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Bouncing off of this thread, I figured it might be worth going into specifics in the homebrew subforum by trying to redraw spell lists based on that thread's redrawing of spell traditions and magical essences, if only to see what identity each resulting tradition could have. A few notes before getting into the nitty-gritty:
Effectively, the general purpose to this thought exercise isn't to nerf any particular caster, but to sharpen the identity of spell traditions so that they can each feel really distinct from one another, and so that casters have potentially more room for even further differentiation, as well as more reasons to be able to poach spells from other traditions if the player so wishes. Our current spell lists I think are severely affected by legacy design, and redrawing them would avoid the confusion many players have between certain spell lists, chiefly arcane and occult.
The following redrawn spell lists break each down into two parts: spells that are added, and spells that are removed. Spells that are currently in the tradition's spell list and aren't mentioned are assumed to be kept in. Each spoilered entry lists general reasons for the additions and removals, with a broad statement of each spell list's identity and range of contributions. As a general note, some added or kept spells I feel could be split into several to align more closely with individual magical traditions, such as Plane Shift being split into two plane-hopping spells covering the Inner Sphere and Outer Sphere.
Added Spells: Aberrant Form, Air Walk, Animal Form, Animal Vision, Animus Mine, Barkskin, Blade Barrier, Blanket of Stars, Bloodspray Curse, Bralani Referendum, Breath of Drought, Chameleon Coat, Concordant Choir, Cyclone Rondo, Detect Poison, Dinosaur Form, Dreaming Potential, Elephant Form, Enhance Victuals, Envenom Companion, Erase Trail, Fabricated Truth, Faerie Fire, Far Sight, Fate's Travels, Glibness, Grave Impressions, Guiding Star, Haunting Hymn, Hydraulic Torrent, Hypercognition, Inkshot, Insect Form, Inside Ropes, Join Pasts, Know Direction, Know Location, Lightning Storm, Lose the Path, Magic Fang, Mindlink, Mirecloud, Modify Memory, Movanic Glimmer, Nettleskin, Pack Attack, Painful Vibrations, Painted Scout, Pass Without Trace, Petal Storm, Phantom Pain, Plant Form, Punishing Winds, Purify Food and Drink, Putrefy Food and Drink, Quench, Read Omens, Read the Air, Remove Curse, Remove Paralysis, Repelling Pulse, Restore Senses, Rusting Grasp, Scintillating Safeguard, Sculpt Sound, Shape Wood, Shatter, Show the Way, Silence, Sonata Span, Soothe, Sound Burst, Spike Stones, Status, Stone to Flesh, Storm of Vengeance, Stormburst, Strange Geometry, Sudden Recollection, Synaptic Pulse, Synesthesia, Talking Corpse, Tortoise and the Hare, Tree Shape, Unfettered Pack, Visions of Danger, Volcanic Eruption, Whirling Scarves, Whirlwind, Wind Walk.
Removed Spells: Agonizing Despair, All is One, One is All, Ancient Dust, Animate Dead, Bandit's Doom, Banishment, Belittling Boast, Bind Undead, Black Tentacles, Blink, Blood Feast, Bound in Death, Burning Blossoms, Call Fluxwraith, Call the Blood, Charitable Urge, Cinder Swarm, Charm, Chill Touch, Cloudkill, Command, Compel True Name, Confusion, Coral Eruption, Coral Scourge, Crushing Despair, Cup of Dust, Daemon Form, Demon Form, Devil Form, Déjà Vu, Dive and Breach, Divinity Leech, Dominate, Draw Ire, Dull Ambition, Eclipse