Reinventing AD&D's Schools of Magic

[Alex]

I am not sure this topic will get a single response, but I hope some of you are willing to help me, or at least tell me what you think about this mess I am making. Basically, I am re-thinking AD&D schools of magic for a future campaign in a game world I have been working for a while. I want to go over the eight big schools of magic in AD&D and a few others, and make remodel them so they fulfil some of my objectives. Namely: They all have at least a few interesting spells that PCs will want to use in a dungeon crawl or a normal session, they all have at least a few interesting spells that PCs may use during down time to interact with the game world, they all have a particular identity that make them as real parts of the game world's "lore" rather than just a mechanic and they all have an interesting personality that can be endless expanded by me and the players with new and interesting spells. I am thankful to anyone who might bother to share their thoughts on this, but I will specifically ask Zed Duke of Banville, JarlFrank, Cryomancer and JamesDixon since I think they might have insight about this.

So, a small intro to arcane magic in this world, most people in backwards planets are distrustful of it, and for good reason. A certain kind of magic, called chaos magic, can cause enormous problems when it goes awry. Basically, in order to prepare a spell, a mage usually has to do some ritualistic actions. But it is not just about the ritual, it is also about the source of magic power itself. Some sources, like nodes, are part of the natural world, places that even without magic senses seem somehow special (a great and calm lake, a volcano, a deep gorge, etc). But most other sources of magic are part of human society and draw their power from being used by people. A simple example would be a cemetery, where a necromancer might draw more power the more people are buried there. The issue is, when chaos magic goes awry, the very source of magic can be corrupted by the spell. If the source is a volcano and the spell in question a fireball, for instance, this could mean an eruption. A badly cast necromantic spell could mean every body in the cemetery powering it suddenly gets up and starts looking for yummy brains, etc. So, basically, mages are like wild mages in AD&D 2e, only worse and with their effects hitting much more than the party. Not surprising, then, most people kill mages on sight and powerful mages are also warlords that subjugate communities to use them as sources of magic power.

Well, at least, that is how most places in the campaign world are, but not on the central planet. A race known as Mercane (or Arcane, which gives the in-game reason for the name of the magic) developed a magic system where spells are separated into chaos magic and clean magic. Clean magic is not 100% safe, but it never cause problems with the magic source. The mercane further developed other aspects of magic. For instance, before, a magic source would be associated with a single spell, whereas today it is possible to prepare several spells tied to a single source, and the use of magic schools of thought that allows one to understand several spells at once, instead of studying each spell individually¹. Strangely enough, Mercane claim to be unable to use magic themselves. Rather they work by teaching their knowledge to others, helping clear up the name of magic and then, once they have established a decent knowledge of magic on a planet or nation, they demand their former pupils pay their debts with magic items. Although their practices are somewhat predatory, their objective is not to exploit the would be mages, but rather to establish the place they have gone as a magic market with them as a primary actor, with the sale of magic items, especially spelljammers, being their main practice. Despite their claim of being unable to use magic, they certainly can use magic items and are willing to do it.

At any rate, the most important planet of the setting and assumed starting point embraced this new arcane magic particularly well. Governed by an immortal emperor that claims to be a god, the empire established a very complex guild system that elevated much of its population to a new middle class based around higher and lower guilds. Guilders, as they are usually called², usually belong to a lower guild, such as blacksmiths or physicians or masons, and through it gain token access to one of the higher guilds (each related to one of the 8 magic schools of philosophy, such as illusion or alteration³). Usually, guilders receive very small magical training according to their professions (every guild in the empire now incorporates magic use in their craft) so they can assist a master, though some professions require more individual understanding (carpenters, for instance, only learn more of magic by the time they are ready to become masters, while physicians learn some from the get go as they are expected to act alone often). People who show a natural aptitude for magic, however, may be enrolled into a high guild apprenticeship right away, or receive special training in a lower one.

So, basically, most magic-users PCs in the setting will be a high-guilder of some sort. Alternatively, they may be nobleman who learned magic at a university, a disguised druid⁴ or something more exotic. But whatever they may be, they are very unlikely to begin having access to knowledge of all 9 schools. Rather, they should have greater or lesser access to some schools and be completely ignorant of the working of others. This means that the wide range of spells of the generalist mage in AD&D must be worked towards to, you won't start off with access to everything. Even if you try to make a character the has learned of several schools already, each school has degrees of mastery, with more complex and difficult spells requiring greater knowledge of the school in question (which means that "specialist" mages now will have more exclusive spell lists, though).

Also, I wanted to mention some sources of inspiration; especially in the hopes of you guys adding to those. A few places I am drawing inspiration for how magic works in this setting are: The AD&D books (obviously. Also, mostly 2e, but I have nothing against using something from D&D, 1e or even the later editions if it is good), GURPS Magic (the magic system in GURPS Magic and GURPS Grimoire has always been really interesting, and it gives players a lot of interesting tools that are all objectively much weaker than modern weaponry, but can do things way beyond modern science), Rifts (and Palladium Fantasy), Warhammer (although, to be honest, the spells there are more about appearance than substance), Fighting Fantasy (especially the Sorcery! books), Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, Magic: the Gathering and Master of Magic. Inspiration of more literary nature are also welcome.

