Introduction
THIS ARTICLE IS INCOMPLETE. I do this as a hobby, and unfortunately I haven’t been able to complete this article yet. If you want to see this article completed, please consider supporting RPGBOT on Patreon.
Because spell lists in PF2 are available to multiple classes, rating spells often includes a great deal of nuance. Where it is often perfectly fine to skim our content and pick exclusively green and blue options, you will get more value out of this article if you read beyond our color/star ratings.
For legacy spells, see our Legacy Arcane Spell List Breakdown.
Players familiar with Pathfinder 1e should note that spell save DCs have changed since previous editions. Where in 1e your save DC included the level of the spell, in Pathfinder 2e your Spell Save DC is the same for any spell that you cast (though it gets complicated if you can cast spells from multiple traditions). If you cast a 1st-level spell one turn, then a 9th-level spell the next, they will have the same save DC. Because of this change, low-level spells can remain fantastically useful at high levels.
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Arcane Cantrips
- 1st-Rank Arcane Spells
- 2nd-Rank Arcane Spells
- 3rd-Rank Arcane Spells
- 4th-Rank Arcane Spells
- 5th-Rank Arcane Spells
- 6th-Rank Arcane Spells
- 7th-Rank Arcane Spells
- 8th-Rank Arcane Spells
- 9th-Rank Arcane Spells
- 10th-Rank Arcane Spells
Arcane Cantrips
Cantrips are a go-to, perpetual source of magical options. Cantrips are always heightened to half your level rounded up, so they’ll match the level of the highest-level spells that you can cast. This scaling keeps Cantrips a reliable source of damage output at any level, though most spellcasters still want to rely on ranked spells when they suit the situation rather than counting on Cantrips as your only source of damage output. Because your number of Cantrips is limited, many spellcaster should try to split their options between damage and utility. A spellcaster whose only capability is damage is basically an archer with extra steps.
- (SoM): Absolutely useless.
- (SoM): Absolutely useless even for a Bard.
-
(PC1): A 5-foot
burst can hit as many as 4 creatures, but more likely you’ll hit two
adjacent creatures. The damage is decent, but the scaling is slow, so you’ll
have Rank gaps where the damage falls behind.
This isn’t a bad spell, but it fills a similar function to Electric Arc, which is better in the vast majority of situations. Electric Arc’s damage is more consistent and scales more smoothly, plus it allows much more space between your two targets. Caustic Blast can only beat Electric Arc if you can hit three or more targets or if one or more of the targets critically fails their save and starts taking Persistent Damage.
Caustic Blast also competes with Scatter Scree. While Scatter Scree can only affect 2 squares and and doesn’t apply Persistent Damage, Scatter Scree’s damage scales more consistently, and the gauranteed Difficult Terrain may be more useful than very occasionally getting a tiny bit of Persistent Damage.
Widen Spell would make this very exciting, but tragically Widen Spell doesn’t apply to bursts this small.
Prior to the remaster, Caustic Blast was called Acid Splash and relied on a primary target and splash damage. The new version is better and simpler.
-
(PC1): Mediocre
damage and poor scaling. You’re gambling for critical failures to stun the
target. Against single enemies that’s a bad gamble, and doing more damage to
quickly eliminate the target is a better choice. Against larger numbers of
low-level enemies, use area damage.
Prior to the remaster, Daze dealt damage equal to your spellcasting Ability Modifier.
- (RoE): Too situational and too limited. For the vast majority of your career you’ll do fine with Water Breathing.
-
(PC1): An essential
for adventurers. Someone in every party needs to know this. You can get it
via the Arcane Sense Skill Feat, but it won’t Heighten normall, so you will
lose some of the more powerful features. Even so, it’s better to have this
at Rank 1 than not at all.
The remastered version of Detect Magic has different functions when Heightened from the original version. Because schools of magic went away in the remaster, the ability to identify schools of magic didn’t make sense anymore.
- (RoE): Too situational. This would be great for NPC merchants worried about adventurers trying to commit fraud, but for players this will probably never matter.
- (RoE): Extremely situational. If survival elements were more impactful in PF2 this might be exciting, but this is not that game.
-
(RoE): Resistance to
one of the most common damage types in the game as a Reaction. Sure, the
resistance scales very slowly, but for such a small cost it’s fantastic.
Even Ancestries/Heritages which provide permanent fire resistance will
provide less resistance than Eat Fire does.
On top of that, you can can create a small burst of Smoke which can conceal creatures within it, potentially including you, which lasts for a full minute. This adds yet another powerful defensive option.
Because this doesn’t care about your spellcasting stats, it’s a fantastic Innate Spell. It’s also on every spell list except Divine, making it an easy go-to option for a huge number of characters.
-
(PC1): The gold
standard of ranged attack cantrips. If you can target two enemies, this will
easy outdo the initial damage of any other cantrip. In a long fight you
might get more out of Persistent Damage from cantrips like Gouging Claw, but
Electric Arc is consistent, reliable, and predictable. If you’re not
fortunate enough to have it on your spell list (it’s only Arcane/Primal),
getting it as an Innate Spell or via Adapted Cantrip is a great choice.
Prior to the remaster, Electric Arc dealt 1d4+Modifier damage.
-
(RoE) (Uncommon):
This is very similar to how Counterspell works, provided that you have a
qualifying spell. This notably doesn’t require your own spell to be of any
particular Rank, so you may be able to use 1st-Rank Arcane Spells to
counteract much more powerful spells.
The “elemental cycle” omits numerous damage types including air, acid, cold, and electricity, meaning that against a huge number of spells, this won’t function. Fire spells will be the most common by far, so maybe you’ll benefit from having a water spell on hand to counter fire spells.
-
(PC1): Very useful,
but since this depends on a Deception check to Create a Diversion, everyone
except for Charisma-based spellcasters may struggle to make this effective.
Of course, your GM may let you accomplish quite a bit before you actually
roll to Create a Diversion.
This replaces the Legacy spell Ghost Sound, but the effects of Figment are much more versatile.
- (PC2): Decent damage and good scaling. This is a great option for melee casters or for ranged casters that want a way to push enemies out of melee.
-
(RoE): Functionally
similar to Shield, but you trade much of Shield’s Hardness for retaliatory
damage. If you’re a melee caster, this is absolutely worth considering, but
ranged casters should stick to Shield. You can absolutely take both, which
may be a good idea since they both have a cooldown once you use the Reaction
to block damage.
The retaliatory damage starts to add your Spellcasting Attribute Modifier when you reach level 5 and start casting 3rd-Rank Arcane Spells. If you’re taking Glass Shield as an Innate Spell and have poor stats, Shield may be a safer choice.
-
(PC1): Good base
damage plus Persistent Damage on hit. This is the gold standard for melee
attack cantrips.
Prior to the remaster, Gouging Claw dealt 1d6+Modifier damage and only applied Persistent Damage on a critical hit. While the Persistent Damage scaled better in the Legacy version, applying bleed on every hit means your expected damage output is much more consistent.
-
(PC1): Good
single-target damage and persistent damage on a crit. You can also use it as
a melee attack, which is appealing for casters who occasionally step into
melee because you can use one Cantrip both in melee and at range. For
casters who are in melee more consistently, look at Gouging Claw instead.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Produce Flame”. The remaster also updated the spell so that using Ignition in melee increases the damage dice (including the Persistent Damage) from d4’s to d6’s.
- (RoE): Very dramatic, but not useful enough to justify a spell even with a 1-Action casting time. Using it on unwilling targets could be amusing, but likely won’t do any harm beyond giving away their location.
- (SoM): The Action cost is way too high for such as small benefit. Compare this to the Bard’s Courageous Anthem, which affects your whole party, provides better benefits, and costs half as many Actions to cast. Yes, it’s a class-exclusive Focus Spell, but this seems to be trying to mimic the Bard’s capabilities, and it’s absolutely not doing the job.
- (SoM): This would be really good against a creature whose True Name you know, but learning a creature’s True Name is a major plot point. You might get to use this against one or two creatures in an entire campaign if you’re lucky.
-
(PC1): An
adventuring staple. Most of the time you’ll attach light to your party’s
Defender so that they can both see and draw attention in otherwise dark
places, but sometimes you’ll also want to place lights at a distance to
expose enemies, to investigate areas from afar, or to draw attention.
Remember that you can have up to 4 lights running at once, so you’re free to
spread them out to cover a large area.
Prior to the remaster, the functions of Light were split between the Dancing Lights and Light cantrips. Consolidating the two and removing the need to Sustain Dancing Lights makes everything much more usable. However, since you can no longer target an object, you can no longer cast light on something before throwing it into a deep pit, so you’ll still need to haul torches around from time to time.
- (PC2): The damage is good, but ignition works very simialarly, scales better, and works in melee. The only appeal of Live Wire over Ignition is that fire resistance is common. I don’t think you’ll get enough value from this to justify it as a backup Cantrip.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful.
-
(RoE): Excellent
direct damage. The ability to add special metal types to the damage means
that you can easily trigger weaknesses, adding a great deal of additional
damage at potentially no cost. The damage is comparable to Telekinetic
Projectile, though Needle Darts scales very slightly slower in exchange for
Persistent Damage on a Critical Hit.
Pathfinder Society requires the caster to hold at least one chunk of metal or an item made of the metal which you’re using to cast the spell. A cold iron dagger, a silver coin, and adamantine shield, etc. This is minor inconvenience because you’ll need to Manipulate to retrieve whatever variety of metal you need, but I think it’s a fair balancing requirement because it adds a cost to benefit from a creature’s weaknesses.
- (PC2): Your allies fighting in melee will frequently grant your enemies Cover against your attacks. This nearly avoids that issue. Of course, you could also use a cantrip that calls for a saving throw instead, such as Electric Arc.
- (PC1): Neat, but not especially impactful. A great RP tool, but you can’t solve any serious mechanical challenges with it that couldn’t be solved my mundane means.
- (SoM): Fantastic if you rely on a Minion, such as an Animal Companion. The damage reduced is considerably greater than the damage that you take, making it a very efficient trade. If you’re relying on your Minion as a tank, this can considerable improve how much damage your party can absorb in combat before it becomes a problem.
- (PC2): The damage isn’t great, but the appeal here is Persistent Damage without a Critical Success on an attack or a Critical Failure on a save. Reliably applying Persistant Damage is really impactful, and will easily make up for the relative difference in damage even as Cantrip damage scales with Rank. The biggest issues is the 10-foot range, which largely limits this to melee casters or casters with Reach Spell.
- (PC1): Useful for locating and identifying magic items, ongoing spell effects, etc. Detect Magic is frequently sufficient, but sometimes you need more precision than Detect Magic offers. If your GM is strict about requiring you to identify magic items, the +2 bonus to do so will be consistently useful.
- (RoE): Too situational, too limited, and the benefit is too small.
- (PC2): Typical damage for a Cantrip, good scaling, and you may be able to hit two targets. Scatter Scree’s big selling point is the squares of difficult terrain. If you’re hitting one enemy, you may be able to position the Difficult Terrain to prevent them from Stepping away from your allies, or force them to spend additional Actions to move into position to attack.
- (PC1): One action for +1 AC and the ability to block some damage as a Reaction. This is a great use for a spare 3rd action, and since it doesn’t care about your spellcasting stat, it’s a great innate spell.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful. The best use I’ve found for this is to identify imposters or to track objects that may have changed hands. Cast the mark invisibly on your allies and refresh it when it fades, then if there’s ever a question you can touch the mark to reveal it. If it’s there, you might be okay. If not, roll for initiative, because you’ve found an imposter.
- (RoE): Arguably even better than Electric Arc, as Slashing Gust has double the range, doesn’t care how close your targets are to each other, and can inflict Persistent Damage on a crit. However, Slashing Gust explicitly requires empty hands, which is a problem if you like to hold shields, wands, or other useful items. If you’re fighting with your hands free, this is amazing. Otherwise, stick to Electric Arc.
- (PC2): Fine damage with good scaling, but the Off-Guard effect won’t be consistent enough to justify using this over anything else. If your party is so desperately reliant on making your enemies Off-Guard that you want this spell, you need to have other tactics which can do it more reliably.
- (PC1): Just buy an instrument. The benefit here is that you can’t lose this, break this, or have it taken from you. Unless you expect that to happen on a regular basis, there is little reason to learn this.
- (RoE): Too situational, the duration is too short, and the benefit is both soo small and doesn’t scale.
-
(PC1): At 1st Rank,
the speed penalty and the 1-round duration are not worth the Actions to cast
the spell in the vast majority of cases. The duration improves over time,
but I wouldn’t consider this a go-to spell until you get the 1-minute
duration when you’re casting 4th-Rank spells, at which point imposing the
penalty for a full fight can trivialize fights against melee enemies.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Tanglefoot”.
-
(PC1): Useful, but
extremely limited since the text of the spell only allows it to carry and
move unattended objects. RAW you can’t poke things, pull levers, knock
objects over, etc.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Mage Hand”. The remastered version is identical, but clarifies that you can move the object in any direction.
-
(PC1): Good
single-target damage with good scaling and you can choose from any of the
physical damage types. Resistance to physical damage is common, so be sure
to have another damage cantrip option.
Prior to the remaster, Telekinetic Projectile dealt 1d6+modifier damage.
- (RoE): Good damage in a line, but line AOEs can be very hard to use because enemies to rarely order themselves in a straight line and because moving yourself to hit multiple targets is costly. Hitting more than one enemy with this will be exceptionally rare, and if you can’t hit multiple enemies you will do better with other spells.
- (DA): This combines the function of a block with a worse version of Guidance. It’s not good.
- (PF #186) (Uncommon): 1d4 + modifier will nearly always beat 2d4 damage, so the damage here is slightly better than most cantrips, and will even compete with 3d4 cantrips like Needle Darts. The scaling is good, too. The Fatigued effect is good, but not amazing.
- (RoE): This is a bit like morse code, but it’s not clear if you can be that precise. This improves upon Message because it doesn’t require line of sight, but it also can’t convey speech. It may be useful during heists or other forms of infiltration, but it likely won’t see constant use.
-
(PC1): Not as much
single-target damage as Telekinetic Projectile, but resistance to void
damage is rare. Don’t make this your only damage cantrip, but it’s a decent
backup option if you rely on damage which is commonly resisted like fire or
poison.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Chill Touch” and had differing effects for living creatures and undead. The remastered version uses Chill Touch’s effect for living creatures.
