Arcanist, How to Proceed?

[Karlosuno]

Ok guys, Im playing and adventure as a Drow Arcanist and i got the archetypes of Spell Specialist and Brown-Fur Transmuter.
Now im retraining to quit as a Spell Specialist and im about to reach lvl 3 and get a feat. The Question of this is, im in a poor party of 6 members (Oracle, Barbarian, Alchemist, Fighter, Paladin + me) and the total of gp we have is about 700.

I dont know if i retrain the archetype when im lvl 3 i can get the 1 lvl exploit craft wondorous items (having the prerequisites) or is better to get it as a feat and get some usefull exploit?

I saw Dimensional slide , Metamixing (which i think i must have metamagic feat before i can use it), Familiar and Force Srike.

What would you guys do? Get Craft Wondorous Items as a feat in lvl 3 and get a cool exploit?
Im waiting for you advices.
:)

[Lelomenia]

As a group you only have 700 GP? That’s not much for craft wondrous to work with.

I would get wondrous as an exploit, but would recommend dimensional slide first. Meta mixing isn’t good til higher level. Not familiar until you can get improved familiar. Wouldn’t ever take force strike.

[Andostre]

I'm going to second dimensional slide. On my aracanist, it's been super useful, and Lelomenia's point about crafting not being that useful if you can't buy any materials is a valid one. Yes, it may make you more money over time, but at lower levels, that's less important.

[Melkiador]

Quick Study is my favorite exploit. It's great for every level. Being able to change your prepped spells in combat or in the field can be game changing.

Dimensional Slide is great at low level, and still super convenient at higher levels.

Familiar can probably wait till you can also grab improved familiar. It's not a bad pick, but there are just so many even better picks

Force Strike is too little damage at too short a range.

Metamixing is ok. It's a bit situational though and requires you to already have some metamagic for it to be worth it. It's a lower priority pick in my opinion.

Someone will eventually mention Potent Magic. It's not a bad pick at all, but I feel it gets overvalued, in general. It turns your +1 bonus into a +2 bonus. If you are going pure spell specialist, it may be a good idea though. Spell specialist isn't very hungry for pool points, and often has spells where you'll want to raise the DC or level.

I'll agree with Lelomenia that your party is too gold poor. But it's possible this could be because your party has a lot of loot they need to go and sell off.

[Melkiador]

I should have mentioned that the spell specialist has a weird relationship with quick study. The spell specialist will have levels where they gain a new level of spells but can't prepare any spells of that level. This would make quick study unusable for those spell levels when you first get them.

But I still recommend quick study, if just for your lower level spells. At the absolute simplest, casting mage armor on yourself and then immediately switching it out to prep another 1st level spell is nice. And that trick can be done with many other long term spells.

Another oddity is that at level 4, you should be able to add 2 second level spells to your spellbook, but you wouldn't be able to prepare either of them. You could either choose 1st level spells instead, or hang onto those 2nd level spells until you could use them at level 5. The whole thing may be worth another thread, because I'm not completely sure you can add 2nd level spells to your spellbook at level 4, since you can't prepare them.

Quote:

At each new arcanist level, she gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that she can cast (based on her new arcanist level) for her spellbook.

[Thedmstrikes]

Melkiador wrote:

Another oddity is that at level 4, you should be able to add 2 second level spells to your spellbook, but you wouldn't be able to prepare either of them. You could either choose 1st level spells instead, or hang onto those 2nd level spells until you could use them at level 5. The whole thing may be worth another thread, because I'm not completely sure you can add 2nd level spells to your spellbook at level 4, since you can't prepare them.

Melkiador, I am unsure what you are quoting from, but I just checked and Arcanists get to prepare one second level spell at level four. I checked the two archetypes also and neither change this. I am just confused as to your source on this...

