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So I've gone through the list of new arcane spells in the ACG (sorry, haven't done the divine ones yet). My initial impressions about the ones that I would actually use:
- Heightened Awareness: hell of a 1st level spell. Strictly better than Anticipate Peril whilst fishing for an initiative bonus because of the 10 min/level duration and the fact that the +4 comes online at 1st level. The fact that it gives a +2 bonus to Perception and all Knowledge skills is just gravy. Great spell, and almost certainly the 1st level memorization of every Diviner from now until eternity.
- Molten Orb: stupidly useful in the hands of a magician specializing in Dazing Spell shenanigans. Otherwise, meh...but a dazing molten orb is teh win!!1! It's that Reflex half (not Reflex negates) and the additional damage in following rounds (because I know munchkins will argue that this forces enemies to make multiple saves vs the dazing effect...I just know they will) that will make this spell a staple of the Dazed and Confused Mage. Bah!
- Wall of Blindness/Deafness: Ignore the deafness option as it would only be viable in very rare cases. As a straight Wall of Blindness, this spell is awesome. Excellent size and flexibility (same size as Wall of Fire - also offering ring mode) and translucent, so your party can exchange ranged fire through it with the enemy, which is almost always advantageous, in my experience.
This will end up being one of the premier battlefield control spells for holding off/separating mooks who are susceptible to the blindness effect (which is most of them), rather than a pure defensive spell like the other beloved 4th level wall spell, the "of ice" variant. It targets Fort, which is less than ideal, but will still get a good chunk of the mooks, and permanent blindness is a terrific effect, even better than death because blind mooks can be rounded up and interrogated after the fight.
Better yet (for the necromancer, at least), undead are immune to effects which target Fort, so if you've got a small army of undead minions shambling along in front of you, they can ignore the wall completely and just go about their business. For non-necromancers, it's a bit trickier to summon pets immune to the effect. Oozes and constructs are immune, but they aren't exactly easy to summon, and creatures with blindsight (which includes oozes) are immune, but they're also uncommon. Summon Black Pudding (6th level spell) will do the trick as the pudding has blindsight. Jeez...that's an awful combination, actually. I shall have to use it against my PCs soon. You could also take the feat Summon Neutral Monster (which is pretty good on its own merits) in order to be able to summon Proteans (nasty, awful things) which heal the blindness effect in a single round.
tl;dr - strong battlefield control spell with some really interesting synergy possibilities involving pets.
Contingent Action: rape the action economy for the cost of a 2nd level spell. Cast this on your archer on the condition "any spellcaster other than me and x, y cast a spell within 100' of you" and the effect "fire an arrow into his ass" as a sort of aggressive dispel magic. Loads of possibilities and loads of win.
Contingent Scroll: more expensive, but still tons of fun if you're not a miser. Off the top of my head, a contingent scroll of Mirror Image would cost you 250 gold plus a 4th level spell to scribe and then cast, and would essentially reproduce the effects of Greater Mirror Image, one of 3.5's most broken spells, at a GP cost...and better yet, the contingent effect won't cost you your immediate action...it just happens automatically.
Is a "ha-ha, you can't hit me" button in a big fight worth 250 GP? Yeah, probably. You could do the same thing with resist energy for the same price, and I believe you'd get to pick the energy type when the scroll went off (since the scroll effect hasn't really been "cast" yet when the spell is cast). Tons of potential and again, win.
Heightened Awareness: Level alchemist 1, bard 1, druid 1,inquisitor 1, ranger 1, shaman 1, sorcerer/wizard 1
Molten Orb:Level bloodrager 2, magus 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, witch 2
Wall of Blindness/Deafness: Level bard 4, cleric 5, sorcerer/wizard 4, witch 4
Contingent Action: Level bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 2
Contingent Scroll: Level bard 4, sorcerer/wizard 4
The big spell I noticed is Shield Companion. It has an hours/level duration and lets you take damage for your companion, familiar, or eidolon as an immediate action. Life Link does not let you keep your eidolon going when it takes enough damage to reduce its hp total to between zero and minus Con, but this spell does.
Heightened Awareness I agree is very good.
Molten Orb seems to be worse than acid arrow for 90% of situations. Ranged attack instead of Ranged touch attack, Wizards have a hard enough time hitting things in melee or through cover. Speaking of melee, if any of your allies are in close with the enemy, they could get dazed too. It is susceptible to spell resistance unlike acid arrow. They both continue on for several turns usually so that is a wash. (side tip, use an acid flask as a material component with your acid arrow to get an extra round for 10g)
Blindness/Deafness Wall: Maybe I am missing something, but a level 4 Save or Suck wall with a duration Concentration seems pretty weak. It is translucent and doesn't hinder movement, so I would assume enemy archers can fire through it just fine. Also the minimum level it turns on, Level 7, many enemies will have ways to go over it, under it, or dimension through it. As far as battlefield control, I can see it being useful, but having to concentrate to keep it up basically controls the rest of the wizard's turn as well.
Contingent Action: I do think this is pretty powerful, but tempered by the duration. 1 minute/level means you need to cast it either during combat, or right before if you know it is coming. Many times you can assume combat is coming on the other side of the door and get this off. However, with the same level 2 slot, you could give an ally +4 a stat, False life, or prepare something combat changing, like Create Pit, or blindness/deafness. In short, it seems very good if you have a bunch of extra spells to throw around and the warning before combat, but not overpowered compared to other level 2 spells.
Contingent Scroll: Yes seems very strong. A little expensive, and may not be needed, but if you end up needing the effect, you will be very glad you cast it.
Whip of Spiders. Not sure if its actually good, but you're making a whip out of spiders.
I'll agree with David on Shield Companion, seems pretty good for keeping your companion alive, and it has the "may" clause in it, so you don't have to take the hits if you don't want to.
