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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 703 posts. 1 review. No lists. No wishlists. 6 Organized Play characters.
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Starfinder 2e seems to have copied the elemental property damage rune system from pathfinder 2e. Except there are 4 max runes now.
Please don’t. The rune ecosystem in 2e is not healthy. Property damage runes tend to crowd out everything else, since more damage is always good. Particularly on low damage die weapons. A 1d6 weapon, a property damage rune is as good or better than a striking rune!
Every weapon doesn’t need to do 5 types of damage. And let the other types of runes shine!
Please done duplicate this system. You can just add more levels of striking runes to keep balance leveled. Or limit property damage runes to 1 max, or one you upgrade, or whatever.

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Hey Paizo, I am loving what I have seen of your remaster plans so far! Since you are "opening up the patient" so to speak, here are a couple suggestions for things that could be tweaked. Thanks for listening as always!
Intelligence - This stat is not good. Commonly considered a dump stat. Why? It gives trained in a skill. Which is ok to start but rapidly becomes rather minimally effective. Trained is easy to get (especially if playing the uber popular free archetype).
I would suggest you let it give expert/master at some point.
Also, it is kind of considered the "Recall Knowledge Stat" That has it's own issues (as others have addressed) but really it is only slighly better than wisdom for RK unless you get heavy into lores. Wisdom has Religion/Nature/Medicine, vs Intelligence with Arcana/Occultism/Society/Crafting. Since int doesn't give higher ranked skills you can't really keep up with high RK DCs even with a high int. Not sure of the exact fix here, but something to point out.
Also, int classes like wizard/magus that start with LESS trained skills than others? Please no lol.
Attack Spells - I won't go over all the issues, we all know them. Maybe ditch true strike so you don't have to balance around it? Half damage on a fail might help a lot.
Elemental Runes - These tend to crowd out every other weapon rune, particularly on low damage die weapons. They are also why most of the specific magic weapons are bad and don't scale, since you can't add these to them. Maybe make them their own rune type, or just allow one that gets more damaging at higher levels, I don't know. I feel the armor runes are much better since they are not "must takes." I also like the idea of just having more levels of striking rune. Yeah it would help big weapons but it should, their damage advantage falls off late game.
Low Level Ranged Damage - Using a bow until you get striking is just painful. Doing 1d6 (maybe +1 one you get compound) for 3.5-4.5 a hit. Compared to a 1handed str fighter doing 8.5. 2hander doing 10.5. Difference is just massive. This gets better as you level but early on could use some help.
Finally, and this is probably outside the remaster wheelhouse, I would love to see prep casters given some more flexible options. Flex casting eats way too many slots, but something in the middle maybe? This is the BIGGEST complaint I see from 5e converts, prep casters just feel outdated. And yes, they can play spontaneous, but people WANT to play a wizard. Maybe give prep casters more flexible casting, let spontaneous have all signature spells, I don't know.
Thank you for humoring me, I love your game. And I love a willingness to tweak things, no one, and I mean no one, gets something 100% right the first time!
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
So, wizards and rogues don't get simple/martial weapon proficiency. Just a selection of weapons. Everyone seems to agree this is simply a 1e legacy move.
Given that we have SO many weapons now, and we want people to use them, maybe slide in an errata just giving wizards simple weapon proficiency and rogue martial?
Zero balance concerns, just would let people use some of these cool new weapons.
That is all.
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Time to revive the old debate!
Treasure Vault has a staff with a shifting rune on it, the Spellstrike staff, and it has an activated ability too.
So.....
Can you cast spells from it when it is shifted?
Can you use the ability on it when shifted?
Can you convert it into a shield boss/spikes/augmentation and then cast from it while holding the shield with said weapon?
Can you make it a gauntlet and cast? Only when the hand is empty or when it is holding something?
All these questions were once asked but then Paizo said no runes on staves, even specifically forbid twisted tree from adding shifting.
But now we have one. So what can it do?

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
First of all, loved the treasure vault preview. Can't wait until my subscription copy arrives!
I also loved the addition of new shields meant for blocking.
Fortress Shield, Harnessed Shield, Heavy Rondache, Salvo Shield, Meteor Shield, Sword Stealer's Shield. Awesome!!!
But, they are just base shields. So someone using them who wants to block is only going to do so for a few levels until the first sturdy shield comes online.
This has been an issue since the CRB, but with all these new shields that are designed for blocking (Heavy Rondache even says it is reinforced to block more and has extra hp!) not having sturdy shields for them is weird.
Look, I know it takes page space. How about you just print a chart saying "Minor Sturdy shield. Here are the stats for each subtype
Meteor Shield, x hardness, x HP/BT
Salvo Shield, x hardness, x HP/BT
Then do the same for lesser, etc.
This is needed for these shields to scale.
Love your work, keep it coming, thanks!

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
First, congratulations on the brilliantly done errata, and your new process. A+ in all seriousness!
Now, since errata is back on the board so to speak, I have a few thoughts for future changes.
Proficiency from General Feats - The proficiency you get should scale just like from Sentinel. A general feat is a considerable investment, and having it just stop working around lvl 13 feels weird. You have spent thirteen levels using a longsword as a wizard and suddenly you are bad at it? I have houseruled this, and it has never been a problem. General feats are often more precious than class feats, you pay a heavy price.
Hammer/Flail Spec - Elephant in the room. It is just way, way too good. Prone is insanely powerful, and getting it with no save? Make it a reflex or fort save and it is still good but not by far the best.
Armor Proficiency - The "gappy" scaling on this for martials could be smoothed out. Every martial should go up at 11 and 17. Right now champion being the same AC as fighter for 2 levels, and barbarian being -2 behind (not even counting heavy armor) for 4 levels just doesn't work in a game with math as tight as this.
Spell Casting Proficiency - Everyone, including MCs, should scale fully. I know this sounds odd, but hear me out. Spells are "gated" by both level, stat, and number of spells. All giving MCs bad proficiencies does it force them to use non DC spells, which are among the best in the game already. If a lvl 20 fighter with wizard MC is able to use a single lvl 8 fireball at legendary proficiency, great! My lvl 20 wizard with a lvl 10 spell, 5 lvl 9 spells and 4 lvl 8s and better DC due to main stat int is not bothered in the slightest.
Same for summoner, no reason it should be -2 worse a few levels but not others, and Magus having full proficiency will still be 1-2 behind a full caster anyways, what does it hurt?
Just my thoughts!