- (DA): Too situational, and most bonuses to your speed are Status bonuses, so it won’t stack with common speed bonuses like Tailwind.
1st-Rank Arcane Spells
- (NPC) (Rare): Hillarious, but not consistently useful. Consider a wand if you’re doing a lot of dungeon crawls.
- (LO:DM): Not to be confused with Caustic Blast, Acidic Burst is an Emanation rather than a Burst. This can be effective if enemies swarm you in melee, but it’s not so powerful that should dive into melee to use it. I would much rather use this than Breath Fire, though.
- (PF #158): Not enough damage for a single-target attack spell.
- (LO:DM): This could be a good way to force an enemy to move repeatedly and provoke Reactions, or it could stand still and take a bunch of damage. The scaling is pretty good, too.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful. The rules for holding your breath are generous to the point that drowning is borderline impossible unless you’re fighting.
- (PF #169): Gale Blast does the same knockback effect and also deals damage.
- (PC1): A good precation while resting anywhere dangerous. A wand is inexpensive investment that can serve your party reliably for your whole career.
- (APG): Neat, but too situatonal. Most of the problems that you would solve with this can be solved using your hands.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful, but great for low-Strength characters that carry a lot of gear like many alchemists. The buff lasts 8 hours and can be cast on another creature, so a 1st-Rank wand is an easy investment.
- (LO:DM): Probably not worth a spell slot, but maybe worth a wand.
- (KCG) (Rare): Decent damage and good scaling. If you don’t need to do anything except attack enemies, and if there are buffs/debuffs making you more likely to hit, this could be really good. Knocking enemies prone on crit is great, too.
- (LO:DM): A fantastic debuff, but a terribly short duration. If you time this for your allies to follow up with big attacks, spells, and special abilities, it can be fantastic. The spellcasting failure chance from Stupefied can also deter enemy spellcasters from using their scariest spells. If you can make the target Frightened, such as using Demoralize, you’ll get most of the same benefits, but many spellcasters aren’t built for Demoralize to be reliable.
- (SoM): Extremely situational.
-
(PC1): Compare 2d6
damage in a 15-foot cone to 2d4 damage to any two creatures within 30 ft. of
you. With the expected +4 ability modifier, Electric Loop deals 2d4 (avg. 5)
damage to two creatures. You can reasonably expect to hit at most two
creatures with a 15-foot cone, and Breath Fire cast at 1st Rank deals 2d6
damage (avg. 7). The damage gap is small and the range gap is massive. The
fact that you can even compare this to a cantrip should tell you why this
spell is bad.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Burning Hands”.
- (PF #188): Blinding an enemy, even for a round, is a huge debuff. Against big enemies, spamming this to keep them blinded can easily tip a fight in your favor even if you only cast it at Rank 1.
- (RoE): Very situational. When used offensively, this can be incredibly effective. Targets float to the surface over the course of 1 round, which might be absurdly fast if you’re deep underwater, and then targets need to pass a Fortitude save to dive against. Fortunately, I don’t think PF2 has rules for “the bends.”
- (HotW): If you consistently have a spare Action (which happens in some builds and some encounters), this can turn that Action into a decent attack. The damage isn’t amazing, but making the target Dazzled can do a lot to protect your allies.
- (PC2): Only situationally useful. It doesn’t care about your stats, so consider a wand if you plan to use this.
- (PC1): Against a solitary target, this is close to a save-or-suck, and unless the target critically succeeds on the save you may be able to cast Charm again if the first attempt fails. There is no limitation on creature type as there was in Pathfinder 1e, so this spell can be useful almost constantly. Consider expanding your language options so that you can talk to your new friends, and consider investing in Diplomacy so that you can permanently improve the target’s attitude toward you.
- (PC2): Dismal damage and a tiny speed debuff.
- (PC1): A simple crowd-control spell with a few options. Commanding creatures to run away or drop what they’re holding is often the best option because it can force an enemy to disarm themselves or to run out of melee (potentially provoking Reactions), and the creature must then spend Actions to address how you’ve inconvenienced them. However, it’s a single-target spell with a 2-Action casting time, and you can generally expect to cause 2 Actions worth of inconvenience if the target fails their save, which may not be a good enough trade.
- (RoE): This will nearly never be more impactful than Runic Weapon. The only time when it will be is when your enemies have vulnerability to electricity damage, which is rare unless you’re hitting them with Forge to give them vulnerability.
- (PC1): Only useful in survival situations, and people don’t play Pathfinder to play a survival game.
-
(RoE): Persistent
damage in an AOE and possibly inflict Enfeebled. This easily outdamages most
1st-Rank spells, though the short range and small AOE at 1st Rank may make
it hard to hit multiple enemies consistently.
The scaling is good, too, but doesn’t immediately solve the spell’s limitations. Cast at 3rd Rank, it’s a 10-foot burst with 40-foot range dealing 4d6 persistent fire damage on a basic save and you still get the possible debuff. Compare that to fireball’s 20-foot burst, 500-foot range, and 6d6 damage. If the persistent damage applies twice, you’ve done more damage per target with the same spell slot, you’ve possibly Enfeebled targets, and you might still get more damage. Persistent damage has a roughly 50% chance to expire after the 2nd turn, but that’s still a good chance to do at least as much damage as Fireball with the additional possibility of a debuff.
But the small AOE and short range may make it difficult to hit as many targets with Dehydrate as you can eith Fireball. Dehydrate won’t match Fireball’s AOE until 7th Rank, and Dehydrate will never match Fireball’s range. If you’re in a situation where you can can hit the same number of targets with either spell, Dehydrate is the clear winner. However, Fireball is more likely to be the right spell in any given situation.
-
(PC1): Very
situational. You’re much more likely to see an NPC cast this to trick
players than to cast it yourself.
This spell was called “Misdirection” prior to the remaster. The exact mechanics of the spell have changed significantly.
-
(PC1): Useful early
in a fight, but if you can’t get the Dazzled/Blinded effects into play early
you’re not benefiting much from the spell.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Color Spray”.
- (SoM): If your party isn’t consistently applying debuffs like Enfeebled or Frightened, this can be a great way to debuff major enemies. If you’re your party’s Defender, this is a great way to keep enemies focused on you. If you’re not, this is a great way to make melee enemies struggle to fight your melee allies while you fight from a safe distance.
- (SoM): If an enemy used several Actions to do something harmless, this is a great way to waste their turn. However, it’s usefulness depends heavily on how enemies act, and the interpretation is a bit fuzzy, so your GM might accidentally nerf the spell. It also has Incapacitation.
- (SoM): This is very little damage. It is not good enough to justify casting in combat. But it has a 1-minute duration and doesn’t require you to Sustain it, so you might cast this before walking into combat. It also doesn’t care about your spellcasting stats, so it’s great on a wand.
- (PF #183): Unpredictable, the effects are mostly unimpressive, and Incapacitation.
-
(LO:DM): With a
1-Action casting time, this is a great combat buff. You might also pick up a
bunch of wands and use them on your party’s melee characters before walking
into difficult fights.
When considering if you should use this in combat, consider what other 1-Action options are available to you. Raise a Shield or using a Parry weapon to boost your AC might provide better damage mitigation, but Endure sticks around if you don’t get hit.
-
(PC1): An excellent
debuff against most melee enemies, but those same enemies often have high
Fortitude saves, so this may not be reliable. Still, it remains equally
effective for your whole career, so you can whip this out at level 20 to
Enfeeble 2 the big bad and still get the same results.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Ray of Enfeeblement”. The remastered version also removes the initial spell attack roll, removing one of the spell’s points of failure.
- (PF #147): Too situational. Use Illusory Disguise.
- (Fb): Too situational, and not very impactful when it does apply.
- (PC1): Frightened is a great debuff, but it also wears off automatically in a few turns. For half the Action cost you can Demoralize a target. Demoralize will only make them Frightened 1, but that leaves you with two Actions to cast a different spell. Fear isn’t bad, especially since it remains equally effective for your full career, but typically you want to Frighten an enemy to set them up to hit them with a different spell.
- (Fb): A perfect option for ranged characters to escape dangerous situations.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful. If you want a speed buff, Tailwind is a much easier choice. If you know that you’ll need this, cast it before walking into combat.
- (PF #186): Rhis is only marginally better than Gouging Claw.
- (RoE): The AOE is tiny and you’re gambling on a Critical Failure, which is never a safe bet. The damage is bad.
-
(RoE): A weirdly
large number of important metal objects are unattended. Door hinges, locks,
prison bars, nails holding wood together, iron banding on barrels and
chests, enemies’ weapons lying on the floor, metal support beams, etc.
Anything you’re holding is “attended”, so I suppose that you need to drop
stuff before casting this.
Pathfinder society has a ruling that specifically prevents some of these shenanigans, which makes Fold Metal much less useful in Pathfinder Society. “For the purposes of the fold metal spell in Pathfinder Society play, objects which are part of a structure (such as a door, or a lock on a window) are not considered “unattended.”
Honestly, I think this is a good ruling to use in home games, too. Fold Metal makes it way too easy to bypass mundane obstacles. If you stick to this ruling, I would call Fold metal . It’s a spell that’s intended to only be situationally useful.
-
(PC1): Reliable and
flexible, Force Barrage has several great things going for it. First, it
never misses, so it’s a great option when facing foes with high defenses.
Force Barrage deals Force damage, which very few creatures are resistant to.
120 ft. range is plenty to keep you well out of harm’s way. And finally, you
can choose to cast it with 1, 2, or 3 Actions to increase the effects at the
expense of your time. Spending more Actions will get more effect out of the
spell, so it’s a more efficient use of your spell slots, but, if you need to
move or cast another spell in the same turn, you can still get some damage
out of Force Barrage.
Unfortunately, Force Barrage’s damage scaling is poor. It only adds more missiles every 2 Ranks, which doesn’t come anywhere near the damage scaling of other offensive spells.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Magic Missile”.
- (Hh) (Uncommon): Unusually good single-target damage for a Rank 1 spell (2d6 is typical, so 3d6 is great), but you’re primarily here for the Critical Failure effect, and it’s never a good idea to count on critical failures.
-
(PF #169): Forcibly
repositioning your allies can be a great way to rescue enemies who are
grappled, incapacitated in some way, dying, or generally just in a place
that they don’t want to be. If you pull your melee allies out of melee
combat, enemies may be force to spend Actions to pursue them.
If you need an alternative, consider Gravitational Pull.
-
(PC1): Any
experienced player has seen a long list of situations which involved falling
in a dangerous fashion. Way back in D&D in DnD 3.5 I was in a party that
leapt from low orbit to avoid a rematch with an angry dragon, and Feather
Fall turned certain death into a fast elevator ride. Every party needs this
spell available, and scrolls and wands won’t do the job.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Feather Fall”.
- (PF #194): I cannot concieve of a situation where this would be helpful.
- (PC1): A great debuff. Sickened affects all of the creatures’ checks and DCs, and they’re Sickened 1 even on a Success. Unlike Frightened, Sickened doesn’t go away automatically; the target must spend an Action to attempt a save. Stage 2 of Goblix Pox is incredibly impactful, but also only lasts 1 round, so Goblin Pox is not likely to win any fights for you on its own.
-
(SoM): A great way
to get allies out of a bad position or to force enemies into one. The
ability to cast this with up to 3 Actions makes it easy to fit into your
Action economy, too. For example: you could pull a distant enemy closer to
get them into melee with one of your allies, or to get them into position to
hit more enemies with an AOE. If you’re flying, you can even yank enemies
off the ground to cause falling damage.
Unfortunately, PF2 doesn’t have an explicit rule about willingly failing saves. One of Paizo’s designers has recommended allowing players to reduce their degree of success by one step as a guideline. If you’re playing Pathfinder Society, assume that it’s not allowed. Otherwise, talk to your GM.
- (PC1): Use this to trade Actions with your enemies. You spend 2 Actions to cast this, then your targets hopefully fall prone, and then must spend an Action on their turn to stand. If you can hit two enemies, that’s an okay trade. If you can hit three enemies, it’s a great trade. Don’t expect enemies to walk into the grease in a way that they’ll need to make another save/check to avoid falling.
- (PC1): Poor damage and a pittance of Persistent Bleed Damage in a short line. If you want bleed, consider Gouging Claw. If you want multiple targets, Electric Arc and Slashing Gust as both better. Considering that we’re comparing Grim Tendrils to a cantrip, that should tell you everything that you need to know about the spell’s effectiveness.
- (ToK) (Uncommon): Better than Breathe Fire, at least. Dazzled will make it harder for enemies to attack you, which could help you in melee.
- (PC1): If you just want to knock targets prone, use Grease. Gust of Wind is situationally useful when enemies rely on smoke or fog, and when you’re facing flying foes. Knocking a flying foe prone causes them to fall, potentially dealing a huge amount of damage in addition to the 2d6 from the Critical Failure effect. As you gain levels and flying enemies become more common, this becomes more and more important. Despite not scaling with spell Rank, this should be a go-to option for handling flying enemies, especially if not everyone in your party can fly. At low levels you can probably forgo this because flying enemies are uncommon.
- (): Too situational. Consider Gecko Grip if you’re worried about vertical obstacles.
- (): Only reliably useful in aquatic campaigns, and even then it’s not likely to see a ton of use. The damage is adequate and the Action compression is nice, but there are numerous better options for getting out of melee that work both above and below water.
-
(): 3d6 is unusually
good damage for a spell of this Rank, but no much better than you would get
from a cantrip like Needle Darts, and Dazzled on crit is comparable to many
other attack spells. That on its own makes this a good attack spell at low
levels regardless of the rest of the spell. The 3-Action version adds some
reliability, which is great at low levels when you have very few spell
slots.
The 2-round version of the spell may be appealing at low levels, but commiting a total of 6 Actions in a row is a massive gamble and removes your ability to respond to the rapidly changing nature of combat. You might start casting and find that at the start of your next turn there are no suitable targets, or that any creature you target with the attack will lead to hitting your allies with the AOE damage.
- (PC1): Despite the relatively high damage compared to other 1st-Rank spells, this isn’t a great offensive option. 3d6 is still not much more than you’ll get from a cantrip like Needle Darts at low levels. The appeal is the forced movement, which you can use to break grapples, force enemies out of melee, or push enemies into a dangerous location.