Burst, Elemental Confluence, Elysian Whimsy, Empathic Link, Endure, Energy Aegis, Enervation, Enthrall, Entrancing Eyes, Entwined Roots, False Life, Fated Confrontation, Favorable Review, Fear, Feast of Ashes, Flames of Ego, Flourishing Flora, Gate, Gentle Repose, Ghostly Weapon, Glimmer of Charm, Goblin Pox, Grim Tendrils, Helpful Wood Spirits, Hideous Laughter, Horrid Wilting, Horrifying Blood Loss, Hungry Depths, Impeccable Flow, Impending Doom, Inexhaustible Cynicism, Infectious Comedy, Infectious Enthusiasm, Invoke Spirits, Invoke True Name, Life-Draining Roots, Lotus Walk, Lucky Number, Mantle of the Unwavering Heart, Mask of Terror, Massacre, Mind of Menace, Mirror Malefactors, Mirror's Misfortune, Musical Accompaniment, Necromancer's Generosity, Necrotic Radiation, Necrotize, Nudge the Odds, Outcast's Curse, Overselling Flourish, Phantasmal Killer, Plane Shift, Power Word Kill, Procyal Philosophy, Protect Companion, Rapid Adaptation, Ravenous Portal, Repulsion, Roaring Applause, Root Reading, Rouse Skeletons, Sanguine Mist, Schadenfreude, Scouring Pulse, Seal Fate, Secret Chest, Shadow Siphon, Shadow Walk, Shadow Zombie, Subconscious Suggestion, Suggestion, Summon Animal, Summon Archmage, Summon Draconic Legion, Summon Dragon, Summon Elemental, Summon Elemental Herald, Summoner's Precaution, Swallow Light, Tanglefoot, Telepathic Demand, Tempest of Shades, Umbral Extraction, Uncontrollable Dance, Unspeakable Shadow, Vampiric Exsanguination, Vampiric Maiden, Vampiric Touch, Vicious Jealousy, Vision of Beauty, Vomit Swarm, Wall of Shrubs, Wall of Virtue, Warding Aggression, Warrior's Regret, Weird, Winning Streak, Wisdom of the Winds, Word of Revision.
This is a lot of changes overall, with only a slight reduction to the spell list's size in total. The general gist of the changes is as follows:
Overall, an arcane caster wouldn't be able to do a little bit of everything quite as much as they do now, but would excel at direct physical and energy damage, manipulation of information through both divinatory and illusion effects, and alteration of physical properties. Arcane casters would have mastery of space and time, and would be the only casters able to teleport, use telekinesis, and alter time itself. On the flipside, arcane magic would no longer be good at directly manipulating the living or undead, and would still lack the broader healing powers of primal and divine casters, while also being unable to cross planar borders.
Added Spells: Biting Words, Black Tentacles, Blink, Blistering Invective, Call the Blood, Charm, Chroma Leach, Crushing Despair, Cup of Dust, Cutting Insult, Dive and Breach, Divinity Leech, Dominate, Elemental Confluence, Empathic Link, Endure, Enthrall, Entrancing Eyes, False Life, Favorable Review, Feast of Ashes, Feral Shades, Flames of Ego, Ghostly Weapon, Glimmer of Charm, Grim Tendrils, Healing Plaster, Helpful Wood Spirits, Hideous Laughter, Horrid Wilting, Ill Omen, Infectious Comedy, Infectious Enthusiasm, Infectious Melody, Liberating Command, Mad Monkeys, Musical Accompaniment, Overselling Flourish, Paranoia, Possession, Power Word Kill, Secret Chest, Shadow Walk, Speak with Animals, Speak with Plants, Spirit Song, Subconscious Suggestion, Suggestion, Summon Archmage, Summon Elemental, Summon Elemental Herald, Summon Entity, Summon Fey, Summon Plant or Fungus, Tame, Threefold Aspect, Umbral Extraction, Uncontrollable Dance, Verminous Lure, Winning Streak, Word of Revision.
