(RC D&D) Alternate schools of magic.

[Agrippa]

I've read through both AD&D and 3.5 and I really like the idea of spell schools and the like. With that said, I wasn't all that happy with the fact that magic-users have the potential to learn every single spell on the list. It's not that I'm opposed to wizards knowing a lot of spells. I'm just opposed to them being able to learn all of them. With that idea in mind I'm proposing a new, slightly, limited, nine school system. There are seven elemental themed schools (air, earth, fire, water, wood, light and dark) and one non-elemental school (Passageway), with summoning and teleportation, in addition to General wizardry, spells open to all magic-users. Under these rules all magic-users begin with the ability to learn and cast spells from General plus two other schools. At th 6th and 12th level the magic-user may learn one new main school.

Main Schools

Air - Spells that deal with sound and force of wind. Favored by gnomes
Spells 1st - Alarm, Feather Fall, Floating Disc, Ghost Sound, Message, Unseen Servant and Ventriloquism.

Dark - Magics of fear, sorrow and the absence of visible light.
Spells 1st - Cause Fear and Darkness.

Earth - Spells to fortify, strengthen, protect and unleash wrath and fury in the form of the land it's self.
Spells 1st - Endure Elements, Mage Armor, Protection From Evil and Resistance.

Fire - Burn baby, burn!
Spells 1st - Burning Hands

General - General purpose wizardry. All magic-users have access to this school.
Spells 1st - Cantrip, Comprehend Languages, Detect Poison, Detect Magic, Detect Secret Doors, Erase, Identify, Magic Missile (based on one other school) and Read Magic

Passageway - Portals, gateways to other worlds and summoning.
Spells 1st - Mount and Summon Monster I.

Light - Mastery of light and the color spectrum. Favored by gnomes.
Spells 1st - Color Spray, Dancing Lights, Disguise Self, Light and Silent Image.

Water - Magic of ebb and flow, including life and water its self. Favored by elves.
Spells 1st - Acid Splash, Create Water, Grease and Purify Food and Drink.

Wood - The power of life and growth. Favored by elves.
Spells 1st - Animate Rope, Enlarge/Reduce Person, Entangle and Jump.

Hybrid Schools

So-called hybrid schools aren't really seperate schools of magic. They're really just outgrowths of two other schools. As such hybrid schools do not count as schools for the purpose of the maximum number of schools a magic-user can cast from.

Ash (Fire and Wood) - The power restore life from the ashes and destroy the dead that walk.
Spells 1st - Disrupt Undead

Lightning (Fire and Light) - Mastery over heavenly fire.
Spells 1st - Shocking Grasp

Vitality (Water and Wood) - The power to give life, or take it from others.
Spells 1st - Chill Touch, Cure Light Wounds/Inflict Light Wounds, Touch of Fatigue and Ray of Enfeeblement.

I apologise for using the SRD's/3.X's spell lists instead of OSRIC or AD&D, but I find it somewhat more easily available, and there are a few spells from the SRD I like. Yes, I'm giving magic-users healing spells, I just don't see it as a big deal.

[Wizardawn]

This is pretty much like 2nd edition AD&D and it does provide a player with a specialist mage (like a necromancer or fire elementalist). The one thing to think about is the way these new mages learn their spells. If you use by-the-book rules (reference LL or AD&D as I don't have an RC in front of me), this really hurts the mage as they generally only get spells they find on adventures and this method reduces the possible spells they may find usable even further. If they get to pick a couple of spells every time they level (which I thought RC allows), then "maybe" this is not a big deal...but back on AD&D...say you have a mage that can do GENERAL, WATER, & DARK. Then out of the total listing of spells, the adventure produces results that they find ALARM, BURNING HANDS, COLOR SPRAY. They just found 3 spells they cannot use on this adventure and the quest of seeking mage knowledge feels wasted (as all they found other than that was a druid spell). If it were just an AD&D game, the mage could write those in their spell book and feel more satisfied as they are generally advertised as being a class "in search of knowledge"...that is one of the main reasons they adventure at all. Playing the normal rules, mages cannot learn every spell either. They have intelligence limitations with chances to learn a spell. If they fail to learn a particular spell...they never will (which is also more hindered by the spell school setup as this possible list is reduced even further). If they have an intelligence of 16, they can learn up to 11 spells for each level of spells. There are 30 spells for level 1 alone...they will only learn about a 1/3 of them if they are lucky.

Once again...I don't have an RC with me at the moment...so many things I wrote might not apply.