Brothers and Sisters greetings and once again I come to you seeking knowledge. If you were playing a prepared caster what are you go to 1st and 2nd level spells assuming you know nothing about what is going to happen that day?
Say your character is level 10 and uses the occult tradition.
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Occult spells that can still be very useful at level 10:
1: Bless, Fear, Helpful Steps, Illusory Object, Liberating Command, Lock, Loose the Path, Sanctuary, Sure Strike
2: Animus Mine, Augury, False Vitality, Humanoid Form, Illusory Object/Creature, Invisibility, Knock, Laughing Fit, Loose Time's Arrow, Mind Games, Mirror Image, Revealing Light
Also somewhat campaign dependent. I get far more use out of Air Bubble in Kingmaker than in a lot of other adventures, though its not an Occult spell.
Just serves as an example of something that is useless in a lot of campaigns but has literally saved my character's life twice in an adventure where water hazards come up.
Brothers and Sisters greetings and once again I come to you seeking knowledge. If you were playing a prepared caster what are you go to 1st and 2nd level spells assuming you know nothing about what is going to happen that day?
1st rank: Force Barrage, Runic Body/Weapon, Heal, Soothe and that's all. And also Illusory Object if your GM is super nice with it. The rest of first rank spells are either too weak to consider or interesting at higher level when they are not taking your top slots. I personally never use any other spell during the first couple of levels.
For second rank, there's much more choice so I will certainly forget one or 2: Heal, Soothe, Animated Assault, Sudden Blight, Sudden Bolt (Uncommon), Blazing Bolt, Brine Dragon Bile, Calm, Dispel Magic, Floating Flame, Illusory Creature, Revealing Light.
Brothers and Sisters greetings and once again I come to you seeking knowledge. If you were playing a prepared caster what are you go to 1st and 2nd level spells assuming you know nothing about what is going to happen that day?1st rank: Force Barrage, Runic Body/Weapon, Heal, Soothe and that's all. And also Illusory Object if your GM is super nice with it. The rest of first rank spells are either too weak to consider or interesting at higher level when they are not taking your top slots. I personally never use any other spell during the first couple of levels.
They said in another comment that they're level 10, so they're never going to use rank 1 Runic Weapon and would need to be truly desperate to use a rank 1 Soothe.
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If you are talking about what spells to slot in those low ranks as a L10, that's a specific enough question to get some good answers.
In general, you are going to want spells that *do not compete for opportunity cost* with your higher R slots.
This means that 1A and Reaction spells are especially worth reading over. Liberating Command, Sure Strike, Loose the Path, etc. All of these will be castable at times that you could not fit a normal 2A spell.
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IMO, R 1&2 spells is still low / weak enough that a lot of the good "adventure utility" spells are not available at these ranks, but there are other options.
Another "type" of spell that requires more reading to identify are "prep" spells that avoid opportunity cost via not usually being cast in combat. It's harder to have the "right context" that matches these spells so that you can cast them each day, and this rather big umbrella group is usually best bought as scrolls, but some can be "generic" enough to be worth slotting.
This does technically include "door kick prebuffs" like Bless, but I'm going to leave that boring/straightforward group to the side for now.
My pitch is for Helpful Steps, and "arena prep" spells.
Thinking about "arena prep" is a very fun and rewarding bit of tactics that, sadly, may never happen once during a normal AP campaign, if left to the natural flow of play.
But! If you slot a spell like Helpful Steps, that motivates you to think about prepping an arena before you open the door and invite/coerce the foes to fight in your room.
Making a spiral staircase so your ranged PCs can stand in an elevated and hard to melee position is very tactically helpful, yes. But the main perk of slotting this kind of spell is that it helps you, and the whole party, to form plans and *remember to* think tactically.
If you do notice that you have the chance to prep an arena, using this spell will prompt everyone with the opportunity to do something similar, and just fosters more player investment (and role-playing!) as they think about what they want their character to do before the fight begins.
And if you put an "arena prep" spell into your daily slots, instead of carrying scrolls of it, this will put "good pressure" on you to keep remembering it, and thinking of if / how you could make use of it.
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They said in another comment that they're level 10, so they're never going to use rank 1 Runic Weapon and would need to be truly desperate to use a rank 1 Soothe.
