Playtest rules clarification

[Exocist]

Unlikely to get any official answer, but just so we can playtest the classes as intended, it would be nice to get an answer to some questions about the mechanics of the classes:

1) When a magus crits with striking spell, does the degree of success modification only apply to the first roll made by the subsequent spell, or any roll made as part the spell's initial effect? For purposes of, e.g. Phantasmal Killer or Disintegrate which have two rolls inherent in the spell.

2) Are the magus and summoner intended to be able to cast spells from staves once they no longer have slots of the same level - e.g. can a 5th level magus cast True Strike from a Staff of Divination?

[Capn Cupcake]

Seconding this. I know the devs have been kind of quiet, but getting answer to these will help us focus on playtesting and not bickering about some of the more ambiguous wording (the rulings are super important, we just can't come to a conclusion).

My 2 cents on it: Rules are intended are that you can use staves. However that's not what's written, so it comes down to letter of the law vs spirit of the law and they're both important to consider for this playtest.

[Exocist]

Another one I found - the Magus' "Cascading Ray" feat

SoM Playtest wrote:

Magical energy overflows from your Striking Spell, spilling out to extend beyond the creature you struck. This overflowing energy creates a ray targeting a creature within 60 feet of the creature you damaged. Make a spell attack roll against this new target, applying your multiple attack penalty normally. On a hit, the creature takes the same damage the spell deals of one of the triggering types (double damage on a critical hit). If the spell deals more than one eligible type of damage, you choose one of these types, and the ray deals only the amount of damage from that type. Unlike the spell discharged, your success with the Cascading Ray’s spell attack roll isn’t improved if your initial Strike was a critical hit. This ray has the attack trait, the school and tradition traits of the original spell, and the trait matching the damage type.

If I Striking Spell with a save-based spell, and the target succeeds on the save, does Cascading Ray deal half the damage (i.e. the damage the spell dealt to the target) or the full damage of the spell?

[Ruzza]

I believe that part of the playtest is for devs to remain silent so as to see where the problems arise with the classes and then address them. That way they aren't polluting the responses with some who "got the memo" and others who didn't.

Rather having threads like "Can new classes use staves?" or "Crit Mechanics and Spellstrike" help devs to see what the community is struggling with.

[Kalaam]

Ruzza wrote:

I believe that part of the playtest is for devs to remain silent so as to see where the problems arise with the classes and then address them. That way they aren't polluting the responses with some who "got the memo" and others who didn't.

Rather having threads like "Can new classes use staves?" or "Crit Mechanics and Spellstrike" help devs to see what the community is struggling with.

Isn't that exactly what those threads do?