Introduction

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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.

Understanding RPGBOT’s Rating System

RPGBOT uses a 4-tier rating scheme which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Table of Contents

Divine 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.

  • Ancient Dust (PF #186) (Uncommon): Decent damage and a splash of Persistent Damage in a cone, but the scaling is poor. This may be great for melee casters at low levels, but plan to replace it by level 4 at the absolute latest.
  • Approximate (SoM): Absolutely useless.
  • Bullhorn (SoM): Absolutely useless even for a Bard.
  • Daze (PC1): Mediocre damage and poor scaling. You’re gambling for critical failures to stun the target. That’s a bad gamble against single enemies, 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.

  • Detect Magic (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 1st level 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.

  • Detect Metal (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.
  • Divine Lance (PC1): Simple, realiable damage at range with good scaling. Resistance to Spirit damage is rare, though some creatures are outright immune.

    Prior to the Remaster, Divine Lance had complicated interactions with alignment.

  • Draw Moisture (RoE): This would be useful in real life, but in a game about fantasy adventure it’s useless.
  • Forbidding Ward (PC1): Every +1 matters in PF2, and a Status bonus from a Cantrip is great, but this is very strictly limited. It benefits one ally against one enemy, and then you need to Sustain the Spell to maintain the buff. That’s a huge Action cost for a +1. The math gets a lot better when it improves to +2 at Rank 6, but I wouldn’t both with this until then.
  • GuidancePC1: An excellent, easy way to assist allies with important checks. This generally won’t be worth an Action in combat, but during exploration it’s fantastic. The cooldown is intentionally very long to prevent it from becoming a perpetual +1 bonus to all checks, but it’s great for things like searching, disarming traps, Recall Knowledge, and other common checks.
  • Haunting HymnPC1: A short cone with decent damage of a great damage type. This is a good choice for melee caster worried about crowds, but back-line casters shouldn’t look at this is as a good reason to rush into melee range.
  • Illuminate (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.
  • Inside Ropes (PF #181) (Uncommon): Gruesome and also really bad. Buy a climbing kit.
  • Invoke True Name (SoM) (Rare): Learning a creature’s true name is a big deal, and it’s not going to happen in most campaigns.
  • Know the WayPC1: Very situational, and you can usually replace it with the Survival skill.

    Prior to the Remaster, Know Direction didn’t let you select a previously visited location until Know Directiion reached level 7. Know the Way makes that function much more accessibe.

  • Light (PC1): A staple utility. Often essential if no one has a free hand for a torch.

    The pre-Remaster spell Dancing Lights was merged into Light, which can now produce a similar effect, but.

  • Message (PC1): Only situationally useful.
  • Needle Darts (RoE): Good initial damage, consistent scaling, and good range. That’s already a good go-to damage cantrip, but the ability to target vulnerabilities to specific metals makes this even better. Grab some Cold Iron and some Silver, and you’re in good shape.

    While the text of the spell is vague about how much metal you need, Pathfinder Society requires you to have a “chunk” of the metal used, and those chunks have a listed value. Cold Iron and Silver are 10gp per chunk each, so 20 gp of metal gets you what you need. Your GM might be more flexible on the subject, but I think it’s a perfectly fine requirement.

  • PrestidigitationPC1: 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.
  • Protect CompanionPC1: Helpful for pet builds such as Summoners and characters using Animal Companions, but not useful for regular summoned creatures.
  • Read AuraPC1: 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.
  • Read the AirDA: Spend a full minute during a social situation chanting magic words and waving your hands around, which produces visible magical symbols in the air, all for a +1 status bonus to Make an Impression. Definitely not useful enough to justify knowing the cantrip.
  • Rousing Splash (RoE): Temporary Hit Points which last a full minute as a Cantrip, and they scale really well. Cast this before you walk into a fight.
  • ShieldPC1: One action for +1 AC and the potentialy 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 stats, it’s a great innate spell. This is fantastic more melee spellcasters, but spellcasters build to fight at range may not use it often unless they’re facing enemies with ranged attacks.
  • Sigil (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.
  • Stabilize (PC1): More reliable than Administer First Aid for much of the level range, and it doesn’t require tools, so there is some value here. If you’re investing in the Medicine skill, you can likely stop using this around level 10, if not sooner.
  • Summon Instrument (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.
  • Torturous Trauma (PF #186) (Uncommon): Good damage at range on a Basic Fortitude Save. The only issue is that it doesn’t affect creatures without internal organs, so you’ll also want other offensive cantrip options for those creatures.
  • Tremor Signs (RoE): Basically the same as Message.
  • Vitality Lash (PC1): Only situationally useful since it only affects undead. The damage and scaling are both great, though.
  • Void Warp (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.