Removed Spells: Admonishing Ray, Advanced Scurvy, Agonizing Despair, Air Bubble, Air Walk, Alarm, Allfood, Approximate, Astral Labyrinth, Awaken Entropy, Bandit's Doom, Blade Barrier, Blast of the Bellows, Blazing Armory, Blazing Blade, Blindness, Blink Charge, Blood Feast, Blood Vendetta, Bloodspray Curse, Bone Spray, Boneshaker, Bralani Referendum, Breadcrumbs, Bullhorn, Catch Your Name, Cauterize Wounds, Clad in Metal, Cleanse Air, Comprehend Language, Concordant Choir, Continual Flame, Create Food, Create Water, Dancing Shield, Darkness, Darkvision, Daze, Deafness, Deep Sight, Detect Metal, Detect Poison, Discern Lies, Discern Location, Draw Moisture, Dream Message, Drop Dead, Echoing Weapon, Endure Elements, Energy Aegis, Enhance Senses, Enhance Victuals, Familiar's Face, Faerie Fire, Fate's Travels, Fear the Sun, Final Sacrifice, Fireproof, Flense, Foresight, Forgotten Lines, Freedom of Movement, Gentle Breeze, Ghoulish Cravings, Globe of Invulnerability, Glowing Trail, Glyph of Warding, Grave Impressions, Guiding Star, Haunting Hymn, Heatvision, Helpful Steps, Illuminate, Inside Ropes, Internal Insurrection, Instant Armor, Know Direction, Know Location, Lashunta's Life Bubble, Light, Locate, Lock, Lotus Walk, Magic Mailbox, Magic Weapon, Mending, Message, Mirecloak, Mirror Malefactors, Misty Memory, Movanic Glimmer, Needle Darts, Organsight, Painful Vibrations, Percussive Impact, Pet Cache, Phoenix Ward, Prestidigitation, Proliferating Eyes, Prying Eye, Purify Food and Drink, Putrefy Food and Drink, Quick Sort, Radiant Field, Ravenous Darkness, Ray of Enfeeblement, Read Aura, Read the Air, Remake, Remove Paralysis, Repelling Pulse, Resist Energy, Restore Senses, Restyle, Return to Essence, Rewinding Step, Rousing Splash, Safe Passage, Scintillating Safeguard, Scrying Ripples, See Invisibility, Sending, Shield, Shielded Arm, Shock to the System, Show the Way, Sigil, Silence, Soothing Blossoms, Soothing Spring, Sound Burst, Sparkleskin, Spellwrack, Suffocate, Status, Steal Voice, Stone to Flesh, Stonesense, Summoner's Visage, Sunburst, Synchronize, Talking Corpse, Telepathic Demand, Temporal Ward, Temporary Glyph, Thermal Remedy, Thoughtful Gift, Tongues, Torturous Trauma, Tremor Signs, True Seeing, Ventriloquism, Wall of Flesh, Water Breathing, Water Walk, Web of Eyes, Whirling Scarves, Ymeri's Mark.
This may not look terribly good at first glance, as there are a lot of removals to an already small spell list. To me, this further indicates that we need a proper expansion book for divine spells, as there's a ton of magic to be had around eliciting emotions, controlling creatures, manipulating lifeforce and souls, and so on that just isn't really there in Pathfinder's current spells.
However, I do think there are a lot of benefits to be had here nonetheless:
The end result should be that divine casters would still be extremely good at healing and protection, but would also be able to do more things beyond that: the remaster should hopefully be giving them better damage, and with the above they would be the absolute best class for planar travel, as they'd access both the Inner and Outer Sphere and be able to call upon creatures from both. They wouldn't be great at interacting with the material world, but would have the greatest variety of things to do with creatures, including some of the strongest forms of mind control. Really, with more spells that would cover the creation and control of undead, resurrection, control over the flow of souls, and other things to do with the intersection of vital and spiritual energy, divine casters could have a really solid baseline of things to do.
Added Spells: Angel Form, Animal Vision, Befuddle, Blessing of Defiance, Crusade, Daemon Form, Demon Form, Devil Form, Divine Decree, Divine Inspiration, Divine Lance, Divine Wrath, Drop Dead, Elysian Whimsy, Entrancing Eyes, Falsify Heat, Halcyon Infusion, Movanic Glimmer, Power Word Blind, Power Word Stun, Radiant Heart of Devotion, Show the Way, Spiritual Guardian, Summon Anarch, Summon Archmage, Summon Axiom, Summon Celestial, Summon Fiend, Summon Lesser Servitor, Wall of Virtue, Warding Aggression, Web of Influence.
