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One feature I miss from PF1e is that if you miss with a melee touch spell like Shocking Grasp, you retained the charge and could try your attack roll again the next round. What if we created something a little bit similar in 2e to aid the attack roll spells?
Rules proposal: Attack Spell Conservation: If an attack spell misses the target and fails to have any effect, the caster can choose to try and retain the spell's charge to attempt the attack again the following round. As a free action, the caster can attempt a flat check of DC 10, similar to a death save. If the check is successful, the spell is Sustained until the end of the next round, and the caster can spend an action the next round to try the attack again. On a roll of a natural 20, the caster could also use an action in his current turn if he has one left instead of needing to wait until the following round.
If the caster rolls a 9 or less on this flat check, the spell slot is spent like normal.
If the spell attacks keep missing, he can attempt a new Spell Conservation roll each round to retain the spell and try again. If he decides to cast another spell instead, the retained spell is lost.
I'm interested in what folks think. The flat check means a missed spell attack is not automatically retained as it was in PF1, but it is at least a chance and helps even the scales with the saving throw spells.
We could also say that if you Critically Miss the target, the spell was released and just hit the floor or a wall with no chance of retaining it.
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I could see this being a fun feat, rather than a new rule. I'm not a huge fan of the flat DC (since it's so feast-or-famine), I think it makes sense either as metamagic or as an action you could use immediately after missing a spell attack.
Something like:
Relentless Spell [A] Feat X
[Metamagic][Manipulate]
You've learned how to cast spells that relentlessly hound your foes, even when it seems they avoided your attack. If the next action you use is to Cast a Spell that has you make a spell attack and you fail but don't critically fail that attack, you retain the energy of that spell, allowing you to make another attempt. Until the end of your next turn, you can Cast the Spell again without losing a spell slot.
You'd run into some jank when interacting with spells like spiritual weapon, so my feat would probably require wording to prevent that. The same is presumably true for your suggested homebrew rule.
I really like this idea (and like Henro's idea of making it metamagic) but the only issue is that this doesn't do anything to help attack cantrips or other attack spells that can be cast at will.