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
The recent playtest analysis of Kineticist was great, and I particularly liked that melee attacks triggering AoO, a longtime complaint for other classes, was finally addressed.
"Manipulate Trait: There was a lot of conversation about the manipulate trait triggering Attacks of Opportunity and putting the melee kineticist in danger. This isn’t a factor in most combats, but in combats against many monsters with Attack of Opportunity, it’ll get you dead in a hurry! The discussions about this reinforced that the inclusion of concentrate and manipulate on all impulses was carried forward from how spells work... and these aren’t supposed to be just like spells! So, it’s likely the final impulses will still include concentrate, but manipulate will only appear on impulses where it’s essential to the action taking place in the story."
Now personally I would LOVE to see Paizo take a look back at some other classes that have melee attacks triggering AoO and perhaps errata that too? I am looking at you poor melee magus and spellstrike...
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
As I have played a lot of melee magus, I have really come to this conclusion.
Melee magus is badly action restricted, I think everyone agrees on this. And arcane cascade not only taking an action, but having to be after a spell is hard to use, not terribly fun, and often not worth the action.
Want to move and spellstrike round one? No cascade
Want to throw a spell then strike? No cascade (and giving up a MAPless strike for cascade is a horrible trade)
Yes you can cantrip and cascade, but 90% of the time that is a bad choice unless the fight is at range.
Tactically, I usually find myself in situations where cascade just isn’t worth the action given how restricted getting into it is, unlike pretty much any other stance.
Would this be a bit of a buff to magus? Yes, mainly melee magus but they need the help, starlit span doesn’t care about cascade much.

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
The post core classes that have a choice between melee and ranged (Specifically talking about Magus, Investigator, and to a lesser extent Inventor) are all much much better served by range. It sadly isn't even a contest this is for multiple reasons.
1 - Damage Boosters - All these classes have big damage boosters on their main attacks (Spellstrike, Strategic Strike, and Overdrive) This means that the advantage of higher hit die and +str on melee weapons is badly diluted. In other words, ranged does almost as much damage as melee.
2 - Complicated Action Economies - All three of these classes can get action starved. They generally need at least 2 actions to deliver their main attack (Spellstrike, Devise a Strategem + attack, Overdrive + attack) This makes them very hard to use and not stand toe to toe with the enemy, particularly if you face any kind of disruption which is really common. Tricky action economies are WAY easier to manage if you are shooting from 50 feet away.
3 - Fragility - All three of these classes are MAD, d8 hp, and two of them trigger AoO doing their basic routine. In other words they are not tanks, they are more like skirmishers like rogue. Skirmishers need to be mobile or take more defensive actions, which their action economy doesn't allow. Noteably rogue has the tools to get in and out of combat and can deliver most of it's damage in one action.
The combination of these three things means it is much safer to shoot from range, you give up minimal damage on paper to do it, and in practice you often do as much or more damage.
Compare that to a core class. Fighter/Ranger gives up a lot more damage to be ranged than any of the above classes. They don't incur extra hits being in melee (triggering AoO for attacking) They are d10hp and less mad so they have more hp and more room for defensive stats, so they have less need of defensive actions. Their balance between ranged and melee is fine.
Looking at the previous discussions about the weakness of post core classes, it comes to mind that at least in these cases, the issue isn't the class per se, it is the melee version. Ranged magus is a good class. Ranged investigator is decent (but lots of out of combat stuff) Ranged inventor is a better ranged DPS than melee inventor is a martial.
I don't know how to fix this exactly, but I have a few suggestions.
1 - Boost their melee damage. Flat damage boosters should do more damage in melee than in range.
2 - Give them better action compressors that work with their 2 action main attacks. Let investigator stride forward and attack using strategic strike for 1 action. Let magus charge at the enemy with a spellstrike for 2 actions. Etc.
3 - Get rid of action penalties. Arcane cascade should be a free action, etc etc.

