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Right, we all know how controversial this general topic of discussion can get, so I'll start by laying out my intentions clearly: the objective of this brew is to try to implement an option for spellcasting classes to cast spells without the usual attrition of spell slots at a sufficient tradeoff, specifically in versatility. The intent is not to buff casters, so if the tradeoffs presented are insufficient, I would want to increase those tradeoffs until they are.
This brew, the Steadfast Spellcaster, is a class archetype much like the Flexible Spellcaster archetype: it can be picked up by any class that can cast spells with spell slots at level 1, has a single and mandatory dedication feat at level 2, and can be summarized as such: rather than have an ever-growing list of spell slots, you only have a tiny number of spell slots, and a significantly reduced number of spells you can learn or prepare, but those spell slots scale up in rank, and you regain those spell slots when you Refocus. Design notes that are not part of the homebrew rules are listed in italics.
You've unlocked the secret to quickly replenishing your magical reserves, sacrificing your breadth of spells in exchange for spell slots that recover when you Refocus. This class feature alters your spellcasting class feature (such as arcane spellcasting for the wizard or divine spellcasting for the cleric). If you choose this class archetype, you must select Steadfast Spellcaster Dedication as your 2nd-level class feat.
Prerequisites You must have a class that has a spellcasting class feature.
Steadfast Spell Slots Your number of spell slots does not increase as you level up, and you therefore always have the same number of spell slots from your class as you have at 1st level. If you choose this class archetype at a level higher than 1st, you lose any additional spell slots you gain from your class at higher levels. Instead, your spell slots from your class become steadfast spell slots, a special type of spell slot that works differently from other spell slots. You recover 1 expended steadfast spell slot when you Refocus. Your steadfast spell slots also increase in rank as you level up, matching the highest rank of spell you can cast with your class using normal spell slots.
Flexible Prepared Spellcasting If you prepare spells in spell slots, you instead prepare a spell collection during your daily preparations, as with the Flexible Spellcaster archetype. You can cast any spell in your collection by using a steadfast spell slot, and you can heighten the spell up to the slot's rank, similar to a spontaneous caster's signature spells. This archetype doesn't change the way you prepare cantrips.
For the sake of brevity in a fairly loaded post, I'll omit the rules detailing how spell collections work. The idea here is that if you are a prepared caster, this archetype also makes you a Flexible Spellcaster, with all of the caveats around extra spell slots with restrictions, as well as feats and features that refer to or require prepared spells.
Reduced Spells You learn or prepare fewer spells than normal, though you learn spells and select them from the same source as normal for your class (a wizard uses a spellbook, a witch relies on their familiar, and so on). Reduce the number of cantrips you gain from your class by 2. The number of spells you can learn or prepare depends on your type of spellcasting:
This is the main intended tradeoff of this class archetype, and can be summarized as such: if you're a spontaneous caster, you'll have 1 fewer spell in your repertoire per spell rank than normal; if you're a prepared caster, it's 2 fewer spells per rank. This may seem particularly harsh for prepared casters, particularly the magus with their one prepared spell, so I'll try to give out my rationale:
10th-Rank Spells If your class has a feature that gives you a 10th-rank spell slot, this archetype doesn't change the way that spell works. The slot is therefore not a steadfast spell slot, and doesn't recover when you Refocus. If you prepare spells in spell slots, you prepare a spell in that slot as normal, and if you have a spell repertoire, you add two common 10th-level spells of your tradition to your repertoire as normal.
Drain Bonded Item Because steadfast spellcasting renders the expenditure of spell slots largely trivial, you can use Drain Bonded Item to allow the casting of any spell in your collection without spending a spell slot, even if you haven't yet cast the spell today. If you are a universalist wizard, you can do this once per day for each rank of wizard spells you can cast.
Steadfast Spellcasting Archetypes You can apply steadfast spellcasting to spellcasting archetypes you take. If you do, you choose from the steadfast spellcasting benefits listed below instead of the corresponding spellcasting benefits listed in the archetype feats you take. Though you can normally gain the basic spellcasting feat at 4th level, you can only gain it at 8th level to gain the basic steadfast spellcasting benefits. If the archetype has a Breadth feat, such as the bard's Occult Breadth archetype feat, that feat is disallowed when applying steadfast spellcasting.