Removed Spells: Aberrant Form, Alarm, Animate Dead, Animate Rope, Animated Assault, Aqueous Blast, Awaken Entropy, Bestial Curse, Bilocation, Binding Muzzle, Blanket of Stars, Blinding Foam, Blink Charge, Blightburn Blast, Blister, Blood Duplicate, Blood Feast, Blood Vendetta, Bloodspray Curse, Bottomless Stomach, Bound in Death, Bracing Tendrils, Breadcrumbs, Bullhorn, Bursting Bloom, Call Fluxwraith, Call the Blood, Cast into Time, Chill Touch, Chromatic Armor, Chromatic Ray, Chromatic Wall, Cloak of Colors, Clownish Curse, Collective Transposition, Concordant Choir, Confetti Cloud, Continual Flame, Countless Eyes, Cozy Cabin, Cup of Dust, Curse of Lost Time, Cyclone Rondo, Dancing Lights, Dancing Shield, Darkness, Dawnflower's Light, Day's Weight, Death Knell, Death Ward, Detect Metal, Devour Life, Dimension Door, Divinity Leech, Duplicate Foe, Eat Fire, Echoing Weapon, Empty Pack, Energy Aegis, Enervation, Etheric Shards, Faerie Fire, Falling Sky, False Life, Fashionista, Feast of Ashes, Fey Form, Final Sacrifice, Flame Dancer, Floating Disk, Fly, Force Cage, Forceful Hand, Friendfetch, Gaseous Form, Gentle Breeze, Gentle Repose, Ghoulish Cravings, Globe of Invulnerability, Glowing Trail, Glyph of Warding, Gravitational Pull, Gravity Well, Grim Tendrils, Hag's Fruit, Haste, Haunting Hymn, Helpful Steps, Humanoid Form, Illuminate, Inkshot, Inside Ropes, Instant Armor, Internal Insurrection, Kinetic Ram, Knock, Lashing Rope, Levitate, Life Pact, Light, Lock, Loose Time's Arrow, Mage Armor, Mage Hand, Magic Mailbox, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon, Magical Fetters, Magnificent Mansion, Martyr's Intervention, Maze, Maze of Locked Doors, Mending, Mercurial Stride, Message Rune, Mimic Undead, Momentary Recovery, Morass of Ages, Moth's Supper, Necrotic Radiation, Needle Darts, Nothing Up My Sleeve, Ooze Form, Painful Vibrations, Painted Scout, Penumbral Disguise, Penumbral Shroud, Percussive Impact, Persistent Servant, Pet Cache, Phantom Steed, Phase Bolt, Pocket Library, Poltergeist's Fury, Prestidigitation, Prismatic Armor, Prismatic Shield, Prismatic Sphere, Prismatic Spray, Prismatic Wall, Protect Companion, Pyrotechnics, Quick Sort, Quicken Time, Radiant Field, Rally Point, Ravening Maw, Ravenous Darkness, Ravenous Portal, Ray of Enfeeblement, Reaper's Lantern, Rebounding Barrier, Remake, Repelling Pulse, Replicate, Resilient Sphere, Resist Energy, Resplendent Mansion, Restoration, Restyle, Return Beacon, Reverse Gravity, Rewinding Step, Rope Trick, Rouse Skeletons, Sanguine Mist, Scintillating Safeguard, Scorching Blast, Scouring Pulse, Scrying Ripples, Sculpt Sound, Sea of Thought, Seashell of Stolen Sound, Shadow Army, Shadow Blast, Shadow Raid, Shadow Siphon, Shadow Spy, Shadow Walk, Shadow Zombie, Shatter, Shield, Shock to the System, Sigil, Signal Skyrocket, Silence, Slow, Soft Landing, Sonata Span, Soulshelter Vessel, Sound Burst, Sparkleskin, Spectral Hand, Spellwrack, Spirit Link, Spy's Mark, Stagnate Time, Steal Voice, Summon Ancient Fleshforged, Summon Fey, Summon Irii, Summoner's Precaution, Swallow Light, Synchronize, Telekinetic Bombardment, Telekinetic Haul, Telekinetic Maneuver, Telekinetic Projectile, Teleport, Tempest of Shades, Temporal Twin, Temporal Ward, Temporary Glyph, Threefold Aspect, Thoughtful Gift, Thundering Dominance, Time Beacon, Time Jump, Time Pocket, Time Stop, Tortoise and the Hare, Transcribe Conflict, Tremor Signs, Tremorsense, Umbral Extraction, Umbral Graft, Undermine Reality, Unexpected Transposition, Unseen Servant, Vampiric Exsanguination, Vampiric Maiden, Vampiric Touch, Variable Gravity, Voice on the Breeze, Vomit Swarm, Wall of Flesh, Wall of Force, Wall of Shadow, Warp Step, Whirling Scarves, Wisdom of the Winds, Wooden Double, Worm's Repast, Zero Gravity.
