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Characters of spellcasting classes can cast a certain number of spells each day; the spells you can cast in a day are referred to as spell slots. At 1st level, a character has only a small number of 1st-level spell slots per day, but as you advance in level, you gain more spell slots and new slots for higher-level spells. A spell’s level indicates its overall power, from 1 to 10.

Prepared Spells

If you’re a prepared spellcaster—such as a cleric, druid, or wizard—you must spend time each day preparing spells for that day. At the start of your daily preparations, you select a number of spells of different spell levels determined by your character level and class. Your spells remain prepared until you cast them or until you prepare spells again.

Each prepared spell is expended after a single casting, so if you want to cast a particular spell more than once in a day, you need to prepare that spell multiple times. The exceptions to this rule are spells with the cantrip trait; once you prepare a cantrip, you can cast it as many times as you want until the next time you prepare spells.

You might gain an ability that allows you to swap prepared spells or perform other aspects of preparing spells at different times throughout the day, but only your daily preparation counts for the purpose of effects that last until the next time you prepare spells.

Spontaneous Spells

If you’re a spontaneous spellcaster—such as a bard or a sorcerer—you choose which spell you’re using a spell slot for at the moment you decide to cast it. This provides you with more freedom in your spellcasting, but you have fewer spells in your spell repertoire, as determined by your character level and class. When you make your daily preparations, all your spell slots are refreshed, but you don’t get to change the spells in your repertoire.

Heightened Spells

Both prepared and spontaneous spellcasters can cast a spell at a higher spell level than that listed for the spell. This is called heightening the spell. A prepared spellcaster can heighten a spell by preparing it in a higher-level slot than its normal spell level, while a spontaneous spellcaster can heighten a spell by casting it using a higher-level spell slot, so long as they know the spell at that level (see Heightened Spontaneous Spells below). When you heighten your spell, the spell’s level increases to match the higher level of the spell slot you’ve prepared it in or used to cast it. This is useful for any spell, because some effects, such as counteracting, depend on the spell’s level.

In addition, many spells have additional specific benefits when they are heightened, such as increased damage. These extra benefits are described at the end of the spell’s stat block. Some heightened entries specify one or more levels at which the spell must be prepared or cast to gain these extra advantages. Each of these heightened entries states specifically which aspects of the spell change at the given level. Read the heightened entry only for the spell level you’re using or preparing; if its benefits are meant to include any of the effects of a lower-level heightened entry, those benefits will be included in the entry.

Other heightened entries give a number after a plus sign, indicating that heightening grants extra advantages over multiple levels. The listed effect applies for every increment of levels by which the spell is heightened above its lowest spell level, and the benefit is cumulative. For example, fireball says “Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 2d6.” Because fireball deals 6d6 fire damage at 3rd level, a 4th-level fireball would deal 8d6 fire damage, a 5th-level spell would deal 10d6 fire damage, and so on.

Heightened Spontaneous Spells

If you’re a spontaneous spellcaster, you must know a spell at the specific level that you want to cast it in order to heighten it. You can add a spell to your spell repertoire at more than a single level so that you have more options when casting it. For example, if you added fireball to your repertoire as a 3rd-level spell and again as a 5th-level spell, you could cast it as a 3rd-level or a 5th-level spell; however, you couldn’t cast it as a 4th-level spell.

Many spontaneous spellcasting classes provide abilities like the signature spells class feature, which allows you to cast a limited number of spells as heightened versions even if you know the spell at only a single level.

Magical Traditions

Spellcasters cast spells from one of four different spell lists, each representing a different magical tradition: arcane, divine, occult, and primal.

Your class determines which tradition of magic your spells use. In some cases, such as when a cleric gains spells from their deity or when a sorcerer gets spells from their bloodline, you might be able to cast spells from a different spell list. In these cases, the spell uses your magic tradition, not the list the spell normally comes from. When you cast a spell, add your tradition’s trait to the spell.

Some types of magic, such as that of most magic items, don’t belong to any single tradition. These have the magical trait instead of a tradition trait.

Arcane

Arcane spellcasters use logic and rationality to categorize the magic inherent in the world around them. Because of its far-reaching approach, the arcane tradition has the broadest spell list, though it’s generally poor at affecting the spirit or the soul. Wizards are the most iconic arcane spellcasters, poring over tomes and grimoires, though arcane sorcerers study the secrets of their blood to unlock the power within themselves.

Divine

The power of the divine is steeped in faith, the unseen, and belief in a power source from beyond the Material Plane. Clerics are the most iconic divine spellcasters, beseeching the gods to grant them their magic. Divine sorcerers can use the blood of their celestial or fiendish ancestors as a divine conduit, and champions call upon their gods to grant them martial prowess through divine guidance.

Occult

The practitioners of occult traditions seek to understand the unexplainable, categorize the bizarre, and otherwise access the ephemeral in a systematic way. Bards are the most iconic occult spellcasters, collecting strange esoterica and using their performances to influence the mind or elevate the soul, and occult sorcerers strive to understand the mysterious power in their blood.

Primal

An instinctual connection to and faith in the world, the cycle of day and night, the turning of the seasons, and the natural selection of predator and prey drive the primal tradition. Druids are the most iconic primal spellcasters, calling upon the magic of nature through deep faith and a connection to the plants and animals around them, and primal sorcerers call upon their fey or beast blood to harness the same natural energies.

The Four Essences

Spells that affect certain physical or metaphysical forces tend to be grouped into particular magical traditions. Scholars of magic widely agree that all of existence is composed of some combination of four essences, though they disagree on the names and particular qualities of each essence.

The following entries discuss each essence and the traditions and spell schools relevant to it; for instance, evocation spells tend to manipulate matter. The abjuration school is an unusual case, as abjuration spells draw upon different essences depending on who they are warding and what they are protecting against.

Matter

Also called body, material essence, or physical essence, matter is the fundamental building block that makes up all physical things in the universe. The arcane and primal traditions are especially attuned toward manipulating and shaping matter. Spells that are used to create or alter matter most often come from the conjuration, evocation, or transmutation schools.

Spirit

Also called soul, ethereal essence, or spiritual essence, spirit is an otherworldly building block that makes up a being’s immaterial and immortal self. The spirit travels through the Ethereal Plane and into the Great Beyond after the death of the physical body. The spirit is most easily affected by divine and occult spells. Spirit spells are usually of the divination or necromancy schools.

Mind

Also called thought, mental essence, or astral essence, the mind essence allows thinking creatures to have rational thoughts, ideas, plans, logic, and memories. Mind touches even nonsapient creatures like animals, though in a more limited capacity. Arcane and occult casters usually excel at mind spells. Spells that use mind essence are usually found in the divination, enchantment, and illusion schools.

Life

Also called heart, faith, instinct, or vital essence, life represents the animating universal force within all things. Whereas matter provides the base materials for a body, life keeps it alive and well. This essence is responsible for unconscious responses and belief, such as ancestral instincts and divine guidance. The divine and primal traditions hold power over life. Life spells are usually necromancy.