Specialist Wizard

This article related to Dungeons & Dragons is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

Specialist Wizards are a concept and slang term that /tg/ inherited from Dungeons & Dragons, specifically from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. Y'see, originally, the Magic-User was a super-broad class that was basically defined as "that spellcaster other than the cleric, the one who can't heal people but can blow shit up". Easy to grasp on a conceptual level, but a bit... homogenous. Come AD&D 1st edition, Gary Gygax introduced the Illusionist; an alternative wizard who gave up the entirety of the regular magic-user spell list to instead gain its own spells, all focused around creating illusions. Now, mechanically it was crap even for 1e, but it gave TSR ideas. Then came 2nd edition, and the Specialist Wizard was born: magic was formally divided into eight schools, and so at character creation a player could choose to play either a general wizard and just run straight ahead, or a Specialist Wizard - a wizard who focusd on mastery of a single specific school of magic, gaining increased potency in their field at the cost of losing the ability to use magic of one or more "opposed" fields.

Now, this being 2e, the benefits of specializing in magic weren't all that great. But it sparked a revolution amongst players. The concept took off, resulting in specialist wizards being retained into 3rd edition, temporarily lost in 4th edition, and then brought back triumphantly in 5th edition. One could argue that this led to the entire existence of kits and their subsequent offshoots; Variant Classes, Archetypes and Subclasses, or even that without the Specialist Wizard, we wouldn't have gotten the non-wizard arcane spellcasters of 3rd edition and Pathfinder - without these eight wizard alternatives, we wouldn't have gotten things like the Sorcerer, Warlock, Beguiler, Hexblade, Warmage, Swordmage, Witch and Magus, to name a few.

The Eight Traditions

• Abjurer: A wizard specialized in Abjuration, the art of defensive magic. Forsakes the schools of Transmutation and Illusion.
• Conjurer: A wizard specialized in Conjuration, the art of summoning magic. Forsakes the schools of Divination and Evocation.
• Diviner: A wizard specialized in Divination, the art of knowledge-seeking magic. Forsakes the school of Conjuration.
• Enchanter: A wizard specialized in Enchantment, the art of mind-controlling magic. Forsakes the schools of Evocation and Necromancy.
• Evoker: A wizard specialized in Evocation, the art of destructive magic. Forsakes the schools of Enchantment and Conjuration.
• Illusionist: A wizard specialized in Illusion, the art of sense-deceiving magic. Forsakes the schools of Necromancy, Evocation and Abjuration.
• Necromancer: A wizard specialized in Necromancy, the art of death magic. Forsakes the schools of Illusion and Enchantment.
• Transmuter: A wizard specialized in Transmutation, the art of alteration magic. Forsakes the schools of Abjuration and Necromancy.

Non-Core 2e Specialists

It didn't take long for TSR to realize that they had something special on their hands with the Specialist Wizard, and so they slowly began to explore the possibilities of alternative schools of magic to the ones they had launched in the Player's Handbook. Thus, the term "Specialist Wizard" grew ever-larger over 2e's lifespan.

