Geruvurrda wrote:
"If used on a staff, it loses 1 charge and the arcanist gains a number of points to his arcane reservoir equal to the level of the highest-level spell the staff can cast using only 1 charge; if the staff has no spells that require only 1 charge, the arcanist cannot consume that staff ‘s magic. No more than 1 charge can be drawn from a staff each day in this way"
so you gain points equal to the highest ability, and there needs to be an ability that cost one charge, but that doesn't have to be the highest level ability
As an Arcanist player, I was reading this thread out of interest. I noticed the above passage and had to correct an oversight. In your example, you deflate the cost by changing the higher level spell's charges and there is nothing wrong with that, but it no longer qualifies to give Arcanist points since it is no longer a single charge. This is why I quoted the passage above. The second half is in complete error, you will still only get one point from this example staff.
As a player of this class, I would never consider the use of consume magic item exploit unless I already had the crafting feat for a completely different reason. Magic items are nowhere as abundant as necessary to make this exploit useful in comparison to the consume spells ability. I use the Expanded Arcanist Pool Feat instead for a daily boost and sacrifice a spell or two each day maxing out my pool. With judicious use of these pool points, I rarely use them all in a single adventuring day, and we have a tough DM (meaning he challenges us well). That said, there are many archetypes that take away the consume spells ability at which point this may be your only option for "recharging" your pool in a given adventure, should it be necessary to do so instead of resting. In any case, it is expensive to use regularly and other exploits give so much more use and versatility without draining a spellcaster's limited resources even more (which would be better served gaining new spells in a spellbook or getting an item that has a permanent use).