[Melkiador]

Quote:

Signature Spells: At 1st level and each time a spell specialist gains a new spell level, she chooses a signature spell. The spell specialist can cast this spell without preparing it, in the same way a sorcerer casts spells spontaneously. Even though the spell specialist does not need to prepare this spell, it still counts against the number of spells she can prepare, reducing the number of spells of each level she can prepare each day by 1. A spell specialist can swap out a single signature spell for another spell of the same level when gaining a class level.

And at every higher level where the arcanist gains another spell level, he can only prepare one of those spells, according to his spells prepared table. Meaning the spell specialist can prepare 0.

[Karlosuno]

Thanks guys, it was really helpfull. I decided to get at 1 lvl Familiar Exploit, and 3 Lvl Quick Study and Craft Wondorous items as feat.

I will post again if i get in any trouble.
Thanks to all!!

[Thedmstrikes]

Melkiador wrote:

Quote:

Signature Spells: At 1st level and each time a spell specialist gains a new spell level, she chooses a signature spell. The spell specialist can cast this spell without preparing it, in the same way a sorcerer casts spells spontaneously. Even though the spell specialist does not need to prepare this spell, it still counts against the number of spells she can prepare, reducing the number of spells of each level she can prepare each day by 1. A spell specialist can swap out a single signature spell for another spell of the same level when gaining a class level.

And at every higher level where the arcanist gains another spell level, he can only prepare one of those spells, according to his spells prepared table. Meaning the spell specialist can prepare 0.

I see, my bad, I did not relate the entire paragraph to the same core subject, that of the archetype. That does not mean that the sum gain per level is zero, it effectively means you have mandatory selection of the signature spell first and if you have any slots left over then additional spells can be prepared. Poor word choice on the author there. You still get the same number from the chart, just a mandatory choice of the first one (which is stated as a benefit of not needing to be prepared). It would have been better not to have been stated as reducing the number, but that it was a mandatory choice first. The character can still cast the total number of spells per day, they just have to be all that spell if they want to use that spell level until they gain an additional level that allows them to select a spell to prepare and thus providing a choice at that spell level to cast.

[Meirril]

Melkiador wrote:

Quote:

Signature Spells: At 1st level and each time a spell specialist gains a new spell level, she chooses a signature spell. The spell specialist can cast this spell without preparing it, in the same way a sorcerer casts spells spontaneously. Even though the spell specialist does not need to prepare this spell, it still counts against the number of spells she can prepare, reducing the number of spells of each level she can prepare each day by 1. A spell specialist can swap out a single signature spell for another spell of the same level when gaining a class level.

And at every higher level where the arcanist gains another spell level, he can only prepare one of those spells, according to his spells prepared table. Meaning the spell specialist can prepare 0.

Is it safe to assume the arcanist has a 14 int? If he can prepare zero second level spells, that means he can prepare his int mod in spells per day. Zero is greater than a dash.

At some point it will become a problem, but not at 2nd level.

[Melkiador]

Meirril wrote:

Melkiador wrote:

Quote:

Signature Spells: At 1st level and each time a spell specialist gains a new spell level, she chooses a signature spell. The spell specialist can cast this spell without preparing it, in the same way a sorcerer casts spells spontaneously. Even though the spell specialist does not need to prepare this spell, it still counts against the number of spells she can prepare, reducing the number of spells of each level she can prepare each day by 1. A spell specialist can swap out a single signature spell for another spell of the same level when gaining a class level.

And at every higher level where the arcanist gains another spell level, he can only prepare one of those spells, according to his spells prepared table. Meaning the spell specialist can prepare 0.

Is it safe to assume the arcanist has a 14 int? If he can prepare zero second level spells, that means he can prepare his int mod in spells per day. Zero is greater than a dash.

At some point it will become a problem, but not at 2nd level.

Arcanist "preparing" doesn't work like that. The int mod changes the number of times you can use a prepared spell, but doesn't effect how many you can "prepare"

[Thedmstrikes]

Thanks Melkiador, beat me to it...