Here is my Version of Wolfgang Bauer's Spell Path System!

The basic idea here is instead of specializing in enchantments and being restricted to not cast necromancy, that the wizard is allowed to cast any spell from a path in question. The benefit of this system is it allows a caster to select a spell for each situation that arises, for the price of limiting his total selection. With the advent of 3rd Edition and the Sorcerer this seems now to be completely redundant. However, I still prefer this system because it encourages the use of certain spells that would otherwise never see actual play use.

My rewrite of Wolfgang Bauer's article is primarily balancing out certain paths. In practice, I saw that certain paths were never taken, while others became default (ie The Path of Storms was taken by everyone except an NPC fire mage, while the Path of Giants was consider to be a waste).

I will have to rewrite this again for 3rd Edition, but currently that is a low priority. In fact this may end up like those pages that are permanently under construction.

Legend

ToM:

Tome of Magic

PHB:

Player's Handbook

FA :

Forgotten Realms Adventures

DU :

Drows of the Underdark

Dap:

Same Dragon Mag article that gave us this system

CW :

Complete Wizards Handbook

SH :

Complete Sha'ir's Handbook

AA :

Arabian Adventures

SoL:

Secret of the Lamp

Dra:

From some Dragon Mag

* :

One of my own spells

FA5:

The later Moonshae Isle module/supplement

FA16:

The FR Supplement about Halruu

FR10:

The FR Supplement about Mulhoundra

FR13:

The FR Supplement about Anarouch

1st:

First Edition Players Handbook or Unearthed Arcana.