Welcome to The Table – Dungeons & Dragons Schools of Magic Explained Part 1: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, and Enchantment

Welcome to the table!

Magic permeates the Forgotten Realms, and is controlled by characters, monsters, and other entities through the controlled-yet-limited format of spellcasting. In its most basic form, a spell is either a singular manipulation of the magical energy that suffuses the universe (an arcane spell), or an instance of channelling the divine magical powers of a patron god (a divine spell). If you’re interested in the distinction between these two different types of magic, then check out last week’s article on the Lore of Spellcasting in D&D. But if we look beyond the origin of the magical powers which our characters are able to wield, the fundamental categorization of different “types” of magic is referred to in terms of the “schools” of magic. These schools comprise eight archetypes, which are differentiated by the general type of effect the spell will have when cast. These schools of magic include Abjuration (for if you want to protect yourself and your party), Conjuration (if you want to summon creatures or objects out of thin air), Divination (if you want to gather information), Enchantment (if you want to affect the minds of others), Evocation (for dealing massive elemental damage), Illusion (if you want to manipulate the senses), Necromancy (which refers to manipulation of life force), and Transmutation (which refers to effects that physically change the environment). This article will walk you through the first four of these schools one by one, giving some insight as to what makes them distinct from each other, and giving you an idea of what to expect in-game if you’ve chosen a class or subclass that focuses on one of these schools of magic in particular. If you’re especially curious about one of the second four schools of magic then look forward to my article next week, which will pick up where this one leaves off. 

Starting off, Abjuration spells typically allow the caster to protect the party, buff themselves, banish enemies, and negate other magical effects. Spells like Mage Armour and Shield are staples from this class, allowing otherwise-squishy, unarmoured spellcasters to improve their Armour Class through magic. The Protection spells, most notably Protection from Evil and Good, and Protection from Energy, provide specific defensive buffs to you or a party member, which can be incredibly useful in instances where you’re up against an enemy that you have some knowledge about. For example, if the party is going up against a Red Dragon, then being able to protect the fighter from half of all fire damage they’re going to take in advance could all-but-decide the fight before it even begins.

There are only two banishing spells in the source material for 5e, the purpose of these being to just get an enemy out of your face, either for a minute to give the party time to escape or prepare, or permanently if the target is native to a different plane of existence. The other real stand-outs for this school are the dispelling effects, including Dispel Magic and Counterspell. These do essentially what they say on the tin; nipping nasty magic effects in the bud before they make life unpleasant for you, and your party will really regret not having them prepared when the need arises. While the school of Abjuration isn’t the flashiest, and some of these spells can be a bit specific, they’re incredibly useful to have in your back pocket when things go wrong.

The Conjuration school of magic is the school of creation, and its spells allow the caster to summon allied creatures to their aid, create a damage-dealing or slowing effect in a specific area, and (crucially) teleport. There are a dozen Conjuration spells in the source books for 5e alone that summon creatures, ranging from the low level Summon Beast (which might summon a wolf or eagle to fight alongside you), to the late-game Summon Fiend, which manifests a demon or devil to rain hellfire down on your enemies – or make a massive statement when pulling your carriage in to the royal ball. If you’re interested in playing a caster who uses a lot of summons, I’d really recommend looking through the list and seeing which spells excite you the most.

Control spells like Grease and Web can reduce the mobility of your foes on the battlefield, by creating temporary environmental-like effects; and the damage spells from the Conjuration school operate in the same kind of way. Cloud of Daggers provides an excellent example of how a mage just starting out in Conjuration might deal damage directly in combat: an area centred on a point within the spell’s range will be filled with nasty damage-dealing horribleness (in this case whirling, spinning daggers), and this can synergise well with control spells to keep your enemy stuck in this literal magical blender. It is worth noting that many Conjuration spells do require concentration, so thinking about which spell effects you can actually have active at the same time is particularly important with this school of magic. All of these spell effects relate in some way to the caster summoning creatures or materials to them, but the reversal of this process (i.e. sending creatures and materials elsewhere) is also considered a part of the school of Conjuration, which means all teleportation-type spells are by definition Conjuration. For example, Misty Step is a great get-out-of-jail-free card, allowing a caster who gets caught out of position in a fight to teleport 30 feet away as a bonus action.