-
(PC1): You can
typically handle disguises with the Deception skill, but if you’re not
proficient in Deception, it may be more convenient to learn a single spell,
and since you add your level to the Deception check with this you
effectively match having Expert proficiency if you’re not already
proficient. If you’re already proficient, this is effectively a +4 status
bonus to Deception, which is hard to beat.
The remastered version of Illusory Disguise has absorbed the effects of Veil, allowing you to Heighten the spell in order to affect up to 10 willing creatures.
-
(PC1): In many
cases, an illusory object is as good as a real one. Hiding being an illusory
wall is often just as good as hiding behind a real one, especially if an
enemy doesn’t know to Seek nearby, and even then the rules for disbelieving
illusions require creatures to make a Perception check to Disbelieve the
spell before they can see through it even partially.
You can easily use this in combat to block line of sight, to create places to hide, and possibly to isolate enemies for several rounds. But fair warning: you and your allies are not immune to your illusions. Even if you know that an effect is an illusion, you still need to Disbelieve it to see through it.
The duration is long enough to let you do all sorts of useful stuff, and if you prepare it at higher Ranks the spell can be permanent.
- (RoE): You might be able to use this for things like barring doors, blocking traps, patching holes, or other similar tasks. The wording suggests that you need to create “earthenware objects”, but an amorphous clay blob is an object. In many ways, you can use this as a low-budget version of Shape Stone.
-
(RoE): Standard
Cover is +2 to AC and +2 to Reflex saves, giving you a 20% chance to improve
your outcome by one step. You use this when you’re targeted, so you can’t
wait to use this until you know for sure that it will work, but a high-level
spellcaster can easily afford to spend a 1st-Rank spell slot on this several
times a day.
The barrier lasts 3 rounds, but basically any area damage or a single Strike will easily destroy it. Even so, you might benefit from the provided cover more than once, and the barrier will prevent enemies from moving through the edge of a space where you placed it.
- (): Too situational for use while adventuring. Once you can cast the 7th-Rank version you might get some value in turning some of your belongings invisible while establishing a home base. A sheet of metal that’s permanently invisible makes for a very sturdy window.
- (PC1): Very situational, but I just know that there are players out there who are going to cast this on looted items to try to get more gold when they sell it. As a GM, remember that when creatures interact with the affected item they can attempt to Disbelieve the effect, and if word gets out that the players are trying to swindle people with this spell the players might have trouble trading with people who know their reputation.
- (PC1): Situational, but it still makes both the Quick Jump feat and the Powerful Leap feat largely obsolete unless you’re building to jump almost every round. For spellcasters, this stops being interesting as soon as magical flight becomes convenient.
- (DA): A great option for Forced Movement that will rmeian impactful for your whole career. The 1-Action version is enough to get you out of melee, to break grapples, or to trade Actions with a target. The 2-Action version likely won’t see as much use, but the improved range and double push range are significant. The 3-Action version is tempting if you get swarmed, but try to avoid needing it. If you find yourself needing it consistently, Gale Blast will do the same Emanation push on the same save, only takes 2 Actions, and also deals damage.
-
(PC2): A fantastic
debuff against big single enemies. If your party has multiple sources of
electricity damage, the Weakness alone is worth the spell slot. Typical Rank
1 spells deal something like 3d6 damage (avg. 10.5), so you only need to
trigger the weakness 5 times to match it. Spells like Electric Arc,
elemental ammunition, weapon runes, a Weapon Siphon loaded with Bottled
Lightning, or even Bottled Lightning itself. Remember that Bottled Lightning
will trigger the weakness twice: once from the attack and then again with
the Splash damage. You might grab Conductive Weapon and cast it before
walking into combat if you know that you’re facing an enemy that justifies
it and your party doesn’t already have better weapons.
On top of that, the target also gets a speed penalty and Clumsy 1, so your party is more likely to hit and crit with attacks.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful, and player characters will rarely use this in any way that’s actually impactful. However, they’re very likely to encounter it as an obstacle.
- (PC1): Tempting if you like to use shields, but the Repair activity is more effective, doesn’t require a spell slot, and doesn’t have a Bulk limitation. You could save this for days when you’re not adventuring, but even then proficiency in Craft is easy to get and just as good.
- (LO:DM): Very situational. In a real world, this would be a great way to send messages. If you could cast this at Rank 9, it would be a great way to permanently record small bits of information. Imagine an art museum where all of the plaques are replaced by 5-minute narrations.
-
(PC1): Extremely
situational.
Prior to the remaster, Mindlink was only on the Occult spell list.
- (): Simple difficult terrain with a good AOE and you don’t need to Sustain it, but the 3-Action casting time can be very frustrating. Rime Slick is better at the same job, but since it’s Uncommon it may not be available.
-
(PC1): If you fight
unarmored, Mystic Armor will replace the benefits of a well-enhanced
Explorer’s Outfit at the cost of a single spell slot. Sure, spell slots are
valuable, but the amount of gold you save will be considerable. You need to
cast higher-Rank versions of the spell to get the increasing benefits, so I
recommend using your second-highest Rank spell slot.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Mage Armor”.
- (SoM): Essential if you have undead Minions but can’t cast Harm.
- (CRB): Too situational. Sure, some creatures have Scent, but it’s not impactful enough to justify keeping this running unless you know that you’re facing something which fights by Scent alone.
- (PC2): A good way to quickly make yourself Concealed so that you can Sneak to get away or just run for it and hope that the miss chance blocks any Reactions that your enemies might have. The damage is functionally nonexistent, but if you can make few enemies Sickened, it can have a huge impact. This is great both for melee casters and for ranged casters who need an escape option, but consider keeping this as a scroll if you’re not using it consistently.
- (SoM) (Uncommon): Only useful if your GM has somehow made Games Lore a useful enough skill to justify putting resources into it. Once you can cast Rank 5 spells, the +2 bonus to Earn an Income is significant, but you have had to live with Gaming Lore for up to 8 levels before you saw that benefit, and I don’t see that happening for most people.
- (Fb) (Uncommon): Absolutely fantastic in every way. It’s a Reaction, it’s a powerful debuff without Incapacitation, and on a Critical Failure it can waste the rest of your attacker’s turn. For a Rank 1 spell, this is absolutely incredible.
- (LO:DM): If Low-Light Vision and Darkvision weren’t so common, this would be great. Against enemies like humans that lack special senses, this is almost as good as Blindness, but without the Incapacitation trait.
- (PF #151) (Uncommon): Hillarious, but not impactful enough for the Action cost.
- (PC1): Only useful for scouting and similar non-combat activities. Be sure that you’re proficient in Stealth, because if you’re caught in this form and attacked you’re likely to die almost immediately.
- (PC1): Situationally useful if you want to sneak your pet into a place where they might not be welcome, but your pet can’t willingly exit and you can’t dismiss the spell, so you’re putting your pet totally out of reach for 8 hours.
-
(PC1): The servant
can perform Interact Actions, so it may be able to do things like triggering
traps, activating magic items, administering potions to allies, etc., but
the spell is Sustained so you’re still committing an Action every round to
get an extra set of hands. Unfortunately, you can’t simply issue commands to
your servant and take a nap while they mop your floors or something.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Unseen Servant”.
- (RA / SoM) (Rare): A Wand of this will let you cast it at the beginning of the day (or the night before) and use the bonus whenever you like. This is one of the easiest Item bonuses to Recall Knowledge available, but you might prefer Insight Coffee if you’re going to rely heavily on Recall Knowledge.
- (PC1): This has the same area and save as Breathe Fire, but trades some damage for the ability to push targets away from you. For spellcasters built to fight at range, this can let you push nearby enemies out of melee so that you can safely retreat. But you can usually solve that problem by Stepping, and that doesn’t rely on a save. If you want the ability to reposition enemies, Hydraulic Push is usually a better choice.
- (SoM): If you were a professional wizard in a real world, this would be great. But this isn’t a game about magical accountants sorting through the kingdom’s treasury, so you’re unlikely to use this ever.
- (SoM): Another spell that would be very useful in a real world, but which is totally useless in a game that takes places in your imagination.
- (PC1): All the benefits of Runic Weapon, but it may apply to multiple Strike options. Creatures that fight unarmed often have multiple types of attacks (monks changing stances, character with both teeth and claws, etc.), and this allows them to switch between them without giving up the buff.
-
(PC1): Players
likely won’t have +1 Striking weapons until around level 5. Before then,
Runic Body and Runic Weapon can provide a massive boost in effectiveness to
martial characters. The 1-minute duration will only last through a single
fight, but casting this on turn 1 will frequently yield more damage output
at low levels than casting an offensive spell.
At higher levels, the relative benefits of uprading a weapon may not be worth the cost to cast this at 6th or 9th Rank since you’re no longer doubling the weapon’s damage dice. Increasing a weapon’s damage dice by 50% or 33% is not as impressive as 100%. Also, your higher-Rank offensive spells will be much more impressive.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Magic Weapon”. The base effects were identical, but there was no benefit for Heightening the spell.
-
(PC2): Both
hillarious and very effective. Even on a Success, the target takes a -1
Status penalty to Will saves, making it easy to hit them back on your next
turn. If they fail, Stupefied imposes a percentage chance to fail to cast
spells which might cause enemy spellcasters to effectively waste their turn.
You might even Stun them if they roll poorly. This doesn’t have
Incapacitation, either, so it’s fantastic against powerful enemies.
For best results, pair this with Overselling Flourish and you have a response to essentially anything offensive which an enemy might do to you.
- (KCG) (Rare): Decent damage and good scaling. If you don’t need to do anything except attack enemies, and if there are buffs/debuffs making you more likely to hit, this could be really good. The Persistent damage on crit is pretty good, too. There’s a lot of overlap here with Ignition, so you only want to use this on turns when you’re going to spend 1 Action to cast the spell, then 2 Actions to make two attacks with it, and you only want to do that when the numbers are tilted in your favor. If enemies have debuffs like Clumsy, Frghtened, or Off-Guard and if you have buffs like Courageous Anthem, you’re in good shape.
- (PF #151) (Uncommon): If you want the Dazzled effect, use Revealing Light. The other parts of the spell are too situational to justify using this instead.
- (SoM): Maybe useful in situations which call for intrique, eavesdropping, or spying, but you won’t use this often. Unfortunately, this doesn’t appear to affect or deter spellcasting in any way.
- (LO:DM): Extremely situational. It’s possible that you can use this in a hexcrawl with Efficient Explorer to distribute the Lore skills without multiple people taking the Skill Feat, but even then it’s minimally useful.
- (LO:DM): Compare this to Endure. It’s the same amount of damage mitigation, but you spend an extra Action for a tiny bit of retaliatory damage. But this also isn’t Temporary Hit Points; it’s another layer of protection on top of them. If you can cast this on your party’s melee characters before walking into combat, it’s a a great buff, especially if you pair it with THP from Endure or False Vitality.
- (RoE): Cast Shield. The only advantage that this has over Shield is that you can cast it on another creature, and that simply isn’t enough.
- (LO:DM): Potentially a great option for melee casters depending on your party. If your party relies heavily on Strikes or if you need enemies to be Off-Guard (Rogues, etc.), hitting one or two enemies and making them Off-Guard even on a Success can be very helpful. But, if you don’t have allies who can capitalize on the opportunity, this is a waste of resources.
-
(RoE): Extremely
situational. This is not an offensive spell. The offensive parts are there
in case you somehow manage to use this inside by shooting a ceiling, and you
will rarely be able to do that without catching yourself in the 30-foot
burst.
The 30-foot AOE is impressive for a 1st-Rank spell, but the “must go straight up” limitation makes it nearly impossible to use this offensively without friendly fire.
- (PC1): Despite being heavily weakened compared to Pathfinder 1e, Sleep is still a good spell, but you need to reconsider how you use it. Its effects no longer depend on the targets’ hit points, and work on a normal saving throw more like other spells. The area of effect is small, so rather than clearing whole encounters by putting them to sleep, you may need to target a few creatures that are clustered together, then either sneak past them or eliminate them without drawing the attention of other nearby creatures. Also note that this has the Incapacitation trait, so it won’t work reliably on challenging enemies.
- (LO:WG): Not enough damage to be paired with such a minor debuff.
-
(PC1): This spell is
not written in a way that’s easy to understand unless you’re already very
comfortable with PF2’s rules, so I’ll walk you through how it works. First,
it’s Touch range so you typically need to get into melee range to deliver
it.
Second, you need to hit with a melee spell attack to deliver the spell. On a hit, the target takes 1d4 piercing damage, then makes a Fortitude save. Even on a success the target still takes 1d4 poison damage, but if they fail they become afflicted with Spider Venom (the effects are detailed at the bottom of the spell’s description).
Be sure to read the Affliction rules. With that in mind, the maximum duration of Spider Venom is just 4 rounds, so if you’re very lucky (or if your target isn’t), they might take as much as 4d4 poison damage and be Enfeebled for the duration of the effect. All told, Spider Venom is a great introduction to Pathfinder 2e’s Affliction mechanics, but it’s unreliable because the target has so many opportunities to resist or remove the effects.
- (PC1): Your summon options run most of the level range, but, as you get into high levels, you’ll run short on animal options, so plan to switch to other summon spells.
- (PC1): Summon spells can be really good, but the effectiveness of any given spell is heavily dependent on the numver of available options to summon. As of this writing, there simply aren’t enough options to make Summon Construct good. Many Ranks will have just one option to summon. Some of these options will be great, but, without the ability to pick from multiple options, this loses much of a summon spell’s versatility.
- (PC1): A huge number of summon options across the level spectrum with a ton of great tactical uses.
-
(PC1): While it
won’t be especially helpful at low levels when your spell slots are
extremely limited, this is a great option at higher levels. The 1-Action
casting time allows you to cast this before casting another spell,
dramatically improving the reliability of higher-level spells which require
attack rolls like Disintegrate.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “True Strike”.
- (SoM): Very situational. If you do need this, you’ll almost certainly know with enough advanced warning that you can get a scroll or prepare it.
