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I have usually played martial characters, so I am foreign to the go-to spells for each class with spells. Whether it's utility magics or spells to kill/contain the enemy, I don't care. Just need to know the go-to spells if I play a Medium, or Bard, or Oracle, or Magus, or Sorcerer, or whatever...
Please provide answers in the following format;
Class:
Level-0
A.
B.
C.
Level-1
A.
B.
C.
Level-2
A.
B.
C.
Level-3
A.
B.
C.
Level-4
A.
B.
C.
Level-5
A.
B.
C.
Level-6
A.
B.
C.
Level-7
A.
B.
C.
Level-8
A.
B.
C.
Level-9
A.
B.
C.
If you participate, thank you in advance. Trying to break out of my big dumb fighter habits.
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Obviously certain spells vary greatly in effectiveness based upon your build, specialty, or party makeup, but I'll try my best to list some spells that are universally effective and that I've used quite a bit myself.
Sorcerer (You'll have to account for your limit of spells known, so each spell has to have consistent and repeatable usability). Though you would be wise to invest in a Mnemonic Vestment and a small spell-book for useful utility casting.
Level-1
A. Grease: useful for more than just combat, and scales considerably well from low to high levels
B. Enlarge Person: Spells that you can use to buff yourself or allies have flexibility, but buffing your martial ally to large size is great.
C. Heightened Awareness: This spell isn't super powerful in combat, but has a long duration at higher levels and makes good use of 1st level spells at high levels.
(special mention - Vanish: At lower levels, this is how you don't die and is incredibly powerful since you can use it on allies and grant stealth buffs, but it falls out of favor for better things later on).
Level-2
A. Burst of Radiance: targeted area effect for light amount of damage but also for blindness, most enemies & monsters will be evil.
B. Stone Call: Great damage and battlefield control area effect at low levels, and a guaranteed application of dazing spell meta-magic at higher levels.
C. Mirror Image: You want to not die...
(Special Mention: Anticipate Thoughts: If for some reason you're going as a melee sorcerer or into eldritch knight then this can greatly improve your martial prowess.
Level-3
A. Battering Blast: (A truly powerful spell and my favorite ever) and one that is versatile and has No Cap! Nothing is immuine to force damage, and this spell has no damage limits by caster level and can be abused to do extreme things. Bull rush and prone against weak REF save is just the cherry on the top.
B. Heatstroke: It is exclusively better than ray of exhaustion, and It is of the Evocation school which usually is more utilized than necromancy.
C. Haste: If your party is only casters it drastically decreases in effectiveness, but otherwise take it and don't think twice.
Level-4
A. Emergency Force Sphere: Immediate Action, save yourself, even save an adjacent ally depending on the interpretation of a 5 foot radius. But this spell will protect you from virtually anything and everything and it is awesome. (it is a Std Action to dispel though).
B. Dimension Door: This essentially is all the teleport that you'll need in an immediate scenario.
C. Enervation: Ranged touch, No save, negative levels stack. great debuff spell.
(Special Mention: Ball Lightening is a great battlefield control spell and also had great potential for dazing spell because it persists).
Level-5
A. Icy Prison: This isn't a save or suck, this is a suck or suck. It either ends combat for a target, or it entangles and forces them to waste their turn breaking free or take cold damage and entangled penalty continuously.
B. Overland Flight: This will fundamentally change the way you play the game since you'll just be flying for hours at a time.
C. Cloudkill: Potent area effect crowd control debuff, kill spell. Cloud them up, and wall them in, and hear them die.
(Special Mention: Teleport is another game changing spell, but it is best left for a wizard. You typically wont be using it 6 times per day).
Level-6
A. Contingency: This spell has unlimited potential for almost anything if used right. It can be a powerful divination effect when the condition is applied right "cast light if the BBEG is behind this door". And in later levels action economy is king. Save a turn by having a spell cast on a predictable contion.
B. Chains of Light: This is Icy prison on crack.
C. Unwilling Shield: Really make the enemy want to not kill you.
Levels 7-9 i'm not certain about as I've never been to those levels.
Good Luck
Class: Cleric
Level-0
A.Stabalize (kind of a no-brainer, it's useful when an ally drops and you can't get in range to heal them since it's range close not touch)
B.Light (basic utility spell, when the DM asks "who has a light source" you can always say, "uh, who wants one?")
