What's the best School? And why is it Illusion?

>>50755676
The greatest trick an Illusionist ever pulled is convincing others he was useful.

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>>50755697
not bad.
I'm partial to Summoning, honestly, because you can take forbidden schools And then just summon creatures that are better than you at such schools, so speccing in it really has no downsides.

>>50755736
Then Again You can sort of do the same with Illusion And "shadow invocation/evokation".

>>50755736
Summoning/Illusion based character who uses illusion to hide the fact he's outsourcing most of his spells

>>50755697
I guess it depends on the DM as to how useful this is...but having them become real is pretty awesome.

>>50755676
>What's the best School?
Divination hands down.

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>>50755676
Conjuration, the school of Force Multiplication, Battlefield Control, and Summoning

>>50755762
Trust me, I *know*

>>50755676
Going with illusion.
In D&D it's uber powerful, and eventual Shadow Casting
OUTSIDE D&D powerful illusions can will there illusions so hard they "become real"

>>50755676
The school of hard knocks.

>>50755676
Conjuration is pretty damn good since you can just summon creatures to do just about any job while staying out of harm's way yourself.
Plus in DnD it has all sorts of seemingly random spells, including some very good offensive and defensive spells, so if you have to pick just one school it's by far the most versatile.

>>50755676
In D&D, you always want to specialize in Divination.

No matter what you're doing, you always benefit from a divination spell at any level.
You also ALWAYS want plenty of divination spells. Neither of those can be said of any other schools.

Don't most conjuration spells also ignore spell resistance? I remember 3.5 had those orb spells that outclassed most evocations for that reason alone

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Evocation.

>>50755676

Necromancy, clearly. It contains some of the most powerful spells in existence, including a variety of methods of cheating death.

>>50756279
eeeeh-yuh yuh yuh

>>50755676
It's Illusion because shenanigans.
In 5e, Illusionists get to change the effects of their Illusions, getting more effects out of them or carrying them from one encounter to the next, making them real enough to be extra battlefield control spells - if wall spells are worth casting, an Illusionist's Illusions are worth the action and slot too - and recharging, or if needed changing, the Simulacrum.
The downside is that until 14th level they are playing with non-real Illusions, and should check with their DM how he's going to play with those.

Illusionists are superpower useful, but only the extent of their players being creative. If you have an insanely creative, improv-minded person then urge them to play an illusionist. It will be the most fun you ever have in a campaign.

>>50755676
invocations

>>50759021
Problem is, the other specializations are power boosts, on a Wizard! On a Wizard's already Unlimited Power!
Great, but you could live without it.
In most editions (4e is the exception) specializing in Illusion means getting some Unlimited Versatility along that Unlimited Power... that's slightly less Unlimited than those other Wizards'.

>>50759116
But the other wizards (except Divination and possibly thaumatergy) Are pretty straight forward. But the illusionist gives you the ultimate tool box if you think outside the box. For when you don't need to try to start a fire for a distraction, but you need a glistening man in a feather boa and the king's banner to run past screaming about how he is going to break into the city vault.

Sometimes, rather than just blunt force distraction, you need confusion and surprise. And one of those is more entertaining for the players when it comes right the fuck out of nowhere.

>>50759021
One caveat is that it is limited by the DM.
Illusions can be disbelieved if somebody interacts with it and passes a will save.

Interacts is kinda vague so some DM's might say
>seeing is interacting lol your spell fails.

>>50755676
Evocation because muh firaballs and all the other deadly shit to throw at your foes.

>>50759387
If you wanna be a blaster, why not warlock?

>>50755756
Would play the FUCK out of it.

Abjuration. It helps you keep breathing longer and buy you time, as well as fucking with other casters. That gives you time to come up with a plan, prepare or lay down traps. Abjurers are like Batman.

>>50755676
the obvious answer is this:
In any given conflict, two things primarily decide outcome.
> 1) is Intelligence
> 2) is Logistics
Provided that your Intelligence is superior to the enemy, enabling you to chose your battles, divine the enemy plans and thus have an upper hand in strategy, staying one step ahead, even with inferior troops and logistics, you can win ay war.
therefore the most important and best school of Wizardry is:
> Clairvoyance of any kind

this is closely followed in second place by the Logistics to allow for movement of things and troops, enabling you to outmaneuver your enemy and implement many strategies he cannot, therefore:
> transport Magics
> Portals, teleports, speed enhancing
in this category should also fall:
> time fuckery
> planar travel

any and all other witchcraft is inferior to these two.

>>50759673
Because 2nd edition?

>>50761523
With illusion however you can easily improvise, and the only limitation is your creativity.

>>50761615
yes, and any clairvoyant will know about what the illusionist is going to pull of in advance and can prepare a proper answer or avoid a specific conflict and or engagement alltogether.

>>50761551
Because they're better at it.

>>50761645
There is no artistry in that.

>>50761800
t.Illusionist after finding himself buttblasted by a xanathos speedchess playing clairvoyant before he even knew any conflict was on

can you specialize in divination if you are an atheist?

>>50759673
I despise the Warlocks fluff.

>>50762976
Yes, since it has nothing to do with deities. It's just seeing into the future/seeing remote places.

>>50763077
Sorcerer?

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>>50755676

Enchantment. Just have your enemies kill each other

>>50757501
The draw of the orb spells was that that they were touch attacks and hit a lower than normal AC rather than hitting a potentially astronomical Reflex save, iirc.

>>50755676
Best school? Easy: Evocation. It's iconically wizard-like, it really makes you "feel" magical, it has a distinctive battlefield role, and it lets you contribute to the party without stepping on anybody else's toes, so you don't have to deliberately nerf yourself so you don't end up upsetting the other players by apparently trying to do everything for them.

Illusion and Enchantment are either some of the best but most annoying due to role-stealing, or else are some of the worst, depending on edition. Back before 4e and 5e, practically everything was immune to either one or both schools, and the DM hated you for taking them because it was so easy for you to screw up their plotlines. Plus you could easily put the sneaky guy and the face out of their jobs, which meant the party wasn't too fond of you either.

Divination is the absolute worst, though. Absolutely no practical uses other than dicking around with the DM, which means he hates you for choosing that class because he can never, ever run a mystery or any sort of "find the facts" encounter because you can solve it all in a few spells.

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>>50755676
Hogwarts.

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>>50755676
Conjuration.
Make things or minions to solve all the problems.