-
(KoL) (Uncommon): If
your party doesn’t depend heavily on Reactions, this could be a great way to
make your party’s action economy more efficient and to capitalize on good
positioning. However, you need to spend some time thinking about how your
party will use the benefits and if it’s worth the Action cost to Sustain the
Spell. You also need to consider if you want to cast this on yourself, which
reduces the percieved Action cost since you also get to move as a Reaction,
but which greatly reduces the spell’s impact unless you’re casting the Rank
5 version.
For example: As of this writing, my current party is a Bard (me), a Druid, a Rogue, a Swashbuckler, a Warpriest Cleric, and a Witch. Our Rogue, Swashbuckler, and Warpiest Cleric are all built for melee, and our Cleric has the Champion Dedication Archetype to get Champion’s Reaction. Our Rogue and Swashbuckler both depend heavily on movement, but their only Reacitons are Opportune Riposte and Nimble Dodge. Our Warpriest Cleric uses Champion’s Reaction almost every turn. This means that our Rogue and Swashbuckler are both great candidates for Synchronize Steps. I could commit one of my Actions to keeping the spell going, which would let my allies turn their largely unuses Reactions into movement, which could be a huge impact.
This becomes massively more impactful with the Rank 5 verion because you’re spending just as many Actions to Sustain the Spell but improving the action economy of 150% more allies. Allies can also afford to be more picky about using their Reaction to move if one ally needs to Stride while another needs to Step.
-
(PC1): A good bonus
with a good duration, and upcasting it to 2nd level gets you 8 hours, which
is easily enough to get through a full adventuring day. The speed bonus is
very helpful for melee-only characters, so put this on your party’s front
line and on characters like mounts who need to move around the battlefield a
lot to be effective.
Becuase the 2nd-level version is so good, wands of 2nd-level Tailwind are a popular item.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Longstrider”.
- (LO:DM): The duration is way too short to justify this being a Ranked spell.
- (LO:DM): A decent debuff against big enemies, but it is very easy to break the tethers, and it may not be worth your enemies Actions to break them. The Critical Failure effect can be very impactful, especially since Tether doesn’t have the Incapactiation trait, but it’s hard to gamble on a Critical Failure.
- (SoM): For characters built to rely on Feinting, this is massively impactful. Grab a whole stack of wands and use this before any combat encounter where you have time to prep before initiative is rolled. Unfortunately, the overlap between characters who like to Feint and characters who can cast this is pretty small, so it’s utterly useless for most characters.
- (): Only situationally useful. You might use this to send potions or other consumables to allies in combat, but it requires a pretty specific situation to justify this.
- (RA) (Uncommon): Basicaly three spells in one. A decent option for a melee caster.
-
(PC1): An average of
9 damage per Spell Rank to a single target on a basic Reflex save. It’s not
very exciting, but it’s decently effective and very simple.
This apparently replaces Shocking Grasp in the remaster, but the spells have very little in common except damage type and the penalty for metal.
- (): Only situationally useful, and there much easier ways to get bonues to Diplomacy. However, getting a +3 Item Bonus to Diplomacy is difficult. At high levels you might keep a spare +3 weapon to use with this solely for the bonus to Diplomacy checks.
- (PC1): Situational, and anyone who hears the effect automatically gets a save to notice the illusion. Rely on Figment as much as you possibly can before resorting to this.
-
(RoE): An
introductory wall spell. It’s not clear if creatures can move through the
wall, which is frustrating. The 1st-Rank version is not worth casting, but
Heighteneing the spell may be worthwhile.
At 3rd, the wall provides Standard Cover, or Greater Cover at 5th rank. Cover protects creatures from attacks and Reflex saves, but a clever spellcasting relying on Fortitude and Will saves can attack through the wall with no problems. Of course, the spell still doesn’t specify if creatures can move through the wall, so your enemies might get upset and face check your bushes.
- (RoE): Only situationally useful. You could use this against things like castle walls, but you’ll rarely need to smash through a solid wall.
-
(RoE):
This could be used as a low-budget option similar to Shape Stone, but since you need unworked material, you may have better luck with Instant Potteryin some cases.
In any sort of internally-consistent world, the existence of this spell would invalidate much of the Carpentry profession. But this is a game, spellcasting isn’t available to everyone, and turning your PF2 game into a carpentry business tycoon simulator probably isn’t why you’re here.
- (RoE): There is no character where fighting unarmed makes sense and this is also your best unarmed strike option. Even if such a builde existed, Runic Body is a better spell by a huge margin.
2nd-Rank Arcane Spells
-
(PC1): The initial
damage is poor, but the Persistent Damage is decent, and the forced movement
can be very impactful. The movement allows you to move the target in any
direction you like, including up into the air in order to inflict fall
damage.
Prior the remaster, this spell was called “Acid Arrow”. Acid Arrow relied on an attack instead of a save, did 1d8 more damage, but didn’t force movement.
- (PF #194) (Uncommon): Pathfinder games rarely track food. If you do, this might be useful.
- (): Unimpressive area damage, and the follow-up damage for Sustaining the spell is very minor.
- (SoM): The damage is poor, and difficult terrain only for flying creatures is only situationally useful. More likely you’re here for the Dazzled/Blinded effects on failed saves. With a 1-minute duration that doesn’t need to be sustained and a 20-foot radius AOE, this is decent area control. If you can drop this on big enemies and hold them in place, being repeatedly Dazzled or Blinded will tip combat in your favor significantly. If you can’t hold them in place, try Fear the Sun instead.
- (SoM): Too situational.
- (PF #195) (Rare): Incredibly powerful to not have the Incapacitation tag. Against enemies that rely on biting (dragons, etc.) or spells, this is huge. Hitting a high-level enemy spellcaster can effectively shut down their spellcasting, trivializing encounters with a single low-level spell.
- (PF #195) (Rare): Only situationally useful, and only really good if you’re facing numerous flying enemies. If you’re facing a singly flying enemy or a small group of them, knocking them prone mau be a more efficient option.
- (RoE): Not much more useful than Runic Weapon, but the 5-minute duration compared to Runic Weapon’s 1-minute duration is certainly tempting.
-
(PC1): Great damage.
The scaling for the 2-Action and 3-Action version keeps pace with Fireball,
but since it’s not an AOE you can safely hit enemies intermingled with your
allies.
Prior the remaster, this spell was called “Blazing Bolt”.
- (PF #182) (Uncommon): Cast Illusory Object.
- (PC1): A fantastic retaliatory option for your entire career, provided that you’re fighting in melee. The only issue is that it only works for Piercing, Slashing, and Persistent Bleed damage, but those are all common, so it’s barely an issue.
- (PC1): Effective at any level, this gives the target a 20% chance for any attack directed at them to miss.
- (RoE): Decent persistent damage and you cast this as a Reaction on a trigger that’s comically easy for your allies to create for you. This is useful or your entire career even if you don’t Heighten the spell.
- (RoE): Extremely situational.
-
(RA) (Rare): A
fantastically versatile utility, this will allow you construct temporary
structures for all kinds of purposes. Need to get up high? Make a climbing
surface. Need somewhere to camp? Make a small hut. Need cover? Build a wall.
Need to block a passage? Fill it with squares of solid wax.
But the spell does have limitations. Because you construct one square per turn for up to a minute, it may be hard to use this in combat. The objects are made of wax, which famously isn’t very durable. But the wax also has 40 hit points, which is more than most people, so it’s obviously more durable than normal wax. You’ll need to talk to your GM about how well the wax will support things like standing and clmbing on it.
- (WtD #4) (Uncommon): Most enemies can’t cast Heal, so that aspect of the spell is largely useless for players. That just leaves the ability to knock creatures Prone in an AOE. It’s fine, but there are better
- (RoE): Only situationally useful. Most parties have someone who can cast a healing spell to solve bleed. Unless you’re facing an enemy that will repeatedly apply Persistent Bleed damage, there’s no reason to bring this spell. Consider a scroll if you feel like you might need this.
- (RoE): Situationally useful. Many creatures have vulnerabilities to special metals, so a scroll might be useful in place of permanent weapons made of precious metals.
- (RoE): Extremely situational.
- () (Uncommon): Using the 1-Action version to make yourself and/or your allies Concealed can be a very effective defensive option that’s easy to fit into your action economy.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful. Most games don’t bother tracking food, and if they do, you can buy rations. If you’re absolutely certain that you need this for some reason, but a wand.
- (KoL) (Uncommon): Giving an ally a +2 Circumstance bonus to AC isn’t the worse way to spend a spell slot and then a series of Actions to Sustain the Spell, but you lose much of the spell’s value if you don’t have Shield Block. Committing an Action every turn for a full encounter is likely a poor use of your action economy. If you can’t find more impactful things to do with your actions, there may be an issue with your build.
-
(PC1): This is the
most clearly-written version of this spell that I’ve seen across several
editions of DnD and both editions of Pathfinder, but it is still very
nuanced. The base version of the spell allows Darkvision to continue
functioning, which means that if your party has Darkvision and your enemies
do not, casting this will provide your party with a significant tactical
advantage.
The 4th-Rank version of the spell also inhibits Darkvision, but weirdly that’s only appealing compared to the base 2nd-level version if your enemies have Darkvision and you do not because it inhibits everyone equally. However, the Darkness spell is by no means an unassailable way to darken the battlefield at your convenience: Darkness suppresses magical light of Darkness’s level or lower, but due to cantrips being automatically heightened, even the Light cantrip can easily override Darkness unless Darkness is heightened. This allows players to easily counter magical Darkness, but remember that your enemies can do the same.
- (PC1): If you or one of your allies don’t have Darkvision, this can be an important option. Sources of magical light are typically less costly, but they also give away your position which can be a problem when you’re trying to sneak around unnoticed. You can purchase a pair of Goggles of Night for 150 gp, but that might be a prohibitively high cost for several levels after the Darkvision spell becomes an option.
- (PC1): Almost never impactful. Too few things have the Auditory trait, and the ones that do are either used in social situations or used by players.
- (): Extremely situational.
- (PC1): An absolutely essential option. While it’s not spelled out in the spell’s description, the Counteract rules make the Rank at which you cast this very important. On a Critical Success you can dispel effects up to three Ranks higher than the Rank at which you cast Dispel Magic and on a Success up to one Rank higher. On a failure you can still dispel effects of a lower Rank, so upcasting Dispel Magic can be a powerful way to strip enemies of problematic buffs or to disarm them of magic items like weapons which might dramatically boost their damage output. A high-level martial enemy who is scary with a +3 Greater Striking weapon is much less of a problem when they’re suddenly holding a mundane weapon.
- (Som / RoE): If you’re in a party that’s primarily spellcasters, this might be useful. In a typical party that resembles Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard, there won’t be enough spells cast to justify this.
-
(PC1): Rarely useful
for players, though you might encounter it while adventuring.
Prior te remaster, this spell was called “Magic Mouth”. The benefits for Heightening the spell are new.
- (): Too vague, and the duration is too short. Get real communication somehow.
- (): Too situational and too low impact.
- (PC1): Improved reach, a little bit of extra damage, and a nice 5-minute duration so it’s sure to last through all but the most absurdly-long fights. The fact that the spell raises a creature directly to Large size also means that you can cast it on small creatures like halflings and they still get the full benefits in combat, but it also means that you can cast it on tiny creatures like a familiar and potentially ride them. While the effects of the spell improve with spell Rank, the 2nd Rank version of the spell is still a significant advantage for your melee allies, especially if they have Reaction options like Attack of Opportunity, so you can count on a 2nd-Rank spell to provide a significant tactical advantage even at high levels.
-
(PC1): Good area
control with a good area of effect. It won’t win a fight on its own, but
forcing enemies to go through the area in order to reach you can put you at
a major advantage.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Entangle”.
-
(PC1): Very
situational. Very few campaigns care about environmental effects like this.
Pathfinder is not a survival game.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called Endure Elements.
-
(PC1): A permanent
magical light source for 6gp and whatever it costs you to learn the spell.
If you use a Spell Repertoire, don’t bother learning this. If you can, find
an NPC spellcaster to cast this for you or buy an Everburning Torch for
15gp. You have the option to cast this at higher Rank, but the spell itself
doesn’t offer any specific benefits for doing so. As far as I can tell, the
only benefit is for the light to remain in effect in an area of magical
darkness.
Prior the remaster, this spell was called “Continual Flame” and required more gold for higher-Rank Arcane Spells.
- (LO:DM): The effect is very minor on its own, but, if you can somehow cover the top of the hole, you could bury a creature alive. This is a 2-Action spell, so you’ll likely need help from an ally who can cast another spell to put a lid on the hole. Beyond that combo, this isn’t especially useful.
- (RoE): Basically just single-target damage with some annoying additional tracking. The other effects aren’t impactful or reliably enough to make this good. If you want to hit multiple targets, the splash damage isn’t good enough. If you want to take down a single target, the critical hit rider effect isn’t going to do it for you.
-
(SoM): For the vast
majority of spellcasters this is going to be useless. For this to be
consistently useful, you need an easy supply of poison (such as from an
Alchemist), and you need to be good at attacking with weapons. You
apparently can’t pass the weapon to an ally because the text says “on your
next successful attack with that weapon before the end of your next turn,”
though as a GM I would certainly allow you to do so. Then you need to worry
about the multiple points of failure: the Counteract check and the attack
roll. If you fail either, you’ve wasted several Actions and a spell slot. If
you do succeed, you’ll deal about as much damage as you would if you just
cast attack spells.
You could hypotheticall use this to add 20d6 poison damage to an attack, which feels pretty awesome, but doing so is difficult, frustrating, and likely expensive.
- (PC1): With an 8-hour duration you can make this a staple buff which you cast every day. The additional temporary Hit Points are roughly as much as you would get from an additional level. If you’re generous, you might cast this on one or more of your allies, especially front-line allies who are likely to draw a lot of attacks. Unfortunately, the scaling on the spell isn’t great, so I recommend only casting False Life as a 2nd-Rank spell.
- (RoE): Very situational. Almost nothing will care about this.
- (NPC) (Rare): Only situationally useful. Retrieving an item for 1 Action is pretty good, but the Light Bulk limitation severely limits its usefulness. If you cast the 7th Rank version of the spell, you can get into some wonderful shenanigans. For example: Get very familiar with a gem. Sell it. Wait a couple days, then retrieve it with Far-Flung Fetch. Easy money!
- (LO:DM): Making the target Dazzled can be a great debuff for big enemies, especially since this doesn’t have the Incapacitation tag.
