I'm just curious as to what one would pick for their bonus spell per level (has to be divination, right?). I'm considering changing the conjurer building into one, but I'm looking through the list and not seeing a whole lot that I would want to memorize (as opposed to just cast from a scroll).
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You don't get bonus spells known -- you get an extra slot to memorize a spell in, and it has to be divination. You have the slot, you might as well use it. That said, these are divination spells I've often found useful to cast:
1 - true strike (at any level), anticipate peril (at high levels, where you can cast it well before combat begins)
2 - detect thoughts (for interrogations), see invisibility (any level), blood transcription (always nice to make a scroll of something you don't already know)
3 - arcane sight, clairaudience/clairvoyance, tongues
4 - arcane eye (advance scouting), detect scrying (esp. at higher levels), scrying
5 - prying eyes, telepathic bond, contact other plane (as a downtime spell)
6 - analyze dweomer (aka detect everything), true seeing, legend lore (as a downtime spell)
By the time you get to the higher levels, you'll have an idea what you want and how to use it. Yes, many divination spells work just as effectively from scrolls as from your memory, but many of them have saving throws or casting-level-dependent durations, and so would be more effective coming from you.
Divination is probably considered the strongest arcane school due to the bonus to initiative it gives the wizard (from "Forewarned").
There's a lot of useful divination spells:
1st: Identify, True Strike, Comprehend Languages
2nd: Detect Thoughts, See Invisibility, Commune with Birds
3rd: Seek Thoughts, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Aura Sight
4th: Arcane Eye, Scrying
5th: Contact Other Plane, Telepathic Bond
6th: True Seeing, Telepathy, Legend Lore
7th: Scrying, Greater
8th: Discern Location, Prying Eyes, Greater
9th: Foresight
Aggree with that list. I really love Telepathic Bond and Instant of Prescience.
Divination doesn't have a lot of spells and most of them might be circumstancial but the bonuses for specializing as a Diviner are great and some spells are really worth it. If you pick some metamagic to increase the levels of the spells you can prepare a metamagically modified spell as your divination of the day for that level so it doesn't hurt so much having some circumstancial spells.
I've played a weird diviner Eldritch Knight and I've never had to complain about not having a decent divination to prepare for each level.
Still: Make sure you don't force yourself into a role you don't like. It's totally valid to not like certain playstyles. Maybe your GM will allow you to try a diviner for 1 or 2 sessions, with the option to change seemlessly afterwards?
Go for a Diviner foresight wizard and win the game, no matter what bonus spell you select, because the bonuses are just that good.
Now for the spells:
1: Anticipate peril: initiative bonuses are awesome.
2: See invisibility: no sane wizard goes out without this one.
3: Perfect placement or clairaudience/clairvoyance or Arcane sight
4: Arcane eye (especially if you already cast arcane sight/see invisible on yourself). You can also select Scrying when the scenario calls for it or once you reach level 9.
5 : Prying eyes or telepathic bond
6: True seeing: must have spell.
7: Arcane sight, greater: you win actions by not spending useless ones.
8: Almost all spells are must have here. Prediction of failure is a boss killer, Moment of prescience your "get out of death" card and greater prying eyes lets you escape ambushes in dungeons.
9: Not much choice here indeed. Foresight.
I know the special ability is super, but I'm seeing the spells being generally super situational or having little benefit over casting from a scroll. The diviner works (probably a little better than a conjurer) with a concept I have in mind, but if I'm not getting decent mileage out of the extra spell per level, that's going to bug me.
If it helps, I'm playing a samsaran with mystic past life and will likely choose the witch list. I was thinking of taking augry for funsies. Maybe there's other div spells there that a wiz can't access otherwise?
Also, what about oppositions to go with a witchy fortune teller theme? My conjuror was going to go with necromancy and evocation, but I think necromancy would add to the theme.
I'm in a Rise of the Runelords campaign with an Arcanist with the Foresight school (picking up the school through an archetype). Prescience and Forewarned are so strong, I am going to dip a level of Wizard just for these on my trip fighter (well, and for True Strike, which is way better for a fighter than a wizard anyway).
As for spells, the level one and two bonus spells were ok but Clairvoyance and Arcane Eyes have both been very strong. Being able to effectively scout out dungeon rooms at distance can be really, really good to let you approach situations better. The only downside is casting time, you need to be in a safe place for 10 minutes for those spells or an hour for scrying.
My RiftWarden in Wrath of the Righteous was built from a Foresight Wizard.
One important thing about divination magic: it is not so much powerful in combat, as in preparing for combat ahead of time. (There are exceptions: a lot of spells that change one's perceptions are very good in combat, depending on the situation -- but a lot of divination spells are no good in combat, though very good if cast to allow better preparation beforehand.)
tonyz is right, my favorite wizard I ever played was a diviner elf, he was not the only arcane spellcaster in the group. The other was a sorcerer that focused on damage spells, so I played the sage that could get the group past problems without blowing everything up; leaving dead bodies in every room.
It was cool to play a character that had solutions to problems outside of "we should kill it and look for it's treasure."