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Spellshot Class Archetype
I am struggling to understand this class archetype. While I absolutely love the theme of it, the mechanics… are a little wonky. I really don’t see why it isn’t just a Way.
First, class archetypes normally give you extra options in exchange for dedicating into them and being unable to leave until you take three feats in the archetype.
Spellshot really doesn’t. It gives you access to spellshot feats sure, but since you have to pick it as a Way, you lose access to the other way feats. Basically every other way has feats only it can take too just like spellshot, but doesn’t use a lvl 2 feat and prevent you from multiclassing.
The dedication feat is literally a feat tax. All conjure bullet does is let you avoid paying a copper for a bullet if
A) You are using a basic reload action, which gunslingers try not to do, and
B) Are reloading then firing right away.
So, basically far worse than alchemical ammo which gives you free bullets that work with any reload, and bombs, and is only lvl 1.
You get Int to Class DC, but that is a strict downgrade, as your dex is always going to be higher.
Now, lets look at the specifics of what you get.
Slingers Reload -Thoughtful Reload
Recall knowledge and reload for an action – Not bad, except gunslinger has zero support for Recall Knowledge. Unlike some classes you don’t get extra boosts to get you up to expert or master. So you can probably be decent at one RK skill, out of 5. You are going to get a ton of crit fails. Honestly the same issue magus has, a few points in int alone just don’t make you good at this, Recall Knowledge needs too many skills leveled up and needs both int and wisdom.
Initial Deed – Energy Shot
Not bad early on. Gives you elemental damage you can select for your first three shots to hit a weakness. 1 extra damage is nice early on and hitting an elemental weakness is only useful on about 10% of enemies but can be quite useful on those!
The problem is once you hit mid game, lvl 8 or 9 and get a flaming rune. The damage on this never scales, so once you have a flaming rune this really only becomes beneficial on enemies weak to ice/lightning or acid. Which are quite rare, 3% of enemies or so.
Advanced Deed – Recall Ammunition
This one is good. Very nice, useful reaction. Great ability
Greater Deed – Dispelling Bullet
Hard to rate. Very campaign dependent. If you are in a campaign where enemies don’t self buff, it will get little use. If you are fighting casters and can dispel a lvl 7 haste or something this is excellent.
Now lets look at the Feats
Spellshot Dedication – Literally a feat tax. You save 1 copper every once in awhile when not not using a better reload, and miss out on fake out or risky reload. I am unclear why this exists.
Fulminating Shot – Feat 6
Nice little damage boost. Basically power attack for range but can trigger elemental weaknesses. Power attack works better for ranged than melee too, but haven’t run all the numbers. It has the same problem as Energy shot though, once you get a flaming rune, very few enemies have weaknesses for this to hit.
Call Gun – Feat 8
…Why? A lvl 8 class feat for a cool party trick? Soulforger lets you essentially do the same thing as a lvl 2 feat, and gives you an awesome once a day power.
Phase Bullet – Feat 14
Very nice. Once a day sadly, but against an enemy in armor in particular this has a lot of power for that one shot that you really need. Doesn’t work with other meta strikes though.
Black Powder Embodiment – Feat 18
Hmm, torn on this one. Very cool obviously, but most of the time gunslingers don’t want to get closer to an enemy. Could actually be useful to get clear from one enemy by shooting one farther away though hah. I would take it, sheer cool factor.
In Conclusion - I ask this archetype to be considered for some errata. It is so thematically cool, and has some awesome stuff. But making it a class archetype, as it stands, doesn't fit. I would suggest the following fixes, some or all of them or something else!
A) If it has to be a class archetype, maybe just let you pick a lvl 2 feat for the dedication? Conjure bullet doesn't do anything. And skip the "3 feats to leave" rule, let us archetype other things please. No reason for it here.
B) Energy Shot - Should really scale to 2 damage at lvl 9, 3 at 18 to keep it useful. Or give access to other energy types. Alchemical gunslinger is actually much better at hitting weaknesses as they can access positive damage, good, negative, etc, as well as getting special material bullets.
C) Call Gun - I don't know. Make it do something worth a lvl 8 class feat?
Finally, the Recall Knowledge aspect of the class. This seems to be a recurring theme where a few points in int and a class gets Recall Knowledge feats. Unlike say intimidation or what not, you need need to literally boost 5 skills (Society, Arcana, Occultism, Religion and Nature) to keep your Recall Knowledge game going, as well as getting +skill items for it, and boosting two stats, int and wisdom. For an action that is sometimes great but often useless. I don't know the fix here, but isn't really working making it a part of the class as is. Personally I think a skill feat that lets you use your best int skill for RK of anything in combat, mabe with a -2 penalty or something, might be a thought.
Thank you for humoring my TED talk.

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Hello all. I was recently looking at bounded spellcasting via archetype vs standard spellcasting benefits.
I have come to the conclusion that bounded is much worse, and kind of odd given some of the spell level bumps it gives.
Basically, it is strictly worse than regular archetypal spellcasting at virtually every level. It lags behind in levels, and massively in number of spells. Once you add in breadth (an additional feat granted) it is so much worse.
I know people will say bounded is not supposed to be as good as regular casting, but this is via archetype, it has to be at least worth the feats. It is a lvl 6, 12 and 18 feat vs lvl 4, 12 and 18 for regular. It is always worse. For the feat cost, it should offer equivalent, if different value, or at least close. But less spells AND slower spell progression is a double wammy.
I graphed out the difference so people can look at it.
My suggestion is to give bounded spellcasting the same progression as regular casting at least, it should get spells at the same levels at a minimum. It never gets a lvl 8 spell for instance.
https://imgur.com/a/iBwG6wF
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Love this archetype, so cool. But mechanically, a question.
It is really unclear if you can convert your weapons from regular manifested form to their essence form (activating the essence power) It is incredibly clunky if you can't, but the rule should really be spelled out.
Second, I am really confused why the offensive powers have no scaling?
Healing grace heals you half your level in flat healing, scales with you. Harmful malice gives you 1d4 negative damage, which while nice early is neglible later. Why doesn't it scale too?
Same with Planar Bond and Planar Pain. Planar bond has scaling damage resistance (level +2) while planar pain has +2 status damage.
The offensive uses really need some kind of scaling damage added on. I would suggest maybe going from 1d4 at lvl 2 to 1d10 at lvl 20?
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I am a big fan if the way 2e limits stackable buffs so people can't assemble a character with +80 to hit.
But some classes get their class bonuses in status or circumstance, which I don't love. I think that some of these bonuses should be untyped, as long as the bonus can't be picked up with an archetype.
Some Examples
Speed - This is the most common. For example, laughing shadow gets +5 speed, up to 10 if unarmored! Great, except once you get a wand of longstrider early/mid game all the hybrid studies are the same speed.
To Hit = Battle Mystery Oracle - Your damage boost is obsolete with a bard song or heroism. Fighter's damage boost stacks with everything, why doesn't this one?
To be clear, these untyped bonuses should only be on class features that you can't snag with archetype, to prevent stacking issues.

