Best School of Magic ?

[warrickbartley]

Hi im doing a Wizard Character and want to try to specialize mainly in one school if possible with perhaps a touch of the other classes.
Looking on the Wiki it looks like Necromancy is a rather wicked school to master, what are the thoughts of other Wizards out there thanks,

[Juicy Beefcake]

The lich spell list is pretty kickass.
Evocation is where all the more traditional wizard fire and lightning type stuff is at. Transmutation has most of the good wizard buffs + polymorph.

[Kinoringan]

Evocation - For that high damaging hellfire ray spell or those aoe spells.
Illusion - For that 1 trick killer phantasmal killer and weird spell (nenio had this covered)
Abjuration - To successfully dispel bosses

[MjKorz]

Try this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1184370/discussions/0/3361397532252511100/#c3361397532252564604

Originally posted by MjKorz:

First of all, you should get all the spells for your school of choice out of principle. As for an overview...

For the base campaign, the school that reaches highest possible spell DC is Enchantment, but it requires a Loremaster dip in order to get Greater Command for Compulsion immune bosses (e.g. Baphomet, Deskari, Mephisto and some others) and access to sorcerer Undead and maybe Serpentine bloodline arcanas (so a sorcerer dip for a wizard). However, Enchantment requires backup from Conjuration (or some other school that can bypass magic and mind-affecting immunities) in the Inevitable Excess DLC. So an Enchanter who wishes to stay viable from start to finish would actually end up being an Enchanter-Conjurer dual school specialist.

Illusion reaches somewhat lower spell DCs due to less item support, but it's at least as strong or stronger due to instant death spells. However, Illusion has a disadvantage compared to Enchantment: until you get Weird, you have no instant AoE disabling spell (the disabling part of Phantasmal Web and Putrefaction kicks in on the next round after the spell is cast). You have Color Spray, but it lasts only a round against high HD targets and Rainbow Pattern fascination is HD-limited and loses usefulness as an AoE spell extremely fast. Scintillating Pattern is an AoE confusion that does not care about HD limits and bypasses mind-affecting and compulsion immunities in some cases where it clearly shouldn't, but confusion is at best 3/4 reliable disable.

Evocation is another extremely strong school that has two purposes: control and damage. Most people consider Evocation purely as a damage-dealer school and fail to see its control potential. Various Sonic spells (Ear-Piercing Scream, Sound Burst, multiple Shout spells) provide single target and AoE single round stuns and dazes, the duration can be extended to two rounds via extend spell metamagic that can be favorited at the cost of a mythic ability to reduce the spell level increase to zero. (Mass) Ice Prison is an extremely strong (AoE) paralyzation effect with an advantage over Enchantment counterparts - no mind-affecting descriptor. Almost all of the strongest bosses in the game can be paralyzed after their Freedom of Movement buff is dispelled. Prismatic spray provides randomized damage/control effects that may even result in instant death. Sirocco is Grease on steroids that can inflicts Prone. Stormbolts is a single round stun with non-negligible damage. Sunburst is AoE blindness. Archon's Aura is a save reducing spell which is always good for control DC casters. Battering Blast is single round, single target prone with non-negligible damage. Dictum, Holy Word and other CL-HD difference-dependent spells are strong in theory and provide AoE stagger/blindness/paralysis/death, but in practice only work with the Lich who can stack caster levels properly which is why an Evoker Lich is exceptionally strong.

Conjuration is a very strong school in the early game due to Grease and Glitterdust bypassing enemy spell resistance, but eventually it falls off massively due to multiple factors: Prone-immune enemies becoming more prevalent and Conjuration lacking high level long duration AoE disabling spells (the short duration of Tsunami just doesn't cut it). Web is nice too, but also becomes useless against fliers just like Grease. Glitterdust and Slowing Mud provide Blindness and Stagger which are strong debuffs, but they're not outright disabling spells as the enemy can still act. Stinking Cloud is useless against anything poison-immune which constitutes most of the enemy roster. Chains of Light is an exceptionally strong spell due to being a Paralyzation effect with a Reflex save (paralyzed targets have their Dexterity set to 1 and suffer -5 Reflex save debuff along with the loss of their Reflex bonus from Dexterity above 10) that also ignores spell resistance (and thus can penetrate Valmallos' magic immunity on its own without the help of Deadly Magic or Grandmaster's Rod) and is the main reason why Conjuration is super strong as a support school for a dual-school specialist, but its main problem is that it's a single target spell. All in all, Conjuration is strong in some cases, but I wouldn't play it as a standalone school.

Necromancy is relatively weak school due to one glaring weakness: no AoE disabling spells aside from Fear and Banshee Blast. While on paper these are good spells, using them in practice will drive you mad as you will constantly have to chase down fleeing enemies all over the map, potentially aggroing additional encounters along the way. Damage is decent, but can't really compete with Hellfire Ray. Ultimate Death comes online so late it's not worth considering AND it's also just single target. Level drain and ability damage spells don't work against most bosses that matter. You also get Aoe Blind via Plague Storm and single target Stagger from Death Clutch. Sickened and Shaken debuffs are easier procced by Prediction of Failure, not Necromancy spells. Unique lich spell Corrupted Blood bypasses poison immunity and can nauseate anything, but is bugged and the explosion is centered on the caster, not the target, resulting in massive AoE friendly fire that can lead to a party wipe in the blink of an eye (you cannot make it selective) and is also single target pre-explosion (might be fixed now, needs re-testing). Embrace of Death is a fancy single target Grease when used against level/ability-drain immune bosses (anything that matters). Ultimately, Necromancy is the weakest of the viable offensive schools.

Abjuration and Transmutation lack offensive spells and are not self-sufficient. Wouldn't play them as a single school specialist.

I would add to the above that you can definitely play an offensive Transmuter, you just need to grab extra spells from the Druid spell list via Loremaster secrets. Spells like Entangle, Sickening Entanglement, Crusader's Edge, Disrupting Weapon, Polar Midnight. Also it should be noted that Demon has the most unique Transmutation spells in his mythic spellbook and has the highest effective spell DC boost out of any mythic path (including the lich) so if you want to play a Transmuter, then Demon is the perfect mythic choice.

I would also add that Conjuration is not the only viable backup school for Enchantment, it's just that it fits really well. Other perfectly viable and very strong option would be Evocation so you'd be playing an Enchanter-Evoker dual school specialist.

[Agony_Aunt]

Hogwarts

[ptirodaktill]

I wonder if Arieloo can be transformed intro a dog, like playfull darkness with balefull polemorf?