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Recently thru the AD&D listserv, a discussion
was fired up about the feasibility of an "all" school
for mages, as there exists an All sphere for clerics. My participation
in the debate started me thinking about this topic as I'd not
done before. Was the idea of an All school viable, and what should
it include if it was?
Presented below is the answer to my question. The
"Universal", or All, school for mages in it's full glory.
But first, a little more info and some additional history on
the subject. Most of my ideas reflected below are a result of
the All school discussion on AD&D-L, but some additional help
arrived just as I was putting the finishing touches on the article.
Having newly acquired a copy of the Player's Option: Spells &
Magic sourcebook, was I surprised to discover that TSR had (barely)
beat me to the punch by introducing their own All school! Shocked,
surprised, and actually a little hurt I was, but was still glad
to see the All school has made it as an "official" rule.
However, I found the proposed Universal school to
be nearly as bad as the problems it was designed to fix. What
are the initial problems, you ask? Well, as you know, there exists
in the core rules of AD&D a school known as the Lesser Divination
school. All mages, including every type of specialist mage, have
access to this school The school possesses several minor spells
that virtually all mages need to get by, such as Read Magic, Detect
Magic, and Identify. However, it also contains certain spells
that have no need to be made "universal" - spells such
as ESP, Clairaudience, and Clairvoyance are prime examples of
such unessential spells.
So, there exists this problem with the Lesser Divination
school. To add to that, there are several other spells that *don't*
belong to this school that *do* sound like good candidates for
universal access. The most often brought-up example is Dispel
Magic, along with other spells like Find Familiar that are often
considered fair to allow to all mages, regardless of specialty.
The idea forms..... why not create a new school of
magic, a school that gathers in essential spells from all the
other schools, not just Divination? Sounds like a workable plan,
but then TSR surprises us all with their own Universal school!
But (fortunately for me!) there are still problems. TSR's suggested
school contains some spells that don't seem that essential. Do
all mages really require access to Teleport Without Error? Remove
Curse? Astral Spell? Not likely.
Finally, we arrive to my own suggested Universal
school of magic. Taking the best of my fellow's ideas from AD&D-L,
TSR's own concept of what an All school should be, and a slight
amount of my own inspiration, and voila! Instant Universal School!
The list below mainly consists of "metamagical"
spells - spells that affect how other spells work, which should
probably be within the grasp of all potential mages. These spells
affect how the caster's own spells operate. Is there a sound
reason why, for example, an illusionist shouldn't be able to Augment
or make Contingent his own illusionist spells? The concept of
a metamagic school has much in common with an All or Universal
school, and it is this former concept that primarily shapes my
ideas below.
Of course, feel free to add, subtract, and in general
totally alter the below suggestions. If you do feel that Teleport
is absolutely an essential spell for mages, then by all means
add it back! Have fun!
1st Cantrip (all schools) Detect Magic (divination) Find Familiar (conjuration/summoning) Identify (divination)
Read Magic (divination) 2nd Sense Shifting (ToM, alteration)
Vocalize (CWHB, alteration) 3rd Alacrity (ToM, alteration) Augmentation I (ToM, invocation/evocation) Dispel Magic (Abjuration) Far Reaching I (ToM, alteration)
Squaring the Circle (ToM, alteration) 4th Dilation I (ToM, alteration) Divination Enhancement (ToM, evocation) Extension I (alteration) Far Reaching II (alteration) Mordenkainen's Celerity (ToM, alteration, invocation)
Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer (alteration) 5th Extension II (alteration) Far Reaching III (ToM, alteration)
Safeguarding (ToM, abjuration) 6th Augmentation II (ToM, evocation) Contingency (Evocation) Dilation II (ToM, alteration) Enchant an Item (enchantment, invocation) Extension III (alteration)
Mordenkainen's Lucubration (alteration) 7th Persistence (Sp&M, invocation/evocation)
Semipermanency (DK, alteration) 8th
Permanency (alteration) 9th Chain Contingency (ToM, evocation)
Mordenkainen's Disjunction (alteration, enchantment)
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