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Greetings all. I have been working on some tweaks to the Magus. Nothing earth shattering, but I wanted to
A) Increase their options. They are kind of locked into a set routine now.
B) Give them a little more staying power, once their initial damage boost fades (Spellstrike, focus powers), and gives a better reason to be in Arcane Cascade.
C) Feat Changes
D) Other Tweaks
So, in that spirit, I present the changes, from simpler to more extreme.
A - Simple Changes – Focused on usability, no power increases
1 – Arcane Cascade – Change the requirement to “Must have cast a spell or used Spellstrike since the beginning of your last turn.” This is a quality of life change, making clear you can arcane cascade the next turn, and it won’t be interrupted by reactions, allowing a little more action fluidity.
2 – Focus Abilities – When you use a focus point to cast a Conflux Spell, instead of recharging Spellstrike you may instead enter into arcane cascade at the end of the action. This allows you to lead off with a focus spell if you like, instead of feeling like you have to wait until you need Spellstrike recharged. It doesn’t increase your focus abilities power, you are saving an action either way, it just gives more flexibility.
B – Moderate Changes – Slight power increase in some situations, usually long fights. Mainly an increase in flexibility. I think this will be really helpful later in the game.
1 – Arcane Cascade Change – “While in Arcane Cascade, you may cast your hybrid study conflux spell without using a focus point, if you have not already used that focus ability, this turn. When used this way, the focus ability gains the flourish trait, and does not recharge spellstrike.” This change allows Magus more flexibility to stay in the fight effectively when it can’t really Spellstrike. Late game fights with lots of grabs and disruption often make Spellstrike really hard to get off. It has little to no effect on the traditional Spellstrike – Focus Spell and Attack – Spellstrike 3 round start, but does allow magus to FEEL more magical, and continue doing cool things in longer fights.
C – Feat Changes – Some of the magus feats are not very useful in practice. These changes aim to make unused feats more viable.
1. Raise a Tome – This feat and the follow-up Shielded Tome are essentially useless in practice, while having cool flavor. You pay a massive price for a +1 circumstance bonus to Recall Knowledge in one skill. (And Magus isn’t good at RK)
a. Change Raise a tome to work with Laughing Shadow, so it allows you to still get your weapon damage bonus if holding a book, but don’t allow shield blocking. It is effectively giving laughing shadow dueling parry. Yes it gains +1 to RK in a skill, but at the cost of a free hand, which is pricy.
b. Merge Shielded Tome into Raise a Tome – This is essentially a feat tax, you are paying a lvl 1 and 6 feat to get +1 recall knowledge on your shield for sparkling targe. A lvl 1 feat seems the right price here. So combine them.
2. Capture Magic – Way too situational. I would add that “If you’re already in Arcane Cascade, you can EITHER recharge your Spellstrike” or gain the bonus damage. Give it a better shot of giving you that action economy.
3. Runic Impression – The only useful rune it can add here is ghost touch. The other elements you can all cover with arcane cascade. I would suggest adding extending, and maybe give it the ability to transmute your weapon into cold iron or silver.
D - Other Tweaks
1. Laughing Shadow speed. It needs to stack with longstrider. If is a minor speed buff, and any decent magus is going to have a wand of longstrider by lvl 7, so at that point the Laughing Shadow is going as fast as any other magus. This is an issue with other classes that get status bonus to speed too, but those classes at least get faster than longstrider, or don’t have arcane casting for the wand as a built in class ability!
2. I do think Magus needs some form of stat sub, it is REALLY MAD. Heavy armor is probably the easiest but I know that is controversial.
3. Finally, the elephant in the room, subject of many discussions, Attacks of Opportunity. I do not think AoO should trigger on Spellstrike, as disrupting your big strike isn’t fun, and Magus in their regular routine is doing less damage than fighter, doesn’t need to be hit and disrupted. However, that might depend on some or all of these changes going through. The moderate changes in particular let you fight more effectively without Spellstriking. At a minimum, I would suggest the magus ability to not trigger Spellstrikes on Spellstrike CANTRIPS, as those are your regular damage routine.
Thoughts and feedback are welcome.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I know Magus arcane cascade is getting fixed, since technically it ends as soon as it starts, but while you are tweaking it can you consider making the requirements easier?
Right now we aren't even sure if you can do it at the start of the next turn, and magus action economy is crazy.
How about for requirements "IF you have cast a spell or used spellstrike since the start of your last turn you may enter arcane cascade. There are no requirements to stay in this stance, other than the general stance requirements."
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I was messing with magus builds and such (have a thread on AoO, etc).
So I built up a fighter MC Magus, and compared it to regular Magus as a striker (spellstriking etc.)
It is ugly. Here is a chart of a fighter MC Magus with a Greatsword doing their one a fight spellstrike with a cantrip, then hitting two rounds of regular greatsword attacks (2 strikes in one, 3 strikes in the other since I let magus use an action for arcane cascale.
The other line is a magus going full nova. Using a top level shocking grasp, then cascade and strike twice, then another top level shocking grasp. Fighter can do this once an encounter, Magus can do it once a day.
https://imgur.com/a/iI7mxrr
Basically the damage is the same. For the magus mega once a day nova, vs the fighter does this every fight move.
So, moral here is. If you want to spellstrike and do damage, don't make a magus, make an MC Fighter.

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
First, I would like to say I greatly enjoy Magus. It is a fun and well put together class. I think Paizo really nailed a proper gish, which is super hard to do.
However, in Attack of Opportunity("AoO") heavy campaigns (like the official APs at higher levels) they suffer badly.
Magus is a good class, but it is not an overpowered one. A fighter with a 2hander does more damage than a spellstriking magus! It can do other stuff of course, but a Magus that isn't spellstriking is doing damage on par with a non-paladin champion, with far more fragile defenses.
The entire class fantasy of melee magus is getting into melee range and hitting things. Spellstrike getting you hit in the face by an AoO doesn't mesh with that. The general consensus is that ranged magus is by far the best solely because of spellstrike triggering AoO.
AoOs are rare you say? Actually no they aren't. I went through the last three books of AoA (I am GMing it right now) and here is the frequency of AoO.
Book 4 - 29% of enemies of AoO
Book 5 - 23 % of enemies
Book 6 - 38%!
This is in addition to golems, which ALSO shut down magus pretty hard.
You can play around AoO? Sure. But when your basic melee damage rotation, spellstrike with a cantrip triggers it, they are hard to play around. And other classes that don't have to play around are just far more effective.
Magus is a good, fun class. But it's power shouldn't vary so massively depending on if AoO's are common.
Please consider making spellstrike (not all spells) not trigger AoO. It won't effect Magus in games with no AoO, and they are not at all overpowered in those games. But it would let them be viable late game with heavy amounts of AoO enemies, which clearly happens in the published APs.
Thank You

