Adjacent allies must make saves or be Blinded for a round, and the target creature gets a save each round to end the effect prematurely. Talk about mass spells that didnt need to exist. Oh man, 1d4 damage with a save for half! Virulence- Force all creatures on the battlefield to immediate make saves against their contracted diseases. It is stupendously rare that a disease will ever be more than a minor irritation. These betrayal-style spells never really seemed useful to PCs in my opinion. Either way, I recommend keeping a few scrolls of this on hand if you can spare the cash. However, purely as a point of convention, thanks to the popularity of the good vs. evil trope in fantasy games you will pretty much always have baddies to smite. Spells that are as useful as normal or worse in scroll format will not be included, as well as spells that are bad no matter the format. All-around insane buff. Literally just read the next spell on this list if you want a +2 to social checks. A cast-and-forget buff that involves safely severing a creatures head. When has there ever been a campaign that required you to deal with anything on a century. Summon Ceustodaemon- These things hit pretty hard with Power Attack and have a respectable list of special attacks, SLAs, and defenses. My favorite spell on this list and the best illusion you have access to bar none. The 4th level slot really is starting to hurt, and its pretty rare that you'll need this over, An incredibly useful panacea spell. I will occasionally make references that are ill-suited to your class, often from the perspective of Cleric players. Dont prepare this routinely. We have lower-level effects that perform similarly already; the only boon here is the long duration and the chance to damage the light-susceptible. You must spend 10 minutes carefully drawing a symbol into a place you expect a battle to take place, only to stop halfway through because youve realized youre doing all of this just to make a 5 ft. square that can make AoOsfor like 10 damage max. I dont play horde necromancers, but I think skeletons are generally more useful than zombies. And at 6th level too?? First, this spell gives concealment like. Pretty weak for this level, unfortunately. I dont care how bad they might be in combat, you can amass an army of these things to do your bidding. that splits damage between cold and holy water. Definitely useful if your campaign requires long distance communication with important NPCs. Overall, a weak effect. Magic Boulder- Giants and siege engineers will love this spell. The cool thing is, theres not many ways to get these types of natural attacks on most characters, so the odds of this spell ever becoming obsolete with your natural attacking friend are low. Its pretty debilitating telling every enemy at once they arent allowed to take any more attack rolls for the fight. Also its a days/level buff that for some reason needed to have the ability to be cast at medium range. Ward of the SeasonR- A cast-and-forget touch buff for our tree-hugger elf players that you actually shouldnt forget about entirely. Go full Temple of Doom and. Bonuses to DCs are always nice, though you really have to consider whether taking six negative levelswill ever honestly be worth a +3 to DCs and CL. Abadar clerics need something, I guess. I wish this spell gave you the chance to reroll a save, but I guess that wouldnt fit with the theme. This time, Im rating this spell one tier lower because its likely you already get profane bonuses somewhere else in your build, and because its really hard justifying giving up a 9th level slot long-term. He also took the role of alerting me to any rating oversights I might have made along the way, particularly with spells that Warpriests can use Fervor on to cast as a swift action. Surround yourself with a sphere of wind that allows flight, grants breathable air, and defends you against winds, ranged attacks, and potentially some melee attacks as well. For the third time, a spell you cant control is not a spell worth preparing at all. This spell is arguably the best variant of the 4th level alignment blasts, at a solid. It can help you in some tight situations proving to be quite useful at times, if not even fight-winning in some instances. Know the Enemy- Isnt it better to have the knowledge on your enemy before you fight them? Firstly, thats a lot of extra effort. Thankfully, the range and targeting restrictions are pretty generous, so even if the spell doesnt do all that much, youre likely going to get something with it. Amazing for all the reasons bestow curse is amazing. Slightly cheesy option: Its worth asking your GM if weapon size matters for this spell. Forcing targets to sleep is nice, especially for at minimum 30 minutes. There is one reason and one reason alone youd choose to worship Szuriel, and thats to abuse the hell out of this spell. At high levels youre not gonna see much use from the trip, but even still, a potential for 4d6 damage off a 1st level slot isnt bad at all. Otherwise, salvage isnt particularly useful even in aquatic games. This would be better if it didnt cost money, wasnt a long casting time, and didnt require a touch attack and a save. This spell is one of your best options at drawing a crowd, and in some games that can be a very valuable asset. Also bad. The only vaguely useful part of this spell is the ability to detect fearful creatures within 5 feet as blindsense. is actually one of, if not the best symbol