Ho, that's a completely different question. And the answer is very different: You don't really care about such low rank spells. At level 10, you can cast as many of them as you want (Scrolls cost nearly nothing). I personally no more cast rank 1 and 2 spells at level 10 outside some extremely constrained situations and the classic Tailwind/False Life. Even reactions are so unimpactful that I forget them all the time.
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Object Reading is such an amazing spell, I often pick it up with an archetype on non-occult casters. If you are doing really ancient dungeon delving it is not super useful but even in dungeons, writers tend to like having twists where other adventurers/etc are active and this spell is a great way for a player to give a GM an extra opportunity to seed background information and plot details that might otherwise go undiscovered.
Pocket library is another pretty evergreen and amazingly useful rank 1 spell at the point that you are not really using rank 1 spells in combat anymore.
Ventriloquism is great in both rank 1 and rank 2 slots.
Summon fey can get you a sprite or a Nyktera, so a talking, flying creature that can either make light or see in the dark, which can easily be as useful as a familiar that you really don't have to worry about.
An important thing to remember about spell casting in PF2 is that using spells are many ranks below your top slots in combat can often be a detriment to the party as a whole, especially if they are taking up 2 or more actions in combat. So casting bless and expanding it once or twice before opening a door can be a decent use of a rank 1 slot, but casting it once combat has already began might be a bigger waste of actions that even using a cantrip or getting out a better spell on a scroll. That is why, as a prepared caster, I am probably using most of my rank 1 slots as utility spells by the time I am casting rank 5 spell.
At the same time, one rank 1 force barrage can be fairly useful. It is automatic damage, so sometimes might be the best way to finish off a creature you know is up against the ropes but is difficult to damage, or to one action zap an ally who is confused.
Edit: also, I cannot believe I forgot to mention Lock at rank 1 and Knock at rank 2. These are spells I often carry scrolls of as well, but a lock spell in a combat where doors might get opened by enemies trying to bring in reinforcements can force many wasted actions, and a knock can sometimes save them for the party since you get an open opportunity with the casting, and it makes it easier for anyone else if you need to get a door open quickly (like to escape or free a prisoner in combat).
Endure and blood vendetta are my favorite rank 1 & 2 spells. Single action spells and reaction spells are what I like for enriching caster turns so they feel less like "move and cast" all the time; this leads me to load up on these kinds of spells so I can have options for keeping my turns varied.
I personally no more cast rank 1 and 2 spells at level 10 outside some extremely constrained situations and the classic Tailwind/False Life. Even reactions are so unimpactful that I forget them all the time.
I think that is a bit wasteful. There are still plenty of good spells available for those spell Ranks even for higher levels. Dizzying Colors and Command work fine at that level. And if you don't have any better reactions, Rank 2 Blood Vendetta is at least some chip damage for resource and action costs that you aren't otherwise using.
An important thing to remember about spell casting in PF2 is that using spells are many ranks below your top slots in combat can often be a detriment to the party as a whole, especially if they are taking up 2 or more actions in combat. So casting bless and expanding it once or twice before opening a door can be a decent use of a rank 1 slot, but casting it once combat has already began might be a bigger waste of actions that even using a cantrip or getting out a better spell on a scroll.
Not sure I am following the logic here.
Bless doesn't have any heightened effect. A +1 status bonus to attack rolls is a +1 status bonus to attack rolls - and is good at all levels, just ask a Bard.
So casting a Rank 1 Bless as a level 2 character has the same action cost as casting a Rank 1 Bless as a level 12 character.
Now, if you are saying that Bless is never good to cast in combat and should be relegated to a pre-buff role entirely at all levels, that makes sense. I don't necessarily agree, but it has valid logic - the action cost of Bless isn't worth the benefit once combat has already started. But that is also a problem specific to Bless itself, not a general thing for casting Rank 1 or 2 spells.
Saying that Bless is good to cast after the start of combat at level 2 play, but bad to cast after the start of combat at level 12 play doesn't make any sense to me.
Dizzying Colors and Command work fine at that level.
Worse than cantrips, and cantrips are free.
Rank 2 Blood Vendetta is at least some chip damage for resource and action costs that you aren't otherwise using.
