This is a review of all the spells in Pathfinder 2e. The old version of this guide from before the remaster is here. It follows on from my Sorcerer Class Guide here. I update these guides regularly when I find something interesting to add.

There are a lot of spells here. I really appreciate the work Paizo has put in. Do yourself a favour and explore a bit. Some of the original spells are much better in this edition. Some are really terrible. But there are a good number of new spells as well. Hopefully this will highlight some good options for you.

As this list is for a spontaneous caster I’ve rated more flexible spells higher. I’m also looking at more general adventuring and combat. If you are roleplaying in a more social/espionage/intrigue style game then you are going to want different spells. If you have a spell book then some of the spells I’ve ranked lower are worthwhile to have available for specific scenarios. Housekeeping spells like Quick Sort and Restyle obviously have their place in a game world, they are just not that useful to most adventurers. Umbral Extraction is cool, but you really can’t afford to learn it at the expense of something else. For world building spells have a look at this Swingripper video. If you want all those cool out of combat utility spells, or those spells which are really good in that one situation, then be a wizard not a sorcerer. That is what wizards do. I suppose Arcane Sorcerers can too with their spell book. Witches have some options which change things too. Have a look at this guide on the Resentment Witch to see how that affects spells. Mathfinder has a video on how to do a Prepared Spell Caster. His points are the right way to approach things - though I disagree with his conclusions because a Sorcerer almost has the same level of flexibility, and should have a very good range of spells.

Remember with Crossblooded Evolution you can get a spell off any of these lists.

I’m not going to rank Elemental spells separately, they mostly look like a restricted Primal list anyway. Focus spells are generally class specific so look at other guides for that.

If you have any questions you can probably find me on the Paizo forum. I want to hear from you if a spell has a good use or a problem I haven’t mentioned. If I am aware my interpretation of a spell is non standard I will try to let you know what the most common interpretation is.

Please be aware of the limitations of spells with the Incapacitation trait. It is a really crippling rule that denies you the possibility of significant success in a spell against high level opponents. Doubly frustrating as you want to bring your spells out against tough opponents. I’ve never liked level based restrictions on spells, though they have always existed with things like the Power Words. Scare for example just cut out at a certain level but you knew so you just stopped taking it. To be fair the best way to know if you can use an Incapacitation spell is to count the number of enemies. If there are 1 or 2 they are probably higher level than you so don’t bother. Grumble, grumble, game balance, helping the story…. In simple terms it just about quarters the effectiveness of these spells and they should normally be totally avoided. However some of them like Charm and Suggestion are still useful even when you are targeting low level minions, and not the boss. Area effect spells are less affected as you hope the GM won’t put you up against large numbers of creatures above your level. I’ll let you make that decision. Think about heightening spells to mitigate this disadvantage. In fact you normally really need to take these spells in your top slots to use them.

There are a lot of options for Summoning. Many of them can cast useful spells of a lower level if you can talk to them. Using summoning for direct offence is not as good as it was before, there are still plenty of good things you can do. Here's a link to some other peoples guides: Exocist’s guide to summoning or Tarondor’s Wizard Guide, The Bestiary is my Spellbook: A Pathfinder 2 Summoning Guide, List of Summonable Creatures, standout_animals_to_summon_with_summon_animal

Heightening Spells. Many spells are worthwhile heightening because they have a simple scaling effect like extra damage, or a higher level summoned creature, or just to beat incapacitation or a counteract check. But some change significantly in other ways - I’ll note those ones I like at each level as a reminder.

I try to keep this Guide up to date regularly. Updated with Player Core 2 but some links are to Demiplane as Nethys was late. I’ve included a dozen Mythic spells from War of Immortals but they require a Mythic point to cast. Done up to Battle Cry.

Ratings

Red ★ = This is a bad option, or it doesn’t really work for its stated purpose. Some of these are so bad I would never use them even if I got them for free. Others are just too narrow for general adventuring, but might be very useful for mundane life.

Orange ★★ = Can be useful in particular circumstances. Perhaps a bit weak. You normally have better things to do.

Green ★★★ = This is often a good option

Blue ★★★★ = These are the strong options, this is a feature worth taking in a range of circumstances.

Purple ★★★★★ = If you can, then you should be taking this. If not, then you need to know why.

The Spell Lists

Here is a breakdown of the 4 spell traditions; rating their different capabilities, everything on a scale of 0-4, on a number of different overlapping axes. PF2 sticks to its themes well, or rather they did up to the Remaster.

	Arcane	Divine	Occult	Primal
Size of the List	4	2	3	3
Targets Reflex	4	2	1	4
Targets Fortitude	4	3	3	3
Targets Will	4	3	4	1
Targets AC	3	1	2	3
Numerical Buffs	1	3	3	1
Other Buffs	3	2	3	3
Debuffs	3	3	4	2
Healing	0	4	2	3
Summons	4	2	2	3
Battle Forms	3	2	1	4
Meta	4	1	3	1
Control	4	2	3	3
Single Damage	4	1	3	4
AoE Damage	4	2	2	4
Illusions	3	0	3	1
Mental	3	2	4	1
Elemental	4	1	1	4
Necromantic	2	4	4	1
Force	3	2	3	0
Sanctification Effects	1	4	1	0
Walls	3	1	2	4
Movement	3	2	1	4
Senses, Detects	3	3	3	3

Arcane Spells

The largest, best and most offensive spell list. It has all the meta spells and a good mix of all types except for healing. So movement, buffs and utility powers, direct damage, area damage, illusions, can attack all 3 saving throws with a good range of direct damage and debuffs, access to all energy types.

As this list is for a spontaneous caster I’ve rated more flexible spells higher. If you have a spell book - and you should get one via Arcane Evolution - then some of the spells I’ve ranked lower are well worthwhile in it.

Cantrips, Combat

Choose at least two offensive cantrips. You want more. They all have their place. Different elemental damage types, range, multitarget, 3 different saving throws, area of effect. These are good default actions throughout your adventuring career when you don’t want to spend spell slots. So more important early when you have less spell slots. They are heightened for free.

Acid Splash ★★★ acid can be useful if all else fails. It is rarely resisted. Attack roll. Splash damage which is good against swarms, but the damage scales poorly. (Yes this spell does actually splash read Corrosive Body). In the remaster this is replaced by Caustic Blast.

If you get this cantrip via the Elemental Wrath Elf feat it is verbal only, which means that it won’t trigger an Attack of Opportunity/Reactive Strike if you are caught in melee. Hence some Magus take this to spellstrike with. Personally I like it from the same place to get non acid splash damage.

Ancient Dust ★★ negative damage in a cone plus some small persistent damage. It is a fortitude save which might be useful to you but the damage is mediocre.

Bramble Bush ★★★ P203 does d4 damage to a one square area within 30ft. But even more damage when people move through that square later. Really good in confined terrain/corridors.

Caustic Blast ★★★★ PC a 4 square area of effect acid cantrip that is a replacement for Acid Splash. This is very good. In tight quarters you may be able to get multiple targets. Being an area of effect it will ignore concealment and invisibility, and trigger some weaknesses. Further it is a reflex save and not an attack roll. If only it scaled better.

Chill Touch ★★★ melee range which is a problem because you shouldn’t be in melee. Fortitude save with a bonus on a critical failure. A separate will save and effect versus undead. In the remaster there is a replacement spell called Void Warp. Which is totally different.. Probably best to treat them as different spells.

Daze ★★ range 60ft, will save, smaller nonlethal damage but a stun on a critical saving throw fail. It is a good save to target, but the damage is half what it should be. This sort of action loss is better when there are fewer enemies but then they have better saves. This works, it's better than nothing. It just seems that there are better options. Pull this out if you know the boss has a low will save?!? Or perhaps if you know your enemy has very high reflex saves.

Gale Blast ★★ some minor damage in an emanation around you, pushes away. Scaling is improved in PC2. Perhaps useful as an escape or versus swarms. Useful maybe but that's a bit narrow. A rank in Acrobatics is probably better. Not an option for a Magus with Expansive SpellStrike as it is an emanation.

Electric Arc ★★★★★ feel the power of the dark side! Best offensive cantrip as it can target two creatures, no attack roll - just a reflex saving throw, which means you can use it and make a ranged weapon attack in the same round with no multiple attack penalty. Also not affected by cover, but because it is targeting it is affected by concealment, Note that some GMs insist that the targets be within 30 ft of each other, even though it's not technically in the rules. Post remaster the damage drops slightly.

Elemental Counter ★★★★ ROE counter an elemental spell with another spell. It will cost you spell slots but with a bit of planning you should be able to cover many of the elements. Useful in the right campaign. Take Elemental Annihilation Wave to give yourself full elemental coverage.

Frostbite ★★★★ PC replacement for Ray of Frost. Its range has dropped to 60 ft but now it is a fortitude save which is a useful option.

Glass Shield ★★★ ROE a different shield cantrip. Not as much hardness but a chance to do some damage back. Useful if you want to block with your Shield twice in one encounter.

Gouging Claw ★★★ SOM a melee spell attack that does the most single target, damage for a cantrip. Clearly this is ideal for a Magus who doesn't care about ranged or melee with their spells. It would be a very strange tactic to want to stay in melee range as a spell caster, but you don’t always get a choice. Aberrant Sorcerers might like this but it doesn’t start on their list.

Ignition ★★★ PC replacement for Produce Flame fire ranged attack spell, very good critical damage, good persistent damage. Burn it helps. If you are keen on persistent damage against a tougher creature then it is not bad too. Because it has a melee option you can benefit from flanking with this if you are at range zero.

Invoke True Name ★ SOM This is a useful debuff to put on an enemy but the requirement that you know the target's true name restricts this to characters and campaigns that are built around it. So to spontaneous casters it's almost useless. A prepared caster may want this if they have done their research.

LiveWire ★★★★ PC2 is a good attack cantrip with mixed slashing and electric damage. Errated.

Needle Darts ★★★★ ROE this is essentially Telekinetic Projectile with different dice and more range. Special material use is clear rather than a rules hellhole. Plus it is on every spell list.

Phase Bolt ★★★ DA piercing ranged attack spell. Main ability is to negate cover and shields.

Produce Flame ★★★ replaced by Ignition. Fire ranged attack spell, very good critical damage. Burn it helps. Because it has a melee option you can benefit from flanking with this if you are at range zero.

Protect Companion ★★★ SOM you can protect your minion (mount/ familiar/ animal companion/ summons /eidolon) so you will have a lot of targets. For Summoners as you are Shielding at range, Likewise if you are doing this on an animal companion that is standing between you and the enemy. It's just not normally worthwhile to spend an action to do this. I mean you actually want them to attack your minion rather than you. So pay attention to your action economy, this is not a priority, but if you are often getting the action to do this then OK. At higher levels for a Summoner you can prevent a fair bit of damage like this.

Puff of Poison ★★★ SOM updated in PC2, a really short range spell that does poison damage. The damage is slow and poison is commonly resisted by monsters (though not players). The range has been improved to 10 ft (from 5) and the damage increased. Useful if you really want this damage type, or you must play a Poison Ivy character. I guess this shines if your opponent is the fussy type who will fret over even a small amount of ongoing damage. Note that it does some persistent damage even if they make their save. Unusually it is a fortitude save, and also not an attack roll, so give him a swift kick when you blow him a kiss.

Ray of Frost ★★★★ 120 ft range cold attack spell, the others are typically 30 ft or less. If you want a long range cantrip this is it. It has a chance of effecting movement as well which is useful at maintaining range. You can squeeze out a bit more distance with Reach Spell. Technically replaced by Frost Bite but that is a very different spell.

Scatter Scree ★★★★ SOM generates 2 squares of loose rock for bludgeoning damage and generates difficult terrain. There are some circumstances where this is better than Electric Arc. If two enemies are adjacent to each other this does the same damage as Electric Arc. Plus it may cost them an extra action next turn if they need to move. Where it is valuable is if you have choke points as it becomes a 10ft tax on enemy movement. Or if your party is into tactical movement in general, this is an excellent cantrip. Combines well with Grease. Not being able to step is great if your martials use Reactive Strike. Plus it's an area effect attack which is useful against concealed or hidden enemies, swarms or mounted enemies. A reflex save and not an attack, so it combines well with attacks.

Shield ★★★ single action shield. A point of AC and a bit of one use damage resistance. Just be aware that sometimes you are better off being offensive than defensive - I’ve seen arcanists over use shield when they should have used their action to be more offensive. Also note that you can just carry a shield and raise it for +2 circumstance bonus to AC without any proficiency. Blocking or attacking with a physical shield requires proficiency or a feat which is getable. Depends on how you visualise your character. The other option is the Take Cover action which you can often do anyway for a better bonus, and it leaves your hands free for items.

Slashing Gust ★★★★ ROE a two target damaging cantrip. So comparable to Electric Arc. Range 60ft, but it is an attack roll, a little less damage, and you need 2 hands free.

Spout ★★★ SOM an area of effect reflex save. Similar damage to Scatter Scree but only one square, unless in the circumstance your target is adjacent to a pond then you may be able to affect a bigger area. I like it, but it is almost strictly inferior to Scatter Scree. Maybe if you're a professional firefighter or in the right game where lots of creatures are vulnerable to water.

Take Root ★ ROE plus 1 against being tripped, disarmed, or shoved. Very narrow, even though it is one action I’m not sure I’d ever cast it even if I took it.

Tanglevine or originally Tanglefoot ★★★ one of the few control cantrips. Take this if you think you can use the 10ft speed penalty to your advantage, like when you are fighting dwarves, or if your group has good ranged attacks and can keep the range for a while, or if you can keep an enemy out of range for a round. If you are using large area difficult terrain as a control mechanism this can really lock an enemy down. It gets a lot better if the enemy doesn’t have ranged options, or there are just fewer of them. At level 1 one round is not great but at higher levels the duration is much better. Without some thought, it can easily be of no value - so think about it.

Telekinetic Projectile ★★★★ ranged attack. At one stage was the most damage to a single target at range for a cantrip. Deals bludgeoning, or slashing, or piercing damage. It is easy enough to carry a small pouch of sling bullets or arrow heads as ammunition.

The following points are all quite technical and other GMs will no doubt have other opinions. If you are planning on taking this spell please check with your GM.

Ammunition technically has to be unattended so the GM may require the ammo to be dropped before it can be used. A free action so not really a problem.

Against certain targets you may want special pellets. Some are more vulnerable to bludgeoning than piercing or slashing. Some are more vulnerable to silver or cold iron or adamantine. The spell says “No specific traits or magic properties of the hurled item affect the attack or the damage” but there is no restriction on normal non magical characteristics of the object. The physical shape will inform whether the damage is bludgeoning, piercing or slashing. Lighter objects are thrown faster so the damage is not affected. The type of material doesn’t normally matter, except for particular targets. Things like Silver are clearly not a trait, just another property. A Holy Avenger does not have a Cold Iron trait even though it is made of it. There are just no material traits. The clause is intended to stop anyone trying to get any benefits from using a flaming striking dagger as a projectile - and it does this.Some GMs will feel that allowing non trait properties to work is going too far. But technically a silver object will trigger the weakness of a Werewolf.

Finally the attack is still a magical attack that does magical damage because the spell has the Evocation trait - the magic school trait means that it is magical.

Timber ★★★★ ROE falling tree does bludgeoning damage in a 15ft line. Area of effect, reflex save. This is effective in combat plus an excellent way to generate compost.

Torturous Trauma ★★★ P186 This is a fortitude save for a small amount of internal bludgeoning damage. Not as good as some of the reflex save options.

Void Warp ★★★ PC a different spell from Chill Touch. Void Warp is range 30ft, and the option to use it against undead is gone.

Cantrips, Utility

Approximate ★ SOM counting is so hard and it is important to do it quickly ?!?

Bullhorn ★★ SOM it has some value if you are regularly trying to coordinate large groups. Maybe useful with a deception check if you are pretending to be something else. The status bonus to Coerce or Perform is probably better gotten from somewhere else. Maybe a Bard or a Marshall might want this.

Dancing Lights ★★ a distraction. A light source. Can be used for scouting as you can project your light in front of you, not over you.

Deep Breath ★★ ROE hold your breath for a very long time. Useful at higher levels when you don’t need damage cantrips much and this lasts 8 hours.

Detect Magic ★★★ for finding magic, someone should have it. You can also get it via feats though. Useful against illusions.

Detect Metal ★★ ROE mostly not useful unless you are a miner, but I can see it being a good detect in certain dungeons for finding doors and hinges. Might be useful for guards to detect hidden weapons.

Draw Moisture ★★ ROE a cantrip to dry things, which will create a few cups of water.

Eat Fire ★★★ ROE this is new, fire resistance as a reaction and a cantrip. With the secondary ability of creating a smoke cloud. Very nice if you want to be concealed. Note that there are ways of seeing through smoke like a Gos Mask or Blindfighting or Ifrit have an ancestral feat.

Figment ★★★★ PC replaces Ghost Sound. The key here is the Subtle trait which means that by default your casting is not flashy and not noticed. So you’ve got a Charisma score, take some ranks in Deception. This is going to be very useful.

Frost's Touch ★★★ a temporary creation cantrip. Seems a useful option. Still thinking about this… access is via an archetype Gelid Shard

Ghost Sound ★★ perhaps a distraction. Does your spell casting need to be concealed for it to work. Sustainable, so I suppose you could cast it before it was needed. Take Figment instead.

Glamorize ★★ DM a minor cosmetic effect. Lasts for an hour. Useful if you like performing or impersonating.

Infectious Enthusiasm ★★★ SOM This is a solid way to get a +1 status bonus to attack rolls, Will saves, or Charisma-based skill check. It costs 2 actions for you and 1 for the recipient so there is a significant trade off but it is a poor man's Inspire Courage. Useful if you don’t have a Bard or Barbarian in your group.

Illuminate ★★★ ROE a different light cantrip.

Light ★★★ there are normally a few people in the party who need light. As cantrips are automatically heightened, it is very useful if you run into enemies who use magical darkness against you. Note that the Light cantrip doesn’t counteract the Darkness spell as it can’t target it. But suppression can occur both ways. Sigh Paizo at their worst. They have unofficially clarified something completely the opposite way to how everyone read it. Please clarify it with errata. The Light Trait needs to be changed so that it doesn’t imply that it provides the targeting ability.

Mage Hand ★★★ useful when you don’t want to touch something or you need a third hand. Now called Telekinetic Hand

Message ★★ ranged communication. It has its uses but is harder to justify as a Sorcerer. I’m not sure why its not as good as the PF1 version

Musical Accompaniment ★★★★ FB potential 24hr duration. Useful if you use performance and in some social situations. But only if you have the skills. For Bards and BattleDancer Swashbucklers.

Prestidigitation ★★ good story value. Lots of little utility magic. Important if your character is too lazy to do mundane tasks himself or is trying to preserve an image.

Read Aura ★★★ someone in the party should have access to assist with identification of items. Not entirely necessary and normally gets trimmed from my list. But if you are prepared to cast it on every object that you may think is magical - taking a fair bit more time - I guess it sort of supersedes Detect Magic in a lot of situations.

Root Reading ★★★ ROE for finding unnoticed creatures.

Sigil ★ very minor uses. Have you already taken the dozen other better cantrips that you want?

Summon Instrument ★ APG only bards might want to use this, and even they don’t have to have an instrument.

Telekinetic Hand ★★★ PC Originally called Mage Hand useful when you don’t want to touch something or you need a third hand.

Time Sense ★★★★ DA you now have a precise clock. Maybe this could be really useful if you had one of these in different groups, as you could get very precise coordination happening. But really that is often just not useful. Instead take this for the single action +1 to hit every hour.

Temor Signs ★★ ROE short range communication Through walls. Single action, Similar role to Message but very different flavour. As a party this is nice, but do you have the slots to take it.

Warp Step ★★★ DA a 5ft status bonus to your speed this turn as long as you are striding twice. Quite useful fairly often. At higher levels you are probably getting a better bonus from an item or a spell. If you can spare the cantrip slot, this is useful.

Arcane 1st level spells

500 Toads ★★ NPC 15 ft radius burst toads and difficult terrain. Useful for triggering traps and for slowing your opponents, and just the cool factor. If only it lasted longer than a round.

Acidic Burst ★★ G&M 5 ft radius burst acid damage. The damage scales well, but it is so small it's not affected by Widen Spell. Why aren’t you getting out of melee?

Admonishing Ray ★★★ single target direct damage.It just is not really anymore than a cantrip at this level. Maybe at level 2 it makes sense damage wise.

Agitate ★★ G&M save or a creature is forced to move or take mental damage. Not really good enough the damage is not so high that they just won’t take the damage if it is important for them to stay put.

Air Bubble ★★ useful, situational and therefore not something you will take with a spontaneous caster until you have spare spell slots. You have at least 3 rounds underwater anyway. There are some circumstances where it is just not going to work for its intended purpose, because it is verbal and you might already be underwater. There are rules for spell casting underwater and it is difficult if you can cast without speaking otherwise it will just send you unconscious. The Subtle trait can avoid that. There is an additional situation where this can apply - if you are swallowed. If your GM lets it work and allows you to combine it with Cloudkill it can be very good. But perhaps poison gas won’t even trigger it.

Airburst ★★ push people away from you. Surely there is a better solution to this problem. But it is a single action....so I guess once you have extra spell slots. Grapplers tend to have good fort defences.

Alarm ★★★ required if you can’t set a watch. Some people will take one every day.

Animate Dead ★★★★ APG this version of undead is the same as all the summon spells. Now called Summon Undead - which brings it into line as all the other Summon X spells. Options at every spell rank. Here are some nice suggestions for level 1. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Crawling Hand has a good claw hand grab great against casters..
Skeleton Guard has some resistances that will make it very tough against opponents that can’t do bludgeoning damage.

Animate Rope ★★★ APG useful if you need to get a rope somewhere. This is your first level Fly ½ spell. You can attack with this to slow people down.

Ant Haul ★ get a cart instead.

Anticipate Peril ★★★ G&M a status bonus to initiative. Duration: 10 minutes. Quite useful offensively. Heighten for a larger bonus.

Aqueous Blast ★★★ KM water attack spell to use against 1 or 2 targets with a third action. Prones on a critical.

Befuddle ★★★★ G&M a good single target debuff. Still has a partial effect if they save. Good against enemy bosses or any target your team is focussing on. Only lasts one round, so it is not great if you have many enemies or only a couple of spell slots.

Breadcrumbs ★ SOM use this spell if you want to show off how awesome a mage you are that you can waste a slot on this rather than just marking a trail.

Breathe Fire ★★★ PC was called Burning Hands . Early area effect damage. Scales OK, but starts low.

Briny Bolt ★★★★ solid damage. Good water attack spell. Chance of a Blind.

Buoyant Bubbles ★★ ROE a one action swim spell. Heighten for the party ★★★. Can keep enemies on the surface. Only for the right campaign. Technically castable against enemies with no save.

Burning Hands ★★★ now called Breathe Fire. Early area effect damage. Scales OK, but starts low.

Camel Spit ★★★ HoW an acid spit attack that dazzles. Can repeat twice as a single action.

Carryall ★ a very fancy way to handle luggage. Get a donkey instead. Was called Floating Disk. At very high level it is somewhat useful again as it flies and can carry people.

Charm ★★★ I’d give it 4 stars but for Incapacitation. You will need to heighten this. The target won’t always know what you have done, so it is a bit safer than it used to be. You have the Charisma and the skills to work them over. There is a way of boosting the level of this with Heightened Captivation. If you really want to use this or similar spells then you will want this feat chain.

Chilling Spray ★★★ G&M cold damage in a cone, that gives a minor speed penalty.

Color Spray ★★★ now called Dizzying Colors. Useful at level 1 if you can get a couple of targets together. Nowhere near as strong as it used to be because of Incapacitation.

Command ★★★ very flexible. Only for one action but that is often enough. A good command will leave them vulnerable and cost them another action to correct eg flee or drop. Note that it will stop them from using reaction till their turn.

Conductive Weapon ★★★★ ROE charges a metal weapon and makes it +1 and Shocking. Great at low level. Eventually you will get runes of your own. It doesn’t scale at higher levels, but I think it remains cumulative. It does seem to stack with Runic Weapon.

Create Water ★ should be a cantrip, very weak, very situational. If you feel tempted to take this try Spout instead.

Dehydrate ★★★ ROE a nice debug against plants and water trait creatures. OK against everyone else. Enfeebled plus persistent fire damage. As it scales the area of effect becomes significant and the spell is more useful. Potentially very high persistent damage.

Déjà Vu ★★ APG force a creature to repeat his actions. Very good if you win initiative, or if he just moved into position in his last round. Incapacitation.

Disguise Magic ★★ PC Was called Misdirection. Protect something from being detected as magical. not useful in combat. Narrow uses out of combat. Permanent at level 2.

Dizzying Colors ★★★ PC a name change for Color Spray

Draw Ire ★★★ SOM moderate damage plus a status penalty to attack people who aren’t you. Only good if you know you are going to be near impossible to attack.

Echoing Weapon ★★★ a small amount of bonus sonic damage to a weapon. Probably only good if your enemy is weak to it.

Elysian Whimsy ★★★ P183 save or perform a random social action.

Endure ★★★ G&M DM 5 temporary hitpoints for 1 minute. Single Action. It scales up. A useful option once you have enough spell slots.

Enfeeble ★★★ PC a better version of Ray of Enfeeblement no attack roll. Partial effect even if they succeed. Great against the right monster. Remaining Attack Trait is an error.

Equal Footing ★★/★★★★ SK this spell has potential. Inflicting clumsy even on a successful save. It is also good at slowing your enemy down. But technically it will just fizzle unless they are faster than you. You should normally be improving your base land speed so this spell will often be useless. However if you are a dwarven sorcerer who wears heavy armour and rides a mount, or you are a merfolk flopping around on land, this can be useful. Prepared casters will also like this against specific enemies.

Exchange Image ★★★ can last all day. Fun. Tactically useful if you swap images with the fighter. But also you could hit the town and have a lot of fun with it. A good way to ruin someone else's reputation.

Fashionista ★ FB a +1 status bonus for Make a Diversion for an hour. So worse than a guidance cantrip. Hmm.

Fear ★★★★, Heightened ★★★★★ one round of fleeing is often enough to be decisive. Gets multiple targets when heightened to level 3 and is one of a small number of multi target spells that is effective when your enemy has gotten mixed in with your party. Then it's a great option. The frightened condition affects saving throws, checks and DCs, so it's useful to inflict. On the plus side, Fear is always useful out of a level 1 slot when you get to a higher level. The down side is it doesn’t last long.

Feather Fall ★★★ a bit situational, but if you need it you really need it. A pity you can’t use it on objects. Now called Gentle Landing.

Flashy Disappearance ★★★ FB a single action (errated) invisible move to get away in a puff of smoke.

Fleet Step ★★★ escape spell.

Flense ★★★ P186 single target melee slashing damage.

Floating Disk ★ a very fancy way to handle luggage. Get a donkey instead. Now called Carryall.

Flourishing Flora ★★ ROE grow plants and do a tiny amount of damage. Should not be on the arcane list for thematic reasons.

Fold Metal ★ ROE hide a metal item.

Force Barrage ★★★★ PC a name change for Magic Missile

Forge ★★★★ HH short range fire damage. Penetrates metal objects better. Why does it get 4 stars? Because this is a Fortitude save. Most direct damage is Reflex.I had this situation last night where a successful recall knowledge had identified the lowest save as Fortitude, but the players kept going for Reflex spells. The monster's reflex save was 6 higher BTW.

Friendfetch ★★★ P169 moves allies close to you. Pull people out of a trap, a bad spell effect, a grab, or get them away from an enemy when they are prone. Better value when you have spare low level slots.

Gentle Landing ★★★ PC a name change for Feather Fall

Glowing Trail ★★ P194 leaves a trail behind you which you can hide or not. Useful if the GM likes mazes.

Goblin Pox ★★★ range touch debuf, fort save but has an effect even if they save

Gravitational Pull ★★ SOM this is for a special melee build that wants to pull enemies closer to it. Are you trying to tank?

Gritty Wheeze ★★ ToK a lowish damage cone with a one action dazzle. OK early in your career but not really strong enough to take after that unless water and plant creatures are expected.

Grease ★★★ too much fun. Very useful tactically. Valuable even in higher level play. Too small an area to be of more general use. Still ok in corridors. If you combine it with difficult terrain say from Scatter Scree, then the enemy can’t Step to avoid the Grease

Grim Tendrils ★★★ a line of necromantic damage. Scales up.

Gust of Wind ★★★★ line of effect save or be knocked prone. TIme it so your fighters can take advantage of it. But even if they don’t it costs the enemy an action to stand up.

Helpful Steps ★★ FB suspends a staircase in the air. It is basically a 40 ft length and you can heighten it. Useful and easier to carry rather than a larger ladder - especially if you height this for another 40 ft per rank. But it is one of those spells you need to know you are going to need in advance. Maybe take it on a couple of scrolls.

Hippocampus Retreat ★★ HoW strike and SWIM away. Underwater only.

Horizon Thunder Sphere ★★★ SOM this is very unique. A spell you can power up for two rounds for extra damage. Plus a minor fire shield style effect.

Hydraulic Push ★★★ sometimes pushing can be useful, but gust of wind is more flexible. Ok as a single target damage spell.

Illusory Disguise ★★★ 1 hour.

Illusory Object ★★★★ a simple illusion, fairly reliable at level 2, eventually permanent. You can create walls with this. It is an effective barrier, and can provide cover. Can easily cost your enemies a few actions and maybe a few rounds. Very strong if played well. It blocks sight until they do a Seek action and succeed in a Perception check against your spell DC. Even if they succeed, creatures on the other side are concealed. Lexchyn has a good video on this.

Instant Pottery ★★ ROE create simple pottery objects. You probably can be quite creative with this, but normally you will have an object at hand.

Interposing Earth ★★★ ROE a reaction to create a shield bonus. I mean a regular shield would work too, but maybe you have your hands full.

Invisible Item ★★★ APG a nice way to set up an ambush, with an invisible log across the road.

Item Facade ★ narrow.

Jump ★★★ does what it says, single action spell. Better at level 3 when you can repeat it every round. Nice if you can't get a flight power or you don’t want to pay for it.

Kinetic Ram ★★★ DA a Force effect save or be pushed. The gem is the one action version.That can be a really useful single action especially when you are higher level and can afford the first level spell slot.

Leaden Steps ★★★ PC2 makes a target clumsy, slower and weak to electricity. Useful debuff. Very nice at low level with electrical damage.

Lock ★★★ nice utility especially in a dungeon crawl. Can be permanent. It can be very nice to lock a door after you have gone through it. Protect yourself from attacks from the rear while preserving your option to withdraw.

Longstrider ★★★★ a useful long term buff - one of very few. Now called Tailwind

Mage Armor ★★ it works. But so does normal armour. Not really sure why I would bother with this. I take some basic light armour instead and have another spell slot. Early on that extra slot is important. Amour proficiency costs a feat but you can retrain it later when you get some . Now called Mystic Armor

Magic Aura ★ fake a magic aura.