There's a lot of removals here, and I feel this corresponds to a frequent criticism made of the occult tradition, which is that it's currently a big grab bag of effects that don't have all that much to do with one another: a lot of spells feel like they were added to the tradition just because they're a little spooky, even though many of them are about manipulating flesh and lifeforce, but also the tradition tries to single-handedly do all of what one would expect from a psychic character, which is why it has all of the mind-over-matter spells that should normally be arcane (and I'll talk about how this affects the psychic further below). The above may not look nice, but I feel would go a long way towards sharpening the tradition's identity:
Despite losing quite a few spells, occult casters would be by far the best controllers in the game, able to affect allies enemies with a variety of buffs, debuffs, and harder crowd control. They would also still excel at information-gathering, while having better interaction with the Outer Planes. The intent is also, however, for occult casters to lack interaction with the material world, and lose hit point healing, with their protection bolstering defenses in various ways instead.
Added Spells: Aberrant Form, Admonishing Ray, Ancient Dust, Animate Dead, Antimagic Field, Blood Duplicate, Blood Feast, Blood Vendetta, Bound in Death, Bullhorn, Breath of Life, Chill Touch, Chilling Darkness, Chromatic Armor, Chromatic Ray, Cloak of Colors, Concordant Choir, Death Knell, Devour Life, Disrupting Weapons, Echoing Weapon, Enervation, False Life, Flense, Gate, Ghoulish Cravings, Globe of Invulnerability, Gray Shadow, Grim Tendrils, Harm, Haunting Hymn, Impeccable Flow, Internal Insurrection, Mercurial Stride, Mimic Undead, Necromancer's Generosity, Necrotic Radiation, Noxious Metals, Ooze Form, Painful Vibrations, Penumbral Disguise, Penumbral Shroud, Percussive Impact, Power Word Kill, Prismatic Armor, Ravenous Darkness, Ravenous Portal, Ray of Enfeeblement, Rebounding Barrier, Return to Essence, Rouse Skeletons, Sanguine Mist, Scouring Pulse, Sculpt Sound, Shadow Army, Shadow Blast, Shadow Siphon, Shadow Walk, Shield Other, Silence, Sonata Span, Sound Burst, Sparkleskin, Spell Immunity, Spirit Link, Steal Voice, Suffocate, Summon Draconic Legion, Summon Dragon, Swallow Light, Torturous Trauma, Umbral Extraction, Umbral Graft, Vampiric Exsanguination, Vampiric Maiden, Vampiric Touch, Wall of Shadow
Removed Spells: Alarm, Animal Vision, Approximate, Blessing of Defiance, Blinding Fury, Blindness, Catch Your Name, Charm, Compel True Name, Curse of Lost Time, Dancing Shield, Darkvision, Day's Weight, Deafness, Deep Sight, Elysian Whimsy, Engrave Memory, Enhance Senses, Falsify Heat, Far Sight, Fated Confrontation, Fear, Fear the Sun, Glimmer of Charm, Glyph of Warding, Grasp of the Deep, Guidance, Halcyon Infusion, Hallucinatory Terrain, Heatvision, Impart Empathy, Instant Armor, Invoke True Name, Know Direction, Know Location, Loose Time's Arrow, Lose the Path, Mariner's Curse, Mask of Terror, Mind of Menace, Misty Memory, Movanic Glimmer, Nondetection, Ocular Overload, Oneiric Mire, Organsight, Pack Attack, Pet Cache, Prestidigitation, Quick Sort, Radiant Heart of Devotion, Remove Fear, Remove Paralysis, Restore Senses, Scrying Ripples, Show the Way, Sigil, Slow, Status, Synchronize, Tame, Temporary Glyph, True Seeing, Ventriloquism, Warding Aggression, Web of Eyes, Ymeri's Mark.