I always forget about it. It's so rare to be attacked as a caster.
Saying that Bless is good to cast after the start of combat at level 2 play, but bad to cast after the start of combat at level 12 play doesn't make any sense to me.
At level 2 you can cast Bless, at level 13 you can cast Haste 7. So, it definitely makes sense. At low level, you don't expect the same impact from a caster than at level 12.
I rarely cast Bless at level 2 but I'd definitely never cast it during combat at level 12.
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Flagged to move to Advice.
To the question, that depends, imo, on what level the character is.
My rank 2 spells for a level 3 character are different from my rank 2 spells for a level 9 character.
Also, what spell list?
Thank you, Ectar! This is perfect for our Advice forum. ^_^
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An important thing to remember about spell casting in PF2 is that using spells are many ranks below your top slots in combat can often be a detriment to the party as a whole, especially if they are taking up 2 or more actions in combat. So casting bless and expanding it once or twice before opening a door can be a decent use of a rank 1 slot, but casting it once combat has already began might be a bigger waste of actions that even using a cantrip or getting out a better spell on a scroll.Not sure I am following the logic here.
Bless doesn't have any heightened effect. A +1 status bonus to attack rolls is a +1 status bonus to attack rolls - and is good at all levels, just ask a Bard.
So casting a Rank 1 Bless as a level 2 character has the same action cost as casting a Rank 1 Bless as a level 12 character.
Now, if you are saying that Bless is never good to cast in combat and should be relegated to a pre-buff role entirely at all levels, that makes sense. I don't necessarily agree, but it has valid logic - the action cost of Bless isn't worth the benefit once combat has already started. But that is also a problem specific to Bless itself, not a general thing for casting Rank 1 or 2 spells.
Saying that Bless is good to cast after the start of combat at level 2 play, but bad to cast after the start of combat at level 12 play doesn't make any sense to me.
It's about opportunity cost: what else could you be doing with those actions?
At level 2, maybe not much. A cantrip or fear or something.At level 12, you could cast Synesthesia, Wave of Despair, or Rank 6 Heroism.
It might be the case that casting Rank 1 Bless is the best thing you could be doing with your actions as a level 12 character, but that situation is uncommon.
The Bless is as effective as it always was, but it's a less attractive option by comparison to the higher rank ones.
A lot of folks have answered the question very well, so I am not going to linger on the specific example, but I do think one of the reasons that some players end up feeling like playing a caster is an unsatisfying experience is because they get into the pattern of casting spells that they have figured out how to use effectively with their characters, which often means lower rank spells or those lower rank spells heightened.
This is a very logical thing to do, especially as higher rank spells are expensive to learn (for the character) and even the "everybody says this spell is awesome" spells take a little bit of time to figure out.
Like a level 10 prepared occult caster (per the original example) is probably going to be better off casting a synesthesia spell on round 1 of most combats than a rank 1 bless spell, but synesthesia is pretty short range and other than the -3 debuff to AC, the rest of the effects might feel pretty situational and not particularly better than a rank 2 mist spell. I have seen players get really excited to bust out new, fancy synesthesia spell, only for the target to make their save and no one even target the creature's AC that turn, and end up feeling really down about what synesthesia can do. That player ended up going back to focusing on Buffing allies and often would then end up casting rank 1 or 2 spells like Bless the first round of combats, even in situations where all three of synesthesia's effects would have been very useful.
The problem there is that casters that want to be operating at peak efficiency really need to be able to utilize their first round of important combats to start casting spells that at least threaten to change the entire encounter. When the party gets hit by a dominate spell (for example) from a caster in a group of monsters, even if the player makes their save and is only stunned 1, the party probably changes how they approach the encounter because they realize one bad roll against this creature could turn the tides against them. When a caster can make themselves that much of a threat to the enemy, it makes the whole party's job a lot easier, because the enemy will waste actions trying to get at the caster and the party can usually more easily utilize their reactions and abilities more effectively too. When the enemy is able to write off the caster as someone to deal with later, then they can focus fire on the martials that are benefiting from the buffing and doing the most damage, and the party ends up in a bad situation of trying to chase enemy damage with soothe for healing options. Whereas casting a spell like visions of death, synaptic pulse or synesthesia can have much more of that (uh oh, even if I got lucky on that save) "that caster is a real threat to me" effect that can make playing a caster fun, even when the enemy is making their saves.
