I'm building a level 11 Occultist Arcanist for RotRL and I'm toying with the idea of rolling half-elf for access to Spell Surge. As a half-elf, I can still get the elf favored class bonus for more arcane reservoir points (ideal for more occultist summons) and a few other solid racial features. My questions lies with how Spell Surge would interact with the arcanist's casting style.
As far as I can tell, if an arcanist cast Spell Surge to gain Expanded Preparation, he'd have 1 (or 2) empty prepared spell slots. At this point, the arcanist could use Quick Study to put spells into these open slots, which would remain available to cast for the duration of Power Surge. It's not ideal for casting in combat, but it works well at the beginning of the day for a long duration spell, or just before engaging in a difficult fight of which you are warned. The wording on Quick Study makes this combo questionable (it says you may replace a spell with another spell) but I don't see why it couldn't replace an empty slot with a spell. It's serving the exact same function.
On a related note, do you think I have a reasonable chance convincing my DM I can use Spell Surge to take Spell Perfection, counting the metamagic feats I gain through the exploits Metamagic Knowledge and Greater Metamagic Knowledge as two of the three required metamagic feats?
I will take your silence as confirmation of my reasoning.
Spell Surge/ Power Surge is a typo for Paragon Surge, right? On the related note, sure, yes, though by FAQ you need to choose which spell to perfect the first time each day that you use Paragon Surge & choose the feat to gain.
On the Quick Study question - by RAW I think not. It does seem like a reasonable interpretation though assuming that your GM hasn't been shell-shocked by the power of Paragon Surge.
Worth noting:
The elf favored class bonus gives you a larger arcane reservoir pool, but does not actually give you more points. You still only recover 3 + 1/2 arcanist level number of points every day.
Just making sure you realise this.
Spell Surge/ Power Surge is a typo for Paragon Surge, right? On the related note, sure, yes, though by FAQ you need to choose which spell to perfect the first time each day that you use Paragon Surge & choose the feat to gain.
On the Quick Study question - by RAW I think not. It does seem like a reasonable interpretation though assuming that your GM hasn't been shell-shocked by the power of Paragon Surge.
Wow. I play another game with those spells and apparently my brain just defaults without me even noticing. Edit incoming.
...or not? You can't edit the original post?
Worth noting:
The elf favored class bonus gives you a larger arcane reservoir pool, but does not actually give you more points. You still only recover 3 + 1/2 arcanist level number of points every day.
Just making sure you realise this.
Yeah I'm aware. I'll have to consume some spells and scrolls to keep topped off, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. 25 points at the start of a day after a day off will go a long way, especially when the summons cost 6 points a cast.
Yeah I'm aware. I'll have to consume some spells and scrolls to keep topped off, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. 25 points at the start of a day after a day off will go a long way, especially when the summons cost 6 points a cast.Worth noting:
The elf favored class bonus gives you a larger arcane reservoir pool, but does not actually give you more points. You still only recover 3 + 1/2 arcanist level number of points every day.
Just making sure you realise this.
Actually curious - how are you bypassing this part?
"Each day, when preparing spells, the arcanist's arcane reservoir fills with raw magical energy, gaining a number of points equal to 3 + 1/2 her arcanist level. Any points she had from the previous day are lost."
To get your points to carry over?
Yeah I'm aware. I'll have to consume some spells and scrolls to keep topped off, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. 25 points at the start of a day after a day off will go a long way, especially when the summons cost 6 points a cast.Worth noting:
The elf favored class bonus gives you a larger arcane reservoir pool, but does not actually give you more points. You still only recover 3 + 1/2 arcanist level number of points every day.
Just making sure you realise this.
You dont get to keep points from the Day before. The text is:
Each day, when preparing spells, the arcanist's arcane reservoir fills with raw magical energy, gaining a number of points equal to 3 + 1/2 her arcanist level. Any points she had from the previous day are lost."And as to your question. I dont Think it works. spell slots are Filled up at preperation and there are no rules for getting more in the middel of the Day. But it is debatable and pehaps your GM Will say yes.
