Editing Specialist Wizard (section)

=The Human Bias=
One interesting little oddity of the specialist wizard is that it's another area where [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] tried to promote a more "humanocentric" interpretation of the setting, alongside the whole "only humans can be all classes and reach unlimited levels in all of them". Even races defined by their connection to arcane magic were often not able to access the full array of specialities, so humans technically were better mages than elves or gnomes! The only specialization with no racial restrictions was the [[Elementalist]] and its [[Al-Qadim]] spin-offs; the Elemental Mage, the Sorcerer, and the Sha'ir... well, the [[Tome of Magic]] version of the Elementalist mentions no racial restrictions; the Player's Option: Spells & Magic version, on the other hand, states the Elementalist is a Human Only specialty. The [[Dragon Magazine]] version of the Dimensionalist would also let gnomes and elves take the class - the "official" version in Player's Options: Spells & Magic would instead strip that ability away from them both.

[[Human]]s could be literally '''any''' of the specializations, apart from the [[Dualist]].

[[Elf|Elves]] could be Conjurers, Diviners, Enchanters, Wild Mages, Dualists, Chronomancers, Geometers, and Song Mages.

[[Half-Elf|Half-Elves]] could be Conjurers, Diviners, Enchanters, Transmuters, Wild Mages, Dualists, Chronomancers, Dimensionalists, Force Mages, Geometers, Song Mages, Spellsingers, and Metamages.

[[Gnome]]s were an unusual variant in originally not only were they the only non-human race who could specialize as Illusionists, they ''had'' to specialize as illusionists, even becoming the otherwise impossible multiclassed specialist wizard if they used [[multiclassing]]. They would later be permitted to be Dualists (but only the Necromancy/Illusion sub-speciality), Artificers, and Alchemists. 

[[Half-Vistani]] can be Arcanists, Conjurers, Enchanters or Illusionists - if female, they can also be Diviners.

In case you've lost track, that means that the most flexible and well-studied wizards in AD&D are either humans or half-elves, with elves coming a distinct third!