Feel free to ignore this journal if you like, I just need to get some things down before I forget them.

Musing: Magician Magic

Many wizards would consider the arts of a Magician to be the bastardization of traditional magic. Most Magicians would agree, with no small amount of glee. It is, at it's heart, a quick and dirty magic, a street magic, mostly utilitarian rather than combative in function.

Magician spells are more often than not extravagantly flashy, but highly inefficient. Magical techniques tend to mirror mundane ones, as both gifted and non-gifted magician employ the same tactics of misdirection, slight of hand, and balancing subtle and flamboyant effects. Because of the inefficient nature of their spells, a Magician will often need to carry a power source of some sort. Traditionally, a wand or magic ring is used, although modern magicians have been known to use cigarette lighters and batteries as well. Components are not uncommon, Chalk or some other drawing instrument being well-used, as are hats, as things are frequently pulled out of them.
Magician spells have effects such as: transportation, levitation, illusion and extra-space and trans-space movement and storage.

Because their spells are almost totally non-combative, Magicians are often trained in more conventional weapons, such as guns and knives, perhaps even light-weight swords or bludgeoning weapons. Their ability to hide and pull such weapons seemingly out of thin air gives them an easy means of carrying around a sizable arsenal at (almost) all times.

However, in an open, prepared, arena style fight, against almost any other type of spellcaster of equal training and power, nine times out of ten, a magician will lose. Even if they are ready for such a fight, their magic simply doesn't have the raw firepower of other schools.
If the fights is instead more impromptu, and takes place in a more urban environment, with buildings, alleyways, catwalks, hallways, and the like, the Magician has a decidedly greater advantage. They can disappear, have twelve of them run in separate directions, use doors that don't exist, turn doors into walls, open doors to places they don't actually lead to, vanish into a crowd, make the crowd look like them, etc...
In addition, and this depends on the personality of the magician, they may perceive "victory" differently than other spellcasters. While a wizard or sorcerer may think of victory as charbroiling their enemy to a crisp, in a magician's mind victory is letting their opponent think they've one, only to realize an hour later all their clothes are missing.

In terms of training, Magician's magic is very much a "Learn from experience" art. Older Magicians will take on an apprentice, who will learn by watching their teacher. There are also Magician families, where the youngest will learn from their parents or older siblings.
Magicians are known for their attire, though it varies by taste. Those who are more of the "Stage Performer" persuasion will dress in sleek and attractive tuxedo suits and gowns, while the "Street Performer" crowd takes a more punk/grunge approach, though their garb is equally eye catching. It is not unusual for such magicians to also have a great quantity of piercings, tatoos, and wildly styled and/or colored hair. Generally anything that attracts attention and says "Hey, look at me!"

On a side note, it is not uncommon for Magicians to receive some minor training in Mentalism as well, as it can be used to make others more receptive to illusions, and knowing what your enemy is thinking helps you keep a few steps ahead of them.

Brainstorming: White Necromancer.

Side note: the term "White Necromancer" is still under consideration. The general idea here is a necromancer that functions as a healer.

A Traditional necromancer may have domain over death, manipulate negative spiritual energy (Undead Spirits and spiritual energy), and may even have power over death/dying-like spells, such as poison and disease spells.

Domain over Death:
This aspect could potentially make a necromancer quite apt at both monitoring the dying, and restoring life to the newly deceased. A necromancer would effectively "reach into death," grab a person's soul, and yank it back into their body. The resulting energy transfer of crossing over such a barrier could potentially supply some minor healing to the victim's body as well.

Manipulation of Negative Spiritual Energy:
Life = Warmth/outward motion of energy, Death = Neutral/no energy movement, Undeath = Cold/vacuum/inward motion of energy.
While creating life energy and using it for healing purposes is beyond a necromancer's ability, life-stealing, aka vampiric abilities, is not. That being said, Life-transfer is not a far jump from Life-stealing. A necromancer would theoretically give part of their own life energy to another, effectively healing them.
They might also impart vampiric abilities on party-members, allowing them to drain enemies life energy/heal themselves.