Dragonlance Dragonlance style magic schools

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Has anyone got any thoughts on ways to create schools of magic in the style of the Dragonlance red/white/black robe schools, and how to integrate them into 5e?
I came to 5e direct from AD&D, so I have none of the intervening supplements or campaign world info.

 

[Morrus]

Does that need rules, specifically? It sounds ideal for setting background material. Maybe restrict some of the schools of magic a little (don't let the White Robes use Necromancy, mainly). Or where you thinking of doing that whole waxing/waning moon stuff?

 

[Lackhand]

I think the most important part of 5e wizardly schools are the granted powers for the wizard's specialization.
Oh, there's a few oddball references to school in the rules, like the restricted spell lists for the arcane trickster and eldritch knight, but the rest of the references to schools live in the wizard subclasses.

So write some more subclasses.

I don't remember enough about the wizards to recall the associations of the colors beyond Good/Neutral/Evil, unfortunately.

I'd be lazy and partition the school/specialties; Divination is purely White, Illusion Red, Necromancy Black, with the remainders available to all. So an evoker could wear any robes.

You could also look to the paladin (yes!) and extract their oaths into school abilities, since they have a few semi-moral mechanics.

You might be able to get a bit of purchase by using warlocks for all wizards (ignoring what I said above); great old one is White (mind reading and radiant powers); fey is Red (charming/fearing, druidic nature connection); fiend is Black (fire, undeath, destruction).

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Partly a rules thing with regard to waxing/waning, yes - unsure of how it could work. My thoughts there were tied to maybe granting an ability to hold two Concentration spells concurrently when your moon is full, as an extension of how powerful your moon is at that time. Any other ideas gratefully received!
The other part is more setting based, in the sense that your choice of magic can be tied to an alignment ideal. To me, Divination seems common to all, NecrNecromancy is obviously Black; Illusion Red; but I fall down on White, unless Cleric type healing spells are ported across, but that's a can of worms!
Evokers are blasters, but that just as easily be skinned as smiting as it can be destroying...
Can anyone point me to how it was done back in the day?

 

[not-so-newguy]

Found this about phases of the moon on krynn and their effects on wizards

http://www.dlnexus.com/fan/rules/11899.aspx

 

[Gadget]

Cool thread. I think back in the day, Black Robes were the only ones that got necromancy (as has been stated), yet I think I recall them also being denied evocation spells as well. I think they advanced faster as well, but had a max level lower than the others. Red Robes got illusion, but I cannot remember what was banned for them (other than probably necromancy). I think White Robes got evocation and divination, but did not have necromancy and enchantment schools. They also had a higher max level as well. The Dragonlance Nexus site would be a good place to ask these questions.

In addition to the above 'thinking outside the box' suggestion of using the different Warlock packs, it would be interesting to come up with different sorcerer sub-classes based on the Towers of High Sorcery with different benefits tied to the waxing and waning of the respective moons, etc. But I suppose that the concept is so tied to the traditional wizard class that it would be hard to adjust to another class.

 

[Staffan]

I believe I've seen one of the devs mention that they would probably do the Orders of High Sorcery using traditions. In other words, they wouldn't have Necromancers being Black Robes - they'd just have Black Robes directly. So three wizard sub-classes instead of eight for Dragonlance.

 

[abelmort]

In AD&D's "Dragonlance Adventures" (1987) it listed the schools of the different orders as follows:

• white robe: abjuration, charm, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation
• red robe: alteration, conjuration, divination, illusion, invocation, phantasm, summoning
• black robe: charm, divination, enchantment, illusion, necromantic, phantasm, summoning

Converting the old spell schools to 5E would give you this:

Abjuration: white
Conjuration: all
Divination: all
Enchantment: white/black
Evocation: white/red
Illusion: red/black
Necromancy: black
Transmutation: red​

To truly convert them to 5E I think I would make a subclass for each, with the spell restrictions and moon phases being some of the "features" included.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Wait a few months and we may have official rules for it out. There's a good chance it will come out in a Dragonlance downloadable article like the Eberron one we got last month.

 

[Henry]

If nothing else that chart from DLNexus looks like it could feasibly be imported directly into the game, its numbers are low enough to be in line with 5e's math anyway. The only down side to that system is that it drives both players and DMs batty in my previous experience, trying to keep track of moon cycles and conjunctions.