Well, with enough preamble out of the way, I would like to make posts where I discuss how each of these schools is going to look in my game. The post below should, unless I messed up, describe the school of abjuration in the setting.

¹Modern arcane magic is a big revolution from what witches and warlocks have used in the past; but it is not on the level of the mythic times magic. The magic of the children of the gods was said to be boundless. While a great mage back then might know only three spells, for instance, those three spells could be used to do all kinds of things; being both wide ins how they could be applied and boundless in how much energy could be used to augment them. For instance, rather than being a limited spell like fly, an enchantment spell would have a wide variety of uses. Perhaps it might allow the mage to apply any characteristic from a living creature on another, so it could be used for applying a bird's power of flight, or a mole's power of digging, or an elephant's strength, etc. Further, by using more magic, the mage would be able to extend the effect to many people. If enough magic energy was available, it would be possible to make a whole army fly, for instance. These ancient spells are the things of legends, and mages are always looking to get their hands in them.

²I am bad with names. I don't have names for half of this stuff and the ones I have are a bit lacking, but I will focus on that once I have everything else better defined.

³The setting actually has a ninth school of magic, "meta-magic". But this school doesn't have a formal guild and while every mage learns a bit of it, focusing on it is usually a privilege of the well born. Meta-magic holds spells that all mages end up needing to a degree, such as detect magic, read magic and dispel magic, as well as actual meta-magic spells such as far reaching, steal enchantment and invert spell.

⁴Druids in this setting are not divine spellcasters at all, but rather chaos mages that have a tendency to make pacts with spiritual beings. They are loathed by the empire, but many learn to hide themselves in normal society. Think here less of some eco-priest and more as druids are presented in the life of St. Patrick.

 

[Alex]

Abjuration​

Abjuration is perhaps a difficult school; as it is focused on defense. Defense in AD&D tends to be really important, though.

Verbs: I will try to describe each school in terms of specific verbs and nouns. These should help explain what the school is all about and also to expand the existing spells with new ones, as well as helping you find out what schools you will need for a certain spell (many spells require more than one school in order to be used). The role of abjuration is to protect, to guard, to warn, to banish, to imprison, to hide, to trap and to free. To protect creates protections over the targets directly. These spells don't protect due to some "physics", they are protection itself. A spell like stone skin protects because if changes the skin of the mage into something far harder. Protection spells, on the other hand, protect directly, their entire substance is to protect something. The most clear example of this is protection from evil. Higher level spells can provide better and far reaching protection, while more complex spells may provide protections against more subtle and complex things. 2e had a pretty good variety of "protection from" spells in it, and making more can be easy and fun. Protection spells higher level protection spells can be better used offensively, but it should be noted that offense is the opposite of what these spells are made to do, so even very high level protection spells tend to have limitations on how they can attack. For instance, a high level circle of protection vs poison spell might cause poison in its area to burn off, eliminating it and possibly harming poisonous creatures (and poisoned ones too, but also curing them). But it would probably have a major limitation, such as losing duration for each cc of poison burned this way.

To guard is to stop undesired intruders (or fugitives). The most obvious example of this is the alarm spell, but more forceful spells such as Von Gasik's Refusal and even sign of sealing are similar. These spells often are cast on areas, but others can also affect a person or even an entity, such as an alarm spell that warns the caster if anyone unauthorised is near his ward or even near property of the guild, with higher level spells allowing for more abstract targets, greater security and more complex separation of who has access and who doesn't.

To warn is similar to guarding, with the difference that rather than focusing on who can or can't do something (or be somewhere), it focuses on giving the mage information about incoming danger. Examples include halo of eyes and find traps spells (find traps still requires divination, though, but wuld be a higher level spells if attempted to be made without using abjuration with it). Higher level spells can warn the caster of even abstract dangers such as offending someone important.

To banish is one of the more flashy aspects of abjuration. It allows abjurers to send creatures away and keep them away. The most obvious example is, of course, the Banishment spell. Less flashy (and less high level) spells may banish a creature to an area in the same plame; Banishment here is a bit different than 2e. Unsummoning and even sending away are spells from the conjuration/summoning school. Banishment, on the other hand, stops the creature from returning to the plane it was banished from, resisting any attempts to travel the planes for as long as it lasts (which means that even if the creature can traverse planes at will, the banishment will keep it away from returning). Note that this verb needs not to involve planar aspects. We could have spells that forbid the target from entering a city, country, continent, etc from where he was banished from. The banishment needs not to be absolute either. For instance, a lower level banishment spell might cause pain and damage each turn a character is inside the place he was banished from.

