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I am going to make a "utility staff" which will contain a buttload of utility spells, but which ones?
Therefore I would like to know what YOU think are the top 10 utility spells in Pathfinder, in order of importance (1 being the best).
Unseen Servant (1st)
Read Magic (0th)
Prestidigitation (0th)
Dispel Magic (3rd)
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (3rd)
Tiny Hut (3rd)
Blink (3rd)
Shrink Item (3rd)
Polymorph (4th)
D.Door (4th)
Major Creation (5th)
Disintegrate (6th)
I'm over ten but those are the quick ones.
Unseen Servant (1st)
Read Magic (0th)
Prestidigitation (0th)
Dispel Magic (3rd)
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (3rd)
Tiny Hut (3rd)
Blink (3rd)
Shrink Item (3rd)
Polymorph (4th)
D.Door (4th)
Major Creation (5th)
Disintegrate (6th)I'm over ten but those are the quick ones.
Disintegrate is a utility spell??
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Disintegrate is a utility spell??Unseen Servant (1st)
Read Magic (0th)
Prestidigitation (0th)
Dispel Magic (3rd)
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (3rd)
Tiny Hut (3rd)
Blink (3rd)
Shrink Item (3rd)
Polymorph (4th)
D.Door (4th)
Major Creation (5th)
Disintegrate (6th)I'm over ten but those are the quick ones.
Yeah. It's like Passwall, but it works on a Wall of Force.
Prestidigitation
Floating disk
Unseen Servant
Knock
Darkvision
Phantom steed
Tongues
Tiny hut
Shrink item
Arcane eye
Break enchantment
Major creation
Fabricate
True seeing
Discern location
Time stop
Wish
More than 10, I know and in no particular order since it is all subjective (one man's #1 may be another ones #10)
see invisibility
fly
spiderclimb
I am going to make a "utility staff" which will contain a buttload of utility spells, but which ones?
Therefore I would like to know what YOU think are the top 10 utility spells in Pathfinder, in order of importance (1 being the best).
Alter self: Blend in, swim/breath under water as needed
Beastshape?: Fly, hide, become unobtrusive, or turn into a fighting machine
Summon monster: Need an ability? Don't have it? Phone a friend.
Fabricate: because the dm said that stone boat would NEVER work.
Unseen servant: It cleans, it mends, it makes any skill check at a 10. Also fun to turn yourself invisible, hand it an item and tell it to walk away from you
Secure shelter/tiny hut/magnificient mansion: Few buildings can't be improved by the addition of another story on top of them.
web: slow enemies, make a ladder, catch falling comrades
charm person: Anything you can do... someone else can do better. Make them do it.
Grasping hand
Telekinesis
wall of stone: trap enemies or make a house.
No love for make whole? It's pretty circumstantial so you wouldn't memorize it every day, but sometimes you *really* need it. Someone burnt/shattered/sundered the maguffin? Make whole. You only found part of the crucial map? Make whole. That journal explaining what that lich was seeking all those years ago hasn't aged well? Make whole.
I'm also a big fan of stone shape, especially if you can convince your GM that when you cut a hole in the wall you're really only acting on a 1 inch thick strip the depth of the wall and the length of the perimeter of your new door, not the entire volume of the hole. Then you just push the plug out of the way, and you still have it to put back later.
I'll agree with knock, fabricate, and major creation. For utility spells, I think of spells that act on objects, obstacles, or information, not the combat spells that may simply be of limited use.
I divide utility spells more into groups. It's good to have at least one of each group, but you may not need more than one.
You need some way to travel (Mount, ghost steed, dimension door, teleport).
You need some way to rest safely (Rope trick, tiny hut, magnficent mansion).
You need some way to find things (Locate object, Scrying, Arcane Eye).
You need a way to get past/move obstacles (mage hand, knock, passwall, telekinesis).
You need a way to either fix or make tools or other objects (mending, make whole, major creation, fabricate).
Having spells that can do anything you need it to are also useful (prestidigitation, major image, summon monster, wish).
Obviously, you won't be able to do all these things at low level, but by mid-levels you should be able to cover most of these, at least with scrolls. In fact many of these are better covered by scrolls than memorized. Only if you know you are going to be casting the spell every day should you bother with memorization. (Having a scroll of knock is nice, in case you ever come across something the rogue can't get through, but otherwise let the rogue shine and do their thing.)
Disintegrate is a utility spell??
Absolutely. It destroys 10x10x10 feet worth of material -- or its equvilent -- that's 1,000 cubic feet of dust. All sorts of doors are opened by this -- even magical ones.
Grease + Prestidigitation
I want what you got utility.
So that we can better answer your question
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.
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What class is the character?
What level is the character?
What level spells are you interested in?
What do you mean by "utility" spells?
- Spells you cast outside of combat
- Spells you cast regularly and don't ever want to run out of
- Spells you cast in combat, but only in special situations
Greetings, fellow travellers.
For what class will the staff be made? Second question: which spells are "allowed"? (Almost) Everybody jumped for arcane spells - what about divine magic?
IMO, utility is makes life in camp/while travelling easier:
Ruyan.
What class is the character?
What level is the character?
What level spells are you interested in?
What do you mean by "utility" spells?
- Spells you cast outside of combat
- Spells you cast regularly and don't ever want to run out of
- Spells you cast in combat, but only in special situations
The character will likely be based around the staff. :P
I'm looking for spells that will be useful to adventurers outside of combat. Specifically the types of spells you absolutely must have to get through a given situation, but that deal with situations that just don't come up often enough to be worth preparing in the normal fashion.