C.Detect Magic (just because anything else you could pick is pretty meh)
Level-1
A.Dream Feast (useful at high levels if you don't want to burn a ring slot on sustenance)
B.Burning Disarm (this is a suck or suck spell. You either deal damage or disarm your target)
C.Hide from Undead (like invisibility but more powerful, but only works on undead)
Level-2
A.Boneshaker (Against living targets this is a damage spell with no cap. Against mindless undead you get to issue an order for free that must be followed)
B.Remove Paralysis (what gets overlooked with this spell is that a single casting can affect up to 4 creatures)
C.Delay poison/Disease (at high levels you can treat these as daily buff spells to make someone effectively immune for the day)
Level-3
A.Nap Stack (need to rest and but don't have a safe place to camp? this gets everyone back up and running in just 2 hours)
B.Stone Shape (Who needs to pick locks on doors when you can just make your own doorway. Great utility spell)
C.Dispel Magic (useful for helping to get rid of nasty buffs on enemies or just counter-spelling)
Level-4
A.Air Walk (This is the cleric's version of the fly spell)
B.Terrible Remorse (another suck or suck spell. If they make their save they are staggered for a round, if they fail they physically harm themselves until they make the save)
C.Spirtual Ally (This is an unkillable summon that looks like a normal summon, works great if your DM doesn't metagame the fact it's unkillable)
Level-5
A. Flame Strike (This is the cleric's version of fireball, but it has a higher cap and effects a smaller area, bonus that only half it's damage is fire)
B. Life Bubble (Protects against a whole host of environmental effects and gives you your own air supply, has a built in ability to be shared with other party members, also lasts a long time per casting)
C. Breath of Life (This is THE emergency healing spell, can bring someone back to life without the nasty side effects of raise dead and it's ilk)
Level-6
A. Blade Barrier (This is an amazing offensive spell, creates a wall that does up to 15d6 to anyone walking through it, also is a force effect, depending on how the DM rules it, combining this with dazing can be extremely lethal)
B. Cold Ice strike (Quickened Cone of cold, weirdly the same level for clerics as it is for wizards)
C. Hero's Feast (Grants temporary HP and bonuses, when combined with delay poison/disease as a daily buff makes someone literally immune to poisons/diseases every day)
Level-7
A. Destruction (if they make their save they merely take 10d6 untyped damage, failing the save makes them take 10 x your level in damage)
B. Holy Word/Dictum/etc. (There's one of these for each alignment, it's basically power word kill for clerics)
C. Summon Monster VII (At this point you're able to summon Greater elementals and other creatures that can cast spells of their own, making this a very useful utility spell)
Level-8
A. Angelic Aspect Greater (Basically turns you into a full fledged angel including flight and resistances)
B. Fire Storm (an up to 20d6 fireball that can covers at minimum 30, 10 foot cubes, that you can shape)
C. Summon Monster VIII (get multiple of the level 7s or a single one that's more powerful)
Level-9
A. Create Demiplane Greater (Make your own completely customizable pocket dimension, this one has the added bonus of making it so anyone entering your pocket dimension gains fast healing, makes a useful destination for planeshift)
B. Wooden Phalanx (Gives you your own personal guard of golems at no cost at a duration of 1 hr per level)
C. Miracle (Like wish, but better. Can create more powerful effects and has the added benefit of being free if your request is something your deity would want to intervene with, like say it involves something your diety hates/loves, pending a DM call of course)
This is going to vary a lot, not just by class (and build!) but also by which other spells you can use. Fly is good but the action advantage of overland flight/air walk makes either better once they become available for example. Enervation was mentioned in the first reply, but it's only useful at the levels where you can metamagic it heavily, or where/when you can throw multiple 4th level spell slots at a single enemy. This request needs more criteria to make a meaningful selection.
This is going to vary a lot, not just by class (and build!) but also by which other spells you can use. Fly is good but the action advantage of overland flight/air walk makes either better once they become available for example. Enervation was mentioned, but it's only useful at the levels where you can metamagic it heavily, or where you can throw multiple 4th level spell slots at a single enemy. It needs more criteria to make a meaningful selection.
Just follow Archimedes' and Kailas' examples... list your generic go-to spells, or those involved with your specific/special builds, it doesn't matter to me... I am capable of researching specific/special builds, and I am capable of noticing trends that transcend classes and spell lists.
I am looking for raw data from you guys, rather than reading every single classes' outdated guides individually. You guys have experience in using these spells with these classes, so I just want to know what has worked for you for each class of spellcasters.
Overall, generally, no preference for utility or damage.
PS. Thank you Archimedes and Kailas... nailed it!
OK; I'm going to assume that the level the spell is being considered at is when it's the highest level of spell available. Enervation definitely won't be on my list for example, when you first get it it is about the same effectiveness as a 4d6 damage single target blast which inflicts shaken or sickened, i.e. about a 2nd level spell. I'm not a fan of undefined assumptions so I'm putting in something to define mine here and that's a side effect. This is for a generic wizard, though past low levels any actual wizard should have something to boost some kind of spells.
Level 1
Color spray; how to win a fight in one easy spell.
Grease; battlefield control, first level version.
Vanish; escape, how to do dirty tricks (non-combat), even how to do combat maneuvers without the feats in a pinch.
Level 2
Mirror image; the best defence you can get.
Glitterdust; an area save or suck which also negates enemy invisibility.
Create pit; battlefield control, second level edition.
Level 3
Haste; the best offensive buff around for a long long time.
Fly; safety for you or how to get the barbarian to their target, occasional utility.
Night of blades; if you can get it this it can be a barrier or an attack as required. If you can't, stinking cloud is good BFC, 3rd level.
Level 4
Black tentacles; before enemy CMDs get huge this is an amazingly effective attack/debuff/BFC.
Dimension door; mobility in or out of combat.
Confusion; there's few things better than locking your enemies into attacking each other.
Level 5
Overland flight; mobility and relative safety without having to cast a spell in combat.
