Web => Control
Invisibility => protection & makes the rogue your best friend
Glitterdust => control & makes the rogue your best friend
See Invisibility => detects enemy wizards
Resist Energy => protection
Detect Thoughts => investigation
Scorching Ray => burn
Mirror Image => protection
Alter Self => disguise + other things
Gust of Wind => push enemies away, works well on swarms
Knock => when your rogue friend is not here
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In no particular order:
-Glitterdust (Memorize it every day, use it to blind enemies or counteract invisibility as the situation warrants)
-Mirror Image (Life saving spell. Seriously.)
-Bull's Strength (+4 Str to your meat shield Barbarian or Fighter. He will love and protect you for this alone.)
-Resist Energy (It comes up.)
-Invisibility (Dear Gods yes. So very, very, useful.)
-Alter Self (Handy in a dozen different ways.)
-Flaming Sphere (You mentioned blasting. If you're gonna deal damage, doing it every turn for several rounds is the way to go, and serves as a control spell to boot.
-Web (Trapping people is very, very, good.)
-Pyrotechnics (Versatile, effective, and fun.)
-Protection From Evil, Communal (Assuming nobody else has it. Gives the whole PC group protection from possession and mind control, as well as a +2 AC bonus. Very nice.)
Everyone has pretty much said what I would, the only thing I would add is Bear's Endurance. Assuming everyone is 3rd level, this spell is like a 6 HP healing spell. At higher levels most fighters will have a belt to increase CON, but the you the wizard may not, so it can be a self buff, and improves your weak Fort save to boot.
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Hm... you dropped Necromancy which honestly has a lot of good spells in it, so leaving it off I would suggest some of the following:
Haunting Mist: Obscuring fog, but with wisdom damage and the shaken condition attached.
Mirror Image: An oldie but a goodie as seen by the number of people recommending it.
Pyrotechnics: So this one can blind your enemies, or it can create a smoke screen that gives a -4 penalty to strength and dexterity with no spell resistance. It also damages fire subtype creatures it is cast on and will stay centered on them so they can't run away from it.
Rope Trick: This is a control and defensive spell -- you got an extra-dimensional space you can shoot out of and it's off the ground while providing total concealment -- not a bad deal at all. What's best is you can also fall back to it if you want later on in the day.
glitterdust: Another oldie but goodie -- blinding your foes and outlining them is always a nice combination.
Burning Arc: Out of the second level blasting spells this one is fairly nice. It hits multiple opponents but isn't an AOE so you don't have to worry about hitting your allies. The damage and DC reduces for each additional target, but you get caster level in d6's for the primary target. Could be a nice spell to use the persistent metamagic on.
See Invisibility: Seeing the ethereal isn't as useful as it once was, but seeing invisible creatures is and the duration is nice too.
Stone Call: Limited damage so that sucks, but there is no save or SR and it creates difficult terrain afterward which is very nice for breaking charge lines and slowing down creatures.
Fiery Shuriken: You get up to 8d8 of fire damage to either focus or disperse over multiple targets as you see fit. You can even choose if you want to save some for later, and you get a chance for a critical hit (while not provoking for making ranged attacks which is another benefit over spells like acid arrow and scorching ray).
Resist Energy: You won't often cast this in combat, but for environmental worries, or if you know what you are fighting it is a nice little spell... however I really prefer the communal version in the next level.
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For me, Create Pit, and its brothers Spike, Acid, and Hungry, are some of my favorite spells. For starters, anyone who fails their Reflex save (and can't fly/teleport/etc.) takes a few d6 and is out of combat for a little while. But that's thinking small; there are a wealth of battlefield control options.
First, even if they make their save, there's a 10x10 hole and a 20x20 "danger zone" - the 5 ft around the edge of the pit - where they might fall in if they end their turn. That's a pretty big obstacle for people to go around. Second, there are a million ways to get enemies to fall in - have your teammates or summoned creatures Bull Rush (earth elementals are good for this); use Hydraulic Push or Telekinesis; scoop them up with Aqueous Orb and dump them; hit them with a Battering Blast or Force Punch... the list goes on. And once you have more spell slots, you can use Staggering Fall (basically the inverse of Feather Fall) to make it even more effective. Not to mention that once they're down there, any kind of summoned creature or multiple other effects can stop them climbing out and basically just ruin their life. Or what's left of it, at least.
They get less useful when everything gets alternate modes of transport, but are still my favorite battlefield control option.