  • Wash Your LuckDA: Only situationally useful, and you need to know to use it ahead of time. 2 Actions for this is too much to justify during combat, so you’ll want to pre-cast this before walking into fights.

Rank 1 Divine Spells

  • Admonishing Ray (PF #158): Not enough damage for a single-target attack spell.
  • Air Bubble (PC1): Only situationally useful. The rules for holding your breath are generous to the point that drowning is borderline impossible unless you’re fighting.
  • Alarm (PC1): A good precation while resting anywhere dangerous. A wand is inexpensive investment that can serve your party reliably for your whole career.
  • Bane (): A -1 penalty isn’t mathematically significant unless the effect is applied to a large number of enemies. This can be helpful for debuffing large groups of weak enemies which are relying on their numbers to offset their relatively poor stats, and in that case your enemies will have relatively poor saves so they’re more likely to fail the Will save. But in those cases it’s typically more effective to cast an area damage spell to quickly reduce the number of enemies rather than trying to debuff them.
  • BenedictionDM: A +1 AC bonus that potentially affects your whole party. Much like Bless, the area is small by default, but this has a 1-minute duration that doesn’t need to be Sustained, so it’s great to cast before walking into a fight. In fact, you might cast both Benediction and Bless before charging into battle.
  • Beseech the SphinxRA (Rare): A status bonus to one skill or one type of save for 10 minutes. Definitely powerful, but it may be difficult to time this unless you’re targeting a skill that an ally uses offensively in combat like Athletics for Grab/Shove/Trip or Deception for Feint. Consider getting wands of this if you’re using it reliably.
  • Bless (): +1 to attacks is a consistently useful bonus at any level, makin Bless useful at any character level. The 1-minute duration is enough to last through most fights, and if you can cast it before initiating combat, you can start with a minor but useful mathematical advantage. However, the range of Bless is limited and spending actions to Sustain the Spell in order to grow the radius is costly and slow. In close quarters or alongside ranged weapon-using allies, this can work very well, but if you’re fighting in a large, open space, you may struggle to keep allies inside the area.
  • Breadcrumbs (SoM): Extremely situational.
  • Celestial AccordPF #183 (Uncommon): This is weird and complicated. If you use it in combat, it’s an extremely short-lived debuff. If you use it outside of combat, it can semi-permanently make a character stop hating another chatacter. However, the spell is broken if the target is subject to hostility from any other creature. Startled dog? Spell broken. It’s fine while it lasts, but you can’t count on it to remain in effect for long.
  • Cleanse Cuisine: Extremely situational. Pathfinder is not a game where you need to worry about food or spoilage or things like that.
  • Command (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.
  • Concordant ChoirPC2: Decent damage, a good damage type, and flexible Action options. The 2-Action version is likely your go-to, and it has a decent AOE for such a low-rank spell.
  • Create WaterPC1: Too situational.
  • Cycle of RetributionPF #197 (Uncommon): Only worthwhile if the target Critically Fails, and you shouldn’t count on Critcal Failures.
  • Defended By SpiritsSK (Uncommon): The damage is too weak for such as restrictive spell, especially since you need to Sustain the spell. Your target can simply change targets to avoid the damage.
  • Detect Alignment () (Uncommon): Situational. Remember that this isn’t as simple as casting the spell and declaring who in the room is evil. Only creatures of 6th level or higher (plus any creature from the types listed in the spell) have an aura which this can detect. Once you’re high enough level that enemies of 6th level and above are the norm, you can use this for things like detecting nearby invisible creatures.
  • Detect PoisonPC1 (Uncommon): Too situational and absolutely not worth 2 Actions. Use Recall Knowledge.
  • Echoing Weapon (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.
  • Elysian Whimsy (PF #183): Unpredictable, the effects are mostly unimpressive, and Incapacitation.
  • Enfeeble (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.