To imprison is actually very similar to banishing, but it is more restrictive on the target. The most obvious spells here, Imprisonment, is a very powerful version of this. But less absolute spells, such as one that locks the target in some prison outer plane like the carceri, or even one that creates a hard to escape prison are possible too. In particular, this combined with illusion could make for a spell that makes it impossible, for instance, for the character to leave a forest, making him keep losing his way whenever he is near the borders.

To hide is to keep the subject from detection, obviously. The most obvious spell of this sort in 2e that I know of is Sequester. But hide needs not to concern magical detection only. In fact, I have half a mind to make normal invisibility an abjuration spell, leaving improved invisibility as an illusion spell. This would finally give a reason why the spell ends after attacking someone; being an abjuration spell, the objective of normal invisibility is to hide away, and attacking would go directly against it. More complex hiding spells might be selective andbe based on random chance. For instance, you could have an "avoidance" spell that makes it much less likely you will meet a certain kind of creature; orcs for instance. Using it might allow you to change the probabilities of random encounters.

To trap is similar to guarding, but rather than stopping someone from entering somewhere (or doing something) it punishes them for it. Contrary to the other verbs, this one affects mostly spells that weren't originally in the abjuration school. Explosive Runes, Sepia Snake Sigil and Symbol are all examples of trapping spells. Combining this with other schools can permit the traps to have more powerful effects too.

Finally, to free is, in a way, the opposite of to imprison. But it should be understood in a more abstract way, such as to free one from certain evils. The most obvious example from the mage's spell list in 2e would be remove curse. But also cure disease and such.

Nouns: Working together with verbs, nouns are aspects of reality normally under the purview of this school. To make it clear, verbs and nouns are not something "in-setting". They are just a way for players to better understand what the school is about. Important nouns for abjuration include wards and runes. Wards are specially marked areas on which some form of guarding spell takes place. The most common of which are cricles of protection, like those from Protection from Evil, 10' radius. Wards can also work as prison boundaries. Runes, also called glyphs, symbols or characters, usually hold some sort of magic. A very common use for them is as traps, but they can also work to enhance the usability and resilience of what they mark. For instance, a rune on a shield might make it resist breaking or rusting. I know there were some cool use of runes in the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy RPG, I might want to check it. I think Palladium Fantasy also had some cool magic circle using class I could use for inspiration for wards.

Magic Items: Unlike how AD&D 2e does it, in this game, creating a magic item is a matter of having the right spells to do so, not of being of a certain level or other. Each magic schools has different forms of permaent (or at least long lasting) items it can create. For abjuration, common permanent items include the above mentioned nouns. Runes can be cast as to remain until triggered, even centuries later. Or, much more costly, to "regenerate" after enough time has passed. Wards, likewise, may be permanent, and are actually an important part of the setting. Rich nobles pay very good money to have their houses build with wards against poverty, evil eye, thieves, vermin, etc. Another item type made with abjuration are amulets. Often worn on a chain on one's neck, or pinned to clothing or armour, amulets can bestow powerful protections to the wearer. Talismans, peripats, necklaces and broochs fall into the same category. Of course, not all of these items are defensive in nature, but tneh should at least have some sort of problem they are trying to hold at bay. For instance, an amulert may shield the wearer's thoughts against being read by creatures able to do so. Another, the Medallion of ESP, actually enables the reading of thoughts, but the medallion is possible because ESP it is a protection against being fooled or surprised.

Guilds: There are a few lower guilds over which the Abjurer's Guild holds power. But the one they are most entrenched in is the vaulters guild. Vaulters are a kind of banker. They can take your money and store it for your, provide you with credit letters and, if you allow them to invest the said money, even give you interest. They also work as more normal storage service, guarding precious objects in deep underground vaults with many powerful wards keeping their location a secret and making uninvited entrance all but impossible. The vaulters also use their vaults as magic sources, meaning they become more powerful the more valuable objects they store in them.

Stonemasons is another lower guild with a strong Abjurer's Guild presence. While most stonemasons are part of the Transmuter's Guild (and use their magic to make the materials more resilient), abjurers are also an important part of the masons. As mentioned, they will build into the walls wards and even runes to keep the place they build safe.

The warden's guild is different from most other guilds in that it primarily works for the emperor rather than for the public in general, though powerful slave owners also use their services. The primary purpose of the warden is creating a prison and running it. Most wardens have extensive weapon and tactics training and sometimes are attached to army legions. In cities, the guild hall is also a large prison and criminals as well as slaves may be held there for punishment. This guild should (hopefully, if I don't bungle up things too much) be somewhat similar to the Guild of Torturers from the New Sun books. As such, many wardens belong to the Necromancer's Guild as they learn both means to cause much pain and to keep people alive. A few, on the other hand, are diviners, using their magic to watch their charges and find them if they escape. Wardens also do less shady work doing security work for rich households, often hiring bodyguards and setting up security schemes for the family.

