[NobleNick]

Originally posted by Dancing Virginia: I just found "Summon Dead" and my Illusionist can't use it! Nor can my bard who has ZERO Level 5 spells at this point! ... So, explain to me again the rationale of specialist mages?

Cary,

You are bumping up against the downside of the trade-off that you made when you went Specialist. The Specialist gives up a school (or two) in order to get extra spells. Your Illusionist's school was picked by examining OPPOSITION schools, to MINIMIZE the number of really useful spells that are not available to her (and Summon Undead ain't one of the spells that I would lose sleep over). There is only one really good spell that you might have had to do without after you found it: Skulltrap (SLVL3). Of course you will also want to give the Bard the Stoneskin spell when it becomes available, but I don't remember where you find it, nor if that is a Necro spell.

Listen to Aerich and CerebroDragon. They are right on: Patience!! Your Bard will be a Necro powerhouse soon enough; and will more than mask the Illusionist's minor flaw, leaving you with a VERY powerful Mage team. The Bard will level faster than the Mage in the mid to late game. Stick that scroll in a safe place and wait.

The rationale for going Specialist:
1.)Big Advantage: Whenever a Specialist gains a new spell level (SLVL) she gets TWO spell slots at the new SLVL. Since these spells are typically the most powerful she possesses, and typically have a much greater effect on enemies when newly acquired, it is a distinct advantage to have two instead of the one that a GMage gets. (For instance, if you had leveled your Mage to a point that she had just gotten SLVL3, then she could throw two Fireballs in a tough battle, instead of one.)
2.) A lesser advantage: The Specialist naturally has one more spell slot in every attained SLVL. Dundee would point out that for very high Mage levels the extra lower level spells are not that important. I like all the spells I can get, low level or not.
3.) Very small advantage: I hear that Specialists get a small bonus to percent chance to learn a spell in their chosen school. If you save your game just before learning, reload until you get it memorized, and save just after learning, this is not an advantage to write home about.
4.) A disadvantage: loss of ability to learn spells from an opposition school (or schools). By carefully selecting a school based on it's opposition school, the bad effects can be minimized. (Many would agree that Conjuror is the worst school to pick; Illusionist the best.) In a well planned multi-mage party (which you have), the ill effects can be all but eliminated.

Good memory, Dundee! And nice to hear from you again! I looked and looked for the discussion you mentioned, but couldn't find it, though I found several threads that referenced it. As I recall, we came to a friendly semi-agreement, wherein you finally allowed that a specialist MIGHT be better for regular games; and I finally allowed that a General Mage MIGHT be better for a single-Mage party, only, especially in HoF mode.

Hope this helps.

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What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!