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My question in short: What are some good spells for a wizard likely to be in very dangerous situations with monsters that are immune to mind-affecting effects, but who isn't looking to be a damage dealer. While I'll probably have a few buff spells, I'm figuring to leave most of that to the cleric, I really want a number of aggressive spells (not to say blast spells like fireball, but spells that attack the enemies ability to damage us).
For the record, I'm a 9th level Ratfolk with a 24 INT.
After confirming that my niece is playing a druid, my nephew is playing a sorcerer (blaster), and my sister-in-law is playing a cleric and a paladin (with some kind of channel energy focus, the adults get two characters each) I determined that the cleric I wanted to play would be redundant. I decided one of my two characters should be a scout/trap finder (I couldn't get excited about playing a rogue, I don't know why, so I built a ranger with an archetype) and my second character should be a support caster. After debating for a while about different classes, I decided to just play a wizard, no archetype.
Here's my problem: the wizard spell-list is huge! The only arcane caster I've played before is a witch (and I didn't play her very well) so I'm not very familiar with the wizard list and I also can't go for just any good spells because I want to cut out any mind affecting spells. I'm kinda assuming, with the undead theme, that most of the stuff we'll fight will be immune to mind-affecting, but a lot of the ones I'm at least a little familiar with tend to be mind-affecting. So, being lazy and not wanting to click into every spell ever on d20pfsrd to see if it's mind-affecting or useless, I decided to ask you all for help.
You want the classic God wizard spells. Create Pit, Web, Wall of Stone, all the good stuff.
Archives of Nethys has almost all the spells published to date, and each of the spells has a brief description saying what it does.
So, some to get you started:
Create Pit: basically a 20' control spell. 10 feet of that is a deep hole that holds a lot of enemies, the rest is a slope that requires enemies to tread carefully or fall in themselves.
Web: Make difficult terrain, grapple enemies, ensure there's no pursuit. Best of all, it's saveless! (Well, technically it does allow a save, but the enemies are still hosed even if they make it)
Wall of Stone: reshape the battlefield to your whims! Block of pursuit, create bridges, all the good stuff. Super versatile. Combine with Create Pit for complete destruction (that is, put the wall right over the pit, then dispel Create Pit)
Summon Monster spells: with SMV, you're calling in a Bralani Azata (some pretty decent SLAs), Dire Lion (Pounce monster), or Large Elemental (some muscle and raw strength)
Possession comes as a level 5 spell. It's also known as 'venture into the dungeon with not risk to yourself'
I'd continue, but really, this guide does a better job than I could.
Battlefield control spells are good for this - in fact, they may even work better on unintelligent enemies depending on how your GM plays them, since they may not have the wherewithal to find the clever solution around the controlling factor. Look for spells with cloud, fog, wall, and pit in their name, as well as black tentacles.
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Thanks everyone, I appreciate the advice.
First it could get rather spoilerish, unsure how far you (and any other readers) would want me to go.
Yes, please be careful about spoilers. As for what books I can use, any of the advanced or ultimate books are available.
You want the classic God wizard spells. Create Pit, Web, Wall of Stone, all the good stuff.
Archives of Nethys has almost all the spells published to date, and each of the spells has a brief description saying what it does.
Yeah, the classics. This is what I'm looking for. Thanks for the link, it really helped me go through the spells quickly without much trouble. But man, I didn't realize that white type on a black background could be so annoying (ahhh... my eyes....). I think I've managed to get a pretty good list of spells from the Archive.
Battlefield control spells are good for this - in fact, they may even work better on unintelligent enemies depending on how your GM plays them, since they may not have the wherewithal to find the clever solution around the controlling factor.
That's my theory too and I intend to put it to the test. Of course the demilich (should we survive to see it) is another matter since I assume its intelligent.
I've put together a possible spellbook (though I still need 3 more first level spells.) This isn't accounting for any scrolls or spellbooks I buy and spider climb is not on the list because I intend to carry a wand of it.
1st level: Break, Feather Fall, Grease, Liberating Command, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil, Summon Monster I, Shield.
2nd level: Badger's Ferocity, Blur, Create Pit, Glitterdust, Invisibility, Rope Trick, Web.
3rd level: Invisibility Sphere, Magic Circle against Evil, Wind Wall.
4th level: Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility, Remove Curse.
5th level: Either Wall of Stone or Wall of Force
Do I have too much Invisibility? Any other suggestions?
Flight. Mindless creatures usually don't have missile weapons or flight, which makes being 30' up and not near walls a hard counter to them.
3rd lvl you want Haste, you always want Haste. Slow might also be a good one. Same with the spell Fly, also 3rd. Haste and possibly Fly are two of the biggest game changers and they are not on your list. Even if the blast sorcerer has both those spells, extra castings are a good thing. A good 2nd lvl control spell is Stone Call. Minor damage, big area, no save, and for 1 round/lvl makes difficult terrain.
3rd:
Halt Undead. No save paralysis for three mindless undead.
2nd:
Command Undead. No save control over mindless undead creature for days duration to turn it on its former allies.
Useful spells to have if you know you're fighting undead, though it's arguably more efficient to buy this as a scroll, or even a wand, should you wish.
But man, I didn't realize that white type on a black background could be so annoying (ahhh... my eyes....).
There is a button at the top right for that.