Special Magic Re-Work Playtest, Please!


Skills, Feats, Equipment & Spells


As many on these forums, including myself, have been suggesting ever since the rules first released, the way magic is being handled is less than optimal. 5e introduced a fantastic re-work of how magic preparation and casting is handled. Prepared casters can prepare a certain number of spells each day, and can use their spell slots (equal to or greater than the spell's level) to cast any of those spells. Heightening was spontaneous, with similar effects from spells as there are in the Playtest for casting using higher levels spell slots. Casters who spontaneously cast, such as sorcerers, were given extra special abilities to greater differentiate themselves. It also alleviates the need for boring, uninspired abilities such as a Sorcerer's "Spontaneous Heighten" (which isn't spontaneous AT ALL) and a Wizard's "Quick Preparation."

So my suggestion/question now is: Can we get a special mini-playtest, similar to what you did with Resonance, to test out a new and improved form of spellcasting? I know changing the entire rulebook right now isn't particularly feasible, so a mini-playtest 1-off with a small selection of spells would be the perfect opportunity to experiment with what is a vastly superior magic system to the antiquated rules the Pathfinder Playtest has currently.

Some people may say the prefer the PF1 system, and that's fine. They don't have to play PF2 if they enjoy PF1 more. The point of PF2 is to improve upon the previous edition, and making magic both more interesting and more enjoyable to play is extremely important for the future of Pathfinder. I believe this would also solve your current problem of people thinking magic is not as powerful as it should be, since introducing this system opens up a lot of opportunities for spellcasters that don't exist currently (for example, actually being able to prepare some non-combat spells without feeling like you're handicapping yourself).


I believe this is very unlikely, I believe the developers themselves prefer prepared casting, and see it as the way the world of Golarion works. A piece of setting information they do not want to change.

Infact I think how magic works may have been the main reason 10 years ago they did not continue to make adventure paths for DnD 4e and revised 3rd edition to maintain this piece of setting logic for their adventures.

Also apparently sorcerer originally had unlimited spontaneous heightening in a playtest before the public one and it it caused enough of a decision paralysis that they limited it to preselecting 2 at the days start. Using neo-vancian (5e style) casting would create something they see as a problem for not just 1 caster, but all of them.


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Lady Melo wrote:
Also apparently sorcerer originally had unlimited spontaneous heightening in a playtest before the public one and it it caused enough of a decision paralysis that they limited it to preselecting 2 at the days start. Using neo-vancian (5e style) casting would create something they see as a problem for not just 1 caster, but all of them.

That doesn't make sense. 5e style casting just doesn't require preparing things into slots specifically. You cast from the list of stuff you have available for that day. There's no reason for that to cause decision paralysis.

If it did, it would be a problem in 5e already.

Silver Crusade

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Lady Melo wrote:


Infact I think how magic works may have been the main reason 10 years ago they did not continue to make adventure paths for DnD 4e and revised 3rd edition to maintain this piece of setting logic for their adventures.

You'd be wrong. Paizo itself quite openly stated the reason they didn't make Adventure Paths for 4e was because the licensing restrictions made that far too risky a path to take.

And Pathfinder was a direct result of 3.5 books no longer being available in game stores. And the perceived need that the market needs a living game to prosper

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