Fabricate; utility at the least, quite possibly great wealth.
Parchment swarm; a versatile attack spell.
I could reason out stuff for higher level spells but I haven't played or even run as a GM many characters which use them. This much I'm familiar with.
BARD:
0-Level Spells
Detect Magic
Read Magic
Light
These are pretty standard.
1st-level
Tears to Wine
SAVING FINALE - The best Bard Spell.
Unbreakable Heart
Honorable Mentions: Vanish, Cure Light Wounds, Liberating Command
2nd-level
Blistering Invective
Gallant Inspiration - Immediate Actions are rad
Heroism
3rd-level
Good Hope
Haste
Jester's Jaunt
4th-level
Echolocation
Freedom of Movement
Virtuoso Performance
5th-level
Bard's Escape
Mass Cacophonous Call
Shadow Evocation
6th-level
Irresistible Dance
Waves of Ecstasy
Brilliant Inspiration
Alchemist (My favorite class, but clearly not the most potent true spellcaster). Again there is usually massive variability between a melee mutation alchemist vs a splash bomber, but I'll just use the assumption of a vanilla average build. I'm also taking into the measure that you'd have the infusion discovery which allows you to share your extracts, which allows for a lot of ways to pass out what normally would only be personal spells.
Level-1
A. Heightened Awareness: Boost your knowledge checks really high and ensure you get that sweet starting initiative so that you get to chuck your crazy debuffing bombs into the cluster of enemies before they spread out.
B. Reduce/Enlarge Person: Each will benefit the specific approach you'll be using. Be smaller, harder to hit and throw from afar, or mutagenize get big and go smash.
C. Cure Light Wounds: At high levels many lvl 1 extracts just won't do in combat, but you know you'll always get some use out of a CLW.
(Special mention: Crafter's Fortune: If you're going to focus on alchemical items, this will greatly improve your crafting efficiency. And there are many ways to keep alchemical splash weapons useful later in the game, as well as manufacture utility items.)
Level-2 (Broken options)
A. Alchemical Allocation: Hands down, the most broken and abusable low-level spell in the game. You honestly could just prepare all your 2nd level extracts as this spell every single day. It duplicates a potion... any potion...the most effective and expensive potion you can afford. As long as you don't consume the potion without using AA first, then it is unlimited. Banned at my tables.
B. Full Pouch: The same function as Alchemical Allocation, but it is for alchemical items instead of potions. Duplicates an item, and despite the text saying it makes it slightly worse, at higher levels when your INT & DCs go up, this really only makes items better. It gets dastardly if combined with a hybridization funnel.
C. Barkskin: Long lasting stacking defensive buff to AC. Yes Please
(This level is too good not to mention: Invisibility, Ironskin, Lesser Res, Alter Self, Vomit Swarm)
Level-3
A. Channel Vigor: Strictly better than haste for you since it is a solo Buff. Works as Haste or other more niche options.
B. Monstrous Physique: So many good forms, and is just super variable. As long as you know the options and what they offer, you can make a use for this almost anywhere.
C. Fly: Because it's better than not flying.
Level-4
A. Greater Invisibility: For Obvious Reasons
B. Monstrous Physique II: More options... more better stuff
C. Freedom of Movement: Longer duration, and can prevent lots of troubles.
(Special mention: Caustic Blood: a great spell that can deal tons of damage at the expense of getting hit. But it's bound to happen anyways right? Pass out to the barbarian).
Level-5
A. Delayed Consumption: It has a days per level duration. It works a bit like contingency, except that it has a spell level cap of 4, and you can only have 1 in effect at a time. But unlike contingency, If you use it on a traveling/preparation/lounge day, then it wont even cut into your extracts per day.
B. Overland Flight: Changes the way adventuring works.
C. Magic Jar: A weird save or suck / possess the enemy type spell. It is complicated though, and at my table we have strictly just replaced this with the very similar spell (possession). Paizo has alos officially advised this.
Level-6
A. Twin Form: Rearrange your battle presence, essentially double your survivability via HP. It's just awesome.
B. Heal: Amazing high-level heal spell that removes conditions and its just a good one.
C. Beast Shape IV: Really amazing options from powerful magical beasts.
(Special mention: Giant form for a melee brute, and Caging bomb admixture for the ranged alchemist).
Wizard/Sorcerer/Arcanist:
Level-1
Protection from Alignment - immunity from mind-affecting spells provided you know the alignment of the target (hint: it's probably evil) and also allows for re-rolls on characters already affected. Truly phenomenal for a 1st level spell.
Enlarge Person - One of the most blatantly under-leveled buffs out there, natural reach is simply amazing and the added strength bonus on the side is just gravy.
Mount - the sheer amount of utility and versatility this spell is capable of is shocking. Meat shield, distraction, improvised trap disarmament, and - occasionally - a mount. Seriously underrated spell that belongs in every wizard's spellbook.
(honorable mentions: Sleep, Color Spray, Grease, Obscuring Mist, Charm Person, Silent Image)
Level-2
Invisibility - classic, iconic, and incredibly useful; the very existence of this spell demands the GM make preemptive considerations for it in virtually all campaign preparations.