If you would absolutely want to have a scroll or wand of X spell for when said situation does come up, it's likely a good candidate for this staff.
Chosen spells can be any level, but as a rule of thumb, lower level spells are preferred (makes the staff cheaper and more easily recharged/replaced).
Ok. Let me try again - since I've taken a liking to your idea and we only play with core material - here is my new list:
For divine magic:
Ruyan.
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (3rd)
Clairvoyance/Clairaudience is horrible. Really, really horrible. Because of the relatively short range and the TEN MINUTE casting time.
Please remove it from your list and put in something like Scrying or Prying Eyes instead.
I cannot believe only one person has mentioned grease!
No one's mentioned one of my favourites: Levitate. It's the poor man's Fly and Telekinesis all rolled into one!
Ditto for Floating Disc. :-)
Greetings, fellow travellers.
For what class will the staff be made? Second question: which spells are "allowed"? (Almost) Everybody jumped for arcane spells - what about divine magic?
IMO, utility is makes life in camp/while travelling easier:
prestidigitation
unseen servant
mage hand
read magic
mending
create water
feather fall
tiny hut
alarm
mount Ruyan.
So far the only serious answer I've seen in this thread. And Evil Lincoln is correct, add Grease to the list. I would personally add Spark (APG), Dancing Lights, or Light, and Endure Elements to the staff. (Read Magic not needed, and Create Water not arcane.)
Don't forget, most staffs have charges, not just spells. Thus a higher-level spell would use 2 or 3 charges compared to a low-level spell. The 0-level spells could be "free X times per day", if you don't go crazy. You can also add ability buffs or saving buffs to the wielder of the staff.
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I'm looking for spells that will be useful to adventurers outside of combat. Specifically the types of spells you absolutely must have to get through a given situation, but that deal with situations that just don't come up often enough to be worth preparing in the normal fashion.
Since most seem to be going arcane, here is a list of divine spells that are needed in certain situations, but useless to prepare on speculation (Think divine swiss army tool):
wind walk
water breathing
remove deafness/blindness
remove curse
remove fear
speak with dead
calm emotions
shatter
stone shape
I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but I'm at work ATM and can't think of any more.
I'm looking for spells that will be useful to adventurers outside of combat. Specifically the types of spells you absolutely must have to get through a given situation, but that deal with situations that just don't come up often enough to be worth preparing in the normal fashion.
Since most seem to be going arcane, here is a list of divine spells that are needed in certain situations, but useless to prepare on speculation (Think divine swiss army tool):
wind walk
water breathing
remove deafness/blindness
remove curse
remove fear
speak with dead
calm emotions
shatter
stone shapeI'm sure I'm forgetting some, but I'm at work ATM and can't think of any more.
That looks like a good start to me.
Greetings, fellow travellers.
For what class will the staff be made? Second question: which spells are "allowed"? (Almost) Everybody jumped for arcane spells - what about divine magic?
IMO, utility is makes life in camp/while travelling easier:
prestidigitation
unseen servant
mage hand
read magic
mending
create water
feather fall
tiny hut
alarm
mount Ruyan.
Excellent list!
But remember, feather fall is only an immediate action when you cast it yourself. From a staff, it is still a standard action to activate a magic item and that might be enough to exclude it from the item.
I am going to make a "utility staff" which will contain a buttload of utility spells, but which ones?
Therefore I would like to know what YOU think are the top 10 utility spells in Pathfinder, in order of importance (1 being the best).
Here's a question.. if this isn't a wizard's bonded object, wouldn't you be better off with multiple staves rather than one staff with only 10 charges?
Divide the staff spells into a reasonably used one paired with two almost never used spells that you charge 5charges or so for. Likewise group them by level (roughly) so that you can keep costs down.
The economics of staff creation go against making one staff with many spells as they all pool in the same number of charges.
-James
Putting it all in one staff can be far cheaper than putting them in separate staves. Sure, having 30 charges among three staves is nice, but once you run out of said charges, you can only refill 1 charge out of those 30 each and every day anyways.
I'd just as rather save the money to be put elsewhere (such as more spells) and refill the staff each day like usual.
Putting it all in one staff can be far cheaper than putting them in separate staves. Sure, having 30 charges among three staves is nice, but once you run out of said charges, you can only refill 1 charge out of those 30 each and every day anyways.I'd just as rather save the money to be put elsewhere (such as more spells) and refill the staff each day like usual.
I think that if you worked on it that you would find that you could do better with multiple staves.
That is unless you know that your campaign with NEVER have down days allowing you to 'catch up' on staff charges (or allow you to hire an NPC to put a charge into one of your staves).
Let's say that you have a 6th level spell in your 'utility' staff. Then the caster level for ALL the spells is going to have to be at least 11th. Sure after the first two spells you are paying less percentage-wise, but you're still paying nearly 150% of what you need to pay for 4th level spells and under.
And this is BEFORE you look into putting 'top' level spells at multiple charges.
I would give this some more thought and work out the math a bit. At the very least you are looking at having triple the reserve by trying it out my way. If it ALSO winds up being cheaper then its a win-win. If it's slightly more expensive, then you can say it's not worth Xgp to be able to cast these spells 20times more before having to recharge.
-James
Good point. I hadn't considered the cost of a lower caster level.
I'll throw out Find the Path,
not as potent as it once was but still a great "Man we are stuck how do we get to X place; or get out of the labyrinth of the lich-king Magor" as the spell still says "appropriate physical actions" it also mitigates a fair few physical traps.
My list, geared more for a spellcaster trying to be sneaky.
Grease
Unseen Servant
Silent Image
Darkness
Silence
Make Whole
Command Undead
Charm Monster