Eldritch Archer and Beast Gunner, Are Spellcasing Classes Eligible for Archetype Spellcasting Feats?

[moosher12]

The Eldritch Archer does not add a cantrip if you are already a spellcaster, and the Beast Gunner gives you a bonus cantrip if you are already a spellcaster, and appear to utilize your existing spells for their respective abilities.

Are spellcasting classes eligible to gain the Basic, Expert, and Master Spellcasting Feats for the Eldritch Archer or the Beast Gunner? Or are these feats reserved for martial classes in this case?

My gut instinct intuits that it would be allowed, and the eldritch archer would be denied a cantrip, while the beast gunner would grant one cantrip to the original class's spell list, while either archetype would provide a separate spell list, not including a cantrip, of their respective tradition.

As an aside, I am also considering home ruling the Eldritch Archer to grant a bonus cantrip like the Beast Gunner.

[Fox@gon]

I believe Eldritch Archer gets a cantrip whether you're a spellcaster or not. It's just specifying that if you don't have a spellcasting tradition already, that you gain the ability to cast spells spontaneously.

"If you don't already cast spells from spell slots, you learn to cast spontaneous spells and gain the Cast a Spell activity. (Full stop) You gain a spell repertoire with one cantrip of your choice, from a spell list of your choice."

And yes, spellcasting classes can still get the basic, expert, and master spellcasting benefits. They're separate from your base class's spell slots.

[Gisher]

On the Cantrips
Both Beast Gunner and Cathartic Mage give everyone one cantrip from your chosen list. They also grant anyone who can already cast spells from spell slots a bonus cantrip from their previous list.

However, that language was directly copied from the original version of Eldritch Archer. In the second printing of the APG, Eldritch Archer was errata'd to remove the bonus cantrip.

Paizo FAQ Page wrote:

Page 172: Remove the paragraph from the first printing that begins, "If you already cast spells from spell slots, you gain one additional cantrip from that tradition." If you're already a spellcaster, you use your normal allotment of spells for eldritch archer abilities and don't gain more spells.

So now every Eldritch Archer gains just the one cantrip that is from the chosen list. I think it is likely that those other archetypes will also have that language removed if their books are updated.

On the Spellcasting Feats
Yes anyone can take the Basic, Expert, and Master Spellcasting Feats from these archetypes. It's no different than, say, a Wizard taking the Basic, Expert, and Master Spellcasting Feats from Witch Multiclass.

If you are looking into the spellcasting archetypes, you might find my Archetype Spellcasting Tables helpful.

[moosher12]

Nice find on the errata. Thank you. As well as for the charts. I was already composing similar charts for my own documents, but having a second set to tell me I did it right is good.