5

In D&D 3.5, can wizards make use of potions with effects from their prohibited schools of magic?

Similarly, can they use magic items that give buffs or similar effects based on spells that are from their prohibited schools? For example, say they chose transmutation as one of their prohibited schools, could they wear a belt of giant strength even though that works off of Bull's strength, which is a transmutation spell?

This question doesn't include spell-completion magic items, which have been covered here: Can a wizard use wands and scrolls of spells from his prohibited schools of magic?

Community
  • 1
James
  • 51
  • 1
  • 1
    Strongly related, and probably should just be edited to include this question and this closed as a duplicate: Can a wizard use wands and scrolls of spells from his prohibited schools of magic? – KRyan Jul 07 '15 at 15:07
  • 2
    The answers are the opposite though, so no need to mash them together and trigger downvoting on the other Q's answers. I've edited this to reference that as a complementary question. – SevenSidedDie Jul 07 '15 at 15:42
  • @SevenSidedDie The answers are exactly the same: Yes, a wizard can use them the same as anyone else can. In the case of spell-completion/trigger, that means with UMD, in the case of potions, that means just using them because there are no requirements. – KRyan Jul 07 '15 at 16:11
  • @KRyan A potion or belt of giant strength needs a UMD check now? No, these are different questions. – SevenSidedDie Jul 07 '15 at 16:12
  • @SevenSidedDie the exposition in the answer to that question applies 100% here. Fundamentally they're the same, only the details apply differently. If you are a wizard with a prohibited school, then being a wizard doesn't confer any benefits with regards to that school, but it doesn't prevent anything that you would be able to do for a reason other than being a wizard. – hobbs Jul 07 '15 at 17:33
  • 1
    @hobbs Same fundamental principles applying differently is why they're not duplicates, yes. – SevenSidedDie Jul 07 '15 at 17:42
  • 2
    @hobbs and KRyan Having identical answers doesn't make questions identical. "Leave the group" is a valid answer to many social contract issues, but that doesn't mean all questions that have that as an answer are duplicates. – GMJoe Jul 08 '15 at 00:14

2 Answers2

9

Yes and yes. Characters without access to any schools of magic can benefit from those items, too!

Magician
  • 14,792
  • 5
  • 51
  • 86
7

The only thing that a wizard with a prohibited school can't do is actually casting spells from that school. Therefore, the answer to your question is yes.

To specify a bit more, the wizard can't:

  • Cast spells of that school using wizard spell slots.
  • Cast spells of that school from scrolls.
  • Cast spells of that school from wands.
  • Cast spells of that school from magic staves.

They can't use them because it's assumed that the wizard still needs to cast the spell. However, it should be noted that a wizard can actually cast spells of any prohibited school if he receives the ability to cast them from any other source, as would multiclassing be. But if it is the object that 'casts' the spell, there is no problem with it.

Mr. Sandman
  • 1,551
  • 1
  • 13
  • 19