Other than that, another thing I'm fond of that hasn't been mentioned yet is Dust Wall. It grants cover without denying line of sight/line of effect, so it hurts enemy archers; anyone going through it is slowed down by difficult terrain and potentially blinded for a round; and to top it off, you can move it 20ft as a move action, meaning chances are your enemies will have to walk through multiple times.
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Primary spells:
1 Create Pit - enemy control, obstacle and damage in one
2 Glitterdust
3 Mirror Image
4 Flaming Sphere - at lower levels only
Alternative spells for opposition schools:
4 Blindness-Deafness (necro)
4 Hideous Laughter (enchantment)
Contingent Spells:
5 Bears Endurance - as a pseudo healing spell to get the healer up now!
6 See Invisibility
7 Darkvision
8 Resist Energy (though unlikely to want this in PFS)
9 Alter Self - the go any environment, be anything spell
Might consider depending on party and campaign:
10 Create Treasure Map
10 Darkness - if your caster or several party members have natural darkvision and you encounter a lot of humans
10 Rope Trick
Notes:
-Generally I recommend first level Vanish rather than second level Invisibility - most of the benefit for a fraction of the resource use.
- Nowadays replace contingent web (requires anchor points) by create pit (only requires ground)
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For me, Create Pit, and its brothers Spike, Acid, and Hungry, are some of my favorite spells.
Create Pit is definitely the new go-to spell. I would definitely take the level 2 and level 5 versions - Create Pit and Hungry Pit.
I would avoid Spiked Pit but only because its too soon after and too similar to Create Pit - and there are way too many nice 3rd level spells to choose from already. Create Pit is the stand out spell at level 2. Spiked Pit has lots of competition at level 3.
Also I avoid Acid Pit because it melts all their (magic) gear - and pit spells aren't dismissable to stop it doing that - which will make you unpopular with other players - and might ruin faction missions in PFS.
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Pfft, I'm a Wizard, I don't care about gear. My teammates want it, they can climb down and get it. :P
I think my favorite version is Spiked Pit - it deals a lot more damage, has a higher climb DC so a lot of things will be down there longer, and most of all its max depth is 50 ft, not 30 ft.
PS: There's not much that's more fun than waiting for someone to climb out of a pit... then pushing them back in. :3
I cannot stress the importance of False Life enough.
1d10+X hit points might get you through an encounter without losing any actual hit points. Cast it after every fight and in a four encounter work day and you can effectively have 4d10+40 additional hit points (average 62).
It last for hours and hours, so it's a great fire and forget spell. It's low level so it can be easily made into scrolls or wands. It extends the life of your average spellcaster dramatically. What's more, there is nothing quite like telling the GM that just dealt 15 damage to your low level wizard that he "failed to penetrate your magical wards."
Oh, and did I mention you could effectively have ~62 more hit points per day?
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I also highly recommend mirror image. I've been hearing how wonderful this spell is for a long time, but only just recently got to try out the Pathfinder version for myself. As far as defensive buffs go, nothing beats it at its level. In fact, few things beat it at later levels. If you are a summoner, or round about attacker, invisibility might be better, but for the direct blaster or open in-your-face attacker, mirror image is a great way of getting enemies to waste attacks on you. You may actually manage to land that nasty touch spell without getting skewered.
Between false life and mirror image, suddenly the soft fleshy wizard in the back row is not such a tempting target anymore.
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I can't believe I forgot Create Pit! Replace Pyrotechnics on my above list with it, it's phenomenal.
And False Life is very good...later on. When 2nd level spells are your highest level spells it's a waste. By the time you have 4th level spells it's a godsend.
I also highly recommend mirror image. I've been hearing how wonderful this spell is for a long time, but only just recently got to try out the Pathfinder version for myself. As far as defensive buffs go, nothing beats it at its level. In fact, few things beat it at later levels. If you are a summoner, or round about attacker, invisibility might be better, but for the direct blaster or open in-your-face attacker, mirror image is a great way of getting enemies to waste attacks on you. You may actually manage to land that nasty touch spell without getting skewered.
Gods yes, Mirror Image is the reason my melee Bard went from 4th to 15th level without ever dropping into negative HP (well, that and the enemies mostly targeting the Antipaladin and Wild Shaped Druid).
Heck, the last session of my current Pathfinder game the 4th level Wizard (with his Con 10 and mighty 18 HP) survived a charge, then Full Attack from the raging Troll Barbarian 2 BBEG (did something like 2d6+14 damage per attack) completely unscathed due to Mirror Image. The dice were in his favor, but still.