Because spells like cure disease belong to the abjuration school, the abjurers also have some influence in the physician's guild, though this one is dominated by necromancers and transmuters.

 

[JarlFrank]

Interesting setting and magic concept, having to draw from power sources is something I have toyed with myself in ideas for magic, but never systematized.

Which leads to the most important question: how does the magic work mechanically, particularly the wild magic that can fuck up a power source if it goes wrong?
Can you cast a fire spell anywhere or do you need to be near a source?
Does the level of the spell make a difference in what that source has to be? For example - a low level fire spell can be pulled from a campfire, but a 9th level spell requires a volcano nearby. This would make magic very interesting as it adds a lot of planning to playing a mage, making players prefer certain landmarks, or making them bring little focuses along for lower level spells to draw from.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

So you want to keep the same list of schools? In that case, the inspirations that come to my mind aren’t really applicable.

 

[JamesDixon]

Interesting twist on leylines and drawing power from them. I would recommend that you jettison the names of the existing schools and replace them with something that fits your world. My other recommendation is to use GURPS Powers for a starter since the rules follow the convention that everything is a special effect and the mechanics are generic. Tie in the use of power disadvantages into each spell's build.

 

[NecroLord]

Transmutation is complete bonkers.
Always has been.
Contains some of the most OP spells.

 

[deuxhero]

D&D magic schools just need to be scrapped and rebuilt to do anything with. They're strongly tied to mechanics, but also stick powers in whatever school the devs wanted at the moment.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Yeah, sticking with the same schools isn't going to get you very far, as a number of them are fundamentally flawed. The problem is that some are thematic (Aburation, Necromancy) while others are mechanical (Conjuration, Illusion) some are both (Divination, Enchantment) and others are neither, and just used as random grab bags (Alteration, Evocation.)

If you want a meaningful school system, you need the schools to be limiting. Blasting someone with some fire is a concept you can reach via Aburation, Conjuration, Enchantment, Alteration or Evocation. Teleportation doesn't really fit anywhere, so it got shoved in with conjuration. Alteration is basically synonymous with enchantment. If I make someone fly or impervious to weapons, did I alter them or enchant them? A nonsense distinction.

I'd suggest fewer schools, and make them very distinct, mechanically. Something like-

Divination - Always affect only the caster, and limited to effects that provide the caster with knowledge. Scrying, identification, detect lies/alignment, comprehend languages, etc. A very narrow field, but arguably the most powerful. You don't want players to have these spells anyways, but they should probably exist. A good specialization for annoying NPCs the players can't reliably get answers from.

Conjuration - Spells which create matter or energy. Fireballs, summoned minions, Illusions, forcefields.

Alteration - Spells which influence an existing physical target. Polymorph, Invisibility, Haste, Healing, Fly, Barkskin, Strength. Lots more gamebreaking stuff here, and a very broad kit as well. You'd probably want to limit such spells to touch range as a hard rule.

Compulsion -Spells which influence a mind or soul. Charm, Sleep, Fear, Geas, and so forth. Another very narrow school, but one that is very powerful and versatile. Again, stuff that can ruin a campaign, but includes really iconic magic stuff. A good specialization for a villain.


Obviously, you could divide things up differently, (You could have a school that affects places rather than people, for example, or inanimate objects but not live ones) but the point is it needs to divide things. There's no point in having spell schools at all if everyone can point a finger and cause 3d6 damage to a target.
If something doesn't fit neatly into one school, make it a cross school spell requiring both. Teleportation and resurrection shouldn't be easy anyways, neither should complex effects like runes of warding, creating permanent undead or long distance communication. Making some things require multiple spells (summon the demon first, then compel it to service with a different spell) would help for balance too. Avoid duplicate effects under different schools (you could conjure mage armour or enchant with stoneskin, so pick one and ban the other) to ensure the schools have distinct advantages instead of bleeding together.

 

[deuxhero]

If I make someone fly or impervious to weapons, did I alter them or enchant them? A nonsense distinction.

Enchantment is spells that effect the mind (he was enchanted by the lamia), magic items are enhanced items.. Now Enchantment and Divination are practically interchangeable for buffs.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I must be thinking of 2nd edition; pretty sure stuff like permenancy was enchantment back then. Point still stands. If evocation can summon a big hand to fight things and make your sword hit harder AND ward a building from undead AND enhance your strength AND send messages across the world, what is the point of having spell schools?

 

[JamesDixon]

I must be thinking of 2nd edition; pretty sure stuff like permenancy was enchantment back then. Point still stands. If evocation can summon a big hand to fight things and make your sword hit harder AND ward a building from undead AND enhance your strength AND send messages across the world, what is the point of having spell schools?

Enchanted Weapon is a fourth level spell and Permanency is an eighth level spell. Permanency was also Alteration school.

 

[anvi]

I must be thinking of 2nd edition; pretty sure stuff like permenancy was enchantment back then. Point still stands. If evocation can summon a big hand to fight things and make your sword hit harder AND ward a building from undead AND enhance your strength AND send messages across the world, what is the point of having spell schools?