Glitterdust - doubles as one of the nastiest debuffs you can find at the lower spell levels, and an anti-invisibility tool.
Command Undead - it's basically dominate person for undead creatures, but as a 2nd level spell. Amazing stuff.
(honorable mentions: Alter Summoned Monster, Web, Create Pit, Detect Thoughts, Minor Image)
Level-3
Haste - best buff in the game, no questions asked.
Fly - being able to fly opens up new horizons both tactically in combat and in terms of solving narrative problems. Good duration and move speed round it out.
Dispel Magic - sometimes you just need to say "no" to enemy spells, and this is how you do that.
(honorable mentions: stinking cloud, suggestion, aqueous orb, magic circle against alignment, slow)
Level-4
Shadow Conjuration - the crown jewel of the illusion school; the sheer amount of flexibility and cunning tricks you can pull with shadow conjuration could fill an entire guide all on its own.
Greater Magic Aura - one of the best "anti-detection" spells out there, it's basically a hard stop to any attempt to detect your magic and a complete game-changer in intrigue-focused games.
Dimension Door - it's relatively short-ranged, but it's the first true teleportation spell available and it does the job perfectly.
(honorable mentions: Animate Dead, Black Tentacles, Bestow Curse, Emergency Force Sphere, Scrying, Confusion, Greater Invisibility, Wall of Ice, Charm Monster, Contingent Scroll; so many good 4th level spells and it was really hard to pick only 3!)
Level-5
Dominate Person - it's like leadership, except you can have as many cohorts as you like and you're probably going to make a mortal enemy of your GM in the process.
Lesser Planar Binding - another spell that can risk the GM's ire, but focused on creatures weak enough that it's unlikely to backfire directly.
Permanency - sometimes you just need something to last and are willing to shell out a little cash for that, and this is much faster and often cheaper than crafting magical items.
(honorable mentions: Mage's Private Sanctum, Teleport, Cloudkill, Wall of Stone, Wall of Force, Fabricate, Passwall, Shadow Evocation)
Level-6
Antimagic Field - easily one of the most terrifying spells in the game, turning off almost half of the game features. Entire classes can be left without options against it, and even supposed "non-magical" characters can find themselves screwed without their magical equipment or buffs. The only thing holding it back is that very few would ever consider using it.
Contingency - action-economy breaker and emergency life-saver, this is one of those spells that gets picked up even if it's an opposition spell. It's too good to pass on.
Planar Binding - a little boring to list both lesser planar binding and the regular form back-to-back, but this is just a really great spell line.
(honorable mentions: greater dispel magic, true seeing, geas, major curse, sirocco, mass suggestion, greater shadow enchantment)
Level-7
Greater Teleport - I'm not as big a fan of the 5th level version due to its failure chance, and it just barely didn't make my top 3. This version has reliability on its side and makes the cut.
Limited Wish - it's very expensive so it can't be overused, but this is as close as you can get to literally rewriting the state of reality.
Simulacrum - another extremely expensive spell, but the possibilities are endless.
(honorable mentions: greater scrying, plane shift, forcecage, greater shadow conjuration, mass fly)
Level-8
Greater Shadow Evocation - this spell has some pretty creative uses, but what pushes it top-notch material is the ability to reset a contingency as a standard action. Given its flexibility on top of that, it's a top pick.
Polymorph Any Object - given the sheer number of exploits possible with this spell, I just couldn't justify not putting it on the list.
Mind Blank - one of the greatest trump cards when it comes to games of magical cat and mouse.
(honorable mentions: greater planar binding, maze, screen, demand)
Level-9
Gate - a two-for-one package, being both an interplanar transportation spell and the capstone of the planar binding spell line.
Dominate Monster - turn literally anything that isn't immune to mind-affecting spells into your personal mind-slave.
Time Stop - action economy is just a guideline for a high-level wizard.
(honorable mentions: disjunction, wish, shades)
Wizard/Sorcerer/Arcanist:
Level-1
Protection from Alignment - immunity from mind-affecting spells provided you know the alignment of the target
Protection from X does not provide immunity to mind-affecting spells, just a limited subset thereof. You're still going suffer from Confusion or Hold Person.
Protection from X does not provide immunity to mind-affecting spells, just a limited subset thereof. You're still going suffer from Confusion or Hold Person.
True enough, I misspoke there. But it affects a fair chunk of the nastier ones and I'd still put it in my top 3.
Now, to be fair the last high level paladin I played was a halfling Hospitaler so he was highly focused on healing and damage prevention.
