What spells and or items have the property / trait of sunlight?

[Ricksnest]

There are a number of monsters weak or vulnerable in someway to sunlight. However, in PF2E, I don't see anything that directly says its sunlight. Even spells and items with it in the name only mention "light", "bright light", "dim light", "fire damage" or "good damage". In PF1E there was specific references to daylight and sunlight for spells and items. My question is, in PF2E what qualifies as sunlight? For example, is "bright light" counted as "sunlight" for the purposes of determining if a specter is effected by sunlight powerlessness.

[Ricksnest]

Ricksnest wrote:

There are a number of monsters weak or vulnerable in someway to sunlight. However, in PF2E, I don't see anything that directly says its sunlight. Even spells and items with it in the name only mention "light", "bright light", "dim light", "fire damage" or "good damage". In PF1E there was specific references to daylight and sunlight for spells and items. My question is, in PF2E what qualifies as sunlight? For example, is "bright light" counted as "sunlight" for the purposes of determining if a specter is effected by sunlight powerlessness.

Just a note to add: Is the decision by Paizo to treat magical sunlight differently in 1e vs 2e intentional and if so, why? Was it to nerf magic (especially divine magic), to buff some undead, something else? If it was just an oversight, that would also be useful to know.

[Sibelius Eos Owm]

In general I think creatures weak to sunlight are only explicitly weak to actual sunlight. In fact, the few examples that are explicit seem to clarify that being 'like sunlight' is usually only enough to qualify for some bonus, not actually count as true sunlight.

Few examples I found on a quick search:

Bottled Sunlight is especially effective against sunlight-weak undead, but it's still not real sunlight.

A Midday Lantern emits magical light 'similar' to sunlight enough to trigger sun-based light puzzles, but not harm a vampire.

Dawnflower's Light is a rare 4th-level spell that directly references Sarenrae but only makes those weak to sunlight uncomfortable with a penalty to fear effects

A Radiant Lance flashes with light when it strikes a sunlight-weak creature and applies a hefty debuff.

I would wager sunlight vulnerability means creatures must hide from the actual literal sun, not just from clerics. There's a handful of effects that are close enough to do extra damage, but not enough to insta-kill or render incapacitated.

[Castilliano]

Much like PF2 has fewer immunities, it seems it's done away w/ extreme vulnerabilities too. Both swing party-power guesstimates for adventure writers, making it hard to create encounters with such creatures.
So if PCs had access to magic that unleashed sunlight-level effects, they'd kind of be required to carry it because it would nullify some encounters. Yet a developer can't assume the party carries it either, so how does one develop a battle that's balanced for both?
Well, much like they've done with other vulnerabilities, make it helpful, yet not so much that it's required, i.e. silver weapons.

It's comparable to how darkness was altered between PF1 & PF2. In PF1-PFS, many early scenarios relied on darkness, leading to TPKs or cakewalks depending on the party's prep. So party's prepped, expensive consumables became part of one's normal load, making those encounters trivial. (And on the flip side, parties could focus on darkness too and trivialize many encounters. Not the kind of game I'd enjoy.)

[Ricksnest]

Thanks for the info and clarifications.

[Khanz13]

PF2E Champion devotion spell Sun Blade mentions direct sunlight