This is more of a bonus than a core part of the archetype, and is there for players who want to not only cast their class's spells without attrition, but want to do the same with multiclassing. Because steadfast slots are stronger than regular spell slots, I tried to limit the power of multiclassing into a spellcaster by raising the level requirement for the basic spellcasting benefits, and reducing the max rank of the spell slot you'd gain to 7th rank, rather than 8th rank.
Archetype, Class, Dedication
Archetype Steadfast Spellcaster
Prerequisites steadfast spellcasting
You gain an additional cantrip from your spell list, and another at 4th level. If you have a spell collection, you prepare these additional cantrips in the same way as your other cantrips. If you have a spell repertoire, you add these cantrips to your spell repertoire as normal.
I like it. At least as a general concept. The details may need to be tweaked a bit for balance. But that would require a lot of playtesting rather than just reading through and theorycrafting.
It is similar to something that I have been kicking around but haven't really put too much actual work into writing out.
Basically that you trade in all of your spell slots for one spell per level that you get as a focus spell. Then the level 2 dedication feat gives you an ability similar to the Psychic's Strain Mind - you can cast your focus spells using your HP when your focus pool runs out.
So a Wizard might choose
1) Color Spray
2) Flaming Sphere
3) Resist Energy (heightened +1, but since it is a focus spell, that wouldn't matter)
4) Fire Shield
And would have the full set of cantrips as normal.
Basically that you trade in all of your spell slots for one spell per level that you get as a focus spell. Then the level 2 dedication feat gives you an ability similar to the Psychic's Strain Mind - you can cast your focus spells using your HP when your focus pool runs out.
So a Wizard might choose
1) Color Spray
2) Flaming Sphere
3) Resist Energy (heightened +1, but since it is a focus spell, that wouldn't matter)
4) Fire ShieldAnd would have the full set of cantrips as normal.
I like this as well, it means you get to have a more focused set of spells and an extra risk-reward mechanic on top. My primary concern is how this would affect existing focus spells, as they are generally balanced to be weaker than slot spells.
My primary concern is how this would affect existing focus spells, as they are generally balanced to be weaker than slot spells.
It is a bit of hit and miss. Most of the Cleric Domain spells are pretty weak - as are a lot of the Sorcerer and Wizard focus spells.
But then there are others like Grasping Grave that is reasonably comparable to Rouse Skeletons, and Deceiver's Cloak is literally Illusory Disguise as a focus spell.
I like the concept but I'm seeing a major roadblock - some spells just become game breaking if you can spam them every fight. Even something as simple as getting heightened invisibility on the whole team every fight could sour the DM's mood quickly.
I like the concept but I'm seeing a major roadblock - some spells just become game breaking if you can spam them every fight. Even something as simple as getting heightened invisibility on the whole team every fight could sour the DM's mood quickly.
I'm not sure I agree with this, for a number of reasons:
So technically yes, your divine or occult sorcerer with this archetype could cast a 9th-rank Heroism on every other party member every encounter, but then they'd be going into that encounter with nothing but cantrips. A sorcerer without this archetype, by contrast, would only be able to do that for one encounter per day (though they'd also be able to buff themselves), but would also have dozens of other spell slots for doing useful things in those encounters, which could save their life.
ah! I totally misread how many spell slots steadfast spellcasters got, I thought it was 1 per rank. If it's 1-3 total then yeah forget what I said.
With that corrected information in mind, my comment would be that basing total spell slots on 1st level makes the archetype greatly vary in effectiveness depending on the class. Sorcerers are laughing all the way to the bank, then Clerics and Wizards have per day slots to offset the loss, then a whole bunch of casters are stuck with 2 spells per fight total, and at the very bottom Psychic is basically a bounded spellcaster.
I'd suggest either putting everyone at 2 slots, or putting Psychic at 2 and everyone else at 3.
