This may be just a thought experiment, but it came out of a discussion after our last campaign.
Rather than primary casters, 3 of us had martial casters. Built primarily for martial combat, but still (nearly) full casters.We had an eldritch knight, a cleric, and a druid. For the second half of the campaign, we found we rarely used more than 1/4th of our spells on a given day. Almost none of the low level ones were used. We were just casting things like endure element, cure light wounds, honeyed tongue, and bless on random people just for the heck of it.
Since we were primarily built for martial combat, we didn't usually use offensive spells. Normally we didn't know about a fight far enough in advance to cast a bunch of buff spells OR casting said spells would alert our targets. So other than a few long term buffs that we already had up, we would each usually just cast a single buff spell then get to the swinging of weapons.
So we started thinking about those few long term buff spells that we almost always used. Mage armor, long strider, magic vestments, greater magic fang, and so on.
Can you make an effective martial caster that mostly uses just those long term buffs and uses a lot more of them? For one thing, some of them might let you reduce costs on some of your magic items. Putting that gold toward other nice things. If you always cast magic vestments on your armor (and maybe shield), you might be able to get away with never buying magic armor (or shield). If you always use greater magic fang, do you really need the amulet of mighty fists? Etc...
What are the best long term buffs? What class spell list has the largest list of useful long term buffs? Especially the hour per level ones. But even the 10 minute per level ones can often get you through 2+ fights once you get into the mid to high levels.
Does this work? Has anyone already tried it? How would you build it if you were going to make the attempt?
Druidwise:
Taluv never got out of bed before casting ant haul and longstrider. Later, so long as we weren't expecting to traipse down the street with conspicuous bubbles of not-dirty, life bubble on the entire party became a daily ritual and saved our butts at least twice when we unexpectedly came up against vaporous hazards.
On the order of an hour or two instead of all day, you've already noted endure elements, but protection from energy and resist energy stack and can save you from surprises. Guess the most likely threats before entering Ye Donjon and cast prior to entering.
Not so druidwise, for the more paranoid character or party, nondetection is a must to keep the bad guys from spying on you or to keep you from triggering certain magical alarms. There are many more, but apart from Taluv I haven't played a full caster for the long term so others will likely have better advice there.
It's been done with clerics mostly. Ideally with a domain which gets the heroism spell. Magic vestment and greater magic weapon are the standout buffs, but there's others including magic circle vs. evil (10 min/level), resist energy (10 min/level) and there are some recent spells like ashen path (10 min/level, communal) and bestow planar infusion n (hour/level, on other planes only).
BTW you almost certainly won't have any 3rd or 4th level spell slots free ever. Once it becomes obvious that you can do this the demand gets...high.
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Clerics and Druids are both considered Tier 1 casters. Both are good at combat, but their spells can really rule the battlefield. That said....
Get Pearls of Power to save slots on repeat castings like Magic Vestment.
Tears to Wine is a medium term skill buff for when you need Int or Wis skills.
Get a Rod of Extend [lesser] or two, to double the duration of these buffs.
Lucky Number can be cast at the end of the day to give a possible die improvement once in the next 24 hours.
Eaglesoul is another long term spell that can kick into overdrive in special circumstatces.
Defending Bone can prevent up to 50 hp of damage.
Rags to Riches can buff multiple magic weapons for 10 min/level.
A Sanctified Shield can give a help to AC for a spare channel at the end of the day. Good until hit or 24 hours. Only +100 gp.
A Charm of the Thriceborn lets you use one random number from three pre-rolled d20s instead of rolling a d20. Only 2400 gp and slotless. Since you know the three numbers, you could save it for that needed save it they are all sufficiently high.
A Charm of Fate, at 5000 gp, can be a life saver for saving throws.
/cevah
.... and I am dotting Cevah's list^^ Thank you for consolidating it here, I have read those but hadn't kept them all in mind.
Here's some more my cleric has for end-of-day casting:
1 Ant Haul -- good use for that open slot
1 Endure Elements -- good use for that open slot
2 Lay Of The Land -- up to +5 & treat as trained for K(geography)
2 Restful Cloak -- more healing; works on the living, constructs and the undead
3 Martyr's Last Blessing -- when you fall, others are healed
4 Bountiful Banquet -- Free food that sates for a day; no more rations
4 Revenant Armor -- prevents helpless for fallen characters, and allows others to move the fallen from a distance
6 Heroes' Feast -- start the day with temp hp and +1 morale on attack for 12 hours
7 Control Weather -- don't ask the weatherman; be the weatherman
7 Create Demiplane, Lesser -- safe place for several days
/cevah