How does arcanist spell prep work?

[Val'bryn2]

Just wanting to verify my opinion, since an arcanist prepared as a wizard, does he have to consult his spellbook each day, or only if he wants to change what was prepared the previous day?

[Bohdan Maksymenko]

Yes, he has to re-prepare his spells every day.

[Val'bryn2]

Even if he wants to keep the same spellI selection? He prepares as a wizard, and they keep the spell until they cast it or decide to change. Since he doesn't lose the spell through casting, it seems like he'd keep it.

[Ferious Thune]

I'm not positive on this, but the way it reads to me, an Arcanist needs to study her spellbook to recover their spells per day, so the question of whether she needs to do it to prepare spells might be moot.

Arcanist wrote:

An arcanist must choose and prepare her spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying her spellbook. While studying, the arcanist decides what spells to prepare and refreshes her available spell slots for the day.

I mean, it's reasonable to me that she might keep unused spell slots and the same prepared spells if she doesn't have her spellbook to reference. But it definitely sounds like she won't be able to recover spent slots without it.