A Word About Minor Schools

Lesser Divination

The divination spells of 4th-level and below are collectively known as the school of lesser divination. Lesser divination is considered to be a minor school of magic; that is, wizards can't become specialists in lesser divination.

The term "minor" is used informally in this context. It means that specialists from any school are allowed to learn and use these spells. Many of the lesser divination spells, such as detect magic and read magic are basic to the practice of magic. Others, such as identify, ESP, and know alignment are vital to the basic repertoire of any specialist. Without access to the spells of lesser divination, a wizard's ability to function would be frustratingly limited, particularly at the lower levels.

At first glance, the existence of the school of lesser divination would seem to reduce the role of the diviner; after all, no other school allows all specialists such easy access to their low-level spells. However, an examination of the requirements for all schools shows that only the conjurer has greater divination as an opposition school; every other specialist has access to the low-level divination spells. In practice, the existence of the minor school of lesser divination serves only to give the conjurer access to the low-level divination spells.

Although all specialists can learn lesser divination spells, they cannot learn them any more easily or effectively than they can learn spells from schools other than their own. All non-diviners learn lesser divination spells at a penalty of -15 percent on the Intelligence Table (Table 4, page 16 PHB); for instance, either a conjurer or an illusionist with an Intelligence of 15 has a 50 percent chance of learning any given lesser divination spell.

All lesser divination spells are also considered to be part of the school of greater divination. Therefore, a diviner has a 15 percent bonus on the Intelligence Table to learn lesser divination spells; for instance, a diviner with an Intelligence of 15 has an 80 percent chance of learning any lesser divination spell.

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