The hand spell chould be conjuration or evocation. Buffing your sword Alteration or Abjuration. Buffing against Undead should be Divination. Etc.

In EverQuest you can do everything but specialize in one thing which makes spells of that type mana efficient. Some enemies were immune to certain things too so it paid to get good at multiple spell types.

 

[NecroLord]

D&D magic schools just need to be scrapped and rebuilt to do anything with. They're strongly tied to mechanics, but also stick powers in whatever school the devs wanted at the moment.

Arcane Magic itself was broken from the start.
As in it gets completely nuts and spirals out of control at high levels.
Levels 6 up to 9 of spell schools contain some of the worst offenders, so to speak.
Especially Transmutation with its polymorphing shenanigans.
Conjuration is another one.

 

[luj1]

 

[Storyfag]

powerful mages are also warlords that subjugate communities to use them as sources of magic power

You will certainly want the input of Lacrymas for this part.

 

[Old One]

How can a sword have dexterity?

 

[Lacrymas]

powerful mages are also warlords that subjugate communities to use them as sources of magic power

You will certainly want the input of Lacrymas for this part.

This is essentially what all settings with arcane magic will devolve into if the author wants it to be coherent.

As for this magic system/setting - what my "meta"problem with arcane magic is is that if it is systematized and spellcasters can replicate a magic spell using certain formulas or words, then it's essentially science through the back door. If you can find a way to subvert that somehow, then great, but having magic schools already kind of points to it not being subverted.

 

[Poseidon00]

If magic is gained from "sources" of power than you should lean fully into that, and things like "spell schools" as a field of study should be more informal theories than a fact of the art. The spells you gain you should be tied to your source of power and wholly or at least partially unique to your source and your skill with using it. If a cemetery is a potential source of power as you say, then the kind of spells you should get are rather obvious, and you can call that "necromancy", but that has no real meaning. If power can be gained from communities and crowds, what would you even call that? You would need a whole new school name.

But I like the idea. I imagine a Caesar-like figure who gains his power from the love and admiration the community has is in him, their belief in his great deeds, which gives him a wholly different power set to a scheming merchant who has great influence but only through "economic factors" or the magistrate who rules through fear.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

http://spheres5e.wikidot.com/

 

[Alex]

Since people decided to revive this thread...

JarlFrank, I had a rather long reply to you written out to you only to realise I was just going on about my system and probably no one was interested in reading that in post form, so I am going to try to write the basics of the rules and post a link here, in case anyone is interested. If you are curious about the specific rules for anything, I would be happy to discuss them, though, here or on private messaging (I really don't want to make long posts that people don't want to read). The basic rule about sources is that they can be used far away (it is a Spelljammer setting after all), but it requires the mage to keep a form of connection to the source in his person. Losing the connection can cut his access to the source, and the only way to rebuild it would be going back to it. Other than that, it is possible to attack the source itself and nullify the mage's control over it. Every source has a certain physical presence that can be targetted so. Some are small enough they are portable too. For instance, a possible source is a cursing mage's books of bad deeds repaid, where he keeps a list of evil deeds done by other people and curses he placed on them as retribution. While the source itself are his actions and the changes he brought into these people's lives, the book itself binds it all together.

To everyone discussing AD&D schools, I wanted to use the traditional D&D schools because I think I've got a good feeling of how to make each school make in-setting sense. Rather than a long post like I did with abjuration, let me try to explain what I had in mind in a more succinct way. Note that in the following text, I use the name of the specialists of each school to address someone who deals in that school. Specialisation in this setting is done differently and one can always learn any school of magic, though it takes a long time to study all of them:

Abjuration: As explained in the long post, abjuration is about protection, banishing, imprisonment, wards and such. The particular changes I wanted to make focus more in bringing runic spells to it, expand those to make them more useful and try to make abjurers a kind of trapper mage. Abjuration spells tend to remain until they are broken. Abjuration's philosophy focus around the idea that entropy consumes all that exist and abjuration is a way to preserve things from it, though the perfect abjuration, that would defeat entropy permanently, doesn't exist, at least yet.

Alteration: One of the most powerful schools, alteration is more limited in this setting. Alteration spells work by changing the thing it affects. The more profound the change, the more power the spell needs. It is easier to change a human into another human, or into an elf. Harder to change him into a bear, harder yet into a fish, and much harder into a stone. By itself, it can't change something into something that doesn't exist. So, a spell like fly would belong to enchantment, while a transmuter would probably shape-change into a flying creature instead. It is possible to "teleport" with it, but conjuration is a more safe school for it. The school combines well with all others, however, allowing it to make changes that are otherwise impossible. By combining it with evocation, for instance, it is possible to cast various spells that change the body into elemental forms. Also, "metamagic" spells belong to their own new school, so alteration loses that too, although mixing metamagic with alteration allows them to be applied to spells already cast. Alteration philosophy centres around defining various states of "being", believing everything to be being and of the same "substance". That is, the difference between a man, a monkey, a stone and a spell is not that of species, they are all the same substance, just in different "states". Transmuters are alchemists and they seek a transmutation that will lead them to the ultimate state of being.

