I want to make a mystic theurge. By poaching spell slots via multiclassing, what's the highest number of spell slots I can obtain by 20th-level and how would I go about it?
I believe School Specialist Wizards have the most spells as a baseline, with 4 of each of levels 1-9 + 1 10th and 1 from their bonded item (Sorcerers having the same number of base slots but lacking the bonded item). Then you get 14 spell slots from taking 5 feats in a spellcasting multiclass (2 each of level 1-6 and 1 each of 7 and 8), of which you can take 2 with your 10 class feats (You can get a couple other class feats, but not enough to buy additional spell slots I'm pretty sure).
So that's 66 spells, not counting items that can give you additional ones - you get 3 more from a Ring of Wizardry, and if you want quantity over quality (and consider casting from a staff to be equal to an extra spell slot), you can convert a tenth level spell into 10 1st level spells by investing it into a Staff of the Magi, which also has 9 charges of its own (so 19 castings of Lock, the staff's only 1st level spell). There might be other items that give spells, I haven't checked them all.
Technically, both Sorcerers and Druids can have infinite spells per day, with a 20th level class feat that lets them cast a spell of 5th level or lower once per minute without expending a spell slot, but that's no fun.
WIZARD
Level 2: Sorcerer dedication (divine)
Level 4: Basic Sorcerer Spellcasting
Level 8: Bloodline Breadth
Level 10: Cleric dedication
Level 12: expert Sorceree Spellcasting
Level 14: Basic Cleric Spellcasting
Level 16: Expert Cleric Spellcasting
Level 18: Divine Breadth
Level 20: Master Sorcerer Spellcasting
This is not to say it's a good build. This simply seems to maximize spell slots. You are missing out on 10th level spell slots this way.
[EDIT]: Swapped wizard and sorcerer around so the wizard was the base class. Human would work even better then the above.
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Adapted Cantrip
(Human 1)
Through study of multiple magical traditions, you’ve altered a spell to suit your spellcasting style. Choose one cantrip from a magical tradition other than your own. If you have a spell repertoire or a spellbook, replace one of the cantrips you know or have in your spellbook with the chosen spell. If you prepare spells without a spellbook (if you’re a cleric or druid, for example), one of your cantrips must always be the chosen spell, and you prepare the rest normally. You can cast this cantrip as a spell of your class’s tradition.
If you swap or retrain this cantrip later, you can choose its replacement from the same alternate tradition or a different one.
Adaptive Adept
(Human 5)
You’ve continued adapting your magic to blend your class’s tradition with your adapted tradition. Choose a cantrip or 1st-level spell from the same magical tradition as your cantrip from Adapted Cantrip. You gain that spell, adding it to your spell repertoire, spellbook, or prepared spells just like the cantrip from Adapted Spell. You can cast this spell as a spell of your class’s magical tradition. If you choose a 1st-level spell, you don’t gain access to the heightened versions of that spell, meaning you can’t prepare them if you prepare spells and you can’t learn them or select the spell as a signature spell if you have a spell repertoire.
Multitalented
(Human 9)
You’ve learned to split your focus between multiple classes with ease. You gain a 2nd-level multiclass dedication feat (for more about multiclass archetypes, see page 219), even if you normally couldn’t take another dedication feat until you take more feats from your current archetype.
If you’re a half-elf, you don’t need to meet the feat’s ability score prerequisites.
Ah, that's something I missed with mine - you need to be able to pick up Multitalented, to get your second dedication at 9th, since you have to have a space at 6th.
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I'd suggest something a bit different. Might not have the most spells slots you can get, but comes with quite some staying power and versatility.
Start of as sorcerer. Divine or Primal would give you the highest number of spell slots via Greater Vital Evolution, but Arcane and Occult would give you more flexibility via Greater Mental Evolution. Going Arcane will also increase yout proficiency for the Wizard spells you're about to get very shortly. Your choice.
From there, Multiclass to Wizard to get more spells. Wizard Dedication at 2, Basic Wizard Casting at 4, [Tradition] Evolution at 6, Arcane Breadth at 8. Now, at level 9, you get Multitalented and go for Alchemist Dedication. Not quite a spellcaster, but can grant you access to a lot of utility stuff that can save you quite some spell slots. Hand out Darkvision to the whole party, brew free healing Elixirs every day, use Cheetah's Elixirs instead of Longstrider and so on. Not to mention the shenanigans you can pull off by handing out Mutagens to your party.
Immediately upgrade this to Expert Alchemy at level 10. Then folows Expert Wizard Spellcasting at 12, Master Alchemy at 14. Level 16 has no use for any Multiclass feats so you can get your Greater Evolution without problems. Level 18 will be Master Wizard Spellcasting, of course. Level 20 either the free casting feat or the extra 10th level slot. I'd prety much always pick the slot, personally.
Now, going Alchemist insteaed of a second caster archetype has a few upsides. First of all, it's slightly less feat-intense so you can get a bit more out of your original class. The second and most important advantage however is pure numbers. You get 40 free alchemical items each and every day. Yes, those are much weaker than actual spells. However, you can have 40 level 15 items, whereas a caster multiclass only grants you a single 8th level spell.
Full Cleric Multiclass Healing (i.e. Heal in every single of your 14 spell slots) will heal 712,5 HP single target (2 action version). To produce that amount of healing, the Alchemist Multiclass needs about 8 of its batches. Leaving you with 12 bathes or 24 items which you can just use to do MORE. More healing, more versatility, more utility or even simply more damage when push comes to shove.
I've played a Wizard up to 7th level during the playtest (homebrew campaign). When PF2 was released, I retconned him to this build, using an Arcane Bloodline to keep the original flavor (spellbook and all) going. I'm still only level 7, but really looking forward to unlocking those alchemical goodies.
That actually sounds really awesome. Thanks!
I love the fluff behind Imperial Bloodline, but the bloodline power and focus spells are bit of a letdown for me, and Dragon bloodline involves too much bodyshifting that doesn't appeal aesthetically to me. I'm actually surprised there are 4 Divine Bloodlines, but only 2 Arcane ones.
Yeah, I agree. I also thought long and hard about which arcane bloodline to choose. Dragon Claw is all but useless to my pure caster.
I like Ancestral Memory on principle but the character's high Int and doule Multiclassing gives him LOTS of trained skills, making an ability that grants skill training kind of lackluster. It might become a bit more usuable once I'm level 11 and can use it to temporarily upgrade one of my trained skills to expert.
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I'd been toying with ways to build a "mystic theurge" type character for the last few days and I realized Wizards who gain additional spell slots by MCing to prepared casters (Clerics or Druids) can use the Drain Bonded Object to recast those spells. Which favors a Universalist wizard, who can drain 1/spell level/day.
I don't think you get as many spells per day overall than the build Blave suggested but you get a stronger main spellcasting tradition (Assuming a more traditional Mystic Theurge is being made- Arcane/Divine) than if you were a divine-blooded sorc MCing into Wizard. And assuming you still MC alchemist at 9 for some decent elixirs to help with utility/minor buffs as well you're still pretty well off.
It's something I'm still tweaking to see what fits best with what I'm hoping for, but I think it's a good step towards recreating a "traditional" mystic theurge.