• Wild Mage: A wizard specialised in tapping into magic's wildest, rawest form and exploiting that potentially dangerous power. First debuted in Tome of Magic, then was reprinted in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Elementalist: A wizard specialized in controlling one of the four elements. Appearing alongside the Wild Mage on two occasions, this one also appeared in Al-Qadim, where Arabian Adventures featured two different styles; the Elemental Mage (basically a reskin/tweak of the original Elementalist), and the Sorcerer, an elementalist who drew on two elements simultaneously.
• Shadow Mage: A wizard specialized in manipulating umbral matter and drawing power from the Plane of Shadow. This guy first appeared in Player's Option: Skills and Powers, and then reappeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Dimensionalist: A kind of specialized Conjurer focusing on magic that manipulates the boundaries between different planes. This guy appeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Force Mage: A specialist elementalist hyper-focused on manipulating raw force energy, such as that seen in the iconic Magic Missile spell. This guy appeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Mentalist: Sitting somewhere between an arcane emulation of psionics and a specialist enchanter, Mentalists focus exclusively on spells that affect and control the minds of others. This guy appeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Alchemist: A wizard that specializes in creating potions and using magic to analyze and alter material - a more focused version of the transmuter. This guy first appeared in Player's Option: Skills and Powers, and then reappeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Artificer: A wizard specialized in creating physical tools to create, contain, channel and control magical energy. This guy appeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Geometer: A wizard specialized in the use of runes, symbols, diagrams and other such mediums to channel and contain magical energy. Basically a rune wizard. This guy first appeared in Player's Option: Skills and Powers, and then reappeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Song Mage: A wizard specialized in the way that music and song can be used to channel and manipulate magical energy; basically a bard that focuses on magic instead of trying to be a jack of all trades. This guy first appeared in Player's Option: Skills and Powers, and then reappeared in Player's Option: Spells & Magic.
• Sha'ir: A wizard who forms a unique pact with a genie familiar, trading favors in exchange for magical energy drawn from this familiar. The iconic Al-Qadim wizard, this specialization debuted in Arabian Adventures.
• Arcanist: A wizard who studies the darkest arts for knowledge and power - essentially a diviner/necromancer cross. This specialization appeared in the Domains of Dread boxed set for Ravenloft.
• Runecaster: An arcane spellcaster who uses runes to invoke and channel magical energy for a specific purpose; most popular with giants and dwarves. Appeared in the Giantcraft splatbook for the Forgotten Realms.
• Metamage: A wizard specialized in directly manipulating the casting of spells itself - essentially an abjurer with a further focus in metamagic. Also called an Incantatrix (for females) or Incantatar (for males), this Forgotten Realms specialization appeared in the Cult of the Dragon.
• Dualist: An elf-created specialist wizard who focuses exclusively on two schools of magic that are normally considered to be opposed to each other. Appeared in Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves for the Forgotten Realms.
• Chronomancer: A specialist wizard focused on using magic to travel through and manipulate time. Appears in the Chronomancy splatbook, which is titled... well, Chronomancy!

Mechanics

When they debuted in AD&D 2nd edition, specialist wizards were, well, very specialized! You needed to have a minimum ability score in addition to your base 9+ Intelligence, had racial restrictions, and gave up two schools for every specialization except Illusionists (who gave up three) and Diviners (who only gave up one). What did you get in return?

• +1 to saving throws against spells of your specialized school.
• Targets of spells you cast from your specialized school suffer a -1 penalty to their saving throws.
• +15% bonus to chance to learn spells from your specialized school.
• -15% penalty to chance to learn spells from any other school.
• Automatically gain a spell of your specialized school when you reach a new spell level - a bigger deal than it sounds, since you were otherwise restricted to whatever scrolls or spellbooks you could find, buy or steal and even then you had to gamble that the dice gods would favor your chance to learn that spell.
• A bonus spell slot in each spell level that must be used to memorize a spell of your specialized school (so a level 1 evoker gets 2 spell slots per day, but must memorize at least 1 Evocation spell with its bonus one).
• When attempting to invent a spell of your specialized school, treat its level as being 1 level lower to determine your chance of success.

Whilst the "nonstandard" specialist wizards of 2e would play around with this formula, by and large it remained the base template; increased ability to learn and invent spells of their school(s) alongside bonus spells per day and some save modifiers for the caster and the caster's targets, at the cost of directly and indirectly limiting their access to spells outside of their schools.

In 3.5, the idea was simplified; Specialist Wizards now gained +1 daily spell per spell level and a +2 bonus to Spellcraft checks made to learn spells. They also gained a lot more flexibility in choosing their prohibited schools:

