Magic User

Magic users grow to be very dangerous. In the beginning they are more likely to set themselves on fire then do any damage but as they learn to control magic they can stop time, create walls of fire, and do other more terrible things. Becoming a magic user is not easy. You have to have access to a school or spellbooks. If you adventure, you would be wise to be with friends or companions because when you just start, you are an easy target. It takes great love or great desire to study magic all your life.

A magic user must pick one type of magic and stick to it. Changing the type will cause a penalty of being equal to a starting character. The opposition to your school, the magic you study, limits you. For example, if you study fire, you are unable to use magic items with the affinity water. You are unable to control magic of your opposite. While other classes can learn to use magic items well, a mage would cause himself a penalty to try to control a magical item with an opposite affinity.

Schools

Illusion - Necromancy

Alteration - Abjuration

Greater Divination - Conjuring/Summoning

Invocation - Enchantment/Charm

Illusion

This school plays on one's mind. Illusionists are the weakest of all mages because certain races are immune, some characters who have travelled far and gained much experience are immune, and even some magical items make you immune to illusions. However, illusions do have their uses. Most of the more simple races like orcs, goblins, trolls, are easily affected by illusions. You can create false walls, false terrain, and as you gain experience you can tap into the planes of energy and make them quasi-real. You pray on people's beliefs and their fears. You can make a regular gem seem like a rare find. Some illusionists use it just to put on plays or as travelling bards. Illusions have their uses, you just have to know how to use them.

Necromancy

Necromancy is one of the most hated schools. It is a necessary school though. The world cannot ignore magic because it is unpleasant, it would give someone an unfair advantage. Necromancy mostly deals with dead things, restoring vitality, and the life force. Some spells cost the magic user their own life force to cast. Most necromancers choose to eventually become a lich or a nosferatu, so the magic no longer costs them. This school is not easy to find in most lands, and outright banned in others. Those schools that do exist openly are in the country, and are to expect visits from the emperor's court mage. Not all necromancers are evil, and there is white necromancy (definition will be added later). But to delve in this school is to delve into darkness.

Alteration

Alteration is the act of changing things around you. Whether its changing that heal potion to poison, turning stone to flesh, or changing solid rock into mud, you simply don't accept the way things are. This is a favoured magic school by alchemists, but even with magic you cannot turn anything into gold, just fools gold (google pyrite). They don't have as many attack skills, but you can turn the battlefield into what you want!

Abjuration

Abjuration are protection spells and guards and wards. You can protect your allies, put up wards against types of creatures or people, or even banish a creature back to its plane of existence. This type of magic is favoured among those who hunt evil creatures and those who wish to protect. As the abjurer grows in knowledge and power they become almost impossible to attack. The smart player knows it's nice to have lightning bolts to rain down upon people, but it's even better if you can make yourself near impossible to attack. In a noble's guard there is usually an abjurer among them.

Greater Divination

The school of divination is all about the past, present, and future. Able to scry anyone in the world, see the past, see visions of the future, the user of this magic is a seer. With no attack spells, this magic user is usually in a school or library or travelling using their talents as a means of making money. Diviners see the world the way it truly is. Eventually, after many years of studying they become completely immune to illusion, making them highly sought after for adventuring, though a high level diviner is expensive. Some learn this traditionally by way of books, some are born naturally with the gift, and some are taught it by way of tradition (think gypsy).

Conjuring/Summoning

Summoning is all about creatures and entities. This is the one school that combines with another. It would be impossible for a summoner to live a long life if they did not know abjuration. Therefore, all summoners also study abjuration. This causes them to learn much slower then the rest of the magic user types. However, once they get well adept at the two schools they become very important in society. Without them, we would know nothing about demons, lycanthropes, and other special types of creatures and entities. They make good money selling parts of creatures and entities for potions and spells.

Invocation

This is the most powerful and deadly of all schools of magic second only to necromancy. With this magic you can cause a thunderstorm to send wrathful lightning down upon your enemies, send a rolling ball of fire at them, or a cloud of deadly gas. These mages don't have protection spells so they rely on charms, allies, and bodyguards, but when they unleash their fury it is dangerous. This is the favoured magic school by most, as most who study magic become enchanted by the sheer power. But because of how dangerous this school is, it is also heavily monitored. If a mage should show an "evil alignment", they are kicked out of the school and forced to study it themselves or through one of the "black market" schools. There are crusaders who seek out young acolytes of this school who showed to be less then and destroy them before they gain any real power.

Enchantment

This is a school that is highly misunderstood. When one thinks of enchantment, they often think love potions and the like, but that is only one small portion. Enchantments can make weapons of great power, bound someone to a deed or an objective, bring a man to near insanity, or calm his weary mind. This school enhances necromancy, and it is not unusual to see mages from each school working together.

Enchanters are unique individuals. Some are travellers, some have their own shops, some work in established schools, while others work for nobles.