Wow. I play another game with those spells and apparently my brain just defaults without me even noticing. Edit incoming.
...or not? You can't edit the original post?
You can edit any post up to an hour after you put it up IIRC. Every message board has its frustrations, this is Paizos'.
Yeah I'm aware. I'll have to consume some spells and scrolls to keep topped off, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. 25 points at the start of a day after a day off will go a long way, especially when the summons cost 6 points a cast.Worth noting:
The elf favored class bonus gives you a larger arcane reservoir pool, but does not actually give you more points. You still only recover 3 + 1/2 arcanist level number of points every day.
Just making sure you realise this.
You dont get to keep points from the Day before. The text is:
Each day, when preparing spells, the arcanist's arcane reservoir fills with raw magical energy, gaining a number of points equal to 3 + 1/2 her arcanist level. Any points she had from the previous day are lost."
Well damn, forgot that little tidbit. That kills any reason to have a large pool. As a half-elf I could grab the human favored class bonus and take an extra spell each level. A free spell per level would definitely save gold in the long run.
Well damn, forgot that little tidbit. That kills any reason to have a large pool. As a half-elf I could grab the human favored class bonus and take an extra spell each level. A free spell per level would definitely save gold in the long run.
Yeah, sadly the elf FCB looks a lot better than it really is.
The human FCB saves a little gold on scribing costs, but you're probably better off just getting a blessed book and using the FCB on HP, if anything.
Well damn, forgot that little tidbit. That kills any reason to have a large pool. As a half-elf I could grab the human favored class bonus and take an extra spell each level. A free spell per level would definitely save gold in the long run.Not really, you are saving the cost of buying access and scribing a grand total of 20 spells. Thats a total cost of about 10,000gp assuming you go through all 20 levels and assuming you never invest in a blessed book. You are probably better off with the HP/SP.
My GM doesn't allow easy access to other wizard's spellbooks. Initially I had to buy scrolls for full price to learn extra spells on my current wizard. Eventually, as the prices got unreasonable, he allowed me to learn new spells for half the price of buying a scroll of said spell.
Edit: However, I did the math and if I didn't start taking the extra spell until level 10 when I could use it to gain extra 4th level spells, and used it every level until 18, it would save me about 10k. Saving 10k gold seems worth losing 9 hit points.
What happens if we paragon surge for expanded preparation, take two lower level spell slots, and use spell consume on them? You would keep those arcane reservoir points, right?
Can we use repeat castings of paragon surge in this manner to regain empty slots and consume them for more reservoir points? The faq says we only need to make the same choices when using paragon surge twice in a day. It doesn't specify if feats with limited uses refresh or not.
Expanded preparation gives you one or two new slots to gain more prepared spells that day. Spell consume turns your spell slots into points, not your prepared spell choices.
Well damn, forgot that little tidbit. That kills any reason to have a large pool. As a half-elf I could grab the human favored class bonus and take an extra spell each level. A free spell per level would definitely save gold in the long run.Not really, you are saving the cost of buying access and scribing a grand total of 20 spells. Thats a total cost of about 10,000gp assuming you go through all 20 levels and assuming you never invest in a blessed book. You are probably better off with the HP/SP.My GM doesn't allow easy access to other wizard's spellbooks. Initially I had to buy scrolls for full price to learn extra spells on my current wizard. Eventually, as the prices got unreasonable, he allowed me to learn new spells for half the price of buying a scroll of said spell.
Edit: However, I did the math and if I didn't start taking the extra spell until level 10 when I could use it to gain extra 4th level spells, and used it every level until 18, it would save me about 10k. Saving 10k gold seems worth losing 9 hit points.
10K gold of the 880K WBL suggests for 20th level.
It's probably no more worth than taking it at the early levels. The savings are roughly proportional to how much money you have.
Now, if you were building a high level character to start with, it obviously wouldn't be worth taking it for the lower levels.
The character will start at a minimum of level 11, and the campaign ends at 18. Since the 9 hit points I would be losing would be less than what at +2 Con belt would gain me at that level, it seems a financially sound trade.