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The Samsaran Mystic Past Life racial feature was, of course, published before Occult Adventures, and as such doesn't take psychic powers into account in its wording - should it be considered to apply and work to that realm of power the same as it does to arcane and divine magic? If not, could we please have some formal errata making that possible?
/signed
It should be fine. As long as something doesn't specify "only arcane" or "only divine," then it should work.
A psychic spell largely functions like any other spell. It’s another type of magic, similar to arcane or divine magic—in fact, those who use psychic magic are easily mistaken for practitioners of arcane and divine traditions. Metamagic feats and any other rules that alter or trigger from spells can usually be used with psychic spells (though see the Components section below for a few exceptions). Psychic spellcasters aren’t affected by effects that target only arcane or divine spellcasters, nor can they use arcane or divine scrolls or other items or feats that state they can be utilized by only arcane or divine spellcasters.
Emphasis mine.
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Mystic Past Life (Su) You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of your current spellcasting class. You add a number of spells equal to 1 + your spellcasting class’s key ability score bonus (Wisdom for clerics, and so on). The spells must be the same type (arcane or divine) as the spellcasting class you’re adding them to. For example, you could add divine power to your druid class spell list, but not to your wizard class spell list because divine power is a divine spell. These spells do not have to be spells you can cast as a 1st-level character. The number of spells granted by this ability is set at 1st level. Changes to your ability score do not change the number of spells gained. This racial trait replaces shards of the past.
That’s why it’s a question.
I'd say the Rules as Intended are clear. Mystic Past Life means that you were a different kind of spellcaster in a previous life, and you remember enough of that to cast some of that spells. So it absolutely should work for Psychic Casters, as well as any other different kinds of magic they decide to add in the future.
The question is then whether "intent" matters here. It absolutely should be errata'd to work for those who don't think rule-intent matters.
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Then there's the matter of Pathfinder Society play (having just DM'd a game for this year's Gameday, I just got a Samsaran Boon).
That's the main reason I'm concerned. A home game GM can make a fairly easy call to allow it. I don't want to spend my one and only Samsaran boon (Ok, I have two, but want to trade one) only to show up at a table and be told the extra spells don't work. I'm leaning toward a divine class anyway, but a solid answer on this would make me at least take another look at the psychic classes.
There are some archetypes that make psychic casters into arcane or divine, like the Onmyoji for Spiritualist and the Silksworn for Occultist.
Might it be faster to get a clarification from the PFS folks than getting an errata from the PDT folks?
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MPL is in Advanced Race Guide, right? Clarifications are much less likely for RPG line books in PFS, because the PDT controls the errata for them. If it were in a Player Companion, then absolutely, but for where it’s published, this is generally the place to go. I’m pretty sure the request has been made on the PFS boards as well. I just don’t know how likely it is to get addressed there.
EDIT: There’s also the issue of whether it works for alchemy, which is a little less clear RAI, and more relevant outside PFS. I actually think the answer there is no, since alchemy has been ruled to not be spellcasting.
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The alchemist formulae list is arcane, but Mystic Past Life says, " You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of your current spellcasting class."
And the FAQ says, "As written, no, alchemists are not spellcasters..." That's in an FAQ about crafting, but sets a pretty strait forwarded reading that alchemists aren't spellcasters.
Plus, do we really want to deal with what happens with an alchemical fireball? Or an infused alchemical fireball? Cause some characters would totally drink one to explode in the middle of the enemy.
If MPL works for alchemists, then it probably only lets them learn spells from other alchemical classes. Right now, I don't think there are any investigator only formulae. It might work the other way around, though, as I think there are some bomb related formulae investigators don't get (maybe not, I need to verify).
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The official comment would come on a Tuesday if this is the FAQ that they are answering that week. This requires 2 unlikely things to happen.
1st, that a FAQ comes out that week.
2nd, that yours is the one they decided to answer with only 12 FAQ flags.
So maybe come back in 6-12 months and if it's still not answered then maybe it's time to bump it a bit.
For PFS you can try to get a Campaign Clarification or DEV post made on it, as that would be official for PFS and potentially more likely and faster than the PDT addressing it.
For something not official but with a tiny bit more weight you can try the Ask Mark thread for a Dev's non-official answer of what he thinks. These answers are sometimes not the way the official answer goes and they are totally not official and doesn't work for PFS. Though it's been a long time since he's responded there too.
here is where you'd make a thread for PFS. Now they might not rule on it saying that they'd want to wait for the PDT, in which case is good to have it hear first in the rules section.
PFS has two routes for official answers.
first is to ask in the rules forum, get FAQ hits and have the PDT answer it. This is likely the only option for stuff in a hardcover.
second is to post in the PFS forum and hope leadership there makes a comment OR a campaign clarification on it. This is likely the only option for stuff in soft cover books.
Now samarans fall under the hardcovers but this request is something that PFS might want to do regardless of the rules.
Start at the top (e.g. requesting a FAQ from the Paizo Design team) then just work your way down the chain of authority of people who actually have some input on your game until someone is willing to give you an answer, I figure.
Like this one isn't even hard it's "we didn't future proof that when we wrote it, and the intent was clearly any kind of magic but it has to be the same type that you use normally."