Schools of Magic

All wizard spells belong to one or more schools of magic. A school of magic represents related spells with common features or characteristics. For a mage, who is the basic or general wizard, the school of a spell doesn’t matter too much; he can learn and cast any spell without regard to the spell’s school. The only exception to this rule is wild magic, which is completely unfathomable to any wizard except a wild mage.

While the majority of wizards are mages, a significant number choose to be specialists who concentrate their efforts in one particular school. Generally, this increases the wizard’s abilities within the school of his choice at the cost of losing access to any schools with opposing philosophies.

There are three schemes of school organization used in the AD&D game: philosophy, effect, and thaumaturgy.