  • Fated HealingPF #197 (Uncommon): You could abuse this using a bag of rats (or just a very grumpy animal in a container) in order to have automatic healing for 5 rounds, but it averages to 12.5 healing, which exactly matches 2-Action Heal, so there’s no real benefit to using this over other healing options. The intended use of the spell is to discourage hostile creatures from fighting each other, but in nearly all cases you’re also going to be fighting one side of that equation.
  • Fear (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.
  • Flense (PF #186): Rhis is only marginally better than Gouging Claw.
  • Forced MercyKoL (Uncommon): Making the target’s physical damage Nonlethal will keep it from killing you and your allies, but it won’t stop them from beating you unconscious.
  • Glowing TrailPF #194 (Uncommon): Very situational.
  • Harm (): The exact opposit of Heal with all of the same Action options and scaling. Offensively, Harm’s damage is very good for a spell of its level.

    In a party with Negative Healing (undead, dhampirs, etc.), it’s easy to turn 3-Action Harm into a go-to offensive option, both healing your allies and damagin most creatures.

  • Heal (): Essential. Generally you don’t want to spend Actions in combat healing your allies because defeating your enemies faster will generally have a better result than repeatedly healing an ally as their hit points bounce up and down. Still, when you need healing Heal is your best bet, and the amount healed is frequently enough to keep your target standing for several more rounds and avoid the Action costs to Stand to recover thier dropped weapons.

    Heal has three options from one to three Actions, each version offering a slightly different version of the spell’s effects. If you need to get a dying ally back on their feet, the 1-Action version is often sufficient, and you’ll still have two Actions for something else like casting a different spell. Of course, the 1-Action version only works at Touch range, so the 2-Action version is often helpful if your ally is out of reach.

    The 3-Action version works in an AOE, and, since Heal both heals living creatures and harms undead, it’s a great option if multiple allies are injured or if you’re facing a group of undead foes. The damage is Vitality damage, which bypasses the resistances of most undead, and some undead like zombies are even weak to it, so you get a bunch of bonus damage for dealing any amount of Vitality damage.

  • Helpful Steps (Fb): Too situational. Consider Gecko Grip if you’re worried about vertical obstacles.
  • Infuse Vitality (PC1): The 1d4 damage boost isn’t huge, but it doesn’t need to be. This spell is for triggering Weakness to Vitality damage and potentiall Holy. The Rank 1 version is sufficient, so consider putting this on a wand or a scroll for when you encounter suitable enemies.

    The 1-minute duration is only long enough to get through one fight, but if you pre-cast the spell it can be easy extra damage at very little cost. At high levels where Rank 1 spells and scrolls/wands of those spells are relatively cheap, this can be a great way to buff your party before charging into an important fight.

    Prior to the remaster, this spell was called Disrupting Weapons.

  • Know LocationPF #197 (Rare): Very situational and frustratingly vague.
  • Lock (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.
  • Magic StoneAPG: Maybe good at very low levels, but slings are not good weapons.
  • MaledictionLO:DM: A great debuff to carry into melee, but it won’t stack with Status Penalties from other debuffs like Frightened or Sickened.
  • Mending (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.
  • Mystic Armor (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”.

  • Necromancer’s Generosity (SoM): Essential if you have undead Minions but can’t cast Harm.
  • Nudge the Odds (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.
  • Pet Cache (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.
  • Protection (): A good buff if you can cast it before combat, but it may not be worth the 2 Actions to cast once combat starts unless one ally is drawing a ton of attention.

    Prior to the Remaster, the effect was more complicated and there was no benefit for Heightening the spell.

  • Purifying IcicleKoL: Good single-target damage on a spell attack. The scaling is fine, but only remains worthwhile if you’re hitting an undead and get the additional Vitality damage (Vitality is the Remaster term for Positive damage).
  • Putrefy Food and DrinkPF #158: Extremely situational.
  • Quick Sort (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.
  • Restyle (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.
  • Runic Body (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.
  • Runic Weapon (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.

  • Sacred BeastsHotW: Decent physical damage in a small AOE. The scaling is decent, too, but this quickly becomes obsolete because the AOE is so small.
  • Sanctuary (PC1): A fantastic protection at any level, and unlike Pathfinder 1e there’s no prohibitionson the subject’s actions. Throw this on your party’s front-line characters and send them into melee and watch enemies repeatedly waste Actions trying to attack your ally while they fight back unimpeded.
  • Schadenfreude (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.

