Blood Arcanist with Psychic Bloodline really wear armor?

[zrandrews]

I've been reading people say that a Blood Arcanist taking the Psychic Bloodline can wear armor without worrying about spell failure, because the Bloodline Arcana makes your spells count as psychic instead of arcane.

Does it really?

The Bloodline Arcana says "Your sorcerer spells and spell-like abilities count as psychic instead of arcane"

However, the Blood Arcanist Archetype doesn't say anything about counting your Arcanist spells as Sorcerer spells, or anything about replacing references to Sorcerer in the Bloodline to Arcanist.

So, is the Blood Arcanist really benefiting from the Bloodline Arcana? I'd think you would continue casting Arcanist spells as arcane spells. If you do benefit from it, where is the rule that justifies that interpretation.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Casual Viking]

zrandrews wrote:

So, is the Blood Arcanist really benefiting from the Bloodline Arcana? I'd think you would continue casting Arcanist spells as arcane spells. If you do benefit from it, where is the rule that justifies that interpretation.

Thank you for your consideration.

RAI, it works. Bloodline Arcana usually affect all spellcasting; this one is an exception, in that it only affects casting for the class from which you acquired it; expressed as "sorcerer spells" because the writers favor natural language and the common case. The point is, the Arcana is meant to change the spells from your casting class, not all of your spellcasting from every class and ability.

Bloodline Arcanist is clearly meant to benefit from the entire bloodline including the Arcana.

RAW, you have correctly identified an issue.
Personally, I favor interpreting phrases like "treating her arcanist level as her sorcerer level" as strong, broad modifiers. In this case, my reasoning goes that for the purposes of the Bloodline ability, her Arcanist levels count as Sorcerer levels and therefore her spells count as sorcerer spells.

[UnArcaneElection]

I think that Rules As Written, it just happens to work anyway, because the Arcanist casts Sorcerer{/Wizard} spells. Now if you were usinag a hypothetical Magus archetype that got a Sorcerer Bloodline (instead of the Bloodrager Bloodline that the Eldritch Scion actually gets), you would be in trouble.

Still, Psychic Bloodline really ought to be an archetype for Sorcerer the way it is for Bloodrager (Id Rager) (and the nearest equivalent is such for Magus, as the Mind Blade archetype). Whereas the great majority of Wildblooded Sorcerer Bloodlines SHOULDN'T be archetypes, but are.

[Weirdo]

UnArcaneElection wrote:

I think that Rules As Written, it just happens to work anyway, because the Arcanist casts Sorcerer{/Wizard} spells.

No, it casts from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, which is slightly different.

This loose interpretation of "sorcerer spells" would also allow a Psychic Sorc 1 / Wizard X to cast their spells from the Wizard class as psychic spells. I think that's clearly not the intent, and agree with Casual Viking about what the intent actually is.

[zrandrews]

It sounds like people think it should work that way, because they think that's RAI, and there isn't really any RAW that supports that interpretation.

Like Weirdo Said, if it's being supported because an Arcanist casts from the Sorc/Wiz spell list, then a Psychic Sorc 1 / Wizard X should also benefit, because he's casting from the same list.

Casual Viking: Are there any other instances you've come across where treating one class level like another class level would translate into anything other then exactly that? It still isn't' saying you cast sorcerer spells instead of Arcanist spells. I can't think of any instance where this would not be a comparison that affected Spells.

If the Bloodline Arcana does extend to Arcacnists, would that then also mean you could only copy/learn spells from other Psychic Arcanisis? Since you now cast and learn Psychic spells, and can't copy/learn them from Arcane spellbooks or scrolls?

[UnArcaneElection]

Weirdo wrote:

UnArcaneElection wrote:

I think that Rules As Written, it just happens to work anyway, because the Arcanist casts Sorcerer{/Wizard} spells.

No, it casts from the sorcerer/wizard spell list, which is slightly different.

This loose interpretation of "sorcerer spells" would also allow a Psychic Sorc 1 / Wizard X to cast their spells from the Wizard class as psychic spells. I think that's clearly not the intent, and agree with Casual Viking about what the intent actually is.

It doesn't? Well, that would remove one bit of brokenness from the Psychic Bloodline, at the cost of breaking another thing as identified by zrandrews and Casual Viking above.