- (LO:DM): Simply not practical as a player. The long-term effects will take place “off screen” where they’re largely ignored, and Fatigued is not a serious enough debuff for a 3-Action spell.
- (PC2): As much damage as Fireball with the same rate of scaling, but a Rank lower. However, you need to sacrifice a Minion for the spell, which makes setup more difficult and requires you to position the Minion rather than simply casting the Fireball where you want it. The Minion can be of any level that you like, so casting a Rank 1 spell to summon a flying minion is a great option, especially if you can do so before walking into combat.
- (RoE): Too situational. Once you can cast this at Rank 6, it’s neat to spend your downtime making all of your favorite belongings permanently fireproof. Sadly, 10 bulk isn’t enough to cover a building, but you can likely protect almost everything inside of that building.
-
(PC1): This could be
a very efficient way to deal damage, but since the flame moves so little
when you Sustain, Floating Flame is only useful in an enclosed space or
against immobile enemies.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called Flaming Sphere, and could only move along the ground.
-
(PC1): The next best
thing to flight. It also notably doesn’t require an Action to sustain, so in
combat it may be more effective than flight because it doesn’t cut into the
target’s action economy.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called Spider Climb.
-
(PC1): Measuring the
opportunity cost here is difficult. You have three go-to options for
extending the range of touch spells: Familiars, Reach Spell, and this.
Familiars and Reach Spell both cost a feat (expensive) and an Action to use
them. You’re also going to get less range from either than you would from
Ghostly Carrier. However, Spectral Hand costs two Actions up front that you
may not be able to afford early in a fight when they matter most, and the
hand can only reach creatures by crawling on the ground (no climbing,
jumping, etc.) and it’s very easy to destroy.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Spectral hand”.
-
(APG): Good
single-target damage, good persistent damage, and good scaling. If fire
resistance/immunity isn’t an issue, this is simply and effective.
This spell has not been remastered.
- (RoE): The effects are very minor. There are better spells to solve all of these problems. The advantage here is getting the absolute bare minimum all on one spell.
- (HotW): If an ally is about to draw a bunch of attacks, this can absolutely save their life. Compare the damage mitigation here to Endure, which is Touch range, only lasts for a minute, and would provide 10 Temporary Hit Points if cast at Rank 2.
- (PF #181) (Uncommon): If your party has easy sources of Persistent Bleed damage, such as Gouging Claws or Blood Vendetta, making your target(s) Frightened for 1 Action is really good. The Failure effect is fantastic, but does depend on the unpredictable duration of Persistent Damage. Still, keeping an enemy Frightened for 2-3 turns on average puts your party at a significant mathematical advantage.
- (PC1): This provides very few benefits, the biggest of which is a bonus to Deception checks to disguise yourself. If you need magical assistance with a disguise, Illusory Disguise will be more effective and it’s a spell level lower.
- (SoM): Dazzled is great, but the damage is poor for a spell of this Rank.
- (PC1): The closest thing you’ll get to summoning a creature with an illusion, Illusory Creature is a complicated spell. The spell’s description is nearly an entire column in the Core Rulebook, so there is a lot of text to digest. Generally this isn’t a go-to combat option because the damage is poor and the damage dealt will be halved if the illusion is disbelieved, but there is a common and important case where this can be helpful offensively: if your enemy has a damage weakness, you can alter the form of your illusory creature to deal that damage type, dramatically boosting the amount of damage which your illusion can deal. The illusion’s stats are decent, and with two Actions per round it can hopefully make a few strikes before something gets through the illusion’s AC. Tragically, the illusion is dispelled if it’s hit even once or fails a single save the spell ends immediately, potentially ending before you get to Sustain the spell even once.
- (Fb) (Uncommon): For characters dependent on hiding, such as Rogues built to fight at range or Sniper Gunslingers, this can allow them to fight without needing to find cover or concealment. However, the 2-Action cost to cast this offsets much of that benefit, so you really want to cast this before combat if possible.
- (PF #169): A consistent +1 Status bonus to everything is really great, but rolling a Critical Failure will have serious consequences. If you have Hero Points to spare or if you’re facing a bunch of lower-level threats, this is great. But against a higher-level enemy, you’re more likely to roll a Critical Failure.
- (SoM): Only situationally useful. The best usage I can think of for this is if you wear heavy armor and are worried about being attacked at night. This will allow you to quickly don your armor in combat rather than trying to fight in your pajamas.
- (Fb) (Uncommon): Invisibility will be more effective in almost every situationa.
- (PC1): Absolutely essential, invisibility can solve a lot of problems. The spell ends if you perform a “hostile action”, and while that’s not explicitly defined it likely includes anything which requires an attack roll or which affects another creature in a harmful way even if it doesn’t require an attack roll or saving throw. It’s unclear what happens if you do something like cast Wall of Fire while invisible, so check with your GM. Generally you can get away with being invisible in combat while doing things like casting buff spells and area control spells, but I don’t know if commanding pets or summoned creatures to attack counts as a “hostile action”. The 4th-level version of the spell reduces the duration but allows you to make hostile actions without breaking the spell, so you can spend a minute invisibly blaster your enemies.
- (LO:GM): Very rarely useful, but it is effective when the need arises. Creatures generally won’t search your stomach when they’re searching you for hidden objects because why would they? so you can count on that +4 bonus.
-
(RA): +1 Status
Bonus to attacks for 1 minute for a 1-Action spell. Fantastic at any level
unless your party has a Bard or some other reliable source of a Status bonus
to attacks. The 2-Action version is bad.
No, I do not know how to pronounce Kgalasarke.
- (PC1): Don’t have anyone in the party with Thievery? Cast this to open locks. The total bonus matches Expert proficiency.
-
(PC1): In a fight
against single enemies this is a great option for a low-level spell. Making
the target Slowed 1 robs them of a single Action per turn. If you outnumber
the target, that puts them at a massive disadvantage in the action economy,
allowing your party to more easily overcome them by sheer numbers, and since
Hideous Laughter doesn’t have the Incapacitation trait it remains effective
against difficult enemies. Denying the target Reactions also means that if
you’re stuck in melee with them you can cast this then safely run away
without suffering an Attack of Opportunity from creatures which can have the
ability to make that Reaction. Even at high levels, this is a fine option
because Slowed never stops being effective, and if you gain an ability which
allows you to Sustain a spell without spending an Action you can tip the
scales of the action economy further in your favor.
Prior to the remaster, this spells was called “Hideous Laughter”.
- (KoL) (Uncommon): Only situationally useful, but more likely to be useful against humanoid enemies that rely on weapons or other items. If your target uses a wand or if they need to change weapons, using Lock Item to prevent them from swapping items can several limit their options in combat.
- (DA): 2 of your Actions to gift up to 6 Actions, and you can affect yourself. Targets can only Step or Stride, but that probably gives your entire party the ability to reposition in combat, which is a massive tactical advantage. Using this to get allies in position to flank or to get ranged allies into cover meanst that they can often be more impactful offensively on their own turns.
- (SoM): The reroll offered by this spell is potentially very powerful, but the effects of the spell are unpredictable. The initial d20 roll makes the spell progressively less useful the higher your roll is. Getting a 1 is absolutely amazing, while getting a 20 makes the spell utterly non-functional. If you’re high level and have spare gold, consider a wand. Cast this as the beginning of the day, and considering ignoring it entirely if you roll above 10 on the initial d20 roll.
- (SoM): Against enemies using metal weapons, this can disarm a fight in one spell. Pull the weapon out of their hands, and most enemies that rely on weapons become much less dangerous. Of course, you’ve just made yourself their biggest problem, so maybe use your 3rd Action to run away with their stolen weapon.
- (SoM): Only situationally useful. This is only impactful if you fight in melee, if you don’t use metal items in your hands, and if your enemies are using metal equipment.
- (PfD) (Rare): Very situational. Basically only useful if you need to track a creature that’s prone to escaping from fights.
-
(PC1): With an
8-hour duration, this is a great option for overland travel, and that is the
spell’s primary purpose. However, it’s also a decent combat mount for
characters who don’t rely on one for their build. If you just need extra
mobility, trading 1 Action to command the mount gets you far more movement
than most characters could get from their own Stride. The mount’s AC and
saves will be decent, and the mount’s weird “10 hp at one time” thing
instead of hit points will let it safely shrug off damage from things like
caltrops or many cantrips.
However, one decent hit will still destroy the mount. If you’re built for mounted combat, this can’t replace an Animal Companion.
A Magic Wand with a Rank 2 spell, such as Marvelous Mount, costs 160 gp. A Riding Horse costs 8 gp. This means that a wand is worth 20 Riding Horses. Riding Horses have 16 hp and 22 hit points, which means that by the time you can conveniently afford the wand, a mundane horse is so frail and crittable that a single shot will kill it anyway. Marvelous Mount at least has the target’s AC and saves to protect its meager hp.
Compared to the Legacy version, the remastered version of Marvelous Mount got some major changes. The mount now uses the target’s AC and saves, and instead of having 10 hp, it now disappears if it takes 10 or more damage at one time. There is no longer a listed Bulk limit, which is unhelpful since the horse The mount can no longer ignore difficult terrain. Marvelous Mount also now allows the mnount to briefly walk on water if it is cast at 3rd Rank.
-
(PC1): Concealed
offers a miss chance on attacks, so this can be a passable way to defend
yourself from enemies if you’re being targeted by a lot of attacks or
something along those lines. Weirdly, the spell doesn’t inhibit line of
sight in any way unless the target and/or the attacker are within the area.
You can’t use this to obscure objects, or to keep enemies from seeing down a
long hallway. Honestly, it feels like the spell is missing half of its
effects.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Obscuring Mist”.
-
(PC1): Decent AOE
damage for a spell of this Rank, but I wouldn’t bother Heightening it.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Sound Burst”.
-
(PC1): Situationally
useful if the enemies that you’re facing deal bludgeoning or piercing
damage.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Barkskin”.
- (WtD) (Uncommon): You might be able to immobilize your target very briefly, but breaking out of the cage is comically easy. With an AC of 10, it’s very easy to crit the cage, and even if your Heighten the spell, the hit points don’t go very far. Your best hope is to trade Actions with your target. Against a single higher-level enemy, that’s often a good trade.
- (RoE): This would be immensely useful for stuff like architecture and city planning, but it’s not especially useful for adventurers. You might carry a scroll or wand if your GM really likes to use difficult terrain.
-
(PC1): Only
situationally useful, but potentially very helpful if you’re far from
civilization when a party member dies and you can’t raise them.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Gentle Repose”.
- (LO:DM): The duration is too short to use this on a regular basis. This might be useful in situations where you’re trying to spy on someone and having them identify you would be a problem, but it’s not great if you just need a short-lived bonus to Stealth checks.
- (SoM): Fantastic in the real world, largely useless for adventurers.
- (PF2): A great concept, and potentially a great way to rob big enemies of Actions since this doesn’t have the Incapacitation tag. But the precise way that your target will interact with the treasure is left up to the DM. The creature might walk over and poke the treasure, immediately ending the spell, or they might ignore it and deal with being Fascinated while they fight you. That unpredictability makes this hard to use.
- (SoM): This is tailor-made for Bards so that they can use it in conjunction with their Composition Spells, but it’s not great even for them. The hope is that you’ll place the square to get some area control, but creatures that Seek or otherwise interact with the illusion will disbelieve it, effectively ending the spell’s benefits the first time that it’s interacted with.
- (RoE): Only situationally useful, but if you coordinate this it could get an ally into position with fewer Actions spent, leaving them time to have a bigger impact.
- (LO:DM): Light Blindness is not common enough to justify carrying this around. You could combo this with Fear the Sun, but the combo has numerous points of failure.
- (PC1): A staple defensive option. 10 minutes is long enough to get you through a fight or two, and as you gain levels and additional spell slots you can afford to cast this on multiple allies or to give more than one type of damage resistance.
-
(PC1): A good
low-level option for countering invisibility, even on a successful save
targets still have their invisibility negated for 2 rounds. Unfortunately,
negating invisibility in this way still leaves the target Concealed, which
provides a 20% miss chance on attacks against that creature (DC 5 flat
check). You can more easily target the creature with AOE effects or effects
which require you to see the target, but try to avoid attacking the target
if you can.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Glitterdust”. The wording of the spell was changed both to adjust the flavor text and to clarify the effects, but the actual effect has not changed.
- (PF #151) (Uncommon): Decent area control that you don’t need to Sustain. The damage is negiligible, but that’s not why you’re here. If you can’t get this because it’s Uncommon, consider Mud Pit.
- (RoE): An odd way to place difficult terrain. You could put this on a low-value trained minion like a Bonded Animal or a trained mouse, but putting it on your allies and then asking them to run around on their turn is a huge waste of Actions. If you want difficult terrain, options like Entangling Flora and Mud Pit are almost aways a better idea.
- (PF #151) (Uncommon): Line effects are hard to use, and the benefits of this spell or only situationally useful. The most consistently useful part is knock a creature prone, and there are many other spells which can do that, such as Telekinetic Maneuver.
-
(PC1): A staple
option for handling invisibility. At high levels casting the spell at 5th
level may be a common daily occurrence so that you’re always ready to face
invisible enemies. The creatures and objects are still Concealed, but that
won’t protect them from Fireball.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “See Invisibility”. The spell has been updated to also let you see incorporeal creatures and to provide a Status Bonus to disbelieve illusions.
- (PF #181) (Uncommon): The only useful purpose appears to be to put your zombie minion in somwhere that you couldn’t reach, such as sending them under a door or through a crack in the wall so that they can act on your behalf.
- (PC1): This only works on unworked wood, so your party may want to carry some unworked logs to support this spell. You can’t make anything intricate, but there’s no specific restrictions on Bulk or size, so your GM might let you get away with a lot. Wrapping a branch around door handles to seal them, using a log to make an improvized ladder, turning a fallen tree into cover in combat. Get creative (with GM permission).
- (PC1): Situational. The target needs to be willing, so realistically you’re only going to use this when you need to hide an ally or carry them around or something. You could shrink the target to allow them to fit into small spaces or to spy on other creatures, but those situations are rare and can be handled by other spells most of the time.
- (LO:DM): Very useful if you’re expecting to face enemies that rely on Persistent Damage.
- (RoE): Blazing Bolt is better in nearly every way except damage type and the negligible persistent damage on a crit.
