Does this wording work for a hyper-focused spellcaster that just knows their entire list?

Question

For a homebrew project, I am creating a class that has an extremely small and focused spell list, and members of this class just know all their spells (assuming they have enough levels in the class). Does this wording work for that?

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

Your spell list is extremely focused: you learn all of the 1st-level ~ spells at 1st level, and you simply learn each of the other ~ spells at the levels where the ~ table indicates a ~ first gains spell slots of the appropriate spell level. These spells are described in the Player’s Handbook.

^{Where “~” is a placeholder for the name of the class (capitalized, in the case of the reference to its table).}

Suppose the table includes something like

The ~

Level	…	1st	2nd	3rd
1st	…	2	—	—
2nd	…	3	—	—
3rd	…	4	2	—
4th	…	4	3	—
5th	…	4	3	2

The goal is for the class to learn all the 2nd-level spells on their list when they hit 3rd level in the class, and all of the 3rd-level spells on their list when they hit 5th level in the class, and so on. I’m not including a Spells Known column in the table. I want this to continue working correctly even if they are a multiclassed spellcaster—that is, a “~ 2nd/wizard 6th” would have 2nd- and 3rd-level spell slots, but they would only know the 1st-level spells from this class (just as with other spellcasting classes) since they are only 2nd level in it.

I’m reasonably sure that the wording I’ve used covers this, and correctly describes what’s supposed to happen. I believe it’s about as concise as is reasonable for accomplishing that goal. I also think it’s fairly clear. But I’d like to double-check all of that before moving forward. I don’t plan to include an explicit example in the write-up.

Also, suppose I use this same wording on a class that doesn’t get any spell slots at 1st level, but they do get Ritual Casting and the spell list does include some 1st-level rituals. Does this wording (with its explicit reference to 1st level) cover that situation, and allow members of the class to cast those rituals as rituals even before they have spell slots? This would, of course, require that the Spellcasting ability be listed among those gained at 1st level, rather than 2nd or 3rd as is the case for most such classes. Does this interfere with the usual multiclass spellcaster rules?

Answer 1

This reminds me of how land circle Druids have circle spells...so treat it the same way and just list them.

Whizbangs don't choose spells, instead they always gain the spells listed when they reach the corresponding Whizbang level.

1st: Foo, Bar

3rd: Baz, Biz

Answer 2

We can be more concise.

You mention conciseness as a desirable quality, and I think we can improve upon what you have:

Spell Known of 1st Level and higher

You know all ~ spells of each level for which you have spell slots.

And this works with multiclassing since the mutliclassing rules state:

You determine what spells you know and can prepare for each class individually, as if you were a single-classed member of that class.

Now, in my experience, we cannot assume that a reader will remember or even be aware of this rule from the multiclassing section, so I would recommend including a sidebar or section outlining the relevant multiclassing rules, much like the "Multiclassing and the Artificer" section of the Artificer class description.

Now, this does not cover the case for a class that gets 1st level spell slots after 1st level, while still allowing it to cast 1st level rituals at 1st level, but this is easily patched by wording the Ritual Casting feature of the Spellcasting section as follows:

Ritual Casting

You can cast a ~ spell as a ritual if that spell has a ritual tag. Beginning at 1st level, you know all 1st level ~ spells with a ritual tag.

Answer 3

The wording certainly works

I just don't see any real way to misinterpret or misapply the wording you've chosen. It is very thorough. That said, I would personally simplify it quite a lot:

Your spell list is extremely focused: You always know all the ~ spells for which you have spell slots.

Because spells known are determined individually for each class, this alone covers any problems that can arise from multiclassing.