How many spells from Illusion Savant at 3rd level?

Quote from Squirrelloid >>

 You're explicitly allowed to choose level 2 spells, so it doesn't matter what slots you have at the moment you get the feature.

 At the moment you get the feature you're level 3.

How many spell slots you have at level 3? The Wizard Features table shows 4/2.

Wizard Features

					——Spell Slots per Spell Level——
Level	Proficiency Bonus	Class Features	Cantrips	Prepared Spells	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1	+2	Spellcasting, Ritual Adept, Arcane Recovery	3	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2	+2	Scholar	3	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3	+2	Wizard Subclass	3	6	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

a level 3 Wizard has four level 1 spell slots and two level 2 slots.

Quote from Squirrelloid >>

 While that would be clearer, it's not logically necessary, as your bold text only restates what is already naturally meant by "whenever".

Contrast "Thereafter, whenever you gain access to a new level of spell slots in this class,..."  This limits the scope of whenever to only apply after third level (because the previous sentence tells you to do something at 3rd level, so thereafter causes this sentence to only possibly trigger on subsequent levels).

At the very least, barring text clarifying one way or the other, can we at least agree the rules do not explicitly say one way or the other.  (I don't think 'whenever' is ambiguous, but I'm willing to agree there could have been clarifying text strengthening the natural reading of 'whenever').

I can agree it's not 100% explicit. However, I can't agree with any other part of your premise. It's still clear to anyone not trying to twist the rules for any miniscule advantage they can gain that this doesn't apply on the same level you gain the ability. 

This twisting of rules is munchkin behavior, which is always wrong.

Quote from Athanar90 >>

Quote from Squirrelloid >>

 While that would be clearer, it's not logically necessary, as your bold text only restates what is already naturally meant by "whenever".

Contrast "Thereafter, whenever you gain access to a new level of spell slots in this class,..."  This limits the scope of whenever to only apply after third level (because the previous sentence tells you to do something at 3rd level, so thereafter causes this sentence to only possibly trigger on subsequent levels).

At the very least, barring text clarifying one way or the other, can we at least agree the rules do not explicitly say one way or the other.  (I don't think 'whenever' is ambiguous, but I'm willing to agree there could have been clarifying text strengthening the natural reading of 'whenever').

I can agree it's not 100% explicit. However, I can't agree with any other part of your premise. It's still clear to anyone not trying to twist the rules for any miniscule advantage they can gain that this doesn't apply on the same level you gain the ability. 

This twisting of rules is munchkin behavior, which is always wrong.

When they say "whenever", i assume they mean 'every time this event occurs'.  That's not twisting because that's what the word means.  Everyone else is reading limitations into it that are not in the text.

And considering the given game mechanical defenses of the alternate reading so far have to do with assuming the process for physically updating a character sheet both includes updating existing features at a step it doesn't say to do so, and then assuming that the consequent ordering based on imagining that into the rules reflects some "real" in-game sequencing (even though its a process for recording information on your character sheet, not a process for gaining things in-game from leveling), that's a pretty weak defense of that alternate reading.

But jump to whatever conclusions you like.  Odds are, I'll probably DM for a character using it long before I ever play it.  I'm here to interpret text.  I've heard the alternative view's arguments, and I find them exceptionally unconvincing because they lack textual support.

Quote from Squirrelloid >>

Quote from TarodNet >>

Yeah, the Dev was explaining the book, reading and interpreting the rules as written. You can take it or not, Squirrelloid, but if the Lead Designer explains it that way, why not believe him?

His intention in the interview may not have been the intention when it was written.  Nor do I think human memory is infallible.  If it was not written down (and that writing being read from), who knows what their intention was 6 months earlier when the passage was actually written?

And being the lead designer doesn't make him the only designer.  Design on a multi-author project is design by committee.  He likely didn't even write the rule, so he probably had no intention regarding it at all.  He's communicating his understanding, not his intention.  And he uses a key word that whomever did write it did not use and that would have substantially changed the meaning of the passage.

I don't need his understanding.  I have the words that were published.  If they don't match his understanding, that's him being wrong.

As an official promotional video, this was likely scripted and therefore not as vulnerable to the normal failings of human memory. It was prewritten, reviewed, and approved. It is clear RAI and the words published match his statements in the way we have described and you are deliberately ignoring it. You don't have to accept RAI as the end to the argument on its own, but when it is consistent with the argument presented by the rest of the forum and you still refuse the RAW evidence.

