A school specialist gets a focus spell and several bonus spell slots for spells from their school, but a universalist gets a bonus feat, can recast their most powerful spells several times a day (as many or more times as a specialist has bonus slots!), AND can even poach the focus school spells of the specialists with a little investment!
With feats like Bond Conversion, I just don't see how a universalist would ever run out of spells.
Am I reading all of that right? What am I missing?
It all seems too good to be true! Those poor, poor specialists...
Bond Conservation (DAMNED RD ALMOST HYPNOTIZING ME INTO COPYING HIS TYPEOs!) forces subsequently casting progressively lower level spells, which is not something you inherently want to do in tough fight that requires lots of spells... especially when you are paying extra action cost for the priviledge. If there isn't relevant spell of given Level -2 to recast, you may drop to Level -3 which carries down to further Conservation recasts, or you may not always utilize full Conservation chain down to Level 1/2 if it's not relevant/worth it. Also there is aspect that Specialists bonus slot per level can increase variety to pull from when "re-casting" with Bond/Conservation, increasing chances of having appropriate and powerful spell for situation... AND School is pre-req for Linked Focus which regains 1 Focus Point when they use Drain Bond on spell of their school, meaning it allows "recasting" of max level Focus spell.
Interesting to consider how Thesis impact this... Familiar can acquire Bonus low level spells and Focus Regen, although normal Feats can acquire same abilities (but Thesis easier and allowing multiple abilities). Substitution allows flexible rejigging of spells, good for Bond variety, but constrained by Universalist's fewer slots. Blending allows trading in low levels for high levels, giving more high level options for Bond, but cannibalizing low level options for Conservation/Universalist. Metamagic Thesis grants free Metamagic Feats, but is difficult to combine with Conservation (except for 1-action spells, and capstone Metamagic Mastery Feat).
Universal Bond Conservation seems relatively more effective outside of combat when prebuffing etc, Specialists seem to have advantage in combat. Universalist grabbing multiple low level School Focus spells is nice though, I'm actually most interested in playing a Universalist, but not because "Universalist Bond>Specialist Bond". Universalist Hand of Apprentice can synergize with STR/Heavy Armor build leveraging same Runed weapon although Specialists can also swing a STR/HeavyArmor and weapon build.
I'm rooting for Arcanist just being Archetype. Maybe Spell Preparation Thesis and Arcane Evolution would be Pre-Reqs, and Archetype could be written "omnidirectionally" to work for both prep/spont albeit with different emphasis/baseline.
I also suggested for Witch playtest that Sha'ir could be compelling suboption (Geniekind Patron?), Familiar fetching spell somewhat like Substitution (but allowing off-list access e.g. to Arcane from base Occult) but as long as you haven't cast the bonus slot which is only for Fetched spell you can cast Fetched spell Spontaneously Substituting other slots (which encourages picking lower level Fetch spell to be able to cast it in more slots, even though it's Heighten effect may be less cool than "real" high level spell). Maybe later Fetching multiple spells which become Spontaneous options for bonus slot and Substitution. Could be more flexible Patron VS others which have more static bonus spells but are broader at any one given moment.
Ah, I read it as, if you can cast 9th-level spells, you can use Drain Bonded Item 9 more times. That's not like an extra slot for each level, that's like 9 extra level 9 slots. That's MUCH better than the specialist.
But if they can only do it once per level of spell, to recall a spell of each spell level, that's a bit more balanced.
Ah, I read it as, if you can cast 9th-level spells, you can use Drain Bonded Item 9 more times.
That's not how it works. First off, the flavor:
you can conserve just enough power to cast another, slightly weaker spell.
Now the rules text:
You must use this extra use of Drain Bonded Item before the end of your next
turn or you lose it, and you can use this additional use only to cast a spell 2 or more levels
lower than the first spell
You cast a 9th, you can cast an extra 7th. You cast a 7th, you can cast an extra 5th.
If you cast a 9th with Drain Bond, then a 7th with Drain Bond and want to keep going, the next spell can be no higher than 5th (not another 7th!). If you don't cast a spell in the chain like this, your chain ends until you next prepare spells.
With regards to the Universalist feature,
For each level of spell
you can cast, you can use Drain Bonded item once per
day to recall a spell of that level (instead of using it only
once per day in total)
For each spell level you can cast, you can Drain Bonded to cast a spell of that level:
For(int i=1; i <= max_spell_level; i++) {
gain_drain_bonded_item(i);
}
It's not 9 more times, it's 9 times. Still leaving them 1 behind on 9th level castings, and only equal on # of lower level castings (but less potential variety)
before you consider Bond Conservation which only holds potential advantage on max Level-2 and below, with further action and spell limits. Eventually that amounts to many more lower level spells, which considering action cost seems more relevant out of combat, like I said.
EDIT: Since top spell level is same for Bond (Specialist having slot advantage, but outside scope of Bond), Universalist "multi-Bond" (for lack of other term) has most potential advantage when top spell level is EVEN i.e. a perfect Level-2 chain results in 2-2=0, while next highest level "multi-Bond" is ODD resulting in 3-2=1 for more hypothetical castings. Although situational factors would play stronger role whether you follow perfect/optimal Level-2 chain to the end or not. I think it's more plausible to NOT assess it based on assuming perfect chains followed to end, although when allowed time in prebuffing it certainly opens up "why NOT (re)cast this too?" scenarios.
Definitely, even Universal "multi-Bond" is helpful in combat, it doesn't compete with Specialists' advantage in high level spells (Max Level -2 advantage is more than countered by Max Level disadvantage) so really the advantage is Level-3 and below (although worth noting Specialist Max Level advantage is Prep VS Universalist Level-2 advantage is Spont). Combined with Specialists' variety (real prep slots), School Bond Focus Regen, and freer actions (not spending actions on subpar spells), Specialists direct combat advantage seems clear IMHO, although when Unversalist has sufficent time to prebuff they can better use their advantage in lower level (re)castings, moderated by less variety (situational optimality) where they are effectively more like Spont casters for purposes of (multi)Bond.
For each level of spell you can cast, you can use Drain Bonded item once per day to recall a spell of that level (instead of using it only once per day in total).
Seems 100% clear to me, "that level" is not "any level you want", but in reference to "each level of spell you can cast".
I wasn't talking about Bond Conservation, Draco; merely Drain Bonded Item with the universalist's ability to use it several times a day.
My brain read it as "For each level of spell you can cast, you can use Drain Bonded item once per day to recall a spell." So if you could cast 5th-level spells, you could use Drain Bonded Item 5 times, full stop.
It appears I had misread the universalist's ability though, so it doesn't actually work that way.
My brain read it as "For each level of spell you can cast, you can use Drain Bonded item once per day to recall a spell." So if you could cast 5th-level spells, you could use Drain Bonded Item 5 times, full stop.
You literally skipped three words that make all the difference.
It isn't "full stop" its "once per day per spell level you can recall a spell of that level." You can recall one 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, one 4th, and one 5th. Not "five spells."
My brain read it as "For each level of spell you can cast, you can use Drain Bonded item once per day to recall a spell." So if you could cast 5th-level spells, you could use Drain Bonded Item 5 times, full stop.You literally skipped three words that make all the difference.
It isn't "full stop" its "once per day per spell level you can recall a spell of that level." You can recall one 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, one 4th, and one 5th. Not "five spells."
Yes, I realized that shortly after starting this thread.