Which of these spells would be best?

[Third Mind]

I'm currently playing a level 1 wizard in a kingmaker game and I'm about half way to the next level so I'm trying to plan spell selection ahead of time. I'm playing a wood wizard, so I already know which spell I will be choosing for the specialized school (Animate Rope), just looking for some advice for the second spell.

Spells Currently Known:

Cantrips =
All (Mending is opposite school)

Level 1 =
Charm Person (From Wood Wizard list)
Grease
Color Spray
Burning Hands
Mage Armor
Silent Image
Feather Fall

I will be picking up Animate Rope for the school specialization since the other is even less useful in most cases. For the second I was contemplating the following:

Possible Spells To Choose From:

- Obscuring Mist - (Panic button for when a multitude of archers attack. Downside is it could annoy / hurt the party just as much possibly help.)

- Shield - (Most of the party wears armor but have no shield so this could help a lot of the group including myself. Downside, I already have Mage Armor but not much of a downside I guess.)

- Vanish - (A good hide me, save me panic button spell. Downside is that it will rarely help my party whatsoever.)

- Magic Missile - (Autohit damage for finishing creatures off perhaps. Downside, very low damage.)

- Enlarge Person - (Useful for our melee group character. Downside, we have only one melee group character, with the other possible one being a dex melee if he decided to do such.)

- Protection from Evil - (Not sure how useful this is in Kingmaker, but could be good.)

- Burning Disarm - (Either they drop the weapon, or take a little damage, not too bad. Downside, little damage.)

- Else - (Something else you would suggest.)

Character note in case it helps suggestions. I'm using an arcane bonded object, thus some being panic button spells. The build is meant to be battlefield controller / support build, with some damage intertwined.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Winston Colt]

My party made copious use of grease and color spray in the Kingmaker game Im running. They are two great choices that can take out multiple foes in one hit.

Of the list your looking at I'd say go with Enlarge Person. The melee will love you for it and at low levels the extra damage from the enlarged weapon really pays off. Magic Missile is one hit on one turn but Enlarge Person covers multiple hits over many turns, well worth it.

[mplindustries]

Your explanations are backwards. Shield only works on you, so it doesn't help your party at all. Meanwhile, Vanish has a range of touch, so you can totally use it to help your party.

I've never liked Magic Missile. It feels like wasting your turn since it does so little damage. I mean, don't get me wrong, when you're facing something incorporeal, you'll be glad you have it, but it's just so lackluster. I never understood why people had such attachment to it.

I don't like Obscuring Mist for the exact reason you gave.

Enlarge Person's real benefit is Reach, so it helps all melee--the stat changes are barely part of what makes it great. However, the real flaw is the full round cast time. I don't think it's worth it--let them get it themselves through potions/wands or whatever. Or wait for Mass Enlarge.

I also think Burning Disarm doesn't work the way people claim it does--if you actually read the save line, the item gets a save to see if it gets hot at all. Only if the item fails do you make a save to drop the weapon or take damage. Not actually good.

Protection From Evil is generally awesome since it stops mind control and possession (not for the "eh" +2 AC). That said, it's situational, and I don't know Kingmaker at all, so I can't say if it's good or not.

In my opinion, you already have the "big four" first level spells as I call them (Charm Person, Color Spray, Grease, and Silent Image), so you're set on Crowd Control.

If it were me, I think I would consider Floating Disk, Mount, or Unseen Servant. All have amazing utility.

Mount might seem odd there, but the horse (or pony if Large is too big) that it summons is a better fighter, has more HP, and has a longer duration than anything you can summon with Summon Monster 1.

I'm not sure which one I'd go for, honestly. They're all so good. and don't forget that this is pretty much just a temporary conundrum. You can eventually just buy a scroll or copy from someone else's book and learn all of them.

[Third Mind]

@ Mplindustries - My bad about Shield and Vanish, though that makes vanish even better to me. Pop it on the rogue (our melee character) so he could move into sneak attack position quicker.

Mount might offer some hilarious options and could be good backup if the horse I currently have leaves me.

I know there are a lot of uses for unseen servant so I might actually go with that.

Floating Disk can be good, but I don't know enough about it's many uses to know when the right situation would come to use it.

So, I think I'll either go with Unseen Servant, Mount, Vanish or possibly Enlarge. However, since we only have one real melee and I'm unsure if he can take a hit well enough or not, I'll hold off on that until a bit later.

Now I have Unseen Servant, Mount and Vanish to look over. Thanks for the input everyone.