Schools of Effect
A second scheme for organizing wizard magic is by effect. The Tome of Magic presented a new type of wizard who could specialize in schools of effect: the
elementalist wizard. Player’s Option: Skills & Powers introduced the shadow mage, another specialist wizard built around a school of
effect.
Schools of effect differ from schools of philosophy in that the spells of the
school all share one common result or ingredient. For example, the spells of
the school of fire all involve fire in some way, without regard for what the
spell accomplishes. Divinations, the direction and control of energy, and the
summoning of elementals can all be linked by the common effect of fire. The schools
of effect are described below:
Air: The elemental school of air naturally includes any air-based spell or effect,
including spells that control or affect wind, breathing, falling and flight,
air elementals, and other elemental phenomena. Gust of wind or cloudkill are examples of air spells.
Earth: Spells of elemental earth are based around stone-, earth-, or mineral-based
effects. Dig, stone shape and stone to flesh are earth spells.
Fire: Any spell involving the manifestation of flame or heat is a spell of elemental
fire. Not all fire spells are attack spells; fire charm and affect normal fires are examples of fire spells that don’t cause direct and immediate damage to
the wizard’s enemies.
Water: Last but not least in the elemental schools, spells of the school of elemental
water involve water in some form or another, including spells of ice and cold,
since these are linked to the element of water. Water breathing, ice storm, and part water are all included in the school of elemental water.
Dimensional Magic: This is a new school introduced in Player’s Option: Spells & Magic. While all AD&D spells draw power from outside the mage, dimensionalists go one
step further—they draw their power from another dimension. Like most schools
of effect, the school of dimensional magic overlaps several pre-existing
schools, including alteration, conjuration/summoning, and invocation spells.
Force: The school of force is a new school of effect presented later in this book. A
force mage relies on spells that create or manipulate fields of cohesive
energy, such as wall of force, magic missile, or any of the various Bigby’s hand spells. Many spells of this school are borrowed from the school of
invocation/evocation.
Shadow: All the spells in this school are linked by the common effects of shadow and
darkness. The shadow mage can make use of a number of illusion spells dealing
with the Demiplane of Shadow and shadowstuff, including shadow monsters, darkness 15’ radius, and shadow walk. He also has access to a number of necromancy spells. Although necromancy and
illusion are opposing philosophies, schools of effect ignore these
restrictions and concentrate on results.
Creating a School of Effect: Again, all spells in a school of effect are cast with the standard execution
of somatic, verbal, and material components. Creating a new school of effect is
far easier than coming up with a new school of philosophy; there are any number
of common spell results or special effects that can be linked in this way. For
example, a school of light could be designed around spells that produce bright
visible effects, or a school of circles could be designed around any spell
effect that is circular or spherical in form.
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