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
All kidding aside, weirdly, by early mid game you basically have no reason to use a 1 handed sword with laughing shadow if going strength, even though it is the 1 handed sword style.
Laughing shadow encourages you to go 1 handed (with nothing in your other hand, can't even hold a scroll) through arcane cascade. NONE of the feats require it except spell parry, which is way worse than using a shield cantrip. (And magus doesn't really have actions for it.)
Arcane cascade gives more speed it 1handed (5, 10 if unarmored) and extra damage if flanked, 3-5-7 instead of the usual 1-2-3.
But by lvl 7 or so, any magus worth their salt will have a wand of longstrider. 10 speed, doesn't stack with arcane cascade speed.
As for damage, a 2hander will do more damage than a 1hander even with the flanking bonus starting at lvl 4. Before that it does the same. And it applies ALL the time, not just to flanked.
Cool teleporation feats? They don't require you to be using a 1handed weapon.
So use a bastard sword in two hands for more damage and everything else the same. If you really need that free hand, just take a hand off as a free action.'
Weird, but true. Two handed Laughing Shadow reigns supreme!
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I noticed something odd looking at magazines for repeating crossbows.
A magazine typically holds the ammunition, it isn't the ammunition itself.
So a crossbow magazine is 9sp for a magazine with 5 bolts. Can a magazine be reloaded? If not you end up with partially used magazines you carry into a fight.
If you can reload it, are the bolts the regular 1 copper price or still 5 for 9SP? Because a shade under 2sp a round is insanely expensive.
This crops up in Guns and Gears too, the cheapest round in a magazine is 1sp a shot, no mention is made of reloading.
Thanks!

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Mods, forgive me if this is too much information for the forums, but I think it is an important question for Magus.
Magus in the playtest was clear that using it with a save spell did not cause Spellstrike to count as 2 attacks for MAP. Now it is less clear.
Default spell strike only works with attack rolls, and as they are using 2 attacks, it is explicit that it counts as two attacks for MAP purposes. Key section bolded.
"You channel a spell into a punch or sword thrust to deliver a combined attack. You Cast a Spell that takes 1 or 2 actions to cast and requires a spell attack roll. The effects of the spell don’t occur immediately but are imbued into your attack instead. Make a melee Strike with a weapon or unarmed attack. Your spell is coupled with your attack, using your attack roll result to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell. This counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty, but you don’t apply the penalty until after you’ve completed the Spellstrike."
There is a level 2 feat that allows you to use save spells. But unlike in the playtest, the spell just goes off when you swing, it doesn't benefit from the hit or miss (unless you crit miss then it is lost).
"You’ve adapted a wider array of spells to work with your
attacks. Rather than needing to use a spell that has a
spell attack roll for a Spellstrike, you can use a harmful
spell that can target a creature or that has an area of a
burst, cone, or line (abiding by any other restrictions of
Spellstrike). When you Cast a Spell that doesn’t have a
spell attack roll as part of a Spellstrike, it works in the
following ways.
• If your Strike critically fails, the spell is lost with no effect.
• Creatures use their normal defenses against the spell,
such as saving throws.
• If the spell lets you select a number of targets, it
instead targets only the creature you attacked with
your Strike." Then some other text about bursts.
So, does double MAP apply if using a saving through? I think it still doesn't.
As I read it, you only do double map because you are making two attacks with an attack trait spell.
Your spell is coupled with your attack, using your attack roll result to determine the effects of both the Strike and the spell. This counts as two attacks for your multiple attack penalty
A save spell doesn't use the attack roll to determine the effects of both, they both go off independently. (Oh and FYI, ran the numbers, using save cantrips is a lot worse than attack cantrips now, so odd they would penalize it doubly with two MAP)
Thoughts? Official clarification would be great if possible hah, we have been debating this one a lot.
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
So, it appears as written that spellstrike, which has the subordinate Cast a Spell activity, triggers AoO.
Please tell me this wasn’t intended? Magus is a d8 martial, if they trigger AoO trying to do their melee move, it is going to be death against a lot of enemies.
Would love to get an official ruling on this one.
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Looking at armor and character builders, I am really wondering what niche medium armor fills? Is it just for classes that can't get heavy?
I mean light armor is obvious, for high dex, low strength characters.
Heavy, you get that +1 ac, but just as important you can dump dex if you want to and rely on bulwark.
Medium doesn't really fill either niche. You still have to get some dexterity, and if you want to match the reflex saves of heavy you need more.
There is a reason sentinel is so good. Heavy does have -5 speed, but as your speed goes up later in the game that becomes less and less relevant, and you can even pay for mithril to lose that penalty anyways.
I am thinking of homebrewing that breastplates get bulwark too, so staying in medium isn't such a harsh penalty, but I don't know. What do you all think?

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Does unconventional weaponry allow non-racial trait advanced weapons? Like the Rhoka sword for instance? I am pretty sure it doesn't, but most seem to allow it. Here is the text.
"You've familiarized yourself with a particular weapon, potentially from another ancestry or culture. Choose an uncommon simple or martial weapon with a trait corresponding to an ancestry (such as dwarf, goblin, or orc) or that is common in another culture. You gain access to that weapon, and for the purpose of determining your proficiency, that weapon is a simple weapon.
If you are trained in all martial weapons, you can choose an uncommon advanced weapon with such a trait. You gain access to that weapon, and for the purpose of determining your proficiency, that weapon is a martial weapon."
My reading is that the advanced weaponry portion is more restrictive. It only applies to weapons with a racial trait, as it says "weapon with such a trait" which is not "common in another culture" as that isn't a trait.
This makes sense to me, as otherwise this feat is as good as a lvl 6 fighter class feat, or taking a specific archetype.