Divination magic encompasses magical effects that provide the spellcaster with information. It is traditionally regarded as the weakest school of magic, and while that may well have been the case in older editions of D&D, things are a little different in 5e, and especially in campaigns where combat is less important than roleplaying and exploration (check out my article from a few weeks back if you want to learn more about the different types of TTRPG campaigns). The eponymous Divination spell, for example, allows a divine spellcaster (usually a cleric) to ask their god about the outcome of a single event to happen in the next week. There are caveats attached, certainly, but this ability to know what will happen in the future can be incredibly powerful for adventuring as safely and successfully as possible. The spell Augury functions as a lower level, but less powerful alternative, while Commune is a higher level spell which provides relatively concrete answers to up to three questions per casting. And I would be entirely remiss not to mention Guidance, which I would argue is far and away the most powerful cantrip in the game, giving out free bonuses to almost any ability checks your party might come across.

But the majority of Divination spells that any arcane spellcaster (especially Divination Wizards, who you should definitely give a try if you haven’t yet) will be using don’t concern seeing the future at all. They can be roughly broken down into scrying spells, detecting spells, and linguistic spells. Scrying spells include Clairvoyance, Arcane Eye, and Scrying, and essentially allow the caster to see what is happening in a location great distances away. There are myriad uses for scrying spells for creative players, and even more for creative DMs when the party’s arch-nemesis happens to be a talented spellcaster. Detecting spells are some of the best utility spells you can pick up, especially because they use low level spell slots to cast. Detect Magic and Identify would be my two top picks here, but other, more situational picks might suit your campaign setting perfectly. Finally, linguistic spells (most notably Comprehend Language and Tongues) to read and speak respectively any languages for their duration. And you didn’t hear this from me, but if you really want to annoy your DM, pick up Speak with Animals and force them to come up with a backstory for every random bird, rodent, or even bug that you come across – and it can also be super useful if you’re creative with it and don’t set your expectations regarding animal intelligence too high.

As we reach the half-way point for the schools of magic in D&D, and begin to wrap up this article, we come to one of the simultaneously best-and-worst schools of magic: Enchantment. It’s great because it has some of the most interesting and dynamic spells in the entire game, but a sizable portion of enchantments entirely strip away the free will and agency of the target, which can feel really uncomfortable depending on the situation. As always, try to make sure you’ve gone over everything you don’t want coming up in-game beforehand, and remember that you can always stop a scene at any time – it’s a game and there’s no point if everyone isn’t having a good time. 

With that said, the majority of enchantment spells ultimately do the same thing: force the target to do what the caster tells them. The only real difference is in the degree of control the caster has, from low-level Charm spells like Friends, all the way through to Dominate Person and at very high levels even Power Word Pain, Power Word Stun, and Power Word Kill. Essentially, the three Unforgivable Curses from Harry Potter would all be considered enchantment spells. Some enchantment spells also deal damage, specifically psychic damage, which is relatively uncommon in D&D, so it might be worth picking up something like Tasha’s Mind Whip if you get the chance (or if you’re playing a Bard then taking Vicious Mockery is a no-brainer). These damage-dealing enchantments also go for the target’s intelligence stat when it comes to saving throws and the like, so can be great if you’re fighting a big, dumb, brute – just remember that it is technically impossible to charm a being without a mind.

Hopefully this article gave you some idea of what to expect in-game if you’ve chosen a class or subclass that focuses on one of these particular schools of magic. Next week’s article will cover the four remaining schools, including Evocation, which lets you detonate massive explosions, and Necromancy, which can do a lot more than just let you raise hordes of undead. And if you’re playing a class where the different schools of magic don’t matter quite so much on a mechanical level, I hope this still gives you a few ideas for spells to look out for, and how they might actually work in-game based on the school they’re associated with. 

Have fun, and I’ll see you at the table!

Noktyri