Principia Arcana
A Foundation In the Unknown 

The evolving guide to Modular Wizardry for Pathfinder 2nd Edition

Last Content Update: 14th, October, 2020

Products included: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rulebook, Lost Omens World Guide, Lost Omens Character Guide, Gods & Magic, Gamemastery Guide, Advanced Player's Guide, Pathfinder Society Guide

Adventure Paths:  {All AP’s featured on the Archives}

Errata Compliant: Errata 1.0

Foreword

Hey everyone! Old_Man_Robot here with a very early, and very primitive class guide to the PF2 Wizard! (I’ve also been told to plug that I’m the Powder keg of Justice guy, for some additional nerd-cred)

This is the first class guide I've ever done, but I’m a massive fan of the public service that they provide to all those confused about a class. Since the launch of PF1, I’ve read probably every class guide several times when building characters, and now it’s time to pay it forward. After much popular demand, the name of this guide has been changed to “Principia Arcana: A Foundation in the Unknown”, because everyone hated the old name, and this one is way way more pretentious (and ergo more Wizardly).  

The conceit of this guide is that I plan to return to it with each new book that’s released, and add in all the relative sections overtime. I’m hoping that by getting in early and building up from there, this task won’t be nearly as daunting as it seems from the outset. Guess we’ll see!  I also enjoy the cute little symmetry of writing a modular guide to a modular system.

Speaking of modularity, get ready to see that word a lot as you play Pathfinder 2nd Edition, especially if, like me, you enjoy digging into the structure of the game's design and understanding it from the bottom up. The game has really taken a shift in structure from the previous edition, and moved character creation into a far less formalised space. For players, this is great! More options, more design room, more possibilities, more fun!  For guide writers however, it makes the job more expansive, as the list of relevant options and considerations will only grow and grow.

In order to give each part its due, I’ve broken down this guide into several parts which will focus on each part of character creation separately. That said, this is a Wizard guide! And so we’re only going to care about those options that are important to Wizard optimization.

This means that we won’t follow the ABC’s of character creation, instead, we’ll be taking a CAAB model (Class, Archetype, Ancestry, Background). In short, the first part of this guide will be all about the Class Chassis of the Wizard, as it will be a lens through which to judge the other aspects of character creation. It’s also the longest and most complicated part, so, from my end, it's best to knock it out of the way first. After that we’ll be looking at Ancestries, then finally Backgrounds, as this is the descending order of importance for character understanding and optimisation.

I’ll take this moment to also say what this guide won’t be! Even though with PF2, we’re technically driving a new car, there isn’t a need to reinvent the wheel. If you are familiar with Treantmonk’s guide to Wizards, much of the class analysis and role breakdown has remained largely unchanged. While everything about the actual options themselves is different, the essence of the Wizard hasn’t changed all that much. The power of certain aspects has moved up and down respectively, but that's to be expected with any new edition. Either way, if you haven’t read it, read the first 10 pages or so, then skim the rest at your leisure!

Under Construction

There exists a possible future where, one day, many years from now, I may remove this image from the guide. When that happens I expect PF 7th edition will be out, but one day it will be removed.

Until that time however, please be aware that this guide is very much a work in progress and is equally under construction.

If you are a returning reader, you may mind substantial differences from time to time.This will reflect one of several things, from new content being added, rules being clarified, the weight of information changing my opinion, or I was just plain wrong.

In any case, nothing here will be “final” until I remove the above image!

Writing Style and Guide Format

Since this guide went live, I’ve gotten numerous comments on both my style of writing and the way certain sections are nested in seemingly unintuitive places. There is a certain amount of truth to that. If I was writing a technical manual, the “top-down” design of the guide would probably be a lot different, as would the style overall. However, this isn’t a technical manual (well, kinda), and as such I took a different creative approach. I decided to focus more on the “conversational” aspect of things, addressing subjects as they would arise naturally in conversation, rather than in a more text booky manner.

To combat this, you’ll find not only a detailed document outline (Left), an equally comprehensive table of contents (Below), but, when needed, I’ll also direct you to various other places of reference throughout the guide. This way, as this thing inevitably balloons to an outrageous size, the devoted reader won’t get too lost in all my side tangents.

Gradings, Shorthand & Glossary

Speaking of not reinventing the wheel, here’s the same old colour guide you already know!

New (25/11/19): Someone asked for a colour blind mode to be added to the ratings system which uses Stars instead of colours. That was such a good and simple idea that I’m a little ashamed it wasn’t something I did from the start. It’ll take me some to add the stars (and half-stars) to the whole guide, so please bear with me, but at least it will be underway!

Sky Blue (★★★★★): The best in slot option for the class! Sky Blue options are Blue’s which distinguish themselves from the rest of their ilk by either being just better or are gaming changing / build  defining.

Blue (★★★★): A very strong option for the class, does what you need when you need it or sets up a build. If an option is Blue, and you like it, feel free to take it! Sometimes an option has been listed as Blue simply because it competes with a Sky Blue for slot options, and those are hard to beat!  

Green (★★★): Greens are reserved for those options which are good at what they do, but are inherently limited or of situational value. If you find yourself in love with a Green option, don’t worry! Many Green options take an uptick in strength within particular builds, but suffer when not part of those said builds.

Orange (★★): Orange (Previously Black) are your neutral or meh options. Many will be take’em or leave’em style, or just plain dull. If it’s not good, but also not expressly bad, then it’s Orange.

Red (★):  Red’s suck. If it’s Red, it either does nothing, is a trap, is pointless, or in some rare cases is a direct downgrade. Sometimes it's actually better to not select anything at all over selecting a Red.

Gold (??): Gold is not a grading itself, but rather that given in tables to those options which are too expansive or have too many options to actually include in any single topic-box. Gold ratings will be those options which will end up with their mini-guide or subsections to go through their various options.

[>], [>>] & [>>>]: In keeping with PF2’s new action system, the number of > in the brackets will indicate the number of actions the thing takes. It’s just like in the book, so hopefully it’s pretty obvious!

[F]: Free Actions

[R]: Reactions, Re-Actions?, Reaction Actions? Whatever, they’re great!  

Content Notes

It would be dishonest of me to say that all the information presented in this guide is purely the result of my own research or interpretation.

Like many of you reading this, I scour the various places of the “PathfindOSphere”, constantly looking for new builds, new rulings, new interactions, new everything. All with the aim of adding it to this guide.

I will endeavor to provide credit and sourcing where appropriate. As a corollary, not every aspect of this guide will actually agree with my own interpretation of the rules. While I try to present each section in its own context and provide the internal rationale for stated interpretations, these interpretations may not be of the consensus, and in cases where no clear ruling exists, they remain until one does.

Update: Information and material from Playtests will not be included until they are actually released. One of the things that has been an issue with this guide is that material changes drastically between final playtest and actual release. Sometimes leaving entire sections outdated literally the day it should be most useful. So save your emails folks!

Contentious Information

As with every RPG system ever invented, there are circumstances where rules are vague, need clarification or simply in need of errata. Sometimes this creates circumstances where particular rulings, option analysis or builds are deemed Contentious by the community and are hotly debated.

As you progress through the guide, you will occasionally come across the following tag:

This is to indicate that there is some level of debate about the validity of the information presented in that section of the guide, and, as the tag suggests, you should talk to your DM about it before showing up to play.

Whenever I place one of these tags in the guide, you can be sure that I have also sent the attached question off to Paizo for clarification. At the time of writing (October 2019), we don’t yet have any official errata for additional clarification (apart from some mentioned in a stream in August).

When items become clarified, the relevant sections become updated and the Contentious tag will be removed or modified as appropriate.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.     

Feedback

Please send any and all feedback, requests, or questions  to

• principiaarcana@gmail.com

Chances are I won’t reply to your email directly, but if it's something that gets implemented I'll 100% give you a call out! I’d also ask that you please respect the notes on content as laid out above.

Don’t want to email me directly but want to discuss something in the guide in a more general sense? Feel free to leave a comment in the Paizo discussion thread on the guide, found here.

Are you that guy who found my work email and spammed my work inbox with your own work email? Seriously Matt, enough.  

As ever, I’d ask that you keep things civil and productive!

