Are the Pit line of spells viable beyond the mid game? I am referring to spells like spiked pit and hungry pit. If you can keep up the DC via a high casting stat, spell focus and greater can this be a spell used beyond 10th level vs non flying creatures and those not beyond Large size?
And how does it compare vs a spell like stinking cloud? I have debated this with myself for some time, the pros and cons to me are that Stinking cloud has a larger radius but it targets fort unfortunately. Pits are nice do to the targeting of reflex but unfortunately a much smaller radius.
i am not sure about pathfinder. but back in 3.5 skill checks took penalty if you took damage while trying them. that said acid pits were really nasty as you took half the damage to the climb dc and most (10d6 damaging ones) would be almost impossible to get out without flying or the like.
if that is the same in pathfinder then even in higher levels, as long as they can't fly out, some pits should still be very effective.
EDIT:
looked it up found the following
"Anytime you take damage while climbing, make a Climb check against the DC of the slope or wall. Failure means you fall from your current height and sustain the appropriate falling damage."