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Recently, the design team clarified that the Spell Mastery feat in the Core Rulebook by RAW applies only to wizards, but could easily be expanded to apply to witches, magi, and alchemists.
Link
Sean K. Reynolds then went on to say that the only reason this feat could not be officially changed was because it would then have to reference classes that were not in the core rulebook:
We can't errata Spell Mastery in the Core Rulebook to mention three classes that aren't in the Core Rulebook, that'll just confuse people who only have the Core Rulebook.
We can give the green light for anyone to houserule it to affect those classes, and that sets a precedent for the PFS team to make that an official ruling for PFS play.
In light of this, would it be possible to get a "PFS Houserule" allowing witches, magi, and alchemists to take the Spell Mastery feat (and therefore prepare a small number of spells without their familiar/spellbook/formula book)?
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I like the idea, but I shudder to imagine years of "Well PFS houseruled Spell Mastery to include classes that aren't written, so I see no reason they couldn't houserule X to do Y instead of what it actually does" showing up on the boards twice a week.
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I like the idea, but I shudder to imagine years of "Well PFS houseruled Spell Mastery to include classes that aren't written, so I see no reason they couldn't houserule X to do Y instead of what it actually does" showing up on the boards twice a week.
In this case, it would be SKR giving the greenlight. :)
And it's not like there aren't hundreds of posts asking for rules changes on the boards every week anyway...
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Come to think of it, PFS Houserule requests usually come with a tagline of "But PFS already houserules the wizard class to give Spell Focus instead of Scribe Scroll rather than ban the class, so why can't they just houserule [insert obscure splatbook feat] instead of banning it?"
Even so, I'm very leery of the idea of giving them more ammo.
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I like the idea, but I shudder to imagine years of "Well PFS houseruled Spell Mastery to include classes that aren't written, so I see no reason they couldn't houserule X to do Y instead of what it actually does" showing up on the boards twice a week.
shrug there are links for each FAQ, this could be put next to the blogs in the additional resources page if it is deemed worthwhile by PFS leadership... therefore it would be much more based off a clarification than as a houserule.
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Opening this feat up to several other classes makes perfect sense, what if a witch loses it's familiar? Or if the magus, or alchemist lost their spellbook or formula book.
This ruling would also allow classes other then the wizard to take the Magaambyan Arcanist prestige class (that actually references the witch in the text).
I agree that this is more of a clarification then a "House Rule"
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I'm the OP of the other thread and accidentally started a PFS thread, not noticing this one until now. Here's my duplicated post:
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I started this thread wondering why the feat Spell Mastery was only available to wizards and not magi, alchemists, and witches. Here's the feat as it is written:
Spell Mastery
You have mastered a small handful of spells, and can prepare these spells without referencing your spellbooks at all.
Prerequisite: 1st-level wizard
Benefit: Each time you take this feat, choose a number of spells that you already know equal to your Intelligence modifier. From that point on, you can prepare these spells without referring to a spellbook.
Normal: Without this feat, you must use a spellbook to prepare all your spells, except Read Magic
Several days later I got a response with this update to the FAQ:
Spell Mastery: Can an alchemist, magus, or witch select this feat?
As written, no, as the feat's prerequisite is "1st-level wizard."
However, the feat was written before the existence of the alchemist, magus, and witch classes, and it is a perfectly reasonable house rule to allow those classes to select the feat and apply its benefits to an alchemist's formula book, magus's spellbook, or witch's familiar.
Sean Reynolds responded in my first post linked above with the following:
Knowing what we know now, it would have been smart to do the Rapid Reload thing for the APG, printing an updated version of Spell Mastery that allows for alchemists and witches to select it, and hopefully wording it so it would be obvious that the magus (which wasn't published until 8 months later) could select it as well. Or (less efficiently) make feats equivalent to Spell Mastery for the alchemist and witch, and note in Ultimate Magic that magi can select Spell Mastery. But hindsight is 20/20.
Could we possibly get a ruling to make this "perfectly reasonable house rule" PFS legal, thereby opening up Spell Mastery to alchemists, magi, and witches?
Thanks!
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As for any arguments about alchemists and witches, I think the original purpose of the feat and most useful implementation of the feat is for a wizard to be able to prepare a few spells if his spellbook is lost, destroyed, or stolen.
The same situation can happen if a magus loses his spellbook, an alchemist loses his formula book, or a witch loses her familiar (or the familiar dies). This feat gives those classes the same possibility to prepare a few spells (or extracts) until they can replace their spellbook/formula book/familiar. I think "perfectly reasonable" was a great way to put it and I see no problem with making this spell PFS legal for wizards, magi, alchemists, and witches.
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We can't errata Spell Mastery in the Core Rulebook to mention three classes that aren't in the Core Rulebook, that'll just confuse people who only have the Core Rulebook.
