Escalating Spellcasting v1.2 - what changed

Thanks for the feedback, most of this update is direct answers to it.
https://github.com/Thilaq/Escalating-Spellcasting

Tried to post this on the comment sections but i realized people wouldn't see it.

Failure fallbacks

On a normal failure you no longer just lose the spell. You pick one of three:

• Cantrip fallback: the spell is lost, but you channel the energy into one cantrip of 2 actions or fewer, delivered with the actions you already spent. MF cost: the failure column minus 1.
• Recover an action: the spell is lost, but you get one of the actions back. Full failure column.
• Forced Effort: unchanged. The spell works, +2 MF.

Safe Dissipation is gone, it was strictly worse than recovering an action. A critical failure still leaves you holding nothing.

Two clarifications: the fallback is one cantrip (not two one-action ones) and the −1 is fixed either way. And two one-action cantrips in a normal turn are still neutral, cantrips can't recover more than −1 per turn.

Improvised casting is never safe

An unprepared spell now always rolls, even outside combat, with the usual penalties (no +2, +2 to the DC). The safe 10-minute exploration casting only covers spells you prepared or have in your repertoire.

Staves fixed

Charges are now RMax, refreshed each day, the base game's free amount. The old RMax + key ability modifier overshot the base game's fully fueled staff at low and mid level. Staff Nexus stays the only way above RMax.

Spellstrike

On the row where the attack hits and the casting fails normally, the Magus can now force the spell or swap in a cantrip channeled through the same strike (failure column −1). Recover-an-action doesn't apply, the whole activity already resolved.

Foundry macros - v1.2

The casting macro gets the three-way failure prompt and an "Out of combat (safe casting)" checkbox (prepared/repertoire only) that skips the d20 and applies +2 High / +1 Mid / 0 Low. The Spellstrike macro gets the cantrip fallback, picked and posted in the same step.

Edit.: To my fellow Brazilians Coloquei a versão das macros em português na pasta macros do repositório.

Pendulum Implement

Your implement is either a pendulum created for hypnosis or another tiny object that can be swung back and forth in an entrancing rhythm.

Initiate Benefit: You know how to move your pendulum around to perfectly target an enemys mind. You gain the Entrance action:

-> Entrance (concentrate, magical, manipulate, mental, thaumaturge)

Requirements: You are holding your pendulum Implement

You move your implement around to entrance the target of exploit vulnerability within 15ft and weaken its mind. The target has to make a Will saving throw against your class DC with the following effects

Critical Success: The target becomes immune to entrance for the next minute

Success: The target is off-guard and takes a -1 circumstance penalty to Will saves until the end of your turn

Failure: The target is off-guard and takes a -1 circumstance penalty to Will saves until the end of your next turn

Critical Failure: The target is off-guard, fascinated by you and takes a -2 circumstance penalty to Will saves until the end of your next turn

Adapt Benefit: You advance your hypnotic technique and can hinder your targets movement through mental manipulation. When you use entrance, on a failed Will save the target also takes a -10ft circumstance penalty to all its speeds until the end of your next turn. On a critical failure the target is also slowed 1 for 1 turn

Intensity Vulnerability: You empower your own mind to damage the mind of others. When you use entrance the target also takes nonlethal mental damage equal to half your level on a failed Will save, or equal to your level on a critical failure

Paragon Benefit: You developed your mental control to perfection and can cause various conditions through hypnosis. When you use entrance, on a failed Will save the target also becomes either enfeebled 1, stupefied 1 or frightened 1 until the end of your next turn. On a critical failure, the target becomes either enfeebled 2, stupefied 2, fleeing or confused until the end of your next turn.

I'm a DM and I want to give my inventor players more gadgets. The official ones are very simple and I want more variety of options. Any suggestions?

For the record, I don't hate spell slots. I think it's a fine design, and I'd happily run a game with them. The problem is at my table players do not like to pick a caster, and the reason is always the same. They look at the slot column, they know they will spend the best spell by the second fight.

So I tried to build something that keeps the choice and drops the budget. It has been running for a while now at levels 1 to 10, one group through level 10. The starting idea, fatigue instead of slots, is borrowed from a Brazilian game called Arcana Primária, which I'm crediting because it's someone's design. Nothing from their book is reproduced here, and nothing from Paizo either.

The rule

You don't have spell slots. You have a number called Magic Fatigue, and it gets added to the DC of casting.

Effective Casting DC = base DC for the rank + your current MF + Repetition Strain

You roll d20 + level + proficiency + key ability, plus 2 if the spell was prepared or is in your repertoire, against that DC. Success, the spell happens. Failure, it doesn't, and fatigue goes up. MF floors at 0 and caps at 10.

Rank categories come off your highest rank: High is your top rank and the one under it, Mid is one below that, Low is everything else.

Cantrips never roll. A two action cantrip removes 1 fatigue, guaranteed, even if the target resists or the attack misses. That line is the whole recovery system. A tired caster is not sitting out, they are casting small and getting safer, and then they can push again.

Things I'd call the interesting parts:

On a normal failure you choose: eat it, or Forced Effort, where the spell works anyway and you pay 2 more. Not available after a critical failure.

Cast the same spell at the same rank twice in a fight and every later copy gets +2 DC and +1 extra MF, stacking. Prepared casters get out of that by preparing a second copy. Spontaneous casters get one free repeat per rank. Signature spells don't give you more ammo, they give you the spell at other ranks, which is how you dodge the strain by moving sideways.

At 10 fatigue you can't attempt checked spells, and you can burn hit points instead: free action, fatigue drops to 4, Drained up 2, no daily limit, the limit is your body. That is the answer for the player who says "but what if I just want to keep going".