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Draconic Disciple is one of the most flavorful, coolest archetypes there is. But it doesn't work that well as an archetype much of the time, particularly for Draconic Sorcerers, one of the few that get access.
Here are some changes I suggest to improve it.
Dedication - Half your level in resistances to your energy type, and
You also gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against sleep effects and effects that would make you paralyzed.
Thoughts - Kind of weak, and is duplicative with your dragon claws, as the resistance doesn't stack. I suggest either making the spell saves better (maybe mental?) Or moving this line of text from the Claws of the Dragon ability. "If you are a draconic sorcerer, when you use the dragon claws ability increase the resistance to 10 at 1st level, 15 at 5th level, and 20 at 9th level."
Claws of the Dragon
Gives you claws. Good for what it is I suppose, but who is meleeing with dragon claws? (Seriously, dragon claws ability on sorcerer is awful, give them something useful to 98% of sorcerers)
Scales of the Dragon.
Gives you natural armor, 2ac, +2 dex max. 4 total armor. Less than light armor. Less than max dex. For a 4th level class feat, just make it +3 armor or +3 dex, equal to light armor/medium armor? I mean sentinel gets you better than this at lvl 2.
I think they are already changing it to work like normal armor, so make it decent.
Dragon Arcana
Completely useless for a sorcerer, as these are your bloodline spells. How about "If you are a draconic sorcerer, these spells become signature spells." Or something.
Breath/Wings of the Dragon - Useless, sorcerer gets these sooner.
Dragonic Scent - Not sold on how useful this is, but haven't messed with imprecise senses, could be wrong.
Shape of the Dragon -
Lets you cast lvl 7 dragon form once a day, scales to 8th at lvl 16, 9th at lvl 18. This would be cool except there that a lvl 7 or lvl 9 Shape of the Dragon spell doesn't exist. So basically this is weak at lvl 14 when you get it, then gets decent at 16, then slowly gets worse.
This is really a problem with the Dragon Shape spell. Why can't we get a couple more levels of the form in there, at 7 and 9th?
Finally, I think this could use a couple other feats aimed at sorcerers. Not sure what, but I want this archetype to be as awesome mechanically as it is thematically.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Title says it all. Fighters get an extra level of proficiency in their chosen weapon.
If I use a hammer as my main, I have the lovely light hammer (1d6, agile) as a thrown weapon option. (Hammer spec is also insane, but not going to beat that dead horse)
Flail? I have combat grapnels, and reach options! (Same crit spec too lol)
Axes? The lovely Mambele, a personal favorite.
Swords? Zero options. You just have to take a drop in proficiency and be worse at mid range than the other options by -2.
I think this is because swords is basically half of the edged weapon groups. Big sharp things (swords) small sharp things (knives). Axes and hatchets aren't separate groups lol.
I would love to see a thrown weapon with the sword classification, just to keep parity. Either that, or let fighters that specialize in swords also get knives included, or maybe toss them javelins hah.

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I think most would agree that intelligence is a fairly useless stat. Trained is very easy to get (you get 2 trained skills from a rogue dedication alone). It does not scale with the game, and ends up being a stat very few take if they don't have to for their class.
I have been playing Starfinder recently, and really like how intelligence works there. It basically lets you max out on additional skill for each point of intelligence.
With that being said, I suggest the following house rule. It might make intelligence close to competitive with dex/wis/con. Basically it makes it as useful as Starfinder does.
"At level 5, you may increase a number of skills from trained to expert equal to your intelligence bonus. At lvl 9 you may increase a number of skills equal to your intelligence bonus from expert to master. At lvl 17, you may increase a number of skills equal to your intelligence bonus from master to legendary. This is retroactive if you gain intelligence later. If for any reason you do not have enough skills at the required level, you may increase a lower level skill up one degree of proficiency."
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I have been missing my Arcanist, and really liked the Standby Spell feat for magus in the play test, so behold, by standby spell wizard.
Spell Mastery
You have truly mastered some spells, to the point where you can cast them without having prepared them. For each spell level you have, you may select one spell in your spell book. You know this spell so well that you can cast it from a spell slot of that level that has another spell memorized. These mastered spells are not automatically heightened, if you wish to cast a spell at different spell levels you must select it as your mastered spell for each level.
These spells are not easily learned. You may change a single mastered spell when you gain a level, or spend a week of downtime retraining.
Idea is to give the wizard a thesis that offers better spell flexibility in combat. It lacks the raw power of spell sub, and the out of combat flexibility of spell substitution.
Thoughts?

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Hey all! I liked a lot of changes in the errata, but I was rather dissapointed that it didn't do anything about spell attacks being awful and low level caster damage spells being awful. So I was thinking of the following proposed changes, call it a thought experiment, just wanted to get a second opinion.
1 - Most spell attacks get half damage on a non-critical miss. This would fix the cantrips for the most part. Telekinetic Projectile and Produce Flame would be a bit higher single target damage than Electric Arc, but Electric Arc would do more damage to multiple targets.
2 - Spell attacks do not benefit from effects like inspire courage that otherwise boost attack rolls. To keep it balanced otherwise.
3 - True Strike is changed to +3 when affecting spell attack rolls.
Lvl 1 Spells
Burning hands - From 2d6 to 3d6 starting. This makes it actually better than Eletric Arc, but not by a ton.
Chilling Spray - 2d4 to 3d4.
Grim Tendrils - From 2d4 to 3d4.
Hydraulic Push and Shocking Grasp - No damage change, half damage on a miss is enough of a boost.
Lvl 2 Spells
Acid Arrow - Half damage on a miss, no persistent damage. (Still not a great spell, but at least usable!)
Heightening effects remain unchanged. Everything lvl 3 and up unchanged.
Thoughts? I feel like this would make lvl 1-2 spells actually useful, and spread the cantrip usage around a bit. By my math Electric Arc will still be the most damaging cantrip against 2 or more targets, it just won't be the best single target anymore.
This shouldn't effect wizards after lvl 5 really. Not sure how disintegrate would work to be honest, not high enough level to have used it!
Oh, I would also change Magic Weapon to JUST adding a striking rune, not a +1. Makes it a bit less broken at lvl 1/2, while still stacking with the +1 rune weapons will have at lvl 3.
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Right now it seems like heavy armor is the realm almost exclusively of full plate. Half Plate and Composite could be options for builds that have a bit of dex, but bulwark is just too good.
I would love to see more armor variety, how about Half Plate has Bulwark, but it only adds +2 on top of 1 max dexterity?
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Was it intentional that this is the best parry weapon in the game?
It is agile + parry + finesse and a 1d6. The next best parry weapon is a 1d4. I realize it is expensive, but that cost becomes negligible later.
It seems like maybe the sheath was intended to be the parry weapon, and not the blade too.
Is that intentional or an error that might be fixed in errata?