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So, just to make sure I'm reading right, for most full casters except the sorcerer this effectively becomes two spells per fight, with a number of spells prepared per day equal to the number of spell ranks they can qualify for, topping out at ten, correct?
I dig it. I've been toying around with something similar to this, but I was trying to go the route of mana points by spell level, rather than slots. This is much easier to slot into the existing rules than someone like the mana system would be, and still enables the caster to remain attrition less if there is no time crunch.
I'll also agree with Breithauptclan that there should be a mechanism for emergency casting of additional spells, perhaps a HP cost or two focus points for one ranked spell. Perhaps instead of HP, though, it reduces maximum HP by twice the rank of the spell until the caster has the chance to sleep a night. That way, it cannot be healed with restorative magic. This brings us right back around to attrition, but it does fit the fantasy better of a Wizard expanding power beyond their limits, but paying a cost for it.
I would be interested to see how this would interact with the relative power scaling of the psychic dedication, especially with regard to Magi. Right now, it seems like a lot of people flock to the psychic as a way to get reliable every fight damage. Would it still be worth it to have more high power spell strikes with amped cantrips, or would having one big shocking grasp then regular cantrips be enough?
I also think there are some questions to be raised about how some class features interact with the spell system, such as divine font with the cleric. Do they gain an additional steadfast spell slot which can be used only for healing or harming, as the case may be?
All in all, though, a very elegant solution. I may well allow it the next time I run a game.
With that corrected information in mind, my comment would be that basing total spell slots on 1st level makes the archetype greatly vary in effectiveness depending on the class. Sorcerers are laughing all the way to the bank, then Clerics and Wizards have per day slots to offset the loss, then a whole bunch of casters are stuck with 2 spells per fight total, and at the very bottom Psychic is basically a bounded spellcaster.
I'd suggest either putting everyone at 2 slots, or putting Psychic at 2 and everyone else at 3.
I don't think it really makes classes vary in effectiveness much more than their current difference in slots per level: your 2-slot casters certainly won't have the spell output of the sorcerer, but they will be significantly more durable and have other juicy class features to boot. The psychic may have only one spell slot, but has ultra-powerful amps to compensate for it. That's pretty much the difference between those classes as it exists now. There's probably room for allowing the casting of extra spells at a price, though, as mentioned by breithauptclan and NerdOver9000, which could let players opt into emergency casting as needed.
So, just to make sure I'm reading right, for most full casters except the sorcerer this effectively becomes two spells per fight, with a number of spells prepared per day equal to the number of spell ranks they can qualify for, topping out at ten, correct?
Almost exactly correct! Your spell collection as a prepared caster would cap out at nine, as your 10th-rank spell slot and the spell you'd prepare into it would still continue to work separately from steadfast spell slots.
I dig it. I've been toying around with something similar to this, but I was trying to go the route of mana points by spell level, rather than slots. This is much easier to slot into the existing rules than someone like the mana system would be, and still enables the caster to remain attrition less if there is no time crunch.
Mana points was one of the alternatives I saw on the PF2eCreations subreddit that inspired me to come up with the above. Quite a few others have tackled the subject of attrition-free casting, and with this take I wanted something that would fit as much as possible within existing rules, while also hopefully fitting into Pathfinder's balance as well.
I'll also agree with Breithauptclan that there should be a mechanism for emergency casting of additional spells, perhaps a HP cost or two focus points for one ranked spell. Perhaps instead of HP, though, it reduces maximum HP by twice the rank of the spell until the caster has the chance to sleep a night. That way, it cannot be healed with restorative magic. This brings us right back around to attrition, but it does fit the fantasy better of a Wizard expanding power beyond their limits, but paying a cost for it.
This sounds like it could be a feat for the archetype. Casting additional spells at the cost of draining oneself or the like sounds like it could be a desirable option for players ready to pay a price for an emergency spell, beyond the current selection of limited slot spells, focus spells, and cantrips.