Magic Missile ★★★★ now called Force Barrage. Lots of missiles that don’t miss. A good fallback if you run into something with a high AC, saving throws and broad immunities. One of very few direct damage spells that doesn’t require you to have a high spell casting DC. It is still useful even if you are outclassed by an enemy. Sometimes useful as a one action spell if you are prepared to burn slots to get that little bit extra damage out.

A note on the interaction of this and Dangerous Sorcery Sorcerous Potency.

Balance wise

+1 for the whole spell is too weak
+1 per missile is far too strong
+1 per target is reasonable - the same sort of result you would get with a Fireball. Confirmed here by Logan Lead Designer

The wording of Magic Missile combines the damage against each target. You get the bonus damage on each damage roll, that is against each target.

The other thing that people get wrong with Magic Missile is that because of the rules on Activities technically all the missiles are resolved at once. Which is a big change from every other edition of the game. You can't snipe one at a time and see what the result is before targeting your other missiles. I am not really a fan of this change but it is there. Once you comprehend this change, the whole issue makes more sense.

Another change from earlier editions is that Magic Missile is affected by Concealment.

Check out the Wand of Manifold Missiles or the new version Wand of ShardStorm

Magic Weapon ★★★ useful for a while an extra dice of damage to a weapon. Eventually you have enough magic weapons. Strong at low levels. Largely replaced by Runic Weapon.

Mending ★ - use the crafting skill instead. Very narrow.

Message Rune ★ G&M another type of magic mouth. Leave a message which activates on a trigger.

Mindlink ★ why would you use this? I mean just talk to them instead.

Misdirection ★★ Now called Disguise Magic. Protect something from being detected as magical. not useful in combat. Narrow uses out of combat. Permanent at level 2.

Mud Pit ★★★ SOM create difficult terrain in a burst at range. No save, it just happens.

Mystic Armor ★★ PC This used to be called Mage Armor It works. But so does normal armour. Not really sure why I would bother with this. I take some basic light armour instead and have another spell slot. Early on that extra slot is important. Amour proficiency costs a feat but you can retrain it later when you get some .

Necromancer’s Generosity ★★ SOM heal your undead minion

Negate Aroma ★ Invisibility to bears and a few other predators ?!

Noxious Vapors ★★ APG hide in a 10ft radius cloud and poison others a little.

Nudge the Odds ★ SOM a poor spell that is a disadvantage to the activity (gambling) it is trying to boost.

Overselling Flourish★★ FB distract your enemy with a dramatic death. Unfortunately they get over it at the start of your turn. So this is tricky to use.

Penumbral Shroud ★★ G&M DM a short reduction in light for light sensitive creatures. Maybe useful against creatures without darkvision.

Personal Rain Cloud ★★ P151 you can cast it on other people. So I’m sure some groups are going to have fun with this. It would be better if it had a longer duration than 1 minute. Some fire resistance benefits, and obviously everything gets wet. Firemen will love it.

Pest Form ★★★ some utility value, sneaking around, escape in the right terrain. Heightened will give you 10 minutes of flight.

Pet Cache ★★★ APG hide your pet in an extradimensional space for 8 hours. Good for smuggling them somewhere. Even getting your warhorse into a dungeon.

Phantasmal Minion ★★★ a simple invisible summon that can interact for you. Because it can’t be seen there are all sorts of tricks out of combat that you can do with this. Lasts as long as you concentrate, so it’s easy to have it precast. For pranksters, wizards with labs, or any caster that has Effortless Concentration or Final Sacrifice. Was called Unseen Servant.

Pocket Library ★★★ SOM helps with recall knowledge. Probably not your thing as a Sorcerer but there are going to be some people who like this. Only for when you can afford to spend the spell slots on this.

Pummeling Rubble ★★★ APG cone of rocks for bludgeoning damage plus a push.

Quick Sort ★ SOM not something you need to do while adventuring. Maybe an NPC with this cantrip could have a good career.

Rainbow's End ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Teleports adjacent volunteers through a rainbow up to 60 ft from you. An Einstein Rosen bridge (?). At the same time it is a low spirit damage sustained dazzling area. Read this one carefully. As I see it the damage and dazzle effect is just on the creatures in the area, the sustain is to allow your allies more time to teleport. Seems optimal for breaching operations.

Ray of Enfeeblement ★ an attack roll then they get a save? Retired for Enfeeble

Reed Whistle ★ P203 a minor bonus to point out and seek. Only for prepared casters.

Restyle ★ SOM minor cosmetic change

Runic Body ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Fang. It now scales as it heightens. How useful it is depends on your group. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks. Note that technically this provides item bonuses so animal companions don’t get full benefits from it.

Runic Weapon ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Weapon. It now scales as it heightens. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks.

Schadenfreude ★ SOM cast as a reaction when you critically fail against an enemy's effect. This is just not going to happen often enough to be worthwhile. Come on Paizo this would have worked if it was triggered on a failure. Roquepo has objected to this rating and insists that it is better than this, but I don’t believe him.

Scorching Blast ★★★ KM two or three action attack spell, burns on a critical.

Scouring Sand ★★ P151 I think this is a spell designed to mow the lawn?!? The effect is mostly minor unless you critically save. Are you going up against a druid? No? Then don’t take this.

Seashell of Stolen Sound ★ SOM record a minute of sound. For social intrigue games.

Share Lore ★ G&M grant others knowledge one of your lore skills. Fairly narrow that multiple people need the same Lore Skill. Yeah this is for wizards.

Shattering Gem ★★★ G&M a nice scalable defence against melee attacks. I guess you can use a cheap bit of quartz as no particular cost is listed. Useful if you can precast it as a buff. But probably not strong enough to cast in combat.

Shielded Arm ★★ ROE turns your arm into a shield. You can still use it normally as well. Works perfectly well I just think I'd prefer a normal shield.

Shocking Grasp ★★★★ excellent damage but range touch. Scales well. A good argument for the Reach Spell metamagic feat or the Aberrant bloodline but sadly that is occult. Technically replaced by Thunderstrike but that is a different spell.

Shockwave ★★★★ G&M a 15 cone of save or be prone. They are still flatfooted if they save. Very useful in a party where several PCs have attacks of oppourtunity or with a rogue. Heightened for a bigger area.

Signal Skyrocket ★ ROE a very long range signal flare. Technically useful but unlikely that you will need it in normal adventuring.

Sleep ★★ Heightened ★★★★ Very different to other versions of this spell. Best used before combat. A 5ft burst means one creature, maybe two adjacent creatures. Technically there could be more clumped together but that seems much less likely. Yes the -4 status penalty from unconscious and potential -2 circumstance penalty from off-guard are good debuffs. Note that Sleep only prones when you heighten it to rank 4, until then it is a standing upright sleep.

The rules for unconscious mean that only the first hit will get the full AC benefit as the target will wake up then maybe being only off-guard from prone. Anyone else unconscious will then get a perception check at the start of their turn. They are likely to make that check as someone in the party will be in noisy armour.

Incapacitation makes it necessary to heighten it and renders it largely useless against bosses.

So as an AC penalty to one attack it can work. I just don't see it is worth it at all till rank 4 when the prone and no perception check case apply. Until then there is a strong chance to wake up every turn.

Snowball ★ WG single target cold attack. Not a lot more effective than cantrips. Really unclear why you would ever take this even if you knew your enemy was weak to cold.

Spider Sting ★★ poison is too slow for me. Are your opponents really lasting 4 rounds? Does your party really slowly weaken your opponents one by one, or do they concentrate on one and take them down in turn?

Summon Animal ★★★★ for missions too dangerous for your other minions. Not very efficient at doing damage but they make excellent alternative targets for your enemies to attack. Great for trap detection, helping with flanking, or blocking by simply being in the way. Needs its own guide, have a look at this one by Exocist. Have a look at the monster filter for options. Costs you an action to control. Some staples at level 1:

Skunk has Spray Musk for sickened in an area DC 16
Common Eurypterid (a scorpion) to grab enemies
Flash Beetle to dazzle them

Summon Construct ★★★ as per Summon Animal but not quite the range of options. Construct immunities might be useful though.

Animated Broom has brush dust in their faces with a chance to waste an action recovering.

Summon Undead ★★★★ PC this version of undead is the same as all the summon spells. Was called Animate Dead - this brings it into line as all the other Summon X spells. Options at every spell rank. Here are some nice suggestions for level 1. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Crawling Hand has a good claw hand grab.
Skeleton Guard has some resistances that will make it very tough against opponents that can’t do bludgeoning damage.

Sure Strike ★★★★ PC Was called True Strike. But now with errata that says once once per 10 minutes. Unless you were taking a Staff of Divination so you could use it most rounds most people won’t mind. Still a great spell but maybe 3 or 4 are enough.

Synchronize ★ SOM for coordinating actions at distance. I suspect Message will be a better option most of the time. But I can see uses for this.

Synchronize Steps ★★★ KOL turn your reactions into moves. Good for setting up flanking or a mobile style of combat. Typically you'd prefer your reactions to be attacks though

Tailwind ★★★★ PC a useful long term buff - one of very few. Was called Longstrider. This invalidates a few too many class features and probably is too good.

Temporary Tool ★★★ G&M create any simple tool for a minute. Will your GM let you create a ladder?

Tether ★★★ G&M slow or maybe immobilise a target. Useful but normally you want to have the option of getting away from them. You can’t with this spell.

Thicket of Knives ★★ SOM a +2 status bonus to Deception checks for a minute. They probably should have limited this to just Feint actions. Could be a useful buff. Only if you plan on using this a lot.

Thoughtful Gift ★★ APG teleport an object. One action. Fairly marginal unless the GM is mad enough to let you identify items with it.

Threefold Limb ★★★ RA melee spell for some damage and to reposition or conceal. Spell heightens for more damage.

Thunderstrike ★★★★ excellent damage and range 120ft. Scales well at d12+d4. Technically a replacement for Shocking Grasp but that is a different spell. Please treat it as such.

True Strike ★★★★ Now called Sure Strike. If for some reason you are meleeing and staying there. A good option if you are a part time caster or if you are trying to land a big attack spell. Negates miss chances, so it's valuable against blur or invisibility. There are a few more spells apart from cantrips with attack rolls. That list was heavily affected by errata. If you like some of them, this is very good.

Unbroken Panoply ★ RA temporarily repair a weapon.

Unseen Servant ★★★ a simple invisible summon that can interact for you. Because it can’t be seen there are all sorts of tricks out of combat that you can do with this. Lasts as long as you concentrate, so it’s easy to have it precast. For pranksters, wizards with labs, or any caster that has Effortless Concentration or Final Sacrifice. Renamed to Phantasmal Minion.

Ventriloquism ★★ good for more complex distractions. It depends on how your GM plays things. But if you like illusions this can be helpful to get spells with verbal components off without alerting enemies. When I GM I don’t require it in most circumstances, but if you are trying to get an illusion to work against someone with an Arcana score, or if they are aware you are an illusionist then you may want this. Seems to need the Subtle trait to be useful, I would assume that it has this or the spell is too bad to be true.

Wall of Shrubs ★★★ ROE instant cover. Very useful if you need to prepare ground. Heightened versions offer better cover and more duration.

Weaken Earth ★ ROE makes an object weaker. Useful to someone with a spellbook.

Weave Wood ★ ROE makes some wooded objects. Why not just make a crafting check?

Wooden Fists ★★★ ROE self only, creates a magical weapon with reach. This transforms your fists so remember they are still agile and finesse. You can still use your arms normally. Better duration at higher level so it all scales well.

Arcane 2nd level spells

Heightened spells: Longstrider / Tailwind for an 8 hour buff, Illusory Disguise covers voice and scent, Illusory Object gets sound smell and touch, Lock is permanent

Acid Arrow ★★★ now replaced with Acid Grip. This spell has its advocates. It is reasonable direct damage and not something commonly resisted. A bit slow to kill them.

Acid Grip ★★★★ PC was Acid Arrow. No longer an attack spell but a reflex save. It is reasonable direct damage and not something commonly resisted. But now it interferes with their movement. Definitely some combo potential here if there is interesting terrain. Moves an enemy even if they make a save so might be able to break a grapple or just move them aside. It is mildly annoying that Paizo violates their rules convention by creating a negative bonus rather than calling it a penalty. Mathfinder has a video on how to use this spell.

Allfood ★★ P194 makes an object edible. I guess it is effective for opening locked doors.

Animated Assault ★★★★ APG sustainable bludgeoning damage in an area.

Ash Cloud ★★ SOM a damaging area of effect against flyers. The effects are fairly minor. Bit of damage, a bit of fire damage. OKish, a bit specific.

Banishing Touch ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. A melee spell attack. Flick them away with your finger. Good damage if they have no way to avoid a fall, but even if they do then it will use up their reaction.

Bee-Man's Summons ★ P201 hears when someone mentions your name.

Befitting Attire ★ SOM illusionary fine clothes for the party. Only for the right game. I am generally happy to buy my clothes, and not run the risk they will be disbelieved or dispelled.

Blazing Armory ★★★ ROE a flaming weapon, for everyone from level 4. If your GM is stingy with treasure, or likes to disarm or destroy weapons, or just if you know there are fire vulnerable creatures out there. It has got a few uses, but mostly you won’t need it.

Binding Muzzle ★★★ P195 stops speaking and biting, including a nice flat check to stop spells. Useful against certain monsters.

Blast of the Bellows ★ P195 a minor inconvenience for flyers.

Blazing Bolt PC ★★★★ was called Scorching Ray. Reasonably good fire damage against multiple targets. The nice part about this is it is multitarget but not area of effect. So it can be cast after the enemy has closed with the party. You will almost always prefer to use the 3 action variant.

Blood Duplicate ★★ P182 create a fake copy of an object for an hour.

Blood Vendetta ★★★★ APG reaction spell that inflicts beed damage. There are simply not that many good magical reactions, this is one.

Brine Dragon Bile ★★★ ROE a ranged reaction attack that you can trigger off certain allied attacks. It is useful extra damage in a tight fight. But the damage is low and all persistent so it is slow acting.

Blur ★★★ OK defence, gives a DC 5 flat check to target - you need some defensive options.

Bone Spray ★★★ P176 a nice necromantic damaging cone

Boneshaker ★★★ P176 a nice necromantic single target damage, with some forced movement.

Burrow Ward ★ ROE stop burrowing creatures and eject them to the surface. Put it in your spellbook, this is very specific.

Buzzing Servants ★★★ RA fill a square with a pillar of bee wax. Useful to create defensive terrain. The Pillars last for 24 hours . You can sustain the bees for up to a minute to build up to 10 pillars.

Carrion Mire ★★★★ WTD4 this is a sustainable area that will knock people prone. Great if there is forced movement in your party or just lots of opportunity attacks.

Cauterize Wounds ★★ ROE take one damage to roll to stop bleeding. Works for the entire party. Useful only versus specific monsters.

Charitable Urge ★★★ APG save or give away your items. A good way to waste their actions. Incapacitation

Clad in Metal ★★★ ROE temporarily turns an item into a special metal. Well worthwhile if you come up against something with a particular vulnerability.

Cleanse Air ★ ROE cleans the air in a radius. A very big radius at higher level. This is going to be useful only in very specific games.

Comprehend Language ★★★ hour long. No denying its utility. But it depends on your campaign. Now called Translate.

Confetti Cloud ★★★★ FB creates concealment in a cloud of confetti.

Continual Flame ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened. Still nice to have one on a coin as a backup. Important for its impact on the world. Renamed to Everlight

Create Food ★ very situational, you’ll know when you need it. Not really something you will choose to take adventuring unless the game has a lot of food problems. Normally it's easier to buy and take food with you. The cantrip Prestidigitation can flavour this food.

Dancing Shield ★★★★ BC raise a shield for someone else but with your actions and reactions.

Darkness ★★★ very effective against many enemies. Do you have darkvision? Or greater darkvision. Do your enemies? There are some very good exploits here.

Darkvision ★★★ yes you do. But is this a good use of your spells? Probably easier to get in an item.

Deafness ★ bat slayer.

Dismantle ★ APG temporarily dismantle an object. So narrow.

Dispel Magic ★★★★ useful protection against a wide range of things, and Sorcerers value versatility. The counteract check can be hard.

Elemental Zone ★★ SOM granting a +2 or better status bonus with a spell of a particular elemental trait is useful. I am struggling to imagine how you are managing to get your enemy to stand still while you do it. Maybe useful if there are a number of casters cooperating in a team.

Embed Message ★★ PC an improved Magic Mouth. Permanent, not really a combat spell but might be useful in an ambush.

Empathic Link ★★ KOL telepathy up a mile range. Useful but the message cantrip is cheaper.

Empty Pack ★ an illusion that your pack is empty. It has a use but a Sorcerer can’t afford spells as specific as this.

Endure Elements ★ rarely useful protection against environmental effects, not energy damage. Affects only one character, if you need this you’ll want it for the whole party. Now called Environmental Endurance.

Environmental Endurance ★ PC a rebadged Endure Elements.

Enlarge ★★★ Heightened ★★★★ +2 to damage, reach, but -1 to AC. Doesn’t stack with other polymorph effects. Heightens for more damage and at level 6 more targets.

Entangling Flora ★★★ PC This was called Entangle. Now available in arcane? Nice area of effect but it will likely only cost two actions unless they critically fail. Can be used very successfully on large groups, and the difficult terrain combines well with Tanglefoot.

Expeditious Excavation ★ G&M instant pit underneath your opponent. Save or fall prone. Fall in only on a critical failure. Doesn’t work on stone, but is otherwise useful for a quick dig. There are better spells to make someone prone.

Exploding Earth ★★ ROE spell attack that does physical damage and some splash damage. That may be useful but it scales too slowly.

Extract Poison ★★★ SOM you can get quite a strong poison onto a weapon. Which will give you a lot of bonus damage for an attack. Might be OK but there is still a counteract check and you have to hit. If you were going to attack anyway, it is a good boost. Or just to neutralise a poisoned object.

I see this as working best for a multiclassed martial rather than a pure caster.

Everlight ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened. This spell is just a new name for Continual Flame. At least they removed the hideously scaling gem cost.

False Life ★★★ a few extra hitpoints for 8 hours, not super strong but it is a long term buff. Renamed in the remaster to False Vitality

False Vitality ★★★ a few extra hitpoints for 8 hours, not super strong but it is a long term buff. A name change for False Life

Falsify Heat ★★ ROE impersonate an undead or a construct. It is a bit narrow.

Far-Flung Fetch ★★ NPC steals an unattended object. It is subtle so you’ll likely never be caught. So I think you are set for your life of crime. Useful but situational. Definitely book it.

Fear the Sun ★★★ P172 dazzles or blind an opponent. Still affects them for one round if they make the spell.

Feast of Ashes ★★ G&M a slow curse of hunger. Probably good to nudge the behaviour of a beast or person. Just a bit slow and narrow to be recommended for an adventurer to take day to day.

Final Sacrifice ★★★ APG detonate your summoned creature in a reasonable sized fireball. It says minion, but doing this to your familiar or animal companion is probably not your plan A. Sadly illusionary creatures aren’t solid enough to work with this. Works on an Unseen Servant. Eidolons are not minions, but um er a Witch’s Familiar gets replaced free every day… With the removal of alignment this is no longer Evil but rather a noble sacrifice for the greater good.

Fireproof ★ ROE fire resistance for an item plus a counteract check. But this is only objects. I like it from level 6 ★★★ when it becomes permanent.

Flame Wisp ★★★ SOM for the caster who likes to melee. Note that Burn it helps but not Dangerous Sorcery. A nice amount of bonus damage if you get time to prepare. The action economy is nice once you get going but I’m not sure there is enough damage here.

Flaming Sphere ★★★★ repeatable fire damage when you sustain. Broken if your GM is foolish enough to let you sustain it multiple times in a round. There is errata to make it clear you can’t do this. Replaced by Floating Flame

Floating Flame ★★★★ PC The replacement for Flaming Sphere. This is much stronger as you take half damage if you make your save and you affect whoever you move through during the turn, not just where you are at the end.

Gecko Grip ★★★ a useful buff early to mid levels. It is really nice to be able to walk on the ceiling. The old name of this spell was Spider Climb

Gentle Repose ★ for religious ceremonies. Now called Peaceful Rest.

Ghostly Carrier ★★ PC New version of Spectral Hand. Useful if you like a lot of touch spells. No feedback damage if it is slain.

Glitterdust ★★★ a counter for invisibility. Side effects aren’t as good as they used to be. It works even on a normal successful save. But the area of effect is small. Replaced by Revealing Light

Heat Metal ★★★ APG useful against enemies with metal armour or weapons. Can be hilarious with Lock Item.

Helpful Reload ★★ BC a reaction to do a single action reload of an allies weapon. Useful and an interesting way to help their action economy. Not sure it is a good use of a spell slot.

Helpful Wood Spirits ★★ ROE a mix of utility options including making an enemy off guard. Cute and flexible but it is a very small area.

Hidebound ★★★★ HoW a good scaling reaction to resist physical damage for anyone within 30 ft. Take it when these spell slots are cheap.

Hideous Laughter ★★★★ this is good action denial. Slowed if they fail. Unlike Slow this is a Will save. If your enemy is using a reaction effectively then this is a reliable way to stop it. Best against brutes with Reactive Strike or other good reactions. New name is Laughing Fit.

Horrifying Blood Loss ★★ P181 frighten a bleeding creature. Useful but too narrow.

Humanoid Form ★★★★ a useful disguise, to just look like someone else. Especially nice if you are a Sprite or some other unusual creature. Comes with Enlarge in built at level 5. Take deception with this. But also options for Darkvision and Enlarge. The duration is not great at ten minutes for a spell that you want to use out of combat. If your GM makes you roll the deception check constantly then this is a problem.

Ignite Fireworks ★★★ SOM dazzles creatures in a 10 foot burst. Which may get a reasonable group. Light damage, but a good way to dazzle a group of enemies

Illusory Creature ★★★★★ an illusionary pseudo minion that does real damage. Dies as soon as it is hit, which is only a bit shorter than many summon spells. But your opponent doesn’t know that yet. Lasts as long as you can sustain it. If you want the illusion to do something on its first turn then sustain it. Like a summon spell, more flexible but fragile and less damage. All types of distractions are possible, you are limited by your imagination not any level of reality. What you really want to do with an illusionary creature is not to fight but to bluff.

Useful in combat and out of combat.

A dragon flying in will cause some people to run away. Natural Selection means that almost everyone runs and hides before they confirm what they think is dangerous, actually is. Or the guard might open the gate and rush out to help when he sees an injured man in uniform returning.

Read up on illusions - the bottom line is illusions start being believed, they can’t be ignored until the opponent takes a seek action or interacts with it. So normally it will consume at least one action. Do expect that the GM will give out free action perception checks to disbelieve if you do something too unbelievable. But by the same token if it is an expected and believable illusion then your GM should probably not even take a seek action against it.

Probably worthwhile considering starting the illusion at range, as there is no reason it can’t use a ranged strike. The illusion has its own multiple attack penalty, and doesn't use the casters. Choose the right weapon so it shouldn’t get a penalty for range, but it does get two actions and can critically hit. At range your opponents may choose to split their forces or move and waste several actions trying to deal with it before they realise what it is.

Illusory Shroud ★★★ FB provide concealment to enable a rogue to hide in plain sight.

Impeccable Flow ★★★ SOM a scalable status bonus to Perception checks, saving throws, and skill checks for a minute, but just for you. You should have some good skills to use. This can help a fair bit. A good precombat preparation. But don’t lose your flow.

Instant Armor ★★★ SOM a nice utility spell if combat breaks out at the grand ball, or just so you can get a good night's sleep and be ready at a moment's notice. Yes, Sorcerers can easily get significant armour. But this is probably for a multiclass Sorcerer. I mean personally I prefer Dragon Form for this situation, but you may like this.

Instant Parade ★★ FB hide in an illusionary parade.

Invisibility ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ always a good spell. Even better in this edition as the defences against this are not as good. Very effective for escaping, scouting, and surprise. Better in combat if you heighten it, so that it stays up after you attack. Even if they attack the square you are in it is a 50% miss chance. True strike and area of effect spells are useful against invisibility if you have nothing else specific. Rules problem: hostile action is subjective. Game play problem: invisibility is not always useful if the rest of your party is still visible.

Iron Gut ★★ G&M a spell for smuggling in gear internally. Usefully sometimes but you can’t carry much.

Kgalaserke's Axes ★★★★ RA +1 status bonus to attack for 1 creature for a minute as a single action spell. Arcane doesn’t have many other options here. Very action efficient, especially if your party doesn’t have another source of status bonuses. Also a two action version for some extra damage too.

Knock ★★ there are other ways to open doors. Occasionally useful. Check out the item Insistent Door Knocker

Laughing Fit ★★★★ this is good action denial. Slowed if they fail. Unlike Slow this is a Will save. If your enemy is using a reaction effectively then this is a reliable way to stop it. Best against brutes with Reactive Strike or other good reactions. Used to be called Hideous Laughter.

Lock Item ★★ KOL BC is typically too specific. Affects held items. So locking something in the hand of an opponent? Could be fun. Maybe it is useful with Heat Metal.

Loose Time's Arrow ★★★★ DA a mini quicken for moving up to 6 creatures. Could be very useful

Lucky Number ★★ SOM a very nice contingency effect. Optional reroll a d20 dice if it is the number you selected. It is probably only good if your roll is in the bottom half of numbers.

Magic Mouth ★★ permanent, not really a combat spell but might be useful in an ambush. Updated with Embed Message which has some more advanced options.

Magnetic Attraction ★ SOM this is a useful way to grab metal objects like weapons off people. What do you do if the weapons are held in someone's hand? Well it says - make a Disarm check. The problem is for Disarm to work properly it needs to get a critical success. On the plus side you can do this to ten objects which will often be enough to get secondary weapons. I think this spell works in certain situations. Targeting ten things only working on a critical success is not great as there is a total bulk limit of 1 bulk.

Magnetic Repulsion ★★★ SOM this is a good defensive buff against enemies who use metal weapons and armour - which is a lot. Don't forget almost every arrow or bolt is metal tipped. Worth heightening. Nice spell to precast if you are using a Battle Form. eg Dragon Form

Marvelous Mount ★★ The new Phantom Steed. Very much the same except now divine casters get it and it can make saving throws.

Mental Map ★★ RA limited mind reading. Gain information from an unwilling target about a place they have been. This spell is uncommon and mind reading is something some GMs don’t like. But if you are travelling a lot in your game this can be useful. Personally I prefer to extract information with skills.

Mind Games ★★★ SOM a contest of will single target stunning spell. Sustain for additional effects. Still useful at a high level. Probably only use it if you know their will defences are poor. You can sustain it to retry if the target is unaffected.

Mirror Image ★★★ a defensive spell but it doesn’t last very long as duplicates are taken out by a miss. Better against bosses than mobs.

Mist ★★★★ PC the new name for Obscuring Mist

Noise Burst ★★★ PC an area of effect sonic attack. New to the arcane list. Damage is mediocre. Worth taking because sonic is rare. Scales up. Casters who get deafened as it will give them a DC 5 flat check on spells with an auditory component, but that is only a few spells and doesn't seem to apply in general. Was named Sound Burst

Oaken Resilience ★★★ PC useful physical damage resistance with a moderate duration. Be careful about the fire weakness. Originally called Barkskin and only available to primal but it is arcane as well now.

Obscuring Mist ★★★★ now called Mist very useful especially if you multiclass into Druid for storm born. Gives a DC 5 flat check or they just can’t target you and lose their action while in the mist. But also it gives the option to hide, and sneak. Check with your GM on how he will play it for creatures on opposite sides of it but aren’t in the mist what happens? He will probably just treat it as concealment - same as if someone was in the mist. If he lets people be targeted normally even when their only line of sight is through the mist, then don’t take this spell and get ready for some odd rulings. Make sure your martials take blindsight so they can avoid the penalty.

Osseous Cage ★★★★ WTD4 drop a bone cage on someone to screw up their day and stop movement. Unlike mist wall type effect this offers a reflex save. It works as lesser cover as well.

Pave Ground ★★★ ROE create a path.

Peaceful Rest ★ the remastered version of Gentle Repose. A simple funeral spell to prevent undeath and protect the body for possible raising..

Penumbral Disguise ★ if you are using Stealth alot. Not sure why you wouldn’t take Invisibility instead.

Persistent Servant ★ SOM a flexible servant for non combat tasks. OK. I’d probably prefer to animate one via Animate Object and save a spell slot.

Phantasmal Treasure ★★ APG fascination is not that strong but it's a lot better when the target of the fascination is not you. It still ends if an ally is attacked.

Phantom Crowd ★★★ SOM I’m not really a fan of a spell that can only do one very specific thing. I mean Illusory Creature can do this, just you only get one of them. But if you are in a city then I can see that this is useful for bluffing your opponents, or encouraging them to back off. How a GM will play this is a bit unknown.

Phantom Steed ★★ Heightened ★★★ normally you can just buy a horse instead. Good for overland travel. Better at higher level when it's faster and can walk on water or even fly. The problem is that when you start using this spell you are going to want it for the whole party.

Propulsive Breeze ★★★ ROE a reaction for +15 move to a stride or a jump. It is useful but slot expensive.

Pyrefowl Rebuke ★★★ P216 a reaction that does a small amount of damage when you are struck and damaged that allows you to fly away. Useful to avoid a followup attack.

Radiant Field ★ P172 DM a light spell with extra penalties for those with light blindness. Too specific. Maybe useful in very specific circumstances.

Rapid Adaptation ★★ SOM for your companion or Eidolon (no idea why not familiar?) So for most Sorcerers this is not relevant. Useful as Darkvision and Longstrider are self only. Not sure it's important.

Resist Energy ★★★ flexible energy protection.

Revealing Light ★★★ PC A partial counter for invisibility with a reflex save. The original is Faerie Fire/Glitterdust. Still affect the targets if they make their save for 2 rounds so it is not so bad. The problem with this is the small area of effect so it's hard to go fishing with this. You need to time it for when you know where they are. It combines well with Mist especially if you aren’t storm born.

Rime Slick ★★★ P151 burst cold damage, creates difficult terrain. Heightens for a lot more damage and a bigger area.

Rubble Step ★★★ ROE if you are in a dungeon this is a party run away spell as it should effectively have the speed of your pursuers. If you jump or have a fly speed you could create some interesting shaped effects with this.

Scorching Ray ★★★★ SOM reasonably good fire damage against multiple targets. Renamed to Blazing Bolt. The nice part about this is it is multitarget but not area of effect. So it can be cast after the enemy has closed with the party. You will almost always prefer to use the 3 action variant.

Sea Surge ★★★ P151 a wave that knocks creatures over. Doesn’t require you to be near water though.

See Invisibility ★★★ invisibility is common in some campaigns. But this spell doesn’t negate invisibility as well as it used to. Heighten to use all day. Now upgraded to See the Unseen.

See the Unseen ★★★. PC Renamed See Invisibility. But you can now see incorporeal things hidden in walls and get a bonus against illusions.

Shadow Zombie ★ P181 turn a zombie into a shadow for a while.

