I've been tinkering around with the idea of playing a Spellslinger Wizard for Strange Aeons (something about a trenchcoat-wearing, gun-toting wizard just seems awfully appropriate,) and I've been browsing through my PrC options, since there's absolutely no reason to stay in wizard.
I had been looking at Evangelist, since the bump to d8, 3/4 BAB, extra skills, etc is quite attractive for the pretty reasonable cost of slowing down spellcasting by one level.
But last night, I stumbled upon the Soul Warden, which is not only thematically appropriate for a campaign that is likely to feature the Necronimicon, but also just seems to be really good.
In particular, I've been looking over Channel Casting again and again because it just doesn't even seem right; unless I'm missing something, you don't even have to convert a prepared spell slot. You just expend a channel energy use and (at 10th level) can heal or breath of life , which just seems like a really nice boost for an arcane character, even if it doesn't come online until level 15 (and the other spells you get aren't half bad, either.)
Are there any other good options out there I might be similarly missing? I'm very hesitant about the idea of slowing down spellcasting more than a level, but I would consider it if the payoff is good enough.
My first choice was to take this character into Mystic Theurge, but unless I'm allowed to use the Spellcasting Guild rules from Inner Sea Magic to pick up Esoteric and Eclectic Training, it doesn't seem like it'd be worth it. Of course, if I'm able to do that, MT becomes my top pick without question.
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That is an amazing find! Well done. As far as I can tell you don't need to expend a spell slot either. If you did it would have wording in it like a cleric or Druid's spontaneous spell casting does.
As for slowing down your spellcasting that will only happen if you do go for Mystic Theurge, but that's part of the trade off for the class.
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One option is to take just one level of Spellslinger then switch to a different spellcasting class entirely. Sorcerer, Arcanist, Druid, even some variety of Magus. The important benefits of the Spellslinger can be done with any spells, not just wizard casting, and once half the wizard list becomes hard to access the incentive to switch out is strong.
The Soul Warden does seem to have the option to cast spells via the channel cast option, to to learn/prepare & cast them normally once you're one soul warden level above the minimum to channel cast them. Which seems like a very good bargain, yes - even if it does come online late.
Thanks for the feedback!
The fact that Arcane Gun works with all spells is actually what drew me to the archetype in the first place - originally, I was actually trying to build a viable Mystic Theurge, and was looking at cleric and wizard archetypes that wouldn't suffer from having too few actual class levels in the same way the base versions do.
I figured out the MT build I'd like to run with (Spellslinger Wizard/Varisian Pilgrim Cleric), but without Esoteric and Eclectic Training to get back up to full casting, it doesn't seem worthwhile.
However, I discovered that I really liked the Spellslinger Wizard anyway. Even if it isn't the most optimal way to play a wizard, it's thematic, different, and interesting.