I would be interested to see how this would interact with the relative power scaling of the psychic dedication, especially with regard to Magi. Right now, it seems like a lot of people flock to the psychic as a way to get reliable every fight damage. Would it still be worth it to have more high power spell strikes with amped cantrips, or would having one big shocking grasp then regular cantrips be enough?
The psychic is definitely the go-to spellcaster for attrition-free spellcasting at the moment right now, which is also what gives me hope that the above concept could work. Multiclassing into psychic is a great way to get a solid amount of damage every fight via an amp, one of which in particular synergizes very well with the magus, and this class archetype could broaden that to many more spells at a time (and slot spells, too!), at the expense of much more severe tradeoffs.
I also think there are some questions to be raised about how some class features interact with the spell system, such as divine font with the cleric. Do they gain an additional steadfast spell slot which can be used only for healing or harming, as the case may be?
I only wrote very briefly on this in the OP, but the intent is that the brew reuses many of the same rules for special spell slots as the Flexible Spellcaster archetype: if you're a cleric, you'd therefore have the same number of divine font slots, they'd scale in the same way, and they'd remain per-day slots. Ideally, I'd like to just give the cleric two steadfast Harm/Heal slots and call it a day, as the remaster is set to give the class around that much output at higher levels, but I ended up settling on avoiding writing in case-by-case rules as much as possible.
Thank you for the kind words, as well! :)
I don't think it really makes classes vary in effectiveness much more than their current difference in slots per level: your 2-slot casters certainly won't have the spell output of the sorcerer, but they will be significantly more durable and have other juicy class features to boot. The psychic may have only one spell slot, but has ultra-powerful amps to compensate for it. That's pretty much the difference between those classes as it exists now. There's probably room for allowing the casting of extra spells at a price, though, as mentioned by breithauptclan and NerdOver9000, which could let players opt into emergency casting as needed.
Fair enough, I was mostly concerned about the ability to get a little extra juice in a pinch, so options for emergency casting sound like they would solve that just fine.
Am I correct in understanding that the prepared caster can make all their prepared spells max level? That doesn't seem like it would be intended, but I can't see anything preventing it.
Am I correct in understanding that the prepared caster can make all their prepared spells max level? That doesn't seem like it would be intended, but I can't see anything preventing it.
All of your spells would be max-rank with this archetype. You'd just have a very small number of spell slots to use per encounter, and only a small collection of prepared spells as a prepared caster.
Am I correct in understanding that the prepared caster can make all their prepared spells max level? That doesn't seem like it would be intended, but I can't see anything preventing it.All of your spells would be max-rank with this archetype. You'd just have a very small number of spell slots to use per encounter, and only a small collection of prepared spells as a prepared caster.
Given that all your spell slots are max rank, doesn't that make prepared casters much more versatile than spontaneous ones (who, if I understand correctly, are limited to 2 max-rank spells known and the rest are lower level)? And arguably more versatile than vanilla prepared casters, at least as regards high level spells. Technically the spontaneous caster knows more spells, but they're unlikely to use one of their limited slots to cast a low level spell in combat.
Given that all your spell slots are max rank, doesn't that make prepared casters much more versatile than spontaneous ones (who, if I understand correctly, are limited to 2 max-rank spells known and the rest are lower level)? And arguably more versatile than vanilla prepared casters, at least as regards high level spells. Technically the spontaneous caster knows more spells, but they're unlikely to use one of their limited slots to cast a low level spell in combat.
As a prepared caster, you have a collection of 9 spells at most. As a spontaneous caster, you will on average have a repertoire of 18 spells, 9 of which will be signature spells (if you're a 3-slot caster like a Bard or Oracle). Thanks to the rules for swapping out spells in your repertoire, you can also bring several of your non-signature spells to a higher rank if you want as well. In both cases, you are far less versatile than a spellcaster that didn't pick this archetype, but the spontaneous caster has significantly more versatility within the day than the prepared caster, who maintains superior versatility from one day to the next.