Shape Wood ★★ make a pole, a brace, a canoe, totally block a door. 20 cubic feet is enough to do something useful and it's permanent. Now Arcane as well since PC

Shrink ★★ I’m not sure what actual game effect it has but I figure you can hide well with this. Ask your GM.

Slough Skin ★ G&M a weird defence against persistent damage and contact poison, that operates by giving you a serious dandruff problem. Hour long duration.

Spectral Hand ★★ how to do range touch spells at range. Take this if you are building around a lot of touch spells. I wish it had more uses as a hand? Will your GM let you do anything else with it? Replaced by Ghostly Carrier

Spider Climb ★★★ a useful buff early to mid levels. It is really nice to be able to walk on the ceiling. The new safe name is Gecko Grip

Splinter Volley ★★★★ ROE very much like Scorching Ray but with wood.

Spy's Mark ★★★ FB creates a security camera on the wall.

Steel Fortifications ★★★ BC to create some terrain you can take cover behind. Poorly worded but I assume you can use these structures for regular cover without getting into the details mentioned in the spell. Useful for archers and casters in general but especially for small ones who can climb inside.

Sticky Fire ★ BC single target fire attack spell. The persistent damage is OK but this is woefully underdone and scales poorly.

Stupefy ★★★ PC replacement for Touch of Idiocy. Fortunately this is now ranged. A good debuff to put on casters.

Sudden Bolt ★★★★ P151 single target lightning bolt. 4d12 damage which scales up. Very nice. Very good damage.

Summon Elemental ★★★ worthwhile having at least one summon in your list. Sacrificing minions is there any problem it can’t solve? There are some useful elemental abilities and immunities.

Summoner’s Precaution ★ SOM a summoner only safety spell. IMHO it is compulsory for summoners. You don’t go down when your Eidolon does. Get it in an item if you have to. Maybe technically the better thing to do in some cases is to go down and be healed by an ally. You still get that choice. The Summoner themselves is a reasonable character, and the eidolon survives in a way if you do. The one minute cool down assures that this won’t be abused in combat. Mostly I like it because I can play the Eidolon as being that bit more expendable which is the whole point of being a Summoner - taking less risks yourself.

Summoner’s Visage ★ SOM a summoner only utility to make their eidolon look normal and fit into normal society. In practice it's about saving the actions required to summon it. But maybe you can do something with your identical twin.

Swallow Light ★ P181 counteract light to gain a weak breath weapon.

Telekinetic Maneuver ★★ it is just one trip or shove attempt at range. That is unlikely to be worth your action let alone a spell slot. I think it works as a utility for Arcane Archers and Magus.

The Queen's Rainbow ★★★★ RA create a dazzling line that stays around. Useful tactically especially in corridors and rooms.

Thermal Remedy ★★★★ ROE temporary hit points for the party. This has a long enough duration to be useful to cast early. Scales up too.

Timely Tutor ★★ SOM mostly for wizards a Recall Knowledge buff if they have a familiar or Eidolon. Probably very useful in certain out of combat ways. You are likely not invested in these skills.

Touch of Idiocy ★★ a serious penalty to an enemy caster. Range touch. I think there are better spells for this. Replaced by Stupefy which at least is range 30.

Translate ★★★ PC hour long. No denying its utility. But it depends on your campaign. Was called Comprehend Language.

Tremorsense ★★★★ ROE a useful special sense. Imprecise. Lasts 8 hours at 5th level.

Umbral Extraction ★ SOM an effective spell for its mission. But needing to steal spell slots is rare. Is this a preemptive counterspell? Requires a Thievery check. I guess this is a way to drain a captured spell caster of spells.

Umbral Mindtheft ★★ P181 steal lore from your victim.

Veil Of Spirits ★★★ SK dazzles and hands out weakness to spirit damage. Very useful if there is a lot of spirit damage potential in your group.

Vicious Jealousy ★★★ P181 stop your enemies from coordinating. Probably mean they won’t flank effectively.

Voice on the Breeze ★★ ROE long range one way communication.

Vomit Swarm ★★★ APG 2d8 piercing damage in a cone plus sickened. Great imagery

Warping Pull ★★★★ SK a reaction that triggers when an ally is damaged - so very often. It grants some resistance and teleports them closer to you. This is going to be useful when you can afford to spend slots on this. The real power of this is in wasting enemy actions: the enemy strides, strikes and hits, then you pull his target away - what is your enemy now going to do with his third action? It might be useless …

Warriors Regret ★★★★ SOM a curse designed to hurt an enemy if they keep attacking. It is about damaging not attacking so it works very well against arcane blasters as well. A bit slow to have an effect. But it has its effect even if they make a normal saving throw. If you are playing a character that wants to talk to their enemies then this spell will likely deescalate some conflicts.

Water Breathing ★★★ works for the whole party.

Water Walk ★★ one person can stay dry. Maybe the barbarian can be persuaded to carry everyone across one at a time.

Waterproof ★ ROE protection from acid. But only for an item. Useful to someone with a spellbook.

Web ★★ difficult terrain and a chance of immobilisation. More effective if they have slow movement rates. Web(4) ★★★ heightened to level 4 it's big enough to waste a full turn on a normal failure. Which is pretty good control.

Arcane 3rd level spells

Heightened spells: Fear multi targets and becomes awesome, Illusory Disguise lets you impersonate a specific target, Comprehend Language gives you speech. Jump is every round. Dehydrate is 10ft radius and 4d6 persistent damage.

Agonizing Despair ★★★ APG single target damage and frightened

Aqueous Orb ★★★★ APG move an orb of water around to put out fires or grab people. It is multiturn sustainable forced movement. Yes people can get out of it with a trivial athletics check on their turn. But next turn you can try again. If you really want to push people around, normally only important if you want to break up a formation or if there is some good terrain around, then this is a good spell. Combine with Laughing Fit for the ultimate cruelty.

Bind Undead ★★★ steal an undead minion for the day. Maybe a little narrow, and not if your cleric likes to burst heal.

Blastback ★★★ ROE this is like Blazing Dive but done as a feather fall style reaction. Cute. Definitely some manoeuvres and special entry techniques you could do with this. You probably can trigger it OK with jumping. Just check with your GM as it involves a bit of interpretation. Ways to do that is the Jump spell which is actually a reasonable thing all by itself. Or items like Greater Boots of Bounding (still have to roll) or Blast Boots (moderate and up). Or you can just fall with Cat Fall. After some other sort of flying first.

Blazing Dive ★★★ SOM 10 out of 10 for style points. Such a great cinematic special effect. If you have a strong offensive party then this is really good, maybe a bit risky to dive into the centre of battle all the time as a Sorcerer. How aggressive is your character? Plus it is a short range utility fly. Fantastic if you want to close with the enemy.

Blindness ★★ strike a target blind. Fort save. The effect lasts long enough. Being blind makes them flat footed so timing of your turn is important. But with Incapacitation so it has limited use except in your top spell slot. I really would only take it if I had Razzle Dazzle

Blister Bomb ★★★ BC a small area sickened effect with ongoing disease. Themed on biological weapons ?!. It is a useful debuff.

Bonewall Bulwark ★★★★ WTD4 this is a small short range wall. So it probably is best used in a corridor. It provides cover, presumably blocks movement, you get a free(?!) attack against an adjacent creature each turn with it. It is only 2 not 3 actions. This has real limitations but if you can accept those it is a very strong wall for this level.

Bottomless Stomach ★ a bag of holding of sorts. Fun but no.

Bracing Tendrils ★★ DA defence against being pushed. Nice but narrow. Book it.

Caster's Imposition ★ P182 a narrow curse about ritual casting.

Cave Fangs ★★★★ ROE fireball piercing damage plus difficult terrain that lasts for a minute. Useful.

Clairaudience ★★★ spying tool. This is a good spell. It works and is safe, but other methods of spying are more flexible. Ask yourself how often will you use it? Definitely as a Wizard, a bit less as a Sorcerer.

Cloud Dragon's Cloak ★★★★ ROE reaction to make a ranged attack roll a 50% miss chance. Should be commonplace. Great pick when you have 5th level or higher spells so you can afford to use these slots quickly.

Conjured Conveyance ★★ P203 creates a magically propelled wooden wagon, boat or similar. Lasts for an hour. Might be useful.

Coral Scourge ★★★ ROE this is debuff combined with a slow, hence Incapacitation. Clumsy reduces their AC and reflex saves so this is always a useful debuff. Better if they have dex based saves. If they don’t spend actions removing it then it gets worse.

Cozy Cabin ★★★ APG a temporary (12hr) house.

Crashing Wave ★★★ APG 6d6 cone of bludgeoning damage, that heightens nicely. The water equivalent to Fireball but the area is just not as easy to use.

Croak Voice ★★★★ HoW inflict a frog's voice on an enemy caster, even if they save.

Cup of Dust ★★ G&M DM inflicts fatigue on the target, and makes them very thirsty. Fatigue is -1 to AC and saves. Useful, but what else can you do with fatigue? Stop Barbarians from raging if they lose to your initiative.

Curse of Lost Time ★★★ APG/PC2 single target, clumsy and enfeebled. Works for a round even if they make a save.

Day’s Weight ★★★ similar to Curse of Lost Time. SIngle target, a small effect on a normal successful save. Nothing wrong with it, I just want a bit more at this level.

Deep Sight ★★★★ P194 long term dark vision or greater darkvision.

Disruptive Transfer ★★★ RA dazzles adjacent creatures and teleport a move away.

Distracting Chatter ★★★ inflicts flat footed at range on a Will save. Better when heightened.

Dive and Breach ★★★ ROE teleport a short distance through the plane of water leaving some damage behind. An interesting combination spell. Great if you are close in melee.

Dividing Trench ★★ BC KOL instant trench. Useful but not really enough to be a problem for anyone. Maybe an action sink for people moving over it.

Dream Message ★★ long range messages.

Eagle's Cry ★★★★ SK a cone of sonic damage and a fear effect on a fortitude save. Can be better than Fear 3 at this level as it affects mindless creatures; area of effect is better against some creatures though selecting targets is easier to avoid allies. Very good spell.

Earthbind ★★ are you hunting griffins? It is just a bit narrow isn’t it? Worth taking if you don’t have good ranged or flying options in your party.

Echo Jump ★★★★ SK teleport up to 30ft leaving a force explosion behind.

Elemental Absorption ★★★ a flexible resistance to an element which can be handy for a Sorcerer. But you have to be taking a lot of damage for the attack to be worthwhile. Normally creatures you encounter with elemental attacks tend to be resistant to that attack So I don’t really consider that the final attack is that useful.

Elemental Annihilation Wave ★★ despite it having all six elements it basically only includes fire damage but it has all the traits. Complex to work out what happens when you have immunities and weaknesses. It's below the curve in damage. You can take a second round to get extra area, but are your enemies sitting still? Most useful as fodder for Elemental Counter.

Enthrall ★ fascinate is just not strong enough. Hostile acts break the effect. Fascination doesn’t protect you, so you can have fascinated the whole crowd and they will still stone you to death. I guess it has a place out of combat if you have Conceal Spell or Melodious Spell to make it Subtle. That is available from Witch, Wizard or Bard. Is it worth a spell slot just to make a distraction? Technically it affects the caster and everyone else in range.

Excise Lexicon ★ P186 destroys words from memory. Very narrow.

Familiar's Face ★★★ APG look and hear through your companion or familiar

Feet to Fins ★★ if you need to swim.

Fireball ★★★★ not as much damage as you would hope, but great range and area of effect. Good candidate for a signature spell. The main problem with this being avoiding catching your allies.

Firework Blast ★★★ FB a lower damage fireball that blinds for a round.

Gasping Marsh ★★★★ P177 area of effect poison damage and sickened. You can sustain it and use it on other targets next round.

Ghostly Weapon ★★ if you have a spell book it is good against incorporeal creatures.

Glass Sand ★★★ FB a lower damage fireball with slashing and persistent damage.

Glyph of Warding ★★★★ make a spell trap, or a bomb if you can make yourself immune. Don't forget you can heighten it and get some very big spells in here. Well the designers have addressed this spell and made some clarifications. Basically you can’t force someone else to activate it, they have to interact with it. So using this spell on an item to use like a grenade is just going to fail. Which is sensible. You also have to use all the triggers - move, touch or open - not just one. But this still effectively allows you to put glyphs on small items, which you can trigger when you want. By having someone else, perhaps your familiar, trigger the item by touching or moving them, or maybe just even deliberately saying the wrong password when you touch them. Or maybe you can convince an opponent to take a trapped item. The question really is what hostile effect can you put in them that is useful when triggered? It is possible to get immunity to effects if you might be caught in an area of effect. Metamagic and Safeguarded Spell work in Staves, so probably in scrolls and glyphs too. Heal and Harm are hostile to some creatures and not others. What will your GM let you do? This has been released in the remaster as a Ritual Rune Trap.

Gravity Well ★★★★ like a mini black hole. Everyone moves towards the centre. Ranged, area of effect forced movement. Highly unusual. I guess the obvious use is to suck people off the edge of a cliff. Great if you have some terrain or damaging areas.

Haste ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ you get an extra action but only for a stride or strike. You can take it at any time but you only gain it at the start of your turn so it doesn't help the caster on the first round it is cast. A very strong buff, just not superpowered anymore as it takes a while to pay off. Better when it is heightened to multiple targets.

Heatvision ★★★★ ROE a new PRECISE sense. Heatvision duration 1 or all day at 6th rank. Very nice but it is not going to work versus undead or constructs,

Hypnotic Pattern ★★ fascinate is just not strong enough. Hostile acts on allies break the effect. Fascination doesn’t protect you, so you can have fascinated the whole crowd and they can still throw rocks at you and doubtless be fascinated by your dead body. However no save on an area Dazzle is useful. Though I prefer other spells like Mist . They are fascinated by the pattern, not you. There are better options than this. Renamed to Hypnotize.

Hypnotize ★★ PC see Hypnotic Pattern above.

Ibex's Harvest ★★★ RA grants temporary hitpoints. Has a single action option which might make this a useful spell you can squeeze into a busy turn.

Impending Doom ★★ SOM cute but too slow to be much use outside the roleplaying value.

Insect Form ★★★ These forms are actually not as good in a simple fight as the animal forms. But what you get here are some forms with darkvision, and even Scorpion with tremorsense 60ft. Which is very good if your GM is plaguing you with invisible foes. More options with poison - if that suits your character. Caps at spell level of 5. In the remaster now available to arcane.

Invisibility Sphere ★★★ party invisibility before an encounter only. Now called Shared Invisibility.

Lashing Rope ★★ P188 turns a rope into a melee spell attack that can trip. Not really much different apart from attack attribute over having a magical weapon.

Levitate ★★★ can’t be used offensively as you can’t move. Maybe take it till you have a way to fly. Easy way to get out of reach. Could lift a heavy object. Out of combat, it's a safe way to climb.

Lightning Bolt ★★★★ Better damage than a fireball but harder to get all the targets you want lined up.

Locate ★★★ a useful detection, but of something you have seen first.

Lotus Walk ★ ROE this is almost the same as Water Walk just higher level.

Magical Fetters ★★★ P158 a nice way to make one target clumsy, slow and vulnerable. Incapacitation.

Magnetic Acceleration ★★ SOM single target damage, the +1 to hit doesn’t really help as you are attacking AC which is typically higher. Not terrible, just not great value.

Meld into Stone ★★★ hide inside a block of stone. Might get you through a simple stone wall. Now called One with Stone

Mind of Menace ★★★ SOM a nice counterattack reaction against a mental attack. Prepared casters will definitely want this available, for Sorcerers may be worthwhile.

Mind Reading ★★ depends on how you play. Can be powerful depending on how much information the GM lets you have. You could just use skills instead.

Nondetection ★★ Now renamed to Veil of Privacy. This is not going to stop anything you are worried about. If you want to cast this you will want to cast it at high level. Good against cantrips, ie detect magic so it has a place for illusions. Hard to justify unless you have a spell book. Take Private Sanctum instead as it actually works.

Nothing Up My Sleeve ★ FB hour long bag of holding.

Noxious Metals ★★★ ROE poison damage and sickened in an area. Unfortunately the sickened mostly only applies to plants.

One with Stone★★★ PC The new Meld into Stone. Great for hiding.

Oneiric Mire ★★★ SOM illusionary difficult terrain and a speed penalty. The speed penalty persists when they leave. 3 actions to cast. Reasonable range and area. Maybe

Ooze Form ★★★★ SOM this is awesome. For sure these forms are all slow which is a major problem, but you get some really amazing abilities. It's a melee option. Immunities to critical hits and precision damage, abysmal AC, motion sense, some swimming and climbing options, acid attacks, acid resistance. Plus it scales so far up levels even level 8. There is reach, a stunning attack option. Rogues and Swashbucklers are going to hate that this is in the game and Druids will be jealous. Something to do with your last spell slot.

Organsight ★★★ SOM weirdness galore. Bonus to medicine and precision damage on a target for a minute. But you have to succeed at a lore roll or a medicine check and you have to deal slashing or precision damage (spell is OK). So if you have the right skills it is a good buff, especially if you can combo it with a reliable damage. Invisible assassins are going to like this.

Overwhelming Memory ★★★ RA single target stupefy with some other effects. Useful to sustain if they fail their save. Probably good against enemy casters.

Paralyze ★★★ single target will save. Most living things can be paralyzed. Only for one round, but your target is still stunned 1 on a successful save? It has Incapacitation which is annoying as the right place to use spells like this is when you outnumber the enemy. Better when it's heightened to multiple targets.

Perceive the Threads of Fate ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Roll twice on attack or skill check for the next 3 times you sustain this spell. Very much like 3 Sure Strikes. Now on all lists.

Percussive Impact ★★★ FB a lower damage sonic fireball that splashes and deafens.

Perseus’s Precautions ★★★ a useful precaution roll twice on initiative.

Phantom Prison ★★ this is a good concept just don’t expect that it will work as well as it sounds. If they fail their save they are trapped. But they can get another roll for every action. So basically they lose as many actions as it takes to disbelieve their prison. Heightened to 5 targets at level 8 that is cool. Use it on the right enemy. Incapacitation. I think slow is just better, but that is a fortitude save and this is will. It would be useful if they only got one save per turn against this.

Pillar of Water ★★ P152 probably should be called swimming pool of water. Good as difficult terrain or putting out fires. Might stop an animal from following you. Ok it has its uses but doesn’t seem very important.

Pyrotechnics ★★★ P152 a range of effects that requires a fire source to use. Area of effect flash for blind till end of next turn without the dreaded incapacitation trait. Or smoke for area of effect sickened and perception penalties.

Rally Point ★★ DA a prearranged short range dimension door.

Radiant Globe ★★★ SK an area of light that burns away projectiles effectively blocking physical ranged attacks and dazzling attackers. Obviously useful as your team has magic. Sustained. Contrast with Wall of Wind.

Roaring Applause ★★★★ SOM it's a single target slow, but they lose their reactions anyway. It does nothing much extra on a critical failure (maybe if you are out of combat). If your allies have Attack of Opportunity it will likely trigger that. Heightens at level 6 to multiple targets. Obviously if it is successful, sustain it and keep triggering those attacks. Deadly in the right party.

Rouse Skeletons ★★★★ SOM this is the necromancer's response to Flaming Sphere or Spiritual Weapon. A mass of skeletons that attack an area and can be moved every round when you sustain. Less damage, but also difficult terrain.

Safe Passage ★★ APG protection against hazards in an area. You really need to know that this is going to happen for this to be worth taking.

Sand Form ★★★ ROE resistance to piercing and slashing damage and immunity to bleeding.

Scrying Ripples ★★★ ROE a useful scrying spell.

Sea of Thought ★★★ DA an area of difficult terrain

Secret Page ★ not an adventuring spell

Shadow Projectile ★★★★ SOM a reaction that triggers on an ally's ranged attack. It will very likely give them flat footed on their target. Plus some extra damage. Obviously if you have an archer, especially a rogue archer, in your group this is a big bonus. Is this spell worth it? Maybe not if your 3rd level slot is your top slot, but once you get above that level it's a really nice addition to a tough fight.

Shared Invisibility ★★★ party invisibility before an encounter only. Previously called Invisibility Sphere.

Shift Blame ★★★ SOM a reaction to change the perceived origin of an attack or Deception, Diplomacy, or Intimidation check. I think it can be used well in a lot of social situations, even combat situations. Might be able to split apart fractious enemies for a round or so.

Shifting Sand ★★ G&M an area of difficult terrain that you can sustain and move around. Very odd. The other effects are not especially strong but I’m sure some people will like it.

Shrink Item ★★★ this one is a big maybe, it has a number of potential uses, talk to your GM. 80 bulk is probably what 6 strong men can carry. I’m thinking a cart or a large rowboat might be about the limit of this spell. How about a huge barrel of wine or oil? The way I read this spell you can hand the coins over to other people, and they can activate them by tossing them down. It is not supposed to be an attack spell. But if you toss the coin onto the edge of the roof of a building, then give the wagon a shove, why would it not fall? The hidden ability here is that shrink item doesn’t end if there is not enough space. So with enough small containers it is permanent until you release the item.

Slow ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ costing your enemy actions is very effective. Great when it is heightented to 10 targets. It is still very good against one target as your enemy still loses one action on a normal successful save. Whether one action is significant or not depends on the enemy and how your team plays. If all everybody does is run forward into melee then this won’t make much difference outside of a critical failure. But if the team is striking and moving back, forcing the enemy to spend actions moving as well, then this is much stronger. Useful against a boss even if he saves as you are trading two actions for one of his - that’s a good deal as you outnumber him. When heightened it is one of a small category of multitarget spells that can still be used when the enemy has engaged and is mixed in with your party.

There is a significant group of people who argue that Slow is perhaps the strongest spell in the game and deserves to be nerfed by Incapacitation. I’m not quite at that point myself but I do agree it is very effective. As far as defence against Slow - you can improve your Fortitude score, or get yourself Quickened by Haste or a Potion of Quickness. The two conditions don’t counteract each other; they coexist and effectively nullify each other.

Sparkleskin ★★★ FB a plus 2 status bonus to deception and performance checks. Dazzles close creatures when hit.

Stinking Cloud ★★★ for when you run out of obscuring mists. The spell is not totally clear, but I play that everyone rolls a save on initial casting, and if they end their turn in the area.

Tempest Cloak ★★ ROE a very limited shield. It works fine. I'm just not sure that is enough to warrant taking this spell. If you are a melee character with Terrain Advantage then go for it

Temporal Twin ★★★★ DA creates a temporal copy of a single action from an ally on your last turn. They have to have a reaction to use it. Seems like replaying the Barbarians Strike is a pretty good option. But there is a lot of flexibility here.

Thief of Fortune ★★ RA counter and steal a buff spell that someone else casts. This is going to be very table dependent, how often does your GM do this. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Time Jump ★★★★ two moves for the price of one action plus a third level spell slot. Poor value early. Important at higher levels as it is a cheaper escape spell. Note that you seem to teleport, you don’t actually teleport, so the move has to be possible.

Time Pocket ★★ DA hides one bulk item for a day or till you want it.

Trade Items ★★★ SK swap an item with an item on another creature. Given that you can be holding something of low value, this spell is basically stealing an item as a reflex save. What if you are holding something dangerous?

Transcribe Conflict ★★ KM Recall knowledge about certain enemies to get an initiative bonus.

Travel by Turtle ★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Summon a turtle to serve as your boat. Heightens for more passengers.

Unseasonable Squall ★★★ P151 ranged area burst of wind that knocks people prone. Very good against flyers.

Vampiric Touch ★★★★ range touch drain and temporary healing. Better if you can add range to it. Still a good option in combination with a weapon attack. In the remaster this is called Vampiric Feast

Vampiric Feast ★★★★ PC range touch drain and temporary healing. Better if you can add range to it. Renamed from Vampiric Touch

Veil of Privacy ★★ Renamed from Nondetection. This is not going to stop anything you are worried about. If you want to cast this you will want to cast it at high level. Good against cantrips, ie detect magic so it has a place for illusions. Hard to justify unless you have a spell book. Take Private Sanctum instead as it actually works.

Wall of Virtue ★★ KOL create a wall of light that does damage as you pass through.

Wall of Radiance ★★★ P172 DM a wall of concealment which is useful defensively if you can make your enemy come to you. Take fire damage when you pass through it. Heightens for more damage.

Wall of Shadows ★★ P172 DM a line of darkness, useful to hide or fight behind. I’d give it an extra star but I think normal Darkness does a better job at lower level.

Wall of Thorns ★★★★ wall spells are good and this is the lowest level solid one. Separate a group of enemies for a round or two - it’s all you’ll need. Give the party a chance to run away or just take out half of your enemies while the other half can’t get to you. Cover from ranged attacks. In the remaster now available to arcane.

Wall of Water ★★★★ SOM an interesting wall. I think it was good value if you can breathe water, or defend just behind it. Because you have to swim through the wall it will cost actions. They have to stop moving and use another movement action to get through. They also can’t step in water, only stride. If you have long range piercing weapons or polearms, it won’t hurt you much. So you may be able to force them to come to you. But against certain enemies it's just not going to be useful. If they have lots of archers then use Wall of Wind instead.

Wall of Wind ★★★ situational, but good if you have a lot of direct damage spells and they have archers.

Warding Aggression ★★ SOM this is a defence for someone who is casting spells and meleeing like a Magus.

Web of Eyes ★★ SOM party TV. Cute but a verbal description is normally enough.

Wooden Double ★★★★ ROE a reaction to negate most of a critical hit.

Arcane 4th level spells

Heightened spells: Darkness even if they have darkvision, Pest Form gets flight, Sleep is save or be unconscious, Enlarge is size huge, more damage and more reach, Invisibility keeps working even after you attack, Web at this level is big enough to waste a full turn on a normal failure, Phantom Steed can walk on water and ignore difficult terrain. Thermal Remedy is 10 hit points for the party for 2 hours. Blazing Armory is for everyone. Carryall becomes useful as it flies and can carry people for 8 hours.

Aerial Form ★★★ fly via polymorph. Echo location. A combat form ?

Airlift ★★★★ ROE party fly once for 60 ft. Cute if nobody else can fly as you can get everyone. But it is a one off move. It can be used offensively against enemies.

Aromatic Lure ★★★ LOL Rare. Incapacitation. Stupefied by smells. Odd in that it does not require the target to have a good sense of smell. But if they fail they have to go to a specific square for a round. It's a great way to waste their turn for certain monsters.

Bestial Curse ★★★ APG clumsiness, weakness and a flat check of 5 to do any manipulate actions.

Blink ★★★★ resistance to almost everything, optional sustain to random 10ft teleport. Very different from previous editions. Flicker is the remastered name

Bridge of Vines ★★ RA a spell to create some favourable terrain or a bridge. Better if you have a spell book.

Call the Blood ★★★ P165 I’ve been reading the wrong. It is really only for negative healing casters. It's damage with a minor bonus for yourself.

Chromatic Armor ★★ SOM dazzle attackers that melee at close range. Plus 3 mostly random types of resistance. Quite good as a precombat buff if you are going to be in melee a lot. Possibility to get sonic/mental/force resistance which is difficult to get other ways, but it's totally random. Can only dazzle every other turn. It's complex and too weak.

Chromatic Ray ★★ SOM a single target attack spell with a random effect. The damage can be good, but I’d always rather choose.

Cinder Swarm ★★★★ ROE sustainable damage that is centred on one creature, but is a small area. Like Flaming Sphere but they can’t run away from it. You have a choice of using reflex or fortitude versions.

Clairvoyance ★★★ a good choice, you do need a spying tool. Could be effective directly with Seeker Arrow depending on how your GM views it.Not that because it doesn’t require line of effect you can create this effect on the other side of a wall.

Clownish Curse ★ P152 inflicts penalties to stealth and thievery for an hour or so. Ok but a bit narrow. Attack tag here is wrong, ignore it.

Compel True Name ★ SOM Rare Incapacitation requires the target's true name. Just so rare to be useful and probably not much more effective than a normal charm or suggestion in most cases.

Confusion ★★★★ single target confusion, level 8 before it is multitarget. Effective on a boss or a caster who wants to do something other than strike or use a cantrip. Not particularly effective if you can easily flank your enemy anyway and they are just going to swing at you anyway. So if you have ranged strikers in your party it's good, less so if you have several people who will charge into melee.

Containment was called Resilient Sphere ★★★★ lock one creature away for a short while. Still useful if they make their save.

Coral Eruption ★★★ SOM burst damage in 2 x 10ft bursts for mild damage. But difficult terrain that damages as you move through it. Create difficult terrain that damages those who move through it. The targeting is quite good and the area is flexible and large enough to be useful. I think in the end the total damage will be good enough and it will likely cost your enemy an action or two on top of the damage.

Countless Eyes ★★★ APG protection from being flanked

Creation ★ what is a good way to use this?

Daydreamer’s Curse ★ P164 a curse. A quite effective debuff. But not effective in combat unless you are playing a hiding game. Attack tag here is wrong, ignore it.

Detect Creator ★ KOL find who created an Undead. Useful but too narrow for a sorcerer.

Detect Scrying ★ the sort of spell you want only rarely.

Dimension Door ★★★★ short range teleport. Very handy. Question: would a swarm stop this from working? Maybe. Ask your GM if you can take your familiar with you. In the remaster this is renamed to Translocate

Dimensional Anchor ★★ stopping an enemy teleporting away is too narrow for a Sorcerer to want every day. But put it in your spell book. Remastered name change to Planar Tether

Discern Lies ★★ you could use it a fair bit, but you could also use skills instead.

Dispelling Globe★★★ protects against all spells. But it is immobile, and there is one level lower counteract. So this is like an extra 50% defence against magic up to the level of the globe. Useful. Old name was Globe of Invulnerability.

Draw the Lightning ★★★★ SOM, a very cinematic spell. Strike a foe and charge your weapon. Better on a Stormy sky. Great if you are a martial or like to mix in weapon attacks with your spells. Probably combines with most battle forms.

Dull Ambition ★★ APG gives the target the worst of two initiative rolls for a day. So it should be used before combat? This is going to be difficult to get off.

Elemental Sense ★★★ ROE gain one of a range of special senses for 10 minutes. Most are imprecise except in special circumstances. Heightened to 6th level it is 8 hours. Very useful.

Enervation ★★★★ APG persistent negative damage in a line.

Enhance Senses ★★★ KOL double the range of your imprecise senses.

Entangle Fate ★★★ P197 targets 2 to 4 creatures within range. Makes them off-guard and probably stupefied. Party safe. Useful debuff.

False Nature ★ DA a forget style illusion for an object. Cute but narrow.

Favorable Review ★ P152 make a target think the performance was good. Pretty narrow, given that this is probably being done by a bard with an actually good performance skill.

Deathless March ★★★★ WTD4 an emanation that quickens undead and frightens living creatures. Obviously for team undead only, but like all emanations the caster can exclude themselves.

Filter Air ★★★ BC Reaction. A defensive buff to give you better saves against inhaled poisons and diseases. Prepared casters will like this in their books. As a sorcerer I’d only take this if I was using such spells myself.

