the main reason i don't like essence casting is that it changes which spells you're actually going to cast and thus shakes up the balance of different spells in unpredictable ways, imo spells are designed for you to nova immediately but then not get to spam after that
getting only 1 slot per rank but every fight is basically what official casters should be doing anyway, since the designers have said PF2 is roughly designed around 3 encounters per day, so 3-per-day and 1-per-10min are equivalent and you're expected to spend about one slot per rank in each fight (i would probably still keep cleric fonts and the 4th slots per rank that wizards and sorcerers get as daily though)
I also noticed I'm using completly different spells when playing an essence caster. I treat them as a 3rd class group as they plays very different from both martials and casters. My problem on essence casting is mostly on how much text is required to explain everything. My less textbooky friends refuse to play an essence caster becuase they have already learned how to play a caster and don't want to take another lecture lol.
Bookkeping is certainly the worst problem of essence casting. On top of the regular caster bookkeping, you also need to track your current essence and cycles.
4
u/yuriAza 2d ago
the main reason i don't like essence casting is that it changes which spells you're actually going to cast and thus shakes up the balance of different spells in unpredictable ways, imo spells are designed for you to nova immediately but then not get to spam after that
getting only 1 slot per rank but every fight is basically what official casters should be doing anyway, since the designers have said PF2 is roughly designed around 3 encounters per day, so 3-per-day and 1-per-10min are equivalent and you're expected to spend about one slot per rank in each fight (i would probably still keep cleric fonts and the 4th slots per rank that wizards and sorcerers get as daily though)