We can give the green light for anyone to houserule it to affect those classes, and that sets a precedent for the PFS team to make that an official ruling for PFS play.
The core rulebook wouldn't actually need to list out the classes, the prereq would just need to be changed to "Prepared Arcane Spellcaster", that would allow the Wizard, Magus, and Witch to use it and then make some errata that says that the Alchemist counts as a prepared arcane spellcaster for feat purposes.
Just thought I'd throw that out there.
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I disagree on the witch because the witch doesn't learn spells, her familiar does. She's intended to be dependent on that one creature whereas a wizard can keep as many spare spellbooks as he can afford. On the other hand those books are of definite fixed capacity and bulk as opposed to being self mobile and self aware.
The rule as it is is fine, maybe add magi as an inclusion, but I really can't see a magus spending a feat slot on it.
Hmmm, that's a good point too. Alright, so only Magi should also have access.
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Is this a feat tax for a good feat or something? I can't see why anyone would WANT to take it.I know a guy that has 2 thumbs and would take it on his Maagambyan Arcanist/Witch...THIS GUY!
I've got two thumbs as well. In case you missed my "Full Disclosure" spoiler above, it's a requirement for the Magaambyan PrC. But even without that it's still a useful feat for wizards, magi, alchemists, and witches.
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But... if Ultimate Magic results in the Magus being able to take the feat, doesn't that make it PFS legal? Or did I miss something again..
The feat is only in the Core Rule Book, it was not reprinted in the APG, UM, or UC. But the argument is (and Sean Reynolds has said as much) that it should have been rewritten (a la Rapid Reload) to include magi, alchemists, and witches.
Spell Mastery
You have mastered a small handful of spells, and can prepare these spells without referencing your spellbooks at all.
Prerequisite: 1st-level wizard
Benefit: Each time you take this feat, choose a number of spells that you already know equal to your Intelligence modifier. From that point on, you can prepare these spells without referring to a spellbook.
Normal: Without this feat, you must use a spellbook to prepare all your spells, except Read Magic.
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But... if Ultimate Magic results in the Magus being able to take the feat, doesn't that make it PFS legal? Or did I miss something again..The only things that are PFS legal are those options SPECIFICALLY SPECIFIED in Additional Resources. If it's not there, you can't have it. So you still have to have elf blood to be an Arcane Archer for instance despite what's been said on the forums.
No you don't read the errata for the core rule book
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Bump? Has there been any update on this? I imagine everyone is busy getting ready for GenCon.
Getting ready for PaizoCon and Gen Con, really. I did talk with a few other folks about the possibility of house ruling Spell Mastery in this way, but with plenty of other projects keeping me busy on the home front, I imagine it might be a little while before you hear an official "yea" or "nay" from us (post-PaizoCon at least).
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Good afternoon,
Mike and I have discussed this matter and come to a decision. This is based strongly on the FAQ update that allows one to create a house rule allowing an alchemist, magus, or witch (as spellcasters or extract-preparers that use a book or familiar to prepare spells) to take the feat.
In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, treat the prerequisite for Spell Mastery as though it read "able to prepare 1st-level arcane spells or prepare 1st-level extracts." As appropriate, treat any wizard-specific language in the feat as though it referenced the equivalent language for any qualifying class (e.g. "formula book" or "familiar" instead of "spellbook" or "extract" instead of "spell").
This is a clarification that we are using for Pathfinder Society Organized Play. We intend to update this in a future update of the Pathfinder Society FAQ.
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In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, treat the prerequisite for Spell Mastery as though it read "able to prepare 1st-level arcane spells or prepare 1st-level extracts." As appropriate, treat any wizard-specific language in the feat as though it referenced the equivalent language for any qualifying class (e.g. "formula book" or "familiar" instead of "spellbook" or "extract" instead of "spell")
Thumbs up.
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Good afternoon,
Mike and I have discussed this matter and come to a decision. This is based strongly on the FAQ update that allows one to create a house rule allowing an alchemist, magus, or witch (as spellcasters or extract-preparers that use a book or familiar to prepare spells) to take the feat.
In Pathfinder Society Organized Play, treat the prerequisite for Spell Mastery as though it read "able to prepare 1st-level arcane spells or prepare 1st-level extracts." As appropriate, treat any wizard-specific language in the feat as though it referenced the equivalent language for any qualifying class (e.g. "formula book" or "familiar" instead of "spellbook" or "extract" instead of "spell").
This is a clarification that we are using for Pathfinder Society Organized Play. We intend to update this in a future update of the Pathfinder Society FAQ.
Bumping this because it's been quite a while and I don't see this clarification on the Pathfinder Society FAQ yet.
To make sure, is this ruling still valid?