Primal is perhaps the one tradition here to have more spells added than removed, and looking at which spells are in and out, a theme ought to jump out pretty quickly: primal casters can be necromancers now! Primal is the only tradition with only one dedicated caster, and the above makes it clear to see why: just as arcane is the wizard spell list in practice, primal very much is still the druid spell list. Even though primal magic ties into the essence of vitality and void, spells that would lean more towards void than vitality, undeath than life, are completely excluded, so that anyone wanting to play a necromancer would likely have to pick a wizard instead, or maybe a divine caster. In fact, even spells that look somewhat evil are excluded from the primal list, even though ripping flesh from bone and drawing the blood out of enemies is stuff a master of material and vital energies would absolutely be able to do. Thus, there are two broad lines of changes:
The end result should be that the primal tradition would be even more direct, yet would have a significantly expanded theme in that primal casters don't all have to be tree-hugging nature lovers, i.e. druids. Primal magic can be used to reverse the natural flow of vital energy, just like divine magic, and that should ideally open up thematic room for entirely different sorts of primal casters along the way.
The most natural question to ask following all of the above is: what does this say about my characters, or the ones I want to build? By itself, this kind of redrawing of spell traditions would not only be disruptive, but would also impose much stricter definitions on what a caster of each tradition can and can't do: occult casters can't manipulate matter, primal casters can't control minds, and so on. On its face, this is a very limiting framework.
However, I would say that this kind of stricter framework would actually make for a better game overall, because it would give individual caster classes more room to shine: if current wizards feel too limited, for example, their class features could be expanded to include new schools like the Magaambya (for primal magic), a school of theurgy (for divine magic), and the magical equivalent of the humanities (for occult magic). Psychics I think ought to be a dual-tradition class that can choose to be either arcane or occult, as both draw from mental energy, and more generally I think there's room for dual-tradition casters based entirely around physical essence (maybe a shifter?), spiritual essence (some kind of soul shepherd or reincarnated soul?), and vital essence (necromancer 100%). Generally, classes exist to toy with the rules of the main game, and caster classes ought to "break" the rules of spellcasting by either accessing cross-tradition versatility, or having unique features that build on their tradition's strengths.
In addition to this, I think there's an additional layer of differentiation in the form of focus spells: focus spells in my opinion have this terrific potential for delivering mechanics independent of spell traditions, as they cater specifically to a particular class or subclass, and reinforce those differences by dint of being more frequently available. For instance, if you want to have a blood-bending primal caster who puppeteers enemies via their blood, effectively working much like a mind control spell that the primal tradition lacks, a focus spell would be able to fill that niche and bring it to the forefront of the relevant character's gameplay. More sharply-defined traditions don't have to be limiting, and in fact it is their sharper definition that would give room for this deeper level of differentiation between casters.
While this post lies in the domain of homebrew and is therefore largely just a thought exercise, I do think there is value to be had from this kind of dive into what magical traditions are meant to represent in Pathfinder. Beyond the specifics, simply giving each tradition a clear-cut identity, each completely distinct from the others, would present a lot of advantages in making casters play differently from one another before getting into specific class features and feats. PF2e has many more martial classes than casters, and I feel part of the reason is because despite the effort Paizo has put into creating four separate spell lists that can be easily bolted onto any caster chassis, those spell lists are so fuzzy or overly tied to specific "iconic" casters that it's difficult to release a caster class that would easily stand out. By refining each spell list so that one can concisely say "this tradition does X, Y, and Z", instead of looking for the fewer things the tradition doesn't do, current and future casters would have much more room to layer their own identity and gameplay on top.
I really think black tentacles is clearly a matter or teleportation based effect and really only fits arcane, maybe primal, and that remove curse is clearly a spirit/life effect. Curses really don't have to do with matter or mind at all
***Edit***
The lore around summoning is inconsistent but I believe you are creating facsimile of the creatures in question and the summoned beings are closer to a force construct than a living thing. So it probably still fits within arcane depending on lore
I really think black tentacles is clearly a matter or teleportation based effect and really only fits arcane, maybe primal, and that remove curse is clearly a spirit/life effect. Curses really don't have to do with matter or mind at all
***Edit***
The lore around summoning is inconsistent but I believe you are creating facsimile of the creatures in question and the summoned beings are closer to a force construct than a living thing. So it probably still fits within arcane depending on lore
These are fair points. My take on those particular things was the following:
I really think black tentacles is clearly a matter or teleportation based effect and really only fits arcane, maybe primal, and that remove curse is clearly a spirit/life effect. Curses really don't have to do with matter or mind at all
***Edit***
The lore around summoning is inconsistent but I believe you are creating facsimile of the creatures in question and the summoned beings are closer to a force construct than a living thing. So it probably still fits within arcane depending on loreThese are fair points. My take on those particular things was the following:
Black Tentacles I treated as effectively summoning a qlippoth or some other aberration from the Outer Sphere, hence why I made it divine/occult. If it's about producing matter or energy, it's arcane/primal, and if it's about specifically teleporting something in partially from somewhere else in the Universe, it would be arcane, though I do think it is more in line with divine and occult casters to be able to summon unspeakable horrors from beyond our world.
