1. Magic Mechanics & Feat Changes

Sneak Attacks and Criticals with Spells

Any spell that has an attack roll can be used as a sneak attack and is subject to critical hits. We do not recognize the later Paizo FAQ that disallowed beyond the first sneak attack or critical hit on spells that grant more than one attack roll per casting. So long as the spell requires attack rolls in the casting per attack (eg, Scorching Ray, Chill Touch, etc), each attack roll is eligible as a sneak attack so long as the intended target meets conditions for the sneak attacks and each attack roll can potentially score a critical hit if the creature targeted is susceptible to critical hits.

Banned Feats

Arithmancy, Calculating Mind, and Sacred Geometry are all flat-out banned. Given the fact that there’s more than one online calculator which does the math for you, and these break the cardinal rule of PnP that you don’t make a player rely on their own OOC aptitude for IC actions, all these feats do is add extra time (both IG and real time) for free magic boosts.

Metamagic Feats and Spontaneous Casters

Applying a metamagic feat to a spontaneous caster’s spell does not increase its casting time. They already have a limited spell selection, for gods sake. It does, however still consume a commensurate higher level slot if applicable.

This directly affects the Arcanist with the Metamixing exploit. The new verbiage of  Metamixing is as follows:

Metamixing (Su)
The arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to add a single metamagic feat that she knows to a spell at a level adjustment one level lower than the feat would normally apply (minimum +0 level adjustment). This applies to only one metamagic feat applied to the spell — thus, an Extended, Empowered spell would have a total level adjustment of +2 (1+2=3-1=2). She can also use this ability to add a metamagic feat to a spell that she prepared using a metamagic feat, or trade out the prepared feat for another, although she cannot add the same metamagic feat to a given spell more than once.

Any other traits, features or feats that would normalize longer casting time for spontaneous casting with metamagic should also consider their verbiage changed to affect the metamagic level adjustment by 1 accordingly.

Heighten Spell

Does not exist as a feat. Any spellcaster can prepare a spell in a higher level slot, or using a higher level spell per day if casting spontaneously, and all results depending on a higher spell level (save DC, spell penetration, immunity bypass etc.) are calculated based on the spell level at which the spell is cast. Note that since Heightening is no longer a metamagic feat, the above changes to Metamixing do not reduce the added slot cost for casting a spell at a higher level.

Familiar Bond

Because Paizo made it a three feat investment to get a full familiar outside of having a class feature but said it was perfectly okay for one deity’s followers to gain the best familiar in the game for one feat:

Familiar Bond
You have learned a ritual that allows you to gain a familiar.

Prerequisite(s): None

Benefit(s): You gain a familiar, as the wizard arcane bond class feature. Your wizard level for determining the familiar’s abilities is equal to your character level -4.

Special: If you have (or later gain) levels in a class that grants a familiar, whenever you select a familiar, you can base your familiar’s abilities on your total character level with this feat.

Improved Familiar Bond is no longer needed, and you can bump your effective wizard level to full hit dice with Boon Companion.

Feats with edited mechanics:

Elemental Spell (Metamagic)

You can manipulate the elemental nature of your spells.

Prerequisite: Spellcraft 5 ranks

Benefit: At the time of casting, you may replace a spell’s normal damage with one of the following energy types: acid, cold, electricity, or fire. You may also choose to split the spell’s damage, so that half is of that energy type and half is of its normal type. 

You may do this a number of times a day equal to the bonus for your caster ability. An elemental spell does not use up a higher-level spell slot than the spell’s actual level.

Natural Spell

Prerequisites are “13+ in primary casting ability and either Change Shape racial feature, or Wildshape class feature”. Natural shapechangers can gain the benefit of this feat, and flexible casting stat allows for not-druid casters.

Special: If you have a secondary casting class, spell-like abilities et al, keyed on a different stat that’s not 13+, you cannot use the benefits of natural spell with those spells.

Selective Spell (Metamagic)

Your allies need not fear friendly fire.

Prerequisite: Spellcraft 10 ranks, any other metamagic feat

Benefit: When casting a selective spell with an area effect, you can choose a number of targets in the area equal to the ability score modifier used to cast the spell. These targets are excluded from the effects of your spell for its duration.

Level Increase: +1 (a selective spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level.)

Because excluding duration spells is dumb, and if it isn’t too OP for Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, it’s not too OP for our tabletop.

New Magic Feats

Close Spell (Metamagic)

You can hold your ranged touch charges in your hand.