spells, for whatever thats worth. at my tables due to the sheer amount that these spells slow down the game. You did buy trail rations, right? Too bad it only works on weak enemies. At level 5, your cure light wounds heals 9.5 hit points on average, and this spell ceases to be relevant. Cool, but useless 99% of the time. Spell 1. Any ally who wears armor is already wearing the kind they want. Hours per level duration, scaling enhancement bonus to attack and damage, creatures per level, and can be permanencied. Re-cast an extra grease and silent imageby sacrificing one spell slot? Deafened is very weak at this level, and Staggered isnt much better an upgrade. spell that targets Reflex and prevents any sort of extra dimensional travel. Their whole schtick is flooding the battlefield with insects, something which they are expressly forbidden from doing, being a summon themselves. For the low, low price of 25 gp you can rest assured you are every bit prepared as you ought to be. If the enemy critically fails, youre in for a treat. Ideally youre giving this to an already mythic creature, otherwise the benefits are going to be largely wasted. TonguesSU- Understand and communicate in any language. and a beefy 1d6/1d4 damage bite attack. If you have a normal weapon you use for flavor, this spell can make it masterwork. I will never condemn a spell that gives free bonuses to saves, but this seems a bit weak for 3rd level. An absolutely necessary spell, and one of the meta-defining options the Sorcerer/Wizard list is sorely lacking in. Even if another player is using a support class in the party, the cleric will likely be nominated as the party's main healer and medic because of their variety of healing abilities. My editor mentioned a build you can pull off with this spell using the Bonded Mind and Share Spells feats that lets you share personal-range spells with your party. This looks like the best way to remove them, and even then I dont like the looks of this spell. Lost Legacy- Curse a target so that everyone around them forgets all their pleasant interactions and remains Indifferent. Nature's Ravages, Greater- Send a creatures remains so far into the future they need to be true resurrected. While cool thematically, this spell is very bad. Sounds like the spell your GM will use one theyre tired of people spamming maximized threefold sight. My favorite part is when you cast this in an enclosed space, anytime the stampede hits a wall it changes direction and charges again like a bouncy ball. that have one of these conditions as only part of the effect still let you roll twice against the whole thing. for particularly melee-focused characters. Thanks for your help, Punslinger! You can permanency this spell? If thats your only synergy, youll find this spell lacking. Absolutely hilarious in practice. Absolutely hilarious in practice. Scrolls are less valuable thanks to poor scaling and the requirement that you designate which element the scroll wards against. Use this spell only until you can find yourself some real protection. This image is moreso a remnant of my copy/paste from the Archives of Nethys database than anything. The single best touch spell in the game. The only downside is you can only ward against the given alignment, but scrolls are cheap when it means you won't be getting dominated. You also get to send a single 25 word message. Stone Glide gives them stellar mobility, Tremorsense lets them probe for invisible creatures, and to round out their kit Metalmorph lets your fighter bypass exotic DR for the entire day. Id rate this spell higher for oracles if I could without making it green (something way too generous for this spell) as the spell practically begs to be spammed every round against certain encounters. Energy resistances are all but common now, and the damage is a bit too low to rank this anything higher, sadly. The deflection bonus and damage are both fairly low for what you get, but because this spell deals force damage and scales with level, you could do a lot worse. High level Pathfinder is predicated on two things: intel and initiative. Fort: negates makes this spell even worse, as it will usually be a tough save for your enemies to fail. and I frequently see parties where every caster has this prepared. Read WeatherR-Every time I GM I try to incorporate daily weather. I used to love preparing this spell, until I found it to be a wholly unimpressive waste of my slot more often than not. Meld into Stone- Conform to a body of stone. Never, ever, EVER take this pathetic excuse for a spell. As is convention, I am coloring spells by usefulness in accordance with community standards. See suns disdain. If youre in an aquatic campaign, take this and dont look back. had. Its pretty debilitating telling every enemy at once they arent allowed to take any more attack rolls for the fight. largely outclasses that niche. If youre really worried about that upcoming succubus dungeon and for whatever reason you didnt elect to prepare. These spells do require a melee touch attack and afford a save for half, which means your damage output will be minimal. Shelyn loves to help people be the party face. Dont take this spell even if your GM actually does use the corruption rules. if cast on a static location, this spell makes creatures who fail their saves Fascinated and has no HD limit. A touch-save-negate that, when successful, results in you capturing the targets soul in a small object. Instant WeaponSU-Can you summon