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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Chapter 7: Spells

Focus Spells

Source Core Rulebook pg. 300 4.0
Focus spells are a special type of spell attained directly from a branch of study, from a deity, or from another specific source. You can learn focus spells only through special class features or feats, rather than choosing them from a spell list. Furthermore, you cast focus spells using a special pool of Focus Points—you can’t prepare a focus spell in a spell slot or use your spell slots to cast focus spells; similarly, you can’t spend your Focus Points to cast spells that aren’t focus spells. Even some classes that don’t normally grant spellcasting, such as the champion and monk, can grant focus spells.

Focus spells are automatically heightened to half your level rounded up, just like cantrips are. You can’t cast a focus spell if its minimum level is greater than half your level rounded up, even if you somehow gain access to it.

Casting any of your focus spells costs you 1 Focus Point. You automatically gain a focus pool of 1 Focus Point the first time you gain an ability that gives you a focus spell.

You replenish all the Focus Points in your pool during your daily preparations. You can also use the Refocus activity to pray, study, meditate, or otherwise reattune yourself to the source of your focus magic and regain a Focus Point.

Some abilities allow you to increase the Focus Points in your pool beyond 1. Typically, these are feats that give you a new focus spell and increase the number of points in your pool by 1. Your focus pool can’t have a capacity beyond 3 Focus Points, even if feats that increase your pool would cause it to exceed this number.

Refocus

Concentrate Exploration 
Source Core Rulebook pg. 300 4.0
Requirements You have a focus pool, and you have spent at least 1 Focus Point since you last regained any Focus Points.
You spend 10 minutes performing deeds to restore your magical connection. This restores 1 Focus Point to your focus pool. The deeds you need to perform are specified in the class or ability that gives you your focus spells. These deeds can usually overlap with other tasks that relate to the source of your focus spells. For instance, a cleric with focus spells from a good deity can usually Refocus while tending the wounds of their allies, and a wizard of the illusionist school might be able to Refocus while attempting to Identify Magic of the illusion school.

Focus Points from Multiple Sources

It's possible, especially through archetypes, to gain focus spells and Focus Points from more than one source. If this happens, you have just one focus pool, adding all the Focus Points together to determine the total size of your pool. (Remember that the maximum number of Focus Points a pool can have is 3.) If you have multiple abilities that give you a focus pool, each one adds 1 Focus Point to your pool. For instance, if you were a cleric with the Domain Initiate feat, you would have a pool with 1 Focus Point. Let's say you then took the champion multiclass archetype and the Healing Touch feat. Normally, this feat would give you a focus pool. Since you already have one, it instead increases your existing pool's capacity by 1.

Focus Points are not differentiated by source; you can spend any of your Focus Points on any of your focus spells. Likewise, when you Refocus, you get back a point as long as you follow the guidelines of any abilities that granted you focus spells. Having Focus Points from multiple sources doesn't change the tradition of your spells; if you had both cleric domain spells and druid order spells, your domain spells would remain divine and the order spells primal. This could mean that you need to keep track of a different proficiency and ability modifier with the spell DC and spell attack roll of different focus spells.

Spellcasters with Focus Spells

Source Core Rulebook pg. 302 4.0
If you are a spellcaster, your focus spells are the same tradition of spell as the class that gave you the focus spell. A bard’s are occult, a cleric’s are divine, a druid’s are primal, a wizard’s are arcane, and a sorcerer’s are determined by their bloodline.

Non-Spellcasters with Focus Spells

Source Core Rulebook pg. 302 4.0
If you get focus spells from a class or other source that doesn’t grant spellcasting ability (for example, if you’re a monk with the Ki Strike feat), the ability that gives you focus spells also provides your proficiency rank for spell attack rolls and spell DCs, as well as the magical tradition of your focus spells. You gain the ability to Cast a Spell and use any spellcasting actions necessary to cast your focus spells (see below). However, you don’t qualify for feats and other rules that require you to be a spellcaster.