Contents

Foreword        1

Under Construction        3

Writing Style and Guide Format        4

Gradings, Shorthand & Glossary        4

Content Notes        5

Contentious Information        6

Feedback        7

Contents        8

Part 1: Class Chassis        14

1.1: The Basics        14

What is a Wizard?        15

Stat Priorities & Boosts        16

What Matters & Why        16

Boost Structure and the Awkward +1        17

Gradual Ability Boosts        19

The Case for Charisma        20

Bon Mot        20

Demoralise        21

Priority Shift        23

Skilling On Up        24

Proficiencies & Advancements        25

Arcane Spellcasting        25

1.2: Arcane School        26

Abjuration        27

Conjuration        27

Divination        27

Enchantment        27

Evocation        28

Illusion        28

Necromancy        28

Transmutation        29

Universalist        29

Cascade Casting        30

How to Cascade effectively        32

Cascade Chains        34

1.3: Arcane Thesis        35

Improved Familiar Attunement        35

Metamagic Experimentation        35

Spell Blending        36

Spell Substitution        37

1.3.1 Advanced Player Guide Thesis        38

Staff Nexus        38

1.4: Wizard Feats        40

Feat Sources        40

Errata - 16/08/19        41

Retraining        41

Feats!        42

Metamagic Feats        49

1.5: Mastering Magic!        53

Spell Classes        53

Class A        53

Class B        54

Class C        54

Spell Anatomy        55

Controversies Settled        55

How does Spellcasting actually work then?!        56

Understanding Triggers        56

The Ready Action        57

Sustained!        57

The Flaming Sphere debate        60

Breaking (17/12/19):        61

Sustaining Summons        64

1.6: Familiars!        66

Familiar Abilities        66

Master Abilities        70

The Minion Trait        71

Ouch! Familiar Combat        72

APG Shakeup: Crazy Good!        73

Specific Familiars        73

Familiar Master        76

Part 2: Archetypes        78

2.1: Intro to Archetypes        78

How to Multiclass        78

Class Feats - The powerhouse of the Multiclassing cell        79

2.2: Multiclass Archetypes        81

Foreword on Multiclass Archetypes        81

Free Multiclass Archetypes        81

The Alchemist        82

Archetype Feats        82

What do we get?        83

Understanding Alchemy        84

Pokemon, but on Meth        88

The Barbarian        91

Archetype Feats        91

What do we get?        92

The Bard        95

Multiclass Spellcasting and you!        95

A little bit of Spontaneity        97

Archetype Feats        98

What do we get?        100

The Champion        102

Call it Heavy Metal        102

The Cleric        104

Fastest Spellsinger in the West        104

Divine Bond        106

Archetype Feats        108

What do we get?        109

Domain Initiate        109

The Divine Spell List        111

Traditions in a Blender        111

The Druid        116

The Animal Order - Animal Companions        116

Size Matters        120

The Wild Order - Wildshaping        122

Archetype Feats        124

2.3: Class Archetypes        127

Foreword on Class Archetypes        127

2.4: Organizational Archetypes        128

Foreword on Organizational Archetypes        128

Magaambyan Archetypes        129

Magaambyan Attendant Dedication        130

Halcyon Speaker Dedication        133

Halcyon Spellcasting        136

Spells for halcyon days        137

Spontaneously Awkward        139

Magic Warrior Dedication        140

Mighty Morphing Power Ranger        142

Mighty Polymorphing Power Ranger        144

2.5: General, Generic and Other Archetypes        147

General Word on General Archetypes        147

The Familiar Master        147

Abilities that count        148

3 Dimensional Tactical Spellcasting        148

Invisible Killer Space Rocks        148

Part 3: Ancestries        149

3.1: Core Ancestries        149

Dwarf        149

Core Features        149

Heritages        151

Feats        152

Elf        154

Core Features        155

Heritages        156

Feats        157

Gnome        160

Heritages        162

Goblin        164

Half-Elf        166

Half-Orc        168

Halfling        170

Human        172

3.2: Lost Omens Ancestries        173

Hobgoblin        173

Leshy        174

Lizardfolk        175

3.X: Adopted Ancestries        176

Part 4: Backgrounds        177

Let’s talk about boosts        178

Some Call Outs        178

Part 5: General & Skill feats        181

General Feats        181

Skill Feats        184

Nonspecific        184

Assurance        185

Acrobatics        186

Arcana        186

Unified Theory        186

Unified Rituals        187

Athletics*        187

Quick Jump        188

Cloud Jump        188

Breaking News: 19/05/2020        189

Jumping 101        190

Oh wait, it means what?!        192

In a single bound!        192

Adding more feats        193

What about turning?        195

Cloud Jump has a 2nd paragraph you know        196

Crafting        196

Other people's work        197

Deception        197

Diplomacy        197

Intimidation        197

Lore        197

Medicine        197

Nature        197

Occultism        198

Performance        198

Religion        198

Society        198

Stealth        198

Survival        198

Thievery        198

Part 6: Spells        200

Other People’s Work        200

6.0: Spell Reviews        200

Arcane Tradition        200

Cantrips        200

1st Level        204

2nd Level        219

6.1 : Core Spells        228

6.2: Lost Omens Spells        228

6.3: Gods & Magic Spells        229

Part 7: Items and Equipment        231

Staves, Wands and Scrolls - The Pillars of additional Spells        231

Staves        231

How do Staves work?        231

Charges        232

Relics        233

Adventuring Gear        234

Bandoliers        234

Part 8: Builds; Putting it all together        236

Part 9: Hints, tricks and tips        237

Part 10: Mathematical Analyses        238

Simple Math Analysis        239

Maximum Potential Spells Per Day        240

Complex Math Analysis        243

Part 11: Errata Discussion and notes        244

#1.0 - 30/10/19        244

Part 12: Archived & Historical information        246

Archived - 18/12/2019        247

Anatomy of a spell        247

Less is More        249

Rulebreakers        252

Change Log        255

Part 1: Class Chassis

1.1: The Basics

The Wizard is the preeminent caster of the Arcane Tradition, and is the only “Fulltime” one presented in the core book. Unlike every other iteration of the D&D to date, Wizards and Sorcerers are no longer, necessarily, book buddies. In any case, the Wizard remains the master of the Arcane Arts, and that’s the way we like it!

Wizards are full 10th level casters, who get their spellcasting cranked all the way to Legendary. Due to the top-down changes in the game, Wizards are no longer as frail or as natively combat averse as in previous editions / gamelines. While, by themselves, Wizards aren’t capable of being true Gishes, it’s much easier than in any edition previous! The removal of Arcane Spell Failure on armour means we’re only limited by our Profiences, and, as we’ll see, those are easy to get. We can now, finally, get decent sword-swing, full-plate-wearing, Wizards without compromising our spellcasting one bit!

Much of the spellcasting in PF2 has been standardised and homogenized across all the caster classes. This is kind of a mixed bag for us, in some cases - like metamagic - we’re the winners, in others we lose out.  

What is a Wizard?

The Wizard sits in an unusual place in PF2. If you are coming from, as most data indicates you are, either PF1 or D&D 5e, then you might already be familiar with the typical Wizards “shtick” but not its current form. To understand the rest of this guide and the place of the Wizard in the PF2 ecosystem, it is important to understand both what the Pathfinder 2nd edition is and isn’t.

Let's start with what the Wizard isn’t:

• The Wizard is not a Knowledge class.

Unlike in previous editions and games, the Wizard isn’t especially good at knowledge checks. Recall Knowledge, as an action, has become massively important to the system, with many abilities and actions keying off it. The Wizard has no real claim to be a class that performs these Recall Knowledge checks especially well or in an interesting way.

Classes like the Rogue, the Investigator and the Bard are all knowledge classes, as they have feats and abilities and interact with and benefit from their use of Recall Knowledge.

While you may object to the idea that an Intelligence driven class is not a knowledge class, it's sadly true. Wizards have the worst skill progression in the game. They are tied at that progression with a good many other classes, but it still remains that for all their “smarts” they don’t get much more than a few extra skills stuck at “trained”. The Witch also suffers from this problem as well, but to a slightly lesser degree thanks to a few interesting class feats.

But what of the value of a high Int? Well it does serve its place. Any Int based skill you attempt will naturally benefit from your stacking of it. However, this isn’t PF1, with ability mods going sky high. Your Int ability bonus caps at +7, which you share with Investigators and Mastermind Rogues, who also stack Int. Non-Mastermind Rogues leverage their lack of Int bonus by going wide, if not deep, by having many times more skills and skill boosts than you can play with. Bards have, of course, always been fighting with the Wizard for the role of “magical knowledge man”, and in PF2 they wholly usurp the title.

• The Wizard is not the “master of magic” 

In addition to the general streamlining of magic that came with this edition, many of the magic oriented perks that Wizards enjoyed are either now gone, given to other classes, or shared for everyone to enjoy.

Previous niches like “best at prepared Metamagic '' are either plain gone from the game or do not belong to the Wizard any longer.

Instead the Wizard relies on a handful of niches in order to break themselves out from other casters. While, at this stage, I don’t wish to ruin any enthusiasm you have for the class, I should say from the outset that Wizards are, by and large, not explicitly nor exclusively good at anything in particular. I’ve bolded the above phrase because it's something I want you to keep in mind while looking at and comparing builds among other classes.

The Wizard is the king of marginal advantage, and you’ll need to be both smart and resourceful in order to make those marginal advantages mean something.

You can’t roll in and throw spells like there is no tomorrow, you can’t crumb stop a particular save, you can’t draw a circle around a particular type of magic and say “I’m the best at this”. None of these things are possible for the Wizard… on a regular basis.

Stat Priorities & Boosts

Since Part 2: Archetypes will probably be this guide's unending chore, holding off on such an important part of the character discussion until it's done is probably foolish. With that in mind, I expect that I may need to rewrite this section in the future, as the weight of new releases crushes the base numbers. But that’s my problem, not yours, so let’s get on with it!

PF2 launches with the familiar stat array now common across D20 games. Their roles and importance are mostly unchanged from PF1, apart from in a few respects.

New to PF2 however is the “Boosts'' system. Gone now are the days of rolling your stats randomly, accidently getting a book-smart barbarian or brain dead Wizard, instead we now have a system of curated and targeted stat assignment which allows you to craft your character how you like. While some people have complained about this, as someone who has been playing TTRPG’s for a few decades now, after a while the novelty wears off and you just want to play the character you want to play.

What Matters & Why

Boost Structure and the Awkward +1

The boost system of PF2 is a really nice way of allowing you to curate your character's development all across its career. Boosts however, have some mild awkwardness in their design which annoys me, as a perfectionist, in ways that probably fails to even be noticed by anyone else but power gamers.

What am I talking about?

The Boost system seems to be designed in such a way where it encourages players to focus on their core stats while largely ignoring about 2 less than useful ones. In the table below I’ve put up a standard array for a Human Wizard with their boost progression from 1 to 20.

See the problem?

As with PF1, we only gain a modifier increase at set levels. As always, our goal is to boost our important stats as high as possible. Most important of all being Int. However, at 20th level, when we should be capstoning our character and reaching the heights of power, we find an awkward decision with our boosts.

At each boost stage, we are only able to boost any given ability score once. Topping out our Int at 20th means we have 3 additional boosts which we can disrupt between 5 ability scores. However, assuming that we have dutifully maximized our scores whenever possible, we are forced to use a boost on a score that will not grant any benefit whatsoever!

Worse yet, in order to maximize our overall boost impact, we kinda have to put 2 of our 3 boosts into our dump stats, which, at 20th level, I’m going to assume we haven’t built around at all.

Even if we then put 2 boosts into our dump stats, we are still left with a boost which puts a +1 into a stat and we then get no mechanical impact.

If you really want, you can use all 3 boosts to gain effect whatsoever, but at the very least get an awkward +1 which does nothing for us. Great!  

Gradual Ability Boosts

Introduced as a variant rule in the Gamemastery Guide, Gradual Ability Boosts (GABs) are an amazing twist on the boost system, outshining both the traditional boost system and Point-Buy in what it does for character progression and prowess. I am so in love with GABs that in one of my home games we immediately redid everyones stats.  

For those unfamiliar, GABs break down the ability boosts gained on every 5th level and instead spread them out across every level you gain, bar 3. Why is this so good? Well first and foremost, access to your boosts sooner means you get access to your core abilities sooner - meaning marginally more powerful characters at earlier levels. However, these also have knock-on effects for other things. Qualification for feats and archetypes can now happen more dynamically and the feeling of leveling up becomes all the richer.

Let's look at how this shakes out

When laid out like this, it becomes pretty obvious why it’s such a nice system and how it works as an elegant inclusion within the existing rules.  What's more, given that 20th level is unusually the end of play, we actually have 3 more impactful boosts that we wouldn’t otherwise get our hands on.

Further, given that most play happens between levels 1-5, I think it's a pretty solid win all round.

Now, going back to the array from the previous section, let’s see how this would look under GABs.

Look at the difference!

20 Int at 7th instead of 10th! 22 at 17th instead of 20th! This also means 24 much earlier as well. Having that extra +1 to Wisdom at 2nd instead of 5th is huge as well!

Beg your GM for this folks, it's just a better system.

The Case for Charisma

Charisma has become a bit of a funny stat for Wizards. While my previous stance on the value of Charisma holds true in a general way, there now exists several interesting and potent feats that not only key off Charisma, but help the Wizards noted “3rd action” problem.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Bon Mot

If you’ve had a chance to read the APG, I’m sure the Bon Mot feat has leaped out to you. Bon Mot has a ton of things going for it.

It can be taken at character creation, it requires almost no investment, it doesn’t have an immunity rider, potentially lasts a whole minute, takes only a single action,  can be used an unlimited number of times, and most importantly, hits two really important saves.

The “problem” with it comes in the form of the Diplomacy check required to land the effect. Your ability to hit your opponents Will DC with a skill check is only marginally better than your ability to hit them with a will based spell in the first place.

