No, you cannot cast spells from a prohibited school of magic via another class.
From the PHB, at the bottom of p57:
School Specialization
A school is one of eight groupings of spells, each defined by a common
theme, such as illusion or necromancy. If desired, a wizard may
specialize...
I want some downvotes on my answer please :D
It's wrong but I'm going to leave it there so that there can be a downvoted opposing viewpoint.
@BESW Wish lets you duplicate any spell below 6th level, so you could cast Girallon's Blessing easily. You could answer that wish question with that if you like.
In fact you can "Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 8th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you." and Girallon's Blessing is actually a wizard spell too!
Jeez, you could just learn that instead. But it's probably more worthwhile just to learn Wish instead.
Oh, wait: "Duration: 10 minutes/level"
But then again there are permanence spells you might be able to use? I dunno.
> The spell can create a maximum of five pairs of arms, but the size of the subject limits the number of pairs of additional arms it can have: one for Small, two for Medium-size, three for Large, or four for a Huge or larger creature.
> The new limbs can be confusing. In a stressful or demanding situation, such as combat, the subject must make a Will save (DC 19) or take a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, saves, skill checks, and ability checks until the situation passes.
> Nonmagical clothing or armor is destroyed by the transformation, but magic armor and clothing shifts to accommodate the new arms.
First look up Girallon's Blessing
It's a level 3 spell you can find in Savage Species 66 or Spell Compendium 106, and grants multiple extra arms based on caster level. It has limits and restrictions, but sets useful precedents:
One of the basic uses of wish is to mimic other spells. There's a ...
@JonathanHobbs I once had a toad druid who cast it on a grapple-specced goliath.
I have been a little leery of responding to system recommendation questions for a while now. Per my understanding of the FAQ, I only respond to them when I know my recommendation will be a solid fit for what the poster wants. That said, it is unlikely that just one system will meet the parameters...
@JonathanHobbs your quest for downvotes is slow and arduous!
...that "extra arms" wish question reminds me of the time a particularly nit-picky GM had a poor PC waste five wishes (nearly all of two Rings of Wishes) trying to get his Awesome Sword fixed, because the player had poor grammar and kept failing to specify with enough precision which sword he wanted fixed.
Poor guy gave my librarian wizard/cleric... basically all his gold, to hire me to write him a wish that would work, to use on his last wish in the second ring.
I spent a couple fights in a bag of holding composing it while he swung a chairleg against demons.
Lesson One of Encounter Design (at least in my experience): if you think your players couldn't possibly succeed, it's too easy. If you're sure it's a cakewalk, they'll get killed by kobold hatchlings.
If you don't mind my asking, what did you mean about them combining player traits in unusual ways? For all my talk, I have very little experience with different kinds of groups.
Mmm. Clarification: I look at the average damage suggested by the MM3 math and take half of that as my fixed modifier, then calculate the d6s required to average the other half.
Other than that, it's a reasonably smooth curve with - at higher damage values - very few outliers. You'll mostly (>85%) get (average) +/- (double the amount of die).
Your method is significantly more random and luck-based then. In practice, this means that short encounters can more easily and often get unexpected or unlikely results. For longer encounters, it shouldn't matter.
@BESW Not any which you can easily put into a mathematical formula. Basically, calculate the average and standard deviation using anydice or similar, then pick a combination of d6 which gives the closest standard deviation to that, and add some amount of constant value to get near the average.
Standard deviation of 1d6 is 1.71; standard deviation of N dice is sqrt(N) x standard deviation of a single die.
As an example, for 5d10+9, anydice gives us: mean 36.50, standard deviation 6.42.
To get the same standard deviation from d6 we can use roughly (6.42 / 1.71)^2 = 14.095... dice. Let's take 14d6, standard deviation of 6.39, close enough.
14d6 have a mean of 49, so to get to the same mean (roughly) you have to use 14d6-12.
My brain is unreasonably proud of understanding all that.
I've always loved math, but the numbers trip me up; I get the ideas and the patterns and how if you poke it with a stick it falls into philosophy, but I once spent an entire test convinced 2x3=5 and 2+3=6.
@JonathanHobbs I used my insane Knowledge (arcana) to justify showing the DM my wish and have him point out potential problems.
So yes, it worked. I actually managed to get his sword an extra +1 in the bargain.
(Despite not being able to use metagame terms like +1 in the wish.)
Something like "...and further increase said sword's combat efficacy in whatever manner and to whatever degree this spell is capable without compromising the parts previous."
Hint: When your GM is a computer programmer, don't mess with wish unless you're very confident in your ability to wield language.
Okay, I need some help.
Got a room for the first phase of a solo boss. It's filled with the illusion of the boss's homeworld being slowly unraveled into its constituent parts.
I want a terrain mechanic/hazard that fits the room thematically. Psionic power is strong here.
@BESW If it's an illusion, it's hiding something. Only people who know the path - or who understand the meanings of the illusionary images - can pass unharmed. Something like that?
