RAW question: [Reserve] feats and constrained spontaneity

[rrwoods]

I'll just kick it off with a specific example: A druid of at least 7th level has the Summon Elemental feat, and no summon spells prepared. Can they activate Summon Elemental, because they have a summon spell "available to cast" via the spontaneous casting class feature?

More generally, for classes that have the ability to cast a selection of spells spontaneously, are those spells considered "available to cast" for the purposes of activating [Reserve] feats?

(I'm primarily interested in a RAW discussion here. I have my own thoughts already on how I'd run this at my own table.)

EDIT: My take is this: "available to cast" is not a shorthand for "prepared, or known and with a slot open, whichever is appropriate"; it literally means "available to cast". Since it's possible for me to cast such a spell, I have one "available to cast". In fact, if there were a hypothetical item allowing me to cast such a spell (not as an SLA but actually cast it), that would also meet the stated condition.

[Khedrac]

You haven't read enough of the text on page 37 of Complete Mage:

A spellcaster who prepares spells each day (such as a wizard) must have an appropriate spell prepared and not yet cast that day. If the character has more than one appropriate spell prepared and uncast, she gains the benefit only from the highest-level spell; she can't gain multiple benefits, or stack benefits, by preparing more than one appropriate spell.
A spellcaster who does not need to prepare spells (such as a sorcerer) must know an appropriate spell and must have at least one unused spell slot of that spell's level or higher. If the character has more than one appropriate spell known, he gains the benefit only from the highest-level spell for which he has an unused spell slot of that level or higher.
A druid who has swapped the ability to spontaneously cast SNA spells quite clearly counts as a prepared caster and needs a spell memorised.
With the spontaneous SNA feature, it's less clear as they are still a prepared caster so by one reading the prepared caster test still applies.
If you argue that they are a spontaneous caster for SNAs, then the spontaneous caster text applies and they still do not quality as they have no unusued spell slots (unless they left one empty - which is weird as they cannot use that slot to spontaneously cast a SNA).

Personally I think the druid remains a prepared caster despite their ability to sacrifice spells for SNA, but either way the text is clear and they need to qulaify on one of the two specified ways.

So, the only way for a druid to qualify without a memorised spell would be if they had an unusued spell slot, and that's dodgy at best.

[KillianHawkeye]

The rules state:

The primary benefit can only be activated if the caster has a spell of an appropriate variety (of a particular school, subschool, or descriptor) available to cast. The definition of "available to cast" depends on whether the character prepares spells or casts spontaneously from a list of spells known.

A spellcaster who prepares spells each day (such as a wizard) must have an appropriate spell prepared and not yet cast that day. If the character has more than one appropriate spell prepared and uncast, she gains the benefit only from the highest-level spell; she can't gain multiple benefits, or stack benefits, by preparing more than one appropriate spell.

A spellcaster who does not need to prepare spells (such as a sorcerer) must know an appropriate spell and must have at least one unused spell slot of that spell's level or higher. If the character has more than one appropriate spell known, he gains the benefit only from the highest-level spell for which he has an unused spell slot of that level or higher.

The text in Complete champion is pretty much the same, although it swaps Wizard for Cleric and Sorcerer for Favored Soul. Neither text specifically mentions classes with situational spontaneity, such as a Cleric with cure/inflict spells or a Druid with summon spells.

By strictest RAW, I believe a Cleric or Druid cannot count their spontaneous ability because they are both classes that prepare spells. Thus, they must follow the prepared spells restriction given in the second paragraph in the quote above. Their ability isn't technically to cast spells spontaneously, but rather to spontaneously convert prepared spells into other spells when cast.

In practice, I think it's probably fine to treat their ability to convert prepared spells spontaneously as though they were a spontaneous spellcaster with regard to those spells, and allow them to follow the rules for spontaneous casters with the applicable feats. I would certainly say that a Druid with remaining spells has the ability to cast a summoning spell available to him, but that's not how the reserve feat rules really define it. YMMV.

[rrwoods]

Did not realize there was general text that applied to all [Reserve] feats. I tend to look up the text of the feat itself -- and in this case, the one I was actually concerned with was Touch of Healing, which isn't even in Complete Arcane! -- and miss the generally-applicable stuff. Thanks for the response :)