Conjuration/Summoning: Conjurers in the setting are highly sought after. In long travels, they can conjure clean air, water and even food. And while some clerics can do so as well, there is no such thing as the default cleric, so only those with access to the right spheres would be able to imitate such spells, and religions are often picky about who they help. "Generalist" clerics are a thing, but they are also servants of the emperor, which makes having any kind of illegal dealings in the ship a problem. Conjuration spells can cause damage too, but they are usually nowhere as powerful as invocations. On the bright side, though, they don't really trigger any kind of spell resistance. Conjurers can also teleport, and unlike the alteration version of these spells, they don't have to worry about bad transmission (like ending up suffocating under the earth because you rolled a bad %). Summoning spells are powerful, bringing creatures from other planes to serve the conjurer. These spells often don't bring the creature physically, but rather manifests it, causing its powers to be limited by the wizard's magic, but also allowing more control over the creature while it is summoned. "Gating" is the art of bringing an outsider to another plane physically. It is more powerful than summoning because the creature being physically present means that it has access to all its powers, but it also means that only the agreements made beforehand by the mage and the creature bind it. The mage can't take control over it as he can over a summoned elemental for instance. The philosophy of conjuration sees the world as single thing and believes that everything that makes things unique is a illusion. A bit like Zeno and Parmenides, they believe time, distances and multiplicity are all illusions, dreams they seek to awake from so they can become one with all.

Divination: A school centred around, of course, divining information. Divination is a cool school to have, and it is important the information you can get from this wouldn't be something the DM would just tell the players otherwise. Some games are played like this, and information gathering is seen like just a prelude to the real action, and there isn't much reason to invest in this. There is good material to use for this both from AD&D and from GURPS, and some creativity can be used to make different divination methods good at different things. For instance, you might not discover much about the medallion you've found using geomancy, but on the other hand it might be very useful to build a fortress so it best resists enemy attacks. Other than that, I wanted to have in my world the idea that there is luck, retribution and fate, three different forces governing "randomness", with fate being the most powerful of all. The most powerful divination spells would be able to divine fate, and maybe even change it with the help of other schools. Divination philosophy is based in the idea that the universe is actually infinitely huge and varied and everything that is false "here" is true somewhere else. As such, "destinations" don't have any value, because any change you might effect already exists in some form of alternate reality. Diviners then seek instead to find value in the "journey" rather than the destination.

Enchantment: This school causes a lot of discussion. In this setting, enchantment is a kind of magic where the power of one thing is given to another, or the power of one thing is manipulated in some way. Thus, fly in this setting is an enchantment spell that takes the power of flight of a bird (or of an air elemental, or of whatever) and gives it to a human (or elf, or dwarf, etc). Enchantments can, with a lot of energy, be made long lasting and even permanent, so it is very useful to study enchantment to use it together with spells of your main school. Furthermore, enchantment is seem as the most important school in setting because it can be used to make a variety of magic "enchanted" items, with the spelljamming helms being one of them. The mind control aspect of enchantment comes from using it to manipulate one of the most familiar powers a mage will have, the will. By using enchantment, it is possible to "magnetise" the will with powerful desires or disgusts, for instance. All these schools have several sub-fields that can be studied, but enchantment in particular has many. Cursing, for instance, combines enchantment and necromancy to create permanent magic effects that are very hard to dispel and that can cause many maladies, especially if the curse somehow is a punishment for some evil the person has done. The philosophy of enchantment holds that the will is the greatest power of the universe and that the intellect shackles it unnecessarily, and the path to the greatest power is to free the will from the confines of intellect, truth and reality. What this means, however, often yields a different answer from each enchanter.