Fire Shield ★★★ reactive defence. Better if your enemies don’t have ranged options or if you are planning on getting into melee.

Flicker ★★★★ resistance to almost everything, optional sustain to random 10ft teleport. Very different from previous editions. Blink is the original name

Fly ★★★★ too flexible to ignore better when heightened for an hour duration. Pity you don’t get air walk which is just better as you don’t have to spend an action to hover.

Forgotten Lines ★ never going to get used except by a professional librarian.

Freedom of Movement ★★★ helps with a wide range of conditions. Not full immunity as it used to be in older d20 games, but still very useful. In the remaster the name becomes Unfettered Movement.

Gaseous Form ★ It has its uses but resistance 8 is not immunity to damage. It is more like a death trap.. Generally Fly will be better. You have other means of infiltration or escape that don’t stop you from doing things. Remastered name is Vapor Form. Technically you can’t even Escape in this form - it is a Trap. Only take it if your GM is going to allow it to be useful.

Glass Form ★★★ ROE a weird set of benefits and penalties. Useful if you want to be permanently concealed so you can hide even in plain sight, or if you are being tracked by scent and very certain damage types but not others. You will need to think about this one.

Globe of Invulnerability ★★★ protects against all spells. But it is immobile, and there is one level lower counteract. So invulnerable is a big overstatement of how effective this is. New name is Dispelling Globe.

Grasp of the Deep ★★★★ ROE a ranged grapple with modest damage.

Grasping Earth ★★★★ ROE a ranged area grapple..

Hallucinatory Terrain ★★★ an illusion with a good duration. But you’ll have to think about how to use it. An illusionary moat, a pit of lava, a meadow of heather over a real pit, a bridge with no missing planks …. Now called Mirage.

Ice Storm ★★★ APG difficult terrain, cold and bludgeoning damage in a small large area (errated to 20ft burst). Minor damage persists without being sustained.

Infiltrator's Tunnel ★★★ NPC creates a teleport tunnel only you can use. Unfortunately you will only be able to use it like a real tunnel if you can see the other side. However something like Share Senses, or Beastmaster Trance or Clairvoyance will work. Can heighten to get more people through.

Invisibility Curtain ★★★ SOM a new concept. A wall of invisibility to hide behind. Will require some thinking about how to use it. Perhaps a good way to prepare an ambush. Nice if you can fight behind it and keep your enemies out, which you can do from spell level 7. Providing you don’t have to hunt enemies down, this can be very effective as a portable fort.

It Is Written ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Get a big bonus on your next d20 check

Life-Draining Roots ★★★ ROE a bit of damage in a straight line. With a tiny amount of hit points for you.

Liminal Doorway★★★ a good place to hide for the night. Not reliably safe, but with some thought it is probably still good. Based of the Rope Trick spell.

Magic Mailbox ★ SOM teleport between two containers. Nice for smuggling or setting long range comms, but not a normal adventuring pick. Maybe if you have a spellbook. Should be a ritual instead.

Mercurial Stride ★★★★ ROE double move through an enemy and do poison damage. In some ways better than a dimension door.

Mirage ★★★ PC an illusion with a good duration. But you’ll have to think about how to use it. An illusionary moat, a pit of lava, a meadow of heather over a real pit, a bridge with no missing planks …. Was called Hallucinatory Terrain

Mirror’s Misfortune ★★ SOM a spell designed to inflict misfortune on an opponent. Meaning that they will likely miss their next couple of attacks. An interesting debuff that will be reliable against most low to mid intelligence enemies.

Misty Memory ★★ ROE review something that happened near a body of water in the last day. It is a bit narrow.

Mountain Resilience ★★★★ PC a solid buff heightens well. It was called Stoneskin.

Morass of Ages ★★ DA generates difficult terrain and slows people down close to you. Probably too slow to be much use.

Mutilate ★★ P209 mutilate yourself in order to do slashing damage to an enemy. Not enough damage. For 3 action you get a burst effect.

Necrotic Radiation ★★★ up to 24 hour area or object denial with ongoing necrotic damage.

Nightmare ★ so ineffective.

Ocular Overload ★★★ SOM a defensive reaction to give an attacker a miss chance against you. Good but only when you have spare spell slots of this level.

Outcast's Curse ★★ a good social curse. But that is not something I’d need day to day.

Peaceful Bubble ★★★ PC replaces Private Sanctum. Creates a sound/sight/scrying proof area. A better non detection as it actually works.

Pest Swarm ★★★ BC incarnate swarm of various pests. Lots of low damage options. Very flexible but not especially strong. Probably a good choice if you know your enemies weaknesses.

Phantasmal Killer ★★★★ good mental attack. Does real damage, a chance they will run away or just die. Heightens for extra damage. The spell gets updated in the remaster to Vision of Death.

Planar Tether ★★ stopping an enemy teleporting away is too narrow for a Sorcerer to want every day. But put it in your spell book. Was named Dimensional Anchor

Private Sanctum ★★★ creates a sound/sight/scrying proof area. A better non detection as it actually works. Replaced by Peaceful Bubble

Procyal Philosophy ★★★★★ P183 summon a sage to aid anyone doing anything. A useful option. One of very few ways to add a numerical bonus on the arcane list.

Prophet's Luck ★★★ P197 bet on the dice. Cast as a reaction to give a status bonus or penalty. If you get it right you get further status bonus to saving throws. Useful if you or your allies have annoying runs of luck or you just like to bet. Better at higher levels when all the status bonuses increase.

Ranage's Circle ★★★ RA immobilize a target at range.

Ravenous Portal ★★ SOM might be useful in a dungeon crawl. Potentially turns a door into an ally if the enemy tries to go through it. For running away I guess.

Rebounding Barrier ★★ SOM burns a level 4 spell slot into a shield block, with some minor damage to the attacker. Extra damage when you have extra slots. A shield works better I think. It just seems Stoneskin is a better option if you have the time.

Reflective Scales ★★ G&M scalable resistance to energy or poison damage. But with a burst explosion option when you are done with them. The problem is that many creatures are immune to the type of energy damage that they deal out, the duration is only one minute. Ideally you would like to be able to take the scales into the next encounter.

Replicate ★★★★ SOM create an illusionary double of a PC or even a creature you have just knocked out. Useful for infiltration.

Resilient Sphere ★★★★ lock one creature away for a short while. Still useful if they make their save. Now called Containment.

Rigid Form ★ ROE protection from polymorph. Only against very specific opponents. Put it in your spell book.

Rope Trick ★★★ a good place to hide for the night. Not as reliably safe as it used to be, but with some thought it is probably still good. The spell is remastered as Liminal Doorway.

Rust Cloud ★★★★★ ROE good damage in a burst but conceals your targets. Really strong if you set up for it by having forced movement options to shove enemies back into the area plus your martials have Blindsight or Goz Masks so they don’t take the concealment penalty. The damage area continues for a minute and triggers on start of turn so they can’t avoid it if you push them back in.

Sanguine Mist SOM ★★ an area effect drain that does small damage and doesn’t seem to work very well. Though you do eventually get a tiny amount of temporary hitpoints. Not strong enough.

Savant’s Curse ★ P164 a fairly useless curse

Seal Fate ★ APG inflicts weakness for a minute or so. It is far too weak to be relevant at this level.

Shape Stone ★★★★ a poor mans’ passwall spell. Block a corridor really well. Fast enough to do little tricks in combat with it. Instant wall or cover at just the right spot.

Sliding Blocks ★★★★ ROE a weird spell. It is like a small wall you can move. You can use this as a wall, or maybe like a flying carpet as you can climb on it and levitate around. Good in narrow dungeons.

Soft Landing ★★ DA an air bag to protect everyone from falling damage. Perhaps it is a bit specific, but you might be in a game where this is regularly needed.

Solid Fog ★★★★ another obscuring mist spell with difficult terrain.

Spell Immunity ★★★ flexible but there is a counteract check. Its saving grace is the 24 hours duration, so you can cast it yesterday. Two main use cases are if you know the spells your enemy is likely to cast. Or if you want to make yourself or an ally 55% immune to one of your spells. Say for example if you put spell immunity and have a resistance effect it may be Ok to fireball a party member if they get surrounded. Do you need immunity to heal as your cleric likes to spam it but you have negative healing?

Steal Voice ★★★ P186 as making someone mute stops normal spell casting; this spell has Incapacitation. It still can be very handy though it is unlikely to work on a boss.

Stifling Stillness ★★★★ ROE a damaging poison area and Fatigued unless you hold your breath. Enemies are unlikely to be doing this already so this is a no save Fatigued (-1AC and -1 Saves). Otherwise this would be fairly mild.

Stonesense ★★ P194 tremorsense for a minute. Not as good as Tremorsense unless you really need the extra range.

Stoneskin ★★★★ a solid defensive option. Now called Mountain Resilience.

Suggestion ★★★★ I’d like this spell at any level. So effective, so flexible, so much fun. But note Incapacitation. The remaster Suggestion now has the Subtle trait. So it means you can cast it without most people noticing. This makes it a lot more useful.

Swarming Wasp Stings ★★★ P160 area effect clumsy and slow poison damage. I guess it's OK but I find such spells a bit slow.

Telepathy ★★ useful but a bit short range.

Translocate ★★★★ short range teleport. Formerly known as Dimension Door.

Trickster’s Feathers ★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. An improved version of Illusory Disguise

Umbral Graft ★★★ SOM steal or counter a spell using a Thievery check.

Unfettered Movement ★★★ PC was called Freedom of Movement This helps with a wide range of conditions. Not full immunity as it used to be in older d20 games, but still very useful.

Vampiric Maiden ★★★ APG piercing and negative damage. Temporary hitpoints for the caster. Immobilised till their turn.

Vapor Form ★ PC Originally called Gaseous Form It has its uses but resistance 8 is not immunity to damage. It is more like a death trap. Generally Fly will be better. You have other means of infiltration or escape that don’t stop you from doing things. Technically you can’t even Escape in this form - it is a Trap. Only take it if your GM is going to allow it to be useful.

Variable Gravity ★ SOM make yourself heavy or light for very minor benefits.

Veil ★★★★ party disguise. If your GM just allows it to work, monsters shouldn’t normally get a check to notice, then this spell is good.

There is no saving throw and you can put it on enemies. So this is going to be effective for general free form chaos, and wasted actions - totally dependent on what the GM will do with your opponents when you “polymorph” half his monsters. At level 5 it could mask a creature's scent if they had a damaging scent aura which some do, and also will make it a bit hard for a group of monsters to trust their allies as they won’t even sound the same. The right thing is for the GM to do is to have the creatures waste actions to make a disbelieve check, that is how all illusions work.

Vision of Beauty ★ KM this spell has Incapacitation and I can’t work out why. It is very weak. Maybe against solo bosses.

Vision of Death ★★★★ PC good mental attack. Does real damage, a chance they will run away or just die. Heightens for extra damage. The spell is based on Phantasmal Killer. It has been simplified to remove the partial incapacitation trait but is no longer an illusion and does more damage on the critical..

Wall of Fire ★★★★ wall spells are good. This one does damage to any creature in it at the start of their turn. No saving throw. So it's really useful to push people into it. Especially if your team has forced movement, shove, and grapple options.

Wall of Mirrors ★★★★ P197 an effective wall that blocks sight and movement. Damages whoever Strikes it.

Weapon Storm ★★★ reasonable damage area of effect spell with no range. Just make sure you have a d12 weapon on hand. You don’t have to be proficient in it. If you see a Sorcerer with a greatsword, you know what is coming.

Winning Streak ★★★ SOM one action spell to quicken an ally. It infectiously spreads amongst allies with everyone keeping the effect providing some gets a critical attack roll. I probably wouldn’t use it if this was my top spell slot. But if you have a large party with a few bonuses set up and martials who like to flurry attacks I imagine this can work reasonably well.

Ymeri's Mark ★★★ ROE this is a tracer spell that you put on a target that you release, so you can follow it to its lair. That is probably useful enough to take in general adventuring. I have a treasure hungry player who will love this. The actual damage is minor.

Zephyr Slip ★★★★ ROE a reaction to fly away when a creature gets next to you. It doesn’t actually give you flight though. Better if you have your own flight or glide available.

Arcane 5th level spells

Heightened spells: Command ten creatures, See Invisibility 8 hours, Spider Climb hour long, Dimension Door you no longer need line of sight, Hallucinatory Terrain can now hide structures, Veil gets voices and scent, Impeccable Flow is now +2 to saves, Locate can now find specific creatures. Tremorsense lasts 8 hours.

Acid Storm ★★ G&M DM acid damage over an area. It is low damage, but it keeps on going each round. A good way to get someone to give up a position. Acid is rarely resisted. But typically one lot of damage straight up is normally much better they have to take the damage 3 times before it would be as good as Fireball

Ancestral Winds ★★★ P209 a mixed effect ranged burst. Causes fear and a little void damage.

Bandit’s Doom ★★ SOM trap an item so only limited people can use it. A useful little trick. But probably too complex for everyday use.

Banishment ★ the saving throw is good but for Incapacitation, but obviously only on selected targets. Do you really want a spell that only works on “little” demons? Ok for prepared casters.

Belittling Boast ★★★ FB a combined intimidation and Bane? No, not that strong. Maybe there is some action economy efficiency going on here.

Black Tentacles ★★★★ lowish damage area of effect grapple that is Fort based. It will notch up a good amount of damage over time. Escaping it is not too hard for most creatures but it will typically cost them a check or attack plus a move meaning they have wasted a turn. Very popular. Replaced by Slither.

Blazing Fissure ★★★★ SOM line of effect damage and prone just on a normal failure. No range? 120ft I guess.

Blind Eye ★ P182 stop equipment from being used to scry, or cast scrying magic for a day. Very narrow.

Blinding Bottle ★★★★ BC a huge area save or blind effect with some poison damage. The poison progresses rapidly and the blindness will continue until they can make the saves to beat the affliction. The Incapacitation is only on the subsequent saving throws.

Blinding Foam ★★★ FB Incapacitation - a spell attack (which means use this with Sure Strike) that blinds and does modest acid damage.

Blink Charge ★★★ SOM teleport and strike with some bonus force damage. A bit like the barbarians/fighter’s Sudden Charge. Who is this for - it plays like a Magus? Most GM will probably let you get away with using this as a slow dimension door.

Blister ★★★★ APG awesome plague effect probably 14d6 acid on the target plus a 15 ft cone around him. Higher damage because there is an initial save, then a save for each blister. But if your target has a bad fortitude save he is in trouble.

Blood Feast ★★★ a melee bite for 12d6 damage plus temporary hit points. Vampiric Touch for Magus

Boomerang Shot ★★ P203 a weak spell attack for bludgeoning damage.

Chromatic Wall ★★ a wall. Which you can walk through. It is just not strong enough, a lot of opponents will just choose to go through it. The random effect makes it difficult to count on. You would have been better off just using a stronger area of effect damage spell instead. Or just cast a better wall.

Cloak of Colors ★ attackers that hit get blinded, or stunned. Retriggers once every round. Put this on your barbarian friend. There is a really sneaky Incapacitation marker in here. Sorry but I have to downgrade this as it triggers only when you are hit and lasts for a round. Targeting is when being blinded would matter, and that occurs before you would hit. So this spell is almost non functional. Take it only if your GM lets it work.

Cloudkill ★★★ recurrent poison damage if you can keep pushing them into the cloud. Can be very strong if your team is built to use it. New name in the remaster is Toxic Cloud.

Cone of Cold ★★★ reflex save, good damage. Replaced by Howling Blizzard

Control Water ★★ The main problem with this spell is it doesn't say what it does. Is it raising the level of water that is already there, or is it creating water? It is an Evocation but the title is says Control. There is no duration so the water probably returns to normal if it's not trapped somehow, how long does that take. What happens if you cast it on a small pool is it still going to work? Say you tip over a barrel of water, can you then fill a room with water?(with Shrink Item you can have one on hand). Is it going to break a boat when you lift it up by raising the water, which then lets go and drops it. Perhaps it will just swamp a boat and sink it. Maybe it's useful. I suspect its potential to radically transform a lot of encounters will have most GMs reaching for reasons to nerf it. Talk to your GM.

Corrosive Muck ★★★ PC2 make 2 pools of acid. Better damage than Acid Storm.

Crushing Despair ★★★★ a cone area of effect slow.This is good but it is harder to use as it will affect your friends. New name is Wave of Despair

Desperate Repair ★★ BC KOL save a shield from being destroyed as a reaction. Useful I guess but not to most casters.

Diadem of Divine Radiance ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Make ranged spirit attacks for the duration. The damage is Ok but your attack bonus will be very high.

Domora's Defense ★★★ RA grants shield to 3 creatures.

Drop Dead ★★★ protect an ally with an illusionary dead body. Who says you don’t have healing spells.

Elemental Breath ★★★ ROE a damage blast with flexible types. Some good options. I suspect prepared caster will value this more than Sorcerers.

Elemental Form ★★ These forms have darkvision and 2 use Dexterity. The classic form elemental forms all have their uses. Air is very good at speed and evasion, an excellent run away form. Fire for setting things on fire. Earth for burrowing. Water for shoving. But typically for combat, try another form. This is not a combat option, because you can’t cast in a battle form and the attack is just not strong enough to be a good tactic.

Engrave Memory ★ ROE engrave a memory inside a stone. This is plot specific and not normally of any use. Pen and paper works.

Entwined Roots ★★★★ ROE party damage resistance of 5 to piercing and bludgeoning damage. Scales up.

Etheric Shards ★★★ DA ethereal caltrops? It has a use.

False Vision ★ unless you are playing scry and seek you don’t need this. Very specific. Might be Ok for a wizard to have in their book.

Fire's Pathway ★★★ ROE out of combat teleport through fire.

Flame Dancer ★★★★ ROE a 2d6 fire damage buff for an ally with an unarmed attack. Allows them to use performance to intimidate. If you have such an ally or have the performance skill this is good.

Flames of Ego ★★★★ ROE well fascination and Incapacitation is normally enough to rule a spell out. But this can work. If you delay your turn till just before your opponent you have a good chance of wasting their turn. Even if they succeed it will waste one action.

Flammable Fumes ★★★ SOM delayed blast fireball. You can’t detonate it till a round has passed. Superficially it looks bad. But then you realise it has no saving throw. They either get out of the area or don’t. Suddenly forced movement, blocking and grappling become important. With tactics this can be very nice.

Flowing Strike ★★★ SOM a water themed move, strike and push. A bit Magus-like.

Forceful Hand ★★★★ SOM a utility hand of force. At level five it is just a shield effect, At higher levels you can also do a push, grapple, punch on a sustain. I mean maybe a summoning spell could do much the same thing. But it's still a useful blocker with a repeatable attack effect.

Freezing Rain ★★★★ ROE a sustainable moveable area of minor damage and slow.

Geyser ★★★ SOM a really long range attack. It does almost the same total damage as a Fireball on a smaller area, unless you want to use or can see through the concealed effect. Don’t forget the falling damage and that they are prone.

Glimmer of Charm ★★★★ SOM A real charm that affects everyone around you. Can handle a room full of enemies, but it's better if they aren’t already hostile to you. Incapacitation

Grisly Growths ★★★ APG 10d6 instant cancer plus sickened for everyone, including the caster if they are close enough.

Hallucination ★★/★★★★ well played it might make someone change sides for a while. Could be useful. Will require some thought and scheming. Incapacitation. Worthwhile when heightened to multitarget.

Howling Blizzard ★★★★ PC An improved Cone of Cold slightly less damage but creates difficult terrain and has a long range area blast. It is just easy to use well.

Illusory Scene ★★ a complex eventually permanent illusion. For defending your lair not adventuring

Imaginary Lockbox ★ PC2 this is a simple haulage spell like Floating Disk but invisible and lasts all day. Has some value for smuggling. Are you going to need it?

Impaling Spike ★★★ APG 8d6 piercing plus immobilised.

Incendiary Fog ★★★ P177 a fireball effect or an expensive obscuring mist. You can probably use this to play a few good tricks. Sadly it doesn’t scale at all but the damage is respectable for its level.

Infectious Comedy ★★★★ P185 stops enemies from using reactions and slows them. This is like an infectious

Hideous Laughter

Instant Minefield ★★★★ BC subtly creates mines on the battlefield. Great with forced movement or obvious movement paths. The damage is very good if you can get the enemy to trigger multiple mines.

Invoke Spirits ★★★ SOM A moving sustainable area of damage. Like Rouse Skeletons. Not a lot of damage, but there is a fleeing effect on a critical failure.

King's Castle ★★ SK swap location with an ally, teleport up to 60ft. Useful but I’m always going to want to choose something else like Translocate instead. Perhaps if I wanted to swap places with a minion?

Lashunta's Life Bubble ★ P187 This is a space suit / deep diving suit for 8 hours. It works but Water Breathing is most of what you need for the whole party. So while this works, you are very unlikely to want to take it.

Magic Passage ★★★ bypass the GMs traps, attack through the side entrance. An effective response to Wall of Stone . The new name for Passwall.

Mantle of the Frozen Heart ★★★ SOM a nice ice based self buff. Choose two out of 4 benefits and you can change your mind.

Mantle of the Magma Heart ★★★ SOM a nice magma based self buff.

Mantle of the Melting Heart ★★★ ROE choose one out of 4 benefits: Electrical resistance, poison immunity.

Scouting Eye

Mantle of the Unwavering Heart ★★★★ ROE choose one out of 4 benefits, but you probably want the first 2: fast healing and an odour aura to sicken creatures. Obviously for a martial caster who might get into melee.

Mariner's Curse ★ I’m not seeing the point of this.

Mind Probe ★★ we don’t torture our prisoners at all. Some characters will want this as an interrogation technique. To me this is the sort of thing you should be doing with skills.

Mirror Malefactors ★★★ SOM inflicts frightened and sustainable mental damage on a will save. Ends when they make their save. Can do a lot of damage if they have bad will saving throws.

Passwall ★★★ bypass the GMs traps, attack through the side entrance. An effective response to Wall of Stone . In the remaster it is given a new name Magic Passage.

Pillars of Sand ★★★★ successive create pillars of sand to pin targets against the ceiling. If they succeed, sustain and do it again, and again even forcing them to reroll in the same turn.

Pressure Zone ★★★ ROE a long range, good area, short term clumsy debuff. Great if you have a horde coming at you.

Prying Eye ★★★ good safe scouting spell. Renamed to Scouting Eye

Quicken Time ★★★ DA haste and concealment in a fixed area.

Return Beacon ★★ P166 a return home spell. The limitations on the duration and range mean that it is not a great spell.

Rewinding Step ★★★ SOM better as this is a single action to go home.

Ritual Obstruction ★ P182 stops rituals occurring here for a day. So while this works, you are very unlikely to want to take it.

Scouring Pulse ★★★ KOL a nice blast that lights up undead.

Scouting Eye ★★★ PC a good safe scouting spell. Renamed from Prying Eye

Secret Chest ★★★ APG a temporary bag of holding

Sending ★★ long range communication. You probably want it, but Teleport can handle this next level.

Shadow Siphon ★★★★★ a reaction counterspell with a built in bonus but only against a damaging effect. Widely useful party defence.

Shadow Walk ★★★★ 20 days travel in 1 day for the whole party. 1 minute to cast. Teleport light.

Shock and Awe ★★★★ BC a very large area fear and stunning spell. It doesn’t get the fleeing result on critical failure but the stun is effective.

Slither ★★★★ PC The remastered version of Black Tentacles. Grabs and can potentially restrain creatures in an area.Modest damage.but still useful.

Stagnate Time ★ DA a terrible fixed location slow spell.

Subconscious Suggestion ★★★ triggered suggestion. Subtle.

Summon Dragon ★★★ some types of enemies are very vulnerable to flyers with breath weapons. It's also a good way to prepare a local population to believe your illusions.

Telekinetic Haul ★★★ move big objects around with your mind. Sustainable and reusable. I think the target object means you can’t pick up allies or enemies directly, unless they are in a cart. No restrictions on dropping things. No save.

Telepathic Bond ★★★ secure radio system for the team. Lasts 8 hours.

Temporary Glyph ★★ SOM Compare this to Glyph of Warding. Temporary Glyph only lasts for a minute, can only be a two action spell, but you can cast it in 3 actions. I don’t think you will normally use this, as its main purpose is for creating a trap. It will always cost you another spell to use. Tactically I can see its value. I just think that you are better off casting a buff on yourself. Maybe if you are going to get a couple of rounds to set up then this is a good idea.

Tongues ★★★ any language all at once. A bit better than Comprehend Language but is it enough that you want to spend the higher level slot for it. Renamed to Truespeech.

Toxic Cloud ★★★ PC recurrent poison damage if you can keep pushing them into the cloud. Can be very strong if your team is built to use it. A relabelled Cloudkill.

Transmute Rock and Mud ★★ APG permanent and can be cast in reverse. No difficulty given for the escape roll. Doesn’t seem strong enough

Truespeech ★★★ PC just the new name for Tongues. No changes.

Umbral Journey ★★★★ 24 days travel in 1 day for the whole party. 1 minute to cast. Teleport light. Was called Shadow Walk

Wall of Ice ★★ a wall that stops movement, but why would you take it over…

Wall of Stone ★★★★★ a bigger, tougher wall that is permanent. The best wall. Unlike Wall of Force it is shapeable into different things. Always one of the top spells in the game and one of the few that hasn’t been depowered in this edition. This spell is designed to be a barrier, normally for the purpose of keeping some or all of the enemy away for a few rounds. Note that walls don’t typically have a saving throw or attack roll - they just work. Eventually the enemy will be able to batter it down. It has some good utility use as well. In terms of making a bridge/stairs etc.

However, expect that some GMs will object if you enclose enemies in individual little boxes of stone, or if you try to drop it on enemies. This spell is a good reason to have some sort of teleportation effect available, though the line of effect rules might stop you (typically you have to be able to see where you are going). Defensively a flight ability outside will help, but if your enemy is using it a lot you need a Passwall, a disintegrate, a teleport, or just be strong enough to smash it down in a few hits. You can’t dispel this wall like the D&D5 version.

Limits some GMs put on the spell to tone it down:

Maximum width, height. You can’t fully cover a 30’x30’ gap, only up to 120’x20’ as a maximum.
No doubling up on the breadth to make it stronger.
The walls rules say The path of a shaped wall can’t enter the same space more than once, but it can double back so one section is adjacent to another section of the wall. Which means you can’t run the edge of the wall back over itself.
It’s a wall so it can be argued it has to exist as one folded plane. Each section has to be placed next to the previous section like a wall. So perhaps you can’t fold the top over into a box or a house shape. Which means that you can fly or climb out. But given most dungeons have ceilings, that often doesn’t matter.
Its edges can’t pass through objects can be interpreted too harshly to insist it can have gaps under it as it must be on one level, so it doesn’t work well on broken ground.
It can’t be placed horizontally - this is just wrong as the spell says otherwise. It can clearly be rotated 3 dimensionally.
Insist that the wall must be 20ft high exactly as you can grammatically infer that the up to only applies to the 120ft.

But each of these is arguable. I typically go with the first 3 limits here and don’t accept the rest.

I also always have larger creatures bash larger holes in the wall, not little 5x5 sections which would doom them to being trapped for a very long time.

To defend yourself versus this spell pick up an Insistent Door Knocker

Wave of Despair ★★★★ PC a cone area of effect slow.This is good but it is harder to use as it will affect your friends. Old name was Crushing Despair

Wisdom of the Winds ★★★ ROE some free advice from the wind.

Wyvern Sting ★★ SOM a range touch poison attack. Serious ongoing damage. I think this spell will suit assassins who like to make an attack then escape. I just find it too slow to kill your enemies for general adventuring use.

Arcane 6th level spells

Heightened spells: Hallucination, Slow and Roaring Applause target up to ten creatures, Enlarge for the whole party, Phantom Steed can fly for 8 hours, Stoneskin at resistance 10 is great. Elemental Sense is 8 hours. Fireproof becomes permanent. Heatvision is all day.

Arrow Salvo ★★★★ ROE fairly comparable damage to a fireball. Shorter range but bigger burst radius.

Aura of the Unremarkable ★★★★ SOM the classic SEP field. Very nice to see it in this game now. An infiltration or escape spell. Like a party invisibility, but it's not. The area or the duration are limits (curiously the area is not big enough to do what is described in the text). But it still does something very useful that wasn’t in the game before.

Awaken Entropy ★★★★ DA a sustainable ranged burst of Negative or Force damage. Very effective if you want an enemy to move, or if they can’t move.

Baleful Polymorph ★ toad. A fun save or suck spell. Useful even on a normal failed save. Game over on a critical fail. But only useful on minions because of Incapacitation. I’m just not going to use it when I have better options. Single target save or suck is always a bit hit or miss, but now I have to worry about the level of the enemy? Why would I use one of my big spell slots for this? Remastered spell name is Cursed Metamorphosis

A stat block for a harmless creature would be nice. I can’t find one even in the bestiary. For now I suggest using the stats from Pest Form.

Boots on the Ground ★★★ BC a day long illusion of there being more troops on your side. This is hard to rate as this is mostly an out of combat illusion to convince potential enemies not to bother with you. In combat it will chew up some enemy actions but not yours as you already had it cast, so in a sense it has the action efficiency associated with spells like Contingency. I assume that you can get the illusionary troops to follow you around though the spell is not clear. There is no disbelieve roll associated with this spell - by default illusions need to mention disbelief explicitly. Tactically some of this sort of effect can already be done with normal illusions like Illusory Creature. Some players are going to really love this spell.

Bound in Death ★★★ P186 a life link that you inflict on your enemy. If he fails his save he will take half the damage instead of you once per turn. You can choose to take more damage yourself to hurt him, but that will require some thought.

Cast into Time ★★★ SOM a cone area damage spell a mix of mental and bludgeoning damage. Plus it inflicts sickened. Technically the targets disappear - even on a normal success - till the end of your turn. Which means it’s really nice if you wanted to move through them, or if there is something else you can do to take advantage of that.

Catch your Name ★ SOM more true name madness. I mean in the stories knowing someone's true name was devastating. I haven’t seen anything beyond a whimper so far. There has got to be a better balance point for these spells.

Chain Lightning ★★★★ one of the best multi target damage spells in the game, none of the side effects of the original, it is totally under your control. Full damage on each target that you choose till someone critically succeeds.

Chromatic Image ★★ SOM a mirror image with a bite. Not strong enough to justify the increased spell level, but if you have spare level 6 slots then why not?

Collective Transposition ★★ teleport 2 people within 30ft. Any Teleport is very useful. I’m just not sure that you have to have it. Looking at the rest of level 6 spells it is falling behind in value.

Cursed Metamorphosis see Baleful Polymorph ★

Daemon Form ★★★ SOM a battle form spell, better AC than a dragon and only large in size. Choice of a fly or swim speed. Evil damage and vulnerability to good. Hands, but probably still can’t cast spells in this form. Useful but I only have room for one battle form spell, given no thematic restriction it's going to be Dragon Form. Not available at any other level so this spell is only useful for a level or two outside of roleplaying/fun value.

