Best Specialist

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While enemies can be immune to or save against spells like WoB or MD, there's no save against EE. It can be cast before combat and it always works, enemies can't save against party buffs.

But if you have another mage/sorc in your party who can cast this buff it's not important, in a normal game level 9 spells aren't useful anyway.

 

"But if you have another mage/sorc in your party who can cast this (whatever) it's not important"

When you're talking about a secondary mage this is absolutely key! Secondary mages do not have to be able to cast every spell in the book. In my experience, secondary mages work best when they are either covering whatever holes might be in the primary mage's spell choices or/and they focus on having their own strengths.

I think that specialist wizards make perfectly good secondary mages, particularly when behind a primary mage sorceror/nuker.

 

If you take one or more levels from any of the following classes, then you can lift the restriction on opposition schools (scrolls still appear with the white haze, but you can scribe the spell or cast from the scroll): paladin, sorcerer, cleric, druid. I believe if you take 4 or more levels of ranger or bard, you will get the same effect, but I have not tested this.

If you choose to take advantage of the above bug, then pick transmuter or illusionist. Transmuters with 10+ alchemy rank can complete a quest in chapter 4 to give themselves +5 max hp and/or +5 cold resistance and -5 fire resistance. Illusionists are favored by gnomes and should only be picked over transmuter if the character is going to be multiclassed in such a way that he will suffer exp penalty otherwise.

If you choose not to, I'd go with diviner. Ironically, every arcane summon spell that's worth casting is not from the conjuration school. The Power Word spells are not bad for a wizard to have, but the lower level ones only last you a bit, and the higher level ones are not worth casting. It is, however, quite annoying to not have access to Web and Ghost Armor. Still, a diviner or a generalist is the best choice if this is your primary arcane caster.

If, on the other hand, you have a sorcerer or another wizard for the complemetary schools, then I'd suggest transmuter or illusionist. A sorcerer is your primary bombardier, but it's often important t oconsider damage/round rather than damage total, at which time a wizard with access to evocation spells can prove quite useful. This is a secondary reason I don't recommend enchanter or conjurer. The main reason is not having Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, and Mordekain's Sword, which severely diminishes his value as a support character.

 

I think monk gives access to the opposite school spells and is probably the best choice for most specialist wizards as mix in (sometimes maybe maybe dreadmaster or paladin can be better)