Remove Curse I think is one of those spells that ought to be split up and perhaps recombined with other curative effects: curses are basically just persistent magical afflictions, and those afflictions can target any energy. If you're an arcane caster, for example, you should be able to counter curses that damage your body or addle your mind, even if you wouldn't be able to affect curses that sap your life or harm your soul.
You're right that summoning is inconsistent. I don't think summons are force constructs necessarily, given that they don't have the force trait, but my reasoning was that you'd generally be bringing the thing across planes (e.g. summoning a fiend or celestial), or creating a temporary creature (e.g. a primal caster creating an animal from material and vital energies). I'm okay with arcane casters not being good at summoning and with divine casters having the most diverse range of summons, as I think that works with...
If arcane casters have to be bad at summoning to create identity, and this being moved to primal and divine, I'm fine with it assuming some arcane casters get it via class features where appropriate. As it stands now Dragons are heavily associated with arcane and that is partly why summoning them is arcane. It is admittedly a flimsy excuse. Black tentacles is something my brain specifically associates with the wizard, but if wizards poach spells from other lists this is already accounted for, but it's in a weird spot where like wall of flesh it should strictly speaking be primal, maybe divine, because it's life and matter to make a living thing, and maybe we can stretch the fact divine has life for this. My head canon was that tiny portals opened and the tentacles from some larger being came through and that this was the justification for it being arcane
Your reasoning for remove curse makes sense, though maybe we could say that dispel magic can dispel curses with a counter act check and then it feels more correct to be on arcane list. Honestly, dispel magic might be best made into a class feature for the wizard and maybe classes like the witch and cleric. I'm not 100% certain how it should work, but maybe it just lets you eat a slot to attempt to counteract some magical effect. It feels too important to the wizard in specific to merely be a spell
Interesting thought exercise. I feel like in a paradigm that fully embraces the 4 essences, spells should have their essences listed in their traits. That way spell lists can simply become "all spells with essence traits x or y", similar to how the Elementalist spell list works.
Your reasoning for remove curse makes sense, though maybe we could say that dispel magic can dispel curses with a counter act check and then it feels more correct to be on arcane list. Honestly, dispel magic might be best made into a class feature for the wizard and maybe classes like the witch and cleric. I'm not 100% certain how it should work, but maybe it just lets you eat a slot to attempt to counteract some magical effect. It feels too important to the wizard in specific to merely be a spell
I can very much agree with this, giving the wizard and a select few others the exclusive ability to counter opposing magic with exceptional effectiveness would make sense. In general, a smaller arcane list would mean more opportunities for the wizard to have more schools, feats, and focus spells that would let them stand out as a class that shines through exceptional versatility of their own.
As for summoning dragons, the remaster seems to have split Summon Dragon and dragons themselves across all four traditions, so that could potentially be the solution here too.
Interesting thought exercise. I feel like in a paradigm that fully embraces the 4 essences, spells should have their essences listed in their traits. That way spell lists can simply become "all spells with essence traits x or y", similar to how the Elementalist spell list works.
I can very much get behind this. I feel this could simplify spell traits significantly, particularly if it comes to countering or manipulating specific essences, and would make it much easier to draw spellcaster class boundaries. In particular, casters who'd rely especially on one essence, like the psychic, could more easily be given access to any spell with the essence's corresponding trait, and new classes or archetypes that'd use an entirely different spell list would be able to more easily construct one using whichever essence they depend on and perhaps a few other traits, like the elementalist and many material essence spells. From a design perspective, it would also invite any designer or homebrewer to think more about how the spell they're writing fits in the game and its magic system, which I think is a good thing.