A select group of wizards decide to focus their studies on a specific type of magic. The end result of this is that they become highly skilled in their chosen branch, although they obtain such talent at the cost of knowledge in other areas. All specialist wizards possess similar abilities and limitations.
Ability Requirements
All schools require the minimum Intelligence listed under the mage class as well as an additional minimum ability score. Table 86: Wizard Specialist Requirements (lists each of the restrictions. If a specialist wizard has an Intelligence score of 16 or better, then he receives a 10% bonus to any experience point award granted him.
Racial Limitations
Several specialized schools are open not only to humans, but also some of the other races. To find out which races can become certain types of specialists, refer to Table 86.
Alignment
As with the mage, specialist wizard player characters can be of any alignment except evil. The perceptions and actions listed under the "Alignment" section of the mage class also holds true with regards to specialists.
Spells
Since specialists focus on a certain school, specialist characters must first choose the school that they wish to work in. The skill that a specialist gains in his chosen school provides him with some advantages and disadvantages over the mage class regarding extra spells, learning and acquiring spells, and spell creation.
The Thirteen Schools
Magic on the Demiplane of Dread is divided into thirteen distinct areas of study, known as schools. Four of these schools are the purview of the elementalist. If a player character wishes to specialize in any one of those four schools (air, earth, fire, or water), he should refer to the elementalist class. The school of lesser divination is open to all wizards and cannot be the subject of specialization.
Wizards who focus on one of the other eight schools are considered specialists. By opting to become a specialist wizard, a character gains increased abilities in certain areas but also limits himself in others. Each specialist has at least one opposition school, from which he cannot cast spells. For further information on schools that oppose each other, see Table 86.
Abjurers: Abjurers specialize in the school of abjuration. Through the use of their magical powers, they create barriers, wards, and other magical types of protection.
Conjurers: Wizards of this type channel their powers into learning spells that enable them to summon creatures to them and create materials from thin air. At higher levels, they gain the ability to pull creatures from other planes to them. This is especially dangerous in Ravenloft, for such creatures are seldom pleased to discover that they are now prisoners of the Demiplane.
Diviners: Diviners are experts at acquiring information and learning obscure or forgotten things. No secret is safe from the prying eyes of a diviner. Even the veil of time cannot hide things from such people. Although male half-Vistani characters cannot be diviners, female characters of half-Vistani blood are always free to be diviners, no matter what their Wisdom score.
Enchanters: The enchanter specializes in spells that imbue objects with magical power and direct the actions of living beings. They do this by exerting their will at the most basic of levels and extending the limits of their essence.
Illusionists: Illusionist spells tend to fall into two categories. The first are illusions, which bend light to create images of things that are not there. The second are phantasms, which exist only in the mind of the target.
Invokers: An invoker is an expert in the school of invocation/evocation. Such characters can call upon the forces of the universe and shape them into physical and magical constructs.
Necromancers: It is often assumed that necromancers are the most common type of specialist mage found in Ravenloft. In actuality, the reverse is true. Because of the nature of their spells, which involve death and the undead, those who specialize in this type of magic are often drawn into the darkness themselves and consumed by the Mists.
Transmuters: Transmuters are experts in the school of alteration. They have the power to reshape the very structure of time and space. The great variety of spells available to transmuters can make them the most powerful of Ravenloft's specialist wizards.
Table 86: Wizard Specialist Requirements
| Specialist | School | Race | Minimum Ability | Opposition Schools | ||||
| Abjurer | Abjuration | H | 15 Wis | Alt. & Illusion | ||||
| Conjurer | Conjuration/ Summoning |
H, 1/2E, 1/2V | 15 Con | Gr. Div & Inv. | ||||
| Diviner | Greater Divination |
H, 1/2E, E, 1/2V* | 16 Wis | Conj./Summ. | ||||
| Enchanter | Enchantment/ Charm |
H, 1/2E, E, 1/2V | 16 Cha | Inv./Evo. & Necro. | ||||
| Illusionist | Illusion | H, G, 1/2V | 16 Dex | Necro., Inv./Evo., Abj. | ||||
| Invoker | Invocation/ Evocation |
H | 16 Con | Ench./Charm & Conj./Summ. | ||||
| Necromancer | Necromancy | H | 16 Wis | Illusion & Ench./Charm | ||||
| Transmuter | Alteration | H, 1/2E | 15 Dex | Abj. & Necro. |
* See the section about diviners for a special limitation on half-Vistani.
Extra Spells
Specialist wizards have the ability to memorize and cast an extra spell of each spell level open to him. Thus, a wizard with access to 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-level spells would have three bonus spells available to him (one Ist-level, one 2nd-level, and one 3rd-level spell). These bonus spells must be from the wizard's specialty school and are memorized in the same manner as other spells.
Learning Spells
When a specialist attempts to learn a spell from his chosen school, his chance to succeed (as determined by his Intelligence) is increased by +15%. Conversely, when such a characters seeks to add a spell from another school to his spell book, he suffers a -15% penalty.
Spell Acquisition
Whenever a specialist character gains the ability to cast spells of a new level, he automatically adds one spell of the newly available level from his chosen school to his spell book. This reflects the dedication with which a specialist studies the lore and literature of his particular field. The spell can be chosen by the player, selected by the Dungeon Master, or determined by a die roll, as the Dungeon Master desires. No roll is required to learn this spell.
Creating New Spells
When a specialist wizard attempts to create a new spell within his chosen school, that spell is treated as if it were one level lower than it actually is. Thus, if the character attempts to create a 3rd-level spell, it is treated as a 2nd-level spell for the purposes of his research.
Magical Items
Specialists freely use most of the magical items available to other wizards. They cannot, however, employ those items that duplicate the effects of spells from their opposition fields.
Saving Throw Adjustments
A specialist's knowledge of magic serves him well when he is called upon to defend himself from spells drawn from his own area of expertise. Whenever a specialist must attempt a saving throw brought on by a spell from his chosen school, he does so with a +1 bonus. Likewise, his own spells are so powerful that other characters make their saving throws against his spells with a -1 penalty. When a specialist casts a spell on a specialist of the same type, the modifiers cancel each other out.
Power Checks
The skill that a specialist possesses with spells from his own school enables him to cheat the dark powers, at least for a time. When a specialist wizard casts a spell that requires him to make a powers check, he reduces the chance of failing that check by half (round down). Thus, if he casts a spell that normally requires a powers check with a 14% chance of failure, his actual chance of failure is only 7%.
Conversely, however, their lack of skill with spells from other schools makes it more likely that they will draw the attention of the masters of Ravenloft when doing evil. The chances of failure on a powers check made by a specialist using a spell outside his chosen school is increased by half (round up). Thus, a spell that involves a 14% powers check for a normal mage would carry a 21% chance of failure for the specialist.
