I am a sorcerer with the Psychic bloodline, so my spell slots don't count as arcane, but psychic. Mnemonic Vestments require me to expend an arcane spell slot. I'm not too up on Use Magic Device, but I do have the skill fairly high. Can I use it to emulate arcane spell slots? Or is that not how it works?
|
Not how it works (exactly).
You can UMD to activate items as if you had a class feature, but you don't actually have the class feature. In other words you couldn't "expend an arcane spell slot" because you don't have any arcane spell slots to expend.
However... the mnemonic vestments were written before psychic spells existed. Most people agree that any rules element that says something like "pick arcane or divine" or something similar that was published before Occult Adventures would have psychic as an option as well. The requirement to use mnemonic vestments is to be a spontaneous caster. Since you are a spontaneous psychic caster you can use a psychic spell slot to cast from a psychic scroll. But you can't use them with an arcane or divine scroll.
Metamagic feats and any other rules that alter or trigger from spells can usually be used with psychic spells (though see the Components section below for a few exceptions). Psychic spellcasters aren’t affected by effects that target only arcane or divine spellcasters, nor can they use arcane or divine scrolls or other items or feats that state they can be utilized by only arcane or divine spellcasters.
By far the most common reading of this is that a psychic caster can't use an item like a ring of spell knowledge, which only works for spontaneous arcane casters. But you could choose psychic spells with a samsaran's Mystic Past Life alternate racial trait.
However there's definitely a faction that says the last clause means a psychic can't use that trait, or the mnemonic vestments, etc.
Basically it boils down to "do you believe the game designers were aware at all times before Occult Adventures that a third kind of magic might be introduced later?" Were the vestments written in such as way as to limit you to arcane or divine only, or was "(arcane or divine)" simply a clarification that "type of spell" meant the broad classifications instead of "oracle spell" or "conjuration spell"?
|
[PFS Legal] Mnemonic Vestment
Source Ultimate Equipment pg. 216
Aura strong transmutation; CL 17th
Slot body; Price 5,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
The surface of this delicate-looking blue silk robe is adorned with tiny embossed runes across its entire surface. If the wearer is a spontaneous caster, once per day she may use a spell slot to cast a spell from a written source (such as a scroll or spellbook) as if she knew that spell. The spell must be on her spell list, the same spell level or lower than the expended spell slot, and the same type of spell (arcane or divine) as the spell slot expended. The caster must also understand the written source (such as using Decipher Script or read magic) and be carrying it. Activating the robe is not an action, but casting the spell otherwise works as normal, including casting time, providing components or foci, and so on. Using a mnemonic vestment’s properties does not consume the written source. A mnemonic vestment must be worn for 24 consecutive hours before using its effects.
As I see it, it can work, but you need a written source of the appropriate spell, i.e. a spellbook or scroll of the psychic spell you want to cast.
You should not need to use UMD. The item came out way before the archetype, and as Diego Rossi pointed out the actual requirement is to expend a spell slot of the same type. At the time the item was published arcane and divine were the only types of magic.
But I'd have to stick to only Sorcerer spells that are also on a Psychic spell list, right? I couldn't use this with Permanency or Mind Thrust I, but I could use it with Charm Person?
If this is for PFS, it doesn't matter, as scrolls are untyped in society play.
If for a home game, you could only use psychic scrolls of spells on the sor/wiz spell list (plus your bloodline spells). Finding psychic scrolls of spells that aren't on normal psychic spellcaster lists would be pretty rare, but could technically be crafted by another psychic bloodline sorcerer. That's rare enough that you definitely need to check with your GM, even if given carte blanche in general to purchase items. Also it would raise the minimum caster level (and thus cost) of all but 1st level spells.
|
|
But I'd have to stick to only Sorcerer spells that are also on a Psychic spell list, right? I couldn't use this with Permanency or Mind Thrust I, but I could use it with Charm Person?
You have to use it with spells that are on your spell list, and only with psychic scrolls.
The type of scroll is determined by who made it. Arcane casters make arcane scrolls, divine casters make divine scrolls, and psychic casters make psychic scrolls.
Mind thrust I and permanency are both on the psychic spell list and your spell list (mind thrust I is a bloodline bonus spell for you, permanency is on the default sorcerer/wizard list). So you could use it with either of those. Where it gets trickier is with spells that are on the default sorcerer/wizard spells that are not on any psychic caster's default spell lists. Something like aqueous orb. In that case it's up to the GM. Who else could have made a psychic scroll of that spell for you to buy?
There are ways they could have been made. Obviously, another psychic-bloodlined sorcerer could have made it. But she would have to have the Scribe Scroll feat and have taken the exact spell known you are looking for. And psychic-bloodlined sorcerers are probably pretty rare anyway. So the GM has to decide whether or not the specific scroll you are looking for is available. Just because it can exist doesn't mean it is easily findable.
Wizards study ancient tomes to unlock arcane secrets of the universe, and clerics pray to distant deities to grant them divine power. Yet there is a third, more esoteric kind of magic, connected to every creature's composite being, from the conscious mind to the deepest desire, from the life force to the spirit, from the very soul to the cosmic self. This third type of magic is psychic magic.
A psychic sorcerer does not cast of the psychic spell list; they cast of the sorcerer spell list. The bloodline arcana simply alters how the spells are cast and what they count as. The term psychic in this case is referring to the type of magic not the class. All occult casters use psychic magic, not just the class psychic.
The surface of this delicate-looking blue silk robe is adorned with tiny embossed runes across its entire surface. If the wearer is a spontaneous caster, once per day she may use a spell slot to cast a spell from a written source (such as a scroll or spellbook) as if she knew that spell. The spell must be on her spell list, the same spell level or lower than the expended spell slot, and the same type of spell (arcane or divine) as the spell slot expended. The caster must also understand the written source (such as using Decipher Script or read magic) and be carrying it. Activating the robe is not an action, but casting the spell otherwise works as normal, including casting time, providing components or foci, and so on. Using a mnemonic vestment’s properties does not consume the written source. A mnemonic vestment must be worn for 24 consecutive hours before using its effects.
The actual requirement is that the spell slot be of the same type. They listed arcane or divine in parenthesis showing examples, but nothing in the wording says those are the only spell type it works on. When the item first came out there was no other types of spells so it would be impossible to list those.