Introduction
If you’re new to Pathfinder 2e, especially if you’re coming from Dungeons and Dragons 5e, the casting system can seem obtuse and confusing. What exactly is spontaneous casting? And how is it different from prepared casting? And what are spell ranks for that matter? Focus spells? What? Not to worry, we’re here to guide you through it. You’ll soon see that while casting in PF2 can seem confusing and complicated on the surface, once you understand how it works it’s not too bad and it encourages creative problem solving and clever strategy to exploit effectively.
How Spellcasting Works
Spellcasting in PF2 works very similar to how it does in 5th edition. All spellcasters have a certain amount of spell slots of a certain level (called “Spell Rank” in PF2) which they can cast based on their specific class and level. Unlike in 5e, the spell ranks cap out at 10 rather than 9. No, this isn’t to make more powerful, godly spells (though that is somewhat true); it is in service to PF2’s elegant math.
Whenever you are leveling up and you want to know what your highest rank spell slot is but you don’t want to search through the archives to get it, PF2 helps you out. Simply divide your character level by two, rounding up, and that is the level of your highest rank spell slot. For example, a 6th level spellcaster has access to 3rd rank spells, while a 3rd level caster has access to 2nd rank spells. This is not only helpful for remembering what spell slots you have access to but also what level your Cantrips and Focus Spells (which we will talk about later) are at currently. Since both Cantrips and Focus Spells automatically scale with your level, this elegant math will help you significantly through your career.
As for casting the spells themselves, most damaging or combat-focused spells will take 2 Actions to cast, while smaller, defensive spells like the Shield spell might only take 1 Action. A few spells, such as Summon spells, take 3 Actions.
Rarely, some spells such as Horizon Thunder Sphere may give you the option to use two rounds to cast a spell with a more powerful effect. How this works is you spend all three of your actions on two separate turns to channel the spell at which point the spell will go off at the end of your second turn. All three of your actions on both your turns must be dedicated solely to channeling such a spell. If you perform any other action outside of Free Actions or Reactions your spell will fail.
More commonly, certain spells, such as Heal or Harm, let you choose how many Actions you want to spend on them, changing their effects in some way. Let’s take Heal as an example. At rank 1, a 1-Action Heal spell has a range of touch and heals for 1d8. A 2-Action Heal extends the range to one creature within 30 feet of you and adds an extra 8 healing. A 3-Action Heal still only heals for 1d8, but now it affects everyone in a 30-foot burst around you (emmanation). Learning the action economy of your spells and how to utilize them effectively is crucial to your success as a caster in PF2.
In addition to using Actions to cast spells, similar to 5e, your spells use spell slots. These are a type of metacurrency that mechanically demonstrates how much power you have available. Each class capable of casting spells will have a certain number of spell slots at certain spell ranks, as described in a table in that class’s description. After casting a spell, you remove a spell slot of the corresponding rank and must take a long rest before you get that slot back.
So what is upcasting? Upcasting, or “heightening” as it is referred to in the PF2 rules, is the concept of casting a spell using a higher-rank spell slot. Certain spells will have stronger effects the higher you upcast them. For damaging spells this is as simple as increasing the overall damage.
For instance, the spell Fireball has a base spell rank of 3, meaning you would normally use a 3rd-rank spell slot to cast it. For every one rank higher than 3 you cast Fireball, you would increase the total damage by 2d6. A 3rd-rank fireball would deal 6d6 damage, a 4th-rank would deal 8d6, a 5th-rank 10d6, and so on.
Other non-damaging spells will tell you what effects they have at higher levels. Let’s take the Shield spell for instance. At base level, Shield has a hardness of 5, meaning it reduces incoming damage by 5 when you use the Reaction provided by the spell. For every 2 ranks you heighten the spell, this hardness increases by an additional 5. Remember that since this is a Cantrip, it Heightens automatically, so it improves as you gain levels. So a rank 1 and 2 Shield would have a hardness of 5 while a rank 3 and 4 Shield would have a hardness of 10.
There are also other spells, like Invisibility, that have certain effects added at static levels. In the case of Invisibility, heightening it to 4th rank reduces its duration but doesn’t cause it to fade when you take a hostile action. This also functionally means there is no benefit to heightening invisibility to any other rank besides 4 as there are no other benefits given. Pay close attention to heightening effects to ensure you are utilizing your spells optimally.
Focus Spells
Before we get into the two main systems of casting and preparation in PF2, we need to discuss Focus Spells. Focus Spells are distinct from regular spells in that they aren’t exclusively used by casters. Almost every class in PF2 has some way to use Focus Spells or at least gain access to them.
Focus Spells use their own metacurrency called “Focus Points”. A character typically has as many Focus Points as they have Focus Spells. So a character who has one Focus Spell would typically only have one Focus Point, while someone with three Focus Spells would have three Focus Points. There are ways to get more Focus Points than you have Focus Spells through feats and other options but for the most part this stays true no matter what.
You can never have more than three Focus Points at any time, but you can have as many Focus Spells as you can find. Focus Points can be spent on any Focus Spell you have access to and are not tied to any specific Focus Spell. After you spend a Focus Point you need to spend 10 minutes outside of combat to Refocus and center yourself to regain 1 point. You can do this as often as you like, time permitting.