@JonathanHobbs It's traditional to give players a hard time any time they use a wish, but by the rules it's really only legit if they're asking you to stretch beyond its list of "Sure, I can do that" effects.
@MartinSojka Hmm. Okay, the room is a shrine to a dead god of trickery, lies, thievery, and the impermanence of possession.
@BESW If it were me, I'd make it so that it is very strongly hinted that you can only pass if you rid yourself of all your possessions - that is, go through naked and empty-handed. It would also be a lie; you could simply pass through as you are.
@MartinSojka I like that, but I've already got two high concepts to convey in this encounter and it's going to be a mean battle even if I don't trick the party into fighting skyclad.
@MartinSojka Yeah, the boss is kinda there to mess up the god's mojo.
How about... Illusions of Alamaranth (illusion, psionic) - Immediate interrupt Trigger: a creature enters the Shrine of Laeris Target: the triggering creature Attack: vs Will Hit: the target sees visions of the destruction of Alamaranth instead of the real Shrine. It treats the Shrine as difficult terrain and the Far Weaver has concealment against the target. Miss: the target sees the Shrine as it truly is, with the destruction of Alamaranth as a transparent overlay.
I'm experimenting with conditions that are memorable and easy to track without being crippling or unfun.
Actually! I shall change that hit effect.
Hit: the target sees visions of the destruction of Alamaranth instead of the real Shrine. It treats the Shrine as difficult terrain and all creatures have concealment against the target.
The Far Weaver is going to be dominating people and making them attack each other; this way failing to see through the illusion can actually benefit the party.
Two weeks ago the party fought zombies in the Shadowfell city of Moil. These particular zombies were minions, but they got up at the start of their next turn unless you killed them with radiant or fire damage.
Tossing them off the 80-foot towers simply removed them from the fight for a couple rounds.
But! If you could get one to land in the necrotic goo that dealt 20 damage at the start of every turn you were in it, their 15 necrotic resist couldn't handle it.
I love 4e's terrain/hazard philosophy. It was workable in 3.5 but not quite so embedded in How Things Should Be.
Although, as always, the DMG had tables to roll on for % of map to be covered in short, medium and tall grass, and % of squares filled with trees.
I suspect that actually had a deterrent effect on GMs using terrain; I know I looked at d% tables for percentages of the maps and said "No way in hay, I'm running nice smooth flagstoned dungeons."
@JonathanHobbs That they should exist and be used regularly.
3.5 had these things, but its proliferation of submechanics and its movement quirks made tracking them in combat a pain. Really, most 3.5 fights spent the first round positioning and then everyone sat still and hit each other. I remember when a scout joined the party (+dmg if they keep moving) and it was really weird.
By codifying conditions and terrain into a general set, simplifying movement, and giving every class a wide selection of movement- and terrain-based powers, as well as providing GMs with many specific hazards, 4e doesn't just encourage terrain-based, movement-based combat: it requires it.
Even if a GM puts a party in a blank room for a fight, the fight will range all across the room. It's likely the wizards and wardens of the group will make terrain effects!
Now, I'm the first to admit that Wizards has a poor track record when it comes to individual cases, and terrain is no exception; but there are some brilliant moves also, and the philosophy that the fight should be defined by its environment as much as by its participants (and that the latter should be able to influence the former) is one of 4e's strengths.
@MartinSojka Because of its origin in miniature wargaming, D&D has always assumed minis on a grid. Various editions have been more or less reliant on the assumption, but it's nothing new.
[shrug] Then I misspoke by introducing grids to the conversation. "Minis on a map, then."
After all, it's very obvious that 3.5 uses 'feet' instead of squares only when it's convenient to maintain the fiction of simulation; its rules about diagonal movement refer to movement in square units.
There are mapless RPGs. D&D has never tried to be one of them, but by coincidence some of its editions have been more adaptable to that paradigm.
In any case, I consider it too big of a price to pay for a combat system. 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder (somewhat) works without minis and grids, after a rather small rewrite of a few actions and feats.
Every choice we make, by its very nature, thereby denies the ability to make other choices. I have no problem with map-based combat --and in fact find it's very helpful for players new to RPGs, which I get frequently-- so 4e's choice to marry the map in exchange for system-enforced dynamic combat through movement and terrain is a good one for me.
I do look forward to trying DFRPG's zone-based combat, but there's a very good reason I'm waiting until the group has attritioned down to a couple of specific players.
No, you cannot cast spells from a prohibited school of magic via another class.
From the PHB, at the bottom of p57:
School Specialization
A school is one of eight groupings of spells, each defined by a common
theme, such as illusion or necromancy. If desired, a wizard may
specialize...
First look up Girallon's Blessing
It's a level 3 spell you can find in Savage Species 66 or Spell Compendium 106, and grants multiple extra arms based on caster level. It has limits and restrictions, but sets useful precedents:
One of the basic uses of wish is to mimic other spells. There's a ...