Given that all your spell slots are max rank, doesn't that make prepared casters much more versatile than spontaneous ones (who, if I understand correctly, are limited to 2 max-rank spells known and the rest are lower level)? And arguably more versatile than vanilla prepared casters, at least as regards high level spells. Technically the spontaneous caster knows more spells, but they're unlikely to use one of their limited slots to cast a low level spell in combat.As a prepared caster, you have a collection of 9 spells at most. As a spontaneous caster, you will on average have a repertoire of 18 spells, 9 of which will be signature spells (if you're a 3-slot caster like a Bard or Oracle). Thanks to the rules for swapping out spells in your repertoire, you can also bring several of your non-signature spells to a higher rank if you want as well. In both cases, you are far less versatile than a spellcaster that didn't pick this archetype, but the spontaneous caster has significantly more versatility within the day than the prepared caster, who maintains superior versatility from one day to the next.
Ah, signature spells are what I was missing. Given that all your spell slots are cast at their highest rank, those are effectively all max-rank spells known and equivalent on their own to the prepared caster's collection.
Ah, signature spells are what I was missing. Given that all your spell slots are cast at their highest rank, those are effectively all max-rank spells known and equivalent on their own to the prepared caster's collection.
Exactly! As a spontaneous spellcaster, you'd therefore have a repertoire of max-rank spells at least as big as a prepared caster's collection, and the latter would maintain the benefit of swapping out that collection every day.
It looks like the spontaneous bounded and archetype casters never get to learn any spells except heightened first rank ones. This completely cuts them off from 90% of their spell lists. Would it be better to allow one of their two spells in their repertoire to be of any rank, seeing as it's going to be a signature spell anyway?
It looks like the spontaneous bounded and archetype casters never get to learn any spells except heightened first rank ones. This completely cuts them off from 90% of their spell lists. Would it be better to allow one of their two spells in their repertoire to be of any rank, seeing as it's going to be a signature spell anyway?
A spontaneous bounded spellcaster can swap out spells as they level up, meaning they can always have top-rank spells equipped. You're right though that a steadfast spontaneous archetype caster would be stuck with 1st-rank spells unless they retrain, so I'd allow them to swap out spells instead of gaining new ones.
Another thought. Is it really necessary to reduce the rank of the spell slot steadfast archetype casters get compared to vanilla archetype casters, once they take expert casting benefits? I know it seems like it ought to be needed at first glance, but many casters can get a focus spell with a single low level class feat, and focus spells scale automatically with your actual level just like with a full class caster.
Of course focus spells aren't quite as powerful as spell slot spells of a given level, and you have slightly more versatility with archetype steadfast spells than you would with a focus spell. But you also have to pay three class feats total for it, and are always a rank behind non-archetype casters even without the extra penalties the steadfast archetype feats add.
Another thought. Is it really necessary to reduce the rank of the spell slot steadfast archetype casters get compared to vanilla archetype casters, once they take expert casting benefits? I know it seems like it ought to be needed at first glance, but many casters can get a focus spell with a single low level class feat, and focus spells scale automatically with your actual level just like with a full class caster.
Of course focus spells aren't quite as powerful as spell slot spells of a given level, and you have slightly more versatility with archetype steadfast spells than you would with a focus spell. But you also have to pay three class feats total for it, and are always a rank behind non-archetype casters even without the extra penalties the steadfast archetype feats add.
Comparison with non-archetype casters is pretty much the reason why I kept the steadfast slot at a lower rank. If you pick a caster archetype, you get lots of slots up to 8th rank, but all of those slots are once-a-day. Meanwhile, the steadfast slot you get can be used once every 10 minutes, which is a huge advantage. I very much wanted to make sure that going for this different casting model represented a tradeoff, rather than a buff, which is why the slot ends up downranked by one.
Comparison with non-archetype casters is pretty much the reason why I kept the steadfast slot at a lower rank. If you pick a caster archetype, you get lots of slots up to 8th rank, but all of those slots are once-a-day. Meanwhile, the steadfast slot you get can be used once every 10 minutes, which is a huge advantage. I very much wanted to make sure that going for this different casting model represented a tradeoff, rather than a buff, which is why the slot ends up downranked by one.Another thought. Is it really necessary to reduce the rank of the spell slot steadfast archetype casters get compared to vanilla archetype casters, once they take expert casting benefits? I know it seems like it ought to be needed at first glance, but many casters can get a focus spell with a single low level class feat, and focus spells scale automatically with your actual level just like with a full class caster.
