A Yaddithian's Cosmic Mind ... Writing New Spells into Your Mind

[Miss Disaster]

In Bestiary 6, there's a PC race presented called the Yaddithians (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/more-races/race-points-unknown/yaddithian-characters/). They have an interesting racial trait called Cosmic Mind (Ex) which has this text in it:

" ... A yaddithian spellcaster who would store spells in a spellbook or familiar instead stores those spells in its mind (but must expend the normal resources to learn new spells)."

So correct me if I'm wrong here, but does this mean that a Yaddithian Wizard still has to pay the cost for writing a new spell into its spellbook (depending upon the level of the spell)?

[JNAProductions]

Correct entirely.

[Miss Disaster]

Thank you!

I was earlier trying to figure out how many RP (racial points) such a trait would be worth using Paizo's rather-awful RP system .... and I sorta tapped out. Cosmic Mind is kinda like having an infinite number of Spell Mastery feats ...

[icefractal]

It's a neat ability, but not a super-powerful one. In most campaigns it's more of a ribbon ability (targeting spellbooks is rare IME) and has downsides (can't trade spell access, can't share book with other wizard in party, can't use cheaper methods like Secret Page).

So, probably 1-2 RP, IMO?

Does this suggest that Spell Mastery should have a larger amount and/or give other benefits? I guess it does. I haven't seen people take it often.

[Serafina]

Yeah, Spell Mastery is a great feat to have if your GM actually targets your spell book.
But as mentioned, in most campaigns that doesn't happen anyhow.

If you take Spell Mastery for a scenario where you can't access your spell book, but can retrieve it later - such as being imprisoned - you'll likely want a handful of specific spells anyhow, to escape that situation and retrieve your spell book.
This suggests that all Cosmic Mind does in that situation is provide you with a lot of spells you don't need in that situation (e.g. while you sneak out of prison you'll use Invisibility, but not Fireball, so you wouldn't use Fireball for Spell Mastery and get nothing out of having it via Cosmic Mind). And relieve you of the burden of having to choose such spells, of course.

At most I'd price it as high as a feat, because you only get one racial choice and using yours on not needing a spell book is arguably a higher investment than spending a feat, of which you get a bunch, even in campaigns where that ability actually matters.

[Miss Disaster]

Thanks for both of your replies, icefractal & Serafina. Those are interesting perspectives.

Cosmic Mind definitely gets a lot more interesting if you are playing 3.P. Because then you have some powerful interactions with 3.5's Uncanny Forethought feat.

If you add in some 3PP material to your 3.P game, you can access Cosmic Mind as a feat via the Emulate Another feat located in the 2E Alliance Player Guide from 3.5-compatible Warcraft campaign setting.

***

(On a related side-note:)

I've noticed over the years that there's a ton of 3.X and PF1e add-on support for making the Spell Mastery feat a useful feat. Because, yeah, it's a troublesome feat in that standalone, it's just a feat that gives you mediocre protection against a jackass DM who wants to nitpickingly target your resources.

On that note, I have homebrewed a number of Spell Mastery feat variants over the years that upped it's utility, made it a viable above-average option ... while still not making it a top-tier feat. For example, one option was to give you the standard benefit of Spell Mastery. Plus, select a number of your chosen Spell Mastery spells equal to 1/2 your Intelligence modifier (rounded down). Those selected spells can be cast at +1 Caster Level.

Other options were to give the Wizard with Spell Mastery more and useful "swap-out" options. Ultimately, Spell Mastery could be made into a more useful feat by blending in some additional options from a severely-nerfed Uncanny Forethought feat.