I'm building a Psychic Detective and trying to understand how this particular phrenic amplication works. On its own, it seems simple enough; give up a spell slot, gain an enhancement bonus to a physical stat equal to that slot's level. Not a bad ability for an Investigator doing a STR/DEX hybrid build who needs ways to boost her strength.
My confusion comes in because of the general description of phrenic amplication. The implication seems to be that using the ability is part of casting a spell, but my reading of psychofeedback would mean that using psychofeedback does not involve casting a spell at all. Is this particular ability intended to be an exception to the rule? Does "sacrifice" not mean what I think it means and you actually do still get the spell's effects after applying the amplification? Or even the silliest possible explanation, that I need to cast a spell and then give up an additional spell slot to use psychofeedback.
I think the answer is probably that it's just an exception and no spells are cast when you use this ability, but I'd feel more comfortable bringing this to a PFS table with the rules forum agreeing with me, haha.
Well you sacrifice the linked spell. So I think the action is
cast a spell > activate psychofeedback > instead of the spell's normal effect you gain the attribute bonus.
Agreed with a squiggit.
Hmm, that makes sense. So I suppose that the difference between that and just eating a spell slot is that you'd still be expected to make a concentration check if you're under the effect of an emotion debuff.