Quote from Squirrelloid >>

You're just so horribly wrong here on pretty much everything, because you're confusing a walkthrough for writing things on your character sheet with an in-game mechanical description.  You receive all your features immediately on gaining a wizard level.  Step 3 is not "Receive New Class Features", it's "Record Class Features", that is, write them down on your character sheet.  But you got them automatically when you chose the wizard level (ie, you already received them, you just need to write them down).

Step 3 is "Make any choices offered by a new feature."

After Step 2, you are a level 3 Wizard and not yet an Illusionist.

RAW is that you gain two level 1 or 2 Illusion spells on becoming an Illusionist and one more illusion spell at Wizard levels 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17. These extra spells after level 3 will be upgrades to your existing Illusion Savant feature and not a new class feature. 

Quote from Squirrelloid >>

You're confusing a walkthrough for physically updating your character sheet with an in-game mechanical description of how leveling up works.  These are not the same thing.

You are confusing an ordered list of steps with a nonsequential list.

Gaining a Level

When you gain a level, follow these steps:

1. Choose a Class. Most characters advance in the same class. However, you might decide to gain a level in another class using the rules in the “Multiclassing” section later in this chapter.

...

3. Record New Class Features. Look at your class features table in “Character Classes”, and note the features you gain at your new level in that class. Make any choices offered by a new feature.

"Follow these steps" followed by an ordered list. Where it matters, the sequence listed here prevents ambiguousness. If you ignore the sequential list of steps, you still become a level 3 Wizard and gain 2nd level spells before you can receive the Wizard Subclass feature and choose to be an Illusionist. 

Quote from Squirrelloid >>

And you're wrong about the ordering in step 3.  Bullet points are not the only way to say you can do things in any order - doing a list of things in any order is the default in English, even if they're in separate sentences.  (And stylistically, no one uses bullet points for a list of two things, ever.  It would be poor writing).  If there was an order, it would use an ordering word like "then" or "next" (or "first", "second" for each substep).  If i'm heading to the grocery store, and I'm asked to "Get milk.  Stop by the deli counter and get some lunch meat. Don't forget the eggs." that's not an ordered list.  I don't need to get those things in that order, despite being separate sentences.  Indeed, the milk and eggs are probably near each other, while the deli counter could be on the other side of the store.  I can do those things in any order.

Your example would be the appropriate use of an unordered bulleted list not a numbered one. If it can be done in any order, it is by definition an unordered list.

You should only use a numbered list when the numbers matter. If the steps are not sequential, the numbers don't matter. If they said perform the following 5 steps, that would change things slightly because you would expect to see 5 steps and you could use either numbered (to show that there were 5 steps) or with a list of 5 bullets. Even then, if the numbers are not important, you should default to a bulleted list.

They did not say "follow these 5 steps". The fact that they said, "follow these steps" and then followed it with a numbered list with no other indication that the numbers are relevant means grammatically, this is a sequential list. You can argue that it is not RAI, but it is RAW.

RAW is:

• gaining a level is a sequential list
• the level of spell slots you have access is determined by your Spellcasting Feature and is not a Class Feature on its own
• you gain your 2nd level Wizard spells before you gain any 3rd level Wizard Class or Subclass Features
• a 3rd level Illusionist adds two Illusion spells to their spellbook from Illusion Savant and no more until 5th level

After all this I'm mostly just confused as to why you reckon it should give you one level 1 and two level 2 spells? Seems like a weird distribution to me, surely if there was an intention of 3 bonus spells, they'd give you two level 1s, since they're weaker.

Apart from that, my general opinion is that if you have to squint at the wording this hard to make your weird result work, and have to convince like five people of it over a forum (and have so far not successfully convinced any of them), it's probably not the intended reading.

Quote from deffdefying >>

After all this I'm mostly just confused as to why you reckon it should give you one level 1 and two level 2 spells? Seems like a weird distribution to me, surely if there was an intention of 3 bonus spells, they'd give you two level 1s, since they're weaker.

Apart from that, my general opinion is that if you have to squint at the wording this hard to make your weird result work, and have to convince like five people of it over a forum (and have so far not successfully convinced any of them), it's probably not the intended reading.

 Funny how that works with some readings and not others...

But seriously, in the writers' desire to make certain things easier on players, they ended up with language that isn't completely unambiguous. In this case, it just goes back to that decision of "everyone has to get their subclass at level 3." Had they kept wizards at level 2 for subclass, the new Savant would have been "Choose one level 1Wizard spell from the X school and add it to your spellbook for free." The second paragraph would be unchanged.