I've played several Imperial Sorcerers, but I've never got the chance to pick up Extend Spell. I'm considering taking it this time around. What are some good or cool spells to use with it?
The most obvious one is 4th level Invisibility. Otherwise, I guess it's good for pre-buffing with spells you usually can't pre-buff with, but if we're talking combat, just having Arcane Countermeasures locked and loaded has always served me well already.
It seems a good use for every battle form spell.
Otherwise from the top of my head:
Fleet Step
Haste
Air Bubble
Blur
Blink
Combats are so quick in PF2, I haven't found too many uses for Extend Spell.
I think the main advantage is doing the pre-combat Buff. Changing durations from 1 minute to 10 minutes is big... I know that it made a major difference when my Alchemist hit 3rd.
If you're casting within combat, more duration's less a factor as it's unlikely to last until a second combat (unless you breeze through it and don't need Medicine/Refocusing). But precasting, yeah, then you can open more than a few doors to get to the next battle. That'd be cool to have those spells ongoing, though IMO Heroism & Resist Energy are the main ones and they're 10 minutes.
I guess one could develop a commando style where the party punches through two encounters at a time while beefed up, i.e. w/ 7th level Haste, but PF2 doesn't reward such buffing nearly as much as previous iterations.
And non-combat, when you can freely recharge the Focus Point, that's bonus, and you might be able to get twice the utility out of a spell simply because you can use it in two locations or with two separate NPC interactions, etc. In theory that is. You'd have to have those spells, need to budget them, and be in the right circumstance/campaign.
I really, really have wanted to take that Bloodline just for this, but in the end I'd need more justification (though the spells are good). I wonder if it might be of more use as an MCD for some other class. Then again, it only needs to be great for a few spells to be worth it, and some have been listed above.
I didn't consider battle forms before, so that's fun. Just to make sure, do the self-casted spells (like battle forms) still count toward the "single target" prerequisite of the spell? Even though they don't technically target?
And yeah, I'm not too worried using it regularly for combat although the pre-casting possibilities are a unique aspect to look out for during play. It does seem it would shine better with spells that are also beneficial outside combat, but 1 minute spells geared for out of combat aren't exactly the most prolific by design. But to be fair, I have yet to look into SoM and books after for spells for this specific interaction.
I didn't consider battle forms before, so that's fun. Just to make sure, do the self-casted spells (like battle forms) still count toward the "single target" prerequisite of the spell? Even though they don't technically target?
And yeah, I'm not too worried using it regularly for combat although the pre-casting possibilities are a unique aspect to look out for during play. It does seem it would shine better with spells that are also beneficial outside combat, but 1 minute spells geared for out of combat aren't exactly the most prolific by design. But to be fair, I have yet to look into SoM and books after for spells for this specific interaction.
I believe the “single target” part of the description is more about the word single than the word target. As far as I know, Extend Spell works just fine with battle form spells.
On a similar note, do sustained 1 minute spells qualify as well?
I've been subconsciously discounting them just because fully sustaining a spell for 10 minutes doesn't seem prudent. But who knows, it could open up a bunch of interesting possibilities if so.
I am not definite about the ruling, but I believe “sustained up to 1 minute” is not the same as “1 minute” and therefore would not qualify.
Haste is good but also a bunch of defensive spells that might be hard to use otherwise like mirror image, blur, mask of terror.
I might be convinced to allow Extend Spell to combine with a Sustained duration in that it would let the initial duration be for an additional round. So you could effectively pre-sustain the spell with the metamagic action.
But that is pretty much a houserule. Not something that would be RAW.
This is a part of PF2 which varies a lot from group to group.
It changes the relative value of a lot of things.
Most combats are only 3-5 rounds so not everyone tracks 1 minute duration spells precisely to 10 rounds, as it is just not important.
Then there are the people who try to get two encounters in with the same set of buffs. Or GMs who will often string two encounters together.
Sometimes it just makes sense from how the encounters are laid out. But other groups stick tightly to the implicit rhythm of the game and always have at least one ten minute gap between encounter.
Some GMs will let you spend a round to prebuff before some types of encounters. Other GMs basically start the encounter when you start buffing.
I don't see that there is any strict guidance on this, but I'm happy to be informed otherwise.