Additionally, as stated previously, Focus Spells automatically Heighten to half your level rounded down, similarly to Cantrips. So you will never have to worry about how to Heighten your Focus Spells.
Prepared Casting
There are two main types of casting in PF2: Prepared Casting and Spontaneous Casting. Let’s start with Prepared Casting as it might be easier to wrap your head around. In PF2 casters like Wizards, Witches, Clerics, and Druids are Prepared Casters, meaning they need to decide what spells they want to cast ahead of time. Wizards and Witches need to first learn a spell and record it into their spellbook or teach it to their familiar, respectively. Clerics and Druids always have access to all Common spells in their spell list. All prepared casters can add new spells to their known spell list by spending time and money studying a spell scroll or spell tome they discover through exploration, or through conversation with someone who knows the spell, which is important for spells with Uncommon and Rare rarity.
Each day you can prepare an amount of spells equal to the number of spell slots you have available. You can change out what spells you have prepared from your known spell list every day during your Daily Preparations. Any spells you don’t prepare are unavailable for you to cast that day.
Simple, right? Well, before you get excited, this doesn’t work like 5th edition where you can use any of your spell slots on any spell you have prepared. You must decide ahead of time which slots you want to use for which spells. Essentially, your slots act as containers for your spells. If you want to cast a 1st-Rank Heal twice in one day, then two of your 1st-Rank slots need to be dedicated to the Heal spell. Regardless of what happens during the day, you cannot use those slots for anything other than Heal. In addition, if you want to Heighten that Heal to 3rd Rank, one of your 3rd Rank slots needs to be dedicated to the Heal spell.
This can be frustrating for newer players, especially those coming from 5e who miss the flexibility of that casting system. However, once you get a feel for this system, you may come to appreciate how it encourages strategy and creative thinking. Filling all your slots with Fireball, while tempting, will severely limit your potential in any situation where Fireball isn’t your best option. This encourages Wizards to focus less on dealing damage and more on being what they were intended to be: a magical swiss army knife.
Spontaneous Casting
Casters like Sorcerers and Bards utilize their spells in an entirely different way from Prepared Casters. At first glance, this system may seem more familiar to 5e players, but can come across as frustratingly confusing. Let’s try to talk it through in the simplest terms.
Spontaneous casters get what is called a “Spell Repertoire”. If you’re ever unsure if your class is a prepared or Spontaneous Caster, this term will immediately be your signal that you are dealing with a Spontaneous Caster. Similarly to how they work in 5e, Bards and Sorcerers can’t learn new spells from scrolls and the like. Instead they get a set number of known spells added to their Repertoire as they level up.
These spells can be replaced whenever you level up, so don’t feel like you’re locked into a specific choice. Unlike prepared casters, though, your list of spells known and spells prepared are the exact same. You cannot change them out every day like prepared casters can; you can only change them when you level up, so make sure that you choose your spells wisely.
Unlike Wizards, Witches, or Clerics, Spontaneous Casters always have their spells prepared and don’t need to dedicate specific slots to cast them. Like with 5e, you can use any of the slots you have to cast any spells which you know of that same Rank. This allows Spontaneous Casters more flexibility at the cost less ability to adapt their spells day to day.
All this sounds good and familiar until we start talking about Heightening spells. Simply having a certain spell in your Repertoire isn’t enough to allow you to Heighten it. Each spell added to your Repertoire is only known at a specific Rank which you choose it for. So having a 3rd-Rank Fireball does not allow you to Heighten it to Rank 4. If you want to Heighten a version of a certain spell, you will need to learn it again at that specific Rank. So, if you want to be able to cast Fireball at any level, you would need to dedicate your learned spells to Rank 3 Fireball, Rank 4 Fireball, Rank 5 Fireball, etc.
The exception to this is your “Signature Spells”. Every Spontaneous Caster gets a certain amount of Signature Spells (usually starting at 1) that increase as you level up. These are the spells you plan on using a lot. A Signature Spell allows you to use any spell slot of any Rank to cast it, provided that the spell slot is of the spell’s Rank or higher. So rather than sacrificing several of your precious few learned spells to get Heightened versions of Fireball, you can just choose it as a Signature Spell so that you can always heighten it no matter what. It’s important to bear in mind this doesn’t allow you to downcast (cast a spell at a lower Rank than its base), only Heighten. You can always choose to change out your Signature Spells whenever you level up. You can also learn new spells from the same sources as prepared casters but unlike them, these aren’t added to your list of known spells right away. Instead, you can choose to take these new spells when you next level up. This is important for gaining access to Uncommon and Rare spells.
Spontaneous Casters get more flexibility than Prepared Casters at the cost of being forced to lock themselves into their spells. Think carefully about what spells you plan to use the most and make sure that you add those to your Signature Spell list while leaving the rest to static Ranks. It is usually not worth it to learn multiple versions of the same spell unless you have a very specific build in mind or if that spell has differing effects only at a few Ranks, such as Invisibility.