Demon Form ★★★ SOM a battle form spell, better AC than a dragon and only medium in size - which can be important. Choice of a fly or swim speed. Evil damage and vulnerability to good/cold iron. Option to have resistance to electricity. Hands, but probably still can’t cast spells in this form. Useful but I only have room for one battle form spell, given no thematic restriction it's going to be Dragon Form. Not available at any other level so this spell is only useful for a level or two outside of roleplaying/fun value.

Devil Form ★★★★ SOM a battle form spell, better AC than a dragon and only medium in size - which can be important. Choice of a fly or swim speed. Evil damage and vulnerability to good. Resistance to fire and physical damage. Hands, but probably still can’t cast spells in this form. Useful but I only have room for one battle form spell, given no thematic restriction it's going to be Dragon Form. However this is the best of the other level 6 battle forms - to my mind the resistance 5 to physical damage makes this better. Not available at any other level so this spell is only useful for a level or two outside of roleplaying/fun value.

Disintegrate ★★★★ good single target damage spell. Other uses like taking down force fields and destroying walls and other objects. You really want to find some space for this in your list. You have to hit and they get a save as well - this is a serious negative. But I find myself still wanting this spell for its versatility. Use with True Strike.

Dominate ★★★ obviously awesome. Very powerful if they critically fail. Target the lowest will powered opponent. Limited in that they get another save if they attack allies. Also note Incapacitation.

Dragon Form ★★★★★ pretty much what you would expect: large size, fly, breath weapon, big bite attack, elemental resistance, special senses. If you only have one polymorph spell in your list make it this one. Lots of flexibility in your choice of breath weapon. Very hard to pass this up, though some other forms have a couple of extra points of AC.

Elemental Confluence ★★★ SOM I assume the earth effect is for everyone within the confluence. But that is a guess. Some nice bonuses. A bit portable fort, a bit spiritual weapon. There is a down side, in that if you are in the confluence then targets outside are concealed. If you are mostly doing area effects this is fine. A group of casters would like this. Good for a tower defence type scenario.

Explosive Barrage ★★★ BC multiple secondary explosions - roll a d4. Fire and Sonic damage. About the same damage as a fireball but less than what you can get elsewhere at this level.

Feeblemind ★★ seriously neuters an enemy caster. But note Incapacitation. Now called Never Mind

Field of Razors ★★★★ ROE creates an area of difficult terrain that does 5 damage to every square moved.

Flame Vortex ★★★ SOM a sustainable fire tornado.

Flesh to Stone ★★★ a better slow spell. The new name is Petrify

Frost Pillar ★★★ ROE save or be restrained. Very useful. Certain types of creatures will need an ally to get themselves out. For others it will waste a round or two.

Frozen Fog ★★★★ BC a damaging concealing area that causes clumsy. You can sustain this and move it around. Affects creatures at the start of their turn. So very good if your team can push people into it.

Halcyon Infusion ★ rare. Give an ally one of your lesser spells. Which is a useful trick. But they have to be lower level than you so this won’t work for your party including companions (why?)

Lignify ★★★ ROE this is just Flesh to Stone with different traits.

Mislead ★★★★ another way to mysteriously teleport away. No not really but improved invisibility plus an illusionary duplicate can really screw with your enemies thinking. You of course need the Deception Skill and Effortless Concentration for this to be really good.

Missed Cue ★★★★ P205 frighten, slow and great damage. An awesome mental spell.

Necrotize ★★ SOM a single target necrotic damage spell with a random other debuff. I prefer to choose my debuffs based on what the rest of the party can take advantage of.

Never Mind ★★ PC seriously neuters an enemy caster. But note Incapacitation. Was called Feeblemind

Personal Ocean ★★★★ ROE your own personal swimming pool. A nice defensive buff. Especially good if for some reason you have a high swim speed. Here are the rules for Aquatic combat. But a lot of enemies are going to be -2 to hit you. Personally I want to wild shape into a sea serpent then zoom around raking enemies with this.

Petrify ★★★ PC a better slow spell. Was Flesh to Stone

Phantasmal Calamity ★★★★ big area mental blast. A shade under fireball for damage but larger area.

Phantom Orchestra ★★★★ ROE this is a 10 foot burst that you can sustain anywhere within 120ft. Sonic damage on a fortitude save.

Poltergeist's Fury ★★★★ DA a big sustained damage aura.

Purple Worm Sting ★★★ lots of damage but spread over a lot of rounds. Check the rules for afflictions.

Ravenous Darkness ★★ P186 greater darkness and damage in an area. Useful but the damage is not the best and it only occurs at the end of your turn - so it is hard to combo with forced movement.

Repulsion ★★★★ a very good way to keep creatures at range. But often it is OK if a few make their save, your allies can deal with them. It affects allies too though.

Scrying ★★★ the lower level ways of scrying are often enough. But when you want to go planet wide this is the spell you need.

Siege Weapon's Blessing ★★★ BC a nice bonus to a siege weapon but only a siege weapon.

Seize Identity ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Really useful for sowing chaos amongst your enemies forces. Very effective against enemy spellcasters. Turn into Ariel and marry Prince Eric!

Shadow Walk ★★★★ 20 days travel in 1 day for the whole party. 1 minute to cast. Teleport light. In the remaster this becomes Umbral Journey

Skeleton Army ★★ BC incarnate. Do less damage that you normally would expect and do it over two rounds. Not terrible but just not enough either.

Spellwrack ★★ a bit slow to be useful as there is only one lot of persistent damage. Ideally you want spells with a duration and no save eg Guidance is nice, but even something like a level 1 Fear spell has a duration.

Suffocate ★★★★ P186 modest damage and forces a creature to hold its breath. As soon as they cast a spell they will start suffocating which is basically unconscious.

Tangling Creepers ★★★ lowers speeds but the effect is not that strong. I mean I prefer the lower level spells over this apart from the burst size.

Teleport ★★★★ awesome. For the whole party if it's small. This version of it is imprecise but safe unless your GM is very nasty with his 1 mile off.

Temporal Ward ★★★ maybe to defend a doorway, useful for the GM heightened to level 10

True Seeing ★★★ still very good. Seriously depowered from earlier editions in that it doesn't just automatically see through everything - there is a counteract roll. I like the change. Hopefully we will see more high level illusionists and players will have to think again. Now renamed to Truesight

Truesight ★★★ PC was True Seeing, see above.

Unexpected Transposition ★★★★ SOM a cool escape spell that you can cast as a reaction to get out of melee. Your champion may be willing to do this for you. Then again it is fairly easy to arrange to have around a low level creature that will almost certainly fail its will save. Which makes this like a reflexive dimension door.

Utter Destruction ★★★ P209 a ranged cone of sonic and void.

Vampiric Exsanguination ★★★★ drain life over an area. Gain temporary hitpoints.

Vibrant Pattern ★★★ area of effect dazzle and blind. They have to leave the area for the blind to wear off, so probably good for a turn. But no, it has Incapacitation. Compare it to the level 2 spell Ignite Fireworks - Vibrant Pattern is better but still not great.

Vitrifying Blast ★★★★ ROE damage and slowed in an area. Cool.

Wall of Force ★★★★ a very good wall. 30 Hardness means it won’t be taken down by most things. But it only lasts a minute. Totally unclear if you can shape this wall or not. Some walls say you can, some say you can’t, this one is silent. Ask your GM. Wall of Force clearly blocks physical effects, incorporeal and ethereal (effects) but allows teleportation and visual effects. All because it is a Force effect - but the definition of force says almost nothing.The Line of Effect rule requires a line from the caster to the target or the centre of the spell effect, then a line from there to everywhere the area of the spell might reach. It allows for the spell to get through significant gaps. Importantly, the line of effect is blocked by a solid physical barrier. A Wall of Force is definitely that. Which means it blocks all spells - because unless they say otherwise all spells require a line of effect. The exceptions being the effects mentioned; Teleportation and Visual. Which are traits that you can look up.There are Light spells which by the description of wall of force being invisible probably still work. The problem is that there are many other types of effects that are just not mentioned. For example illusions and mental effects without a light or teleport component you can argue should probably still work. e.g. Phantasmal Killer doesn't really exist except in one's mind. I'm happy to argue it doesn't have a physical effect. A lot depends where you draw the line. So Teleportation and Visual can be cast through a Wall of Force, some GMs will expand on that.

Wall of Metal ★★★ ROE a temporary wall of a special metal, almost a strict downgrade of Wall of Stone as you can’t shape it and it is temporary. Could be useful if the material is relevant. The spell doesn’t say the hardness to use so you have to look it up.I assume we should use structure as an iron plate wall is a sample structure. That would at least give it a hardness advantage. But if your GM insists that it is thinner then don’t ever bother with this spell.

Word of Revision ★★★★ KM a reaction to reroll a save or keep someone up at 1 hitpoint.

Zero Gravity ★★★ SOM an area of zero gravity. Cool but how do you use it?? It doesn’t really say. Talk to your GM it may be great if they interpret it as totally screwing up non flyers, maybe it wastes an action or two - maybe it wastes several rounds. I just don’t know what they will allow you to do with it.

Arcane 7th level spells

Heightened spells: Haste party wide, Fly for an hour, Invisibility Curtain that doesn’t go down when you attack, Veil the whole party can be specific individuals, Forceful Hand can now grapple at range, Paralyze is multiple targets, Rally Point can teleport a group. Entwined Roots is party damage resistance of 10. Thermal Remedy is 15 hit points for the party for 8 hours.

Beheading Buzz Saw ★★★ ROE straight line direct damage with an auto behead on a critical failure. A bit low on damage for this level.

Blightburn Blast ★★ P155 weak damage but an ongoing sickness

Contingency ★★★★ a very good way to get an extra defensive spell up. Paying the action in advance.

Control Sand ★★★ P155 a reusable superior shield, attack or burst. Very flexible. Sustained. So good if and only if you have the Effortless Concentration feat.

Corrosive Body ★★★★ SOM this is a pretty good attempt to turn a caster into a melee combatant. Acid immunity. An acid damage shield. Powers up Acid Splash into a huge splash. Lots of temporary hit points available. Polymorph trait so you can’t combine it with a battle form. Your attack roll remains the same, but you can cast other spells.

Chrysopoetic Curse ★★★★ RA inflicts clumsy even on a successful save, and covers an opponent in gold. You probably are only going to cast this against opponents with clothing and something in their hands. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Dancing Fountain ★★ ROE three actions, sustained. Do some damage every other turn. Push or conceal in other turns. Very short range. Useful but there are better options.

Devouring Void ★★★★ RA a sustainable damage area that you need to roll a save to get out of. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Dimensional Lock ★★★ in the remaster it is now called Planar Seal. Quite nice defensively over an area, there is still a counteract check. Not often you will want to use it adventuring. Spell book it if you can.

Duplicate Foe ★★★ another way to get a useful minion. Like a slightly stronger summon with a save. It will probably only last a couple of rounds but it will be a threat and it should be capable of doing real damage. You should be happy if they attack it and not you.

Eclipse Burst ★★★★ huge range and area of effect, good damage with blindness on a critical fail. Not against undead.

Energy Aegis ★★★★ a day long buff, but a bit weak at this level. Very flexible.

Entrancing Eyes ★★★★ P154 sustained area of stupidification around you. Nice but your allies aren’t immune.

Fiery Body ★★★★ one of the few ways to get fire immunity. Also flight and no need to breathe. There has to be a combination here somewhere. I played around with triggering my own heightened glyphs of warding in a game with this.

Final Fate of the Locust Host ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Every enemy is going to be sickened and drained.

Force Cage ★★★ APG a good trap. Reflex save or be caught inside.

Frigid Flurry ★★★★ SOM a line of effect damage that gives you 18 dice, won’t affect your allies. Plus you move to the other end of your spell effect. That move triggers reactions - but wastes them - as you can suffer no effect from those reactions. This is for a caster who often find themselves out of position. You get a move and decent damage.

Heaving Earth ★★★ ROE a single target damage spell with a chance to push and knock prone. 2 targets at level 9.

Hungry Depths ★★★ ROE an expandable sustainable damage area. Starts too small for a level 7 spell.

Indolent Haze ★★★★ RA a sustainable damage area of sleep and death. Cast this when you have enemies already prone. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Inexhaustible Cynicism ★★★ SOM a mental effect like an illusion that stops allies from trusting each other plus a bit of damage. They need to spend an action with a Seek to get out of the ongoing mental damage. I generally don’t like these sorts of mixed spells as it is hard to get value for them. Fairly short range, targets very well so you can use this after the enemy has engaged in melee, will likely negate flanking bonuses, it should screw up the enemies tactical position. Very much a mixed bag, in the end it will depend on how well they roll their saves and how much the GM wants to play it up. It could be very good. It should be a lot of fun.

Interplanar Teleport ★★★ PC the new name for Plane Shift.

Leng Sting ★★ P160 a fortitude save for a draining poison. Probably not deadly enough unless you can follow up with other damage. A reasonable debuff, a bit slow acting for me, like most poisons.

Lifewood Cage ★★ PC2 traps a target in a cage. Useful but underdone for this level compare it to Resilient Sphere.

Love's Sacrifice ★★★ RA very cinematic - someone sacrificing themselves to keep you alive. The key to this spell is that it persuades an enemy to sacrifice themselves. I can see a vain Sorcerer wanting this. Unfortunately it only triggers when you would otherwise die. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Magnificent Mansion ★★★ a whole minute to cast. There are other lower level ways of doing similar things. The benefit of this is you can basically make it your permanent address if you want to spend the spell slot to extend it in your daily preparations. The remaster renames this to Planar Palace.

Mask of Terror ★★★ a triggered fear which is almost like a defensive buff. It heightens next level to protect the party.

Maze of Locked Doors ★★★★ P158 this is a maze spell. Incapacitation but it's OK as your enemy still disappears for one round if they make their saving throw. They need to critically succeed to avoid it altogether. A really good way to take out one enemy for a few rounds while you deal with their friends, or just so you can get through.

Momentary Recovery ★★★ DA a teleport at the cost of one action next turn, and two actions this turn. But you can spend those actions to Dispel Magic on yourself or heal yourself. I think this works sort of.

Planar Palace. ★★★ PC a duplicate of Magnificent Mansion

Planar Seal ★★★ PC Originally called Dimensional Lock. Quite nice defensively over an area, there is still a counteract check. Not often you will want to use it adventuring. Spell book it if you can.

Plane Shift ★★★ out of combat movement for the whole party, renamed to Interplanar Teleport

Pollen Pods ★★★ ROE cool. This is a large area poison trap. Does damage dazzled and stupefied. A good way to set a few traps before a rest.

Power Word Blind ★★★★ what makes these power words good is that they are a single action to cast.

Prismatic Armor ★★ a defensive spell that will make you resistant to a lot of different damage types all at once. But five resistance is not that special at this level, plus the dazzle only works against enemies who don’t have reach. I definitely would have this as an option as a wizard. I’m just less confident of it as a sorcerer. Best as a buff on someone who likes to grapple and get in close.

Prismatic Spray ★★ works fine but it is so random. I’d prefer to be choosing my effects.

Project Image ★★ you can set this up pretty well. To give you a line of effect through a wall of force or resilient sphere if you cast it first. I guess it works with improved invisibility. But ultimately it goes down to the first hit. So it seems pretty expensive for one round.

Recall Legacy ★★★★ RA grants an ancestry feat for a day. This is a flexible long term buff and is quite unusual. Because of abilities like Natural Ambition, Advanced General Training, Otherworldly Acumen, Expert Longevity you can get a lot from this.Of course they probably already have the best feats already. This is probably a good idea but you will need to think about it.

Restore Ground ★★★ RA there are a few effects here that might be useful. An earthquake? Greater difficult terrain. But mostly non combat value.

Retrocognition ★★ useful divination of previous events at this location. Now on the arcane list.

Return to Essence ★ counteract a magical ward. Can’t Dispel Magic do the same? Maybe you can take it to replace Dispel Magic but it's too narrow.

Reverse Gravity ★★★★ everyone has flight now, or do they? No saving throw.

https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=261

Shadow Raid ★★★ SOM a long range burst illusion that does moderate damage and blocks line of sight. The effect persists for a minute - without you having to sustain it. I guess your side can disbelieve the illusion to see their targets. Allies are safe in the area. A good way to get enemies out of an area and make it safe for your side. Enemies get a choice of saving throws.

Spell Riposte ★★★★ important defence at this level, like a second saving throw. Sends the spell back at its caster. Same as Spell Turning but without extra safeguards.

Spell Turning ★★★★ important defence at this level, like a second saving throw. Sends the spell back at its caster. Now called Spell Riposte.

Tempest of Shades ★★★★ SOM an Incarnate spell. Ally friendly huge 60ft radius at 100ft range. Save for drained on the first round and frightened on the second. Very effective.

Telekinetic Bombardment ★★★★ DA is a Telekinetic Projectile spell but scaled up to an area. The size is not large but the range and the damage is good, and your victims are knocked prone if they fail.

Time Beacon ★★★★ G&M an undo spell till the end of your current turn. Single action to cast. You get a counteract check to stop anything bad. Also there seems to be no reason you can’t keep trying things till you get a result that you like, as you seem to keep getting the rest of your turn back. Page 469 of the CRB says that you choose the order of steps at the end of your turn. So choose to rewind time and not let this spell expire. At least till you have the result you want. With some limitations, potentially an infinite turn. You can use this to keep retrying an attack time you get a critical hit with maximum damage, or until an enemy critically fails a spell!

Minions act in your turn as well. So you can endlessly try options with your minion till you get the right one. Even if the minion is killed each time, you can retry.

Yes I think this is so strong it’s broken. But I can’t see a rules reason to disallow it. It has been errated now you only get to retry once. However offensively you can combine this with a major debuff and this will allow you to reroll if you get a bad result.

True Target ★★★★★ true strike against one target for up to four of your allies.

Vacuum ★★★★ ROE an ongoing vacuum around you that is probably going to cause those that fail against it to run away.

Warp Mind ★ single target confusion. At least they aren’t saving every round though. But confusion itself gives you a flat DC 11 check when you take damage. But no, it has Incapacitation. So much worse than Slow.

Arcane 8th level spells

Heightened spells: Confusion multiple targets, likewise Mask of Terror, Impeccable Flow is now +3 to saves. Zephyr Slip helps the entire party.

All is One, One is All ★★★ Legends, rare. One side shuffles hitpoints and redistributes how they choose. Interesting and unique. But this doesn’t really heal any damage, just moves it around.

Antimagic Field ★ is not generally useful to you as it really cripples your spell casting, and takes out everyone's item bonuses. But not for monsters where their numbers are all factored in and not in item bonuses. The higher level enemy caster will still be able to get his spells off. It's not fit for purpose. Great for a GM who wants to wipe the floor with a party. It is broken. If you play with the variant rule Automatic Bonus Progression or you have an Alchemist (alchemical bonuses are not magical) it is a good option.

Arctic Rift ★★★★ PC Supposed to be a replacement for Polar Ray. Solid single target damage spell attack and debuff. Slow on a failure and immobilise on a critical failure are great results. Obviously can’t use True Strike with this as it is now a Fortitude save. To my mind it is a different spell.

Boil Blood ★★★ SOM a fort save for single target damage plus drained. It works. The damage is not especially good though. Probably around the same as Chain Lightning cast at this level but only one target.

Burning Blossoms ★★★★ SOM slowly draws your enemies toward a burning tree. They can’t turn away, they must move towards it - soaking up their actions. Even when the fascinated condition ends, they will keep having to roll new saves till they critically succeed. Very interesting as this is a primal spell that is will based. Excellent if your party has strong ranged attacks.

Clockwork Devotion ★★ BC Incarnate. It seems to be ally friendly but the second part is not. I’m not a fan of most Incarnate spells over a direct effect that will do a lot more damage in 2 actions straight up front. Compare this to Desiccate. Cool but underpowered.

Confusing Colors ★★★★ PC2 creates an area of confusion. Sometimes this will be a better choice than the heightened version of Confusion, sometimes not.

Deluge ★★★ Negates flying for a round.

Desiccate ★★★★ PC any number of selected living creatures within 500ft. Instant army killer. A little under average damage but the king will never harass you again. Your forest is saved. Old name was Horrid Wilting.

Disappearance ★★★★ real invisibility against any sense even when attacking. Undetected is strong.

Discern Location ★★★ find anything. New name is Pinpoint.

Dream Council ★★ no need to walk all that way to Rivendell.

Earthquake ★★★ destroy buildings and those inside.

Falling Sky ★★★ DA makes flyers fall in an area but with Incapacitation. You have other options. This spell has its place if your team needs to get enemies on the ground, as there is no save for that part of the effect.

Ferrous Form ★★★★★ ROE a lot of immunities like you were a construct, including healing unfortunately. None the less you should be able to exploit this. This is not a battle form, you can still cast, plus you get physical resistance as well.

Hidden Mind ★★★★ PC day long mind and detection protection. Renamed from Mind Blank.

Horrid Wilting ★★★★ any number of selected living creatures within 500ft. Instant army killer. A little under average damage but the king will never harass you again. New name is Desiccate.

Maze ★★★★ a very effective take down of just about anything. Push them into another dimension for a few rounds. Now called Quandary.

Mimic Spell ★★★★ RA counter an arcane or occult spell being cast. If successful you can cast it yourself in the next minute.

Mind Blank ★★★★ day long mind and detection protection. Renamed to Hidden Mind.

Monstrosity Form ★★★★ where do you scale up from after a dragon? Here is your answer.

Part the Mists to Paradise ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Rest for days in ten minutes.

Pinpoint ★★★ find anything. Old name was Discern Location.

Polar Ray ★★★ solid single target attack and debuff. Combos really well with True Strike. There is a new version in the remaster Arctic Rift but it is not an attack it is a completely different spell.

Power Word Stun ★★★★ one action stun based on level. Of course if your GM pulls this on you when you are level 13 and you roll a 6, you are toast. No, I am not bitter.

Prismatic Wall ★★★ a nice wall. It would be a lot better if one of those colours stopped teleportation.

Prying Survey ★★★ search at range for an hour.

Quandary ★★★★ The remastered Maze. Thievery based not survival. A very effective take down of just about anything. No initial save. Push them into another dimension for a few rounds.

Rainbow Fumarole ★ ROE a long range random effect that hangs around.No idea why Incapacitation is on this spell it is terrible.

Scintillating Pattern ★★★ will save. Area confusion and stun.The area is effectively a 40ft radius not 20ft. But note Incapacitation.

Sudden Transposition ★★★★ SK short range teleport and damage 2 creatures.

Summon Archmage ★★★ SOM an incarnate spell. Magic Missile 5 targets on arrival, some extra duration on short spells. Then stupefies when they leave.

Summon Elemental Herald ★★★ ROE an incarnate spell. Large range of damaging effects.

Summon Irii ★★★ DA an incarnate spell. Gives your party some mixed luck bonus like minimum of 10 on a d20 roll, or choose the better of two damage rolls. Might be worthwhile in large groups.

Take Your Places ★★★ P205 teleport and rearrange up to 4 willing creatures within 60ft. An upgrade to Collective Transposition.

Uncontrollable Dance ★★★ an incapacitating dance. Even partial effect costs them actions.

Undermine Reality ★★★★ disbelieve something that is real to make it not real. Incapacitation. But it still has full effect for a round even if they save. Potentially permanent ?

Unrelenting Observation ★★ useful for the catch and release scenario. Good but specific. For sorcerers with a spell book.

Whirlpool ★★ ROE sucks people into the centre of a whirlpool. The damage is modest for this level and your enemies will be able to move out even if it takes them 2 actions. If the radius was bigger I’d be up for it.

Arcane 9th level spells

Heightened spells: Banishment multi targets and becomes useful, Entwined Roots is party damage resistance of 15.

Astral Labyrinth P156 ★★ a day long ward spell of alarm.

Beseech Arcanotheign ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Wham bam thankyou ma'am. A bang, a zap, a heal, and a fond memory.

Bilocation ★★ be in two places at once for ten minutes. Nice effect. I’m just not sure what you can do with it. Looks like a prepared caster spell to me.

Call Fluxwraith ★★★★ WTD an Incarnate spell. It seems to be an area of effect will save or disappear as per maze.

Disjunction ★ destroy a magic item - except for the ones you really want to destroy as they are artifacts. Seems pointless to me.

Detonate Magic ★★★ PC deactivate a magic item or a spell effect, but with a blast as well. Overlaps with Dispel Magic though this spell replaces Disjunction.

Dimensional Excision ★★★★ P212 a rare banishment spell that does damage and expels extraplanar creatures. Plus they leave their equipment behind. Looks like it was designed by a player.

Divinity Leech ★ P162 a very specific anti cleric spell. They have to make a save to get a spell off. Effective but not an everyday spell.

FallingStars ★★★ big area of effect good damage. Multiple centres of effect. Replaces Meteor Swarm the important difference is you can choose damage type.

Foresight ★★★★ advantage defensively for an hour but you have to trigger it as a reaction. Good, but costs your reactions even if you are helping someone else. Personally I sorted out my reaction well before now as a caster, so I don’t need this. But if you haven't then it is very good.

Forest of Gates ★★★ SK long range party teleport.10 minute cast.

Implosion ★★★ boom lose 75 points, repeatedly. Not stellar damage but the low action cost to redo it makes it useful when sustained.

Linnorm Sting ★★★ P160 No roll to hit just a save on the venom. Range touch? A moderately significant ongoing poison.

Magnetic Dominion ★★★ ROE move everybody with metal in a 100ft radius. Plus a Magnetic Repulsion built in if you want it. Sustainable so I can see some planned party movement shenanigans with this spell.

Massacre ★★★★ complicated, side effects, but a fair bit of damage in a straight line.

Metamorphosis ★ not so good because it is limited by the other form spells that you know and they are lower level. The statistics of forms are tightly level based. Fun but it disables your main ability - spell casting - for a poor combat form. Original name for this is Shapechange.

Meteor Swarm ★★★ big area of effect good damage. Multiple centres of effect. Replaced by FallingStars

Phantasmagoria ★★★★ PC Similar to Weird but the targets can be confused rather than frightened. An effective spell.

Power Word Kill ★★★★ one action 50 points of damage, instant death for lower level creatures.

Prismatic Shield ★★★★ P162 rare. A strong defense against ranged attacks and spells.

Prismatic Sphere ★★★ enclosed sphere. Useful as a cage for an hour.

Proliferating Eyes ★★ SOM an eye infection literally. I’m not sure exactly what the game use of this is as by this level you really do need special senses which this doesn’t support. I guess it is a defence against blindness, and has value in remote sensing.

Resplendent Mansion ★ a nice mansion for a day. But isn’t the level 7 version good enough.

Shapechange ★ not so good because it is limited by the other form spells that you know and they are lower level. The statistics of forms are tightly level based. Fun but it disables your main ability - spell casting - for a poor combat form. Remastered name for this is Metamorphosis.

Summon Ancient Fleshforged ★★★ IL incarnate. A range of different debuff and damage area effects.

Summon Draconic Legion ★★★ SOM incarnate. Two semi random breath attacks in the first turn, followed by slashing damage on the second. Not entirely clear if you determine the breath weapons. Note that the dragons can move on their turn before they leave so you do get to chase enemies who run away.

Telepathic Demand ★★★ planetary range suggestion. But note Incapacitation.

Trim the Blight ★ P212 a rare spell that does damage to blight and fiends. But it is limited to a specific style of opponent. Only take it in appropriately ‘blight’ themed games.

Unspeakable Shadow ★★★ SOM a single target fear spell. It's a significant debuff and they can die (Incapacitation) or will stay frightened for a minute. I just want more from this level of spell.

Upheaval ★★★ large area terrain rearrangement. Buildings collapse on people.

Weird ★★★★ mass psychic damage. The is a new version Phantasmagoria that does similar damage but with different effects.

Arcane 10th level spells

Heightened spells: Temporal Ward is permanent

Cataclysm ★★★★ a little bit of everything over a big area. Complex but it is 18d10 damage.

Conquering Soldiers ★★★★ BC Incarnate. Modest damage with a strong fear effect then a departing clearing of negative conditions then buff. This works as long as the enemy is not immune to fear.

Fated Confrontation ★★ SOM 1 ally and 1 enemy fight and can’t be affected by other actors. I think you really need to set this up. It is mostly a way of ignoring effects from third parties. Nothing stops the targets from attacking others.

Freeze Time ★★★★ take 9 actions instead of 3, but self only. New name for Time Stop .

Gate ★★★ you need to know what you are doing and it's totally campaign dependant, but this can be very important.

Indestructibility ★★★ APG you are immune from whatever you want to be till your next turn. Good, but it doesn’t solve any of your problems. This spell has a lot of potential but it's a bit narrow. Is there any way to extend it a little? Well the combination is use this spell, break a fully charged Staff of the Magi for mega damage, then Remake it the next day. Best for Staff Nexus Wizards.

Jassim's Allegiance ★★★★ BC Incarnate. Rare. The first round damage is OK and it follows up the next round with even more.

Manifestation ★★★ PC a replacement for Wish and equivalents. It is almost the same but it doesn’t allow anything in the way the old wish does. You are limited to existing spells.

Nullify ★★★ SOM a reaction to counter a lower level spell automatically but you take damage as a result. The most reliable counterspell option in the game with the largest scope. This could be worth it.

Remake ★★ really a level 10 spell? Replace a destroyed item or magic item within limits. Too narrow. I’ve been corrected - this is about abusing Wands by overcasting then remaking them. I still don’t think it is level 10 material.

Shadow Army ★★★★ SOM a modest amount of damage on a will save, plus the ability for you to hide in the area. The area is big, you get to choose a condition, the damage reoccurs if they stay.

Summon Oliphaunt of Jandelay ★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Lots of trample damage. Automatically destroys all force effects.

Time Stop ★★★★ take 9 actions instead of 3, but self only. Renamed to Freeze Time

Wish ★★★★ do almost anything. Traditionally the best spell in the game. Replace by Manifestation

Divine Spells

A much smaller list than the other 3 traditions. But the best healing and good buffing and protective magic. Don’t think you have to take a pacifist type cleric, there are plenty of offensive spells here. If you don’t mind negative energy spells there is plenty of direct damage here too. Spirit Damage is a very big improvement for Divine spells - I find it greatly improved over alignment damage.

Choose your deity and alignment carefully. Divine magic requires a deity or other divine source. Clerics and Champions are required to worship their deity. Oracles and Sorcerers are not required to worship the divine source of their power, they just get it somehow. They could share sympathies with their divine source, they could resent the deity, or they could even be stealing from the divine source. It is probably best to choose a standard deity, rather than an ideal or a pantheon or something weird, or you can run into rules problems working out who your deity actually is for the purposes of the spells that depend on it. Personally I am happy to negotiate with the GM/player and simply define the characteristics of the chosen divine source of spells, but we are very much into the undefined world of the GM here. I allow the alignment of the divine magic to be different to the characters alignment, but that is an interpretation not everyone likes.

For clerics and champions casting the wrong type of spell is likely anathema, not so for druids, oracles and sorcerers.

