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So I saw that the devs were thinking of Arcanist style casting for prepared casters, but decided against it because it would limit the sorcerer's niche. That gives the perfect opportunity to make the sorcerer a core spell point caster for people who want to make a spell caster but don't want to use spell slots.
It fits with the theme of the sorcerer, and I feel like there would be a lot of people who would like that to be an option in core.
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So I saw that the devs were thinking of Arcanist style casting for prepared casters, but decided against it because it would limit the sorcerer's niche. That gives the perfect opportunity to make the sorcerer a core spell point caster for people who want to make a spell caster but don't want to use spell slots.
It fits with the theme of the sorcerer, and I feel like there would be a lot of people who would like that to be an option in core.
Ya i agree. With 2nd ed, i was hoping they were going to really be bold and finally do the spellcaster who is separated from vancian casting and more like the spellcasters from typical fantasy novels.
I wasn't sure if this chassis would have been based on spell points, kineticist style casting, or a more fleshed out words of power or that 3rd party product which i can't think of right now...
I still hope they change their mindset a bit and dream a little bigger with this playtest.
Every time I see the argument made for 'Spell Point Casters' it ends up being people who want to just cast a TON of lower level spells so that they never have to worry about whether or not they'll be flinging spells around in combat.
I think that giving Sorcerer a stronger tie to their blood to better reflect their ancestry is a big move for them. The fact that a Sorcerer can have any of the spellcasting lists is a huge thing for them. I love the idea that an Infernal or Celestial Sorcerer casts from the Divine spell list.
Every time I see the argument made for 'Spell Point Casters' it ends up being people who want to just cast a TON of lower level spells so that they never have to worry about whether or not they'll be flinging spells around in combat.
I think that giving Sorcerer a stronger tie to their blood to better reflect their ancestry is a big move for them. The fact that a Sorcerer can have any of the spellcasting lists is a huge thing for them. I love the idea that an Infernal or Celestial Sorcerer casts from the Divine spell list.
If they did it like I've seen some of the spell replicating spell point uses currently (like the druids summon nature ally) it would be like: Spend 2 spells points for something equivalent to a highest level spell, spend 1 spell point for some effect weaker than a highest level spell.
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So I saw that the devs were thinking of Arcanist style casting for prepared casters, but decided against it because it would limit the sorcerer's niche. That gives the perfect opportunity to make the sorcerer a core spell point caster for people who want to make a spell caster but don't want to use spell slots.
It fits with the theme of the sorcerer, and I feel like there would be a lot of people who would like that to be an option in core.
You would have to drastically change what spell points are, as a whole, just to satisfy the niche of one class. That's a whole lot of work just to effectively sate peoples' egos. It's not worth the headache and issues it can cause. I mean, they could just go the way of Channel Energy, but since everyone is still complaining about that (myself included), I'd rather we just keep it as it is. There are other ways to make the Sorcerer more iconic, I'd rather explore those ways first before we think altering the design of the wheel is a good idea.
Arcanist style casting is pretty broken and is outright better than Sorcerer spellcasting (and even Wizard casting, to be frank). Sure, I don't get more spells known than a Sorcerer does, but the fact I can change them every day is OP enough. Considering they want to eliminate builds like Schrodinger's Wizard, I'm actually glad they decided against it.
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I think that the spell merge ability they gave wizards in 1.6 fits much better with Sorcerers and would represent better the flexibility of natural power, especially if it was a way to organically manipulate spell slots (two lower for one higher. Spending a higher level slot to get two lower slots while spontaneously casting makes no sense mechanically).
It would make the wizard the most flexible in terms of variety, and sorcerer the most flexible in terms of magical power.
They should give Sorcerer's the ability to Spontaneously Heighten 2 spells per day, increasing it to 4 spells per day with a class feat similar to Bard. Additionally, they should be able to Spontaneously Heighten all of their Bloodline spells.
Doing this would provide a Sorcerer with all of the versatility with their limited spell list that they should need, and would inch them out as being more versatile in their options in a combat sense.