If you can land Bon Mot, you could probably have landed your spell. However a combo of Bon Mot into a Will targeting spell increases the likelihood of the spell not only hitting, but critting as well.

Demoralize

Not a feat, but an action that’s inherent with the intimidate skill, however it does have quite a bit of feat support which really ups both its power and utility.

Demoralize shares a good number of the strengths highlighted with Bon Mot, but with a different reward. Frightened in a broader but diminishing reward which doesn’t last nearly as long as Bon Mot.  

However, there does exist an action chain which may act as a form of “Wombo-Combo” in the open round of combat.

Coming in at 7th level, Battle Cry can create a chain of actions which sees you start combat by Demoralizing a foe (-1/-2 to their Will save), taking your first action to Bon Mot them at their reduced will save, hopefully land Bon Mot for maybe a minute, then follow up with your Will targeting spell for 2 actions

Since both Diplomacy (needed for Bon Mot) and Intimidate run of Charisma, both target Will Saves, and reward by penalizing Will Saves further, the Charisma based Wizard is further pushed down a path of building around Will.

Lending itself naturally to aiding both the Illusion and (surprisingly) Necromancy schools, a Charisma focused Wizard can make quite the potent obstacle on the battlefield.

Priority Shift

No matter what, Intelligence is king for Wizards. No stat will ever matter more or be prioritized higher.

If you like the sound of the Charisma based Wizard, I would shift the stat priority listed previously as follows:

The Wizard has only really 2 stats which we don’t overly care about in a general sense, those being Strength and Charisma. If we want to make Charisma work for us, it needs to be our second highest stat, ending with at least a +5 modifier. End-game skill enhancing items allow us somewhere between a +3/+4 bonus bonus to either Demoralize or Bon Mot, which gives them either a +1/+2 edge over your normal spell casting.

This assumes you take both Diplomacy and Intimidate to Legendary and invest in either decent items to support them or buy/make Silver Tongue mutagens.

As an aside, perhaps an oddly strong contender for the Charisma Wizard is the Hobgoblin. As discussed a bit further in Part 3.2: Lost Omen Ancestries: The Hobgoblin, a Hobgoblin Wizard, making use of a  Demoralize, Bon Mot. Dread Aura and Agonizing Rebuke, can make a hell of an impact on the battlefield without ever spending a single spell slot.

Skilling On Up

Coming with the completion of Part 5: General & Skill Feats!

Proficiencies & Advancements 

Proficiencies, that thing you never thought about in PF1 unless you wanted to use an exotic weapon, are now super duper important to the whole system. The wizard, as the premier arcane caster for this edition, is, sadly, none too impressive with some pretty vital things. Thankfully the system does give us ways to work around the core weaknesses of the class.

First off, let's look at how our spellcasting advances across our career.

I’m not sure why Piazo chose the levels they did for these advancements, but I’m guessing they’ve crunched their internal design math to ensure levels of competitiveness against average saves.  I mean, I sure hope so, because these level advances - like almost all aspects of magic - have been standardized across all of the caster classes in the core game. If we end up running into bottleneck levels, chances are this is an intentional design choice to keep us on our toes.

This might lead to some systematic feat tax, if you need to start taking certain feats at key levels to remain competitive (I’m looking at you Canny Acumen [Perception]). Hopefully this won’t bear out long term, but I haven’t poured through every enemy in the Monster Manual and checked their Level-Save breaks, fingers crossed it's a non-issue!

Arcane Spellcasting

So what’s new with your most important class feature? Well a top down structural re-design for one! I get a bit more into the nitty-gritty of this later in the guide, but for now it's important to know that there now exists an inherent link between the actions required to cast a spell and the components which make it up. This leads to an interesting effect on capstone-level play where the power and utility of the Wizard just fucking explodes - who would have guessed!

Overall, your number of spells per day is dramatically down from PF1, but so is everyone’s. So at least we’re not being picked on alone. This means that things like Blasting, never the Wizard’s strong suit, is an even worse option. Once again, things like summoning (Which got a boost to their duration at lower levels) and battlefield control are your best options for bringing the most impact to the game.

We also jazz things up a bit with some “encounter powers” in the form of your Focus Spells from your specialist school, which bring a new resource to manage along with them.

Your Arcane Bond has changed quite a bit since PF1, and will fluctuate in usefulness from being either something you’ll completely forget you have, to being literally your most important class feature! So watchout for that!

Intelligence is both less important and more important to the Wizard than in PF1. The contribution of our keystat got a bit of a Nerf with the removal of additional spells with high Int, but is now tied into your spellcasting more than ever before. With the tiered system of save progression, and the design ethos of “a +1 will always matter”, it means that having only a modest Int will hurt more than ever before, but the rewards from maximizing aren’t as dramatic.  

1.2: Arcane School

All specialist Arcane schools carry with them a pretty powerful bonus, that of an additional spell slot per level. Given the removal of stat based bonus spell slots in PF2, your spells per day are limited to say the least, topping at 3 per level without augmentation. A 25% increase in your spellcasting, across the broad, is enough of a bonus for me to say that, for a lot of people, any school at all is worth it.

The caveat however is that this spell slot is limited to a spell of your chosen school. As with pretty much every edition of D&D ever made, some schools will be more valuable than others and, as such, will influence the power of the options below.

Because I intend to come back to this guide with each new product release, I have opted not to include spellbook considerations into this section of the guide however. It was part of my original intent, but after sitting down to write the section, I realised that future proofing it would be near impossible, with school colour gradings potentially flipping with each new book. Instead, during the Spellbook part of this guide, I've included specific call outs to spells which may impact your choice of Arcane School [Update: I later went against this due to popular demand, check out Part 6: Spells!].  

Abjuration

• Protective Ward (★★★★)

An encounter power with an encounter long effect is a solid choice, especially at early levels where the +1 will really matter. The early design of PF2 was intended to make sure a +1 always mattered, but in practical play, that won’t bear out. The team-buff aspect however makes it not half bad!  

• Energy Absorption (★★★★★)

A Reaction power with Heightening?! I’m in love!

Conjuration

• Augment Summoning (★★★★)

A +1 on ALL checks of a Summon for the duration of that summon is pretty solid. Plus, it's once again an encounter power with a potentially encounter-long effect. Your mileage will vary, but, since you’ve taken the Conjuration school to get it, I’m going to trust that you’ll be on top of your summoning. More on those later in the guide!

• Dimensional Steps (★★★★)

A very solid power. Teleportation effects are always desired, but, sadly, it's more limited than its PF1 equivalent.  It’s Heightening will be of marginal benefit in most cases, but when it matters it matters. I suspect that you’ll get a lot of mileage out of this while in Exploration mode as well!

Divination

• Diviners Sight (★★★)

A pretty niche little ability, with a bit of a metagame twist. It can be pretty handy, but the scenarios where it shines will be few and far between.

• Vigilant Eye (★★★)

Most of the functionality of this ability can be replicated with a familiar. That is not to say that it is not without its niche uses. The fact that it could, in theory, be day-long, has some utility, however, its limited range undercuts a lot of its potential.

Enchantment

• Charming Words (★)

Pretty limited by all accounts. Could really have stood to be a Reaction. The Stun on a critical failure is nice, but it’s duration overlaps with that of the power, giving it almost no additional functionality.

• Dread Aura (★★★★)

This is a pretty damn solid debuff and ticks a lot of boxes. Requiring  >> and Sustain hurts it a bit, but not enough for it not to be something you use every single encounter against opponents with minds.

Evocation

• Force Bolt (★)

Oh hey! Magic Missile is back in form if not name. Too bad it’ll deal less damage than most of your cantrips. It’s autohit is also pretty unimpressive given the damage. A poor showing from an old favorite.

• Elemental Tempest (★★★)

A decent AoE addition to your combat spells which goes up in value with the more focus points you have. Not terribly impressive, but if you are trying to be a blaster, it’ll come in handy.

Illusion

• Warped Terrain (★★)

I want to love it… but can’t. I’m way into battlefield control so it definitely appeals to me, and the fact that it's one big action-sink is great for that. Sadly it requires just as much effort from your allies as it does your enemies, but it’s still pretty solid. Stays orange for now, as I haven’t played it yet, I may revisit it once I’ve tried it out a few times.

• Invisibility Cloak (★★★★)

This is a damn interesting ability once you Heighten it. The chance of perpetual invisibility has a lot of appeal to it, and has tons of utility in Exploration mode. Invest in the Stealth skill if you are going to take the Illusion school, get more bang for your buck.

Necromancy

• Call of the Grave (★★★)

A strong, if limited, debuff. The fact it’s an Attack rather than a save means you’ll hopefully be able to take out normally Fort-strong meanies.  

• Life Siphon (★★/★)

As much as I love Reaction powers, this one really needed to be a Free action. The utility it provides is pretty limited, as any party worth their salt will have some better means of healing. Decent in a pinch, bit meh all other times. If you plan to take Alchemist Dedication, just treat this as red. It doesn’t even have the Metamagic tag!

Transmutation

• Physical Boost (★)

If only you were a Reaction power! Range hobbles its usefulness into the red.

• Shifting Form (★★★/★)

By its design, it’s situational, but has a lot of situational uses at least. A decent green if taken by itself, red if taken with Alchemist Dedication.

Universalist 

• Hand of the Apprentice (★★★)

Not strictly a School power, as it's completely optional. By itself, it's not half bad, having some extreme range, and the potential for some decent damage. Rating it green simply because if you want to take it, you probably have a build in mind for it.

• Universal Versatility (★★★)

I’m honestly not 100% sold on this ability, as it's gated behind a two-feat requirement and is limited to only the 1st level powers of each school. It’s day to day worth will be tied to whatever school option you’ve selected, but it is only day to day, which is always strong. Wizard’s prepare for the challenges they’ll face ahead of time, more prep options means more power.

Cascade Casting

Now, you may have noticed that the Universalist school is the only school I’ve assigned a colour grading, and we’ll get to why in a moment. Let's take a look at what the Universalist school gives us to make up for the lack of an additional spell slot per level:

Oh Wow… that’s amazing. I don’t know how to express just how fundamentally game-changing this ability is. Not only does it grant an additional Wizard Feat, it ups the utility of Arcane Bond to amazing heights.

During the Class Feat discussion of this guide, I’ve marked the Bond Conservation, and Superior Bond feats as Sky Blue and  Blue respectively, the Universalist school is why. Whereas the Universalist schools change to Arcane Bond gives them access to a nearly equivalent number of Spells Per Day as a specialist school (*N -1). What happens in-play is actually a remarkable increase. The engine of this increase is Bond Conservation.

In my original draft of this section, I tallied the potential increase in spells per day granted by both Bond Conservation and Superior Bond (along with their interaction together) rather conservatively. At the time, I was operating under an erroneous understanding of the rules regarding the [F] trigger attached to the “Drain Bonded Item” action (See Part 1.5: Understanding Triggers). In actuality, the potential increase in Spells Per Day from Bond Conservation is much greater.