The corner alignments are generally better, that is LE,CE,CG,LG as they can get more effect on certain spells. Neutral is not an effective option, but may give you the moral flexibility to cast both good and evil spells It does give you immunity to aligned damage. If unsure, check with your DM as to how he sees alignment because everyone sees it differently, but don’t start a discussion on alignment unless you really enjoy that.

Consider:

There are some very powerful Death, Necromantic, Evil or Negative spells.
In their font some religions will allow Heal, some Harm , and some both.
Plus the alignment difference in the details of some spells like Anathematic Reprisal, Divine Wrath, Divine Lance.
Clearly you want a deity for spells like Spiritual Weapon, and Avatar.
Blessed Blood gives you access to a few extra spells that can really round out the divine list. Archive of Nethys shows which Deities grant that spell when you look up a spell's details.

Cantrips, Combat

Choose at least two offensive cantrips. I’m struggling to like these. Can you find a way to get a cantrip from elsewhere at full casting DC? Preferably a cantrip that does damage at range without any conditions. Too easy as Charisma is your casting ability.

Well it has all changed with SpellHearts and the remaster underway with Rage of Elements. You can just purchase a Jolt Coil, a common level 3 item if you want to cast Electric Arc. No need for any tricks. There is a good range of other cantrips available too. Rage of Elements has added Needle Darts and Rousing Splash which means you have enough OK combat cantrips to choose from anyway.

Ancient Dust ★★ negative damage in a cone plus some small persistent damage. It is a fortitude save which might be useful to you but the damage is mediocre.

Chill Touch ★★★. melee range which is a problem because you shouldn’t be in melee. Fortitude save with a bonus on a critical failure. A separate will save and effect versus undead. In the remaster there is a replacement spell called Void Warp. Which is totally different.. Probably best to treat them as different spells.

Daze ★★ range 60ft, will save, smaller nonlethal damage but a stun on a critical saving throw fail. It is a good save to target, but the damage is half what it should be. This sort of action loss is better when there are fewer enemies but then they have better saves. This works, it's better than nothing and it has its place. It just seems that there are better options. Only pull this out if you know the boss has a low will save?!?

Disrupt Undead ★★ fortitude save but only affects undead. It's OK as a spell, it's just the limited targets means you shouldn’t want this. Only take it if you have a lot of cantrip slots and can afford the option, but even so it’s no better than other cantrips out there that aren’t limited to undead. You are likely better off trying to get one of them instead. Unless there is a lot of weakness to positive damage around - which there is very little of even with undead.

Divine Lance ★★ the original alignment based range attack. Replaced by Divine Lance Not a great damage but may be valuable if it triggers vulnerabilities. Better for the corner alignments, not the neutral or partially neutral alignments. Take it in the right themed campaign.

Divine Lance ★★★ PC spirit based ranged attack. Not a great damage normally but it is a much better damage type now. It will be valuable if Sanctified triggers vulnerabilities.

Forbidding Ward ★★★★ a buff you can cast every round in combat so it has a similar role to an attack cantrip. Maybe your goto option if you are playing a pacifist. Sustainable for one action if the pairing is still valid. A bit like a shield that you cast on someone else. Can be a bit better or a bit worse depending on the circumstance. If you are in a dungeon crawl where most attacks are directed at your front row it is very good. One of the few useful combat cantrips if you have a poor spell DC. Much improved when it heightens.

Haunting Hymn ★★ an area of effect damage spell as a cantrip on the divine list. This is special. It is a 15ft cone sonic cone of damage for a fortitude spell. It's an area effect attack which is useful against swarms. A fortitude save and not an attack, so it combines well with attacks. I’d like it more if the damage was a bit better. But I would take this if I wasn’t able to get a damaging cantrip from elsewhere. Curiously the spell is largely silent unless you are in the area. The critical effect deafens which makes you immune to this spell. Some value on a melee build - not something I’d recommend for a sorcerer. Daze has a better effect for a single target.

Invoke True Name ★ SOM this is a useful debuff to put on an enemy but the requirement that you know the target's true name restricts this to characters and campaigns that are built around it. So to spontaneous casters it's almost useless. A prepared caster may want this if they have done their research.

Needle Darts ★★★★ ROE this is essentially Telekinetic Projectile with different dice and more range. Special material use is clear rather than a rules hellhole. Plus it is on every spell list. Compulsory for Divine casters as you didn’t have any other decent damage cantrips.

Protect Companion ★★★ SOM you can protect your minion (mount/ familiar/ animal companion/ summons /eidolon) so you will have a lot of targets. For Summoners as you are Shielding at range, Likewise if you are doing this on an animal companion that is standing between you and the enemy. It's just not normally worthwhile to spend an action to do this. I mean you actually want them to attack your minion rather than you. So pay attention to your action economy, this is not a priority, but if you are often getting the action to do this then OK.

Rousing Splash ★★★ ROE temporary hit points plus recover from persistent acid or fire.

Shield ★★★ single action shield. A point of AC and a bit of one use damage resistance. Just be aware that sometimes you are better off being offensive than defensive - I’ve seen arcanists over use shield when they should have used their action to be more offensive. Also note that you can just carry a shield and raise it for +2 circumstance bonus to AC without any proficiency. Blocking or attacking with a physical shield requires proficiency or a feat which is getable. Depends on how you visualise your character. The other option is the Take Cover action which you can often do anyway for a better bonus, and it leaves your hands free for items.

Stabilize ★★ theoretically useful but actual healing is almost always a better choice of action in practice for an adventurer. Are you out of healing? No potions? Your ally really wants to be active, not unconscious. Also you will eventually pick it up on a staff of healing. Perhaps a reasonable option for the first few adventures in your career when you don't have other resources, or when you have hundreds of injured allies, perhaps as a NPC healer.

Torturous Trauma ★★★ P186 This is a fortitude save for a small amount of internal bludgeoning damage. Not as good as some of the reflex save options. Maybe for Divine it is reasonable.

Vitality Lash ★★★ PC strong cantrip against undead.

Void Warp ★★★ PC a different spell from Chill Touch. Void Warp is range 30ft, and the option to use it against undead is gone.

Cantrips, Utility

Approximate ★ SOM counting is so hard and it is important to do it quickly ?!?

Bullhorn ★★ SOM it has some value if you are regularly trying to coordinate large groups. Maybe useful with a deception check if you are pretending to be something else. The status bonus to Coerce or Perform is probably better gotten from somewhere else. Maybe a Bard or a Marshall might want this.

Detect Magic ★★★ for finding magic, someone should have it. You can get it via feats though.

Detect Metal ★★ ROE mostly not useful unless you are a miner, but I can see it being a good detect in certain dungeons for finding doors and hinges. Might be useful for guards to detect hidden weapons.

Draw Moisture ★★ ROE a cantrip to dry things, which will create a few cups of water.

Glamorize ★★ DM a minor cosmetic effect. Lasts for an hour. Useful if you like performing or impersonating.

Guidance ★★★★ lots of +1 bonuses.

Illuminate ★★★ ROE a different light cantrip.

Inside Ropes ★ P181 use your intestines as rope and survive to tell the story. More than a bit silly and also very specific.

Light ★★★ there are normally a few people in the party who need light. As cantrips are automatically heightened, it is very useful if you run into enemies who use magical darkness against you. Note that the Light cantrip doesn’t counteract the Darkness spell as it can’t target it. But suppression can occur both ways. Sigh Paizo at their worst. They have unofficially clarified something completely the opposite way to how everyone read it. Please clarify it with errata. The Light Trait needs to be changed so that it doesn’t imply that it provides the targeting ability.

Know Direction ★ find true north. Useful after you have gotten lost in the wilderness. Too narrow for a Sorcerer. Renamed to Know the Way.

Know the Way ★★ find true north. Useful after you have gotten lost in the wilderness. I agree it is useful but what about a rank in the Survival skill? Only for particular games. This is a rename of Know Direction with the bonus that you know where you were in the last 24 hours.

Message ★★ ranged communication. It has its uses but is hard to justify as a Sorcerer.

Prestidigitation ★★ good story value.

Read Aura ★★★ someone in the party should have access to assist with identification of items. Not entirely necessary and normally gets trimmed from my list. But if you are prepared to cast it on every object that you may think is magical - taking a fair bit more time - I guess it sort of supersedes Detect Magic in a lot of situations.

Read the Air ★ SOM a bonus in social situations that is better covered by Guidance. It's unlikely you can afford a second cantrip in this role

Temor Signs ★★ ROE short range communication Through walls. Single action, Similar role to Message but very different flavour. As a party this is nice, but do you have the slots to take it.

Sigil ★ very minor uses. Have you already taken the dozen other better cantrips that you want?

Summon Instrument ★ APG only bards might want to use this, and even they don’t have to have an instrument.

Wash Your Luck ★ SOM negates a misfortune effect. Useful mechanic, but there are so few of these it is a waste. Only for role playing purposes or a specialist campaign.

Divine 1st level spells

Admonishing Ray ★★★ single target direct damage.It just is not really anymore than a cantrip at this level. Maybe at level 2 it makes sense damage wise. Non lethality is not a difficult thing to do nor is it worth paying for.

Air Bubble ★★ useful, situational and therefore not something you will take with a spontaneous caster until you have spare spell slots. You have at least 3 rounds underwater anyway. There are some circumstances where it is just not going to work for its intended purpose, because it is verbal and you might already be underwater. There are rules for spell casting underwater and it is difficult if you can cast without speaking otherwise it will just send you unconscious. The Subtle trait can avoid that. There is an additional situation where this can apply - if you are swallowed.

Alarm ★★★ required if you can’t set a watch. Some people will take one every day.

Animate Dead ★★★★ APG this version of undead is the same as all the summon spells. But it's cheap and on your list. Use Summon Lesser Servitor if undead are not your thing. Now called Summon Undead - which brings it into line as all the other Summon X spells. Options at every spell rank. Here are some nice suggestions for level 1. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Crawling Hand has a good claw hand grab.
Skeleton Guard has some resistances that will make it very tough against opponents that can’t do bludgeoning damage.

Bane ★★★ PC anti bless, basically the same but a debuff. Which means it is weaker as it has a save. Complements your own bless. But the sustain action cost is difficult. Larger area now.

Benediction ★★★★ DM very much a Bless but this is an AC bonus.

Beseech the Sphinx ★★★★ RA similar to heroism but more narrow. It is lower level and only affects 1 skill and 1 save. Rare.

Bless ★★★★ PC +1 for allies to attack in an area. In the Remaster the area is greatly improved making this a viable source of attack bonuses and a really good option. Bards can do something similar with actions and Courageous Anthem but even they will want Bless when they get more compositions like Dirge of Doom. It is nice to be able to stack both bonuses. If you are a melee War Priest this would be a 5 star ability for you, as a softer Sorcerer it is not quite so good as you will probably want to stand further back and pump the radius once.

Breadcrumbs ★ SOM use this spell if you want to show off how awesome a mage you are that you can waste a slot on this rather than just marking a trail.

Celestial Accord ★★ P183 cast a spell between two individuals to de-escalate a scenario. Isn’t this just a diplomacy check in a spell? Maybe if you can cast it subtly. Typically a Sorcerer will just have diplomacy and will only use this as a backup.

Cleanse Cuisine ★ PC not sure why they bothered. Was called Purify Food and Drink

Command ★★★ very flexible. Only for one action but that is often enough. Note that it will stop them from using reaction till their turn.

Concordant Choir ★★★ SOM sonic damage in various shapes depending on how many actions you use.

Create Water ★ should be a cantrip, very weak, very situational. If you feel tempted to take this try Spout instead.

Curse of Recoil ★★★ BC Reaction. Give an enemy a small penalty on a ranged attack and likely make them off guard next round. A reasonable use of a reaction when you have lots of spare 1st level spell slots.

Cycle of Retribution ★★★ P197 hard to rate this as it is quite unique. If the enemy fails their will save then they take damage whenever they take a hostile action. The damage scales but is low but it lasts as long as the spell is sustained. It should stop certain types of creature from attacking. It depends on how your GM leans into roleplaying his monsters.

Defended By Spirits ★★★ SK damages a specific enemy each time a specific ally is damaged by their attack. Sustained. It is a bit like a limited Fire Shield. You aren’t your own ally so it can’t protect you.

Detect Alignment ★★ kind of useful to quickly size up a social scene, but you could role play it instead.

Detect Poison ★ note that it won’t tell if someone has poisoned your beer. Very narrow spell that could have been better with some simple wording changes.

Disrupting Weapons ★★ give multiple weapons a bonus against undead. A good spell, in this situation. Remastered to Infuse Vitality

Echoing Weapon ★★★ SOM a small amount of bonus sonic damage to a weapon. Probably only good if your enemy is weak to it.

Elysian Whimsy ★★★ P183 save or perform a random social action.

Enfeeble ★★★ PC a better version of Ray of Enfeeblement no attack roll. Partial effect even if they succeed. Great against the right monster. Remaining Attack Trait is an error.

Fated Healing ★★ P197 healing you and your enemy. But only if you individually aren’t hostile. Might be workable depending on how your GM plays hostile. Scales up. Only if you have good pacifist options.

Fear ★★★★, Heightened ★★★★★, one round of fleeing is often enough to be decisive, better if using intimidation. Gets multiple targets when heightened to level 3 and is one of a small number of multi target spells that is effective when your enemy has gotten mixed in with your party. Then it's a great option. The frightened condition affects saving throws, checks and DC, so it's useful to inflict. On the plus side, Fear is always useful out of a level 1 slot when you get to a higher level. The down side is it doesn’t last long.

Flense ★★★ P186 single target melee slashing damage.

Forced Mercy ★★ BC force a will save or the target's attacks become non lethal.Still have full effect for a round if they make their save. Heightens at rank 4 to 8 targets. I’m not sure how to use this, because lethal or nonlethal only matters for the damage that drops a target to 0. Maybe it has value versus a boss. A construct companion is immune to nonlethal attacks so perhaps there is an exploit there.

Funeral Flames ★★ P216 charges a club or staff. Useful as a light, but discharges for persistent damage - more on undead. Technically not terrible but too narrow.

Glowing Trail ★★ P194 leaves a trail behind you which you can hide or not. Useful if the GM likes mazes.

Harm ★★★★ very nice as a single action ranged touch spell, better if you have several of them and spam out 3 in one round for a sharp spike of damage. The 3 action harm can include you or not because it is an emanation. This is not that great a spell for regular use over a long adventuring day. But if you want to burn the slots you can put out a lot of damage quickly. Clerics have a lot of feats that work with Harm, so if you want to specialise on this spell it is better done as that class. But still very useful by itself sometimes.

Heal ★★★★★ all your healing spells. Take this, use it throughout your career. Make it a signature spell. It is the best healing spell. All three casting options have their place. A high level burst 3 action heal can pick your party up off the ground. It is required when you get fireballed. Single action range touch heal on yourself or someone adjacent,can be done in combination with another useful two action spell. The 3 action heal can include you or not because it is an emanation.

Helpful Steps ★★ FB suspends a staircase in the air. It is basically a 40 ft length and you can heighten it. Useful and easier to carry rather than a larger ladder - especially if you height this for another 40 ft per rank. But it is one of those spells you need to know you are going to need in advance. Maybe take it on a couple of scrolls.

Infuse Vitality ★★★ PC an improvement on Disrupting Weapons as it can do extra damage to undead but also potentially hands out the holy trait. Which means it is even more deadly to undead and potentially still a useful add against a much wider range of creatures.

Know Location ★★ P194 know the way to a location you can describe. Useful in the right type of game.

Lock ★★★ nice utility especially in a dungeon crawl. Can be permanent. It can be very nice to lock a door after you have gone through it. Protect yourself from attacks from the rear while preserving your option to withdraw.

Magic Stone ★★★ APG enchant 3 sling stones to do extra damage. Only useful if someone has a sling. Good against some undead.

Magic Weapon ★★★ useful for a while an extra dice of damage to a weapon. Eventually you have enough magic weapons. Strong at low levels. Largely replaced by Runic Weapon.

Malediction ★★★ DM an aura that gives a will save to lower an enemies AC. So much like Bane that you really have to look carefully to see the difference - it is not available in an occult version and it counters Benediction not Bless.

Mending ★ use the crafting skill instead. Very narrow.

Mystic Armor ★★ PC This used to be called Mage Armor now it is on all lists. It works. But so does normal armour. Not really sure why I would bother with this. I take some basic light armour instead and have another spell slot. Early on that extra slot is important. Amour proficiency costs a feat but you can retrain it later when you get some.

Necromancer’s Generosity ★★ SOM heal your undead minion

Nudge the Odds ★ SOM a poor spell that is a disadvantage to the activity (gambling) it is trying to boost.

Pet Cache ★★★ APG hide your pet in an extradimensional space for 8 hours. Good for smuggling them somewhere. Even getting your warhorse into a dungeon.

Protection ★★★★ PC a narrow defensive buff to AC, limited by alignment. Excellent against summons or creatures who like to dominate. In the right campaign it still works well. Upgraded in the remaster. Gives you a +1 status buff to AC and saves. Becomes a 10ft emanation at 3rd rank.

Purifying Icicle ★★★★ KM single target direct damage with mixed types. If there is no resistance or the target is undead it is decent damage. Fortitude save.

Purify Food and Drink ★ maybe just don’t eat it. Now called Cleanse Cuisine.

Putrefy Food and Drink ★ P158 there are so many other ways to do this. You don’t need a spell for it.

Quick Sort ★ not something you need to do while adventuring.

Rainbow's End ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Teleports adjacent volunteers through a rainbow up to 60 ft from you. An Einstein Rosen bridge (?). At the same time it is a low spirit damage sustained dazzling area. Read this one carefully. As I see it the damage and dazzle effect is just on the creatures in the area, the sustain is to allow your allies more time to teleport. Seems optimal for breaching operations.

Ray of Enfeeblement ★ an attack roll then they get a save? Retired for Enfeeble

Restyle ★ minor cosmetic change

Runic Body ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Fang. It now scales as it heightens. How useful it is depends on your group. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks. Note that technically this provides item bonuses so animal companions don’t get full benefits from it.

Runic Weapon ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Weapon. It now scales as it heightens. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks.

Sacred Beasts ★★★ HoW a small burst beast attack.

Sanctuary ★★★ you can cast this on others. Good for protecting a vulnerable ally. Though you would prefer if they could still contribute. The definition of hostile action is a bit loose. Check some scenarios with your GM. Casting a blocking wall, obscuring vision, bless, healing should be OK. Controlling a minion who attacks may not. If you have a Deception skill, you could just pretend not to be hostile.

Schadenfreude ★ SOM cast as a reaction when you critically fail against an enemy's effect. This is just not going to happen often enough to be worthwhile. Come on Paizo this would have worked if it was triggered on a failure. Roquepo has objected to this rating and insists that it is better than this, but I don’t believe him.

Shielded Arm ★★ ROE turns your arm into a shield. You can still use it normally as well. Works perfectly well I just think I'd prefer a normal shield.

Spirit Link ★★ a bit hard to use. Do you have a cheap way of healing yourself?

Spirit Ward ★★ SK bonus defence against spirits and haunts. A bit specific. Protection is often just better. Still at low rank the variable cast options are good. You don’t need to heighten this. For prepared casters.

Summon Lesser Servitor ★★★★ SOM summons are always a reasonable choice. Some useful utility value. At level 1 you are probably just going to summon an Eagle or Guard Dog with a celestial template. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Summon Undead ★★★★ PC this version of undead is the same as all the summon spells. Was called Animate Dead - this brings it into line as all the other Summon X spells. Options at every spell rank. Here are some nice suggestions for level 1. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Crawling Hand has a good claw hand grab.
Skeleton Guard has some resistances that will make it very tough against opponents that can’t do bludgeoning damage.

Synchronize ★ for coordinating actions at distance. I suspect Message will be a better option most of the time. But I can see uses for this.

Thoughtful Gift ★★ APG teleport an object. One action. Fairly marginal unless the GM is mad enough to let you identify items with it.

Ventriloquism ★★ good for more complex distractions. It depends on how your GM plays things. But if you like illusions this can be helpful to get spells with verbal components off without alerting enemies. When I GM I don’t require it in most circumstances, but if you are trying to get an illusion to work against someone with an Arcana score, or if they are aware you are an illusionist then you may want this. Seems to need the Subtle trait to be useful, I would assume that it has this or the spell is too bad to be true.

Divine 2nd level spells

Advanced Scurvy★ P188 a slow acting disease.

Allfood ★★ P194 makes an object edible. I guess it is effective for opening locked doors.

Augury ★★★ reconnaissance is not always possible. Often you just have to ask the fates about the future. If you have ever survived Tomb of Horrors you know that sometimes you need this.

Banishing Touch ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. A melee spell attack. Flick them away with your finger. Good damage if they have no way to avoid a fall, but even if they do then it will use up their reaction.

Blast of the Bellows ★ P195 a minor inconvenience for flyers.

Blazing Armory ★★★ ROE a flaming weapon, for everyone from level 4. If your GM is stingy with treasure, or likes to disarm or destroy weapons, or just if you know there are fire vulnerable creatures out there. It has got a few uses, but mostly you won’t need it.

Blazing Blade ★★ KM a scimitar of flame, just for you. Blazing Armory is better.

Blood Vendetta ★★★★ APG reaction spell that inflicts beed damage. There are simply not that many good magical reactions, this is one.

Bone Spray ★★★ P176 a nice necromantic damaging cone

Boneshaker ★★★ P176 a nice necromantic single target damage, with some forced movement.

Bralani Referendum ★★ P183 damages a creature in the area when they inflict particular conditions. This is a bit specialised but maybe workable against particular opponents.

Brand the Impertinent ★★★ G&M you mark your opponent so he can’t be hidden but also a status penalty to AC. Maybe you can cast it on an ally so you always know where they are.

Buzzing Servants ★★★ RA fill a square with a pillar of bee wax. Useful to create defensive terrain. The Pillars last for 24 hours . You can sustain the bees for up to a minute to build up to 10 pillars.

Calm or originally Calm Emotions ★★★★★ area of effect compulsion to stop fighting. One of very few spells that is an area of effect takedown on a regular failed save. On level opponents have around a 50% chance of being neutralised by this spell. It gives you the time to defeat their friends. The targets snap out of it individually. Such a strong effect that lasts for a minute, that even though it has the Incapacitation trait I’m still rating it very highly. You must heighten this to keep using it. It doesn’t work so well against very intelligent foes who understand magic as they will snap each other out of it. If it ever happens to your party, headbutt the barbarian, he will get over it…. Hopefully. Even so, it's still ridiculously strong. Remember if they succeed at their save they have a -1 penalty as long as you sustain the spell. Also stops a barbarian in their tracks.

Carrion Mire ★★★★ WTD4 this is a sustainable area that will knock people prone. Great if there is forced movement in your party or just lots of opportunity attacks.

Cauterize Wounds ★★ ROE take one damage to roll to stop bleeding. Works for the entire party. Useful only versus specific monsters.

Charitable Urge ★★★ APG save or give away your items. A good way to waste their actions. Incapacitation

Clad in Metal ★★★ ROE temporarily turns an item into a special metal. Well worthwhile if you come up against something with a particular vulnerability.

Claws of the Otter ★★★ HoW a long running buff to gain a scaling claw/cold attack.

Clawsong ★ P171 give a creature a better claw attack

Cleanse Affliction ★★★★ you will need this eventually. Removes curses diseases and poisons.Replaces Neutralize Poison

Cleanse Air ★ ROE cleans the air in a radius. A very big radius at higher level. This is going to be useful only in very specific games.

Clear Mind ★★★★ PC a new more general healing of fleeing, frightened, and stupefied., higher levels can get confused, controlled, and slowed, doomed and stunned . Can get a partial suppression on a failed counteract check.

Coiling Dance ★★★ RA grants Holy to your allies spells and attacks, plus can give them an escape attempt. Rare.

Comprehend Language ★★★ hour long. No denying its utility. But it depends on your campaign. Now called Translate.

Continual Flame ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened. Renamed to Everlight

Create Food ★ very situational, you’ll know when you need it. Not really something you will choose to take adventuring unless the game has a lot of food problems. Normally it's easier to buy and take food with you. The cantrip Prestidigitation can flavour this food.

Dancing Shield ★★★★ BC raise a shield for someone else but with your actions and reactions.

Darkness ★★★ very effective against many enemies. Do you have dark vision?

Darkvision ★★★ yes you do. But is this a good use of your spells?

Deafness ★ bat slayer.

Death Knell ★★ a nice bonus that has some limitations. Only for a very evil party.

Dispel Magic ★★★★ useful protection against a wide range of things, and Sorcerers value versatility. The counteract check can be hard.

Endure Elements ★ rarely useful protection against environmental effects, not energy damage. Affects only one character, if you need this you’ll want it for the whole party. Now called Environmental Endurance.

Enhance Victuals ★ at least the poison is permanently removed, assuming you made your counteract check. Protip - save yourself a spell and don’t eat it. This spell is best used as part of a complex social situation.

Environmental Endurance ★ PC a rebadged Endure Elements.

Everlight ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened. This spell is just a new name for Continual Flame. At least they removed the hideously scaling gem cost.

Faerie Fire ★★★ a partial counter for invisibility with no save. The problem with this is the small area of effect so it's hard to go fishing with this. You need to time it for when you know where they are. It combines well with Obscuring Mist especially if you aren’t storm born. New version is Revealing Light.

Far-Flung Fetch ★★ NPC steals an unattended object. It is subtle so you’ll likely never be caught. So I think you are set for your life of crime. Useful but situational. Definitely book it.

Fear the Sun ★★★ P172 dazzles or blind an opponent. Still affects them for one round if they make the save.

Final Sacrifice ★★★ APG detonate your summoned creature in a reasonable sized fireball. It says minion, but doing this to your familiar or animal companion is probably not your plan A. Sadly illusionary creatures aren’t solid enough to work with this. Works on an Unseen Servant. Eidolons are not minions, but um er a Witch’s Familiar gets replaced free every day… With the removal of alignment this is no longer Evil but rather a noble sacrifice for the greater good.

Fireproof ★ ROE fire resistance for an item plus a counteract check. But this is only objects. I like it from level 6 ★★★ when it becomes permanent.

Gentle Breeze ★★★ ROE out of encounter healing and recovery bonuses. This really depends on your campaign. If you get ten minute breaks between fights but not half hour breaks then this is a useful bonus. Otherwise, this is mostly better handled by focus point based healing.

Gentle Repose ★ for religious ceremonies. Now called Peaceful Rest.

Ghoulish Cravings ★★★★ a very evil curse that turns someone into a ghoul over several days. Postremaster it inflicts sickened even when they make their save. It is a pretty good debuff.

Grave Impressions ★ remote sensing for a necromancer. Sort of useful I guess.

Guiding Star ★★ a really nice spell to help people find you. Can be useful if the party separates, as a heartbeat, or to help a lost person get home. A lot easier to use than Sending.

Helpful Reload ★★ BC a reaction to do a single action reload of an allies weapon. Useful and an interesting way to help their action economy. Not sure it is a good use of a spell slot.

Horrifying Blood Loss ★★ P181 frighten a bleeding creature. Useful but too narrow.

Imp Sting ★★★ a range touch poison effect, good effects.

Impeccable Flow ★★★ a scalable status bonus to Perception checks, saving throws, and skill checks for a minute, but just for you. You should have some good skills to use. This can help a fair bit. A good precombat preparation. But don’t lose your flow.

Inner Radiance Torrent ★★★★ a line of force direct damage spell with blinding on a critical failure. You can take 6 actions to cast this for about twice the damage. This is really useful if your allies can shove or push enemies into the area if they try to move away. Indications from Mark that this spell scales too strongly. I will be using his suggestion as unofficial errata. It is now official.

Instant Armor ★★★ a nice utility spell if combat breaks out at the grand ball, or just so you can get a good night's sleep and be ready at a moment's notice. Yes, Sorcerers can easily get significant armour. But this is probably for a multiclass Sorcerer.

Lucky Number ★★ a very nice contingency effect. Optional reroll a d20 dice if it is the number you selected. It is probably only good if your roll is in the bottom half of numbers.

Manifestation Of Spirits ★★★★ SK stupefy an enemy. This is stupefy 3 even on a success. So very good against an enemy caster. Multitargets for more creatures at rank 6.

Marvelous Mount ★★ PC The new Phantom Steed. Very much the same except now divine casters get it and it can make saving throws.

Mimic Undead ★ you are just not going to need this.Perhaps it's a way to infiltrate the necromancers castle.

Noise Burst ★★★ PC an area of effect sonic attack. Damage is mediocre. Worth taking because sonic is rare. Scales up. Casters who get deafened as it will give them a DC 5 flat check on spells with an auditory component, but that is only a few spells and doesn't seem to apply in general. Was named Sound Burst

Peaceful Rest ★ the remastered version of Gentle Repose. A simple funeral spell to prevent undeath and protect the body for possible raising.

Radiant Field ★ P172 DM a light spell with extra penalties for those with light blindness. Too specific. Maybe useful in very specific circumstances.

Reaper's Lantern ★★ APG enfeeble undead, sustainable. Narrow.

Remove Fear ★ most fear effects you have access to, will recover themselves soon enough. Rarely worthwhile.

Remove Paralysis ★★ not likely to be needed.

Resist Energy ★★★ flexible energy protection.

Restoration ★★★ someone always fails their save and needs help.

Restore Senses ★★ not used often, but required when it is.

Revealing Light ★★★ PC A partial counter for invisibility with a reflex save. The original is Faerie Fire for which there was no save. Still affect the targets if they make their save for 2 rounds so it is not so bad. The problem with this is the small area of effect so it's hard to go fishing with this. You need to time it for when you know where they are. It combines well with Obscuring Mist especially if you aren’t storm born.

See Invisibility ★★★ invisibility is common in some campaigns. But this spell doesn’t negate invisibility as well as it used to. Heighten to use all day. Now upgraded to See the Unseen.

See the Unseen ★★★. PC Renamed See Invisibility. But you can now see incorporeal things hidden in walls and get a bonus against illusions.

Shadow Zombie ★ P181 turn a zombie into a shadow for a while.

Shield Other ★★ they all have more hit points than you. This really is a bad idea for a sorcerer except in very special situations.. Maybe a multiclass character that has spammable temporary hit points like Renewed Vigor. Now called Share Life.

Share Life ★★ as above this is Shield Other.

Silence ★★★ Heightened ★★★★ at level 2 it is just a bonus to stealth, At level 4 you can use it to interfere with spell casting. An assassin hunting a wizard is going to like this. You might like to check which of your spells doesn’t have a verbal component, post remaster the Subtle trait is want you need to cast in an area of silence. Also defends against Sonic attacks which are very rare.

Sound Body ★★★★ PC a new more general healing of blinded, dazzled, deafened, enfeebled, or sickened, higher levels can get drained and slowed and stunned . Can get a partial suppression on a failed counteract check.

Sound Burst ★★★ an area of effect sonic attack. Damage is mediocre. Worth taking because sonic is rare. Scales up. Casters who get deafened as it will give them a DC 5 flat check on spells with an auditory component, but that is only a few spells and doesn't seem to apply in general. Now named Noise Burst

Spirit Sense ★★ APG narrow detection for haunts and spirits. Take it when it is needed.

