samsaran Mystic Past Life

[Chess Pwn]

For this ability, can you select multiple classes for your spells or do your spells all need to come from the same class?

Mystic Past Life (Su) You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of your current spellcasting class. You add a number of spells equal to 1 + your spellcasting class’s key ability score bonus (Wisdom for clerics, and so on). The spells must be the same type (arcane or divine) as the spellcasting class you’re adding them to. For example, you could add divine power to your druid class spell list, but not to your wizard class spell list because divine power is a divine spell. These spells do not have to be spells you can cast as a 1st-level character. The number of spells granted by this ability is set at 1st level. Changes to your ability score do not change the number of spells gained. This racial trait replaces shards of the past.

[Darksol the Painbringer]

Sounds like per RAW, it has to be a specific class that you choose from, and the class must have the same type of spellcasting as you do. So I couldn't be a Druid and pick up Psionic spells, for example.

[Lady-J]

yes they have to be in from one single class, and the best combo is sorc/wizard into bard or normal summoner so you get the full benefit of 9th level spell casting while getting certain spells early

[Imhrail]

As the others have said it is limited to one class you can pull the spells from. In addition you will note it does not mention spells beyond arcane or divine, so RAW at least the other ones like Psionic are not viable to pick from. Hopefully there will be a FAQ on it so they'll be made available, since they weren't around when the Samsaran was released.

Also there is speculation whether or not you can take spells from another class you already have in your current classes list.

[Darksol the Painbringer]

Lady-J wrote:

yes they have to be in from one single class, and the best combo is sorc/wizard into bard or normal summoner so you get the full benefit of 9th level spell casting while getting certain spells early

You can't use Mystic Past Life for early access spells when they're already on your class list, so cheesing it for 2nd level Haste when you have 3rd level Haste isn't going to work.

[Lady-J]

Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

Lady-J wrote:

yes they have to be in from one single class, and the best combo is sorc/wizard into bard or normal summoner so you get the full benefit of 9th level spell casting while getting certain spells early

You can't use Mystic Past Life for early access spells when they're already on your class list, so cheesing it for 2nd level Haste when you have 3rd level Haste isn't going to work.

nothing in the ability says you can't so yes you can

[PossibleCabbage]

I feel like you can't add Haste to a spell list that already contains Haste, since Haste is already on the spell list. It just doesn't make sense.

[Lady-J]

PossibleCabbage wrote:

I feel like you can't add Haste to a spell list that already contains Haste, since Haste is already on the spell list. It just doesn't make sense.

the entire ability is you remembering how to cast things from a past life, past life you rememberes casting haste as a 2nd level spell

[Darafern]

You can add a spell as a lower level spell according to this post by James Jacobs, the usual preface of forum posts not being official rules withstanding.

The confusion might be coming from the special rules in PFS. The mystic past spells follow the same spell levels as scrolls, as per Additional Resources.

Additional Resources wrote:

Any spell selected with the mystic past life alternate racial trait must follow the same guideline used for determining the spell level for a scroll found on page 25 of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide.

[Darksol the Painbringer]

I still disagree with that idea; while there are downsides for certain spell choices (such as spells whose effects rely on a high DC for proper effect), I feel that, for a lot of common choices, that's never the case, and I doubt the developers wrote the ability with the intent that you can get access to certain spells sooner, while also still having the ability to access the higher level versions of those spells.

[Jezza]

Here's another question: Can you select this ability for a spellcasting class that you're multiclassing into? It says that the spells have to be chosen at 1st level, that's referring to character level presumably?

[Azothath]

It might be worth reading the Mythic Past Life rules for PFS. While this is not a PFS forum, the campaign has open documentation and makes generally simple close to RAW rulings (or tries).
There are also other threads on this topic.