  • Shielded Arm (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.
  • Spirit Link (): I’m not sure what to make of this spell. It’s obviously a gamble for the spellcaster. With a 10-minute duration, 6-second rounds, and 2 points of hp transfered per round, that’s up to 200 hit points transferred from you to the target. If you somehow have a great way to heal yourself (and only yourself), this is a great way to spread that healing around, but otherwise it’s just a way to consolidate damage on one character and rapidly kill yourself. I would never risk this unless you have a truly stellar quantity of hit points to spare or you have readily-accessible healing.
  • Spirit WardSK (Uncommon): Only situationally useful, but potentially very useful if you know that you’re facing hostile spellcasters.
  • Summon Lesser ServitorPC2: Mostly a normal summoning spell, but it allows you to summon an unusually wide set of creature types and the spell only scales up to 4th Rank. At Rank 1 you will only be able to summon animals.
  • Summon Undead (PC1): A huge number of summon options across the level spectrum with a ton of great tactical uses.
  • Synchronize (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.
  • Thoughtful Gift (): 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.
  • Ventriloquism (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.

Rank 2 Divine Spells

  • Advanced ScurvyPF #188: Enfeebled 1 for 1 minute on a successful save. Against a Strength-based enemy, this is a great debuff. The additional blead damage is neat, but you’re here for Enfeebled.
  • Allfood (PF #194) (Uncommon): Pathfinder games rarely track food. If you do, this might be useful.
  • Augury (): This is one of my favorite divination spells, and has been since 3rd edition DnD. While it’s not terribly precise, it’s often enough to get a party unstuck when “analysis paralysis” sets in. If your party can’t decide what to do, cast Augury and try to get some hints. Unfortunately, the flat check means that it’s only 75% accurate, so be cautious whenever you receive a result of “None”.
  • Blast of the Bellows (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.
  • Blazing Armory (RoE): Not much more useful than Runic Weapon, but the 5-minute duration compared to Runic Weapon’s 1-minute duration is certainly tempting.
  • Blazing BladeKCG (Rare): The damage is fine, and it’s great that this is a Spell Attack, but the action economy is bad and the scaling isn’t good enough to replace a real weapon. You can do as much damage with Cantrips.
  • Blood Vendetta (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.
  • Bone SprayPF #176 (Uncommon): Not good enough for a spell of this Rank. The cone is too small, the damage is too weak, the bleed is too small. The scaling is pretty good, but higher-Rank spells will have bigger areas.
  • BoneshakerPF #176 (Uncommon): Good range, it applies to a wide variety of creatures, the damage is decent, and it can inflict Enfeebled. The 3-Action version’s forced movement is excellent. If your target fails, remember that you can move them vertically, too. 10 or more feet up deals damage and inflicts Prone.
  • Bralani ReferendumPF #183 (Uncommon): Only situationally useful. Against creatures that consistently rely on one of the listed conditions, such as shadows inflicting Enfeebled, this is great. But it’s hard to haul this around until it matters.
  • Brand the ImpenitentLO:GM: Cast Revealing Light instead.
  • Buzzing Servants (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.

  • Calm (): This can defuse a violent situation even if you were attacking the target(s) in the previous round. If a fight is going poorly, you can drop this on your enemies and suddenly they can’t take hostile actions for up to a minute. That’s enough time for you to run away or to otherwise get your party’s act together before the “time out” ends and you go right back to fighting.
  • Carrion Mire (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
  • Cauterize Wounds (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.
  • Charitable UrgePC2: Doesn’t apply to all enemies, enemies that you want to use this on can choose to be Stunned 1 instead of disarming themselves, and this has Incapacitation.
  • Clad in Metal (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.
  • Claws of the OtterHotW: If you’re built around Unarmed Strikes, this could be really good. You should already have Handwraps of Mighty Blows, so this is an easy addition. The slashing damage is pretty typical for an Agile unarmed attack, and the bonus cold damage will stack with your runes. A 1-hour duraton means that you can cast this well ahead of time and potentially use it in multiple fights. At Rank 2, a mid-level character could afford several wands of this to support an unarmed attack build.
  • ClawsongPF #171 (Uncommon): Not worth the spell slot, not worth the Actions.
  • Cleanse AfflictionPC1: You won’t always need it, but when you need it there’s no substiture.