Spiritual Armament ★★★★ PC was Spiritual Weapon a sustainable ranged attack that doesn’t care about your deity. Can be sanctified.

Spiritual Weapon ★★★★ now Spiritual Armament a useful ranged weapon attack. That you can use round after round, or even multiple times in a round. Its best use is typically in combination with another spell that causes a saving throw, so that the multiple attack penalty doesn’t cripple its value. Incompatible with Godless Healing etc. Probably not much point if you have invested in a ranged weapon.

Status ★★ a remote communication spell? How many times have you been told not to split the party?

Sudden Blight ★★★★ APG negative energy fireball that works better with disease.

Summoner’s Precaution ★★★★ a summoner only safety spell. IMHO it is compulsory for summoners. You don’t go down when your Eidolon does. Get it in an item if you have to. Maybe technically the better thing to do in some cases is to go down and be healed by an ally. You still get that choice. The Summoner themselves is a reasonable character, and the eidolon survives in a way if you do. The one minute cool down assures that this won’t be abused in combat. Mostly I like it because I can play the Eidolon as being that bit more expendable which is the whole point of being a Summoner - taking less risks yourself.

Summoner’s Visage ★★★ a summoner only utility to make their eidolon look normal and fit into normal society. In practise it's about saving the actions required to summon it.

Sure Footing ★★★ PC a new more general healing of paralysis and clumsy. It can remove grabbed and restrained, but it is range touch so you probably want to use the Reach Spell feat with it.

Swallow Light ★ P181 counteract light to gain a weak breath weapon.

The Parrot's Whisper ★★★ RA gain knowledge about a target's highest weakness. Might be useful if Recall Knowledge is not an option (likely).

Thermal Remedy ★★★★ ROE temporary hit points for the party. This has a long enough duration to be useful to cast early. Scales up too.

Translate ★★★ PC hour long. No denying its utility. But it depends on your campaign. Was called Comprehend Language.

Undetectable Alignment ★ might get you past some low level detections. How useful is it going to be?

Veil Of Spirits ★★★ SK dazzles and hands out weakness to spirit damage. Very useful if there is a lot of spirit damage potential in your group.

Vicious Jealousy ★★★ P181 stop your enemies from coordinating. Probably mean they won’t flank effectively.

Warriors Regret ★★★★ A curse designed to hurt an enemy if they keep attacking. It is about damaging not attacking so it works very well against arcane blasters as well. A bit slow to have an effect. But it has its effect even if they make a normal saving throw. If you are playing a character that wants to talk to their enemies then this spell will likely deescalate some conflicts.

Water Breathing ★★★ works for the whole party.

Water Walk ★★ one person can stay dry. Maybe the barbarian can be persuaded to carry everyone across one at a time.

Divine 3rd level spells

Heightened spells: Fear multi targets and becomes awesome, Comprehend Language gives you speech, Protection gives a 10ft radius.

Agonizing Despair ★★★ APG single target damage and frightened

Annunciation of the Outer Gate ★★★ RA a combination of an invitation to negotiate and a more durable Fear spell if they refuse. Rare. Only versus particular types of creatures. Better if you have a spell book.

Anointed Ground ★★★ PC2 like Circle of Protection but only against a chosen type of creature. One minute to cast lasts all day.

Behold the Weave ★★★ DA a cute time lock. It is effective but skip it as Slow is just better. No Slow? Then try Roaring Applause instead.

Bind Undead ★★★ steal a minion for the day. Maybe a little narrow, and not if your cleric likes to burst heal.

Blindness ★★ strike a target blind. Fort save. Effect lasts long enough. Being blind makes them flat footed so timing of your turn is important. But with Incapacitation so it has limited use except in your top spell slot. I really would only take it if I had Razzle Dazzle

Caster's Imposition ★ P182 a narrow curse about ritual casting.

Chilling Darkness ★★ low damage. Better against celestials. Evil. Too narrow for you.

Circle of Protection ★★★★ a good party buff to AC that goes with you. The 4th level version lasts an hour. But you have to be going against a foe that you can predict their alignment. On a crusade against the forces of hell then it's great, but if the plot is a bit greyer than that then it is just not going to be useful at all.

Claim Curse ★ maybe an interesting way to suppress a curse for a few minutes. Which for some curses that could be enough to negate them. But just too narrow for a Sorcerer to want.

Consecrate Flesh ★★★ KOL this is a holy Fire Shield. It will need to be updated by converting good damage to spirit damage and the weakness to Unholy, Then it should work fine - except against unholy opponents. This does not seem right to me.

Crisis of Faith ★★★ reasonable single target mental damage. Better if they are a divine caster.

Deep Sight ★★★★ P194 long term dark vision or greater darkvision.

Dream Message ★★ long range messages.

Familiar's Face ★★★ APG look and hear through your companion or familiar

Fate's Travels ★★★ P194 reviews the last ten minutes of a creature's life.

Focusing Hum ★★ DA defence against being stupefied or confused.

Glyph of Warding ★★★★ make a spell trap, or a bomb if you can make yourself immune. Don't forget you can heighten it and get some very big spells in here. Well the designers have addressed this spell and made some clarifications. Basically you can’t force someone else to activate it, they have to interact with it. So using this spell on an item to use like a grenade is just going to fail. Which is sensible. You also have to use all the triggers - move, touch or open - not just one. But this still effectively allows you to put glyphs on small items, which you can trigger when you want. By having someone else, perhaps your familiar, trigger the item by touching or moving it, or maybe just even deliberately saying the wrong password when you touch it. Or maybe you can convince an opponent to take a trapped item. The question really is what hostile effect can you put in them that is useful when triggered? It is possible to get immunity to effects if you might be caught in an area of effect. Metamagic and Safeguarded Spell work in Staves, so probably in scrolls and glyphs too. Heal and Harm are hostile to some creatures and not others. What will your GM let you do? This has been released in the remaster as a Ritual Rune Trap.

Heatvision ★★★★ ROE a new PRECISE sense. Heatvision duration 1 or all day at 6th rank. Very nice but it is not going to work versus undead or constructs,

Heroism ★★★★ a strong boost that gets much stronger at higher levels. It is worth it, providing they don’t already have a status boost.

Holy Light ★★★ reasonable against fiends and undead, but not really against other targets. Converted from Searing Light

Impending Doom ★★ cute but too slow to be much use outside the roleplaying value.

Infectious Ennui ★★★★★ KM very much like Slow but it spreads to secondary targets. There are a group of people who think Slow is too good a spell and should be nerfed. Well until rank 6 this is better. More importantly it is on the Divine list. Just as long as the rarity is not a problem for you.

Life Connection ★★★ I mean normally the caster is the person to defend but sometimes this will make sense and all it costs you is a spell slot and a reaction. Plus some hitpoints of course.

Life Pact ★★★ KOL if you have good healing, or a source of temporary hitpoints. Then several party members and prop up another in trouble.

Locate ★★★ a useful detection, but of something you have seen first.

Lotus Walk ★ ROE this is almost the same as Water Walk just higher level.

Martyr's Intervention ★★★★ KOL a reaction that stops someone from dropping to zero hitpoints.You take some damage and the target is on 1 HP. You both become Wounded 1.

Mind of Menace ★★★ a nice counterattack reaction against a mental attack. Prepared casters will definitely want this available, for Sorcerers may be worthwhile.

Moonlight Ray ★★★★ KOL a ranged spell attack. Mixed damage but it is decent especially against fiends and undead.

Neutralize Poison ★★★ you will need this eventually. Replaced by Cleanse Affliction

Which is rank 2 and a more flexible spell.

Organsight ★★★ weirdness galore. Bonus to medicine and precision damage on a target for a minute. But you have to succeed at a lore roll or a medicine check and you have to deal slashing or precision damage (spell is OK). So if you have the right skills it is a good buff, especially if you can combo it with a reliable damage. Invisible assassins are going to like this.

Perceive the Threads of Fate ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Roll twice on attack or skill check for the next 3 times you sustain this spell. Very much like 3 Sure Strikes. Now on all lists.

Percussive Impact ★★★ FB a lower damage sonic fireball that splashes and deafens.

Positive Attunement ★ a sustainable single target positive energy healing or attack versus undead. Give me heal any day.

Radiant Globe ★★★ SK an area of light that burns away projectiles effectively blocking physical ranged attacks and dazzling attackers. Obviously useful as your team has magic. Sustained. Contrast with Wall of Wind.

Remove Disease ★★ does what it says.

Ring of Truth★ Detecting truth is technically useful but this is so unreliable I’m not sure it has any value. Relapses Zone of Truth

Roaring Applause ★★★★ it's a single target slow, but they lose their reactions anyway. It does nothing much extra on a critical failure (maybe if you are out of combat). If your allies have Attack of Opportunity it will likely trigger that. Heightens at level 6 to multiple targets. Obviously if it is successful, sustain it and keep triggering those attacks. Deadly in the right party.

Rouse Skeletons ★★★★ this is the necromancer's response to Flaming Sphere or Spiritual Weapon. A mass of skeletons that attack an area and can be moved every round when you sustain. Less damage, but also difficult terrain.

Safe Passage ★★ APG protection against hazards in an area. You really need to know that this is going to happen for this to be worth taking.

Sanctified Ground ★★ day long defend an area. Good value but not an offensive or combat spell.

Scrying Ripples ★★★ ROE a useful scrying spell.

Searing Light ★★★ reasonable against fiends and undead, but not really against other targets. Remastered as Holy Light

Show the Way ★★ G&M a weak Find the Path, that only applies to terrain out of combat.

Sign of Conviction ★★★★ KOL this is similar to Spiritual Weapon but this effect is stationary and comes with +1AC. On even levels this will do more damage, on odd levels Spiritual Weapon will. I think it is good as long you don’t have to move much.

Speak with Plants ★ only when you need it. Lower level after the remaster, but the spell is still encouraging the GM to say nothing useful.

Soothing Blossoms ★★ and area of effect assistance versus persistent damage, bonuses against disease and poison. Useful only when there is a lot of that happening at once and you can’t take actions to assist normally.

Sparkleskin ★★★ FB a plus 2 status bonus to deception and performance checks. Dazzles close creatures when hit.

Strenght of Mind ★ P209 a poor version of Heroism that only works against a limited number of spells.

Thief of Fortune ★★ RA counter and steal a buff spell that someone else casts. This is going to be very table dependent, how often does your GM do this. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Trade Items ★★★ SK swap an item with an item on another creature. Given that you can be holding something of low value, this spell is basically stealing an item as a reflex save. What if you are holding something dangerous?

Vampiric Touch ★★★★ range touch drain and temporary healing. Better if you can add range to it. In the remaster this is called Vampiric Feast

Vampiric Feast ★★★★ PC range touch drain and temporary healing. Better if you can add range to it. Renamed from Vampiric Touch

Veil of Privacy ★★ Renamed from Nondetection. This is not going to stop anything you are worried about. If you want to cast this you will want to cast it at high level. Good against cantrips, ie detect magic so it has a place for illusions. Hard to justify unless you have a spell book. Take Private Sanctum instead as it actually works.

Wall of Virtue ★★ KOL create a wall of light that does damage as you pass through.

Wanderer's Guide ★ faster overland movement - or you could use a horse or hire a guide.

Warding Aggression ★★★ this is a defence for someone who is casting spells and meleeing like a Magus. Works for Battle Clerics and Battle Oracles, not Sorcerers

Web of Eyes ★★ party TV. Cute but a verbal description is normally enough.

Whirling Scarves ★★★ G&M concealed against strikes only. 20% miss chance. Effective.

Zone of Truth ★ often fun to role play. But not a normal adventuring spell. It's not reliable so I'm not sure it has a point. You can get generic bonuses on checks so why you would want to invest in a spell for such a narrow bonus is beyond me. Now called Ring of Truth.

Divine 4th level spells

Heightened spells: Darkness even if they have darkvision, Silence is useful offensively, Circle of Protection is hour long. Thermal Remedy is 10 hit points for the party for 2 hours.

Air Walk ★★★★ fly and still talk and cast spells, if you don't have another way to do it. Because you don’t have to sustain flight this is better than Fly.

Anathematic Reprisal ★★★★ choose your deity carefully and you can get good use out of this. It is a weak mental attack/stupefied, but it is cast as a reaction to someone offending your deity so it is very efficient actionwise.

Bloodspray Curse ★★★★ SOM an excellent debuff to make an enemy vulnerable to more damage. The real bonus is that it still works even if they succeed on their save. Pretty good effect to put on a tough opponent.

Cloak of Light ★★★★ DM a damaging aura versus undead that heals the living. Kind of nice. The damage has been improved.

Compel True Name ★ SOM Rare Incapacitation requires the target's true name. Just so rare to be useful and probably not much more effective than a normal charm or suggestion in most cases.

Dawnflower's Light ★ KM a fancy light spell. The secondary effects are very specific and have annoying gaps.

Detect Creator ★ KOL find who created an Undead. Useful but too narrow for a sorcerer.

Dimensional Anchor ★★ stopping an enemy teleporting away is too narrow for a Sorcerer to want every day. But put it in your spell book. Remastered name change to Planar Tether

Dirge of Remembrance ★★★ P186 a specific spell to flush out incorporeal undead. Probably too narrow for a sorcerer.

Discern Lies ★★ you could use it a fair bit, but you could also use skills instead.

Dispelling Globe★★★ protects against all magic. But it is immobile, and there is one level lower counteract. So this is like an extra 50% defence against magic up to the level of the globe. Useful. Old name was Globe of Invulnerability.

Divine Wrath ★★★★ throw away your detection spell, this is how you detect alignment. Damage is average, inflicting sickened is great, but alignment damage can trigger vulnerabilities. It's better than Fireball because it can be party safe. This spell is ideal for use in a Glyph of Warding as you don’t mind if it's triggered while you are in the area of effect. Post remaster there is no longer any alignment so it just does spirit damage to your enemies. Very strong for direct damage.

Dull Ambition ★★ APG gives the target the worst of two initiative rolls for a day. So it should be used before combat? This is going to be difficult to get off.

Enervation ★★★★ APG persistent negative damage in a line.

Enhance Senses ★★★ KOL double the range of your imprecise senses.

Fallen Soldier's Lament ★★ BC Rare. A weak repeatable fear spell dressed up as a dead soldier. Sustain this to repeat. Perhaps this is useful if your team is set up to work with the frightened condition, or if you need to be really slot efficient.

Filter Air ★★★ BC Reaction. A defensive buff to give you better saves against inhaled poisons and diseases. Prepared casters will like this in their books. As a sorcerer I’d only take this if I was using such spells myself.

Fly ★★★★ too flexible to ignore better when heightened. You get Air Walk which is better as long as the GM is Ok with it all.

Forgotten Lines ★ never going to get used except by professional librarians.

Freedom of Movement ★★★ helps with a wide range of conditions. Not full immunity as it used to be in older d20 games, but still very useful. In the remaster the name becomes Unfettered Movement.

Ghostly Tragedy ★★★ APG a speak with dead that recreates their death, with side effects.

Girzanje's March ★★★★ a good buff to allies within 30ft. A Bard has other options. But this is still good. It does heighten to larger bonuses with higher level slots.

Globe of Invulnerability ★★★ protects against all spells. But it is immobile, and there is one level lower counteract. So invulnerable is a big overstatement of how effective this is. New name is Dispelling Globe.

Holy Cascade ★★★ great damage but only against fiends or undead. So useful in the right game.

Implement of Destruction ★★ DA buff a weapon with mental damage. Too slow and too specific.

Internal Insurrection ★★ SOM inflicts clumsy. Not enough at this level and too slow to have its full effect.

It Is Written ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Get a big bonus on your next d20 check

Life's Fresh Bloom ★★ P197 a sustainable area of healing with a +5 speed bonus. Not strong enough.

Magic Mailbox ★ SOM teleport between two containers. Nice for smuggling, but not a normal adventuring pick. Go to a Wizard for this, or an Arcane Sorcerer. Should be a ritual instead.

Movanic Glimmer ★★★ P183 a daylong buff to an animal. +2 status to perception, will saves. But the real benefit here is that your mature animal companion is no longer restricted to taking Stride or Stike when not commanded.

Misty Memory ★★ ROE review something that happened near a body of water in the last day. It is a bit narrow.

Necrotic Radiation ★★★ up to 24 hour area or object denial with ongoing necrotic damage.

Outcast's Curse ★★ hurt their charisma skills.

Painful Vibrations ★★★ SOM sonic single target damage, plus sickened. Just not strong enough.

Pernicious Poltergeist ★★★ SOM fairly minor area control, sustainable. Not really a strong enough effect. You get to choose the saving throw though. It will make enemies move I guess and divine casters don’t get much of this.

Phantasmal Protagonist ★★★★ KM a useful illusion which is much like a summoning spell. 3 different modes. Handing out temporary hit points, or melee.

Planar Tether ★★ stopping an enemy teleporting away is too narrow for a Sorcerer to want every day. But put it in your spell book. Was named Dimensional Anchor

Phoenix Ward ★★★ ROE if you drop to zero hitpoints from fire you are immediately reborn. Grants fire resistance as well.

Procyal Philosophy ★★★★ P183 some nice Aid bonuses. A useful option.

Prophet's Luck ★★★ P197 bet on the dice. Cast as a reaction to give a status bonus or penalty. If you get it right you get further status bonus to saving throws. Useful if you or your allies have annoying runs of luck or you just like to bet. Better at higher levels when all the status bonuses increase.

Radiant Beam ★★★★ KOL a spiritual lightning bolt with a dazzle on top.

Radiant Heart of Devotion ★★★★ P183 sustainable bonuses for good and penalties for evil.

Read Omens ★★★ nice. The GM can hint when the plot is thin, or we have missed the obvious clues. You can cast it before adventures. Good if your GM likes this.

Reflected Beauty ★★★ P205 duplicates your image onto someone else and then disguises you. Lasts up to an hour. Cute illusion which will be fun in the right game. Not normally what I’d expect on the divine list. Perhaps a bit narrow.

Remove Curse ★★ in your spell book please. All the best curses take days anyway. Not reliable as there is a counteract check.

Life's Fresh Bloom ★★★ P197 a sustainable area of good damage. Seems effective but your GM is going to have to remaster this themself.

Sanguine Mist SOM ★★ an area effect drain that does small damage and doesn’t seem to work very well. Though you do eventually get a tiny amount of temporary hitpoints. Not strong enough.

Seal Fate ★ APG inflicts weakness for a minute or so. It is far too weak to be relevant at this level.

Soothing Spring ★★ SOM creates a large hot tub that heals the party in an hour. Actually there are so many ways to do that without having to use a spell slot that this is almost certainly a waste. One thing this does do extra is remove fatigue, another - maybe a roleplaying opportunity.

Spell Immunity ★★★ flexible but there is a counteract check. Its saving grace is the 24 hours duration, so you can cast it yesterday. Two main use cases are if you know the spells your enemy is likely to cast. Or if you want to make yourself or an ally 55% immune to one of your spells. Say for example if you put spell immunity and have a resistance effect it may be Ok to fireball a party member if they get surrounded. Do you need immunity to heal as your cleric likes to spam it but you have negative healing?

Spiritual Anamnesis ★★★★ P147 a very different spell likely to stun undead and many extraplanar creatures.

Spiritual Attunement ★★★ SOM get alignment based damage and opposite alignment resistance. A nice buff.

Spiritual Renewal ★★★ SK grants fast healing 8 for 4 rounds. Useful healing, that can even heal someone who is going to take damage.

Steal Voice ★★★ P186 as making someone mute stops normal spell casting; this spell has Incapacitation. It still can be very handy though it is unlikely to work on a boss.

Stonesense ★★ P194 tremorsense for a minute. Not as good as Tremorsense unless you really need the extra range. Of course that spell isn’t Divine

Talking Corpse ★★★ speak with dead is regularly and surprisingly useful. But this spell is full of reasons for the GM to be unhelpful. You can only reliably use this if the target would be helpful to you.

Trickster’s Feathers ★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. An improved version of Illusory Disguise

Unfettered Movement ★★★ PC was called Freedom of Movement This helps with a wide range of conditions. Not full immunity as it used to be in older d20 games, but still very useful.

Vampiric Maiden ★★★ APG piercing and negative damage. Temporary hitpoints for the caster. Immobilised till their turn.

Vital Beacon ★★★★ action intensive. But you can precast it.

Ymeri's Mark ★★★ ROE this is a tracer spell that you put on a target that you release, so you can follow it to its lair. That is probably useful enough to take in general adventuring. I have a treasure hungry player who will love this. The actual damage is minor.

Whispers of the Void ★★★ PC2 an area of effect void damage that can also drain and doom. GMs will use this a lot. But it is only a 10ft burst.

Divine 5th level spells

Heightened spells: Command ten creatures, See Invisibility 8 hours, Impeccable Flow is now +2 to saves, Locate can now find specific creatures.

Abyssal Plague ★★ a deadly out of combat curse.

Ancestral Winds ★★★ P209 a mixed effect ranged burst. Causes fear and a little void damage.

Bandit’s Doom ★★ SOM trap an item so only limited people can use it. A useful little trick. But probably too complex for everyday use.

Banishment ★ the saving throw is good but for Incapacitation, but obviously only on selected targets. Do you really want a spell that only works on “little” demons?

Belittling Boast ★★★ FB a combined intimidation and Bane? No, not that strong. Maybe there is some action economy efficiency going on here.

Blackfinder’s Blades ★★★ P171 quite a nice poison buff to the party's weapons.

Blessing of Defiance ★★★ SOM a good buff to saving throws, plus maybe some poison resistance, mental resistance, or speed. Those resistances are hard to get. But only for one round

Blink Charge ★★★ SOM teleport and strike with some bonus force damage. A bit like the barbarians/fighter’s Sudden Charge. Who is this for - it plays like a Magus? Most GM will probably let you get away with using this as a slow dimension door.

Blood Feast ★★★ a melee bite for 12d6 damage plus temporary hit points. Vampiric Touch for Magus

Breath of Life ★★★ a ranged reaction to stop a creature dying. Except that it triggers when a creature is about to die, which can be a few rounds in Dying 1,2,3. Most people would prefer a little bit quicker action.

Confusing Cry ★★★★ HoW a 20 ft radius confusion. Will save. Stuns on a successful save (!). Incapacitation.

Death Ward ★★★ a useful protection against negative energy

Diadem of Divine Radiance ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Make ranged spirit attacks for the duration. The damage is Ok but your attack bonus will be very high.

Divine Immolation ★★★★ PC the new version of Flame Strike. The optional spirit damage is very nice. Larger area.

Domora's Defense ★★★ RA grants shield to 3 creatures.

Drop Dead ★★★★ invisibility as a reaction when someone is hit. Nice, especially as you don’t get regular invisibility.

Flame Strike ★★★ less range and area than a real Fireball and down two dice. Gets through some fire resistance/immunity. It's quite good for the divine list.

Healing Well ★★ SOM some slow action intensive healing

Inevitable Disaster ★ SOM a cute slow acting curse of doom.

Invoke Spirits ★★★ SOM A moving sustainable area of damage. Like Rouse Skeletons. Not a lot of damage, but there is a fleeing effect on a critical failure.

King's Castle ★★ SK swap location with an ally, teleport up to 60ft. Useful but I’m always going to want to choose something else like Translocate instead. I guess Divine doesn’t have that option. Perhaps if I wanted to swap places with a minion?

Lashunta's Life Bubble ★ P187 This is a space suit / deep diving suit for 8 hours. It works but Water Breathing is most of what you need for the whole party. So while this works, you are very unlikely to want to take it.

Mirecloak ★ P171 2D8 damage and one clue from the attacker. This is very niche.

Mirror Malefactors ★★★ SOM inflicts frightened and sustainable mental damage on a will save. Ends when they make their save. Can do a lot of damage if they have bad will saving throws.

Prying Eye ★★★ good safe scouting spell. Renamed to Scouting Eye

Rallying Banner ★★★ FB a much larger and flashier Bless.

Ravening Maw ★★★ start eating dead bodies with 2 actions a turn.

Repelling Pulse ★★★ SOM strong force damage in an area around you and a push away.

Rewinding Step ★★★ SOM better as this is a single action to go home.

Ritual Obstruction ★ P182 stops rituals occurring here for a day. So while this works, you are very unlikely to want to take it.

Rip the Spirit ★★★★ SOM a flexible action, damage and drain.

Scouring Pulse ★★★ KOL a nice blast that lights up undead.

Scouting Eye ★★★ PC a good safe scouting spell. Renamed from Prying Eye

Sending ★★ long range communication. You probably want it, but Teleport can handle this next level.

Shadow Blast ★★★ a small amount of damage but of almost any type, almost any area. But the target can choose to save on either Will or Reflex. Very flexible but not very strong. Post remaster an extra damage dice has been added to it. I’d prefer to have a few different elemental spells instead. But this is the Divine list, elemental damage is rare here.

Soulshelter Vessel ★★★ stash some healing in an object so it can be withdrawn later at 10 HP per action.OK but probably action intensive.

Speak with Stones ★★ PC talk with stones about who walked on them recently or what is underneath them. Used to be called Stone Tell.

Spiritual Guardian ★★★ a useful minion that does force damage.

Spiritual Torrent ★★★★ P186 huge spiritual damage.

Spiritual Transport ★★★★ SK teleport with your familiar and animal companion.

Summon Anarch ★★★ these have spells and cool abilities and more hitpoints than the guardian. Requires further investigation. Look at the monsters with the filter

Summon Axion ★★★ these have spells and cool abilities and more hitpoints than the guardian. Requires further investigation. Look at the monsters with the filter

Summon Celestial ★★★ these have spells and cool abilities and more hitpoints than the guardian. Requires further investigation. Look at the monsters with the filter

Summon Dragon ★★★ some types of enemies are very vulnerable to flyers with breath weapons. It's also a good way to prepare a local population to believe your illusions.

Summon Fiend ★★★ these have spells and cool abilities and more hitpoints than the guardian. Requires further investigation. Look at the monsters with the filter

Summon Healer Servitor ★★★ IL incarnate. Some temporary hit points then some healing in an area..

Summon Monitor ★★★ PC these have spells and cool abilities and more hitpoints than the guardian. Requires further investigation. Look at the monsters with the filter

Temporary Glyph ★★ SOM Compare this to Glyph of Warding. Temporary Glyph only lasts for a minute, can only be a two action spell, but you can cast it in 3 actions. I don’t think you will normally use this, as its main purpose is for creating a trap. It will always cost you another spell to use. Tactically I can see its value. I just think that you are better off casting a buff on yourself. Maybe if you are going to get a couple of rounds to set up then this is a good idea.

Tongues ★★★ any language all at once. A bit better than Comprehend Language but is it enough that you want to spend the higher level slot for it. Renamed to Truespeech.

Truespeech ★★★ PC just the new name for Tongues. No changes.

Wall of Flesh ★★★★ APG one of very few walls on your list so try to like it. Some interesting options.

Wisdom of the Winds ★★★ ROE some free advice from the wind. Very useful if you get stuck for a clue.

Divine 6th level spells

Heightened spells: Heroism is +2 and very strong now, Roaring Applause targets up to ten creatures, Manifestation Of Spirits up to 5. Fireproof becomes permanent. Heatvision is all day.

Awaken Entropy ★★★★ DA a sustainable ranged burst of Negative or Force damage. Very effective if you want an enemy to move, or if they can’t move.

Blade Barrier ★★★ a damaging wall spell. Replaced by Blessed Boundary It can be cast on top of enemies in a line to force them to take the damage. A bit light on damage for this level.

Blessed Boundary ★★★★ PC a more flexible upgrade to Blade Barrier. If they fail the caster gets to decide how they are moved.

Blinding Fury ★★ APG reaction. Hide from what attacked you. It doesn’t negate the attack though.

Bound in Death ★★★ P186 a life link that you inflict on your enemy. If he fails his save he will take half the damage instead of you once per turn. You can choose to take more damage yourself to hurt him, but that will require some thought.

Bounty of the Sky ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Birds come and give you and your friends gifts for the next minute. Ongoing healing and restoration effects.

Catch your Name ★ SOM more true name madness. I mean in the stories knowing someone's true name was devastating. I haven’t seen anything beyond a whimper so far. There has got to be a better balance point for these spells.

Daemon Form ★★★ SOM a battle form spell, better AC than a dragon and only large in size. Choice of a fly or swim speed. Evil damage and vulnerability to good. Hands, but probably still can’t cast spells in this form. Not available at any other level so this spell is only useful for a level or two outside of roleplaying/fun value.

Demon Form ★★★ SOM a battle form spell, better AC than a dragon and only medium in size - which can be important. Choice of a fly or swim speed. Evil damage and vulnerability to good/cold iron. Option to have resistance to electricity. Hands, but probably still can’t cast spells in this form. Not available at any other level so this spell is only useful for a level or two outside of roleplaying/fun value.

Devil Form ★★★★ SOM a battle form spell, better AC than a dragon and only medium in size - which can be important. Choice of a fly or swim speed. Evil damage and vulnerability to good. Resistance to fire and physical damage. Hands, but probably still can’t cast spells in this form. This is the best of the four level 6 battle forms - to my mind the resistance 5 to physical damage makes the difference. Not available at any other level so this spell is only useful for a level or two outside of roleplaying/fun value.

Dragon Form ★★★★★ pretty much what you would expect: large size, fly, breath weapon, big bite attack, elemental resistance, special senses. If you only have one polymorph spell in your list make it this one. Lots of flexibility in your choice of breath weapon. Very hard to pass this up, though some other forms have a couple of extra points of AC

Fateful Condemnation ★★★★ P197 slows an enemy and does mental damage. Better for a Divine caster as you don’t get the regular Slow spell. It also targets will not fortitude which is typically a plus. There is an aura of despair about this as well impacting enemies.

Field of Life ★ the healing is just too weak at this level. Use a heal spell instead and save yourself all those actions of sustaining. Tolerable when you get the feat Effortless Concentration. It should be twice as strong at least.

Gray Shadow ★★ P171 this is a stronger summon spell but with a significant limitation. You lose it if the original creature dies or recovers. I think that is hard to pull off. A greater shadow is an interesting creature with effective abilities but its 4 levels lower than you. If you are evil you perhaps can control the timing of this.

Heinous Future ★★★★ WTD this is like an improved slow with longer duration and added stupify but then it has Incapacitation. Not useless but I think I'd prefer a normal slow. But slow isn’t normally on the Divine list…

Mantle of Heaven's Slopes ★★ P183 gain 2 out of 6 options of minor abilities.

Necrotize ★★ SOM a single target necrotic damage spell with a random other debuff. I prefer to choose my debuffs based on what the rest of the party can take advantage of.

Pain Of Ages ★★ SK a cone of pain and spirit damage. The damage is too low for this level, even though the stun on the critical failure is nice.

Raise Dead ★★★★ the ultimate power. But it will take them a full week to recover properly. The resurrection Ritual is better and cheaper.

Ravenous Darkness ★★ P186 greater darkness and damage in an area. Useful but the damage is not the best and it only occurs at the end of your turn - so it is hard to combo with forced movement.

