I'm getting to know more about the spellcasters in this game and I'm very interested in knowing witch schools are the favorites. The way I see it. The game is pretty unbalanced towards enchantment spells since charm "foe" spells are so potent and most enemies have poor will saves. And with the current AI, charming someone in the middle of a large group can result in a higher survivability rate than tossing a AoE spell right from the start since you'll normally have more time to focus and organize your attacks. But every school apart from divination seems to have true benefits and the way I see it, it depends much on the party itself. With crafting put aside, I think transmutation falls really behind other schools 'thou. I'm currently importing a necro-sorcerer into my game that's already in the temple. I'm leveling him up quickly in my 3 person party to replace burne when I find the Orb. Then it will be him + my enchanter/illusionist rogue, AKA the shadowdancer, against the world.
I believe that picking NONE for Specialized school of magic for the caster is better method, because then you don't have to be forbidden to use a school or it cast out of the picture forever. besides not getting the extra spell slot, alternatively you can later pick craft wand feat or scribe scrolls in place, then you can cast wut ever you want more often, because it would be stored in a wand. ALSO you could just pick a magic focus feat or Magic affinity to amp that school or skill. crafting a wonderous item for INTELEGENCE (headband of intelect) would be a good idea (for wizard) just to add the more power to any spell by rasing that stat also, it will maybe ADD more spells per day/ level of spells known when you level up , by having that item. good wands to craft would be: FIREBALL, TELEPORT, DISMISAL, DEMINSON DOOR, READ MAGIC, SUGGESTION/DOMINATE PERSON, MAGIC MISSILE, MELFS ACID ARROW, MIRROR IMAGE, BLUR, and some others if your looking to use the caster class to perk up a worrior/fighter/rogue type for multi class then I would say enchantement or illusion school specialize
The best two schools for me are conjuration and enchantment. Even without the charm spells (I think they are too good/boring and never use them) enchantment is great. All the other schools have at least one very good spell. Honestly I could do without any of the schools, but I tend to get the focus feats in enchantment and/or conjuration. I don't agree that transmutation falls behind. Enlarge person and haste are some of my most used spells, and slow is also very good. Though I don't use it that often I guess disintegrate deserves some credit for being (AFAIK) the most damaging, single target spell in the game. Personally I feel like there are many more good, useful spells than I have time to cast, so if I take away a school or two there are still plenty of great options for almost every situation. I agree with the guy above that specializing is mostly a waste in this game, though. It's better to just keep a stack of scrolls for every situation. Scrolls are far too good in this game for a bunch of reasons.
Most used probably Conjuration (for Summon Monster X, stinking cloud, cloudkill and teleport). Transmutation for haste and the various stat boosters, Illusion for invisibility. I retain a fondness for evocation, mainly for magic missile and crafting, and because if a fireball is going to be useful anywhere it's going to be against bugbears in a cRPG. I rarely use Necromancy, so if I were specialising I'd drop that amd possibly divination, since it has limited in-game use, but I tend to generalise.
I agree with both of you. But every day that passes I move further away from powerplaying the game. I'm just wondering if there is a broken/terrible wizard. But my guess is that even crossing 2 schools you are still left with a lot of awesome options in the others. Actually, my favorite school to ban in this game is evocation. I think there is a lot of damage in the other schools already. And @short: I find that once you craft the appropriate items, most of Transmutation school is wasted. But it is STILL GOOD. Mass haste gets nicer the larger your party is but I tend to play parties of 2 or 3 chars.
I usually specialize my wizard in Divination and take Necromancy and Enchantment as opposition schools. Of course, I use him almost exclusively for crafting (the Nulb ambush being a notable exception), but everyone plays the game their own way.
If you specialize in Divination you only need to give up one school if I remember correctly. By the rules you cannot drop Divimation. I personaly llike Divination only and only because of Kimmuriel However, I always go generalist with my main Wizard, and often play Illusionist/ Rogue giving up Necromancy and Trasmutation.
I never specialize. Scribe scroll gives me plenty of "spell slots", and wizards also trump sorcerers with the variety of spells they can cast and the "extra slots" gained by scribe scroll.
I go for Divination because it gives me more Read Magic and Identify spells until I can make a Helm of Reading Magic. Per RAW, you only need to give up one school, but in TOEE you have to give up two. It doesn't crimp my play style at all, so I don't sweat it.
Enchanting... gotta love those charm and dominate, crazy good (in this cRPG anyway) You could also consider the enchantment you can put on the weapons. But most mages in ToEE doesn't really have a specialization, since they can do basically everything when they level. The specialization you choose to have gives little difference.