    Prior to the Remaster, the function of this spell was split across Remove Curse, Remove Disease, and Remove Poison.

  • Cleanse Air (RoE): Extremely situational.
  • Clear MindPC1: The Rank 2 version isn’t especially useful, but the higher-Rank version
  • Coiling DanceRA (Rare): Making your allies’ attacks Holy can be a great way to deal with enemies affected by that, plus the secondary use of the spell is great against enemies that rely on grappling and similar tactics. But both of those things are only situationally useful.
  • Create Food (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.
  • Darkness (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.

  • Darkvision (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.
  • Deafness (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.
  • Death Knell (): When you first get 2nd-level spells, this is too expensive. But as you gain levels and a 2nd-level spell slot becomes easier to spend, this could be a good buff for casters planning to wade into melee like warpriest clerics and war mystery oracles. Grab a bag of rats, knock one to 0 hit points, kill it with Death Knell, and now you have a decent combat buff for 10 minutes.
  • Dispel Magic (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.
  • Enhance Victuals (): If you’re just trying to live, use Create Water and Create Food. This is for when you need to impress an NPC.
  • Environmental Endurance (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.

  • Everlight (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.

  • Far-Flung Fetch (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!
  • Fear the Sun (LO:DM): Making the target Dazzled can be a great debuff for big enemies, especially since this doesn’t have the Incapacitation tag.
  • Final Sacrifice (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.
  • Fireproof (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.
  • Gentle Breeze: If your party depends heavily on Medicine in combat, such as the Battle Medicine feat, you might enjoy the +2 Status Bonus. But, more likely, you’re going to use this outside of combat to support Treat Wounds and for a bit of bonus healing. Using a wand for this at high levels could be nice, but it’s certainly not essential. Outside of combat you likely have enough time to use Treat Wounds repeatedly if you need more healing.
  • Ghoulish CravingsPC2: Powerful and reliable. Sickened 1 even on a Success. This is great to use against bosses, especially solo enemies that don’t have allies who can conveniently die and provide a snack to reduce the failure effects.

    Prior the remaster, this inflicted Ghoul Fever.

  • Grave ImpressionsPF #169 (Uncommon): Very situational.
  • Guiding StarSoM: Very situational.
  • Horrifying Blood Loss (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.
  • Imp StingPF #160 (Uncommon): Decent damage and the Affliction is decent.
  • Impeccable FlowPF #169 (Uncommon): If you want the defensive benefits, cast Protection. If you want the bonus to skills, cast Guidance.
  • Inner Radiance TorrentSoM: The damage isn’t great, but it is a very realiable damage type. Line AOEs are extremely difficult, and managing to spend two rounds standing still and still hitting multiple targets is an exceptional rarity.
  • Insant Armor (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.
  • Lucky Number (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.
  • Manifestation of SpiritsSK (Uncommon): Stupefied 3 is a huge debuff. Even on a Success, the target is still Stupefied for one round, so you can and your allies can hit them with other effects over the course of the next round. This is great on powerful enemies, including those above your level, and especially good against spellcasters since Stupefied imposes a failure chance to cast spells.
  • Mark of Blood (PfD) (Rare): Very situational. Basically only useful if you need to track a creature that’s prone to escaping from fights.
  • Marvelous Mount (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.

  • Mimic UndeadSoM: Very situational.
  • Noise Blast (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”.

  • Peaceful Rest (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”.

  • Radiant Field (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.
  • Reaper’s LanternPC2: The effect is miniscule.
  • Resist Energy (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.
  • Restoration (): This spell is… odd. Most of the affected conditions have a short duration and go away once the spell or effect which produces them ends, typically much sooner than the 1-minute casting time of Restoration. Furthermore, “toxin” isn’t a rules term, so RAW that portion of the spell is simply non-functional. I believe it’s intended to refer to poisons, but it might also apply to diseases. I’m not sure. We’ve gotten three full reprintings of the Core Rulebook, including errata, and this hasn’t been fixed.

    At high levels, this adds the ability to remove the Doomed condition, which is crucial because being Doomed by any amount significantly increases your odds of dying.