Of course focus spells aren't quite as powerful as spell slot spells of a given level, and you have slightly more versatility with archetype steadfast spells than you would with a focus spell. But you also have to pay three class feats total for it, and are always a rank behind non-archetype casters even without the extra penalties the steadfast archetype feats add.
But by the time you're taking expert casting, you're already giving up three spell slots and three quarters of your spell repertoire, and that number is only going to grow. If it's ok for full casters to lose their lower level spell slots and most of their repertoire in exchange for regenerating slots of their highest level, shouldn't it be ok for archetype casters to make the same exchange?
But by the time you're taking expert casting, you're already giving up three spell slots and three quarters of your spell repertoire, and that number is only going to grow. If it's ok for full casters to lose their lower level spell slots and most of their repertoire in exchange for regenerating slots of their highest level, shouldn't it be ok for archetype casters to make the same exchange?
Okay, a few things:
More generally, a common rule for doing funky stuff with spells, such as by taking another spellcasting class's archetype or using some really powerful spellshapes, is that you get the benefit up to two ranks lower than your top-rank spell slot: because in all cases the highest-rank spell slot would be 9th rank on any caster, I feel it would be fair to keep steadfast slots from an archetype at 7th rank at most, as more than that I think would encroach on the benefits of main-classed casters.
I need to look at this more in-depth, but so far I'm really liking this!
A few things to note though; I feel this is probably slightly more complex than it should really be. I'd probably just copy-paste how focus spells and focus points work and do 1:1 here but without calling them focus spells because that have some classes have their spells and focus spells using the same resource. All classes should IMO start with 2 spells and get a third one either through the dedication or with a higher level feat. I'm probably missing something here, but I feel there's a lot of moving parts here that don't make the transition as seamless as it should.
I need to look at this more in-depth, but so far I'm really liking this!
A few things to note though; I feel this is probably slightly more complex than it should really be. I'd probably just copy-paste how focus spells and focus points work and do 1:1 here but without calling them focus spells because that have some classes have their spells and focus spells using the same resource. All classes should IMO start with 2 spells and get a third one either through the dedication or with a higher level feat. I'm probably missing something here, but I feel there's a lot of moving parts here that don't make the transition as seamless as it should.
Why thank you! I specifically avoided just copy-pasting Focus Points, though, because implementing regular spells as focus spells would just invalidate the existence of focus spells almost entirely, as well as mess up interaction with certain mechanics (e.g. feats requiring you to be able to cast spells using spell slots). I do think it's possible to have a class that can cast regular spells as focus spells, and I even homebrewed an entire class that does exactly that, but I think that's separate from allowing existing casters to cast without attrition.
I'm not asking for allowing to use focus points as a replacement for spell slots (I literally said "I'd probably just copy-paste how focus spells and focus points work and do 1:1 here but without calling them focus spells because that would have some classes have their spells and focus spells using the same resource") but have a mechanic that works exactly like focus spells but aren't focus spells in the sense that you could have both resources be separate but have their slight differences, which is kinda what this homebrew already is, but I feel it could be simplified a little.
I'm not asking for allowing to use focus points as a replacement for spell slots (I literally said "I'd probably just copy-paste how focus spells and focus points work and do 1:1 here but without calling them focus spells because that would have some classes have their spells and focus spells using the same resource") but have a mechanic that works exactly like focus spells but aren't focus spells in the sense that you could have both resources be separate but have their slight differences, which is kinda what this homebrew already is, but I feel it could be simplified a little.
Is that not what this brew does already, though? You get between 1 and 3 not-Focus Points that let you cast spells, and you regain 1 expended not-Focus Point each time you Refocus. What is it that you feel needs to be made more like Focus Points here?