Specialist mages and Bracers of Defense...

[garhkal]

I was just thinking, since specialist mages are prohibited from using magic items duplicating spells from their opposition schools, What 'opposition school', would you consider bracers of Defense to be under?
Since they do somewhat mimic the armor spell, one COULD see conjuration, but they to ME, more seem like they'd fall under Abjuration...

Which school, do YOU all see those bracers, as falling under, for what specialist mages couldn't use them.
OR ARE you of the mindset, ANYONE can use BoD, regardless of specialty or other things?

[McDeath]

What spells are used to construct a pair? Enchant an item, enchanted weapon.. er enchanted armor (if that exists), and permanancy? If it doesn't exist then if should imho. That said, you have enchantment/charm & alteration involved.

I wonder if modules have different specialists using items in opposition of their schools?

Enchanted Weapon
SPELL LEVEL 4
CLASS Wizard
SCHOOL Enchantment/Charm

DETAILS
RANGE Touch
AOE Weapon(s) touched
CASTING TIME1 turn
DURATION 5 rds./level
SAVE None
REQUIREMENTS Somatic, Material, Verbal,
MATERIALS powdered lime and carbon
SOURCE Players Hand Book page 200

This spell turns an ordinary weapon into a magical one. The weapon is the equivalent of a +1 weapon, with +1 to attack and damage rolls. Thus, arrows, axes, bolts, bows, daggers, hammers, maces, spears, swords, etc., can be made into temporarily enchanted weapons.

Two small weapons (arrows, bolts, daggers, etc.) or one large weapon (axe, bow, hammer, mace, etc.) weapon can be affected by the spell.

The spell functions on existing magical weapons as long as the total combined bonus is +3 or less.

Missile weapons enchanted in this way lose their enchantment when they successfully hit a target, but otherwise the spell lasts its full duration.

This spell is often used in combination with the enchant an item and Permanency spells to create magical weapons, with this spell being cast once per desired plus of the bonus.

The material components of this spell are powdered lime and carbon.

---------
Permanency
SPELL LEVEL 8
CLASS Wizard
SCHOOL Alteration

DETAILS
RANGE Special
AOE Special
CASTING TIME 2 rds.
DURATION Permanent
SAVE None
REQUIREMENTS Somatic, Verbal,
SOURCE Players Hand Book page 242

This spell affects the duration of certain other spells, making the duration permanent. The personal spells upon which a Permanency is known to be effective are as follows:

Comprehend Languages
Detect Evil
Detect Invisibility
Detect Magic
Infravision
Protection From Cantrips
Protection From Evil
Protection From Normal Missiles
Read Magic
Tongues
Unseen Servant
The wizard casts the desired spell and then follows it with the permanency spell. Each permanency spell lowers the wizard's Constitution by 1 point. The wizard cannot cast these spells upon other creatures. This application of permanency can be dispelled only by a wizard of greater level than the spellcaster was when he cast the spell.

In addition to personal use, the permanency spell can be used to make the following object/creature or area-effect spells permanent:

Enlarge
Fear
Gust of Wind
Magic Mouth
Prismatic Sphere
Stinking Cloud
Wall of Fire
Wall of Force
Web
Additionally, the following spells can be cast upon objects or areas only and rendered permanent:

Alarm
Audible Glamer
Dancing Lights
Solid Fog
Wall of Fire
Distance Distortion
Teleport
These applications to other spells allow it to be cast simultaneously with any of the latter when no living creature is the target, but the entire spell complex then can be dispelled normally, and thus negated.

The permanency spell is also used in the fabrication of magical items (see the 6th-level spell Enchant an Item). At the DM's option, permanency might become unstable or fail after a long period of at least 1,000 years. Unstable effects might operate intermittently or fail altogether.

The DM may allow other selected spells to be made permanent. Researching this possible application of a spell costs as much time and money as independently researching the selected spell. If the DM has already determined that the application is not possible, the research automatically fails. Note that the wizard never learns what is possible except by the success or failure of his research.

--------
Enchant an Item
SPELL LEVEL 6
CLASS Wizard
SCHOOL Enchantment/Charm

DETAILS
RANGE Touch
AOE 1 item
CASTING TIME Special
DURATION Special
SAVE Negate
REQUIREMENTS Somatic, Material, Verbal,
SOURCE Players Hand Book page 223

This is a spell that must be used by a wizard planning to create a magical item. The enchant an item spell prepares the object to accept the magic. The item must meet the following tests: 1) it must be in sound and undamaged condition; 2) the item must be the finest possible, considering its nature, i.e., crafted of the highest quality material and with the finest workmanship; and 3) its cost or value must reflect the second test, and in most cases the item must have a raw-materials cost in excess of 100 gp. With respect to requirement 3, it is not possible to apply this test to items such as ropes, leather goods, cloth, and pottery not normally embroidered, bejeweled, tooled, carved, or engraved. If such work or materials can be added to an item without weakening or harming its normal functions, however, these are required for the item to be enchanted.

The wizard must have access to a workshop or laboratory, properly equipped and from which contaminating magic can be screened. Any magical item not related to the fabrication process (such as most protective devices) and within 30 feet of the materials is a source of contaminating magic and will spoil the process.

