Can I swap out a Bloodline spell if I keep a heightened version?

Question

Sorcerers with the Nymph bloodline get Calm Emotions, which is a good spell, but has the Incapacitation trait, so

any creature of more than twice the spell’s level treats the result of their check to prevent being incapacitated by the spell as one degree of success better

This means that most likely it useless in every slot but your highest. A 10th level Sorcerer certainly would not need or want it as a 2nd level spell. However, Sorcerers get very few spells, so it makes sense that you want to know the hightened version only.

You cannot swap out bloodline spells, but does this refer to the exact level of the base spell, or does it mean that you have to keep Calm Emotions in a level?

A workaround would be to make it my signature spell, but if I do not want it in 2 different levels, I certainly do not want it in all levels.

(Do not get stuck on Nymph and Calm Emotions, a Demonic Sorcerer would similarly want Fear as a 3rd level spell instead of a 1st level one)

Answer 1

Unfortunately, no

The section on Spell Repertoire is pretty clear that your Bloodline spells are untouchable.

You add to this spell repertoire as you increase in level. Each time you get a spell slot (see Table 3–17), you add a spell of the same level to your spell repertoire. When you gain access to a new level of spells, your first new spell is always the spell granted by your bloodline, but you can choose the other spells. [...] As you gain new spells in your spell repertoire, you might want to replace some of the spells you previously learned. Each time you gain a level and learn new spells, you can swap out one of your old spells for a different spell of the same level. This spell can be a cantrip, but you can't swap out bloodline spells. You can also swap out spells by retraining during downtime.

And this makes some design sense because Sorcerer's actually get one more spell known (except Cantrips) and spell slot for each spell level than any other spellcaster such as Bards, Oracles, and even prepared spellcasters such as Wizards.* One assumes this extra spell is the Bloodline spell.

*Most spellcasting classes have some way of casting more spells than their spell slot table, such as Wizards' Arcane Bond, but those have their own restrictions and they are not simply +1 to each spell level.

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A GM could still allow this (it's a pretty reasonable request, in my opinion) but the guidance given on retraining suggests that it should be some kind of protracted, difficult accomplishment.