- (): Potentially useful for spying or for keeping watch.
-
(PC1): Situational
by design. Stupefied in any amount is a powerful debuff against creatures
that rely solely on spellcasting, but that is a minority of enemies.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Touch of Idiocy”. In addition, the Success effect and Critical Failure effects have changed.
- (PF #151) (Uncommon): Decent single-target damage on a Basic Reflex Save. Nothing fancy, but the damage is decent.
- (PC1): A huge number of summon options across the level spectrum with a ton of great tactical uses. Be sure to check Rage of Elements, which introduced a ton of new elementals.
- (SoM): Absolutely essential if you’re a Summoner, but useless for anyone else.
- (SoM): Only situationally useful.
-
(PF #181)
(Uncommon): Very cool, but mechanically attrocious. Just awful. 2 Actions to
eat a light bulb (okay, a magical light, but it might as well be a light
bulb) and attempt
to Counteract it. You’re likely going to use this on a Light cantrip since
you can produce that on your own for free, so you have a 50/50 chance to
immediately fail.
Provided that you do successfully swallow the light, you then need to separately spend 2 Actions to use the breath weapon, which is comparable to Breathe Fire, a Rank 1 spell, and a bad one at that. You then have a 1d4 round cooldown before you can use this again for some reason because apparently casting a Rank 1 spell two turns in a row is a problem. This could have been so much cooler.
- (PC1): Trip a flying enemy or disarm an enemy that is using a weapon before one of your allies’ turns so that they can steal the enemy’s weapon. You won’t get an Item bonus to the check like a martial character might, but the ability to use maneuvers at a safe distance is hugely valuable and offers a lot of great tactical options from a single spell. This doesn’t have Incapacitation, but, against strong enemies that rely on weapons or things like staves or other held items, this can trivialize a dangerous fight at absolute minimum risk to yourself.
- (RoE): Feeding your party to give everyone temporary hit points before a tough fight can be very helpful, but wait until this is one of your lower-Rank spell slots.
- (SoM): Useful if your GM is going a good job making Lore skills matter.
-
(PC1): Technically
situational, but meeting a creature with which you don’t share a language is
common, and adventures love to have cool plot stuff written in languages
that aren’t commonly spoken.
The wording of the spell is specific enough that you can cast this on your party’s Face while they’re actively hearing a language which they don’t know, and they’ll gain the ability to understand that language. Unfortunately, you can’t grant the ability to also speak the language unless you cast this at 3rd Rank, but, if the speaker isn’t hostile, you can always cast this twice so that your Face and the other creature can understand each other despite not speaking the same language.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Comprehend Languages”.
- (RoE): Helpful against invisible or hidden enemies, but most of the time See the Unseen will be more consistently useful.
- (SoM): Interesting, but very few characters can use this effectively, it works against a small subset of potential enemies, and it has a huge chance to not have an impact on the game.
- (PF #181) (Uncommon): This is the same spell as Umbral Mindtheft, except that the damage dice are d6’s instead of d4’s. I think Umbral Extraction was published as an updated version.
- (PF #181) (Uncommon): Too vague and subject to GM interpretation. Your GM might make this functionally useless completely by accident since the target isn’t compelled to harm their allies in any way.
- (RoE): Low-budget Sending. The primary function of this spell isn’t communication: it’s annoying whoever is unfortunate enough to be in the target location when the spell arrives. Imagine people trying to work when this spell carries the sound of high-pitched screeching into the room with no warning.
- (PC2): A good sized cone, Sickened 1 on a Reflex save, and a little bit of damage. The damage is unimpressive, but making multiple enemies Sickened is a great debuff, and Sickened nearly always targets Fortitude saves.
- (SoM): This is great on big single enemies. The damage per turn isn’t much at 2nd Rank, but it can add up over time. If the target rolls a Failure and decides that it wants the effect to end, you get a free turn where it’s not harming your party. I would strongly consider casting this at higher Ranks, especially against enemies that can deal damage to multiple targets, such as spellcasters or dragons.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful, and you nearly always know that you will need this ahead of time. If you’re worried, buy a scroll.
- (PC1): Too situational.
- (RoE): Very situational. Generally Pathfinder is not a game where you’re concerned about mundane water damage.
- (PC2): Excellent area control. Sure, creatures can cut or burn through the web, but that will eat their Actions while you and your allies can wear them down from a safe distance. Also, many enemies can’t deal slashing or fire damage even into high levels, which means that many enemies have no recourse except to push through and attempt the check/save.
3rd-Rank Arcane Spells
- (APG): The same effect as Fear, but a tiny of damage. Not worth the difference in Rank.
-
(PC1): The drowning
rules give creatures 5+Con rounds before they lose consciousness, and they
lose 2 turns of air if they attack or cast spells. With a 1-minute duration,
creatures in the orb need to get out of the orb quickly or they’ll be in
trouble very quickly.
Unfortunately, escaping the orb is comically easy. A DC 10 Athletics check is nothing. With a +0 modifier, creatures have a 55% chance to swim out of the orb. But doing so still requires creatures to spend their Action to do so, and trading Actions like that can work in the players’ favor if you outnumber your enemies or if you can hit multiple enemies with the orb in quick succession.
The extremely limited speed of the rob can also be an issue. 10 feet per Action means that a single Stride will get a creature so far away that you need to spend 3 or more Actions to catch up. You can’t rely on this unless you’re fighting in close quarters.
-
(PC1): 1-day
duration with no save. You need to do some metagaming to match the level of
this spell to the level of the undead in question, which feels weird, but if
you have ambitions of a skeletal entourage, you don’t have much choice. Keep
in mind that it still takes an Action to command a Minion, so hauling a
dozen pets into combat won’t help you much.
If you plan to keep pet undead long-term, be sure to fully restrain them before you sleep. Waking up in the morning and being a few rounds late to re-cast Bind Undead is a horrible way to have all of your pet zombies turn on you.
- (RoE): Gentle Fall is area damage. It’s an interesting idea, but it’s too situational unless you’re building yourself to jump insanely high into the air, then fall in the middle of your enemies.
- (PC1): A great save-or-suck spell, but with the Incapacitation trait you can’t reliaby use it on the big single enemies which you would really like to blind. Still, this remains useful for your whole career without Heightening it.
- (PfD) (Rare): Very powerful, but extremely situational. Unless your have someone from the Red Mantis in your party, this is completely useless.
- (WtD) (Rare): The size of the wall is very small, and the fact that the wall must pass within 5 feet of you when you cast it really limits this spell’s usefulness. Most likely you’ll put this between yourself and a nearby enemy or you’ll use this as a melee spellcaster to box enemies into a corner. The wall makes the attack one each of your turns without spending an Action and it doesn’t appear to contribute to your Multiple Attack Penalty, so it’s a great source of damage if you can position an enemy so that they can be attacked multiple times by the wall.
- (SoM): Very situational.
- (DA): Extremely situational. Most creatures don’t have a way to force movement.
- (PF #182) (Uncommon): Functionally useless for players. Barely useful for enemies.
- (RoE): Fireball with shorter range, a different damage type, and it creates difficult terrain. If you’re fighting in dungeons, structures, caves, etc. the range difference doesn’t really matter, so this is strictly better than Fireball. But in open areas, Fireball’s range can be a huge advantage,
- (PC1): Decent for scouting, but you can’t move the sensor, so only use this if you’re absolutely certain that there is something worth listening to.
- (RoE): Only worth the spell slot if someone is about to be targeted by a truly absurd number of ranged attacks in the space of a single round.
- (RoE): Single-target save or suck with the Incapacitation trait, except that the target can spend a single Action to completely remove the effect.
- (PC1): A nice way to make traveling more comfortable, but unless your GM is strict about survival mechanics, this will likely never matter. If you do cast this, wait until 3rd-Rank Arcane Spells are several Ranks below your highest Rank.
- (PC2): Area damage, 30-foot cone, Basic Reflex Save. A decent competitor to Fireball, but you trade Fireball’s range for a different damage type.
- (HotW): Potentially very powerful against powerful enemy spellcasters. The DC 5 Flat Check is a 20% failure chance similar to Stupefied. Sure, the target can spend an Action to attempt another save, but they still have a chance to fail the save and waste that action. Even if they succeed, you’re at least eating one of their Actions in a situation where you probably outnumber them, giving you an even larger action economy advantage. The damage is fine, but probably not enough to deter higher-level enemies. You can Heighten this for more damage, but that’s just more motivation for them to massage their vocal chords to remove the effect.
- (LO:DM): Fatigued isn’t a serious enough debuff for the spell slot, and players will probably never see the damage applied to an enemy subject to this spell. If you want to make your enemy Fatigued, use Day’s Weight.
-
(PC2): The primary
use case for this is to hit constructs and living creatures and make them
Clumsy 1 and Enfeebled 1 for an hour. That’s a significant debuff against
martial enemies, but those enemies also tend to have good Fortitude saves,
which can be an issue. If you can land this, it’s great.
The bigger issue is that Day’s Weight has nearly an identical effect (minus the paltry damage to constructs and the ability to make an item Shoddy), can make the target Enfeedbled 2, and has 120 ft. range instead of Touch range. It’s nearly always a better spell for the exact same purpose.
- (SoM): Fatigued and Enfeebled will make martial enemies considerably less threatening. However, those enemies also tend to have good Fortitude saves, which can be an issue. If you can land this, it’s great.
- (PF #194): Only meaningfully better than Darkvision if you’re planning to use magical darkness.
- (RA): A great way for non-melee casters to escape melee combat. If multiple enemies get into melee with you, use this to both escape and make them regret their decisions. While this is a good spell, you don’t want to use one of your highest-Rank spell slots on it. Wait until you have a few more Ranks of spells, then keep this in reserve.
-
(SoM): Fantastic if
anyone in your party relies on target’s being Off-Guard, but still a fine
debuff as long as your party relies on attack rolls of any kind. The 3-round
duration on a Failure is enough to get through many combat encounters.
This spell hasn’t been remastered and depends on some pre-remaster rules terms. To handle it in a post-remaster game you’ll need to make a minor adjustment: Instead of verbal components, any spell without the Subtle tag makes the DC 5 Flat Check. Otherwise, just replace “Flat-Footed” with “Off-Guard.”
- (RoE): Inexpensive low-Rank teleportation plus some area damage. Unfortunately, the leaping can provoke Reactive Strikes. This could be great for melee casters like the Magus, but it’s very risky for frail classes like the Wizard.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful. I don’t recommend this for casters with a Spell Repertoire because it’s just not useful often enough to justify the space. It’s more likely that a friendly NPC will use this to communicate to the players.
- (PC1): As a general solution for flying creatures, Gust of Wind is better. On a failure, Gust of Wind will knock a flying creature prone, inflict 2d6 damage up front, and cause them to fall. Falling drops a creature up to 500 feet and potentially deals more damage based on how far the creature fell. Earthbind’s only advantage is that the target loses the ability to leave the ground for a minute on a failure. That’s certainly a good advantage, but is it worth the difference in spell level?
- (RoE): The energy damage thing is not nearly good enough to justify using this over Resist Energy.
- (RoE): For a spell with a name this cool, the effects sure are disappointing. The 2-Action version is Crashing Wave with a second damage type but 2/3 the damage, and the 3-Action version’s push effect isn’t worth the difference in the vast majority of cases. The 2-round version is neat, but absolutely not worth the Action cost.
-
(PC1): This can be a
very effective option to handle crowds both in and out of combat (though the
GM might grant enemies a problematically high circumstance bonus if you’re
already in combat). In combat, you can leave the rest of your party to
engage with any enemies which didn’t fail their save, then work through the
crowd one at a time while you talk about uncontroversial things like how
nice food is, or how sometimes the sky gets cloudy.
Unfortunately, Enthrall also affects your allies. Your allies may be able to stack the odds in their favor by having major philosophical differences with you, but so can your enemies, so singing is generally the best choice. If some (but not all) of your allies are affected, whoever didn’t fail their save can take a hostile action to break the effect on your allies. An unarmed attack is usually sufficient.
- (PF #186) (Uncommon): Absolutely useless for players, but the implications are hilarious if your target rolls a Critical Failure. Make them forget the word “water” and watch their life rapidly spiral out of control.
-
(): Using your
familiar to scout can be very effective. Depending on your choice of
Familiar Powers, it may already have a bunch of extra senses and movement
types which make it really good at scouting. Plus, if it dies, it’s easier
to replace than you are (it still takes a week to replace a familiar unless
you’re a Witch, in which case it returns during your Daily Preparations).
The exact usefulness of this spell depends heavily on how much you’ve invested in your familiar. A Witch will get a ton of value here, as will anyone with the Familiar Master archetype or whatever class feats can get you several additional Familiar Powers, but if you just have a basic Familiar from something like the Gnome’s Animal Accomplice, there isn’t a lot of value here.
- (PC1): Situational by design. The duration is short, but it’s also the lowest-Rank way to get a swim speed.
- (PC1): Good range, a big AOE, and good damage. In a game full of nails, this is a popular hammer. The scaling is good, too, making Fireball a good baseline for measuring the effectiveness of other spells.
- (Fb) (Uncommon): The same range and area of effect as Fireball, the same scaling, but 2d6 less damage. In exchange, targets that fail their saves make a secondary Fortitude save which might make them Blinded, Deafened, and potentially Dazzled. Making enemies Blind for a round is almost certainly better than 2d6 damage, but the fact that they need to fail their save first means that the chances of them failing both saves is dismally low. The effect is great, but this isn’t especially reliable, so you’re making a gamble to use this instead of the straightforward damage of Fireball.
- (PF #171) (Uncommon):
- (PC1): Only situationally useful, but you definitely want this available. Most campaigns won’t feature incorporeal enemies frequently enough to justify a Ghost Touch rune, so having a few scrolls of this will be an asset it any party.
- () (Uncommon):
- ():
- (PC1): Useful at any level and a welcome buff on any martial character.
- (RoE) (Uncommon): Unreliable simply because the effect is so vague and puts so much pressure on the GM to decide if and when this functions.
-
(PC1): Complicated
and not a go-to option in most siutations, but potentially very powerful.