exotic weapons and still be proficient in them? Dread Bolt-An arrow of law for evil characters. For the record, that spell, despite being better, is still not very worth your slot. I was all set to rank this spell as incredible, effectively beating out. Unlike. Dungeonsight-You gain information on the nearby dungeon layout. Calamitous Flailing-When you compare this spell to confusion, youll wonder why its ranked as a spell of this level at all. It might well be situational, but its strong enough to warrant consideration since it can keep you conscious. Hellhounds die so quickly its hardly worth making them at all unless you plan on going absolute dog-crazy. A touch-save-negate poison effect. Now imagine you want to throw all those benefits away and make it susceptible to mind-affecting effects and no longer under your control. Too bad the duration will only ever be a few minutes long. Except instead of actually trapping them, it forces them to stand still or else take 1d6 points of damage and 1 round of Blindness. The only problem with Produce Flame is the fact that its a fire-based spell. Orange because it probably shouldnt be a daily prep but is incredibly effective at its job. Restricted (R)- A superscript Rindicates religion or racial requirement. *Note: this is actually more viable a strategy than it seems. FairnessR-Forces humanoids to trade fairly. I recommend always having on hand a scroll of this for such emergencies. These two spells both have the same descriptors, components, and casting time. Fort: negates makes this spell horrible. This spell benefits immensely from having a wide utility. Blue- This spell is always useful. Open the Dead Roads-Take your party to a particular designated location on the Boneyard, Material, Shadow, Ethereal or Astral planes. Persistent Vigor-Gain a small number of minor immunities and buffs for a chronically short duration. Silence- My favorite spell on this list and the best illusion you have access to bar none. Forbid Action-Is it just me, or is this spell just a strictly worse command? Its a fun flavor spell, especially if you love converting people to your side. Soulreaver-Inflict 1d6 points of damage per level in a 20 ft. radius spread. The amount the enemies bleed is too low to ever really matter. Energy resistance 10 to all types is mediocre, and while fast healing 5 is nice, it comes pretty late in the game to be anything spectacular. Its a shame that protective aura provides bonuses that wont stack with all the magic equipment youve got on. It trivializes darkness. This spell is only good because of your ability to send out 1d3 beatsticks from the 7th level list or 1d4+1 succubi to spam save-or-sucks*. Additionally, most builds that want armor spikes will have already bought them. You can communicate with a soul much more effectively than. The inverse is not true, and you cannot use this spell to reliably gauge for truthful statements without first witnessing a lie. For the record, that spell, despite being better, is still not very worth your slot. Make sure to check the sourcebook and consult with your GM if you want to take one of these spells without meeting the requirement. Morning Sun-Spend 500 gp to evoke a miniature sun in a 5 ft. square. A horrible spell. Im kind of surprised this is a Will save, but we can live with it. Animate Dead, Lesser-It may just be one zombie or skeleton, but any effect that permanently puts another controllable body on the field rules. Negative levels mean this spell combos with basically everything, making it a solid choice for anyone who gets it. Note that unless your target has Still Spell, almost all spellcasting will still constitute some form of movement. Still, affecting every enemy you come into contact with is nice, and if youve got some fear-stacking capabilities in your party I can see you enjoying the benefits here. If youve read my counterspelling guideyou probably know that I am of the insane belief that dispelling and counterspelling is not only just a ton of fun, but also an actually viable thing to build around. Mage Armor: Gives subject +4 armor bonus. Eh. Cast on a pebble and literally invalidate any caster with no save. SalvageSU-Target a shipwreck to wrest it from the seas. Lastly, I have included a simplified list that only includes spells ranked. Instant Armor-Shouldnt you be wearing the armor you need by now? That means in the unlikely event your opponents fail against the diseases pitifully low DC (even with a +2 its bad) you actually get some immediate benefit out of this! except the duration is hours/level, costs 250 gp, has a HD limit, and is usable by Kuthites instead of Asmodeans. Unlikely to be all that impressive. beyond level 1, but youll have to talk to your GM. You can turn a table into a flying carpet, a bookshelf into a raft, a piece of straw into a sewing needle, you get the idea. Geas/Quest-If you can somehow get the target still for 10 minutes, you can all but force them to play by your rules. Still, the sustained duration in the spell description makes it so you have to actively keep Dancing Lights running. Its a fun spell for Sarenites, dont get me wrong, but it doesnt live up to the standards a 4th level spell should be. Its not like you have any worthwhile blasting spells anyway. 