Class: Paladin
Level-1
A. knights Calling / Compel Hostility (both of these force an enemy to go after you, making it one of the few "taunt" abilities in the game)
B. Hero's Defiance (lets you use lay on hands re-actively on yourself with a slight buff, can even save you from dying)
C. Touch of Truthtelling (like zone of truth except you get visual confirmation that the spell worked)
Level-2
A. Carry Companion (useful when your mount may be difficult to walk around with)
B. Paladin's Sacrifice (great emergency spell, lets you "jump in the way" of anything)
C. Undetectable Alignment (for when you don't want to announce yourself to things that can sense your aura of good)
Level-3
A. Accept Affliction (Take curses, diseases, poisons or adverse conditions from an ally and apply it to yourself, of course if you're immune then they just go away)
B. Dispel Magic (debuff enemies or counterspell)
C. Bestow Auras (Gives you more flexibility with your auras without denying yourself the normal benefits)
Level-4
A. Greater Angelic Aspect (become an angel, including resistances, flight and auras)
B. Holy Sword (Gain a holy avenger for the duration of the spell)
C. Stay the Hand (an aggressive immediate action sanctuary spell, even if they make their save they take a -5 on their attack and damage that round and take a -2 on attack and damage for the remaining duration)
Spells don't go above 4th level
"Best" spells really come down to whatever you're getting Feats for, but generally speaking my casters will always have:
Class: Wizard, Sorc, & Arcanist
Level-0
A. Prestidigitation - probably the most versatile 0-lvl spell
B. Mage Hand - float a mirror around corners to check for ambushes, and many other uses
C. Detect Magic - probably the most-used 0-lvl spell
Level-1
A. Color Spray - non-lethal takedown for low-level targets you need to incapacitate without accidentally killing them
B. Vanish - *hums the Bee Gees song Stayin' Alive*
C. Grease - there's a hundred uses for this little BFC gem
Level-2
A. Glitterdust - aoe blind/reveal
B. Invisibility - for when you have to be invisible longer than Vanish allows
C. Mirror Image - for when you know you're going to "lose some paint" in a fight, this is the most solid low-lvl defense spell out there. It's good at the mid/high levels too.
Level-3
A. Dispel Magic - because Counterspelling is awesome and BBEG's with magic buffs are bad mmmkay
B. Haste - turn yourself and allies into Tasmanian Devils - for added effect, anyone who has haste has to talk like Taz :) “RABLAPTHTHTPH I attack the darkness! RABLARABRAPTHTHTPH”
C. Fireball - sometimes you just gotta kill a bunch of stuff - Pair with Dazing Spell later on
D. Fly - because I couldn't pick just 3 :P Flying fixes so many problems...
Level-4
A. Greater Invisibility - cast spells and remain invisible
B. Dimension Door - teleport!
C. Black Tentacles - one of the best BFC spells in the game
Level-5
A. Permanency - this is obvious
B. Firesnake - extremely versatile nuking spell that allows you to hit all the enemies and miss your allies and without having to take the annoying feat tax Selective Spell
C. Overland Flight - vroom vroom
Level-6
A. Contingency - "If anyone tries to harm me, either with weapons, spells, or psionic powers, cast Dimension Door/Time Stop."
B. Anti-magic Field - shield you and your allies from magic, saunter through magical protective barriers
C. Flesh to Stone - Save or I'm going to hire a man with a wheelbarrow and put you in my creepy petrified creatures garden in my pocket dimension
Level-7
A. Limited Wish - obviously useful in many ways, but in the late-late game you can put -7 to Saves on the BBEG
B. Greater Teleport - traverse any distance instantly
C. Power Word Blind - This is a caster killer. No save and most casters will be under 200HP, and casters rely on Line of Sight for almost all their really scary spells that you don't want to get hit with.
Level-8
A. Polymorph Any Object - so versatile its frightening
B. Form of the Dragon III - because I'm a dragon with haste and lvl 8 spells
C. Discern Location - where we going next? who/what are we looking for? K found it.
Level-9
A. WISH
B. GATE - get rid of anybody who can't dimensional travel, or go to the different dimensions yourself :)
C. Time Stop - so I can cast 19 spells before the bad guy takes a turn :P
Protection from X does not provide immunity to mind-affecting spells, just a limited subset thereof. You're still going suffer from Confusion or Hold Person.Wizard/Sorcerer/Arcanist:
Level-1
Protection from Alignment - immunity from mind-affecting spells provided you know the alignment of the target
Protection from X does say 'including enchantment(charm) and enchantment(compulsion) effects such as...'. Both those spells are enchantment(compulsion). There's basically no enchantment spells that aren't one or the other. You're still subject to mind affecting from other schools though, like fear.
Protection from X does say 'including enchantment(charm) and enchantment(compulsion) effects such as...'. Both those spells are enchantment(compulsion). There's basically no enchantment spells that aren't one or the other. You're still subject to mind affecting from other schools though, like fear.Protection from X does not provide immunity to mind-affecting spells, just a limited subset thereof. You're still going suffer from Confusion or Hold Person.Wizard/Sorcerer/Arcanist:
Level-1
Protection from Alignment - immunity from mind-affecting spells provided you know the alignment of the target
This was FAQ’d approximately 80 years ago, and you are wrong. Only direct control or influence spells where the caster dictates one of several potential courses of action are affected. So Charm, Dominate, Suggestion, yes. Sleep, Confusion, Hold Monster, with fixed effects, no.
Edit: FAQ link
Dot.
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Best spells, as noted above depends greatly on build/party composition/type of campaign. I play Pathfinder Society, so YGMV.
Cleric - all levels
A. Empty Slot - THE WINNER. Take 15 minutes and select any spell you need, but did not anticipate. This is a huge bonus to party flexibility.