In order to take full advantage of this feat, what we need to do is essentially chain the activation of this feat, turn after turn, each time casting a spell 2 levels lower than the previous spell cast. Because the Universalist may activate their arcane bond once per spell level, and each use of Arcane Bond triggers Bond Conservation, we end up getting a downward chain of casting, from highest to lowest. For example, activating your Arcane Bond for a 10th level spell would trigger Bond Conversation, allowing you to cast an 8th level spell. This 8th level spell would trigger the Bond again, allowing you to cast a 6th, then a 4th, then a 2nd. The same pattern holds true for each spell level down.

Thanks to Reddit users u/RedGriffyn and u/LanceWindmil for pointing this out, and for coming up with the term “Down-casting” to describe it. (UPDATE: 17/10/19 - I’ve renamed the section and process to “Cascade Casting '' in order to fit later publication feat alignment. And its cooler)

In the table below, you will find a comparative tally of the Optimal Spells Per Day possible of both the Specialist and Universalist Wizard. For this tally, we are assuming that both Wizards are 20th level, and are employing the Archwizards Might, Bond Conservation, and Superior Bond feats. We are omitting the bonus spell slot potentially granted from familiars, items and other miscellaneous sources for the time being, mainly so we can focus on what's at hand. The tally also assumes that we’re casting under ideal conditions, with full action dictation, and that each Wizard is casting tactically in order to maximize their Spells Per Day utilizing “Down-casting”.

Let's take a look at how this shakes out:

As we can see, thanks to Bond Conservation, the Universalist Wizard comes out well ahead of the specialist Wizard in terms of spells per day. The number modulation between the levels is pretty weird looking, but that's mainly the fault of Superior Bond.

However, there are a few catches to be considered here.

Firstly, let's look at the Bond Conservation feat a moment:

The action requirements in order to utilize Bond Conservation to its fullest will probably not be something you can guarantee in actual play. In order to obtain optimal casting, you would need to be incredibly tactical about your allocation across the day. Making sure to have used enough lower level slots when you cast your higher level spells, in order to allow maximum casting down the chain. You also need to cast it before the end of the following turn, which, depending on what you are casting, may be too restrictive to employ in practice.  

Secondly, while overall spells per day has increased, the canny reader will have noticed that we can only re-prepare spells from the initial 3 slots open to the Universalist, while the Specialist has that slot open to choose from their entire school. So while your number of spells per day is up, your variety of spells is still potentially lower than the Specialist. This issue can, however, be partially addressed if you opt for the Spell Substitution Arcane Thesis.

I’ll leave it up to you if the benefits of the Universalist school outweigh those of a Specialist school plus its associated powers. I honestly can’t say one way or another without a full analysis of spells granted to each school. But, as I said previously, I’m not going to do that to the level needed to make a true judgement, especially since it would make the guide impossible to future proof.  

How to Cascade effectively

One of the more break out conversations that has emerged from this guide so far has been the effective use of Cascade Casting rather than its theoretical maximum.

Certainly the theory crafting of Cascade Casting is pretty unlikely to happen in any actual play, it would require the Wizard to be standing still, turn after turn, just throwing out [>>] spells, without any interruptions from enemies.

Which, while the above might be the dream, lets face it, no DM is going to ever allow that. So, what we now have to do is instead workout the actual tactical value of Cascade Casting while introducing actual play scenarios.

First off, let's understand the above table a bit better.

This chart represents the slot-level breakdown of cascading spells as they go from highest to lowest. I’ve colour coded the level breakdowns as you progress down the chart, so, if you wish to see how each one curves, simply follow the colours as they leap-frog over one another. The colour marked AB is the colour for that levels Arcane Bond use and its corresponding levels gained.

AB = Arcane Bond. Paired with the colour, it simply shows the cascade curve of each level's use of Bond Conservation.

SB = Superior Bond. It’s separated out from the others simply for the sake of clarity.

<# = The number in the # simply shows which higher spell level the extra spell was gained from.

Colour = A simple coding system to help tell apart the different spell levels as they go down. Sorry colour blind folks, I couldn’t think of a simpler way to show this!

So now that we have this chart, what can we pull out of it that we couldn’t before? Admittedly, not much. It’s main purpose at this juncture is simply to illustrate where and how the use of Bond Conservation breaks down in actual numbers.

While most of my calculations are done working from 20th level backwards, if you are below 20th, simply find your highest spell level, check what colours you have access to, and just use the chart to gage what you can and can’t do. Simple!

Now that we understand where our additional spells come from a bit better, the question still remains, “how best do we utilize our Arcane Bond and spell rotations in order to maximize our Spells per Day (SPD)?”.

Unfortunately this is not a simple thing to answer, and will require not just the tactical use of our spells, but a change in how we think of our spells in general.

Done right, it is a highly rewarding system that allows you to flip from a “rationing” mindset to an aggressive one. Where every spell cast now means not just an extra spell later, but potentially several.

Let’s take some time now and work out a play style which best utilizes Cascade Casting and allows you to maximize your SPD!

Cascade Chains

[Coming eventually]

1.3: Arcane Thesis

The initial release of PF2 launches without any class Archetypes as we traditionally know them from PF1, it does however grant most classes functional, if lower spec, archetypes in the form of several 1st level class choices. These choices can be pretty impactful on how the class plays, generally granting abilities and powers impossible to fully replicate.

For the Wizard, these are known as their Arcane Thesis. The thesis set up leaves lots of room for creative changes to the Wizard with future books, and I’m super excited to see what can be done with the set up. With PF2 core, we launch with 4 options to choose from, so let's take a look!

Improved Familiar Attunement 

(★★★★)

We start with perhaps the strongest option of the lot. This thesis grants the Familiar feat for free, and adds career-long value to those familiars, which is fantastic. Familiars are once again the kings of action-economy. Allowing you to trade [>] for [>>] is always going to be a good deal, even if your familiar can’t attack on its own. The value of your familiar just also keeps going up and up with level. Familiar’s also gain a huge tactical boost with the Alchemist Dedication feat, pushing this option to sky-blue.

AGP UPDATE:  With the release of the AGP, familiars got a massive boost in power and utility. I’ll expand on this in Part 1.6, but for something I already considered to be one of the best options out there, it got so much better!

Metamagic Experimentation 

(★★★★)

I love free feats! In a system which uses feats as its base for modularity, a class option which gives you two feats, one of which can change daily, is going to be strong. Wizard’s won bigtime with this edition's change to metamagic. Being able to apply them on the fly instead of having to prepare your spells with them ahead of time adds greater tactical value than ever before. Given that your spell slots are also at more of a premium than ever, this change is a win-win for Wizards.

So far, of the 7 Metamagic feats open to Wizards in the core book, none of them are particularly game-changing. I’ll talk more about the feats themselves in the relevant section, however, part of the rating for this Thesis is for future proofing. As the gameline goes on, being able to select a daily rotating feat will hopefully have increasing value. I’ll also throw a shout to the capstone feat Metamagic Mastery, which utterly changes how you interact with metamagic feats. It is, in my opinion, well worth an additional 10th level spell slot (I am, however, prepared to eat those words with future 10th level spells).

Spell Blending

(★★★)

I really want to like this ability, but the numbers simply don’t bear out. Between the very limited number of spell slots open to you, and this Thesis’ in-built limitation of only 1 bonus slot per level, it means your Cost To Benefit is marginal at best. Once we factor in things like Scroll Savant and feats which augment Arcane Bond, I feel like the aim of this Thesis can be achieved in other, more cost effective, ways. That said, check out Part 2.2: The Cleric: Traditions in a Blender for an interesting interaction between this Thesis and your multiclass spell slots.  

A great many people seem to overvalue this particular thesis for its ability to give you more access to your higher level slots. While it is true that it does this, by and large Wizards aren’t lacking as much for slot access as other Casters. Plus, I can’t help but feel that this line of thinking is rooted in the previous editions spell system, where lower spell level meant more. This isn’t true of PF2 and a 1st level spell can be just as impactful as a higher level one. Yes, early level spells are weaker in their design than higher levels, but it really does depend on the spell and situation in particular.

It’s honestly not the “auto-take” that it's touted to be.

Spell Substitution 

(★★★)

The mileage of this ability will vary depending on how much rest your DM gives between encounters. It’s a fine pressure-valve if you find yourself really in need of a situational spell which you wouldn't ordinarily prepare. The fact that you can swap back later also gives the ability a ‘no harm no foul’ feel to it. The ability is merely green however simply because, by its nature, it's of situational value.

There is, however, the need for greater discussion of this Thesis beyond what I’m mentioning here. While I will get into this later on in the guide, if you are reading this, chances are you have been reading some other sources as well. A lot of people online are heavily touting this Thesis as the flat out best, and a “must take” compared to the others.

While I hate to tell people they are wrong in how they approach the game, in this case they flat out are. A lot of the discussion in this vein centres on comparisons between Wizards and Arcane Sorcerers (With Arcane Evolution). In Part 8: Builds; Putting it all together, I will discuss this at some length, and so I won’t get too much into it here, just know: Don’t buy the hype. Judge a Wizard as a Wizard and not as a Sorcerer, their strengths are not the same.  

1.3.1 Advanced Player Guide Thesis

Staff Nexus

(★★★★)

Let's get this out of the way right now. The Staff Nexus Thesis is really really good. If we are talking about an end-game build / look at things, a Universalist Wizard with Staff Nexus will have the potential to throw around a number of spells per day which literally dwarfs that of any other caster bar none. A Universalist Wizard also suffers the least from the spell sacrifice required to charge your staff due to the expended slot priming a later Cascade.

Depending on what ends up happening with the familiar gained from the Witch MC Dedication and how that ruling transpires, this may become my default Wizard thesis in the future.

It takes a long time to really get online, and you might forget you have it between levels 1-3, but once you get that first additional charge set, you will really start feeling its strength.

P.S: Invest in a Shifting weapon property rune for your staff, and enjoy having your hands free for the rest of your career.

1.4: Wizard Feats

With our first patches of class options out of the way, it’s time to get to the meat of the PF2 modular system, the feats! Feats have gone through a bit of a transformation between the editions, now working somewhere between their previous and optional class features, feats are the spokes on your magical wheels.

As time goes on, this will probably become the single longest part of the guide, but unlike spells, because this is part of the chassis of class, I’ll endeavor to keep this updated as much as possible.

Feat Sources

Feat sources are going to become an ever more important topic for Wizards as the game line goes on. Class feats not only drive your own class features, but serve as the resource that you’ll spend when taking archetypes, be they multi-class or intra-class. This means that class feats are always going to be the bottleneck to our optimisation dreams.

Cracking open the shell of the class, we see that the Wizard gets the standard slew of class feats at every even level, plus access to a couple of extras depending on their choices. The table below doesn’t reflect those granted by Thesis options, unless in the future a Thesis option grants access to a general class feat instead of a specific one.

Natural Ambition, from the Human ancestry, has also been included on the list because just about everyone has some means of access to it and trading an ancestry feat for a class one is a solid swap!

