Ghostly Weapon is utterly useless at its spell level

[adventure_crew]

I am flabbergasted by this spell being missed as they passed by Magic Weapon and Magic Fang in the errata.

The Spell in QUESTION: https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=133

This 3rd level spell requires a target of "1 Non-Magical Weapon that is either unattended or wielded by you or a willing ally". Nonmagical, as a THIRD level spell.

You're not getting this spell until your allies, who likely use weapons, are at +1 Striking at this tier [Level 4 runes! They should have the gold by now].

You're ASKING your allies to spend time changing weapons to things they've not invested in at the level of unlocking. Action economy lost unless you precast this. The 5minute duration hints at this.

DIVINE ALLY, provided by Paladin at level 3, provides the Ghost Touch effect without care for the fundamental rune slot (NOTE: it says "GRANTS THE EFFECT - no where does it state it takes the slot nor requires magical"). Yet, this spell - a level 3 spell, does not provide this benefit.

So, let's say this was the INTENTION due to FEAR OF DAMAGE SCALING VS GHOSTS. Then... why not provide any heightened effect for higher levels? Who's going to cast ghost weapon on d12 greatsword in the middle of combat at level 13? THEY GUNNA SWING FOR 3d12 and eat the hardness!!!

The most humiliating thing about this is how it treats one of the beloved core gods!

Pharasma provides this spell to clerics. A Cleric of Pharasma, already plagued by NO ALIGNMENT FOR DIVINE LANCE, is now slapped in the face by Pharasma's provided level 3 spell: Ghostly Weapon. What a fool for choosing such a cool god, core to the universe.

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I would like to think anyone who's bothered to take this spell has incorporated it into their theme in some fashion, and ghosts are already durable creatures.

Please consider opening up Ghostly Weapon for use on magical weaponry, so that your anti-spirit themed players have an actual tool to use!

[Cordell Kintner]

Yes it sucks. This is not a rules question though, so I've flagged it to be moved to General.

[Grankless]

I mean, it isn't a GOOD spell. It certainly isn't useless. You probably didn't rune up your dagger or whatever so it's perfectly fine to have this on a scroll or something just in case for when you really need it.

[voideternal]

Grankless wrote:

I mean, it isn't a GOOD spell. It certainly isn't useless. You probably didn't rune up your dagger or whatever so it's perfectly fine to have this on a scroll or something just in case for when you really need it.

But would you cast this at all even then? A martial's weapon at level 5 is +1 striking, so by using a nonmagical backup weapon, you lose 1 accuracy and a striking rune's worth of damage, 3.5 for a d6 weapon, and 6.5 for a d12 weapon.

In return, you bypass an incorporeal creature's physical resistance, but at level 5, you're looking at ghosts and wraiths which have resistance 5.

Even pre-cast, I don't think this spell buffs your martials enough to make a difference.

Edit: maybe the purpose is to turn a backup grapple weapon ghost-touch to grapple ghosts.
Edit 2: I ran some numbers for a level 5 rogue with a d6 weapon and a +4 attribute modifier vs a level 6 wraith. The nonmagical ghost-touch shortsword does around 7.1% more damage than the +1 striking shortsword.

[breithauptclan]

Grankless wrote:

I mean, it isn't a GOOD spell. It certainly isn't useless. You probably didn't rune up your dagger or whatever so it's perfectly fine to have this on a scroll or something just in case for when you really need it.

Like was mentioned before, casting this on a backup weapon only works well at lower levels. Once your primary weapon is doing a lot of damage, it is still better expected damage to use the primary weapon even with the damage reduction slicing off some of the damage dealt.

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One thing that does help though is using some variant rules like ABP and High Quality items since those rules don't add magic trait to the improved weapons.

[Castilliano]

A lot of buffs (et al) in PF2 aren't made to improve a good ability (and seldom one's best weapon) so much as bring something inferior up to adequate. I'd put this spell in that category, so for a prepared PC, it's worthless.
Unfortunately, I can think of so few niches that it's worthless.
Maybe if Ghost Touch let a Rogue or Precision Ranger get around how Incorporeal are immune to precision damage (much like in PF1) then it'd be worthwhile.

I suppose there's the instance of needing a ranged weapon for a melee PC w/o Striking on their bow, but one would have to have forewarning (and no better options!) so yeah, pretty tiny niche now, especially when Resistance is so low at the levels where a backup weapon would have zero Runes that it doesn't add much (and less than Magic Weapon would most of the time, which would work in many more instances).