Wizard Arcane Bonds and Arcanist levels

[Kurdus]

Hello all,

I am currently playing Arcanist. We have just reached level 6, and I am branching off to grab one level of Wizard.
At level 5, my Arcanist Exploit was School Understanding: Divination (Foresight subschool), so that I could:

A) Pick up an extra power (Prescience) for a limited time.

Per the School Understanding Exploit: "The arcanist gains one ability of that arcane school as though she were a 1st-level wizard, using her Charisma modifier in place of her Intelligence modifier for this ability. The ability must be one gained at 1st level and is limited in its use per day to 3 + the arcanist's Charisma modifier. As a swift action, the arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to bolster her understanding, allowing her to treat her arcanist level as her wizard level for the purpose of using this ability for a number of rounds equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1). During this time, she also gains use of the other ability gained at 1st level for her selected school."

And,

B) Take a level of Wizard so that my Arcanist levels will stack for determining My Wizard class abilities.

Per the School Understanding Exploit: "If the arcanist already has an arcane school (or gains one later), taking this exploit instead allows her arcanist levels to stack with the levels of the class that granted the arcane school when determining the powers and abilities of her arcane school."

I understand all that, as it is clearly written, but I needed to post this as the ground work for my question.

At level 1, as most of you do/should know, a Wizard gets an Arcane Bond. Either a Familiar, or a Bonded Object. I am currently leaning towards A Bonded Ring.

Per the Arcane Bond Class Feature for bonded objects:

1) "A bonded object can be used once per day to cast any one spell that the wizard has in his spellbook and is capable of casting, even if the spell is not prepared. This spell is treated like any other spell cast by the wizard, including casting time, duration, and other effects dependent on the wizard's level."

2) "A wizard can add additional magic abilities to his bonded object as if he has the required Item Creation Feats and if he meets the level prerequisites of the feat."

My questions for you all are:

1) Now, Being an Arcanist, I have a Spellbook. Must the bonded Item's once per day spell ability be pulled strictly from my Wizard spells list, or any spell found in my spellbook which contains my wizard spells?
I currently have just one spellbook, which has pages dedicated to just Wizard spells, while the main sections is used for Arcanist spells. My group and I concluded that while they use the same spells (Arcanists and wizards) they learn them in different ways. Like different languages with the same meaning. So its as if I have my majority of spells (arcanist) written in Latin, while the other spells (Wizard) were written in Greek. They are similiar in meaning, but utilize different sounds, words, phrasing. But all that had no baring on whether I needed to carry around a whole separate book, when I could fit everything into one.

2) Is it my total Wizard levels or my highest Caster levels that I use when meeting the level requirements for adding additional magic abilities to my bonded object? An Example being the required Caster level 7th for the Forge Ring Feat.

2.5) And if it is my total wizard levels, does my School Understanding Exploit work with Arcane Bond?

Thank you in advance.

[Felyndiira]

Strict RAW readings:

Quote:

1) Now, Being an Arcanist, I have a Spellbook. Must the bonded Item's once per day spell ability be pulled strictly from my Wizard spells list, or any spell found in my spellbook which contains my wizard spells?

The relevant wording for Arcane Bond is:

"A bonded object can be used once per day to cast any one spell that the wizard has in his spellbook and is capable of casting, even if the spell is not prepared.

The requirements are for the wizard (you) to have the spell in your spellbook and be capable of casting it. While it does say 'wizard' in various locations, the conditional parts do not specify class (like "be capable of casting it as a wizard" or something like that), which means the arcane bond can also be used for your arcanist casting.

Quote:

2) Is it my total Wizard levels or my highest Caster levels that I use when meeting the level requirements for adding additional magic abilities to my bonded object? An Example being the required Caster level 7th for the Forge Ring Feat.

The level requirements are based on the feat, and thus is class independent. Forge Ring is go if you have CL7 in your Arcanist class (Arc7/Wiz1 for instance).

Quote:

2.5) And if it is my total wizard levels, does my School Understanding Exploit work with Arcane Bond?

Nope. School Understanding only says it works with "the powers and abilities of her arcane school", which Familiars and Bonded Objects are not. Thus, you will only have the familiar of a level 1 wizard without also taking the familiar exploit, if that's what you chose.

This is, of course, not relevant for bonded item.

[Kurdus]

Thank you for the clarification on these questions Felyndiira.

This is all what I expected. I just wanted to make sure.

[Rub-Eta]

1) There is no RAW on this. Though you don't need to rewrite them as far as I know. They're in your book, writen by you. To me that means that any class using a spell book with the spells on their spell list can use them.

2)As it just say that you need to qualify for the feats and not "in wizard levels", I'd say that as long as you have any caster level that high, you qualify.
2.5) No. But take a look at the Magical Knack trait (and the Additional Traits feat as well since you've already started the game).

Just remember that the wizard and arcanist doesn't share spell progression, meaning that you start over with cantrips and 1st level spells for your wizard levels.

[Kurdus]

Actually I have Magical Knack. But pertaining to my Arcanist Caster level.

Im trying out a unique (to me and my game group) build where I start off as an Arcanist - Elemental Master (Fire), at level 5 I took the School Understanding Exploit, then level 6, 1 level of Wizard. At level 8, I will be taking Bloodline Development for Efreet bloodline, and at level 9 I will dip into 1 level of Sorcerer with the same bloodline.

Yes, I am aware of the large amount of crossovers, but, I will, and any given moment, have just about every single cantrip available to me at will (which are very underated sometimes), as well as large portion of 1st level spells. As for the 1st level spells for my Wizard and Sorcerer levels, will all be spells that don't scale with levels, such as comprehend languages, and endure elements and other Utility spells. And when I turn my Arcane Bond Ring into a Ring of Wizardry, I double ALL of my 1st level spells. From all Classes. Again, that doesnt sound like much, but Magic Missile always hits' something.

But my main reasoning for doing this, is the class features and abilities I will be gaining. My Wizard level, and Sorcerer level will both stack with my Arcanist levels, and not with each other (i.e. at level 20, i will be effectively a 19 wizard and a 19 sorcerer as far as their respective class abilities are concerned), to determine the powers granted to me by those classes (Wizard and Sorcerer). So I will be gaining the 8th level power from my wizard school, and I will be gaining all the bloodline powers from Sorcerer.

Yes it seems convoluted, but I figured my main damaging ability will be from my Flame Arc ability (which gets boosted a bunch by my archetype), and my spells are going to be more utilitarian than DPS. But my spells will still be at full caster level +, so I wont be slouching there.