images. Specialists are called illusionists. Necromancy: spells that manipulate life or life force. Specialists are called necromancers. Transmutation: spells that transform the target. Specialists are called transmuters. Some spells do not fall into these schools, and are called Universal spells. These spells are available to all wizards, and this "school" cannot be taken as a specialty school or given up for another specialty. Campaign settings Dark Sun Dark Sun world wizards include defilers, whose powers come at the expense of the ecosystem; preservers, who wield magic in concert with the environment; and illusionists, specialists in illusory effects who may be either defilers or preservers. Owing to the scarcity of natural resources, few wizards have access to books made of paper pages and hard covers; instead, they record their spells with string patterns and complex knots. Dragonlance Wizard specialization was introduced in the AD&D book Dragonlance Adventures (1987) where Krynn wizards were "divided into good (white), neutral (red), and evil (black) variants. Slightly different spheres of magic [were] available to these different classes" which was a preview into spell specialization for wizards that was later introduced in 2nd Edition. This supplement also introduced the idea of Krynn wizards being impacted by the phases of the moons. Reception For the 3.5 edition, Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies recommended the sorcerer over the wizard as a starting arcane spellcaster: "Where the sorcerer approaches spellcasting more as an art than a science, working through intuition rather than careful training and study, the wizard is all about research. For this reason, the wizard has a wider selection of spells to call upon, whereas the sorcerer tends to be a specialist. As such, the sorcerer is slightly easier to play". However, in Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition For Dummies, the wizard is now the example starting arcane spellcaster: "Spellcasting can be tricky, but every party needs a spellcaster, and the rewards for playing one can be high. If you want to play a character with a mysterious nature and a selection of powerful spells at the ready, then the wizard is the class for you". Gus Wezerek, for FiveThirtyEight, reported that of the 5th edition "class and race combinations per 100,000 characters that players created on D&D Beyond from" August 15 to September 15, 2017, wizards were the 3rd most created at 9,855 total. Elf (2,744) was the most common racial combination followed by human (2,568)