Referring to this passage in particular
You access the vast well of power that resides within your own mind, calling forth psychic magic with nothing but thought and will. You can cast occult spells using the Cast a Spell activity. You alter some of the standard spell components when casting spells you know from your psychic spellcasting. Instead of speaking, you substitute any verbal components with a special mental component determined by your subconscious mind class feature. This represents how you exert your mind toward your intended effect. Any of these components impart the concentrate trait to the spell you're casting. You also substitute any material components with somatic components, though these tend to be simple movements of the hand or head compared to those used by other spellcasters. Your spells still have clear and noticeable visual and auditory manifestations, as normal for a spellcaster.
If I understand correctly, I can only make the component substitutions for cantrips and leveled spells I exclusively acquire from the Psychic class. For any other spell, like those from archetypes and items, I would have to provide verbal and material components as normal. This is distinct from other casters that can also do component substitutions as those casters can make component substitutions on any spell.
Is that right? Asking for a friend and that friend is me with a shiny new spellheart.
I would expect that you could use the normal spellcasting components for other spells and spellcasting items though. It would be rather broken to not be able to use a spellheart at all because you can't provide the spellcasting components for it.
But I don't think it is bad to need to speak in order to cast Produce Flame from a Flaming Star spellheart.
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I think there is some case to be made for Staves which have the specific line of
"The spell gains the appropriate trait for your magical tradition (arcane, divine, occult, or primal) and can be affected by any modifications you can normally make when casting spells, such as metamagic feats."
What the GM determines to be "modifications" beyond the explicitly mentioned metamagic feats is up to them but personally I would allow the connection to extend to your psychic spellcasting.
Looks like I never paid much attention to that part about staves. Although does that mean spells from other magic items can’t normally be used with metamagic?
I forgot to add this but I also wanted to confirm something related. This component substitution exclusiveness to psychic spellcasting is basically the same exclusiveness on what spells get the bonus damage from Unleash Psyche, correct? The spells I could sub components on are the same spells I could get bonus damage from Unleash Psyche (provided it also deals damage with no duration) and vice versa?
Looks like I never paid much attention to that part about staves. Although does that mean spells from other magic items can’t normally be used with metamagic?
Activate An Item is a different action than Cast a Spell even though spellcasting items use Cast a Spell inside their activation action.
But I expect that there will be variation on this. Personally I would probably let you use Reach Spell on a spell cast from a scroll.
I forgot to add this but I also wanted to confirm something related. This component substitution exclusiveness to psychic spellcasting is basically the same exclusiveness on what spells get the bonus damage from Unleash Psyche, correct? The spells I could sub components on are the same spells I could get bonus damage from Unleash Psyche (provided it also deals damage with no duration) and vice versa?
I think that matches.
You alter some of the standard spell components when casting spells you know from your psychic spellcasting.
This applies only to spells that don't have a duration and that you cast using psychic spellcasting.
Yeah, both are referencing "psychic spellcasting". So that would definitely be your cantrips and spell slots gained from the Psychic class, and probably from items that you qualify to cast from using your Psychic Spellcasting class feature. It wouldn't apply to cantrips and spell slots or focus spells that you gain from an archetype or spells cast from items that you can only cast from because of an archetype or Trick Magic Item.
Huh, I always thought you cast a spell to activate the item instead of the otherway around. Then again, I don’t think I realized the there was a difference until now so I have to pay attention to that more in the future.
Thanks all for clearing me up on psychic spellcasting!