    • =
  • Revealing Light (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.

  • See the Unseen (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.

  • Shadow Zombie (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.
  • Share LifePC1: This isn’t a go-to spell by any means, but it can be a great way to distribute damage if one of your party members tends to draw most of the hits. However, you can’t end the spell, so you need to monitor your own hit points very carefully. Temporary hit points and ongoing healing effects can go a long way here.
  • Silence (): Combined with Invisibility or darkness, this can make a creature functionally undetectable to creatures that don’t have other strong senses like scent or tremorsense.

    The 4th-level version can be used to prevent enemy spellcasters from using spells with a Verbal component, strictly limiting their options. If you throw this on a character who can grapple effectively, they can grab an enemy spellcaster and dramaticaly reduce their effectiveness.

  • Sound BodyPC1: Only situationally useful, but sometimes you need to remove permanent blindness or deafness.
  • Spirit Sense: Very situational.
  • Spiritual Armament (): Decent damage with decent scaling, you can use it from a safe distance, it uses your spellcasting ability modifier, the damage type is great, and you don’t need to commit a hand to weilding it or actions to run around in melee. You can Sustain the Spell multiple times per turn, making another Strike each time (and incurring the usual Multiple Attack Penalty), allowing this to effectively replace a real weapon for divine casters like the Cleric. Full casters also progress their proficiency to Legendary, while most weapon users stop at Master and must make up the difference with expensive runes.

    In case it wasn’t brutally obvious: This spell is better than the Warpriest Cleric’s entire set of weapon-related features.

    Prior to the remaster, this spell was called Spiritual Weapon.

  • Status (): The duration is good, and you’ll always know when your allies are in bad shape. It seems odd to me that this doesn’t give you an impression of the target’s hit points, but “Wounded” and “Dying” are conditions affecting the creature, so at least you’ll know when they hit 0.
  • Sudden BlightPC2: A Fireball-sized AOE at a spell rank where a 10-foot burst is the norm. The damage and scaling aren’t quite as good as Fireball, but Void damage is much more reliable than Fire damage, so there is absolutely some value here.
  • Summoner’s Precaution (SoM): Absolutely essential if you’re a Summoner, but useless for anyone else.
  • Summoner’s Visage (SoM): Only situationally useful.
  • Sure FootingPC1: Only situationally useful, and most of the affected conditions can be removed by nonmagical means. If you do still need help, Coiling Dance handles it better.
  • Swallow Light (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.

  • The Parrot’s WhisperRA (Uncommon): Use Recall Knowledge.
  • Thermal Remedy (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.
  • Translate (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”.

  • Undetectable Alignment (): Extremely situational, and you can still check alignments using Divine Lance.
  • Veil of SpiritsSK (Uncommon): Most creatures can take Spirit damage, so imposing Weakness will lead to a huge damage boost. Even better: the Weakness scales with your level rather than with the spell’s Rank, so a Rank 2 spell remains effective for your whole career. Whether or not that’s impactful comes down to how much your party relies on Spirit damage.

    This does affect you an your allies, of course. But most enemies can’t deal Spirit Damage, so that may not matter.

  • Vicious Jealousy (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.
  • Warrior’s Regret (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.
  • Water Breathing (PC1): Only situationally useful, and you nearly always know that you will need this ahead of time. If you’re worried, buy a scroll.
  • Water Walk (PC1): Too situational.