• Abjuration: To become an abjurer, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from the following choices: (1) either Conjuration, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, or Transmutation; or (2) both Divination and Necromancy.
• Conjuration: To become a conjurer, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from one of the following choices: (1) Evocation; (2) any two of the following three schools: Abjuration, Enchantment, and Illusion; (3) Transmutation, or (4) any three schools.
• Divination: To become a diviner, a wizard must select any other single school as a prohibited school.
• Enchantment: To become an enchanter, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from the following choices: (1) either Abjuration, Conjuration, Evocation, Illusion, or Transmutation; or (2) both Divination and Necromancy.
• Evocation: To become an evoker, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from one of the following choices: (1) Conjuration; (2) any two of the following three schools: Abjuration, Enchantment, and Illusion; (3) Transmutation; or (4) any three schools.
• Illusion: To become an illusionist, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from the following choices: (1) either Abjuration, Conjuration, Enchantment, Evocation, or Transmutation; or (2) both Divination and Necromancy.
• Necromancy: To become a necromancer, a wizard must select any other single school as a prohibited school.
• Transmutation: To become a transmuter, a wizard must select a prohibited school or schools from one of the following choices: (1) Conjuration; (2) Evocation; (2) any two of the following three schools: Abjuration, Enchantment, and Illusion; or (4) any three schools.

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game continued in 3e's footsteps in downplaying the penalties; in this game, a specialist wizard must select any two other spells of their choice as prohibited schools... but they don't lose access to these schools. Instead, they merely have to expend 2 spell slots to cast a spell of a "prohibited" school, and suffer a -4 penalty to skill checks made as part of creating a magic item that features spells from their "prohibited" school. As for the benefits that the wizard gains from specializing, they're much more unique than in previous editions, although they do still gain the +1 spell slot per spell level of editions past. Even unspecialized "Universalist" wizards get some bonuses, though they lack that bonus spell slot per spell level.

PF2E would downplay those penalties even further, removing any mention of opposing schools. That said, specialist wizards do still get a bonus spell slot per level and bonus spell, cantrip and focus spell from their chosen school. Universalist wizards, without such a focus, won't get most of these perks but still get to cast a spell through their bonded item one additional time per day on top in addition to a bonus class feat.

In 5th edition, due to specialist wizards serving as the subclass mechanic for wizards, their benefits are entirely unique and there are no penalties for specializing - which is only fair, since specialization is mandatory for 5e wizards!

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.

Humans could be literally any of the specializations, apart from the Dualist.

Elves could be Conjurers, Diviners, Enchanters, Wild Mages, Dualists, Chronomancers, Geometers, and Song Mages.

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

Gnomes 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!

Spiritual Successors

Being that the Specialist Wizard was the answer TSR came up with for creating and representing more specific archetypes of spellcaster, the idea would be explored further in subsequent editions, creating entirely new classes that took their own distinctive approaches to arcane magic. Exactly where you draw the line between "entirely new methodology" and "ultra-specialists" can get a little debateable, though.

Sorcerers were the first of the new breed of specialist wizards, representing magic-users whose powers came to them intuitively and innately, freeing them of the mechanics of Vancian Casting. They were basically just wizards with a smaller spell pool and no need to study their spells in downtime, but they could easily be flavored in much the same way as a classic specialist wizard by picking the appropriate spells.

Warlocks are magic-users whose powers stem from pledges they or their ancestors swore to various supernatural beings. In 3rd edition, they were a kind of Sorcerer 2.0, relying on at-will energy blasts and a small arsenal of spell-like abilities, but in subsequent editions they developed into fully fledged casting classes in their own rights.

Wu Jens are "Asian" elementalists who draw their powers from the five elemental schools of Earth, Water, Fire, Wood and Metal.

Warmages are warrior-mages who train in both spellcasting and combat, rigorously drilling the principles of a small, specific array of Abjuration, Evocation and Transmutation spells into their minds until they can cast them instinctively. This meant that every warmage automatically knew its entire selection of spells and just needs the right character level to use them. Ironically, this made them both simpler sorcerers and also the weakest full caster class in 3rd edition, because the Warmage "spell pool" never grew in subsequent books the way that other casters did.

Beguilers are specialists in the arts of magical deception, focusing on blending Enchantment and Illusion magic so they can control the minds of those around them.

Dread Necromancers are... well, they're Necromancers 2.0. That's literally it; somebody decided the classic style Necromancer just wasn't living up to its archetypal potential and so they made a better one.