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I would argue that *most* Summoning Spells are helpful in combat, and the great vast majority of them are Conjuration. The various Cloud spells are also solid tactical options, especially from Stinking Cloud on up; a spell available at 5th level isn't typically described as 'quite high' level, I think. I'd also much rather specialize in Transmutation or Abjuration than Evocation, prior to the Orb spells' appearance. Enchantment and Necromancy are more ban-worthy than Evocation in a pre-Orb environment, but Transmutation is just too huge to dump, and dumping Abjuration kills Dispel Magic, which is almost never a good idea. Illusion is somewhat DM-dependent, but the Silent Image line of spells has myriad applications for a creative Caster, and Divination can't be banned without a houserule. That leaves only three really decent choices: Necromancy, Enchantment, and Evocation. If your concept is a Necromancer or Enchanter, I'd say Evocation has a good chance of hitting the 'Prohibited' pile. You can always damage your opponent through Buffing teammates and Summons, after all.

"But at lower levels, most wizards go with direct damage, and therefore Evocation...prior to the Orb spells. But hey, there's 2nd and 4th level Orb spells, which helps cover the gap. "

"Most Wizards" sounds like a table difference. Mathematically, I think you'll find Enlarge Person consistently outperforms Magic Missile for actual damage output even before you factor in Shield spell counters, so many folks will just skip the Missile and go straight for the Buffing route. Fireball and Lightning Bolt were wonderful Spells in previous editions, but defenses and HP totals scale differently in 3.X, so that neither Spell is typically the encounter-ender they once were. Many Spellcasters I've seen would rather take Greater Magic Weapon, Summon Monster III, or even Hold Person as Spells that can legitimately remove one or more foe from the encounter rather than doing a relatively small amount (average 17.5 when first available) of HP damage.

"The Creation spells can be good, but the Cloud spells are best used against multiple foes, preferably 3+. That makes applicability a problem."

As dok and others have pointed out in the past, the default enemy set-up is usually three or more foes, given the nature of the action economy in D&D. Fewer foes than that and you run into the issue of 'focus all your firepower on that Superstar Destroyer", where even foes a few levels higher than the Party falter just because the Party can do so many different things in a round. Also, against fewer foes, the AoE Evocation spells look less and less impressive, given that their primary strength - doing *some* damage to everyone in a specific area - becomes less relevant when that average damage is less than a Summoned Celestial Dire Badger averages with a Smite included against the same enemy, for instance. EDIT: The Fireball also won't ever be able to soak an enemy hit intended for the Caster, while the Badger can. So, the situations where the Cloud spells are potentially problematic are often ones where the Evocation line has similar problems, but the Cloud spells have additional benefits in hampering opponent actions that the Evocation line is sorely lacking.


"In part: the Orbs aren't Evocations by RAW, they're Conjurations. Prior to the Orb spells, the vast majority of direct damage spells are Evocations. So, actually, the existence of the Orb spells *as conjurations* strengthens the case for using Evocation as a prohibited school, rather than weakening it."

I did not argue that the Orbs were Evocations, and I agree completely that the Orb spells make Evocation more easily prohibited than was the case prior to their introduction. My point was that even prior to their introduction, there were only three really reasonable choices for prohibited schools, barring specific corner cases: Enchantment, Necromancy. and Evocation. If my post came across as advocating any other position, I apologize for the lack of clarity.