Cleric...
Level-3
A.Nap Stack (need to rest and but don't have a safe place to camp? this gets everyone back up and running in just 2 hours)
B.Stone Shape (Who needs to pick locks on doors when you can just make your own doorway. Great utility spell)
C.Dispel Magic (useful for helping to get rid of nasty buffs on enemies or just counter-spelling)Level-4
At Level-3 my Cleric usually takes in
B. Bestow Curse - tremendous debuffing spell; blindeness anyone? or 50% take no action this round? These examples are given right in the CRB spell description.C. Prayer - a nice buff for my buds, and a debuff for all my enemies.
Depending on the adventure/type of travel, I get a lot of mileage out of these two as well:
B. Water Walking
C. Water Breathing
Level -4
B. Blessing of Fervor - Haste's big brother.
NOTE: the Alchemist takes 1 minute to make an extract, so he can do Empty Slot as well.
Cleric - all levels
A. Empty Slot - THE WINNER. Take 15 minutes and select any spell you need, but did not anticipate. This is a huge bonus to party flexibility.
Is this true for all divine casters?
Edit: Divine PREPARED casters
B. Blessing of Fervor - Haste's big brother.
I forget about this spell since there's usually a wizard or bard casting haste and haste often looks better at a glance since you get everything instead of having to choose. It probably is better for martial characters since they can get a bonus to attack and ac AND get an extra attack. But it helps spell casters more then haste does since they generally don't need more then one of the buffs it provides in a given round and the bonuses provided by fervor are the same if not better (individually) then the ones haste gives you.
I agree it's a great spell.
Is this true for all divine casters?
Edit: Divine PREPARED casters
Leaving an empty slot is a very good idea for pretty much all 9-level casters. The 6-level casters have a little more trouble with that since they have fewer spells to begin with and thus don't have quite as much room to leave slots open.
Of course, it's not really a spell in its own right and more of a general adventuring tactic so I wouldn't say it qualifies for this list's purpose.
Class: Witch
Level-0
A. Detect Magic
B. Spark
C. Stabilize
Level-1
A. Ill Omen
B. Mage Armor
C. Ear-Piercing Scream
Level-2
A. False Life
B. Glitterdust
C. Limp Lash
Level-3
A. Dispel Magic
B. Bestow Curse - Touch range isn't great... but that is what Reach metamagic is for
C. Speak with Dead
Level-4
A. Dimension Door
B. Black Tentacles
C. Scrying
Level-5
A. Wracking Ray
B. Teleport
C. Dominate Person
Level-6
A. Greater Dispel Magic
B. Dust Form
C. Raise Dead
Level-7
A. Plane Shift
B. Heal
C. Mass Hold Person
Level-8
A. Death Clutch
B. Nine Lives
C. Mind Blank
Level-9
A. Foresight
B. Polar Midnight
C. Create Demiplane, Greater
Of course, the must-have spells for each level may change with your level -- as you level up, some spells that were great quit being great (for instance, Color Spray and Sleep fall into this category unless you have some way to push up hit dice limits, like Heavens Oracle for Color Spray). So lower levels of this list will change at higher levels. If you are a spontaneous caster you will literally want to swap out obsolete spells.
Lady Gray Rose- I think your spell suggestions are sensible.
But one major thing- I select my spells to do things that my hexes cannot.
For this reason I very often have mage armour and glitterdust memorised, the 2nd more than once. Glitterdust has 2 powerful uses and is just plain a brilliant spell for this reason. But I don't so much use the other 1st and 2nd level spells you mention as I can deal with individuals with hexes.
I use Burning Hands a lot as it can affect a group.
Of course, the must-have spells for each level may change with your level -- as you level up, some spells that were great quit being great (for instance, Color Spray and Sleep fall into this category unless you have some way to push up hit dice limits, like Heavens Oracle for Color Spray). So lower levels of this list will change at higher levels. If you are a spontaneous caster you will literally want to swap out obsolete spells.
While this is a factor to consider, the sheer dominance of those two spells at their level range weighs heavily in their favor. In many ways, high-level spells have the opposite problem in that they don't become available until the very end of your career.
I use Burning Hands a lot as it can affect a group.
I actually considered blasting spells while making my sorcerer/wizard list, but the big thing that holds them back is that they need feat investment to be good. They're little more than backstops and filler options otherwise, and while dealing damage may be a solid filler option it's never going to be a premier spell (there's a reason evocation is a very popular opposition choice for wizards). I will say that Fireball, Battering Blast, and Chain Lightning all fell just shy of honorable mentions on my list.
This ability is called out for Clerics only.
No it's not:
A divine spellcaster selects and prepares spells ahead of time through prayer and meditation at a particular time of day. The time required to prepare spells is the same as it is for a wizard (1 hour), as is the requirement for a relatively peaceful environment. When preparing spells for the day, a divine spellcaster can leave some of her spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes. During these extra sessions of preparation, she can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if she prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.
Nowhere does it say this is exclusive to clerics. There's identical rules text for arcane spellcasters, so all spellcasters can take advantage of this mechanic.
But what about prepared psychic casters?
