I took a splash of wizard (wizard 1, fighter 5, and I'll be starting soon into a prestige class that gives bonus spell levels like arcane archer or dragon disciple). The reason for this is it's basically a martial character with a bit of spells under his belt.
The spells can be useful, but I've been avoiding spells that are overly-vulnerable to saves or spell resistance, and I'm mostly focusing on self- and ally-enhancing effects. I'm only working with 12 or 14 in my casting stat and my caster level will be 2 (so I'm level 7 character casting as a weak level 2 wizard), so I suspect foes will have a fairly easy time shrugging off my spells. Poor DCs, damage, duration, range, etc are basically what you'd expect from someone who only dabbles in magic (and instead stays busy stabbing things like a fine, upstanding member of the soldiers'/thieves'/assassins' guild).
My core question here is... should I be avoiding spells like Flare, Burning Hands and Charm Person, or are they still reasonably effective even for a partial caster? I also struggle with short spell durations and ranges, but enhancing spells have served me pretty well as a part-wizard or -bard or -cleric.
I don't mean to limit this to the wizard above... I encounter this a lot when I splash a caster into a build, be it arcane or divine. I basically tend to avoid attack spells because they don't seem all that effective, and spells like Mage Armor and Fox's Cunning can be pretty short-lived.
Increasing Caster Level
I know there are a couple traits that could boost my caster level by ~2 for SR penetration, duration, etc, but I'm already pretty tapped out on trait slots. I seem to remember a D&D feat that gave +4 caster level (up to your character level, so it's for multiclassers), but can't find it in the pathfinder stuff. The spell penetration feats are always available, as is Spell Focus. But let's assume the build is feat-starved as well, because all my builds are. ;)
Metamagic can help with duration, but I don't have higher spell slots in spades.
Increasing DCs
I know I can wear equipment with bonuses to my casting stat, and level 2 spells can boost my stats as well (though for short durations if I cast them). That helps with DCs.
Are there other things I can do to make my part-caster's attack and boost spells less... flimsy? Do I need to do them, or is the problem only in my head?
Of course for attack spells, there's the occasional spell like acid arrow that's gloriously devoid of spell resistance or saving throws. Such a beautiful spell... even though I'm missing on some duration, that's fine; enemies and townspeople alike are still furious when I use it.
But I worry I can't use things like the occasional Charm Person or Flare effectively (even with the mandatory yelling of "I cast Flare!" as I make the unwarranted attack against whatever we meet), because my DCs are weak (low spell level and low caster stat), and any spell resistance critters just give me a sad, empathetic look before returning fire. ;)
Is this something I should remedy (feats, traits, etc), work around (careful spell selection), or ignore (those spells are still good)?
I would recommend either not bothering to focus on magic at all unless you really have a full build planned out or to nix the idea of casting in combat all together and focus on utility spells like knock, identify, and rope trick.
These kinds of spells require no investment into your casting stat and serve the same utility purpose coming from you as they would coming from a full blown caster.
There are so many useful spells for a martial that most DC-based spells would pale in contrast to whatever else you could be doing instead, but that doesn't mean you won't want a handful of 'go-to' spells that might be effective even against commoners... Charm Person and Silent Image stand out as incredibly useful options despite their save-based nature. The Pit spells as well, especially since they target Reflex which is often one of the worst saves.
Buffing and utility spells will be a better use of your time than attack spells. BTW Flare is never useful!
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If you have significant levels in anything other than wizard, don't bother with the spells that allow the enemy any kind of defence. You'll be too far behind for that to work.
But a small dip into wizard can be great fun. Just being able to Detect Magic at will instead of having to ask for it, is very nice. Likewise for Prestidigitation.
Also, there are quite a few level 1 spells that are totally nice for a warrior; True Strike is neat. If you want to go fancy, combine it with Still Spell and Magical Lineage to keep down the level. True Strike makes your combat maneuvers irresistible. Enlarge Person is also nice. The Shield spell is good for two-handed fighters. And so on...
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You're correct to avoid spells with a Save DC. They'll almost always be a bad call. I wouldn't try fixing it, you've gone too far in the other direction for that to be a viable strategy.
For Prestige Classes, if you go Scryer Subschool, you can start on Eldritch Knight right after the first level of wizard, and that's a very good option considering.
There are some spells with save: partial that can still be useful. But save negates should be avoided. But I do that even when I play a full caster.
Cool, thanks for the advice, everyone!
BTW avr, I know flare isn't "useful", but it is mean, and that's more reason than anything to use it repeatedly and unprovoked. ;)
I wonder if anyone here has watched Unforgotten Realms.
Edit: (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unforgotten-realms?page=3)
He can't be a wizard! Where's his monocle?
I always think it's depends on your class and your team. If you have a blaster sorcerer that spam damage spell most the time, not point taking damage spells, it's not your job and not worth it.
Let's look at it like this: a level 1 wizard can cast shield, that lasts for one minute and allows a 2-handed fighter or two-weapon fighter to have that extra pip of defense for most of or all of the combat. Most combat spells are going to deal 1dx of damage, and while they'll do so reliably most conventional methods are going to outclass that.
In other words: Buff yourself, or use your magic to solve problems that you can't otherwise solve. I believe that there's a spell (might be 3rd party) that lets you put your armor on as a standard action. For full plate, that's huge! Keep Watch means you never need to be sleeping and vulnerable again, which means that you're suddenly not vulnerable to surprise attacks at night any more. Hitting things has been a perfectly effective method for your character to kill people so far, why change tactics now?