Do you only have room for one?
From what I've heard, there are less creatures with blanket resists/immunities than before. As such, you would likely do well to have both produce flames and ray of frost.
That way, you have a decent chance to hit a lot of creatures' weaknesses.
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Arc lightning is the best by far.
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Xenocrat has a really good analysis of cantrip effectiveness in this thread.
As a druid, which is the best cantrip to go to at the first couple levels in your opinion? Thoughts on wild morph claws or shillelagh (with club)?
Strength 16
Wisdom 18
"best" depends on what you want.
Electric Arc is a solid multi-target attackProduce Flame has ranged and melee options + persistent damage
Acid Splash can target an object
ray of frost has a 120' range and can slow the target
Myself, I'd take Electric Arc, Produce Flame and Ray of frost for attack cantrips.
As for Wild Morph [claws], 1d6 slashing (agile, finesse) weapons are ok but not exciting as you're better off just attacking with a spear on your first attack but it could be useful on attacks after that but as a main weapon it's meh...
shillelagh is a free magic weapon for a min: that's all good.
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Electric Arc actually overperforms significantly whenever it jumps to a second target, which should be most of the time. I think if you were to only pick two attack cantrips it should be Electric Arc and Produce Flame (PF is the only melee option and is also the most common weakness).
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It's going to be a major paradigm shift to see fire as a common weakness instead of "the thing 2/3 of the bestiary resists".
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It's going to be a major paradigm shift to see fire as a common weakness instead of "the thing 2/3 of the bestiary resists".
Fire is both a very common weakness and a very common resistance, so I think people are going to see it as a great element to have on hand but a poor choice for your primary thing if you're focusing on one.
Gone are the days of bending over backwards to make Fireball into any other element though, so that's nice.
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Acid Splash does (drumroll) splash damage now, so it is extra effective against swarms.
More interestingly, swarms no longer have the "no single target spells" effect as a standard ability, so the other cantrips can also work on them. Given that most swarms do have resistances to physical weapons, that's a good thing to have!
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I notice ray of frost is being overlooked. With 4 times the range of other cantrips and a slow effect, it's great for staying at range if needed and requires less set-up than the 30' cantrips. It's why I suggested it with electric arc and produce flame: the three get you long range, multi-attack and melee options.
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Electric Arc has the most damage potential (assuming you can hit two enemies most of the time), PLUS it does half damage even on a save.
Acid splash does splash damage and adds persistent damage on a crit, PLUS it can target objects so it adds utility-- dissolve a rope to drop a chandelier on an enemy's head, or burn though locked doors and chests.
Both pair well with Reach metamagic since they're only 30' range.
If your feats are tied up elsewhere though, Ray of Frost gets you 120' range and adds a speed penalty on a crit.
Produce Flame can be a melee attack, but i'm not sure what the advantage of that is-- melee attacks don't provoke AOOs, but casting the spell still does provoke, since it has a Somatic component. what am i missing?
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Elf with Electric arc and a longbow. Each round, Zap em with the arc and shot em with the bow and get no MAP since Elec Arc has no attack roll.
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Produce Flame can be a melee attack, but i'm not sure what the advantage of that is-- melee attacks don't provoke AOOs, but casting the spell still does provoke, since it has a Somatic component. what am i missing?
It can benefit from flanking and otherwise count as a melee attack, which is relevant in a few different ways.
Produce Flame can be a melee attack, but i'm not sure what the advantage of that is-- melee attacks don't provoke AOOs, but casting the spell still does provoke, since it has a Somatic component. what am i missing?
Flanking bonuses to hit for your spell roll (and your ally if you're not wearing a gauntlet or otherwise holding a weapon).
Also AOO are a lot less common and if you know your target has already used theirs up for the round its pretty risk free.