I don't see why people complain about Novice card being War.. it doesn't matter the school they are, they cost the same. They could have created another magic School named "Neutral" that it would have been the same result. But instead they went with the theme and put the cards they wanted to be Novice into the School that fit it the most thematically.
The point is that most mages benefit from playing in-school spells vs out-of-school spells, since in-school costs single and out-of-school costs double (or triple). For instance, Beastmasters and Druid only pay single for all the (very versatile) Nature school enchantments, leaving more room in their books for other stuff, whereas all other mages have to pay double for those enchantments
without exception (e.g. there are no Novice Nature-school spells). Many of those cards show up in non-Nature mage spell books (e.g. Hawkeye, Bear Strength, Cheetah Speed, Mongoose Agility, Lion Savagery, etc), but an advantage of being a Nature mage is those spells are cheaper for you than for everybody else, so you're "better" at using them. There is an advantage to being a Nature mage if you plan to load up on Nature enchantments.
Meanwhile, Warlords pay single for War school cards, which tend to be biased towards equipment and "command" incantations and enchantments. If none were Novice, then the Warlords would get to pay less for these than all the other mages just as Nature mages get to pay less for the "staple" nature enchantments. In other words, nothing would change for the Warlords, but all the other mages would have to think twice about including each War spell that is currently Novice, and specifically make room for those spells by cutting other spells.
But that's not the case. Instead, every mage gets cheap access to many of the most useful War school cards, like Leather Boots/Chausses/Gloves/Belt, Brace Yourself, Defend, etc. Thus, Warlords feel less "unique" and aren't particularly better than other mages at anything. In order to give the Warlords some flavour and character (e.g. a specialty), they have lots of "War Mage Only" or "Warlord Only" conjurations (especially in FvW) and equipment (especially in FiF) because otherwise a Wizard or Forcemaster would do
everything better than a Warlord does. Or alternatively, if Novice didn't exist as a keyword - or if it meant something else, like "only costs double if you'd otherwise pay triple for that school" or something - then a Warlord would feel more specialized and would be "better" relative to other mages at, for instance, guarding (via Defend and Altar of the Iron Guard, the latter of which is NOT Novice) and at armouring themselves (via Leather equipment) and their creatures (e.g. Brace Yourself). Everybody else would still have access to these spells (just like everybody can use Nature enchantments), but it would make the Warlords a better choice if that's what you want to focus your strategy on. They'd be specialists at something without having to resort to "mage type only" cards.
Does that make sense?