The primary effect is that creatures within the cloud are Dazzled, which
imposes a 20% miss chance on all of their attacks. This can have a huge
impact, especially against higher-level enemies and against large numbers of
lower-level enemies. The miss chance may be annoying enough that creatures
move out of the cloud, in which case you’re trading actions in a way that
could be very efficient for you and your party.
In addition to the Dazzled effect, creatures in the area need to save or be Fascinated by the cloud. This can have a huge impact because Fascinated creatures “can’t use concentrate actions unless they (or their intended consequences) are related to the subject of your fascination.” This means that they can’t cast most spells and can’t use many actions like Demoralize, which massively limits their Action options. The -2 to skill checks is also a significant debuff against enemies who rely on skill checks to do things like Grapple.
The Fascinated effect remains as long as the spell does even if the creature exits the cloud. The spell doesn’t have the Incapacitation trait, either, so this is a fantastic way to debuff many enemies, especially spellcasters.
Creatures that remain or re-enter the area of the spell are forced to make repeated saves unless they’re already Fascinated. If you can force enemies to stay in the AOE by blocking space, forcing movement, or other means, you can make the whole spell a massive problem for those enemies. They might spend several Actions trying to escape the area of effect, then exit the area and remain Fascinated if they failed a save.
However, be mindful of where you place the AOE. It’s only a 10-foot burst, but placing an enemy in the middle of the AOE could mean that your party can’t effectively face them in melee, especially if you’re relying on Flanking.
- ():
- ():
- (PC1): Polymorph spells can be very powerful, but only if you’re built to use them effectively. If you’re built like a typical Wizard, this will get you killed.
- (PF #188): Decent damage with Reach and Trip. Possibly useful for melee casters.
- (PC1): Useful for traversing vertical obstacles, but only situationally useful because of the difficulty moving horizontally. If you have a flying creature in party, such as a familiar, you might be able to use this more effectively by having it push or pull you horizontally while in the air.
- (PC1): Massive range and slightly more damage than fireball, but line AOEs are very difficult to use because enemies so rarely form a convenient staight line.
- (PC1) (Uncommon): Only situationally useful. 500 feet isn’t a massive range, but it’s typically enough to cover a dungeon or a large building.
- (RoE): Incredibly situational. This is just Water Walk with extra steps so that allies can follow along behind you.
- (PF #158) (Uncommon): An excellent single-target debuff, but it does have Incapacitation.
- (PC1) (Uncommon): Only situationally useful, and horribly unreliable unless you’re using it against enemies of much lower level.
- (): A very useful defense, and the 24-hour duration will allow you to cast at the end of one day and carry the effect through the next day while still having the spell slot. I wouldn’t use this if Rank 3 spells are you highest spell Rank, but it will eventually become a powerful option for a low-Rank spell slot.
- (FB) (Uncommon): A novel way to sneak small objects into or out of somewhere, but situations where you need to do so are rare.
- (RoE): Too situational. The non-damage effects work on too few creatures.
- (PC1): Extremely situational.
- ():
- ():
- ():
- () (Uncommon):
- (PC1): The effect is good, but it has the Incapacitation trait. Paralyze also competes with Slow, which is the same level, and also robs enemies of their Actions, but doesn’t have the Incapacitation trait. The heightened version may be a great choice against crowds of lower-level enemies who have a decent chance to critically fail their saving throw.
- (FB) (Uncommon): Terrible damage for a spell of this level. If you can hit a bunch of enemies with the Splash Damage, use an AOE spell like Fireball.
- (PFS) (Uncommon): Rolling Initiative with Advantage can make a huge difference. If you’re walking into a major fight, this is a great way to prepare yourself. I wouldn’t use this if 3rd-Rank Arcane Spells are your best, but this is a great use a low-Rank spell slot or a wand.
- (SoM): A great idea, but the target gets an initial Will save and can give themselves multiple additonal saves ontheir turn, plus this has the Incapacitation trait. This will never be reliable.
- (RoE): Too situational.
- (PF #152) (Uncommon): The area of effect is good and the Fireworks option can be an effective way to blind enemies without the Incapacitation trait, but you can’t guarantee a conveniently-placed fire, so you’ll need to bring your own. Your best bet is to have a minion of some kind (a familiar, a pet skeleton, etc.) holding a torch which you can send to wherever you want to center this.
- (DA) (Uncommon): Useful if you’re scouting somewhere dangerous, such as a dungeon.
- (SoM): If you have a bunch of allies with Reactive Strike, this might be good. Otherwise, Paralyze or Slow are better ways to reduce your target’s Actions.
- (PC2): Good area control that you can move. The damage isn’t amazing, but it’s enough that enemies won’t want to stay in the AOE for long periods of time, which might force them to spend Actions to move out of the AOE only to find that you can move it on top of them again. Unfortunately, the damage is minor and the scaling is terrible. If you just want difficult terrain, Mud Pit has a bigger AOE and doesn’t need to be sustained.
- (PC1): Too situational, too limited, too ineffective, and the duration is too short. There is no world in which this is worth a 4th-Rank Spell Slot. Cast Fly. Cast Translocate. Cast Passwall.
- (RoE): Resistance 5 to two extremely common damage types. A good defensive buff once you’re casting higher-Rank Arcane Spells, and the 10-minute durations makes this easy to cast before walking into combat.
- (RoE): Neat, but very situational.
- (DA): Decent area control that you don’t need to Sustain. The AOE is big enough that creatures at the center will usually need to Stride twice to escape even if they pass the save. Heightening the spell expands the radius, allowing you to cover huge areas if you feel the need. I’m not sure if I would make this a Signature Spell for that flexibility, but it’s definitely an option.
-
(CRB): Very rarely
impatful, but it is a lot of fun for a wizard to turn their spellbook into a
useless mess for anyone who chooses to read it without permission. Imagine
cracking open the BBEG’s spellbook to find that it’s hundreds of pages of
knock-knock jokes.
This spell was no included in the Remaster, and Archives of Nethys doesn’t link to a remastered version with a new name. I’m not sure why.
- (SoM): Absolutely amazing if you have a Rogue in the party or a similar character who relies on attacking enemies that are Off-Guard. I’ve used this repeatedly with a Rogue in my own party and it has enabled Sneak Attack numerous times. The additional damage from the spell isn’t amazing, but it’s enough to feel impactful. I wouldn’t bother Heightening this, as the real benefit is just making the target Off-Guard against the triggering attack.
- (PC2): Very powerful both offensively and defensively. The obvious usage is to turn your party invisible so that you can sneak through somewhere without being spotted, but you can also use this in combat to turn your party invisibile in order to flee. The spell only breaks if someone uses a hostile Action, so you’re free to heal, buff yourselves, Recall Knowledge, or whatever else you like so long as it’s not “hostile.”
- (SoM): This is a really interesting concept, but the mechanics are too poorly defined to make this reliable. The GM is left a ton of room and very little guidance on how to interpret the effects, and the spell even says that the target is “likely to question them if they contradict other information it knows or are implausible for the situation,”, which would essentially negate the spell’s effect in the situation where you’re most likely to use it.
-
(LO:DM): Difficult
terrain with a good AOE, and you can move it when you Sustain the spell.
You’re really fishing for the Critical Failure here because it immobilizes
enemies and then allows you to drag them around in the AOE. That’s a death
sentence for the many melee-only enemies in the game, leaving your party to
wear them down with spells and ranged attacks from perfect safety unless the
creature(s) manage to Escape. Even if creatures do escape, you can keep
chasing them with the AOE and Immobilize trap them again.
Heightening Shiftind Sand increase the spell’s range and, eventually, the size of the effect. You can already move the spell beyond the initial range when you Sustain the spell, but a higher-Rank version of the spell may be helpful for enemies at longer range or for handling larger crowds of enemies.
However, this only works on earthen or sandy surfaces, which means that it won’t function inside structures with manufactured floors (cobblestone, wood, etc.). A natural cave floor might work, but there’s no clear definition on what is considered “earthen,” so check with your GM.
-
(PC2): Potentially
useful for transporting big items like wagons full of your party’s supplies,
but definitely save this spell for when Rank 3 spells are inexpensive.
Consider a wand if you’re using it on a daily basis since this doesn’t care
about your stats and you’re not going to use it in combat.
You might be able to use this offensively by tossing the object onto a hard surface above an enemy (a ceiling is typically a hard surface), but the rules for falling objects make it a DC 15 Reflex save to avoid, which is not reliable beyond very low levels.
- (PC1): Slow is an incredible debuff without the Incapacitation tag. It’s widely considered one of the best offensive spells, and for very good reason.
- (RoE):
-
(PC1): Decent damage
of a good damage type, and the temporary hit points will help keep you alive
after you run into melee to deliver this. This is a great option for gish
characters like the Magus, but wizards should be very careful about using
this without Reach Spell.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Vampiric Touch”.
-
(PC1) (Uncommon):
Only situationally useful. This is great for powerful NPCs with powerful
enemies (like the players), but players will only benefit when facing
enemies with divination options available. This does notably block things
like See Invisibility, so players that like to rely on Invisibility might
benefit from this. Note that this does still require a Counteract check, so
it’s not foolproof.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Nondetection”. The effects of the spell have been reworded to reflect schools of magic going away, but they have not changed.
- (PC1):
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
4th-Rank Arcane Spells
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
-
(PC1): A great
utility, but you need to be able to think on your feet to make it actually
useful. Limited only by your creativity and the limitations on material.
Easy uses include creating temporary tools (ladders, poles, etc.), equipment
(shields), and obstacles. If you run out of ideas, a 5-foot cube of solid
wood can hold a door shut or you can drop it on a creature.
The remastered version of Creation is updated to apply appropriate traits to your created object based on its material.
- (PC1):
-
(PC1) (Uncommon): At
a glance, this is a great defense against enemy spellcasters, allowing you
to safely cast spells outward while being protected from spells targeting
anyone inside the sphere (you, for the most part). But it’s not portable, so
it’s really only useful if you’re comfortable standing still for the rest of
the encounter.
The fact that the globe is a 10-foot burst (so it’s a sphere 20 feet across) and can’t be broken by things like walls or floors is a surprisingly major problem. It’s nearly impossible to use in close quarters like a dungeon, and if you’re on the ground and of medium or smaller size, the sphere’s radius extends 5 feet into the ground, making this impossible to cast. You can literally only cast this if you’re large or flying.
The inability to cast the spell while on the ground certainly can’t be the intent of the spell. As a GM, I would change the area from “10-foot burst centered on one corner of your space” to “10-foot burst which includes your space“.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Globe of Invulnerability”.
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
-
(PC1): This notably
doesn’t prevent you from teleporting upward, downward, into a wall, or
anywhere else similarly dangerous. If you and your GM agree on how to handle
this without the spell being outright suicidal, it’s a passable buff for
front-line spellcasters, especially if you don’t need to be in melee
consistently. Otherwise, it’s borderline useless.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Blink”. The spell was also updated to not move you between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane. This functionally meant that the spell only worked while on one of those two planes and made the spell unusable elsewhere. The Material Plane is also now called “The Universe”.
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (RoE):
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (RoE) (Uncommon):
-
(PC1): Use a stone
body mutagen (Treasure Vault) instead. Stoneskin isn’t awful, it’s just
obsolete.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Stoneskin”.
- (PC1): A great way to mildly inconvenience the BBEG once you know their name. Keep them tired and annoyed, and then go attack them while they’re debuffed.
- (PC1):
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (PC1): A decent way to nonviolently remove problematic creatures, but you need to be creative and your GM needs to be willing to play along. The 1-minute duration for a Failure doesn’t leave you a lot of room to work, but it may be enough to convince an enemy to walk out of a room, for a guard to let you pass, or something along those lines.
- (PC1):
- (PC1): A great way to get out of danger. The heightened version can get you all the way out of a dungeon.
-
Only situationally useful. The duration is long enough that you could
pre-cast it before going into an encounter, but you would need to know that
you’re facing something that likes to immobilize/grapple/restrain you ahead
of time.
(PC1):
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Freedom of Movement”.
- (PC1): Maybe a good way to sneak in or out of somewhere, but the 5-minute duration is painfully short, and you’re still visible. I think you still keep your base speed, which is great because the 10-foot fly speed won’t get you anywhere in a hurry.
-
(PC1): The damage
isn’t great (a 4th-level Fireball does the same amount of damage), and while
Frightened is a great debuff I don’t think it’s enough to make up the
difference.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Phantasmal Killer”. In addition, the Critical Failure effect has been reworked.
- (PC1): Decent area control, but the damage isn’t enough to scare anything at this level if it’s only going to be affected once. But if you have an ally that likes to grapple, this can be very effective. The Concealed condition will deter creatures from attacking through it, though area of effect spells won’t be affected, so beware of enemy spellcasters.
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
5th-Rank Arcane Spells
- (PC1): Save-or-suck for anything from a different plane of existence. Simple, effective, and if you’re prepared for the specific creature(s) you can impose a penalty on the save. Unfortunately Banishment has the Incapacitation Trait, so it’s hard to use against powerful foes, and if the target rolls a Critical Success you’ll be Stunned 1 so you only want to use this when you can be reasonably certain that the target will fail their saving throw.
- (PC1): Too situational.
- (RoE):
-
(PC1): Weak by
polymorph standards. The forms aren’t impressive in combat, and the 1-minute
duration makes this a poor utility spell. Among other issues, the Water form
doesn’t give you ability to breathe water.
Remember that polymorph spells are largely only useful if your character is built to use them. Any random wizard does not have the equipment or hit points to be effective while polymorphed.
The remaster version of Elemental Form introduced the Metal and Wood options.
- (RoE) (Uncommon):
- (RoE):
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (RoE) (Uncommon):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (PC1): Surprisingly powerful since you may still be able to put this to great effect even if the target rolls a Success on their save, but simultaneously difficult to use because there’s a ton of room for GM interpretation. For example: you could target an enemy (multiple enemies with higher-level spell slots) to make them unable to perceive your party. They could roll a Success and would know what the illusion was, but they still couldn’t see you and your party. The creature can Disbelieve the illusion to remove the effect, but that at least buys you some time as they attempt to Seek, potentially multiple times if they fail to disbelieve. There is a lot of room for more clever uses than that, but making yourself invisibwole to the target(s) is a great example of how to use Hallucination.