Errata - 16/08/19

Apparently the class feat granted to Wizards at 1st level was a mistake… not a design mistake, which honestly it kinda was, but they literally did not mean to print it! So when your fancy physical book says

“At 1st level and every even level thereafter”

Or when describing the Universalist

“You gain an extra Wizard class feat”

Or when it was added to the reference tables

All of these mistakes have now been removed from this guide! They’ll probably be removed from online sources soon as well. But for you folks, like me,  who bought the first print run of the core? Get a sharpie I guess? Post-it notes?  

Now, what does this mean for us? Basically it amounts to the rich getting richer and the poor getting less access to famailars. Our two Thesis topics rated Blue and Sky Blue are now actually more valuable for utility, and the Natural Ambition feat for Humans is even stronger. Good for them I guess!  

Retraining

The other important thing that we need to understand when looking at class feats is how we can retrain them. The table above shows that we can get an awful lot of feats at 1st level, but of our options, choices open to us at 1st aren’t going to be things we necessarily want career-long.

When it comes to class feats, thankfully, retraining is pretty simple and quick! Let's take a look!

Simple! We have a type for type replacement system with little invest or bother. There, however, a few restrictions on howe can retrain which need to be paid attention to, and will have an impact on the value of a few of our feat sourcing options.

This does rain on our parade somewhat. Having to stick to options generally open to you at the time of original selection means that our handful of 1st level feats will remain as some of our lowest tier choices. Hopefully this is an issue which will lessen with time. More products means more feats, and more feats in that 1st level slot hopefully.

At the moment, it means that there is no good reason not to pick up a familiar. Even without investing in any of the possible upgrades, the added utility for a 1st level feat is will worth it.

But enough foreplay! Onto the feats!

Feats!

Metamagic Feats

I’m cleaving off feats with the metamagic tag from the main body of class feats. While metamagic isn’t as niche for the Wizard as in previous additions, given the power of the metamagic thesis and the Metamagic Mastery capstone feat, metamagic deserves its own space.

1.5: Mastering Magic!

Under Construction! Please mind the mess!

Portions of this section of the guide are due to be archived and replaced with more accurate and up to date information. Please bear with me during this transition.  

Spell Classes

Across this guide I may make reference to certain classes of spell. These classifications have nothing to do with their tradition or which classes can cast them. It's a system of classification wholly of my own invention that I will use to talk about the nature of certain spells and how best they are to be used. This system also does not give reference to how good or powerful a spell may be, (and indeed there will be spells of all power tiers in each class) but rather to talk about their role in a Wizard's arsenal.

Class A

Wizard’s in PF2 have a lot of ways to get access to situational spells or additional casting options. Be this through scrolls, staves, wands, or a just whole pile of class feats. However, our one true source of spells remains our precious precious spell slots.

Because spell slots require investment and are, by and large, difficult to change once you’ve committed to them, we need to fill our spell slots with spells that are not only powerful but open to a wide variety of uses and applications.

These are Class A spells. Spells which we want to fill our slots with and we can use them in lots of ways, encounter after encounter, in powerful and possibly creative ways. Class A spells are important for all Wizards, but picking Class A spells is vital for Universalists who intend to Cascade Cast. Because one of the weaknesses of the Universalist school is a lack of spell diversity, at least from slots, we want those spells we do prepare to really pack a lot of punch and to be applicable to many different encounter types.

Class A spells don’t have a single form or function, and so they can be hard to pin down exactly, they may not even have obvious or straightforward combat applications. Class A spells do however share some traits which you should look for when selecting spells. Class A mostly impacts the flow or shape of encounters and generally they fall into the realm of “battlefield control”. Class A spells are used to stamp your will on the encounter and run as a counterpoint to whatever tactical designs the GM had in mind. Good Class A spells allow you, the Wizard, to dictate how combat is going to go, or at the very least, enable setups and combos from other team interactions. Those familiar with PF1 Wizards will recognise this as the design-space that Wizards often fell into while optimising. This is even more true in PF2, but now with some additional mechanical incentive.

Class B

Class B spells are the general bread and butter of most spell lists. Class B spells are the thing you reach for when you want a specific effect but with limited to no use outside of that effect. Most blasting spells fall into this Class, along with utility spells like Dispel Magic. Class B spells can be game-wrecking powerful at times, and are, in their limited element, simply the best thing you can do in that moment.

Their strength also belies their weakness.

For example; you and your party have been hunting down a gang of tribal necromancers giving a town trouble. Expecting magic and trickery, you prepare several castings of Dispel Magic. However, as you progress through play you actually find yourself fighting mostly the barbarian counterparts to the tribal necromancers, as you make your way through their tribal lair to their unholy throne. For you, you prepared wrong that day. Turns out you needn’t need 3 Dispel Magics prepared and you kinda ended up sitting on those slots all day.

Things like the above are the inherent risk of any prepared caster.

This is why, in my opinion, Class B spells are not to be prepared in your spell slots, where possible, and instead built into things like staves and wands. Staves got a big functionality kick up in PF2 and should now be considered an essential part of any Wizard’s kit. As you progress through levels, you should actually design several staves for yourself, all themed around a particular set of needs. While you can only have one staff charged a day, having a blasting staff or a counter-caster staff, both filled with Class B spells, is the best use of your resources.

Class C

Class C spells are those sorts of spells that I always want to have prepared, but can rarely actually justify it. They are primarily reactionary or defensive spells which handle unusual situations, but keep you alive and ticking. Class C spells can almost always be described by the word “situational”.

Feather Fall is perhaps my favorite example of a Class C spell. For what it does, Feather Fall is a fantastic spell, it ticks all the right boxes for a spell of its level and function.

But how many times a day should I prepare it? Should I even bother to prepare it at all? Sure I might think my encounter-day is going to be all underground and so no need, but what if a chasm-spanning bridge collapses, what if I’m shoved off a ledge? What if none of those things happen and I could have used a much better spell instead?

Class C spells are those best left to other magic sources beyond our spell slots. Wands, Arcane tattoos, staves, assorted magic items. Class C spells are the sort of things you want to design a bunch of and hold as your ace in the hole.

Spell Anatomy

Controversies Settled  

As consistent readers of this guide will know, by far and away the biggest controversy to emerge from its writing was the discussion around the former contents of this section. (Archived for posterity in Part 12: Archived & Historical Information: Archived - 18/12/19: Anatomy of a Spell)

After months of waiting, we finally received some direct information about the “Spell Components = Actions” Debate.

Hands up, I was flat wrong.

As you’ll read in a moment, my rationale for believing what I did was sound, and you can see the echoes of the former system literally all over the structure of spells. It appears that rather than rework the spell system between Playtest and Official Release, Paizo instead decided to leave it as it was but weaken the necessary verbiage and thus break the link between components and actions.

Obviously this wasn’t as explicit as it could have been, and indeed wasn’t even clear to all of us who didn’t realise that the verbiage change was intended to break the link. But, in any case, it’s now confirmed and we can all move on.

What did this confirmation look like you ask? Once again, Mark Seifter (Who has been on a Q&A tear recently!) jumped into the discussion thread on the Paizo forums regarding the interaction of Silent Spell, Metamagic Mastery, and spell components, and set us straight.

So yeah! That is pretty explicit.

The Component-Action link is dead, long live Arbitrary Cast Times. 

How does Spellcasting actually work then?!

Under Construction!

Understanding Triggers

Under Construction!

The Ready Action

As a side note, you won’t be able to cast most spells off a ready action without Metamagic Mastery’s capstone interaction.

For me, this is a super disappointing inclusion. Since most offensive / utility spells are at least [>>], and the Ready action is [>>] by itself, AND stipulates that the readied action can only be [>] or Free, it makes it a fairly limited tactic for wizards for most of their career.

Once you have access to Metamagic Mastery  however, then the Ready action opens up its full potential. You have to jump through some hoops, and accept only marginal gain, but it's a little extra mileage out of an already great capstone. Just in case you weren’t sold on this feat already.

Sustained!

Contentious - The following section has been deemed contentious and submitted for FAQ or is in need of additional developer clarification. please speak with your DM before bringing it to the table.

If you have been looking over your spellbook, you may have noticed that some spells either have a duration of “sustained” or have some option which kicks in when you sustain a spell.

Sustaining a spell has actually changed a fair deal since PF1, and now it has more versatility than ever. Let's brush up on just how this works.

So sustaining a spell is basically a single [>] we take on our turns in order to keep a spell effect from a previous turn going. That’s obvious! Why bother talking about such an obvious thing and why does it have the Contentious tag? Well my friends, you may have missed something in the sustain action, or, rather, missed the lack of something.

As presented, there is no limit on how many times a spell can be sustained a turn, bar the number of actions you have open to you. Think about that for a moment, then go back to your spell lists.

When you sustain the spell, comma.

One might assume that a spell can only be maintained once in a round, and that the effects of said spell, once maintained, only occur once in the following rounds.

This is not, however, so. While not true for all sustainable spells, many of them are worded in such a way that, as long as you are willing to spend [>] using the “Sustain A Spell” action, then you get their effects multiple times in the round.

So what does this mean for us?

At present, not an awful lot. At the time of writing, not many Arcane spells have overly exciting effects when sustained multiple times in a round. This will naturally change over time, but, at present, it’s not anything to get too excited about.  

Unless you’ve decided to take a Divine casting multiclass Dedication that is! While they, as a whole, will be discussed in more detail in Part 2.2: Multiclass Archetypes, for now, all you need to know is that they grant limited access to some Divine spells.

Divine spells like Spiritual Weapon and Spiritual Guardian, both of which are pretty nifty little spells. While both are too hard to screenshot here, effectively, each time they are sustained you get a strike action with one of the most favorable modifiers open to you in the whole game!  Treated as spell attacks, adding your stat mod to damage, and having decent base damage in their own right, they allow you to play at being a melee combat like the big boys, without having to get too close.

What’s more, you can actually get a little additional mileage from the Effortless Concentration feat! Even more reasons to like it!

The Flaming Sphere debate

Breaking (17/12/19):

In a discussion thread on the Paizo forums, Mark Seifter graced us with some information about this very issue

“We have it coming in the next errata batch. Sustain a given spell once per round only, unless the spell specifically encourages you to do so more than once like Spiritual Weapon.“

That’s some solid information in regards to rules as intended! It looks like the days of the Flaming Sphere debate may already be coming to a close. Sadly, Mark was not more forthcoming about the details at this time, nor even a timescale.

“We'll let you guys know, but there's other steps along the way to deciding that go through multiple departments before we ourselves know for sure, and then we need to make sure it's all set and we're sure we can hit it. The last thing we want to do is give a timeframe and then have it be inaccurate.

Happy holidays!”

So what can we pull out of this? Not very much sadly. We know that something will change, and we know that a new “rule of thumb” in terms of sustained spells is coming. We don’t yet know the shape of it or which spells will be affected.

It’s a good shout that Flaming Sphere will not exist in its current form (See below why), but other spells like Spiritual Weapon will in fact encourage it.

Until it's out, guess we’ll just have to wait. For the time being, remember to consult your GM on how you folks think the spell should work for your table.