Illusion: This school is really cool in AD&D, and I am mostly keeping it "as is". One particular aspect of it that I want to implement in my game is the different kinds of illusion and how they react differently; and use this to create "saving throws". For instance, "simple" or "real" illusions are illusions that just fool the senses. They are "real" in that the effect created is real. The illusory dragon is not a real dragon, but its light is real light. If you see it through a mirror, it will follow all rules of physics and so on. This kind of illusion takes a lot of energy to make it work well, and it has no special effects if challenged. If the illusory dragon bites a person, the person doesn't pass out unless he is given to fainting. The point of these illusions is to fool the enemy. Phantasms are different, they are not made of light and sound, but of pure "perception". A dragon phantasm that bites you will cause pain, so much that it could make you pass out, for instance. Phantasms don't really interact with things in the world, however, and this can create tell tales that helps those fighting them realise they are illusions. For instance, a very simple phantasm might not show on a mirror. Higher level spells, however, will extend the phantasm to cover more and more of such things, making them more interactive and more believable. Shadows can be created when combining invocation with illusion. Shadow is a kind of matter that exists alongside the ethereal plane. It is somewhat illusory by nature and can be a very powerful tool in the hands of a mage, as these illusions have some "reality" behind them. A shadow steed can even be ridden by the mage, though it will be faster and stronger for someone who doesn't realise its illusory nature. Figments, created with enchantment and illusion together, are somewhat similar to phantasms. But their nature is that they draw from the subject's mind to give them form. For instance, a certain figment might be an horror, so the person looking at him might see something he dreads. This means that simple figments can have different appearances to different people. On the other hand, it may be hard to realise that because they often cause very strong reactions. More powerful figments can be more specific and be harder to spot. For instance, a figment that pretends to be the king of a certain country would appear as the king as each subject knows or imagines him. More interesting spells may draw their appearance from the mind of a specific subject, creating, for instance, a figment not of horror, in general, but the specific horror that character has. Finally, the most powerful kind of illusion in this setting are the glamours. Often associated with the fey, glamours are illusions that change reality to a degree. They are "real", only they stand to lose all their power should some taboo be broken. For instance, a certain kind of Troll is made by casting a glamour spell on a stone at midnight. But should the sun illuminate the Troll, his true nature as a stone is revealed and the spell is broken. The thing about glamours, however, is that they feed on their own fame. The more people talk about a glamour, the more powerful it becomes, and it changes to match what the rumours say, the more popular such rumours are! Philosophically, illusionists believe there is no such thing as reality, or rather, that all reality is is just another illusion. They often see themselves as some kind of entertainer or artist, and the point of living is crafting their art.

Invocation: Ah yes, the big boom of magic. Drawing from the name, my idea for invocation is that it mimics the power of some naturally magic creature, especially those of the elemental planes. Invocation spells allow the mage to draw upon the power of some specific spirit (elemental, outsider or what have you) to create magic; often of the combative kind, but not necessarily. Invocation spells are created by studying a creature that has the powers that it seeks to mimic. Because of this, the actual spells of this school can have a whole lot of different effects, though limited by the mage's ability to locate and study these creatures (and by studying, vivisection might not be needed, but it is a plus, but you definitely want something like its true name and whatnot). Most natural magic is rather "primal", so while these spells can have effects that mimic other schools, it usually isn't as often as it might seen, and anyway it is usually much less efficient. Invocation is often mixed with other spells by its ready access to the elemental plane. The philosophy of this school believes that there is a great hierarchy behind creation and seeks to unveil this spiritual hierarchy, usually resulting in some weird trees representing aspects of creation like the kabbalah. Invokers often dream of climbing this spiritual hierarchy themselves, foregoing their humanity in the process.

Necromancy: Despite the bad name it gets, necromancy started not from the creation of undead, but the divination practice of speaking to the dead. This school studies not death, but the particular energies of human (and demi-human) beings. Which include positive and negative energy (in the AD&D sense, not the new age one). As such, necromancy can be used for good purposes, including to heal (which is a good thing, as adventuring priests with the healing sphere are not all that common). Necromancy spells can also affect luck, retribution and even fate, though not usually by themselves alone. Cursing, in particular, is done by using the energies of retribution against someone. Other than that, necromancy studies the energies not only of humans, but also of other animals and living beings, allowing it to have some degree of effect on them. The philosophy of necromancy sees the energies of fate and retribution as a prison and believe the only way man can be truly free is to escape these.

Well, sorry for the super long post... I really thought it would be shorter when I started typing it. Hopefully some of you have fun reading it. IF you have any criticism or thoughts, I would really like to read them. RaggleFraggle: I have a lot of ideas for the specific schools in AD&D like you might be able to see, but I am all ears for whatever cool ideas you might have.

D&D magic schools just need to be scrapped and rebuilt to do anything with. They're strongly tied to mechanics, but also stick powers in whatever school the devs wanted at the moment.

Arcane Magic itself was broken from the start.
As in it gets completely nuts and spirals out of control at high levels.
Levels 6 up to 9 of spell schools contain some of the worst offenders, so to speak.
Especially Transmutation with its polymorphing shenanigans.
Conjuration is another one.

Yes, D&D magic is very fun.

powerful mages are also warlords that subjugate communities to use them as sources of magic power

You will certainly want the input of Lacrymas for this part.

This is essentially what all settings with arcane magic will devolve into if the author wants it to be coherent.

As for this magic system/setting - what my "meta"problem with arcane magic is is that if it is systematized and spellcasters can replicate a magic spell using certain formulas or words, then it's essentially science through the back door. If you can find a way to subvert that somehow, then great, but having magic schools already kind of points to it not being subverted.