-
(PC1): More damage
than a Fireball of the same Rank, but you sacrifice distance for that 2d6
extra damage. A 60-foot cone is a decent AOE, but it’s still not as safe as
a 20-foot radius burst cast from several hundred feet away.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Cone of Cold”.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful, but a clever player can put this to great effect given time to make it work.
- (PC1): Not a ton of damage, but it can immobilize an enemy, forcing them to spend Actions to attempt to Escape. If you can get an enemy into a dangerous location, such as an ongoing AOE damage effect, holding an enemy in place can deal a great deal of additional damage.
- (PC1): Not nearly strong enough to be a 5th-Rank spell. You’re gambling on the Critical Failure effect when you initially cast the spell, and that’s a terrible gamble. The damage for Sustaining the spell is not enough.
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
- (PC1): Only situationally useful, and extremely expensive for how limited the function is. Teleport is one spell level higher and you can go have a full conversation.
- (PC1):
- (PC1):
- (PC1):
- (PC1):
-
(PC1): The damage is
decent, but the fact that the cloud moves makes this difficult to use in a
typical combat situation. The spell also doesn’t address what happens if the
spell encounters obstacles, which raises frustrating questions like “can
this roll through walls?” and “can I point this into the sky?”
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Cloudkill”.
-
(PC1) (Uncommon): A
staple option for overcoming language barriers, but at such high level this
is an expensive way to solve the problem. Of course, it’s likely less
expensive than spending several feats on Multilingual.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Tongues”.
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (PC1):
- (PC1): Good area control. Split an encounter neatly in half and eliminate a few foes before the rest can rejoin the fight. 50 hit points with 14 Hardness is extremely durable even at this level. Be sure to place the wall slightly out of reach to maximize how many actions enemies need to waste to reach it and carve their way through. The wall is also permanent and shapeable, allowing you to sculpt it around squares and do things like creating stairs, so Wall of Stone serves double duty as a utility spell.
- (PC1):
- (RoE) (Uncommon):
6th-Rank Arcane Spells
- (RoE):
- (PC1): An excellent direct damage option, Chain Lighting easily exceeds the damage of a Fireball of the same level, conveniently doesn’t have to worry about friendly fire, and has a theoretically infinite number of targets. However, the chain ends if one target critically succeeds on their save, which means that each target must roll their save before you pick the next target, which is going to make casting this spell take a horrifically long amount of real-world time to resolve.
-
(PC1): The effect is
fine, but on a Failure the target can re-attempt their saving throw every
turn, and with the Incapacitation trait this is borderline useless against
powerful foes.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Baleful Polymorph”.
- (PC1): Good single-target damage with good scaling, but it has two points of failure, so even if you hit your target may still only take partial damage. Of course, it’s a Basic Save so it’s equally likely that you’ll score a regular hit and still deal double normal damage. This also doubles as a utility option, allowing you to disintegrate problematic objects like walls or structurally-important columns.
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
-
(PC1): Save-or-suck
for spellcasters. This is situational by design, but spellcasters are common
enough and powerful enough that this might still see some use. The effects
are excellent, and despite having the Incapacitation trait, hoping for a
standard Failure is enough to massively inhibit powerful enemy spellcasters.
Against non-spellcasters, the critical failure effect is still a significant
debuff, but it’s hard to gamble on a critical failure.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Feeblemind”.
- (RoE):
-
(PC1): Single-target
save-or-suck with the Incapacitation trait, which makes it extremely hard to
use against strong single targets, but in encounters with a small number of
enemies close to your level this is a decent option.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Flesh to Stone”.
- (PC1): Very slightly less damage than a Fireball of the same level, but of a better damage type. The secondary effect is excellent, but only applies on a critical failure against the initial Will save, so you can’t expect it to be reliable. Still, you can use this in the same situations as Fireball and I would consider this a direct upgrade.
- (RoE):
- (PC1): A great way to keep enemies away from you and your other squishy allies, especially since many creatures are wholly unable to fight at range.
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (PC1):
- (PC1):
- (PC1) (Uncommon): A staple option for long-distance travel, though the Uncommon rarity may make it unavailable.
- (PC1):
- (PC1): Good damage of a good type in a reasonably large area of effect, plus you get Temporary Hit Points, but the range on the cone is short so frail characters like Sorcerers and Wizards should be cautious.
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
- (PC1): Excellent area control. Wall off part of an encounter with multiple foes, and suddenly the encounter gets a lot easier. The wall is big enough that enemies can’t quickly go around it (though they could go over it if they can fly), and with 30 hardness most creatures will struggle to break through it.
- (RoE):
7th-Rank Arcane Spells
- (RoE):
- (PC1):
- (RoE):
-
(PC1): Powerful, but
frustrating in many ways. You can’t use this on an ally (the spell’s Target
entry specifies “enemy”), but honestly that would be too powerful so I
understand the limitation. Since the duplicate can only Stride and Strike,
you want to target enemies that rely on Strikes, but those creatures also
tend to have high Fortitude saves, which may make this unreliable.
If the spell does work, the level cap is generously high so you can target the vast majority of creatures that you face in combat. The duplicate’s stats are good enough that it’s a serious threat in combat, and since it’s not limited to attacking the target of the spell, you can command it to attack the target’s allies if the target of Duplicate Foe wanders away.
Ideally you want the duplicate to both deal a bunch of damage and to draw a bunch of attacks which would otherwise be directed at you and your allies, so your best bet is to cast this early in a fight so that it has as much time as possible to work. Even if the target of Duplicate Foe succeeds on its saving throw, you still get the duplicate for two rounds, which may be enough to cause a lot of trouble for your enemies despite the duplicate dealing half damage with its strikes.
- (PC1): Good range, massive AOE, good damage, and on a critical failure creatures are permanently blinded.
- (PC1): 5 points of resistance to 8 damage types, including options like Force Damage which are difficult to resist, and a 24-hour duration. It’s hard to spend such a high-level spell slot on something like this, but with a 24-hour duration you can cast it before going to sleep, get a full night’s sleep, then wake up with 16 hours left on the spell’s duration. If you don’t need to adventure on back-to-back days, you should strongly consider this as part of your daily routine.
- (PC1): It’s tempting to cast this and spend the rest of the encounter doing nothing but casting Ignition, but that’s a trap. With the reduced casting time and boosted damage, you could cast Produce Flame 3 times per turn and the Multiple Attack Penalty would become a problem. Instead, cast a 2-Action spell like Fireball which requires a save and spend your third Action to cast Ignition or fly and either cast a 2-Action spell or use Ignition twice.
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
-
A staple travel option at high levels.
(PC1) (Uncommon):
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Plane Shift”.
- (PC1):
-
(PC1): A fine place
to retire to or for a night’s rest. Unless enemies know about the demiplane
ahead of time or somehow discover it while you’re resting, you’re basically
unreachable. However, this is a very expensive solution to the issue of
resting. Typically something like Rope Trick will suffice unless you’re
specifically trying to show off or feed a small horde of people.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Magnificent Mansion”.
-
(PC1) (Uncommon):
Only situationally useful. You can use this offensively to try to keep
enemies from teleporting to escape and/or you can use this to prevent
enemies from teleporting into whatever space you’re resting in.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Dimensional Lock”.
- (RoE):
- (PC1): Only situationally useful, expensive, and fragile.
-
(PC1): Extremely
situational and frustratingly vague.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was not on the Arcane spell list.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful. Your party would need to make a series of high-value attacks which were good enough to offset the cost of you casting this both in terms of spell slot cost and action cost.
- (RoE):
- (PC1): I already don’t trust the Confused condition, and this is the Confusion spell but 3 levels higher and with the option of a permanent duration and it has the Incapacitation trait, so against major enemies which you would actually care about making permanently confused it’s actually less effective than Confusion.
8th-Rank Arcane Spells
-
(PC1): Good
single-target damage plus a great debuff and no Incapacitation tag. This is
great against powerful single enemies. If they critically fail the save, you
have likely won the fight.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Polar Ray”. In addition, Arctic Rift was switched from a spell attack to a line imposing a Basic Fortitude Save, its damage increased by 2d8, and the target can now be Slowed and/or Immobilized if they fail the save instead of applying Drained 2. It’s barely the same spell.
-
(PC1): Your targets
are “any number of living creatures” within 500 feet. Adventures
will rarely be in a situation where that’s useful beyond what you can get
from Fireball, but sometimes you’ll be in a situation to one-shot a small
army.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Horrid Wilting”.
- (PC1): Extremely durable invisibility with a 10-minute duration. This is excellent on frail spellcasters who want to avoid attention, and for characters like rogues who depend on foes being Flat-Footed it’s a massive tactical advantage.
- (PC1): A good crowd control option, but not always a good go-to. The fissures are deep enough that creatures will take a considerable amount of time to climb out despite the fairly low DC, giving you time to handle any foes which don’t fall into fissures, but anything that can fly or which has high speed will climb right back out and get right back to fighting. The effects other than fissures (collapsed buildings, difficult terrain, etc.) are unpredictable, which makes this hard to recommend.
- (RoE):
- (PC1) (Uncommon):
- (PC1): Not significantly better than Dragon Form unless you upcast it at level 9, but it is still good.
-
(PC1) (Uncommon):
Only situationally useful.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Discern Location”. The wording of the spell has been updated to reflect that schools of magic no longer exist.
-
(PC1): he target
doesn’t get a save against being put in the maze. You need to spend an
Action every turn to Sustain the Spell, but one Action to remove the target
from combat for several rounds is frequently worth both the spell slot and
the action cost. Maze the biggest thing in the encounter, kill everything
else, then drop a bunch of problems into the space that the creature will
re-emerge into before it escapes or before you willingly end the spell.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Maze”. The checks used to escape have changed and now include 3 options instead of 1, but otherwise the effect is identical.
- (RoE):
- (RoE):
- (PC1): Forcing the target to spend several of their Actions to “dance” means that they’re not spending those Actions hurting you, and spending 2 Actions to cost your target 3 or more is a decent trade. The target also loses the ability to Step, which may be as impactful as the Actions which they must spend dancing. Where this spell struggles is finding a suitable target on which to use it. This is single-target with the Incapacitation trait, which makes it hard to find targets who are both powerful enough to justify the spell slot and who are going to fail the save often enough to risk this.
- (PC1): Only situationally useful. You could use this in combat to counter invisibility and other means of hiding, but there are lower-level solutions to those problems. More likely you’ll use this to spy on important NPCs, and that doesn’t happen often in a way that requires a solution like this.
- (RoE):
9th-Rank Arcane Spells
-
(PC1) (Uncommon):
Very situational. Generally you don’t want to risk permanently disenchanting
loot.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Disjunction”. The damage effect is a new addition to the spell.
- (PC1): Creatures hit by both AOE’s take 82 damage on average, which isn’t going to one-shot high-level creatures on its own, but in multi-enemy encounters that’s still a massive amount of damage to throw around, especially with four meteors which you can target independently.
- (PC1): An excellent defensive buff with a great duration so you can cast it well ahead of time.
- (PC1): Good damage and a very efficient way to spend Actions. The single Action to Sustain the spell each turn is another 75 damage, and if you took the Effortless Concentration feat this is free damage every turn for a full minute or until you run out of targets. Not on the Divine spell list.
-
(PC1): This is a
gamble. The expected outcome is 100 negative damage, which is a big pile of
damage. Lines are a difficult AOE so expect to hit no more than two
creatures, and you generally want to kill something with the initial damage
rather than suffering 30 damage if you don’t, but maybe you’ll get lucky and
the 30 damage will kill an enemy or two, in which case I would happily take
the 30 damage rather than letting those creatures get another turn. The
possibility that you can outright kill creatures on a Critical Failure is
very tempting, but unless you’re hitting a bunch of creatures somehow I
don’t recommend making that gamble.
Because the level cap is so high, you can safely use this even with your allies in the line. However, if you fail to kill something, you and your allies are still going to take the flat 30 negative damage.
- (RoE): Only situationally useful simply because so few creatures are made of metal or depend on metal equipment. This is much more likely to cause trouble for players than for monsters.
-
(PC1): Your best
option with Shapechange is to pick a form from 8th-level Dragon Form or
8th-level Monstrosity Form, and with only a 1-minute duration you are
unlikely to change forms often. At that point, why not just cast Dragon Form
or Monstrosity Form at 9th level? It’s a combination of the versatility of
changing forms for different special ability and to refresh your Temporary
Hit Points. 40 temporary hp is a big pool, and can allow you to endure a
long-running fight without cutting into your real hp.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Shapechange”. Compared to the legacy version, the behavior of Temporary Hit Points has been clarified, and the text no longer includes incorrect text about how Polymorph spells are prepared, removing both of the issues which we discussed in our legacy spell list breakdowns and also buffing the spell by improving how many Temporary Hit Points you get.
-
Similar in many ways to Phantasmal Killer, but much less frustrating. With
120-foot range and any number of targets, this can easily hit everything in
an encounter. The actual damage isn’t fantastic, but between the damage and
the Frightened debuff, this will be very impactful.
(PC1):
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Weird”. In addition, the Critical Failure effect has been reworked to remove the possibility of instant death.
10th-Rank Arcane Spells
- (PC1): 21d10 (avg. 115.5) damage of several types in a 60-foot burst. Normally spells which deal multiple types of damage suffer from multiple resistances, but this also ignores 10 points of each resistance, which helps quite a bit. It’s quite a bit more damage than Meteor Swarm upcast at 10th level (avg. 94.5), but in some cases Meteor Swarm’s 4 independent AOEs may still be preferable because it can hit more targets. Cataclysm really shines against enemies with multiple vulnerabilities, but that’s rare.
-
(PC1): Stop time,
spend three turns casting buffs, area control spells (Wall of Stone, Force
Cage, etc.), or summon spells, then go into combat with a huge advantage.
Prior to the remaster, this spell was called “Time Stop”.
- (PC1) (Uncommon): Only situationally useful. Usually Plane Shift is sufficient, especially if you can follow it with Teleport to get closer to your intended destination.
- (PC1): I can’t imagine a situation where you could cast this that wouldn’t be better solved by Freeze Time. Are you about to take a ton of damage? Cast Freeze Time, then do something proactive to prevent it.
- (PC1): Access to nearly any spell in the game at a moment’s notice. Likely the best spell in the game, though its effectiveness depends heavily on your own knowledge of spells available to you.
- (PC1) (Uncommon): Only situationally useful. This feels like it should be a ritual.