For canny readers of their spellbook, as we went over the previous section, you may have been wondering about the Flaming Sphere spell and why it was omitted. On a surface read, Flaming Sphere would look to be one of the spells who gains the most from the Sustain rules. However, a debate has started due to the spell's particular wording, which calls this into question.  

Let’s take a quick look at the spell’s text to get ourselves up to speed.

The particular verbiage of issue here is “On Subsequent Rounds” and what that means for the intended workings of the spell.

Some camps argue that wording means that Flaming Sphere is designed to only be usable once per round, and that additional sustaining of the spell does nothing of worth. Meaning that the spell is an additional 3d6 (without heightning) on top of your other [>>] casts. In terms of numbers, this seems more in line with overall damage trends we see at lower levels.

Other camps argue that the wording merely prevents you from sustaining the spell on the same round the spell is cast, preventing a 6d6 fireball in a single turn. This interpretation however would mean that, for the following 9 turns, the spell would deal upto 9d6 per round. At 3rd level.

Both arguments have some merit to them, and I think it will take an FAQ to clear it up. Until that time however, it will be your DM’s decision.

Personally, the second interpretation looks to be correct as per Rules as Written. This makes Flaming Sphere one of the most efficient damaging spells in the game. Being flexible in the number of times you can sustain it each turn, is relatively light on your actions, allowing you to move and cast other spells as needed, while pumping up the damage on turns when you can stay still.

For some context; Cast as an 8th level spell, with the help of the Effortless Concentration feat, the spell can have a potential damage output of 36d6 per round (9d6 per sustain x4 sustains), for up to 9 rounds, with an additional weaker first round. This means that, for a single spell slot, Flaming Sphere has the potential to deal 333d6 damage. Averaging this, we get the result of 1165 points of fire damage!  Needless to say this is well above the damage potential of any other spell yet printed, and makes it the most efficient damaging spell in the entire game by a wide, vast, expansive, margin.

Infact, pulling out some examples from the current Monster Manual, if we take the 5 currently highest levels enemies in print we see the following:

Apart from Tor Linnorm and perhaps Treerazer, we see that a single 8th level Flaming Sphere can (in theory), handily kill all the most powerful enemies currently in the game.

So that’s why there is a debate!

Sustaining Summons

Speaking of Effortless Concentration and why it's amazing, did you know that it allows an even more direct and powerful boost to your action economy than is immediately obvious? If you did, good for you! If not, let's learn some more about Summon minions and how you control them.

That’s right! A minion that comes about due to a spell or magical item effect counts as a Summoned Minion, and with Summoned Minions the action you use to command them is the Sustain a Spell action.

For most of your career, this won’t have too much of an impact on your use of Summons. Unlike with other sustained abilities as noted above, commanding a minion is explicitly restricted to a Once Per Turn ability. So sadly we can’t trade 3 actions for 6 (not that you would really want to). What we do get, however, with Effortless Concentration is an effective 2 additional actions per turn on those turns where we have a Summoned Minion up.

The value of this will depend on what you have summoned, and the utility of summoned monsters has changed somewhat from PF1. I’m going to discuss this further in Part 6: Spells, however, for now, even if we just consider them as an Animal Companion (See Part 2.2: The Druid: The Animal Order - Animal Companions). This alone is a pretty solid upgrade on your actions per turn.

Having your full 3 actions each turn, plus 2 additional from Summons is huge. As we’ll see when we deep dive into Summons later on, this will end up turning into many more spells per day being thrown around.

I just wish something like this existed for Familiars… Speaking of!

1.6: Familiars!

Familiars have changed a lot between the editions, their role in boosting your action economy, however, remains the same!

Firstly, getting a familiar is no longer a free or inherent part of the class. You want one? Going to have to select for it. Thankfully a familiar can be obtained with a simple 1st level feat which any Wizard can grab, or comes for free with the Improved Familiar Attunement Thesis.

Much like everything in PF, your familiar is now as modular as you are, minus all of the commitment. Whereas in PF1 your familiar was a well ordered and structured bestie, with particular inherent traits depending on what it is and your level, instead PF2 gives us a system for crafting bespoke familiars from a host of options.

Split between Familiar Abilities and Master Abilities, by default, your familiar gets to pick a mere 2 per day. Thankfully there are a number of ways to augment the number of these abilities you have access to, and, best of all, you aren’t stuck with any of your choices.  Each day, during spell preparation, you can reselect any of your familiar's abilities just like your spells.  

Let’s take at our options, shall we?

Familiar Abilities  

Master Abilities

A lot of the value we can derive from these abilities will also come from our ability to several of them at a time.

If you aren’t planning on taking the Improved Familiar Attunement Thesis, which grants an additional 4 abilities across your career (for a total of 6), then I highly recommend taking Enhanced Familiar for an additional 2 (or take both, for 8!).  Simply put, two abilities is not enough. If you like the idea of using your familiar to attack (see below), then you’ll definitely need at least one of those options.

The Minion Trait

So how do Familiars actually work and what is their role in enhancing your action economy? Familiars, much like Summons, now operate using something known as the minion trait. It’s a new, and somewhat universal system to help govern any other being under the wizards direct control.

You can have any number of minions at one time, however, you are limited in your ability to command them. The system is basically a direct 2-1 trade in your favour. By spending [>], you can order a being with the minion trait to use up to [>>]. If you ever decide to become a big, scary, necromancer, with a horde of undead, it means you’ll only ever be able to directly command 3 of them in any given round. This does mean that your effective actions in that turn double to 6, which is a pretty sweet deal.

Your familiar works just the same way. By using [>] to issue it a command, your familiar can take any  [>>] that it would be capable of. There is, however, a bit of ambiguity in what a minion can do without a direct command, as the system does recognise that sentient beings won’t just drool in the corner without your word. Let’s take a look!

See what I mean? “Act how they please” is vague at best. In practical terms, I imagine when not in Encounter mode, your familiar will be able to act without limitations and you won’t have to consider your action delegation. But it’s what happens in Encounter mode that bears some FAQ / Errata clarification. The additional question of will your familiar count as just an animal or get the upgrade to full sapience due to its connection to you. If it can talk does that mean it can think? Who knows!  

Ouch! Familiar Combat

Natively, Familiars can’t attack. Nothing expressly prevents them from doing so, but, by themselves, they simply lack any means of making an attack action. In order to take the Strike action, it's required that you have some means of attack.

All we need to do then, in order to get a tiny combat pal, is to find a way to give your familiar an attack. As the gameline goes on, the number of ways to do so will probably grow, however, as of right now, your options are limited.

Part 2 of this guide will deal with archetypes, which is a massive discussion in and of itself, however, by taking the Alchemist Dedication we open up the possibility of combat familiars from level 2. Our main vector for doing so is the Bestial Mutagen. Normally not so great, the fact that mutagens can now be taken by anyone means our famailars can now enjoy their benefits.

I’ll talk about this more in depth, however, at the end of the Alchemist Dedication discussion, where I'll break down the numerous benefits and interactions opened up by this feat.

APG Shakeup: Crazy Good!

With the APG now here, we have more familiar options, powers, uses and tricks than ever before. What's more we now have two extremely important additions to the game, those being Specific Familiars and the Familiar Master archetype.

Specific Familiars

With the APG, we get a new concept for PF2, that of the specific familiar. Unlike in PF1, where each familiar had a distinct profile right from the get-go, PF2 familiars started life as generic blobs without distinction bar the abilities you granted them.

Specific Familiars break from this by providing a series of possible familiars which do in fact have their own profiles and benefits. The way in which this is done is a little lackluster. Each Specific Familiar comes with two unique parts; a series of required abilities which are needed to obtain the familiar and act as a “cost”. These required abilities are locked in place once purchased and can’t be changed. The other are those unique abilities that come with that specific familiar and are essentially what you are buying with the required abilities.

Familiar Master

While I’ll talk about the Familiar Master fully in its archetype discussion, I just thought I would mention it here as it is, in my opinion, one of the best Archetypes a Wizard can get.

Familiar Conduit is a literal game changer and something that can really impact every aspect of your build if you take it. Combine that with the ability to have as customisable a familiar as a Witch, plus access to every possible specific familiar.

It's a real winner in my book.

Part 2: Archetypes

Under Construction! Please mind the mess!

Part 2 of this guide is a vast and roving beast which grows more complex each day. This section may forever be under some form of review, so please don’t hold formatting issues against me.  

2.1: Intro to Archetypes

Archetypes take a massive departure from their PF1 equivalents in terms of both form and function. Almost unrecognisable from the original, anyone who experienced “Variant Multiclassing” last edition will be immediately familiar with what's going on here.

PF1 Variant Multiclassing was a really innovative switch up to the way by which characters have multiclassed since multiclassing has been a thing. From 2e to 5e, players have literally just stacked classes on top of each other, operating as their respective class levels for the features offered. For many, partially martial classes, this system worked great and allowed some unique - if awkward to RP - characters to arise. The method was, however, horrible for full casters. Losing class levels in your primary caster class always meant taking a steep power cut. For prepared casters, even a 1-level dip, could seriously put you behind the curve. Spontaneous casters getting an even worse deal and perhaps losing out on access to whole spell levels.

Now, all that is gone (For now anyhow), and has been replaced with what is perhaps the most elegant means of multiclassing ever brought to the table.

For those who never used Variant Multiclassing in PF1, and are new to the archetypes of PF2, never fear, cause I’m about to break this down.

How to Multiclass

Quite frankly, multiclassing has never been easier, at least in terms of the current system of taking dedication feats to do so. Unlike in previous editions, where stacking class levels on top of each other could create awkward and messy characters, the new design is an extremely elegant method and one I’m a massive fan of.

However, this does not mean that there are not things that we need to be aware of before jumping in!

Much like everything is PF2, Mutliclassing is now as modular as everything else. Letting you decide just how much investment you want in your secondary class.Investment is also a key term here, because, unlike with PF1, where you could in theory have a character made up of 20 1st level dips, Mutliclassing is more about resource allocation rather than just dipping in and out at key levels. Let’s take a look!

Class Feats - The powerhouse of the Multiclassing cell

 Your class feats are now the resources by which we obtain and drive multiclassing! All aspects of your multiclass experience are now driven by which, and how many, of your class feats you have traded in for Multiclass feats instead.

While not wholly standardised, both your class feat allocation and the number of Multiclass feats open to you, are in a rough alignment. Which means we can start talking about various multiclass options just from the perspective of how good they are, but how resource intensive they are as well.

By default, every character you will ever play in PF2 will have access to at least 10 class feats across their career. Most classes will have access to more than this base 10 in various ways, and I've already broken down the Wizards options in Part 1.4: Wizard Feats: Feat Sources. What also matters, however, is not just the number of feats we have, but the level at which we get them, as all Multiclassing feats bring with them a level requirement. Below is a table which breaks down the various level intersections the Wizard will experience with both class feats and a broad swath of the Mutliclass options.

I imagine that, once new classes get added to the multiclass table, that “Outlier” column will have to be renamed to some sort of emergent trend. Given that the only real outliers belong to the Monk, Rogue and Champion, I’m tempted to call it “tricky martial” as it is, but I’ll leave it as is for now.