That would be good to know assuming that we had any prepared Psychic casters . . . With 2nd Edition on the way, we aren't going to get any, unless some weird archetype that I missed has this feature.
Talisman crafter occultist comes close but no, no prepared psychics.
I will not do a full list but give some spells I feel are too strong to ignore.
Wizard
Level 0:
Message: Communicate silently
Level 2:
Ablative armor: Unless you are healed you will not remain standing for longer but once you go down you are not dead. And IF you get healed it heals both lethal and non-lethal damage making in combat healing stronger.
Level 4:
Shadow Projection: Turn your familiar into a shadow to be better at scouting and to weaken your enemies. Lasts for hours. If the shadow is killed your familiar, safe inside your familar satchel starts dying. Hit it with infernal healing before it dies.
Level 5:
Sirocco: It deals damage, can make targets fatigued (or even exhausted if they remain inside the area) and can make them prone. In addition it lasts for rounds/level. If the targets don't get out that can mean some serious damage + debuffs.
That would be good to know assuming that we had any prepared Psychic casters . . . With 2nd Edition on the way, we aren't going to get any, unless some weird archetype that I missed has this feature.
A Blood Arcanist who takes the psychic bloodline is a (pseudo-) prepared psychic caster.
^Good catch. Although Psychic Bloodline should have been an archetype (stronger case for it than for the Wildblooded Bloodlines, and consistent with Id Rager Bloodrager), and thus should not have qualified for this.
If a true prepared psychic spellcaster were to appear without any further rules clarification, the presumption is that it would function just like its arcane and divine counterparts and thus would have the ability to leave slots open and prepare them at a later point. Although it's not explicitly defined, there's really no ambiguity in how that'd work.
^And a Psychich Bloodline Blood Arcanist would still have the option of learning and using Quick Study to swap out prepared spells.
Sadly Ablative Barrier is level 3 for wizards (and sorcerers). :(Level 2:
Ablative armor:
I extensively used it on an investigator and a little less on the wizard so I misremembered that, sorry.
But still worth it as a 3rd level spell.
Was very hard to nail it down to 3 spells/level since some spells are very situational but potentially life/party saving. Also some of the below appear on other spell lists too:
CLERIC
0th level
Create water
Grasp
Stabilise
1st level
Air bubble: life saver
Burning disarm: really useful at many levels, worth applying metamagic to.
Liberating command: essential spell
2nd level
Grace: so useful for getting around the battlefield or functioning as a ‘Get out of jail free’
Silence: an iconic anti-caster spell
Burst of radiance: great low level blast and debuff in one.
3rd level
Bestow curse: a multitude of options for battling martials and casters alike
Invisibility purge: a potential party saver
Stone shape: great utility spell
4th level
Hallucinogenic smoke: easily one of the best (if not THE best) P4P debuffs in the entire game
Spiritual ally - underrated IMO, an almost unkillable summons that has a wide variety of applications
Freedom of movement: iconic spell
5th level
Greater forbid action: another great P4P debuff - you know it’s good as its repeated use will seriously piss off your GM and force him to start fudging dice rolls!!!
Plane shift: versatile spell with an additional save or die ability
Raise dead: essential for any party
6th level
Heal/harm: not as good as its 3.5 version but still a great damage dealer/healer
Source severance: cleric anti-magic field
Elemental assessor: excellent attack spell with no save and very useful for identifying enemy weaknesses
7th level
Destruction: iconic cleric damage dealer
Holy Word/Blasphemy: needs a little CL booster investment but easily capable of ending encounters all by itself
Ethereal jaunt: great utility spell
8th level
Nine lives: superlative personal buff spell
Greater spell immunity: immunity to spells upto 8th level?... Yes please!
Death clutch: a great damaging spell and who doesn’t like the idea of ripping someone’s heart out?!?
9th level
Miracle: say no more!
Gate: say no more!
Implosion: another underrated spell IMO - excellent for combatting arcane spellcasters in particular due to their lower FORT saves. Is not a death spell and is not a negative energy spell, so there will be far fewer things with resistance/immunity.
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This ability is called out for Clerics only.No it's not:
A divine spellcaster selects and prepares spells ahead of time through prayer and meditation at a particular time of day. The time required to prepare spells is the same as it is for a wizard (1 hour), as is the requirement for a relatively peaceful environment. When preparing spells for the day, a divine spellcaster can leave some of her spell slots open...Nowhere does it say this is exclusive to clerics. There's identical rules text for arcane spellcasters, so all spellcasters can take advantage of this mechanic.
Your quote is actually incorrect. Try this:
Spell Selection and Preparation: A divine spellcaster selects and prepares spells ahead of time through prayer and meditation at a particular time of day. The time required to prepare spells is the same as it is for a wizard (1 hour), as is the requirement for a relatively peaceful environment. When preparing spells for the day, a cleric can leave some of her spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes. During these extra sessions of preparation, she can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime...Permit me to provide you with the link here.
Your quote is actually incorrect. Try this:...
Permit me to provide you with the link here.
The text you link to is incorrect. I checked against a physical copy, and in the actual printed core rulebook it does say "divine spellcaster" and not "cleric". I have no idea why the AON PRD has the wrong text, but it is wrong.
