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Dispel Magic.
A party without at least a couple of dispels prepared is just a sacrificial offering to the dice gods.
Deathward is generally more important to me the restoration spells. I think it had a different name back then, but it has always been a critical spell for me dating all the way back to AD&D 2nd ed. Most times the restoration spells would be necessary are if you don't get Deathward up first.
Stone to Flesh, Break Enchantment, or other means of de-petrifying a party member.
Anything that returns to life the party member who was just Disintegrated into a pile of dust. Preferably a quickly (not necessarily Quickened) cast spell, so said party member can continue to contribute in combat.
Mending and Light.
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Dispel Magic.
A party without at least a couple of dispels prepared is just a sacrificial offering to the dice gods.
Do we actually have to have that spell prepared?
After all, it's one of my sorceress's known spells...*ducks for cover*
Protection from Evil is pretty critical if you are around a gate spell.
Does Protection from Evil work vs Gate since gated creatures are called rather than summoned?
edit: on topic, I second Dispel Magic, great offensive and defensive spell
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Protection from Evil is pretty critical if you are around a gate spell.Does Protection from Evil work vs Gate since gated creatures are called rather than summoned?
Sorry for the confusion, I was specifically thinking of previous games where if you didn't have a Protection From Evil effect active you would be attacked by whatever came through. That's what I get for replaying Baldur's Gate.
I don't think any spell really can not be missed, but I think some variety of curing spells are assumed in the system, other spells are optional.
Fly and Teleport.
Herosim. It makes everybody better at everything. Versatile. Long lasting.
Something to detect invisible combatants. See invisibility, invisibility purge, glitterdust, faerie fire, true seeing, whatever.
A way to deal with magical darkness. Daylight. An everburning torch heightened to level 4 if your GM allows it.
Tongues.
Mending.
Purify/create food and water.
Make whole.
Prestidigitation if you don't want to stink all the time.
These are more important to me than any combat or healing spell.
Then dispel magic.
After that, cure light wounds, but usually in item form.
Detect Magic is one of the most frequently used spells i think, along with cure light wounds (wand or not).
In order for a mage to survive Magic missile is pretty needed, as well as dispel magic. Invisibility is highly usefull as well as detect invisibilty.
For clerics it's easyer as they get all spells anyway. It's more a selection based on what the environment needs that day. If you expext undead (lesser/greater)restoration may be needed and Healing can usually be free cast or channeled. Getting selective channeling makes channelling much more usefull in a pitched battle.
Rangers may use damage enhancing spells as lead blades and the like.
And the paladin who get's lesser restoration as a first level spell rocks.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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When they become available:
Haste, good hope, cure light wounds, resist energy.
The restorations.
Invisibility, greater invisibility, and their counters.
Fly, air walk, overland flight, or mass fly.
Teleport, shadow walk, or wind walk.
Dispel magic and greater dispel magic.
There's very little else I couldn't do without.
At early levels, Ear Piercing Scream and Mirror Image are two spells I always take.
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I don't think there is such a thing as a true must-have across all groups.
I've run a 5-13 campaign that never required most of the spells mentioned, including flight methods, fast travel (teleport etc), and invisibility. The party also lacked a healer and did just fine with a few emergency potions and access to an NPC for Restoration between adventures. Poison and maybe disease came up but they were dealt with using antitoxin and the Heal skill.
Buffs like Heroism and Good Hope are great, but you can survive without +2 to everything. Haste is usually super, but I was in a group once that consisted of my caster bard, a ranger with a vital strike build, and a cavalier (another one-big-hit class) and Haste was close to useless. The same campaign was extremely low on energy attacks, so we never missed Resist Energy.
Shocking grasp. For interrogations.
If I'm a spontaneous spell caster, paragon surge. Changes the game on a fundamental level for you.
Protection from Daylight.
I'd like to echo what bfobar said and say detect magic. It's the one spell every single caster should probably have. Beyond that, it depends on the character. My arcane trickster/sorcerer loves scorching ray and invisibility, but my storm druid loves obscuring mist (since he's the only one that can see in it and it's effectively a no save blindness effect for everyone else).
I've yet to witness a game session were these spells where available but not used:
Message
Detect Magic
Light
Protection from evil
Cure Light Wound
Invisibility (Well Vanish now in fact)
Glitterdust
Fly
Haste (I could live without it, I just don't want to)
Contingency for prepared casters
Dispel Magic.
A party without at least a couple of dispels prepared is just a sacrificial offering to the dice gods.
But you have to make caster level checks, so it's still a random chance of failure.
The animate and create undead spells; I'd also toss in meteor swarm, fireball and cone of cold as spells I'd hate to not have access to.
We often dont get high enough to hate not having meteor swarm:)
And i can live without spells.
And i can live without spells.
In a standard Pathfinder game, no adventurer can live for long without spells. It's too much part of the mechanical balance in the system. Even fighters must eventually come to rely on magical items and hired healing.