Spell Repertoire for a Sorcerer

[Adamellia]

Hi,

We have a question with one of my player about the sorcerer and his heigtened spell in his repertoire.

How it works to add an heightened spell in your repertoire when you level up ? It says it must be a spell you already know.

So if the sorcerer is level 12, has a Genie Bloodline (Arcane Tradition), and never learn the spell "Haste", when he will become level 13 can he take haste (Heightened +4) even if he nevers add it in his spell repertoire ?

Or he must have it at a third level spell then heightened it to level 7th and he can replace his level 3 haste for another spell ?

[HammerJack]

The sorcerer can just learn rank 7 Haste. They don't need to have rank 3 Haste in their repertoire, first. They would then be able to cast rank 7 haste, but not rank 3 haste, because they can only cast the rank they know.

[Finoan]

You are not forced to know the spell at its minimum level in order to add it to repertoire at a higher level.

Sorcerer: Heightening Spells wrote:

When you get spell slots of 2nd level and higher, you can fill those slots with stronger versions of lower-level spells. This increases the spell's level to match the spell slot. You must have a spell in your spell repertoire at the level you want to cast in order to heighten it to that level.

This is actually regarding casting spells by spending a spell slot, rather than filling your Repertoire. You do have to have the spell in your repertoire at the spell level that you want to cast it at. But it doesn't require you to know a lower level version if one exists.

Sorcerer: Repertoire wrote:

When you add spells, you might select a higher-level version of a spell you already know so that you can cast a heightened version of that spell.

This one also isn't forced. You might want to have two or three separate spell levels of the same spell in your Repertoire. You might not. You might only have the lowest level in Repertoire because the spell doesn't have any heightened effects. You might only have the lowest level in Repertoire because that is the highest level of spell you can cast. You might have both the lowest level and one of the higher levels because that is how you decided to arrange things.

Or you might only have the higher level version of the spell. That is also valid.

[Bluemagetim]

If you want a spell at multiple spell ranks consider taking it only once and making it the signature spell for that rank. Then you can cast it at any rank the spell is capable of being cast.

[Claxon]

Bluemagetim wrote:

If you want a spell at multiple spell ranks consider taking it only once and making it the signature spell for that rank. Then you can cast it at any rank the spell is capable of being cast.

I was about to say, if you really like casting a certain spell especially at multiple spell levels you might want it as a signature spell.

Otherwise you can only cast it using spell slot of the level you know it at.

But there is nothing requiring a spontaneous spell caster to know lower spell level versions of a spell, it just limits what slots they can use to cast it.

[Finoan]

Bluemagetim wrote:

If you want a spell at multiple spell ranks consider taking it only once and making it the signature spell for that rank. Then you can cast it at any rank the spell is capable of being cast.

Generally, yes. That is more cost effective on your Repertoire slots.

For Haste specifically, as well as other spells that have a heightened effect at a specific higher Rank, it may be desirable to know only the heightened version.

Being able to cast the single target version of Haste with all of your 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Rank spell slots may not be worth the Signature Spell cost.

[lordcirth]

"You must have a spell in your spell repertoire at the level you want to cast in order to heighten it to that level."

This means that, in order to *cast* Haste (7th), you must have Haste(7th) in your repertoire; ie you cannot pick only Haste(3rd) then cast Haste(7th).
If you pick Haste(7th) as one of your spells for 7th rank, or if you made Haste(3rd) a Signature Spell, then you can cast Haste (7th).

[Ravingdork]

Note that spontaneous casters can always cast a spell using a higher rank slot, but they won't gain the heighten benefits unless they (1) have the spell in their repertoire at that rank, or (2) have the spell as a signature spell.

For example, if a 7th-level sorcerer knew invisibility (2nd), but ran out of 2nd rank slots, they could give up their 3rd or 4th rank slots to cast invisibility (2nd).

If that same sorcerer instead took invisibility as both a 2nd and 4th rank spell (using up two spells known in their repertoire), then they could cast it as invisibility (2nd) using their 2nd or 3rd rank slots, and invisibility (4th) using their 4th rank slots.

If that same sorcerer instead took invisibility as a signature spell (using up only one spell known in their repertoire), then they could cast it as invisibility (2nd) using their 2nd rank slots, as invisibility (3rd) using their 3rd rank slots (which can make it harder to dispel, even if there aren't other more obvious heightened benefits), or as invisibility (4th) using their 4th rank slots.

I hope that helps.