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For a level 10 prepared character I would go as Flexible Spellcaster because I dislike prepared caster to a point that I prefer to sacrifice a spellslot per level. But I know that this isn´t the case.
Rank 1 and 2 spells for mid level characters are in a bad situations IMO because that usually doesn't pay its actions cost. For example using some suggested spells:
Fear: Fear is one of the worst action-saving spells I know of. At first glance it seems good because it allows you to leave a target frightened 2 with a failed Will save. And since Will is usually the save that most opponents are weak to (in most stories most NPCs and monsters don't cast it and if they don't cast it, Will is almost always the weakest save or, at best, intermediate), there is still a good chance that the target will pass and only be frightened 1, but frightened 1 is something that anyone can achieve using Demoralize by spending only one action, while fear spends 2 actions. Furthermore, although fear is a debuff for teamwork, it is extremely dependent on the difference between initiatives. If your target is going to act right after you, this means that your allies will hardly be able to take advantage of the fear, which may force you to have to Delay to make it more efficient, which also creates its own problems. If it acts before you, you need to hope that your allies act after you, otherwise they won't benefit from the condition. And finally, at level 10, it's very questionable whether it's worth spending 2 actions, not using another spell or even a 2-action cantrip to generate -2/-1 on an opponent for a maximum of 2 rounds. In my opinion, in many cases it's simply better to use a damage cantrip like EA than fear. And finally, for the same cost the Goblin Pox does the same thing (maybe without the -2 in case of a failure), but with a much longer duration and forces the target to spend at least 1 action to try to cancel its effect. In other words, at least you force the target to also have to spend an action or deal with the condition for the rest of the combat.
Helpful steps: It's a questionable spell in combat, and outside of combat it can simply be replaced by the Athletics skill in the vast majority of cases. However, it can still be useful if you don't have any proficiency in Athletics. But even without it, it's so easy to Follow the Expert that I don't see much point in it outside of levels 1-2. Besides being circumstantial, you can go an entire adventure without needing it, which is quite annoying for prepared casters since you reserve a spellslot.
Augury: It's not bad at all, but I think it's very limited for a 2nd rank spell. It takes 10 minutes to cast it, to know if an idea or choice is good, bad, mixed and it has a 25% chance of failure if it is executed in the next 30 minutes. It takes too much time, to predict too little time, giving very little information and with a very high chance of being completely wasted.
False vitality: It's nice to use as a wand or scroll. I don't think it's worth it as a spellslot at this level.
Illusory creature: Not bad, but at level 10 you have better Sustained spells to use.
Knock: It's not worth it. The bonus is good, but unless you're in a really tight situation, if you fail you can simply try again, which makes the cost in spell slots not worth the benefit. It might be good if no one in the party has athletics or thievery, but that's a situation I've never seen happen.
Loose Time's Arrow: For me, it depends a lot on the composition of your party and of your luck and perception. If your group has few melee characters, it will hardly be useful, but if it is a large group composed mainly of melee characters, it can be very welcome, if your initiative roll is high. This makes it very variable. It can be very good if everything goes well (you are the first in the round, and your allies come right after you), or useless if it goes wrong (you are the last in the initiative and all allies and enemies have already moved). It is a spell that depends a lot on luck and your character and allies' perception.
Mind games: It's a worse laughing fit, with a critical success effect that penalizes you, a useless success effect, a practical failure effect equal to laughing fit and it still has a cost! I don't know why anyone suggested this!
Mirror image: From PF2e it's really bad. The images are destroyed really easily because of the miss effect and it only works against attacks. It's much better to cast blur which lasts an entire combat and works against any effect that targets it, even save effects!
Lock: It's quite interesting, but it's also situational, I wouldn't take it with a prepared caster.
Endure: It lasts very little, and competes with other better sources of temporary HP. It's not worth it, even though it only costs a single action. It's better to Sustain some magic instead.
Dizzying Colors: It's incapacitation, not worth it. It needs to be used with your top spellslot and even then if the enemy is stronger than you it's practically useless.