I would say that Polymorph Familiar seems crazy good. A level 3 spell slot that can imitate a 6th level spell! And your familiar retains any special abilities he had before the spell was cast.
Molten Orb seems to be worse than acid arrow for 90% of situations. Ranged attack instead of Ranged touch attack, Wizards have a hard enough time hitting things in melee or through cover.
Read more closely. It says "ranged attack" in the stats, but says you aim it as a splash weapon in the description, meaning you target a hex, not an enemy, specifically. Hexes are absurdly easy to target. Acid Arrow is certainly better for a single target, but Molten Orb spreads effects to nine hexes to Acid Arrow's one. I think you underestimate how often targeting essentially a 5' radius might come in handy for a puny 2nd level spell in the hands of a dazing specialist evoker (hopefully one who can convert the damage type, or it will, admittedly, be largely useless against many enemies). It's like a miniature dazing fireball at 2nd level (or 5th level if you're putting the metamagic on it) with persistent effects. Excellent for those who will use it for that purpose.
Blindness/Deafness Wall: Maybe I am missing something, but a level 4 Save or Suck wall with a duration Concentration seems pretty weak.
You are, indeed, missing something. Read more closely. The duration is concentration + 1 round/level. Essentially, it is a 1 round/level spell which can be extended at the beginning through concentration, if you so choose. The duration is fine for a normal combat.
Being able to exchange ranged fire through an obstacle almost always benefits the party in Pathfinder. Only rarely are encounters set up so that the enemy can outclass the PCs at range. Yes, the enemy will be able to fire through the wall, but most of the time...not effectively.
You are right. I missed a couple things there. I can definitely see molten orb being better than my first glance, and could be useful if enemies are grouped up. Very good at low levels before you start running into spell resistance and fire resistance. Unfortunately dazing rods are pretty expensive, so this would probably turn on around level 5-6, but still, I could see arguments for it and might try it out.
I missed about the duration of wall, but I would still rather prepare other things in my 4th level slot. a Save or Suck aoe that many enemies can ignore (casters and archers, the most dangerous usually), get around (through flight, teleport, dimension door). Also, You will usually have at least 1 melee, and you either set it so they are in the circle, which lets the enemy attack as normal, or with them out, and they feel frustrated that they couldn't participate. One good thing that came to mind, and makes this a little better in my mind, is you can cast it while invisible, which makes it a little better. Still I probably wouldn't cast it unless I had a bunch of necromancy focus.
I should add that unfortunately for the Evoker, Molten Orb is a Transmutation spell, so cannot have its damage type changed through admixture. This will severely limit its potential usefulness at higher levels.
Regarding Wall of Blindness, you can get more aggressive with its AoE. It is a medium range spell, meaning a minimum range of 170' by the time you can cast it, which is essentially infinite range in most encounters. Also, the radius of the circle is up to 5' per two caster levels, but can be smaller if you want.
So think of it as a spell to box your enemies in. Cast it aggressively as a ring or wall (depending on the shape of your encounter area) to give the enemy as little room to maneuver as possible without going through it. There are all sorts of awful things you can do to an enemy that is forced to stay bunched up. Obviously, the effect is weaker in an area where the wall can simply be flown over or around though this is true of almost all BC spells, but it is a very large effect area, and many encounters will take place in areas with ceilings 20' or lower.
Don't use it as a ring around your own party unless you are getting swarmed (though this is also obviously a potentially useful option). Throw it at the enemy and deny them space, and let your melee guys move up as normal, engaging at range if the enemy simply refuses to move through the wall (which is pretty much win for you).
Ok, I've been trying to figure out a way to weaponize Mirror Hideaway and thought up the following (requires a 13th level witch, I suppose):
1. Witch casts Stinking Cloud (L3 spell)
2. Party (aka, the hit squad) wanders in and gets nauseated.
3. One by one (one per round), they wander out and immediately get dinged with a shot from the Witch's Remove Sickness (L1 spell) wand (cast at say level 3-5 for longer duration). Nausea is now suppressed for the duration of the spell.
4. Hit squad steps into the Mirror Hideaway, weapons at the ready.
5. Witch uses Teleport Object to teleport the mirror to a location where his/her target is located (obviously will need to scry or have some idea of where the mirror is going...)
6. Mirror breaks upon arrival (having been moved more than 5 feet) and hit squad is ejected - the 1d6 rounds of nausea effectively suppressed by the Remove Sickness.
7. Hit Squad attacks!
8. Nausea hits sometime after the battle (hopefully) is over as Remove Sickness ends.
Alternately, you could just use the Mirror Hideaway + Teleport Object to deploy your team(s), just don't dump them into a combat zone (because 1d6 rounds of nauseated condition is rather bad).
Sort of like a one-way Star Trek transporter away team, except with extra nausea.
Regarding Contingent Scroll:
I was wrong about the price of a contingent Mirror Image scroll. It would only cost 75 GP to scribe the scroll, bringing the cost of spell + scroll down to one 4th level spell +175 GP. This is really not a bad deal, at all, for an effect as potent as a free action Mirror Image ("when targeted by an attack" would probably be the condition I'd set).
This gets worse with the feat False Focus, which would allow you to ignore the 100 GP casting cost of the spell, itself. With that feat, you're only paying the cost of the 4th level slot and the scroll, no extra gold involved. So a 4th level spell +75 GP now for a 2nd level spell (with target any one person) as a free action under relevant conditions, to include my hypothetical Superfantastic Mirror Image. Hell, you could even put the contingent Mirror Image on the fighter. This is actually really interesting, as the target of the spell is considered the caster of the scroll, so it will allow all of those great range:personal spells (like Mirror Image) to be used on other party members as contingencies without them needing UMD.
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