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 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.
New Minor Schools
Do other minor schools of magic exist? That's a decision for the DM. Depending on the DM's style and the parameters of his campaign, he could select a small group of spells and assign them to a minor school. For instance, a minor school of lesser illusions could include all illusions of 1st-level through 3rd-level. A minor school of lesser abjuration/necromancy could include all abjuration and necromancy spells of 1st level.
To add color to the campaign rule, the DM might want to create a historical explanation for the existence of any new minor schools. It's possible, for instance, that the minor school of lesser illusions was created by the administration of an academy of magic to accommodate students who lacked the aptitude to become full-fledged illusionists. The minor school of abjuration/necromancy might have been developed by an ancient clan of good-aligned wizards to help protect them from attacks by a rival band of abjurers allied with a force of undead.
All wizards, regardless of their specialty, should have access to the spells of any minor school. If he wishes, the DM may assign bonuses and penalties to the various specialists' chances of learning the spells of a related minor school. Some possibilities follow.
- A specialist has a 15 percent (or 30 percent) bonus, a non-specialist has a 15 percent (or 30 percent) penalty.
- A specialist has a 30 percent bonus, a non-specialist has a 30 percent penalty.
- Both the specialist and the non-specialist have 15 percent (or 30 percent) bonuses.
Careful judgement should always be exercised when adding new minor schools. Remember that the more access characters have to magic, the more powerful they become. And the more powerful the characters are, the harder it is for the DM to maintain play balance. In general, the following two guidelines should apply:
- A minor school should include only a handful of low-level spells, none of them higher than 4th-level. Four or five 1st-level spells, two or three 2nd-level spells, one or two 3rd-level spells, and one or two 4th-level spells are sufficient.
- A campaign should include no more than two minor schools. (Note than in almost every campaign, one of the two minor schools will be lesser divination.)
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