John Lynch 106 |
So now that I've actually read the PF2e wizard and looked at it's spells, I'm really disappointed to see that only universalists get a level 1 feat.
In PF1e wizards were hardcoded with set powers depending on their school specialisation. Not all of these powers were so good for all builds and so when the Advanced Player's Guide came out 1 year later Paizo gave us Focused Arcane Schools which gave us alternative wizard powers. Now with PF2e, which is designed to have modular class features that can be freely swapped out or replaced by calling them Class Feats, we have Paizo repeating history.
I'd prefer to see all wizards (not just universalists) get a class feat at level 1. If Paizo want to force specialist wizards to get a power associated with their school they should do it in this way:
ARCANE SCHOOLS
If you choose to specialize in an arcane school, you gain an extra spell slot for each level of spell you can cast. You can prepare only spells of your chosen arcane school in these extra slots. In addition, you can prepare an extra cantrip of your chosen school. You also add another arcane spell of your chosen school to your spellbook.
You learn a 1st level power that has your school as a trait, a special type of spell taught to students of your arcane school. You gain a pool of Spell Points you can spend to cast school powers. You can cast a school power only by spending Spell Points, not by using spell slots. Like a cantrip, your school power is automatically heightened to the highest level of spell you can cast.
Your maximum number of Spell Points is equal to your key ability modifier (minimum 0). You regain all your Spell Points when you prepare your spells. Some feats let you learn more school power; such feats typically increase your pool of Spell Points.
If you gain multiple 1st level school powers you increase your spell points by +2 for each power after the first.
------
The above will still hard-code specialist wizards into selecting their school power. But it keeps the door open for future supplements to come out with alternative school powers and we don't need to have an archetype like we did in PF1e.