As I sit here thinking about my next wizard PC, one thought keeps reoccuring to me. I like the idea of generalist, but why am I not just making an illusionist since I dont plan on taking any enchantment spell focus feats?
The only thing stopping me from playing illusion specialist as a "generalist with more spells per day" is, for lack of a better word, the cheeesy feeling of it. It feels like bad roleplaying to specialize in illusion but then go GSF Divination GSF Necromancy for example.
Perhaps its just the nature of enchantment spells that encourage an all or nothing approach, but I feel like I am punishing myself for not going illusionist when I aim for a generalist playstyle.
Perhaps either the enchantment school could use some staple spells that dont require saving throws (ive no clue what that would look like unfortunately), or selecting generalist could give a small boost, maybe even something simple like a bonus feat or extra skill points?
I think the lowly Generalist could definitely use some love!
Perhaps, we could give them...
1) A bonus feat
or
2) Generalist-only perk system
or
3) Fix the book quest so it works again (it has a lovely item for generalists)
Actually yeah, all generalist might need is a few OUB Generalist items scattered around the world that they can find.
Infact, the opposite is currently true with OUB by specialist items that aren't too difficult to obtain.
I played a generalist and did just fine?
This doesn't seem particularly needed.
This is old news, and a decade + conundrum.
Is it ideal? No. Do DMs notice and silently judge people who take illusion as chosen school but take alternate SF feats? Absolutely.
DMs occasionally hand out generalist only loot that is better than it would otherwise be, but as there's no easy way to make that limitation mechanically enforced it is unlikely to find its way into ambient loot tables.
Perhaps we'll make some kind of mechanical change some day, but until then it's best to do as generations have before you and either gone with Generalist or sucked up the mechanical disadvantages of picking some Spell Schools.