jar, Resurrection, and Raise Dead all deal with the manipulation of life energy and the soul. I love a Death Cleric who specializes in necromantic magic. If you wanted to raise some zombies arcane is the way to go, but if you want true mastery over life and death then worship the god of death.
Being able to see life energy in the body and change it at will, either inflicting wounds, or siphoning it off with vampiric touch. Finally transmutation, the art of turning one object into another. With spells like Meld into Stone, and Mold Earth one would think this was the evocation school. But Transmuters change their surroundings, taking the physical and changing it into something new. This might be the mending spell to repair a child’s broken toy. Or Polymorph to literally change one thing into another.
But there seems to be an underlying theme with transmutation that it’s the school of manipulating energy within creatures and objects. Telekinesis for example you can move something with magic, this is tugging at the energy within that object to move it. Levitation too. Heat metal is an interesting transmutation spell, where altering the physical aspects of that metal to make it hotter. I almost envision the magic as a vibration moving the molecules in that metal faster and faster causing the heat from within.
I really enjoy this school of magic, and I personally like to think it manipulates the energy within an object. Much like Necromancy but rather than adding or removing that energy you change it somehow, alter it to fit your needs. So what is your school of magic? I hope you decide what your character is good at and flavor your spells as you see fit. Magic can be viewed in so many different ways in D&D and it can all be correct.
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