Vodoff's page

I am wondering how large of an area of effect a symbol spell can effectively cover. Have seen Full Metal Alchemist, and some make enormous symbols for their transmutation circles (size of city blocks, whole cities, countries, etc.) Question is, how large of an area can a singular symbol spell cover? Can someone make a symbol the size of a city block, and have its effective area be the city block + 60ft burst?

Symbol of Death reads: "This spell allows you to scribe a potent rune of power upon a surface. When triggered, a symbol of death kills one or more creatures within 60 feet of the symbol (treat as a burst)..." So, RAW (and probably RAI) it seems that the area of effect for the spell is the same as a burst spell for a creature, the larger the creature, the larger the effected area (as clarified in https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9t0g.) The casting time is 10 minutes, that is a lot of time to make a symbol (or potentially just fill in the gap of a symbol you mostly finished in preparation). Is there anything wrong with this interpretation of making enormous symbols to increase spell effect?

Question is: when using AToM to make magic items, do you need to have the corresponding item creation feats (like craft wondrous)? Or does the item allow you to bypass this feat-tax?
I haven't done any item-creation in PF1e but from previous threads it is unanimous that AToM can be used to create magic items. RAW/ RAI answers are preferable, please don't say "DM Fiat"

Situation is this: have a huge undead mammoth, suspect that we are going to be going through dungeons at some point, and however you look at it you cannot get a 15x15 creature through a 5x5 tunnel or door normally. Also don't want to leave it outside because that makes it susceptible to DM doing whatever they want to it, like "A roc came and dropped it repeatedly, then took its unmoving corpse away."
How do I a) get a mammoth through a tunnel and into a dungeon (preferable since character is primarily utility focused, mammoth is the only combat ability) or b) store it outside a tunnel in a way that it is not going to be cheesed.

Looking for all ways to get SLA's of effective spell level 2 or greater, whether that be feats, class choice, archetypes, prestige classes, etc.
Ideal situation would be casting any spell you know as a SLA (if such a thing exists). The more versatile the spell choice you can replicate the better. If the spell replicated would otherwise have an expensive material cost, that is great. As an example, Deific Obedience for Urgathoa would be a great suggestion since it provides Animate Dead a 3rd level spell that otherwise would cost many gold in component cost, while Deific Obedience is versatile in that you could have gotten many other spells depending on the deity you chose.

Many spells worth casting have expensive material components that are consumed upon casting (like 5000g of diamond for raise dead). What ways are there to avoid costs like this?
A few weeks back I could have sworn that I stumbled across a feat that allowed you to cast a spell at least 1 level below your highest without spending the material component once a day but now I can't find it for the life of me (may be in some obscure splatbook somewhere.) In my search I found a robe that gives 50gp worth of spell components a day, the basic eschew materials feat, and invested magic to use gold instead of the specific component. Anyone know the feat I am failing to find, or another way to reduce/ ignore spell costs?