Everquest is heavily influenced by Dungeons and Dragons.
In Dungeons and Dragons 2.0 (the edition that was around during Everquest's initial development), Wizards are an Intelligence based class.
Quoting from the DnD 2.0 Wiki:
"No matter what school of magic the wizard is involved in, Intelligence is his prime requisite (or one of several prime requisites). Characters must have an Intelligence score of at least 9 to qualify to be a wizard."
In Dungeons and Dragons 2.0, you didn't actually have a separate Necromancer, Enchanter, or Magician class. You were always a Wizard, but specialized in different schools of magic.
A Wizard in Everquest is a Wizard in DnD who specializes in Invocation.
A Magician in Everquest is a Wizard in DnD who specializes in Conjuration.
An Enchanter in Everquest is a Wizard in DnD who specializes in Enchantment/Charm/Illision.
A Necromancer in Everquest is a Wizard in DnD who specializes in Necromancy.
In DnD, just because you specialized in a specific school of magic, that didn't mean you couldn't use other useful spells from different schools. That is why all four classes share the Lesser Shielding line of spells, Invisibility, etc.
Since all of these classes are basically a Wizard in DnD at heart, they all share the idea that Intelligence is their primary statistic. Everquest got rid of the more complex DnD system, where you had a generic class that could specialize in different schools of magic, in favor of simply creating different Wizards that are focused on specific schools of magic. It was probably easier to balance that way, while also trying to not be a total DnD ripoff lol.
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