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I was just thinking of a few things I would love to see for other classes in Secrets of Magic
Sorcerer - Some options for starting focus spells. By that I mean some bloodlines have mandatory focus spells that are incredibly niche. Dragon Claws anyone? How about giving bloodlines a choice of a couple different starting focus spells? Imperial could use a choice for people that want a combat spell too, along with multiple others.
I would also love an Int based sorcerer option, just for fun!
Wizard - Something like the standby spell feat. Let them pick a couple spells they can convert a spell slot into, It would encourage preparing niche spells without spell sub being practically mandatory. Arcane evolution gives sorcerers a bit of wizard, this would do the reverse, Dangerous sorcery for blaster wizards would be great too. I would also like to see spell blending and staff nexus useful at lower levels, not just something you retrain into.
Casters in general. Give em a first level feat. Human is practically mandatory(or ancient elf) for a lot of dedication builds. First level feats mainly increase breadth, not power. I mean one class has familiar at 1, enhanced familiar at 2. You can’t even do that if not human!
Runes for spell attack rolls or half damage on a fail. We all know spell attack spells are awful. Give them some love. This would fix all cantrips being worse than electric arc.
Spells - First lvl spells could use some love, magic weapon is by far the best lvl 1-3.. You could buff some of them like flaming hands and nerf their scaling, no one uses them past lvl 2 anyways. Sudden Bolt as a common please?
That is all off the top of my head. What wishes do you guys have?

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Great Magus feat. Please Please Please give some form of it to wizards!
For those who haven't read it -
Standby Spell - Feat 8 -
One spell is your favored combat technique, and you’ve practiced it enough that you no longer need to prepare it to cast it. Choose a spell in your spellbook that you could use with Striking Spell and that has a level no higher than the highest-level magus spell slot you have. You can Cast this Spell without having it prepared ahead of time by expending a spell slot of a sufficient level to cast the spell.
You can change this spell when you add new spells to your spellbook or by studying your spellbook for 1 hour per level of the newly chosen spell.
Some version of this with wizard would be awesome. I would suggest lowering the level (4 maybe, same as arcane evolution) and getting rid of the quick change in the morning, might be too good on wizard. But maybe give you a standby spells at different levels.
Off the cuff, I suggest something like this
Mastered Spells - Feat 4
You have mastered a spell sufficiently that, that you no longer need to prepare it to cast it. Choose a spell in your that has a level no higher than the highest-level wizard spell slot you have. You can Cast this Spell without having it prepared ahead of time by expending a spell slot of a sufficient level to cast the spell. You may change this spell when you gain a level, or through a week of retraining. You gain an additional mastered spell at lvl 10, and 16. Each mastered spell must have a different minimum level to cast.

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Thought I would toss out my quick review of some of the Magus feats, just initial thoughts and some actual playtime.
LVL 1
Arcane Fists - ****/* - If you want an unarmed magus, mandatory! If you don't, useless. Weird thing is magus doesn't get a lvl 1 feat so if you aren't a human and want to be a monk magus, you have to wait for lvl 2.
Combat Assessment - **** - Essential. Action economy is king, and magus has the int to be good at recall knowledge. Great feat.
Eschew Materials - * - Why, just why?
Familiar - ** - I am not a huge familiar guy, but others rate them higher. Not sure how magus is supposed to use one well though, he has no actions to spare.
Raise a tome - * - Really? Cool idea, 4 stars for flavor. But you can't hold anything in your hand while using 1h style, so when does this come up. Also the book has to be related to the subject, which seems meh. I suppose there is a combo with combat assessment here, but that is a problem when they are both lvl 1 feats. Conflicts with spell parry too.
LVL 2
Cantrip Expansion - ** - Decent if you want cantrips, but a wizard MC is strictly superior here.
Enhanced Familiar - ** - See Above
Spirit Sheath - * - Just no. Awesome flavor don't get me wrong, love the flavor. But +2 to conceal your weapon is insanely situational. Some campaigns will like it, many will never use it. The rest is just a massively worse version of quickdraw. Only works on the one weapon. Only when casting a spell for spirit strike. At least quickdraw works all the time and you can use it on other weapons, like if you want to throw something or switch weapons.
4th Level
Bespell Strikes - ** - Only 4 spells, so not going to get to use this that often. Magus focus spells are mostly unusuable (Potency does nothing 2/3 of the time) so that won't trigger it. All that for a little damage. Which encourages you to stand in front of something swinging. Which equals death. Also if you use it with spell strike you either get this for 1 hit, or use it at the start of your turn which means you wasted one of your no MAP spellstrike hits. Minimal use.
Spell Parry - ** - Love the flavor of this for sure. Although I think AC (regular parry) is better early game when you will be using this. If this gave you + 1 saves to all spells, not just the ones that target you, would be better. And magus does not have the action economy to use it.
Steady Spellcasting - * - No
6th Level
Energized Strikes - *** - By the time you get it, this is 2 damage of one of many energy types to every hit. Really nice. Unfortunately it interferes with spell strike again(wasting a map hit). Also same level as Martial Caster
Martial Caster - **** - Great. This should be a class feature, not a feat. Magus needs this badly. Also a couple of the spell choices are weird. No magus ever is going to use mage armor or magic weapon. Magic weapon is obsolete at this point, and Mage armor has to be cast at max level to be useful (Hint, you have armor, use that.)
Spell Countermeasures - *** - Really nice reaction. I love it. But it shares lvl 6 with the first two abilities, which are both essential.
(Summary, Lvl 6 has good stuff, too much in one level, martial caster should be built in!)
Lvl 8
Capture Spell - ** - 4 points for flavor! Love that. But you have to be targetted (area of effect won't do) and your parry has to be up, and you succeed at the save. Lot of ifs. Magus doesn't really have the action economy to parry sadly.
Standby Spell - **** - Awesome. This lets you make one spell your favorite so you don't have to fill all your slots with it. This should come earlier or be a class feature maybe, and wizards should get this! This feat would make prepared caster's lives so much easier.
Runic Impression - * - Your weapon should already have runes. How often do you really really need to change runes? Maybe to hit a weakness? Eh. Take standby spell, skip this.
Spell Swipe - ** - Cool idea. Not sure how well it works in practice, since your foes have to be in melee reach and adjacent to each other. Maybe an argument for 2h reach Magus?
Ok, that is as far as I got. Let me know what you think!