The item to be prepared must be touched by the spellcaster. This touching must be constant and continual during the casting time, which is a base 16 hours plus an additional 8d8 hours (as the wizard may never work more than eight hours per day, and haste or any other spells will not alter the time required in any way, this effectively

means that casting time for this spell is two days + 1d8 days). All work must be uninterrupted, and during rest periods the item being enchanted must never be more than 1 foot distant from the spellcaster; if it is, the whole spell is spoiled and must be begun again. (Note that during rest periods absolutely no other form of magic can be performed, and the wizard must remain quiet and in isolation or the enchantment is ruined.)

At the end of the spell, the caster will know that the item is ready for the final test. He will then pronounce the final magical syllable, and if the item makes a saving throw (which is exactly the same as that of the wizard) vs. spell, the spell is completed. The spellcaster's saving throw bonuses also apply to the item, up to +3. A result of 1 on the 1d20 roll always results in failure, regardless of modifications. Once the spell is finished, the wizard can begin to place the desired spell upon the item. The spell he plans to place must be cast within 24 hours or the preparatory spell fades, and the item must be enchanted again.

Each spell subsequently cast upon an object bearing an enchant an item spell requires 2d4 hours per spell level of the magic being cast. Again, during casting the item must be touched by the wizard, and during the rest periods it must always be within 1 foot of his

person. This procedure holds true for any additional spells placed upon the item, and each successive spell must be begun within 24 hours o the last, even if the prior spell failed.

No magic placed on an item is permanent unless a permanency spell is used as a finishing touch. This always runs a 5% risk of draining 1 point of Constitution from the wizard casting the spell. Also, while it is possible to tell when the basic spell (enchant an item) succeeds, it is not possible to tell if successive castings actually work, for each must make the same sort of saving throw as the item itself made. Naturally, an item that is charged—a rod, staff, wand, javelin of lightning, ring of wishes, etc.--can never be made permanent. Magical devices cannot be used to enchant an item or cast magic upon an object so prepared, but scrolls can be used for this purpose.

The materials needed for this spell vary according to both the nature of the item being enchanted and the magic to be cast upon it. For example, a cloak of displacement might require the hides of one or more displacer beasts, a sword meant to slay dragons could require the blood and some other part of the type(s) of dragon(s) it will be effective against, and a ring of shooting stars might require pieces of meteorites and the horn of kirin. These specifics, as well as other information pertaining to this spell, are decided by the DM and must be discovered or researched in play.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Personally, I hate specialist mages now. I don't at all like how they did specialist mages. I never even saw the use for them. I liked it better when there were magic users and a separate class called illusionist. I always saw illusions as a distinctly different class than normal magic users. Want to play an elementalist wizard? Just pick elemental spells. Want a wizard who's a necromancer type? Pick and use necromancy spells.

I also didn't like specialist wizards because it involved tacking on what seemed like poorly thought out and basically worthless benefits (bonus to learn sells, bonus to saving throws against school spells) in exchange for a sever lack of access to entire classes of spells (two or three entire classes of spells depending on which specialty is taken). There are simply not enough spells of each school of magic at each level to make specialist wizards useful. For the same reason, while I love the genius of specialty priests, I do not at all like the sphere access rules and have had to do away with them. Too restrictive in both cases (schools for wizards, spheres for priests).

In summary, I hate specialty wizards - I prefer the old categories of plain old wizards (i.e. "magic users") and illusionists as separate classes. I love specialty priests but hate sphere spells.

As to your question directly, bracers of defense don't really fit any wizard school as far as I can determine - they seem to make more sense being defined as part of the priestly sphere of protection. Wizard protection type spells vary - barskin and stoneskin are alteration school spells, shield is an invocation school spell, armor is from the conjuration school, protection from evil is from the abjuration school, etc. So I don't see bracers of defense fitting into a wizard school, I see it fitting in a priestly sphere (protection).

This is yet another problem with the specialty wizard rules - trying to figure out what school a magic item belongs to. And what if the powers of the item use spells from several schools, one or more of which are prohibited by the specialist rules? Does the item not work at all, or simply not those spells that would be prohibited. Bah. I think the rule made things worse, not better.

[garhkal]

This is yet another problem with the specialty wizard rules - trying to figure out what school a magic item belongs to. And what if the powers of the item use spells from several schools, one or more of which are prohibited by the specialist rules? Does the item not work at all, or simply not those spells that would be prohibited. Bah. I think the rule made things worse, not better.

IIRC sage advice said items for specialist mages, that hit both prohibited schools, and OK schools, Could be used. Let me check. It seems to limit to Wizard specific items... So a conjurer, COULD say a staff of the magi, but not the fireball function.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I just think the entire specialist wizard system is fucked up. That's why I went back to two magic user classes - wizards and illusionists. [Note: the class name "magic user" never made sense. Wizard works better.] I also made druids their own class, not a sub-class of priest. They have their own spell list. And priests have no spheres. They simply pick spells they want, as long as the spell does not violate the tenets of their church, and priests also gain special powers by their gods.