The difference between Sorcerer and Wizard has been pretty consistent over the years with 3rd Edition, 3.5, and Pathfinder 1st Edition. Wizards had more flexibility when they have time to prepare with a larger list of known spells to pull from while Sorcerer had versatility in combat by being able to decide which of their spells they want to use at any given moment.
This versatility allows a Sorcerer to get into a combat and realize that they need to spend all of their 3rd level spell slots on Fireball for example. While on the other hand a Wizard may only have one or two Fireballs prepared to cast, or if they prepared all of their 3rd level spells as Fireballs then they lack any other utility spells should the need come up.
Sorcerer already has that going for them in second edition and I feel that expanding their spontaneous heightening class feature to all of their bloodline spells and another 4 spells would be more than enough to get them where they should be.
I think that the spell merge ability they gave wizards in 1.6 fits much better with Sorcerers and would represent better the flexibility of natural power, especially if it was a way to organically manipulate spell slots (two lower for one higher. Spending a higher level slot to get two lower slots while spontaneously casting makes no sense mechanically).
It would make the wizard the most flexible in terms of variety, and sorcerer the most flexible in terms of magical power.
This is exactly what I'm thinking too.
I think that giving Sorcerer a stronger tie to their blood to better reflect their ancestry is a big move for them. The fact that a Sorcerer can have any of the spellcasting lists is a huge thing for them. I love the idea that an Infernal or Celestial Sorcerer casts from the Divine spell list.
Now if only:
a) that was reasonably true*b) the bloodlines were actually any good
*S_its and giggles:
Bloodline Powers: Aberrant sorcerers show increasing signs of their tainted heritage as they increase in level, although they are only visible when used.
Acidic Ray (Sp): Starting at 1st level, you can fire an acidic ray as a standard action, targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The acidic ray deals 1d6 points of acid damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Long Limbs (Ex): At 3rd level, your reach increases by 5 feet whenever you are making a melee touch attack. This ability does not otherwise increase your threatened area. At 11th level, this bonus to your reach increases to 10 feet. At 17th level, this bonus to your reach increases to 15 feet.
Unusual Anatomy (Ex): At 9th level, your anatomy changes, giving you a 25% chance to ignore any critical hit or sneak attack scored against you. This chance increases to 50% at 13th level.
Alien Resistance (Su): At 15th level, you gain spell resistance equal to your sorcerer level + 10.
Aberrant Form (Ex): At 20th level, your body becomes truly unnatural. You are immune to critical hits and sneak attacks. In addition, you gain blindsight with a range of 60 feet and damage reduction 5/—.
vs.
Bloodline Powers Initial Power: tentacular limbs; Advanced Power:
aberrant whispers (2); Greater Power: unusual anatomy (2)
I think if it's literally just the Sorcerer preventing a massive QoL improvement for all casters then it's time to redefine the Sorcerer a bit. I don't see a spell point system and the bloodlines as somehow mutually exclusive. Do both, and then that leaves the door open for other classes to use that spell point system since it's no longer the exclusive property of Sorcerers.
Issue with leaving everything as-is is that it leads to prepared casters like Wizards kind of sucking, especially at low levels where limited spell slots means preparing anything other than the most generically useful spells means it's probably a wasted spell slot, which kind of goes against the flavor of the class. The Quick Preparation class feature is kind of a bandaid fix for Wizards that at least enables them to probably do things other than cast combat spells so long they've at least got 10 minutes to spare.
It's just hard to track, takes too much time if there's reason for players to change it up in the middle of a session (they've got to consider how often a spell is going to be used and prepare multiples), it leads to unspent spell slots which are just missed opportunities for the player to have fun. And frankly the Arcanist-style spellcasting system works wonders in 5e, players can and do prepare more obscure and niche spells when they don't have to spend an entire spell slot on something that probably won't come up. Spell prep is just going down a list and checking boxes, it can be done fairly quickly assuming the player has an idea of what their spell list does.
So yeah, whatever they do with Sorcerer, I hope they do something. I'd rather have a Sorcerer that's a little too similar to a Wizard than to have to deal with the old way of preparing spells for all the prepared casters.