Rank 3 Divine Spells

  • Agonizing Despair (APG): The same debuff as Fear, which is a Rank 1 sell, but add little bit of Mental damage. Frightened is a fantastic debuff despite wearing off quickly, and making your target Frightened 2 can have a massive impact even if 4d6 damage isn’t especially impressive. Frightened 1 on a Success is still impactful, too.
  • Annunciation of the Outer GateRA (Rare): The intended us of the spell is to create a 10-minute window where everyone who understands the invitiation agrees to be diplomatic. Ignore that. The useful part of the spell is a 30-foot Emanation of Fear that can exclude creatures who know any of the listed languages, and then affected creatures won’t reduce the Frightened condition if they damage creatures that accepted the invitation. Make sure that everyone in your party knows Aklo and then this turns into an easy mass debuff with a fantastic AOE. With that setup, this is good in any encounter and at any level. The only difficulty is getting your whole party built to understand the invitation.
  • Anointed GroundPC2: The effect is good, but it’s immobile and takes 1 minute to cast, so you need to set this up ahead of time.
  • Behold the WeaveDA: The effect isn’t especially impactful, and this has the Incapacitation trait.
  • Bind Undead (): 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.
  • Blindness (): Excellent against single targets, especially enemy spellcasters who often have relatively poor Fortitude saves and need to be able to see to target many spells (spells which simply select a number of targets, such as the spell Blindness, require you to be able to see the target). Unfortunately, Blindness has the Incapacitation trait so you can’t use it effectively on small numbers of powerful creatures that are most likely to justify magically blinding them.
  • Chilling Darkness (): Poor damage unless you’re facing hostile celestials.
  • Circle of Protection (): A consistent and useful defensive buff, provided that you’re consistently facing enemies of a specific alignment. In many campaigns, your enemies will be evil, so in a lot of cases this will work very well. The 10-foot radius is enough that your party’s melee characters can usually stay close enough together to all benefit, but ranged characters will liely be outside of the area most of the time.

    Casting this at 4th level raises the duration to a full hour. If you don’t need a ton of time post-combat to heal and Refocus, you could easily walk this through two or three encounters in a dungeon or a similar situation.

  • Crisis of Faith (): Only situationally useful. I would only prepare this if you know for certain that you’re going to face enemy divine spellcasters.
  • Dream Message (): 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.
  • Glyph of Warding (): Exceptionally abusable. A normal use case for this is to place a hostile spell on a choke point in a structure to deter intruders or to punish creatures for opening a chest with your most treasured belongings. Be cautious with area damage spells in these cases because they can cause unwanted collatoral damage, such as fireballing your own bedroom. If you never went beyond these very normal cases, Glyph of Warding is neat but won’t be used frequently.

    But the abuse cases are both easy to achieve and terrifying. There is no limit on how many glyphs of warding you can have in existence, no limit on moving an affected container, no cost beyond spell slots and possibly the cost of the target item, no restriction on what a “container” must be, and no restriction on the triggering conditon. As an example: I could fold a piece of paper into a crude cup, cast Glyph of Warding on it, set a password to allow you to move it, place a spell into it like Harm, and make the trigger “attempts to harm me.” You could accumulate these cups of harmful nonsense over time and eventually walk into an encounter and disintegrate the first enemy that attempts to harm you.

    Note that while the spell doesn’t have a section of the spell’s entry detailing specific benefits for heightening the spell, doing so raises the maximum level of the spell you place in the glyph. You could store a 9th-level spell by casting Glyph of Warding at 10th level.

  • Heroism (): Always helpful, but very expensive when you first get access to 3rd-level spells. As you gain levels, this can become an easier go-to buff with your lower-level spell slots. Higher-level versions of the spell increase the size of the bonus, which is mathematically very appealing, but the 10-minute duration is likely no more than two encounters, which means that you need to save the higher-level versions for when you know it’s going to matter.
  • Locate (): Not useful enough to know permanently in a spell repertoire, but for prepared casters this is a great solution when you need to find plot items or named antagonists.
  • Neutralize Poison (): Poison is common across the level range, and has a nasty habit of still affecting you and your party once an encounter ends. The counteract check means that this isn’t guaranteed, unfortunately, so be prepared to use the Medicine skill, too.
  • Remove Disease (): Only situationally useful, and diseases typically take hours or days to become a problem, leaving plenty of time to address them with Medicine.
  • Sanctified Ground (): Vary situational. It’s basically Circle of Protection, but a larger radius and you can’t move it.
  • Searing light (): Great single-target damage against fiends and undead, but otherwise terrible.
  • Vampiric Touch (): 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.
  • Wanderer’s Guide (): Intended to improve the pace of overland travel by reducing the penalty for difficult terrain like forests. The precise behavior of the spell is intentionally vague, but overland travel is handled narratively, so it makes sense. You won’t need this every time that you travel, but if you’re deviating from paved roads it can be helpful.
  • Zone of Truth (): Helpful for questioning hostile or deceptive creatures, but allowing both a save and Deception checks means that it’s not fool-proof. If you can, combine this with high Perception scores and the Discern Lies spell for extra insurance.