Alright, hypothetical character time!
Let's say I'm playing a witch with a winter patron, granting me the primal spell list, as well as a cute little familiar. It should also be noted that my with is an ancient elf, who studied a bit of wizardry before meeting a friendly yeti who taught him cool ice magic, and thus has the wizard dedication feat.
My elven witch goes on a few adventures, and gets to second level! For his class feat, he decides to take improved familiar. Now that his familiar can take 4 abilities (well, 5 considering we're talking about a witch here, but 4 is the minimum), it can finally reveal the truth: it's been a spellslime the whole time!
Now, spellslimes have a neat ability which I'll quote below:
Magic Scent Your spellslime familiar gains an imprecise sense with a range of 30 feet that enables it to smell magic of the same tradition as your own.
Now we finally get to my question. My witches magical tradition is primal, so we know that this spellslime can smell out primal magic no problem. The question is, does my elven witch's wizard dedication feat, which gives him training in casting arcane spells, give the spellslime the ability to smell arcane magic too?
I would say it's only the tradition linked to the class that gave you the familiar.
In that case Primal. Now let's say you'd started a wizard and took dedication witch with tradition Divine, after taking a few familiar enhancement feats, your spell slime would smell Divine spells imo.
Now, I don't think bit would be broken to let the poor spell slime smell several traditions though I could be wrong.
Familiars don't have to come from a class: Familiar Master and Animal Accomplice give you one and there is no spell list attached. So saying it's "linked to the class that gave you the familiar" isn't looking at the full picture.
So if a gnome bard with Animal Accomplice multiclasses into wizard/witch/sorcerer and takes Enhanced Familiar with a multiclass feat, gaining the 4 abilities needed for the slime. What tradition is it?
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I would say the player just picks one of the traditions they follow. A spellslime comes from residue from the casting of of a spell. Every spell you cast is in one of the four traditions; there's no way to cast a spell that is simultaneously arcane and primal (i.e. you're always using a wizard slot/cantrip or a witch slot/cantrip).
So pick one and your spellslime can sense that.
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I say pick them all.
Flavour-wise, a Gnome Bard with Animal Accomplice, First World Magic with Arcane Sense and Sorcerer(Divine) Dedication feats has access to spells of all four traditions, and how can anyone say that one tradition is more important than another? He might know more Occult spells, sure, but the Primal and Divine cantrips he can cast are interwoven with the very fabric of his ancestry through the thread of his bloodline. His familiar is a product of this magic, to the point it can smell it, and if its master's source of magic is so rich and flavourful, such should its scent capabilities be.
Rules-wise, I don't think there is a definition for what "your own" tradition is. I would argue that, if you can cast spells from a certain tradition, that tradition is "your own" for the purposes of Magic Scent description.
Balance-wise, who cares. The implications would be so negligible that I can't really see a situation where it would cause any problem. And I hate limiting players' options with no real reason.
I would say the player just picks one of the traditions they follow. A spellslime comes from residue from the casting of of a spell. Every spell you cast is in one of the four traditions; there's no way to cast a spell that is simultaneously arcane and primal (i.e. you're always using a wizard slot/cantrip or a witch slot/cantrip).
So pick one and your spellslime can sense that.
It doesn't say "A spellslime comes from residue from the casting of of a spell.", it says "These friendly, colorful oozes congeal from the essences left over from casting spells". Plural. If you're casting spells of multiple traditions, why would just a single tradition's spells congeal and completely ignore the others?
It doesn't say "A spellslime comes from residue from the casting of of a spell.", it says "These friendly, colorful oozes congeal from the essences left over from casting spells". Plural. If you're casting spells of multiple traditions, why would just a single tradition's spells congeal and completely ignore the others?I would say the player just picks one of the traditions they follow. A spellslime comes from residue from the casting of of a spell. Every spell you cast is in one of the four traditions; there's no way to cast a spell that is simultaneously arcane and primal (i.e. you're always using a wizard slot/cantrip or a witch slot/cantrip).
So pick one and your spellslime can sense that.
To be fair, that sentences is saying oozes (plural) form from the essences left over from casting spells, so it could easily be interpreted as saying each ooze forms from a single spell. I don’t think this is the case but given that this is a small lore detail either interpretation could be valid with minimal impact.
To be fair, that sentences is saying oozes (plural) form from the essences left over from casting spells, so it could easily be interpreted as saying each ooze forms from a single spell. I don’t think this is the case but given that this is a small lore detail either interpretation could be valid with minimal impact.It doesn't say "A spellslime comes from residue from the casting of of a spell.", it says "These friendly, colorful oozes congeal from the essences left over from casting spells". Plural. If you're casting spells of multiple traditions, why would just a single tradition's spells congeal and completely ignore the others?I would say the player just picks one of the traditions they follow. A spellslime comes from residue from the casting of of a spell. Every spell you cast is in one of the four traditions; there's no way to cast a spell that is simultaneously arcane and primal (i.e. you're always using a wizard slot/cantrip or a witch slot/cantrip).
So pick one and your spellslime can sense that.
It COULD have said 'These friendly, colorful oozes congeal from the essences left over from casting a spell' but they made a choice not to do so, so I find it less likely that it indicates a singular spell but an accumulation of multiple spells plus it just makes more sense from a contextual sense for it to be multiple too IMO.
Mainly my post was to point out that the wording of the actual description and point out that it never says "a spell": we can debate if those words mean 1 or multiple spells but we should at least be debating of the same words as a starting point.