Gaining spells and sleeping in Medium armor...


Rules Questions


Simply put, would a Divine or Arcane spellcaster not gain spells the following day if they slept in Medium (or Heavy) armor the previous night?

Also, it is clear the Domain Power "Calming Touch" removes that night's fatigue. I assume that the fatigue does NOT return as there is nothing in the description about needing to address the source of the fatigue (such as in the Paladin mercy description). If so, this is a good Domain power if your DM likes the night encounters.

Many thanks.


comfort armor enchantment from pfs field guide let's your armor count as light armor for sleeping. it also decreases armor penalty and gives you cold/hot weather gear.

there is also the keep watch spell that makes it so don't have to sleep. i think it is from the knights of the inner sea book. my inquisitor uses. since it lasts for eight hours and you cast it right before you sleep, you regain that slot the next day too.

those are two ways to avoid the issue.


So sleeping in non-light armor will prevent a caster from gaining spells? Calming touch will remove the fatigue the caster got from the poor night's sleep. Small comfort as they did not get their spells.


I would think that not regaining spells would only be for arcane casters? Divine casters have to spend time in prayer to get their spells, not necessarily sleep. With the caveat that they can only do this once per day. Is that not correct?

Divine spellcasters definitely do not have a spell failure penalty for casting spells while in heavier armor.

Edit: Without looking further than this I just looked up Wizard and Cleric. A Wizard requires 8 hours of sleep/rest and 1 hour of study with his spellbook to cast spells. A Cleric simply requires 1 hour of meditation done at the same time each day (to prevent regaining spells in a 24 hour period). So, it would seem by RAW divine spellcasters (at least Clerics) don't need to sleep to gain spells. However, they would start taking penalties from staying awake too long.


Thanks, Claxon. Just like I thought.

Shadow Lodge

As far as I know, the only penalty for wearing armor heavier than light armor while sleeping just gives you the fatigued condition. No penalty with spellcasting prep at all.


Avatar-1 wrote:
As far as I know, the only penalty for wearing armor heavier than light armor while sleeping just gives you the fatigued condition. No penalty with spellcasting prep at all.

I think the questionability of it comes into play when people discuss a restful nights sleep and such. I think its clear that that divine (at least the Cleric) would be unaffected for spellcasting purposes. He may be fatigued, but that's it. For arcane casters it could be argued that the fatigue implies that you don't get 8 hours of good rest.

Personally I would play it as the Wizard is fatigued, but can prepare spells as long as he does sleep for 8 hours and takes 1 hour of study. Besides, why on Golarion would you have a wizard wearing armor anyways? Spell failure chance sucks, and mage armor is awesome.

Shadow Lodge

There is nothing that I know of that states that sleeping in Medium or heavier armor prevents you from getting a full night's rest. Just that you gain the fatigued condition when you do.

As stated already it is moot for clerics since they only need to pray for spells.

Wizards sleep in order to be able to memorize new spells in the morning. Casting drains a lot of energy so they need to rest to not get burned out on casting. After sleep they study their spellbook to memorize the days spells.


Sleeping/restng in medium/heavy armor would cause one to have the fatigued condition, but it wouldn't prevent normal healing from rest right?

If they get hit points back, I'd say casters can prep spells.

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