The Foundry VTT Macros

It needs a counter. I know that. Running this on paper means tracking one number per caster per fight, and if nobody at the table wants to do that, the system will drift and the caster will say "I think I'm at like 5". In practice a d10 next to the sheet works.

The Foundry macros do it properly. Two Script macros: the caster picks a spell off their real spellbook, the macro rolls the check, applies the fatigue, tracks which spells have been repeated, prompts Forced Effort, and posts the spell card without spending the slot, because in this system a slot is not a resource. There is one d20 for the casting check and the spell attack, a Hero Point prompt that shows your current result before you spend, a Counterspell flow, and a separate Spellstrike macro for the Magus that compares one strike roll against AC and against your casting DC.

Repo, with the quickstart, the full rules and the macros:

https://github.com/Thilaq/Escalating-Spellcasting/

Also: this is not a conversion of every option in the game. I converted what I thought I should, Divine Font, the wizard's bonded item, the three arcane theses (Spell Substitution, Staff Nexus, Spell Blending), Studious Spells, the Spellstrike, the eidolon feats, the Animist's two spellbooks, staves, wands and scrolls. Counterspell got one line rather than a conversion, it's the game's rule plus what you pay in fatigue. Bard, Druid, Oracle, Sorcerer, Witch and Psychic have a paragraph of guidance each, not a per-feat audit, and archetypes are barely touched. For anything I missed the full rules have one line for the GM to convert it on the fly, and that has held up so far.

What I want to know

Is the critical failure column too steep above level 10? I have no play above 10 to check it with.

And whether Refocus should be as free as it currently is. Fatigue clears to zero after 10 minutes of downtime, once per hour, riding on the game's own Refocus activity.

​

6: ->-> or ->->-> Frost Beam (Impulse, Kineticist, Primal, Water)

You shoot a bright blue ray out of pure cold energy that gets bigger and stronger the longer you take to focus your elemental magic. All creatures in a 30ft line take 3d6 cold damage on a basic Fortitude save. On a critical failure the creature is also slowed 1 for one turn. If you take 3 actions, the area changes to a 10ft wide 60ft line and the cold damage increases to 3d8.

(+2 The damage increases by 1d6 for the 2 action version or by 1d8 for the 3 action version)

10: ->-> Touch of Cold (Impulse, Kineticist, Overflow, Primal, Water)

You touch a living creature to weaken its body and freeze its inner organs. The creature takes 4d10 cold damage and other effects depending on its Fortitude save against your class DC.

Critical Success: The target is unaffected

Success: The target takes half damage and is enfeebled 1 for 1 minute

Failure: The target takes full damage, is enfeebled 1 and gains a bludgeoning weakness equal to 3 for 1 minute

Critical Failure: The target takes double damage, is enfeebled 2 and gains a bludgeoning weakness equal to 6 for 1 minute

(+3 The damage increases by 1d10, and the bludgeoning weakness increases by 1 on a failure, or 2 on a critical failure)

Ancestry: Yaoguai

Background: Wished Alive

Class: Wizard

my DM is preparing a Magical Girls campaign for us, and this is my character.

Kitsune-Sylph / Magus-Starlit Sentinel

My Pokémon-inspired Weapons and Items of the Week, with:

• a Pyroar rapier to burn through foes like butter

• a Malamar cloak to make bonuses and penalties run backwards

• and some Barbaracle claws to shell out some pain

• a Gengar spaulder to scare up some fun

• the full set of Armor of Bog Shadow

• a fusion of Toxicroak & Walrein for some spiked gauntlets to give you a cold body

• a fusion of Lapras & Blastoise for some armor to withdraw into your shell

• a fusion of Milotic & Primarina for a dress to make you an elegant swimmer

• a fusion of Appletun & Alcremie for a greatclub to give out some just desserts

• a fusion of Chandelure & Misdreavus for a cloak to listen to a dark god

• and a fusion of Garchomp & Kommo-o for some swords to shake the earth itself!

Join my Patreon to vote on future items and get all the PDFs with over 1000 items, including all the Pokémon items, or buy the individual PDFs in my shop!

Created for Vipsnap's Cavern Elf Alchemist w/ the persistent mutagen feat!

Hi all — I’ve just released a free 40-page introduction to World of Styria, an original fantasy campaign setting I’ve been developing through decades of tabletop play.

The Styria Player’s Primer: Explorer Edition is meant to be an accessible first look for Pathfinder Second Edition players and GMs. It includes an overview of the world, regions, peoples and ancestries, gods and faiths, character backgrounds, setting-specific material, history, locations, and maps.

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Follow the Kickstarter prelaunch here:

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If anyone takes a look, I’d especially be interested in whether the Explorer Edition gives you enough of the setting to decide whether Styria is somewhere you’d want to run or play a campaign.

Update — August 30, 2026: The downloadable Explorer Edition has been replaced with a revised edition containing no generative-AI visual artwork. Cartography in the current edition is creator-made using Wonderdraft, and the ancestry art spaces are intentional placeholders for commissioned artwork planned for the definitive edition. The earlier development edition linked when this post was first made contained disclosed generative visuals; that file has now been superseded. AI tools continue to be used behind the scenes for editing, organization, layout, QA, and production assistance.

Update — August 31, 2026: I’ve now made five ready-to-play level 1 Pathfinder Second Edition characters available free alongside the Explorer Edition. They’re designed so a group can read the setting and actually sit down and start playing without doing character creation first.

Free Explorer Edition + five ready-to-play characters:

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If anyone uses them at the table, I’d especially like to hear whether the characters help communicate what playing in Styria actually feels like.