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Thinking about a new party to play through Soa and Tob I remembered the specialist mages.

They are good, because the extra spell per level could be very useful, but they never seemed to me a class specially interesting to play. I mean, at the end you are going to play with them the same way you play a normal mage, using the same spells (apart from those of the opposite school).

I have done a search and the other benefits they are supossed to have dont seem to be implemented.

So my question is if some of you have tried another way to play with the specialist mages.

Some of my thoughts:

1) The specialist can only memorize and cast spells of his school
2) The specialist can only memorize spells of his school, but can cast spells from other schools through scrolls
3) The specialist can only memorize and cast spells from his school but we can use shadow keeper to give three or four extra spells for level.

The first option seems to me very difficult to play, but i like to see your thoughts about this.

Another option to make it not so hard would be to specialize in two schools, so you could cast spells of those two schools.

Anyway I like to know what you think about all this and hear some other possibilities to play with these specialists.

Thanks and sorry for any grammar mistake. I am not english native.

All of the specialist mages have serious drawbacks by not being able to cast spells from the opposite school. In a party with some additional arcane and divine support, this seems somewhat irrelevant for some specialists, like the Invoker or the Conjurer, but if you try to solo a specialist mage, you'll understand what I mean.

With ToB xp cap, a mage can reach lvl 31, meaning 5 slots per levels 1-8, and 4 slots of lvl 9 spells. A Specialist mage will have 6 slots per levels 1-8, and 5 slots lvl 9.

The drawbacks:

Invoker - cannot cast Enchantment spells. In the vanilla game this seems to be the best spacialist, since the only one useful Enchantment spell is Greater Malinson. In certain other mods, like Improved Anvil, however, this specialist is rather weak.

Conjurer - in a party, where all of the Clerics and Druids can cast True Sight, the weaknesses of this class are not seen. If, however, you try to run one solo, you'll find it quite difficult.

Illusionist - the lack of Skull Trap, Animate dead, Spirit Armor and Horrid Wilting is punishment enough. Nonetheless, this is one of the better specialists, due to Gnomes and their ability to include this specialist in a multiclass character.

Enchanter - no Magic Missiles, Fireballs, Lightning bolts, Death Fogs, Cloudkills, Sunfires, Incendiary Clouds, no Mordenkainen Swords...do I need to continue? This is one of the worst specialist mages.

Diviner - no Power Words, and (I think) no Limited Wish or Wish.

Necromancer - no Projected Image, no Simulacrum, no Improved Invisibility, no Mirror Image, no Blur...no, not Necromancer.

The Abjurer and Transmuter are the pinnacle of specialist mage incompetence, the first one lacking Stoneskin, Melf's Minute Meteors and Time Stop(and in some mods where it matters, Ruby Ray of Reversal as well), while the second one lacks all protective buffs which keep the wizard alive: not only the elemental resistance spells and ProMagicEnergy, but ProMagicWeapons as well as the vital spell protections, specifically Spell Immunities.

Frankly, I think that these drawbacks are more than enough, and no need of further penalties is needed for the specialist mages.

I played necromancer like in first proposal.
I only used the spells from my school.

The necro is very good caster indeed...
his weak spots are big but he has some good spells
the best spells from his school are horror, vampiric touch, skull trap, animate dead, death spell, finger of death, abi dalizim "kill'em all" horrid wilting, and on those you should concentrate
the weak spots are
level one where you have chill touch and minor drain :/
level four with contagion and spirit armour
and sadly level nine, very little good spells here, but you can always memorize level 10 spells here, thay have no class...

whan you are playing the first option you must aquire most items that give you protections, staff of magi, ring of gaxx, gargoyle boots, etc.
the biggest drawback of this style is the lack of time stop...

it's a nice way to roleplay a character though...

I've thought of doing something like that in the past, but the only restriction was in offensive spells (the red colored spells), which had to be from your specialist school. A bit more feasible I think.

time stop is red
abjuration spells also

Conjuror is probably the most powerful mage out there. Loosing Divination you loose maybe 2 really valuable spells: True Sight and maybe Farsight/Wizard Eye.
That's it. In party play of no relevance and in solo play the up to 9 additional spell slots more than make up for the lack of those 2 spells.
With Spell Immunity: Divination you can easily foil enemies True Sight and while you are under protection of MI, Imp. Invis, Blur, etc. they can't really target you as well which evens the lack of a True Sight on your own.
Just watch out for Dispel/Remove Magic spells but that's again even for both sides.

I'd consider Sorcerer more powerful by a slight margin IF you choose your spells perfectly but that's beside the point.

I personally play it that way that the additional spell slots can only be used for conjuration spells. I do not see a reason for more restrictions since you do not gain any additional benefits besides getting up to 9 more slots and loosing in some cases very valuable spells.

So as a final resumee I have to say the first options are far too restrictive since a mage has to rely at least on 4-5 schools for proper defence, buffs and offence.
The 3rd one seems just overpowered.