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Errata at some point would be my guess; maybe your printed rulebook is newer than the errata but AoN is based on the original version.
Errata at some point would be my guess; maybe your printed rulebook is newer than the errata but AoN is based on the original version.
I checked the errata documents, and there's no mention of it. So if it was an errata, it's one Paizo forgot to document.
Not only that, but further down the same linked page, under "Preparing Wizard Spells", in "Spell Selection and Preparation", it says:
When preparing spells for the day, a wizard can leave some of these spell slots open. Later during that day, he can repeat the preparation process as often as he likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, the wizard can fill these unused spell slots. He cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because he has cast a spell in the meantime. That sort of preparation requires a mind fresh from rest. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if the wizard prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.
Which makes Wizards match up with Clerics with respect to spell preparation. Since that version was written before other prepared spellcasters, but none of the later prepared spellcasters have instructions that say to do otherwise, it makes sense to extend this to all prepared divine and arcane spellcasters.
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I have my 1st printing core rulebook right here and it does say "Cleric", so they tweaked it to "divine spellcaster" at some later point.
My guess is that it wasn't thought to be important enough to put in the errata. I think most of us were treating "cleric" as meaning any divine spellcaster who prepared spells anyways.
The text you link to is incorrect. I checked against a physical copy, and in the actual printed core rulebook it does say "divine spellcaster" and not "cleric". I have no idea why the AON PRD has the wrong text, but it is wrong.
Your quote is actually incorrect. Try this:...
Permit me to provide you with the link here.
And this is where you went wrong. AoN took the PRD straight from Paizo. The PRD is more up to date; just look in your core rule book for Gunslingers or Kineticists.
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^The problem with that is that not all parts of the PRD are equally up to date. Before the move to Archives of Nethys, one of the complaints was already that older parts of the PRD did not get updated when newer parts came out. The PRD is so huge that it's going to take Archives of Nethys a LONG time to get it all integrated and updated.
And this is where you went wrong. AoN took the PRD straight from Paizo. The PRD is more up to date; just look in your core rule book for Gunslingers or Kineticists.
I have a 6th printing pocket edition of the CRB, which is the latest printing. Captain Zoom just confirmed that the PRD text is from the older printing, so it is indeed outdated.
Gunslinger and Kineticist are from completely different books entirely and have nothing to do with reprintings of the CRB.
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Note that the Legacy PRD on AON says "cleric", but the rules section on AON (which are the newly uploaded files from Paizo) says "divine Spellcaster".
Go to AON, Search "Rules" using "When preparing spells for the day" and see what you get - you get "divine spellcaster". Or click on "Rules" and check out the magic section directly.
Go to the "Legacy" aon.com site and you get the older "cleric" language.
EDIT - And I think we're derailing the OP, so let's get back on topic and stop arguing about "cleric" vs "divine spellcaster", like it really matters.
I'm going to take a stab at this fro the first 3 levels of druid spells. Many spells on the druid's list are dependent on the environment, I'm picking ones that are independent of environment for the most part. IF you know where most of your fighting will take place the spells that are specific to that environment become much better.
0 Level
Stabilize: Sometimes you just can't get to a dying buddy easily and the range on this allows you so save them, literally a life saver.
Detect Magic: Standard for a reason
Guidance: It's not a big bonus, but you can spam it (careful though as your GM will get tired of you if you do it [i]too[/] often
1 Level
Obscuring Mist: Save your party form the ambushing archers, Also, your party backstabber will love you if you let him plan around this
Heightened Awareness: Perception and initiative, need I say more? Also a bonus to knowledge which is nice.
Tears to Wine: Long duration, scaling bonus, can effect everyone in the party with a single casting, perception is a wisdom based skill
2 Level
Winter's Grasp: Large area of effect, hard battlefield control until enemies fly, no save, can be cast almost anywhere (unlike the entangle spells) Bonus: Combine with rime spell for a hard debuff with no save. GOLD
Burst of Radiance Decent damage AOE with a debuff, no save on damage, plus it won't hurt your party (unless you know you're playing with evil characters, but who does that?)
Barkskin A classic druid buff for a reason, cast on others who need it as well as yourself, long duration scaling benefit.
One more Because this level is so good:
Summon Nature's ally II: Lowest level you can summon elementals which are smart enough to follow complex orders, plus with the expanded elemental list you have a ton of special abilities available AND you don't have to prepare this.
3 Level
Sleet Storm: Hard battlefield control, with a great range and area of effect.
Stone Shape: Utility, who needs doors?
Mad Monkeys: Nauseated and subject to disarm /steal plus all the usual goodness of a swarm.
I am a huge fan of the animate dead spell and am surprised more people aren't calling it out.
I will admit it isn't for everyone, and it can be a tiresome way to play a character, but the results can be astounding.
Lots of minions that never die (bloody skeletons), acting as tanks and dealing some damage while you do your own thing.
Even if it doesn't rule your whole character it can be used mid-fight to create allies in the place of a summon spell.
Idk maybe I'm all wrong but I put this forth as a great spell!