Does the Svirfneblin Magic feat use spell slots?
The description of the Svirfneblin Magic feat states:
You have inherited the innate spellcasting ability of your ancestors.
This ability allows you to cast nondetection on yourself at will,
without needing a material component. You can also cast each of the
following spells once with this ability: blindness/deafness, blur,
and disguise self.You regain the ability to cast these spells when you finish a long
rest.
I think I understand 'innate' as meaning it doesn't need to be in the spellbook/prepared because it's a racial feat for Deep Gnomes, but I'm not sure if that also means whether or they use a slot when cast.
Best Answer
At will indicates you do not need spell slots.
The rules for cantrips help clarify this language of “at will”:
To be clear, the spells from the Svirfneblin Magic feat are not cantrips, but the rules for cantrips give us a clear understanding of what “at will” means with respect to spellcasting.
This is also obvious from the fact that being a spell caster is not a requirement of taking the feat. If the feat required using slots for casting the spells, it would list that as a requirement in some way. The Eldritch Adept feat from UA 2020: Feats, while not official material yet, gives an example of how this would look:
This feat would be totally useless to classes without spell slots, unless you can cast the spells without them.
Innate Spellcasting means it doesn’t use spell slots
In the Monster Manual, the Innate Spellcasting trait is given a definition for NPCs:
In contrast, the regular Spellcasting trait is described as follows:
Now, you aren’t an NPC, but this demonstrates the common rules understanding of Innate Spellcasting: no spell slots necessary.