Command: It takes too many actions and only works in case of failure. In my opinion it's only worth it when you have many allies with reactions against manipulate with these actions available. In all other scenarios you spend as many actions as those you want to take actions from to have a chance at this, in addition to the spellslot itself.
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Having removed the questionable spells suggested so far, here are my suggestions for good rank 1 and 2 spells for a level 10 caster.
Bless: Disagreeing with SuperBidi's opinion, bless is good even at higher levels. Because it is in practice an inspire courage Courageous Anthem that does not need to be Sustained, and in the remaster it starts with 15 feet of emanation. For most indoor fights like dungeons this is often enough, and if it is not, you can quickly increase it with Sustain actions until it is the size you find appropriate. It is an especially good spell when you have allies like the fighter and the rogue, because it helps them increase not only their hit but usually their critical rate even against strong enemies. It is a spell worth casting at the beginning of a fight, especially when you want to save stronger slots.
Penumbral shroud: This spell depends on the target and the location to vary between useless or fantastic. Especially in campaigns with many human enemies and other creatures that cannot see in the dark, it gives a benefit very similar to Dazzled, if the location happens to have dim light, then it basically leaves those opponents Blinded at the cost of a rank 1 spell. On the other hand, against enemies that have precise senses that work in the dark, it is useless. It is a great spell in "humanoid-centric" adventures, which are the vast majority, where you will often face humans and other ancestries that do not have darkvision.
Enfeeble: Classic and effective against strength-based enemies. If the enemy passes the check, it hinders them a little, if it fails, it hinders them a lot. However, it has a weak point. This type of enemy also tends to have a high fortitude, which can make this spell difficult to land.
Sanctuary: Before taking this spell you need to talk to your GM first asking how it will deal with the damn hostile actions rule. Because depending on how it interprets indirect hostile actions, it can vary from being a super useful spell for when you want to focus on healing, giving support and doing utility effects to completely useless if your GM interprets that these actions harm your enemies.
Soothe: Some people say that using low-rank soothe is desperation, but honestly it depends on the situation. Many times you don't want or can't use your high-level spell slots to heal someone, but you need to save an ally or a dying NPC. In addition, it gives a bonus against mental effects that can be useful occasionally.
Sure strike: Despite the massive nerf it received, Sure Strike is still useful once per combat.
Command: I know I criticized this spell above, but as I said there, if your party has several allies with reactions against manipulate, this spell can be very useful to cause good indirect damage by forcing an enemy to trigger the allies' reactions.
Illusory object: This is probably the best level spell in the game to be used at high levels. Because you can simply do whatever you want with it. Creative players use it in every possible and imaginable way, from hiding dangers, creating fake walls, creating bars to protect allies and stretching it as far as your imagination allows! Especially for GMs who want their creatures to be reasonable and not imagine that a spell is necessarily an illusion (especially when you use illusory object to simulate the effects of another spell, like walls) and will not necessarily try to disbelieve it. And even if they do, they have to spend actions and pass at checks. This spell is simply fantastic, especially for its cost.
Blood vendetta: It doesn't do huge damage, for a reaction using a rank 2 slot, it's still very useful at level 10. It's no Retributive Strike, but for classes that don't normally have reactions by default, it's quite useful.
Blur: I don't know how no one has mentioned it until now. Simply put, everyone who tries to do an effect that targets you now has a 20% chance of failure before even testing whether the effect will work by doing the standard check for it for 1 full minute without even needing to Sustain, this even applies to saving effects like most single target spells, whether they are attack, saving or automatic. However, this can also negatively affect you, because if someone tries to heal you, this healing will need to make this test as well or the spell will not hit you. Theoretically, by RAW, this even affects you, but many GMs use common sense here and allow you to use touch effects on yourself without needing the test because you are not necessarily subject to line of sight to use your own effects on yourself.
Darkness: It is super effective if your party can see in the dark, but your enemies cannot. Cast mainly in closed spaces it can easily trivialize encounters with several humanoids that cannot see in the dark.
Invisibility: It's super useful for out-of-combat situations to allow for both infiltration and scouting. And starting an encounter with it usually ensures that your enemies can't hit anyone who's invisible until at least your turn. If you're starting with support and utility spells and your GM isn't too strict about indirect hostile action rules, it can be a great setup too.