Anyhow!

So what does this table tell us? It tells us that multiclassing is actually going to be a matter of strategic resource allocation more than anything else, but it also tells us that this will not be the same across the broad.

Given that martial and spellcasting multiclasses tend to have slightly different feat placements, it means we’ll have slightly different power spikes depending on which option you go for. It also means we’ll need to do some build plotting too in order to maximise our investment at key levels.

For example, if we wish to choose a spellcasting multiclass option (More about that in Part 2.2: Multiclass Archetypes: The Bard: Multiclass Spellcasting and you!) we may find ourselves very tempted at 8th level to take one of the various “Breadth” feats that comes with them. However, 8th level is also the level that Bond Conservation comes online. Bond Conservation is such a huge power spike, that it can be hard to justify really taking anything else. Thankfully, however, we aren’t hard-locked into taking the Multiclass feats at these levels, and we can simply delay until the next time we get a class feat to take them.

2.2: Multiclass Archetypes

Foreword on Multiclass Archetypes

Free Multiclass Archetypes

The Alchemist

Source: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rule Book

• Stats Required: Intelligence 14

We start off the archetypes list with the, hands down, strongest option on the list for Wizard. I cannot express just how strong of an option is, especially right at level 2! It’s like going up an additional level. The power spike this creates at 2nd is amazing. Let’s break this all down!

Archetype Feats

What do we get?

• Proficiencies

• Trained in Alchemical Bombs
• Trained in Crafting 
• Trained in Alchemist Class DC

• Feats

• Alchemical Crafting  

• Class Features

• Infused Regents

• Special

• 4 Additional 1st level alchemical formulas  

Okay, wow! There is an awful lot to unpack here, as this feat comes LOADED with features right off the bat! Let’s go through this step by step, as it will also serve as a good way to talk about the new alchemy system before Part 7. Before we get into the knitty-gritty however, lets go over some of the basic stuff that comes with the feat.

First up, Proficiencies! The standout here is becoming Trained in Crafting. Crafting has changed from a specific skill to a general skill, in that it now governs your general ability to build or create just about anything. Given how limited our skill increases are, this is a god send if you ever want to craft more than one type of thing. Crafting plays to our strengths, as an Int skill, and is key to both using archetype well, and taking the later feats. It’s a handy skill to have, and getting it for free here is just a nice little bonus. Our other Proficiencies aren’t so great. If you are playing a game which you think isn’t going to go beyond level 5, and you like throwing bombs, then go ahead and treat both Trained in Alchemical Bombs & Alchemist Class DC’s as solid Blue’s. The problem is that never get anything above Trained and so they will rapidly begin to lag behind saves. At low levels, tossing a few bombs is a great boost to what you can bring to combat, however, the true value of alchemical items, at least for Wizards, is pretty much everything besides the bombs.

The flip side to the crafting skill now being generalised is that you now need specific feats to craft just about everything. This is pretty similar to PF1, and in some cases better, so I’m pretty cool with that.

Let’s take a look at Alchemical Crafting for a moment!

Not an awful lot to unpack there, except that we can now also craft permanent alchemical items in our downtime, in addition to those temporary ones gained from infused reagents. So we gain some extra utility, the ability to make some extra cash between adventures, and we also gain our first patch of formulas. Pretty damn solid!  

Understanding Alchemy

Alchemy, as a system, has changed quite a bit since PF1 and thankfully for the Wizard, to our benefit.

Our interaction with alchemical items will come in two main forms;

1. Items created using the downtime crafting rules - which will be covered in Part 7
2. Temporary - and free - items created using the Infused Reagents which we just got access to!

Both of those are pretty great in their own way, however, the more mundane crafting will be saved for later. Right now it's time to break down what we get from the infused reagents feature, and why the Alchemist Dedication is worth investing in. Let’s take a look at the Infused Reagents feature and see that this gives us!

Of note, we only get a number of reagents per day equal to our level (plus an additional one with one of our familiar features). This takes a bit of the wind out of our sails and means that our early alchemy is going to be far more limited than an actual alchemist, but, you know, that’s pretty fair. Given that as we level up, this disparity will matter less and less, I’m also not that broken up about it. This does also lead into part of my reasoning for not overly loving Quick Alchemy - since it is far more resource intensive than simply using Advanced Alchemy.

Plus, we’re wizards! Preparation is what we’re all about! None of this “by the seat of your pants”, “making it up as you go along”, spontaneous nonsense.  

Back to the matter at hand though! Next up is the Advanced Alchemy feature, as it will be the actual driver of what we can do with our infused reagents.

Okay, so this is fantastic! Basically, every morning, while pouring over our spellbook and munching some kibble with the doggo, we also magic up some infused alchemical items. Coming at literally no time and no cost is amazing to boot!

Some limitations however. Unlike actual Alchemists, our Advanced Alchemy is hard set to 1, and it doesn’t advance naturally. This means that the items we can create will be capped at those we can get from 1st level formulas. At levels 2-3, this won’t even be a concern, as the actual Alchemist doesn't have any upgrades to these formulas either. Between 4-5 you’ll start to feel the drop off in your items effectiveness.

Thankfully, at 6th we upgrade our Advanced Alchemy level to 3 with the Expert Alchemy feat. Then it upgrades itself at 10th to 5. Once we hit 12th and take the Master Alchemy feat, our Advanced Alchemy hits 7, and raises every level thereafter.

Here’s a quick table to illustrate:

It’s important to note that our number of reagents isn’t affected by our Advanced Alchemy level, simply what we can do with it! This means that, even at the levels where our alchemical potency lags, we can still make up in quantity what we lack in quality.

Speaking of quantity, did I mention that, when using Advanced Alchemy, we create 2 items per 1 reagent spent?! This contrasts with Quick Alchemy, which is a straight 1 for 1 swap. Which means it literally pays to be prepared!

Let’s take a moment to look at what this actually means for a low level Wizard.

Meet Wizzie McAlchoface, he enjoys brewing up a cold one with the lads while studying the arcane mysteries of the universe.

Currently he is a 3rd level Human Wizard with the Alchemist Dedication feat. He’s a specialised Conjurationist with a Familiar, and likes to be useful.

At this level Wizzie has the following spell slots:

He also has access to his Arcane Bond, which I’ve added to his tally for 2nd level spells, as denoted by the *

Now let’s add Alchemy!

To reach 8 alchemical items we can make per day, we take our level in reagents, add 1 from the Extra Reagents familiar ability, for a total of 4. We then infuse those reagents with Advanced Alchemy to get 8 first level items.

5 Cantrips, 8 Spells, 8 Items! Sweet! Assuming that those items are actually worth anything, we’ve potentially doubled our expendable daily utility! At the cost of a single feat! Sadly for Wizzie, as time goes on he never becomes more than Trained in bombs or DC’s, so those features have a sharp drop off as he levels. His utility items however? Good all the way!

 Let’s take a quick look at some of these alchemical items. While I'll go into detail about all the alchemical items that will be open to us by endgame in Part 7, it’ll be worth our time to pull out some of things which Wizzie will be able to do with his 8 daily alchemical items and if they were worth the investment after all.

At present, with our level 1 Advanced Alchemy, we have access to the following things:

I’ll let you read up on the details of each of these for yourself, but I’ve included a quick colour code for each item to give you an idea of overall value. Those Mutagens that I’ve marked with a * denote those which take an uptick in quality when used on a familiar.

Unlike in PF1, Mutagens are now for everyone! Feel free to pass them around as party buffs, or empower your familiar with Bestial Mutagen to let it nip at some heels. Additionally, since Wizzie is a Conjurationist, his Summons can also benefit from any of these as well, for additional value.

Elixir of Life will be a solid amount of healing across your career, allowing you to take pity on your poor Clerics spell slots / get yourself out a deadly jam.  

If Wizzie wants to deal a bit more damage, Alchemist’s Fire is decent single target damage, with Frost Vial having some good early, if minor, battlefield control. We have some additional utilities abilities which can really help out in a variety of circumstances.

We also have poisons, which remain largely garbage.

Pokemon, but on Meth

So far, I’ve made a few mentions of using Alchemy to turn your familiars into combatants. It's a fun and interesting edge-case that's possible under a system where familiars were never intended for this function. As we’ll see below, familiars, honestly, aren’t all that great at combat and never will be. They have their moments in the sun however, mostly between levels 2-4, and then never again. So why even talk about it? Well, firstly, I want this guide to be at least somewhat comprehensive in its reflection of the Wizard’s abilities, but, more importantly, it’s also a gateway into a larger discussion which comes a bit later.

Putting that aside for a moment, let’s look at what happens when we give Bathsalts to furrets.

Okay, so as we can see, familiars are pretty much stripped down versions of PC’s, but which also have some very notable drawbacks in terms of their access to bonuses.

Let’s also take a look at a few Mutagens which have particular interest if we wish to send our fluff-pals into a fight

Okay! So this is pretty interesting, if not great for us. Since our familiar can’t ever make use of an item bonus, it means that they are going into the fray with an attack modifier of (N = Master’s Level) plus whatever Circumstance or Status bonuses you can find. This isn’t great...

So why bother? Flanking, basically…

Your familiar is a tiny sized, highly mobile, flanking machine. It can get up there and nip at the heels of larger enemies already engaged by your allies. Rendering an enemy flat footed has a range of benefits for your team to exploit, depending on party composition. We also get some additional mileage out of the Rogue Dedication feat if that’s your thing.

It also helps make your familiar at least somewhat effective! Between levels 2-4, it’s going to be rare to come against an enemy which will have an effective bonus higher than Trained (+2), slapping them with a -2 penalty, and, if you’ve picked your targets right, you could hopefully be facing an effective defence of (N = Level) vs an attack of (N = Level).

Now that’s more competitive!

The Barbarian

Source: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rule Book

• Stats Required: Strength 14, Constitution 14

Initially, I was pretty ready to write off the Barbarian but reddior u/aaa1e2r3 pointed out a few things that made me take another look. The Barbarian doesn’t give us too much on the surface, but does have a handful of useful things which might add some roidy-grumpy spice to your Wizard.

Archetype Feats

What do we get?

• Proficiencies

• Trained in Athletics
• Trained in Barbarian Class DC  

• Class Features

• Rage

• Other

• Instinct access & Anathema bound

The Barbarian is actually a pretty interesting choice for a Wizard dedication and serves a function almost opposite to what you think of when thinking about barbarians.

This is Rage, it’s pretty neat and does some interesting things for the Wizard. Firstly, and perhaps most important, it gives us a whole mess of temporary HP. This temp HP is actually the best part of Rage for us, and shows what the Barbarian dedication is all about; DEFENSE!

Screw attempting to smash folks with your willowy Wizard muscles, without additional proficiencies or increases in our access to weapons or attacks, the Barbarian doesn’t actually provide the Wizard with a means of being an effective combat gish. What we do get is a whole mess of assorted defensive effects which can really add some staying power.