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
As I think has been discussed ad-nauseum, the current spell strike is very weak. It is actually less useful than just casting and striking most of the time. Plus, the question is, what is the magus playstyle?
Magus is a d8 class without heavy armor. It is very MAD (needs max str, int, con, some dex, and wis)
So it will be fragile, since you can't afford to max con after str. This does not lend itself to a toe to toe fighter. At least not one that will live long!
So I see magus as more of a skirmisher. Get in, get out. The closest comparison I can think of that exists is a precision ranger with twin takedown. Although the magus is more fragile.
Spell strike does not suppport this though. The damage is bad and it encourages you to keep swinging, not get in and get out. Here is my proposed change, and some basic math.
Spell Strike - You cast a spell, but do not discharge it, instead storing it in your weapon or body. As a result, this ability takes one action less than casting the spell (minimum one action). On your next strike with the charged item, the spell is discharged. If your strike hits, the target of the spell takes -2 to save/ac to the spell. Both spell and strike use your current map, but count for 2 strikes (even if the spell was a save spell) If it is an area of effect spell, only the struck target receives the debuff. This charge lasts until the end of the next round.
This is obviously an action economy buff. It also compensates for the magus low spell proficiency IF the strike hits. But it is not all or nothing as the spell can hit either way.
How does this play out? Most of the time you are using cantrips. You only have 4 spells, so really just going to be using one per fight.
Lvl 5, using a cantrip, lets say TK for high damage. You are about 50/50 to hit. Average damage, assuming you have runes is (2d8+4)x.5 + (3d6+4)x.45 = About 13 damage for 2 actions. Ranger, for the same 2 actions (only he can do it for one action next round if the target doesn't die, hunt prey and twin takedown is ((1d8)x.65 + (2d8+4)x.5 + (2d6+4)*.3) = 13. Now ranger can repeat it, since he doesn't need hunt prey every round if the target doesn't die. And ranger has d10, and a much better third strike if needed (agile), as well as probably higher con. If ranger is sticking around to flurry his damage is a lot higher.
I see the result as being a Magus that does one of two things in a fight. Either leads with an area of effect spell (fireball, but that gives up spell strike action economy and he has bad DC, or spellstrike and use a cone AE for action economy). He has a bigger round than the ranger. Every other round after that, he is more fragile and doing less damage overall. He probably darts in and out of combat to spell strike.
Against a boss, the Magus is still darting in and out, doing less damage than the ranger. But he can do 1 or 2 bigger rounds using a single target spell.
This would be a fun playstyle, without being overbalanced.
I would suggest 1 handed magus should get a new version of spell slide, let him move without provoking AoA after spell striking perhaps, to enable this form of combat.
If you want magus to be a fighter that stands in the front row slinging spells, this chasis is not designed for that. Maybe support in a different way for shield? Or a reactive parry of some sort?
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Ok, so I was looking at various light sources. Outside of a higher level light cantrip, is a hooded lantern the best light in the game? Seems odd.
Torches, everburning flame, etc, all do 20 feet of bright and 20 feet of dim. A hooded lantern does 30 feet of bright, 30 feet of dim.
Is everburning flame supposed to shed more light at higher levels? It's heightening doesn't list anything. Just seems super weird that with all the magical stuff you have, if no one has a light cantrip at higher levels you will still be using a 7sp lantern lol.

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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
So, the general consensus seems to be that int is a poor secondary stat. It is usually at the bottom of the dump list along with str (for non str classes) and charisma (although that has uses for demoralize.)
The problem seems to be the benefits. The extra language is nice, but not that useful in most games. (There are some games that are the exception of course.)
Being trained in a skill is really nice early game, but quickly becomes less useful. Particularly with Untrained Improvisation for everyone, and Clever Improvisation for Humans so easily attainable.
Having more trained skills doesn't change how many you can take to expert/master.
So I am proposing a homerule in a game I am in. Please tell me what you think.
Int still gives the regular +1 trained skill per bonus at lvl 1. At lvl 9, you may raise to expert a number of skills equal to your int bonus, provided you are trained in them. At lvl 17 you can raise a number of skills equal to your int bonus to master, assuming you are trained in them.
The idea is to help the bonus from int scale with you as the game goes on.
Thoughts?
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
If you take a spontaneous caster dedication, can you change the spells you have at each level when you level like a regular spontaneous caster?
Seems almost strictly worse than a prepared caster dedication if not.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Do you always have to have the granted spells at the level they were granted to you at?
So for instance if I get charm at lvl 1, can I learn it at a higher level, and remove it from my lvl 1 known spells? Otherwise it is becomes rapidly useless as it is an incap spell.
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