Prerequisite: Spellcraft 5 ranks

Benefit: You can deliver ray spells that feature a ranged touch attack as melee touch spells. If you use a ranged touch attack spell that targets more than one creature (such as scorching ray), you can continue to hold the charge of the spell after delivering the first touch for successive melee touch attacks (similar to Chill Touch) until the number of attacks is expended, or until another spell is cast. A touch spell does not use up a higher level spell slot than the spell’s actual level.

Feytouched Wild Shape (General)
Feat adapted from Planar Wild Shape

Prerequisite: Wild shape class feature, Knowledge (nature) 5 ranks.

Benefit: When you use wild shape to take the form of an animal, you can expend an additional daily use of your wild shape class feature to add the feytouched creature template to your animal form. If your form has the feytouched template and you score a critical threat against an aberration or undead while using your form’s natural weapons, you gain a +2 bonus on the attack roll to confirm the critical hit.

Practiced Spellcaster (General)
Added from Complete Arcane (3.5)

Choose a spellcasting class that you possess. Your spells cast from that class are more powerful.

Prerequisite: Spellcraft 4 ranks,

Benefit: Your caster level for the chosen spellcasting class increases by +4. This can’t increase your caster level beyond your HD. However, even if you can’t benefit from the full bonus immediately, if you later gain noncaster-level HD you may be able to apply the rest of the bonus. For example, a human 5th-level cleric/3rd-level fighter who selects this feat would increase his cleric caster level from 5th to 8th (since he has 8 HD). If he later gained a fighter level, he would gain the remainder of the bonus and his cleric caster level would become 9th (since he now has 9 HD). A character with two or more spellcasting classes (such as a bard/sorcerer or a ranger/druid) must choose which class gains the feat’s effect. This does not affect your spells per day or spells known. It only increases your caster level, which would help you penetrate SR and increase the duration and other effects of your spells.

Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you choose it, you must apply it to a different spellcasting class. For instance, a 4th-level cleric/5th-level wizard who had selected this feat twice could cast cleric spells as an 8th-level caster and wizard spells as a 9th-level caster.

Sculpt Spell (Metamagic)
Added from Complete Arcane (3.5)

You can alter the area of your spells.

Prerequisite: Spellcraft 10 ranks, any other metamagic feat

Benefit: You can modify an area spell by changing the area’s shape to either a cylinder (10-foot radius, 30 feet high), a 40-foot cone, four 10-foot cubes, a ball (20-foot-radius spread), or a 120-foot line. The sculpted spell works normally in all respects except for its shape. For example, a lightning bolt whose area is changed to a ball deals the same amount of damage, but affects a 20-foot-radius spread. A sculpted spell uses a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level.

Summoning and Associated Feats

The below are revisions to the summoning feats, to cull the tax and added bloat and simplify summoning builds:

• Augment Summoning: The prerequisite for this feat can be either Spell Focus (conjuration) or Sacred Summons. if you qualify for the feat with Sacred Summons, it also counts in place of Spell Focus (conjuration) for higher feats that have Augment Summoning as a prerequisite.
• Expanded Summon Monster: No longer exists as a feat. Any creature that appears in the Expanded Summon Monster list is considered part of the Summon Monster list.
• Evolved Summon Monster: is broken, complex with no real clear answers to how and which evolutions may apply to summons, and summoned creatures don’t need to be stronger; thus, this doesn’t exist in our campaign.
• Nimble Natural Summons: No longer has an alignment restriction, or a deity restriction. All druids should be able to reap the benefits of the feat investment.
• Sacred Summons: Any divine caster can take this feat, since our house rule for FR is that all divine casters have an aura, and this feat opens up deity specific summons to the caster (if available), not just clerics.
• Spell Focus (Conjuration): Now reduces casting time for summon spells from a full round to a standard action, similar to Sacred Summons, as its arcane counterpart.
• Summon Evil/Good/Neutral Monster: No longer exist as a feat, and the creatures on these lists are available to a caster of the appropriate alignment, the added benefits of each given feat no longer apply.
• Superior Summoning: To clarify, summons an additional monster when you summon “more than one” means when you choose a monster that has a random possible number of them, if you roll a 1 on a 1d3, you still get the additional one.

To make it easier to reference all the various combined monster lists, Nethys has a master list that you can reference all the monsters by spell level. For the deity specific summons, we can adapt from Golarion deities to a Faerun equivalent.

Also note: there are a ton of individual and small selection summoning spells now (summon barghest, et al) that are listed as having no alignment descriptor and no restrictions for who might summon them. In our setting it absolutely matters what alignment these summoned creatures are and these spells are typed accordingly, and have the same ramifications and stipulations as summoning similarly aligned outsiders via the summon monster spells.