What is the Drawback of the Arcanist?

[Mulet]

I've got a Sourcerer, Wizard and an Arcanist. The Arcanist merges the slots and the spellbook of each into a mega-class with no drawbacks I can see. You could argue about the fewer feats for Arcanists, but they get just as many Exploits as the Wizard gets bonus feats.

Although the total spells they get per day are a little different:
(INT20 or CHA20, L8), it's not enough to put the Arcanist at any disadvantage. All it would take to catch up to the Sorcerer on Spell slots would be a metamagic rod of echoing.

CLASS 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Arcanist 6 5 5 3
Sorcerer 8 7 6 4
Wizard 6 4 4 3

[Damanta]

And all it would take for the sorcerer to stay ahead would be a metamagic rod of echoing.

The drawback of an arcanist is the limited number of spells she can prepare compared to the wizard, and less spells/day compared to the sorcerer.

Wizard can prepare 3 different spells of spell-level 4, the Arcanist needs to have an exploit and spend arcane pool to switch from the prepared spell.

Another drawback of arcanist vs wizard is the same drawback for sorcerer vs wizard on the odd levels starting at 3 and ending at 18, namely being 1 spell level behind.

Drawback of arcanist vs sorcerer is the need to have a spellbook and less spells/day base.

All in all it manages to combine those two classes quite well without making the other two obsolete.

[Ascalaphus]

I have to say, from playing an arcanist, they're pretty damn strong. It takes a while to get going, but by level 4 you can start breaking adventures by accident :s

[BigNorseWolf]

Drawback vs the wizard is that he doesn't progress as quickly. A wizard tends to end up using the same spells (usually winding up with a list thats mostly smaller than the sorcerers) That "1" spell the wizard gets ahead of everyone else every level is really 3 spells, the one from the chart, one from int, and one from specialization. When comparing a wizard with anything else you should assume specialization because there is NO reason to be a universalist.

[Cap. Darling]

The only Real drawback is compared to the wizard and that is the one level delay on higher level spells. But the flexibility and the exploits makes it worth it most of ther time. IMOP.

[BretI]

Has it been established if an Arcanist can keep a spell slot open and prepare it later? I ask because that can be really useful to a wizard or alchemist.

In any case, the disadvantage is less spells, one level later, and some exploits requiring Charisma making the class more MAD than a wizard. I know that many Arcanist's can dump Charisma, but there are some exploits that really require it.

[Ascalaphus]

I tend to think of it as a sorcerer with the downsides filed off. You can switch prepared spells to work with the builds of other players that show up (at PFS) or for stuff you expect to matter during the adventure. And you're Intelligence-based, so you've got skill points, as opposed to sorcerers.

Compared to the wizard, you still smell like sorcerer; lots of spells per day but a little slower and more rigid.

[Mulet]

Damanta wrote:

And all it would take for the sorcerer to stay ahead would be a metamagic rod of echoing.

The drawback of an arcanist is the limited number of spells she can prepare compared to the wizard, and less spells/day compared to the sorcerer.

Wizard can prepare 3 different spells of spell-level 4, the Arcanist needs to have an exploit and spend arcane pool to switch from the prepared spell.

Another drawback of arcanist vs wizard is the same drawback for sorcerer vs wizard on the odd levels starting at 3 and ending at 18, namely being 1 spell level behind.

Drawback of arcanist vs sorcerer is the need to have a spellbook and less spells/day base.

All in all it manages to combine those two classes quite well without making the other two obsolete.

I went back and compared my versions of Enora and Ezren.

Lack of preparable spells per day completely counters the advantage of slots. At 8th level, I can cast 1 level 4 spell 3 times. Awesome if I know I'm fighting plants and want heightened fireballs, horrible if I face 3 encounters that push my slots to exhaustion, and the DM is throwing a mix of challenges at my party.

It's a Glass cannon that would do best in settings where I am able to scry/investigate what is coming up next. I can't wait to play with it against an alchemist.