1d3 wolves can triplock anything with a modest CMD and the dretch has enough staying power to put in some serious work. Another fantastic addition to our repertoire of illusion spells. There are a number of effects that inflict permanent Blindness and Deafness that youll want this for eventually. These two spells both have the same descriptors, components, and casting time. Bestow Planar Infusion I- Who uses planar infusions? Have the Ghaele play the role of the band-aid cleric while you go to town with offensive or control spells. Life Pact- Youd probably cast this spell on all your party members before a battle. that you have access to. he potion Friar gave to Juliet at the end of the play, but in spell form. From here on out, its your own fault if you dont know exactly what it is youre getting yourself into. Stupidly good if you are. Man, I really dislike this spell. HalflingVengeance-Super-specific spell that provides a strong buff to small-sized creatures that wield daggers or slings. Considering the game is based around party support, I humbly request you refrain from getting yourself in such a duel in the first place. Never prepare this unless your plotline demands it. with regards healing in-combat and preparing redundant spells you can swap anyway. Check. Ive said it before and Ill say it again: a spell whose effects you cant control is a spell you dont want. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I doubt it, but it might be worth taking if your GM rules it does. I remember the celestial wolf and lightning elemental being solid choices at this level. Scrolls of this are a bit too expensive for me to claim to be mandatory, but theyre very nice to have and shouldnt be sold if ever found as loot. And yes, they really are quite good as scouts. It looks like it straight-up beats magical darkness regardless of level. Most notably among these are the abilities to reroll saving throws and negate critical hits, though you can also use them to avoid going unconscious, escape grapples, and end almost any harmful condition that affects you. A Split Color rating below indicates that the spell gets better as your curse gets better. You can only select arcane or divine magic to impede, though regardless you must make a difficult Concentration check if you want your own spells to go off. It looks like it straight-up beats magical darkness regardless of level. since you need to succeed on a caster level check. How often have you seen enemies perform Steal maneuvers again? I read this spell as The GM gives you everything on their rumors table. Not bad for a 1st level divination spell. The cool thing is, theres not many ways to get these types of natural attacks on most characters, so the odds of this spell ever becoming obsolete with your natural attacking friend are low. I dont know why you would want to reduce hardness of items if you didnt want to break them entirely. Ceremony-A cute, exclusively RP-focused spell that lets you conduct a ceremony. All hit points, conditions, and ability damage from your party-- gone. cause in a few levels this spell becomes awesome. Everything about this spell would be awesome if it werent affixed to the skill everyone ignores once the novelty of haggling wears off. Inflict Moderate WoundsSU-Seeinflict light wounds. Good luck finding a GM that actually rolls for the daily weather. Spend 500 gp to ensure the plane youre exploring has a bubble of safe environment that can help you survive the wilderness. Clerics excel at using healing magic and divine power. I cant really rate this line of spells, as its entirely GM fiat how the entities respond or if they even do at all. The concentration duration sucks for longterm fights, this spell will almost certainly affect your allies, and the damage from this spell is totally weaksauce. It can shape the battlefield, create passageways, manufacture crude tools, and more. Basically just treat this spell as a longer duration, and only use it for the purposes of temporarily removing an enemy from combat, A solid language option while you wait for. Haze of DreamsR-A save: negates that cuts one enemys movement speed in half. A trick I like to use is to cast it through doors to tell if a creature might be in the other room. Oracles can take Expanded Arcana for 1/day free spells, or can elect to gain an Extra Revelation. Touch of BloodlettingR-Bleed damage is pretty negligible, but Exhaustion is an absolute pain in the butt. Scrying, Greater-A worthy upgrade to scrying. For a spell that gives an enhancement bonus, this actually scales phenomenally well with level. The data you get from the spell isnt incredibly reliable, but sometimes being able to sort options into a binary can be useful. Light sensitivity, on the other hand, is a complete joke and is not worth your spell slots. Not really much more to add. Beyond that, you have no reason to prepare this spell. Pretty weak for a 5th. Pass this up except for the one scroll youll buy in case you get into a chase scene. Absolutely hilarious against enemies purely dependent on water. Keep a scroll of it if youre really concerned. Divine spells include many of the best healing and support options, but direct damage options are rare and are frequently only viable against specific creature types like celestials, fiends, and undead. Dumping water over peoples heads has been a favorite of my groups since the dawn of time, and its never once failed to be amusing. And its a blast spell. You have to give up quite a lot to get any benefit from this spell, but then again, you wouldnt be casting planar binding if you werent already prepared to take that risk. And at 6th level too?? This is the orgy spell. One of the newly-added spells, Electric Arc has the highest damage-dealing potential out of all cantrips. Take 1d6 bleed so a bunch of other creatures can also take 1d6 bleed. Probably the worst of the alignment word spells. I have deliberately minimized my exposure to other spell guides in the writing of this one. Thanks to having an option to not allow a saving throw, this spell scales with level amazingly, so its a fine candidate for metamagic feats (and consequently Magical Lineage). No thanks. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. This often means allowing you to functionally remove two or three 4th level or lower SLAs from an outsider. Designate somebody and you learn when a creature of traitorous intent moves within said target. An all-around useful summon you can and will regularly rely on. True ResurrectionSU-God, I hope you never need this. This is a good choice for the level. Decrease an objects weight by half or reduce an armors ACP by 1. A foil to terrain illusions. Theres no spell that lets you cross planes like, providing you with complete accuracy of location. Very useful for stealth missions and for when said spell would be too inconvenient to play around. You must spend a material component and cast as a full-round action in the hopes that an outsider passes through. Very respectable, but fails out when youre fighting only one baddie. A 6th level slot that gives a +2 on saves against fear! Like, so long as you inhabit one of the nine alignment planes. If youre willing to burn the extra spell slots (I wouldnt be), you can gain a solid amount of temporary hit points from this spell. are way ahead of the curve for level 2 summons, sporting a number of prototypical evil outsider SLAs, telepathy, and very respectable defenses. Revisit this when you start regularly encountering larger creatures at high levels. Green- This spell is usually useful, or performs very well at a narrow role. I dislike the short duration, as it means a dungeon will require multiple castings of this spell to actually have any use. I always find it tricky to use though, since the condition requires no hostile action to be taken and usually demands your attention somehow. Recentering Drone- As long as you concentrate, allied conditions are lowered by one step. We havent seen one of those yet. This spell is. Agonizing RebukeR- Create a phantasm targeting one creature that makes them take 2d6 damage whenever they would make an action that harms you. You also get the nice benefit of being able to mulligan a critical confirmation and inflict a saveless Daze for 1 round. in combat, but amazing as a mass-heal outside of it. Energy resistance 10 to all types is mediocre, and while fast healing 5 is nice, it comes pretty late in the game to be anything spectacular. Very niche. Basically just treat this spell as a longer duration command and only use it for the purposes of temporarily removing an enemy from combat. I dont care how impressive your blight upon the land is; a spell you cant control is a spell you dont want. A mediocre debuff with a generous AoE. An elf-only spell that gives a +4 insight bonus to a Knowledge check based on your terrain. The 1 day/level duration means that if you have a day of downtime, no reason not to cast a couple of these. If you plan on carrying out an assassination or something, by all means use this. You could probably make shields work with little argument. Theres really not a drug in this game whose downsides are minor enough to warrant taking for yourself that has upsides worthy enough to give to your friends. Tendrils of fire reach out of it, shaped into skulls screaming in agony. How often have you seen enemies perform Steal maneuvers again? I dont know why youd ever want to part with your construct in the first place, but if for some reason you need it elsewhere, just get a scroll of this for emergencies. Constant see invisibility is especially nice, and its breath weapon is just viable enough to ensure even on a failed save itll deal a dozen hit points of damage or so. Fort is arguably the worst save to regularly target, though I like that this spell slowly weakens your targets ability to succeed as their Constitution gets progressively lower. It sees the Ethereal. I will always note whenever I am expressing my editors view. Oh, and all undead that fail a will save take a penalty on saves against positive energy. If you happen to worship Desna and find yourself without food, you may as well use this. Really, really good for fact-finding if you find yourself placed in the role of the party librarian. But if youre fighting an extended fight with a spellcaster enemy, you can effectively put a timer on their worthwhile spells. My editor informed me that this spell actually never specifies that the creatures ever have to fight. I rate this spell less useful than its sister spell purely due to the frequency with which the average game encounters planar travel relative to space travel. Resist Energy- The quintessential energy resistance spell (go figure). Not personal? Gain the ever-powerful, at the cost of a -2 to all rolls thanks to your drunkenness. If that wasnt already enticing enough, this spell has the flame strike half unholy effect too. It works against all ranged attacks too, putting this spell leagues ahead of. Just fantastic. Here is a good resourcefrom published (3.5) sources to assist you in making your own effects, and hereis one from Horror Adventures (PF) with a few more to consider.