Abilities like Wounded Rage & Renewed Vigor give a lot of inexpensive and consistent access to temp HP, which is a great little force field effect, and really extends the Wizards somewhat merger health pot. While I'm not a fan of the action it takes to use, the Moment of Clarity feat gives us full access to our spellcasting while Raging.

Speaking of Moment of Clarity, even without it, we aren’t fully locked in our spell casting! Going back to our spell anatomy, you’ll see that the thing that adds the concentration trait is the Verbal Spell component. This means that while Raging, as long as the spell doesn’t require a verbal component, you’re free to cast it!

The Arcane spell list also does have a few spells which we can use to pre-buff before entering a rage, and gaining some actual use of those damage buffs, but we’ll talk about those some more in Part 6.

The Bard

Source: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rule Book

I’ll be returning to this soon, I want to play around with it a bit more.

• Stats Required: Charisma 14

The Bard introduces our first archetype which potentially grants another tradition of spellcasting into the mix. As a whole, I really like the Bard, and the access to separate pools of spells / spell lists is a very exciting prospect, one we’ll get to explore a few times in this section.

Since this is our first port of call into the multi-tradition caster options, let’s take a quick look at the system, see what advantage it has and how it can impact us as Wizards.

Multiclass Spellcasting and you!

Once again, PF2 breaks a long held tradition of the D&D world, and introduces the option of potentially high-level casting to pretty much everyone. The new multiclass system also really shows its strength and robustness with these options. For the low-cost of 3 feats, full martial classes can now have limited access of up to 8th level spells, and with various options to expand that access.

In terms of party configurations and class dynamics, it really takes the pressure off the “mandatory roles” which have developed over the years. In theory, a party full of Fighter / Clerics could operate just as efficiently as if each role was dedicated to a particular party member. Tactically, I’m also a huge fan of planned-redundancy. If several members of a party are each able to augment or add to the role of another, then the party won’t be vulnerable to an unlucky crit wrecking the whole session.

But, beyond all that, it's just a really cool new aspect to the game that I’m super excited to see develop. As PF1 was getting on in years, it started to introduce more and more ways for Wizards to get access to other spell lists / moving spells over to the Wiz/Sorc book. Now this access is an inherent part of the system, and it's just super neat!

Let's start by taking a look at the basics

All caster Archetypes grant access to their specific version of these 3 feats. They have early, mid and late game power spikes which grant very limited casting options. Importantly they come with proficiencies baked in, so, unlike a lot of the martial Archetypes, you can remain somewhat competitive as a core function of the option without additional investment.

Each spellcasting archetype also has a version of a “Breadth” feat. Which marginally increases the spell slots open to you, up to a max of 6th level spells.

In practice, then, we’ll never be a true dual caster. At best we’ll have a couple of tricks per day, drawn from another tradition, and which is best used to shore up holes in the Wizard list, or grant us access to a handful of key spells or tricks which are otherwise lacking for us.

So, with an investment of 4 of our handful of potential class feats, we can get the following casting options from any of the caster multiclasses

Not amazing, but not terrible either. In terms of unaugmented spells per day, it's actually a semi-generous 35% increase in spells per day, but once we factor in our various forms of gaining additional casting, it's nothing stellar. Ultimately, It really comes down to the quality of the spells and how we can use them. Like a lot of things in this guide, we have an implicit asterisk for future products.

A little bit of Spontaneity

The bard is a spontaneous caster, and as such, grants the Wizard access to spell repertoire. Having access to a repertoire, even a limited one, is a pretty sweet deal for the Wizard. While preparation will always be our baby, no longer having to pick a few situational spells over more general ones is always going to be a massive boon.

Above are the general rules for your spell repertoire. Of particular interest is the way in which we can change out the spells contained in it.

Retraining is by far the best option for this. Given that for most of your career as a multiclass Wizard, your spontaneous slots are going to be extremely limited, and more than likely situational, the ability to swap these out is a godsend.

The real test on all this, however, is the quality of the spell list. While having access to a handful of spontaneous spells is nice, for the investment required, the late levels they kick in, and their overall scarcity, the return on that investment better be pretty big.

Sadly, for the Bard, it's not great. The Arcane and Occult spell lists have a huge amount of overlap. Most of the value spells which we don’t already have access to are those which are already on both the Divine and Primal lists. This doesn’t make the Bard a bad multiclass spellcasting persay, it just means that the amount of additional utility we can derive from the Occult list is limited at best.

As the game line progresses, this may become a non-issue. At launch, there is a great deal of overlap between the 4 traditions, and the unique aspects of each aren’t amazingly defined. As future products and classes come out however, each will hopefully begin to take a more individual style and shape.

Archetype Feats

What do we get?

• Proficiencies

• Trained in Occult Spell Attack
• Trained in Occult Spell DC’s
• Trained in Occultism
• Trained in Performance

• Class Features

• Bard Spellcasting & Cantrips

• Other

• Limited Muse interactions

As an archetype, the Bard is actually a pretty interesting option. It grants some unusual options which have some limited party interactions. I really like the interaction between Summons and the Inspire Courage composition cantrip, sadly, both it and Augment Summoning are Status Bonuses, so they don’t stack - which is sad times for Conjurationists - but Inspire Courage has both more uptime and more party benefits.

Access to limited spontaneous casting of up to 8th level is obviously powerful, and one of the reasons why I’m on the fence about the Bard overall. Personally, I think I need to play with the Bard Archetype a bit more in order to “grok” it fully, but I have a feeling that it simply loses to other archetypes. Given the amount of feats which we need to invest into the archetype to really get our money's worth, I think, ultimately, the Bard simply requires too much investment to actually be worth it.

Plus, Charisma sucks for Wizards. I don’t want to throw 2 boosts away just for this.

The Champion

Source: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rule Book

The most asked about Multiclass by far!

The Champion brings something very special and very unique to the Wizard, something which we Wizardry sorts have dreamed about since the early days of 1st ed. Something which goes right to the very heart of the squishy, bookish nerdy type.

Being fucking heavy metal.

And I ain’t talking about being no sissy Bard with a mandolin, I’m talking about rolling up to the dungeon in enchanted full plate and headbutting enemy casters into submission.

I’m talking about Diverse Armour Expertise.

Call it Heavy Metal

Coming in at the hefty 14th level, this feat allows us to actually make somewhat decent use of heavy armour, something which, otherwise, is simply beyond the reach of Wizards.

Sadly, Expert is the highest we can currently get in our Heavy Armor proficiency, so we will never actually be able to hang with the biggest of the big boys in the front line of combat. However the numbers aren’t too different.

Champions, the only class to get Legendary armor proficiency, would, all things being equal, only have a +4 advantage over a Wizard.

Given that Wizard’s still have the expectation of being “clothies”, the idea of being only 4 AC behind the games premiere tank is nothing at all to sniff at.  

The Cleric

Source: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rule Book

• Stats Required: Wisdom 14

Spoilers, I love the Cleric archetype, and a large part of it has nothing to do with the archetype itself, but, rather, the side benefits of stocking up on Wisdom. As a stat Wisdom has become a real winner in PF2, stealing a lot of Dex’s thunder and stripping it of the title of “god stat” for this edition. Some people may find the previous statement controversial, but, anyone who has read how initiative works now, never mind perception itself, should know what I’m talking about.

If you haven’t read up on initiative, or aren’t convinced, let's break this down a bit.

Fastest Spellsinger in the West

First things first! Perception, most important skill in PF1, most important pseudo-save in PF2!

Perception is hard coded to key off your wisdom mod, and, unlike in PF1, we don’t have as many options for replacing it as other skills (yet). Perception also gets a massive, incredible, upgrade in importance in PF2 and hence is ascension to save-like status.

That’s right, Perception straight usurped Dex as the initiative stat. While PF2 also introduces the option for other skill based initiative checks, the game defaults to Perception for most instances of initiative, and that’s just swell for us!

Much like in PF1, a Wizard who goes first is a Wizard who wins fights.

 I’ll talk about why this is more in Part 6, when we discuss spells and what we are going to be doing with them, but, for now, just trust me. Going first not only means you aren’t getting shanked before you have the chance to defend yourself, it means you get to dictate the terms of any encounter you are in. A Wizard who goes first becomes co-DM for that fight.

Speaking of, I simply can’t wait until Part 5 to talk about two amazing 1st level general feats which I highly recommend you take no matter what build you go for. If you are going for the Cleric archetype however, I feel like these two feats practically become mandatory.

Canny Acumen is great, a solid way to shore up specific class weaknesses no matter who you are, for us though, the only part we care about is Perception. Wizards kind of get inherently shafted with Perception. While some classes start the game as Experts in Perception, Wizards have to wait until 11th, and never become Masters. That blows chunks, so thankfully this feat not only puts us in line with the go-fast classes, it gives us access to something we’d never have otherwise. So win-win.

Someone sawed Improved Initiative in half for PF2 but upped the marketing budget for it. Incredible Initiative still delivers however. What’s more, it isn’t tied to Perception itself, so those few times when we are rolling other skills for initiative, we still get the bonus.

With the change to perception and initiative in PF2, I imagine every class will now rank wisdom as a higher priority than in PF1, but the Wizard really shines with it, and so before we even look at the Cleric itself, we needed to get that out of the way.

Oh, it's also used for our best save, so there’s that as well.

Divine Bond

The Cleric is a prepared divine caster, which means, much like the Wizard, the value of each spell slot grows dramatically with access to other divine casters or their prayer books. Traditional party composition generally holds that there will probably be at least one of them kicking about, and, with any luck, they are down for some cross-class Hogwartsing.

The Cleric being a prepared caster is also pretty damn interesting for us, as our old bestie, Arcane Bond, gains yet more value.

Let’s go back and take a quick look at Arcane Bond again, since it's been a few pages since I sang its praises

Notice any particular omissions from both Arcane Bond and the Drain Bonded Item action? That’s right! Neither mention anything about the spells coming from the Arcane tradition, simply that it must be one that you’ve prepared that day!

Value!

If you’ve read Part 1.2: Cascade Casting, you’ll already know the potential value of an optimised Arcane Bond. Adding even more options into the mix is simply great!

Remember the table from the aforementioned Part 1.2: Cascade Casting? Recall the table from Part 2.2: The Bard: Multiclass Spellcasting and you!? Well feel free to simply smash those tables together in order to see just how much spellcasting we can get by multiclassing into another prepared caster. If you can’t be bothered to reference them now, here’s the modified table below:

That’s a lot of spell casting!

Given the versatility that we get from our Arcane Bond, adding any spells from a prepared caster is going to be a strong option. Given the strength of Wisdom these days, grabbing spells from a Wisdom key list is a pretty solid shout, and unlike in PF1, one I’m not going to grumble about.

I personally feel like Wisdom is, now, always going to be a solid secondary stat for the Wizard, and so stacking Wisdom is something already in our best interest. As discussed in Part 1.1: Stat Priorities & Boosts, Wisdom based casting has much greater value to us than any other kind. The Bard, our Charisma based caster, does have some nice things going for it, but the value we get from Charisma is negligible compared to Wisdom.  

With all that said, let's actually talk about the Cleric for a moment!

Archetype Feats