Magic really is kind of a science in this setting, so much so it has suffered a whole industrial and sail age revolution at the same time because of it. But it still is not fully reliable. However, the higher level spells are still somewhat rare and powerful mages tend to become obsessed with their school's philosophy. Mages in the empire aren't individually strong, usually, though the guildmasters of the high guilds do have a lot of personal power, but are closely watched by the emperor and his loyal men. What I am going here is for a world where magic is used for the "benefit" of civilisation on the surface, but with a threat of the chaos magic that is far more uncontrollable and terrifying underneath. Up to now, it has worked well in the empire, but even there there are malcontents.

 

[Alex]

If magic is gained from "sources" of power than you should lean fully into that, and things like "spell schools" as a field of study should be more informal theories than a fact of the art. The spells you gain you should be tied to your source of power and wholly or at least partially unique to your source and your skill with using it. If a cemetery is a potential source of power as you say, then the kind of spells you should get are rather obvious, and you can call that "necromancy", but that has no real meaning. If power can be gained from communities and crowds, what would you even call that? You would need a whole new school name.

But I like the idea. I imagine a Caesar-like figure who gains his power from the love and admiration the community has is in him, their belief in his great deeds, which gives him a wholly different power set to a scheming merchant who has great influence but only through "economic factors" or the magistrate who rules through fear.

About the sources, what I had in mind is this: natural sources are usually tied with some natural aspect. A volcano is attuned to fire and magma, for instance, while a clear and secluded lake might be tied with water and reflection. This attuning means that energy taken from these sources is more effective when powering spells associated with them and less effective when powering spells with no association. Spells that are contrary to the attunement not only are very inefficient, but often results in chaos magic even if you take all the care you can.

Human made sources are usually attuned to a magic school instead, though they have some minor attunement to concepts as well. For instance, a giant astrolabe that carefully mimics the planets and the stars as seem from where it stands will be strongly attuned to divination, and weakly attuned to stars and the night.

 

[Damned Registrations]

This is essentially what all settings with arcane magic will devolve into if the author wants it to be coherent.

As for this magic system/setting - what my "meta"problem with arcane magic is is that if it is systematized and spellcasters can replicate a magic spell using certain formulas or words, then it's essentially science through the back door. If you can find a way to subvert that somehow, then great, but having magic schools already kind of points to it not being subverted.

This gave me an idea for a setting where arcane magic is indeed like science, but rather than it being the backbone of militaries everywhere, it's been neutered and contains no direct combat magic. The reasoning being, at some point in the past it caused an apocalypse, as weapon technology is wont to do, and afterwards an inquisition (backed by clerical magic) rooted out combat magic research to prevent another great disaster. Since science requires building on existing works and a great deal of collaboration, so long as the inquisition stays in power, arcane magic will never regain enough footing to resist it. I can imagine all sorts of cool scenarios to go with that, like ruins containing forbidden magic, hidden secluded mages, smuggling networks, improvised war magic and so forth.

Levels 6 up to 9 of spell schools contain some of the worst offenders, so to speak.

Not familiar with newer editions, but 3rd edition had some incredibly broken stuff. IIRC the Gate spell could summon a monster twice the caster's level- not controlled, but who cares, summon a level 34 fiendish uber dinosaur and fly away while it destroys an entire army. Shadow conjuration and evocation pairs hilariously with the various spells in these schools that don't involve dice based effects, like wall of force, cloudkill, resillient sphere, wall of iron (permanent!) mage hut and a bunch of other shit, these two combined are practically a limited wish spell. Most of the really broken shit doesn't appear/isn't relevant in a crpg, but for tabletop, an illusionist is pretty bonkers once they get these.

And even at the low end, spells do crazy game breaking shit. My personal favourite being fly + shrink item. At level 5 (when you can gain both these spells) you can do 10 cubic feet per item and it lasts 5 days. So you can take a log 10 feet long and a little over a foot thick, and shrink it to ~8 inches long. Or something nastier like a cauldron of poison, rocks, a crate containing literal tons of caltrops or anvils (a campfire is considered 'an object' so the material need not be continuous) and then drop them from hundreds of feet above a fortress you don't like. Reversing the spell is via command word. Plugging some numbers into an online calculator gave me a terminal velocity for a 9ft cubed volume sphere of 1362km/h. Sonic boom. 143MJ of energy, that's over 30kg of TNT. Siege weapons eat your heart out. At level 9 you could conjure the projectile out of gold instead. 4917kg, 2132km/h, (I'm not sure you could even fly high enough to get that amount of velocity via gravity, to be fair) and 862MJ. For reference, I found this, which is a mere 32 MJ:




Physics, yo.

 

[anvi]

How can a sword have dexterity?

I always saw that as like a magical enhancement. Items can have a curse with negative stats or a buff with positive. In EQ you can kind of imagine the enhancement from items too. Like a slender looking sword will be fast and light and might have a bit of Agility or Dex on it. I always imagined that as just feeling good in the hand and light. A huge sword might have AC on it and STR. I always saw that as being so big you could block some attacks with it and the STR came with it being big and heavy.