Repulsion ★★★★ a very good way to keep creatures at range. But often it is OK if a few make their save, your allies can deal with them. It affects them too though.

Righteous Might now called Sacred Form ★★★ a reasonable battle form. Good speed, Darkvision and a bit of resistance. This rating assumes you can cast spells. Most people will assume this but technically not true.

Scintillating Safeguard ★★★★ APG reaction. Party resistance against an attack.

Siege Weapon's Blessing ★★★ BC a nice bonus to a siege weapon but only a siege weapon.

Skeleton Army ★★ BC incarnate. Do less damage that you normally would expect and do it over two rounds. Not terrible but just not enough either.

Spellwrack ★★ a bit slow to be useful as there is only one lot of persistent damage. Ideally you want spells with a duration and no save eg Guidance is nice, but even something like a level 1 Fear spell has a duration.

Spirit Blast ★★★★ force damage against a creature's spirit. Nice damage.

Stone Tell ★★ a divination that could be useful.

Stone to Flesh ★★ as required. A pity you have no spell book. Not redone in the remaster.

Suffocate ★★★★ P186 modest damage and forces a creature to hold its breath. As soon as they cast a spell they will start suffocating which is basically unconscious.

Suspended Retribution ★★★★ DA is a damage spell that your enemy has to choose to trigger. But the damage is high and you can force a trigger condition that will really cripple your opponent.

Tanglecurse ★★ P211 a persistent curse that creates difficult terrain around a target. More of a GM spell.

Temporal Ward ★★★ maybe to defend a doorway, useful for the GM heightened to level 10

True Seeing ★★★ still very good. Seriously depowered from earlier editions in that it doesn't just automatically see through everything - there is a counteract roll. I like the change. Hopefully we will see more high level illusionists and players will have to think again. Now renamed to Truesight

Truesight ★★★ PC was True Seeing, see above.

Vampiric Exsanguination ★★★★ drain life over an area. Gain temporary hitpoints.

Zealous Conviction ★★★ the pep talk before you head out. Small party boost to temporary hit points and will saves.

Divine 7th level spells

Heightened spells: Girzanje's March is +2. Thermal Remedy is 15 hit points for the party for 8 hours.

Angel Form ★★★★ SOM a nice mix of dex based battle forms that are small or medium and fly. This particular battle form doesn’t have the restriction about using your normal attacks. Negative resistance is available, as is some illusion and death magic defence. Attack options include good, fire, force and a ranged sonic attack. But you need to know what you want before you cast the spell.

Attacked From Within ★★★★ SK single target. Reasonable damage and a fear effect on a will save.

Chrysopoetic Curse ★★★★ RA inflicts clumsy even on a successful save, and covers an opponent in gold. You probably are only going to cast this against opponents with clothing and something in their hands. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Cosmic Form ★★★ SOM a large battle form. Fast flyers with a ranged attack and fire based attacks. Nice complete package, but most enemies at this level should be able to deal with those tactics.

Deity's Strike ★★★ SOM an attack roll for 7d12 damage then a secondary 5d6 alignment burst effect which fires even if the first misses. Extremely long range.

Devouring Void ★★★★ RA a sustainable damage area that you need to roll a save to get out of. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Dimensional Lock ★★★ in the remaster it is now called Planar Seal. Quite nice defensively over an area, there is still a counteract check. Not often you will want to use it adventuring. Spell book it if you can.

Divine Decree ★★★ like Divine Wrath but with an enfeeble and banishment sting in the tail. Not really enough damage.

Divine Vessel ★★★ morph into a flying form with a stack of temporary hitpoints. Pity there is no increase in attack bonus, but you are still your normal character as this is not a Battle Form.

Eclipse Burst ★★★★ huge range and area of effect, good damage with blindness on a critical fail. Not against undead.

Energy Aegis ★★★★ a day long buff, but a bit weak at this level. Very flexible.

Ethereal Jaunt ★★★★ take a short walk through the floor.Very good for scouting.

Execute ★★★★ PC The new name for Finger of Death. Single target death spell.

Final Fate of the Locust Host ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Every enemy is going to be sickened and drained.

Finger of Death ★★★★ die. Renamed to Execute. Single target death spell.

Inexhaustible Cynicism ★★★ SOM a mental effect like an illusion that stops allies from trusting each other plus a bit of damage. They need to spend an action with a Seek to get out of the ongoing mental damage. I generally don’t like these sorts of mixed spells as it is hard to get value for them. Fairly short range, targets very well so you can use this after the enemy has engaged in melee, will likely negate flanking bonuses, it should screw up the enemies tactical position. Very much a mixed bag, in the end it will depend on how well they roll their saves and how much the GM wants to play it up. It could be very good. It should be a lot of fun.

Interplanar Teleport ★★★ PC the new name for Plane Shift.

Love's Sacrifice ★★★ RA very cinematic - someone sacrificing themselves to keep you alive. The key to this spell is that it persuades an enemy to sacrifice themselves. I can see a vain Sorcerer wanting this. Unfortunately it only triggers when you would otherwise die. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Moonburst ★★★★ SOM a huge burst of cold and positive damage.

Planar Seal ★★★ PC Originally called Dimensional Lock. Quite nice defensively over an area, there is still a counteract check. Not often you will want to use it adventuring. Spell book it if you can.

Plane Shift ★★★ out of combat movement for the whole party, renamed to Interplanar Teleport

Ray of Corruption ★★★ P211 a rare attack spell that does effective spirit and poison damage. However it has the disintegrate problem in that you have to hit and they get a save as well. Fills much the same role in that it can destroy objects as well.

Regenerate ★★★ moderate single target healing

Return to Essence ★ counteract a magical ward. Can’t Dispel Magic do the same? Maybe you can take it to replace Dispel Magic but it's too narrow.

Shock to the System ★★★★ ROE brings someone back from the dead who just died. They are hasted. Just cast it on a PC, familiar, animal companion, or summon and you have a 1-action Thunderstrike of rank 5 every round. Doesn’t matter if they are dead, though summoned creatures disappear when they die. So a follow on from Final Sacrifice for your brave Animal Companion or Familiar? Ouch! That is one evil team.

Spell Riposte ★★★★ important defence at this level, like a second saving throw. Sends the spell back at its caster. Same as Spell Turning but without extra safeguards and now on your list.

Sunburst ★★★★ eclipse burst but mega damage against undead.

Tempest of Shades ★★★★ SOM an Incarnate spell. Ally friendly huge 60 ft radius at 100 ft range. Save for drained on the first round and frightened on the second. Very effective.

Vibrant Vibrato ★★★ P205 a sustained emanation of flexible size. Causes minor sonic damage and can stun.

Divine 8th level spells

Heightened spells: Impeccable Flow is now +3 to saves.

Antimagic Field ★ is not generally useful to you as it really cripples your spell casting, and takes out everyone's item bonuses. But not for monsters where their numbers are all factored in and not in item bonuses. The higher level enemy caster will still be able to get his spells off. It's not fit for purpose. Great for a GM who wants to wipe the floor with a party. It is broken. If you play with the variant rule Automatic Bonus Progression it is a good option.

Canticle of Everlasting Grief ★★★★ SOM a single target debuff, that works really well on a target that is getting circumstance and status bonuses. Partial effect on a successful save. Some mental damage.

Devour Life ★★ actual healing plus temporary hitpoints from killing a target. Not value compared to other spells.

Discern Location ★★★ find anything. New name is Pinpoint.

Divine Armageddon ★★★★ SOM a huge aligned negative or positive burst for 20d6 damage in a 60ft radius.

Divine Aura ★★★★ a good alignment based defensive bonus to AC and save.

Divine Inspiration ★★★ get a level 6 or lower spell back. Better for prepared casters than Sorcerers. You can use it on yourself or on others. Being able to recover focus points is good if you are rushing and can’t take 10 minutes for a rest.

Holy Host ★★★ BC Incarnate. Ally friendly effects. Including damage, some healing, buffs. Decent area of effects and quite a lot of flexibility. Not really as much damage as I’d like to see at this level.

Moment of Renewal ★★★★ a free day's rest which you can augment with Fast Recovery - note normal recovery is Long-Term Rest - so this is a lot of party healing.

Musical Shift ★★★★ P205 a good number of buffs and debuffs that you can change every round when you sustain this spell. Perhaps not as strong as some dedicated effects but this is very flexible.

Part the Mists to Paradise ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Rest for days in ten minutes.

Pinpoint ★★★ find anything. Old name was Discern Location.

Spirit Song was Spirit Song ★★★★ a huge cone attack spell. This has changed in the remaster. It is now a few less dice. Is spirit damage not necromantic force damage, and can stun. Also now on the Divine list.

Spiritual Epidemic ★★ a curse designed to take out a group of clerics.

Summon Deific Herald ★★ SOM an incarnate spell. This can be effective in the right situation if you have the right deity. Quite different effects depending on their alignment. I’m not so sure it's generally useful. Normally you should have your reaction covered with something else by this level. If you have a lot of allies then it’s probably stronger.

Summon Elemental Herald ★★★ ROE an incarnate spell. Large range of damaging effects.

Unholy Army ★★ BC poor damage spread over two turns. Some flexibility here but there are better options out there.

Divine 9th level spells

Heightened spells: Heroism is +3 which is insanely good, Banishment multi targets and becomes useful

Astral Labyrinth ★★ a day long ward spell of alarm.

Beseech Arcanotheign ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Wham bam thankyou ma'am. A bang, a zap, a heal, and a fond memory.

Bind Soul ★ trap a soul. To what end? It strikes me as an expensive revivify. I presume souls have a plot dependant meaning. Now called Seize Soul.

Call Fluxwraith ★★★★ WTD an Incarnate spell. It seems to be an area of effect will save or disappear as per maze.

Crusade ★★★★ a no save mind control enchantment that binds 4 creatures to a cause for 10 minutes. Limitation is that you don't attack them, and their level maybe 3-4 below yours. This spell should probably have the Evil trait, but maybe it suits some weird other religion.

Dimensional Excision ★★★★ P212 a rare banishment spell that does damage and expels extraplanar creatures. Plus they leave their equipment behind. Looks like it was designed by a player.

Foresight ★★★★ advantage defensively for an hour but you have to trigger it as a reaction. Good, but costs your reactions even if you are helping someone else. Personally I sorted out my reaction well before now as a caster, so I don’t need this. But if you haven't then it is very good.

Massacre ★★★★ complicated, side effects, but a fair bit of damage in a straight line.

Overwhelming Presence ★★★★ demand that they fall down prostrate. Nice big burst will save. Incapacitation. Even on a success it still slows them effectively for two rounds.

Proliferating Eyes ★★ SOM an eye infection literally. I’m not sure exactly what the game use of this is as by this level you really do need special senses which this doesn’t support. I guess it is a defence against blindness, and has value in remote sensing.

Seize Soul ★ imprison a freshly deceased soul for the purpose of stopping them from being raised. This is the new Bind Soul.

Telepathic Demand ★★★ planetary range suggestion. But note Incapacitation.

Undertaker ★★★ P184 try to bury your opponent.

Voracious Gestalt ★★★★ SOM a large area of negative energy damage, that spirals out the more creatures that die. Ridiculously easy to abuse by sacrificing low level minions. Tip: never ally with a high level necromancer. Not party friendly in any way though, so that may limit its use by players.

Wail of the Banshee ★★★ large area damage and drained is a nasty condition. Now called Wails of the Damned.

Wails of the Damned ★★★ PC see Wail of the Banshee.

Weapon of Judgement ★★ an improved spiritual weapon. I just don’t think it is strong enough at this level. You want more than a little bit of damage from a level 9 spell.

Divine 10th level spells

Heightened spells: Girzanje's March is +3, Temporal Ward is permanent

Avatar ★★★★ a good battle form. Made all the better because you don’t have a big range of options for this type of spell. But you are stuck to the one for your deity. They almost all fly really fast. This rating assumes you can cast spells in this form. Most people will assume this but technically not true.

Conquering Soldiers ★★★★ BC Incarnate. Modest damage with a strong fear effect then a departing clearing of negative conditions then buff. This works as long as the enemy is not immune to fear.

Fated Confrontation ★★ SOM 1 ally and 1 enemy fight and can’t be affected by other actors. I think you really need to set this up. It is mostly a way of ignoring effects from third parties. Nothing stops the targets from attacking others.

Garden of the Green Man’s Growth ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Lots of bludgeoning and proning, then slashing and grabbing.

Gate ★★★ you need to know what you are doing and it's totally campaign dependent, but this can be very important.

Indestructibility ★★★ APG you are immune from whatever you want to be till your next turn. Good, but it doesn’t solve any of your problems.

Manifestation ★★★ PC a replacement for Wish and equivalents like Miracle. It is almost the same but it doesn’t allow anything in the way the old wish does. You are limited to existing spells.

Miracle ★★★★ a wish. Its replacement is Manifestation.

Nullify ★★★ SOM a reaction to counter a lower level spell automatically but you take damage as a result. The most reliable counterspell option in the game with the largest scope. This could be worth it.

Remake ★★ really a level 10 spell? Replace a destroyed item or magic item within limits. Too narrow. I’ve been corrected - this is about abusing Wands by overcasting then remaking them. I still don’t think it is level 10 material.

Revival ★★ your fellow players won’t thank you. By taking it you are planning for a tragedy. Is this the last adventure in your campaign? Otherwise it's a strong heal.

Occult Spells

A good broad spell list with many recovery and defensive options. Force, necromancy, psychic, illusions. Lots of buffing and debuffing spells. Almost no elemental damage spells. Limited healing in the Soothe spell.

As this list is for a spontaneous caster I’ve rated more flexible spells higher. If you have a spell book - and note Occult Evolution is almost a spellbook - then some of the spells I’ve ranked lower are well worthwhile.

Cantrips, Combat

Choose at least two offensive cantrips. You want more.

Chill Touch ★★★. melee range which is a problem because you shouldn’t be in melee. Fortitude save with a bonus on a critical failure. A separate will save and effect versus undead. In the remaster there is a replacement spell called Void Warp. Which is totally different.. Probably best to treat them as different spells.

Daze ★★ range 60ft, will save, smaller nonlethal damage but a stun on a critical saving throw fail. It is a good save to target, but the damage is half what it should be. This sort of action loss is better when there are fewer enemies but then they have better saves. This works, it's better than nothing. It just seems that there are better options. Only pull this out if you know the boss has a low will save?!?

Forbidding Ward ★★★★ a buff you can cast every round in combat so it has a similar role to an attack cantrip. Sustainable for one action if the pairing is still valid. A bit like a shield that you cast on someone else. Can be a bit better or a bit worse depending on the circumstance. One of the few useful combat cantrips if you have a poor spell DC

Haunting Hymn ★★ This is special. It is a 15ft cone sonic cone of damage for a fortitude spell. It's an area effect attack which is useful against swarms. A fortitude save and not an attack, so it combines well with attacks. I’d like it more if the damage was a bit better. But I would take this if I wasn’t able to get a damaging cantrip from elsewhere. Curiously the spell is largely silent unless you are in the area. The critical effect deafens which makes you immune to this spell. Some value on a melee build - not something I’d recommend for a sorcerer. Daze has a better effect for a single target..

Invoke True Name ★ This is a useful debuff to put on an enemy but the requirement that you know the target's true name restricts this to characters and campaigns that are built around it. So to spontaneous casters it's almost useless. A prepared caster may want this if they have done their research.

Needle Darts ★★★★ ROE this is essentially Telekinetic Projectile with different dice and more range. Special material use is clear rather than a rules hellhole. Plus it is on every spell list.

Phase Bolt ★★★ DA piercing ranged attack spell. Main ability is to negate cover and shields.

Protect Companion ★★★ you can protect your minion (mount/ familiar/ animal companion/ summons /eidolon) so you will have a lot of targets. For Summoners as you are Shielding at range, Likewise if you are doing this on an animal companion that is standing between you and the enemy. It's just not normally worthwhile to spend an action to do this. I mean you actually want them to attack your minion rather than you. So pay attention to your action economy, this is not a priority, but if you are often getting the action to do this then OK.

Shield ★★★ single action shield. A point of AC and a bit of one use damage resistance. Just be aware that sometimes you are better off being offensive than defensive - I’ve seen arcanists over use shield when they should have used their action to be more offensive. Also note that you can just carry a shield and raise it for +2 circumstance bonus to AC without any proficiency. Blocking or attacking with a physical shield requires proficiency or a feat which is getable. Depends on how you visualise your character. The other option is the Take Cover action which you can often do anyway for a better bonus, and it leaves your hands free for items.

Telekinetic Projectile ★★★★ ranged attack. At one stage was the most damage to a single target at range for a cantrip. Deals bludgeoning, or slashing, or piercing damage. It is easy enough to carry a small pouch of sling bullets or arrow heads as ammunition.

The following points are all quite technical and other GMs will no doubt have other opinions. If you are planning on taking this spell please check with your GM.

Ammunition technically has to be unattended so the GM may require the ammo to be dropped before it can be used. A free action so not really a problem.

Finally the attack is still a magical attack that does magical damage because the spell has the Evocation trait - the magic school trait means that it is magical.

Void Warp ★★★ PC a different spell from Chill Touch. Void Warp is range 30ft, and the option to use it against undead is gone.

Cantrips, Utility

Approximate ★ SOM counting is so hard and it is important to do it quickly ?!?

Bullhorn ★★ SOM it has some value if you are regularly trying to coordinate large groups. Maybe useful with a deception check if you are pretending to be something else. The status bonus to Coerce or Perform is probably better gotten from somewhere else. Maybe a Bard or a Marshall might want this.

Dancing Lights ★★ a distraction. A light source. Can be used for scouting as you can project your light in front of you, not over you.

Detect Magic ★★★ for finding magic, someone should have it. You can get it via feats though.

Detect Metal ★★ ROE mostly not useful unless you are a miner, but I can see it being a good detect in certain dungeons for finding doors and hinges. Might be useful for guards to detect hidden weapons.

Eat Fire ★★★ ROE this is new, fire resistance as a reaction and a cantrip. With the secondary ability of creating a smoke cloud. Very nice if you want to be concealed. Note that there are ways of seeing through smoke like a Gos Mask or Blindfighting or Ifrit have an ancestral feat.

Figment ★★★★ PC replaces Ghost Sound. The key here is the Subtle trait which means that by default your casting is not flashy and not noticed. So you’ve got a Charisma score, take some ranks in Deception. This is going to be very useful.

Ghost Sound ★★ perhaps a distraction. Does your spell casting need to be concealed for it to work. Sustainable, so I suppose you could cast it before it was needed. Take Figment instead.

Glamorize ★★ DM a minor cosmetic effect. Lasts for an hour. Useful if you like performing or impersonating.

Guidance ★★★★ lots of +1 bonuses.

Illuminate ★★★ ROE a different light cantrip.

Infectious Enthusiasm ★★★ SOM This is a solid way to get a +1 status bonus to attack rolls, Will saves, or Charisma-based skill check. It costs 2 actions for you and 1 for the recipient so there is a significant trade off but it is a poor man's Inspire Courage. Useful if you don’t have a Bard or Barbarian in your group.

Inside Ropes ★ P181 use your intestines as rope and survive to tell the story. More than a bit silly and also very specific.

Join Pasts ★★ P147 Ok who asked for a Vulcan mind meld to be added to the game? Helps with recall knowledge and sharing memories. I presume you can’t lie with this.

Know Direction ★ find true north. Useful after you have gotten lost in the wilderness. Too narrow for a Sorcerer. Renamed to Know the Way.

Know the Way ★★ find true north. Useful after you have gotten lost in the wilderness. I agree it is useful but what about a rank in the Survival skill? Only for particular games. This is a rename of Know Direction with the bonus that you know where you were in the last 24 hours.

Light ★★★ there are normally a few people in the party who need light. As cantrips are automatically heightened, it is very useful if you run into enemies who use magical darkness against you. Note that the Light cantrip doesn’t counteract the Darkness spell as it can’t target it. But suppression can occur both ways. Sigh Paizo at their worst. They have unofficially clarified something completely the opposite way to how everyone read it. Please clarify it with errata. The Light Trait needs to be changed so that it doesn’t imply that it provides the targeting ability.

Mage Hand ★★★ useful when you don’t want to touch something or you need a third hand. Now called Telekinetic Hand.

Message ★★ ranged communication. It has its uses but is hard to justify as a Sorcerer.Maybe when you pick up more cantrips from other feats.

Musical Accompaniment ★★★★ FB potential 24hr duration. Useful if you use performance and in some social situations. But only if you have the skills. For Bards and BattleDancer Swashbucklers.

Prestidigitation ★★ good story value.

Read Aura ★★★ someone in the party should have access to assist with identification of items. Not entirely necessary and normally gets trimmed from my list. But if you are prepared to cast it on every object that you may think is magical - taking a fair bit more time - I guess it sort of supersedes Detect Magic in a lot of situations.

Read the Air ★ SOM a bonus in social situations that is better covered by Guidance. It's unlikely you can afford a second cantrip in this role.

Sigil ★ very minor uses. Have you already taken the dozen other better cantrips that you want?

Summon Instrument ★ APG only bards might want to use this, and even they don’t have to have an instrument.

Tame ★ SOM for when you run into a violent domestic animal. For animal lovers and burglars, and only at low level.

Telekinetic Hand ★★★ PC Originally called Mage Hand useful when you don’t want to touch something or you need a third hand.

Time Sense ★★★★ DA you now have a precise clock. Maybe this could be really useful if you had one of these in different groups, as you could get very precise coordination happening. But really that is just not often useful. Instead take this for the single action +1 to hit every hour.

Temor Signs ★★ ROE short range communication Through walls. Single action, Similar role to Message but very different flavour. As a party this is nice, but do you have the slots to take it.

Warp Step ★★★ DA a 5ft status bonus to your speed this turn as long as you are striding twice. Quite useful fairly often. At higher levels you are probably getting a better bonus from an item or a spell. If you can spare the cantrip slot, this is useful.

Wash Your Luck ★ SOM negate a misfortune effect. Useful mechanic, but there are so few of these it is a waste. Only for role playing purposes or a specialist campaign.

Occult 1st level spells

Agitate ★★ G&M save or a creature is forced to move or take mental damage. Not really good enough the damage is not so high that they just won’t take the damage if it is important for them to stay put.

Alarm ★★★ required if you can’t set a watch. Some people will take one every day.

Animate Dead ★★★★ APG this version of undead is the same as all the summon spells. Now called Summon Undead - which brings it into line as all the other Summon X spells. Options at every spell rank. Here are some nice suggestions for level 1. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Crawling Hand has a good claw hand grab great against casters..
Skeleton Guard has some resistances that will make it very tough against opponents that can’t do bludgeoning damage.

Animate Rope ★★★ APG useful if you need to get a rope somewhere. This is your first level Fly ½ spell. You can attack with this to slow people down.

Anticipate Peril ★★★ G&M a status bonus to initiative. Duration: 10 minutes. Quite useful offensively. Heighten for a larger bonus.

Aqueous Blast ★★★★ KM single action attack spell, prones on a critical. Nice way to spend a third action.

Bane ★★★ PC anti bless, basically the same but a debuff. Which means it is weaker as it has a save. Complements your own bless. But the sustain action cost is difficult. Larger area now.

Befuddle ★★★★ G&M a good single target debuff. Still has a partial effect if they save. Good against enemy bosses or any target your team is focussing on. Only lasts one round, so it is not great if you have many enemies or only a couple of spell slots.

Beseech the Sphinx ★★★★ RA similar to heroism but more narrow. It is lower level and only affects 1 skill and 1 save. Rare.

Biting Words ★★★★ SOM an attack spell you can reuse on a single action. Sonic damage to a single target.

Bless ★★★★ PC +1 for allies to attack in an area. Ok after you expand it. If you don’t have another source of status bonuses you will use this a lot. In the Remaster the area is greatly improved making this a viable source of attack bonuses and a really good option. Bards can do something similar with actions and Courageous Anthem but even they will want Bless when they get more compositions like Dirge of Doom. It is nice to be able to stack both bonuses.

Breadcrumbs ★ use this spell if you want to show off how awesome a mage you are that you can waste a slot on this rather than just marking a trail.

Carryall ★ a very fancy way to handle luggage. Get a donkey instead. Was called Floating Disk. At very high level it is somewhat useful again as it flies and can carry people.

Celestial Accord ★★ P183 cast a spell between two individuals to de-escalate a scenario. Isn’t this just a diplomacy check in a spell? Maybe if you can cast it subtly. Typically a Sorcerer will just have diplomacy and will only use this as a backup.

Charm ★★★ I’d give it 4 stars but for Incapacitation. The target won’t always know what you have done, so it is a bit safer than it used to be. You have the Charisma and the skills to work them over.

Color Spray ★★★ now called Dizzying Colors. Useful at level 1 if you can get a couple of targets together. Nowhere near as strong as it used to be because of Incapacitation. If you want to keep using it you will have to heighten it.

Command ★★★ very flexible. Only for one action but that is often enough. Very useful against single opponents. Stays useful even at higher levels. Note that it will stop them from using reaction till their turn.

Concordant Choir ★★★ SOM sonic damage in various shapes depending on how many actions you use.

Curse of Recoil ★★★ BC Reaction. Give an enemy a small penalty on a ranged attack and likely make them off guard next round. A reasonable use of a reaction when you have lots of spare 1st level spell slots.

Cycle of Retribution ★★★ P197 hard to rate this as it is quite unique. If the enemy fails their will save then they take damage whenever they take a hostile action. The damage scales but is low but it lasts as long as the spell is sustained. It should stop certain types of creature from attacking. It depends on how your GM leans into roleplaying his monsters.

Defended By Spirits ★★★ SK damages a specific enemy each time a specific ally is damaged by their attack. Sustained. It is a bit like a limited Fire Shield. You aren’t your own ally so it can’t protect you.

Déjà Vu ★★ APG force a creature to repeat his actions. Very good if you win initiative, or if he just moved into position in his last round. Incapacitation.

Detect Alignment ★★ kind of useful to quickly size up a social scene, but you could role play it instead.

Disguise Magic ★★ PC Was called Misdirection. Protect something from being detected as magical. not useful in combat. Narrow uses out of combat. Permanent at level 2.

Dizzying Colors ★★★ PC a name change for Color Spray

Draw Ire ★★★ SOM moderate damage plus a status penalty to attack people who aren’t you. Only good if you know you are going to be near impossible to attack.

Echoing Weapon ★★★ SOM a small amount of bonus sonic damage to a weapon. Probably only good if your enemy is weak to it.

Endure ★★★ G&M DM 5 temporary hitpoints for 1 minute. Single Action. It scales up.

Enfeeble ★★★ PC a better version of Ray of Enfeeblement no attack roll. Partial effect even if they succeed. Great against the right monster. Remaining Attack Trait is an error.

Equal Footing ★★/★★★★ SK this spell has potential. Inflicting clumsy even on a successful save. It is also good at slowing your enemy down. But technically it will just fizzle unless they are faster than you. You should normally be improving your base land speed so this spell will often be useless. However if you are a dwarven sorcerer who wears heavy armour and rides a mount, or you are a merfolk flopping around on land, this can be useful. Prepared casters will also like this against specific enemies.

Exchange Image ★★★ P147 can last all day. Fun. It could be very effective even against an enemy in combat.

Fashionista ★ FB a +1 status bonus for Make a Diversion for an hour. So worse than a guidance cantrip. Hmm.

Fated Healing ★★ P197 healing you and your enemy. But only if you individually aren’t hostile. Might be workable depending on how your GM plays hostile. Scales up. Only if you have good pacifist options.

Flashy Disappearance ★★★ FB a single action (errated) invisible move to get away in a puff of smoke.

Fear ★★★★, Heightened ★★★★★, one round of fleeing is often enough to be decisive, better if using intimidation. Gets multiple targets when heightened to level 3 and is one of a small number of multi target spells that is effective when your enemy has gotten mixed in with your party. Then it's a great option. The frightened condition affects saving throws, checks and DC, so it's useful to inflict. On the plus side, Fear is always useful out of a level 1 slot when you get to a higher level. The down side is it doesn’t last long.

Floating Disk ★ a very fancy way to handle luggage. Get a donkey instead. Now called Carryall.

Force Barrage ★★★★ PC a name change for Magic Missile

Forced Mercy ★★ BC force a will save or the target's attacks become non lethal.Still have full effect for a round if they make their save. Heightens at rank 4 to 8 targets. I’m not sure how to use this, because lethal or nonlethal only matters for the damage that drops a target to 0. Maybe it has value versus a boss. A construct companion is immune to nonlethal attacks so perhaps there is an exploit there.

Friendfetch ★★★ P169 moves allies close to you. Pull people out of a trap, a bad spell effect, a grab, or get them away from an enemy when they are prone. Better value when you have spare low level slots.

Glowing Trail ★★ P194 leaves a trail behind you which you can hide or not. Useful if the GM likes mazes.

Gravitational Pull ★★ SOM this is for a special melee build that wants to pull enemies closer to it. Are you trying to tank?

Grim Tendrils ★★★ a line of necromantic damage. Scales up.

Helpful Steps ★★ FB suspends a staircase in the air. It is basically a 40 ft length and you can heighten it. Useful and easier to carry rather than a larger ladder - especially if you height this for another 40 ft per rank. But it is one of those spells you need to know you are going to need in advance. Maybe take it on a couple of scrolls.

Ill Omen ★★★ G&M hand out bad luck. They roll twice and take the worst result. Cool. But not for long.

Illusory Disguise ★★★ 1 hour.

Illusory Object ★★★★ a simple illusion, fairly reliable at level 2, eventually permanent. You can create walls with this. It is an effective barrier, and can provide cover. Can easily cost your enemies a few actions and maybe a few rounds. Very strong if played well. It blocks sight until they do a Seek action and succeed in a Perception check against your spell DC. Even if they succeed, creaturess on the other side are concealed. Lexchyn has a good video on this.

Imprint Message ★ APG leave a message in an object. Rarely useful.

Inkshot ★★★ KM single target direct poison damage with a dazzle. Seems worse than Briny Bolt or Purifying Icicle but not bad.

Invisible Item ★★★ APG a nice way to set up an ambush, with an invisible log across the road.

Item Facade ★ narrow.

Kinetic Ram ★★★ DA a Force effect save or be pushed. The gem is the one action version.That can be a really useful single action especially when you are higher level and can afford the first level spell slot.

Know Location ★★ P194 know the way to a location you can describe. Useful in the right type of game.

Liberating Command ★★★ G&M a single action to hand out a free escape attempt.

Lock ★★★ nice utility especially in a dungeon crawl. Can be permanent. It can be very nice to lock a door after you have gone through it. Protect yourself from attacks from the rear while preserving your option to withdraw.

Lose the Path ★★★★ difficult terrain for a creature on a save. A good way to keep someone at range a turn longer. Move them where you want on a critical fail. Why do I like it? Because it is a reaction and thus is almost free to cast in terms of actions. Stuff up the movement of a Boss and waste their action(s). Mostly useful when you have a few extra slots from mid level.

Mage Armor ★★ it works. But so does normal armour. Not really sure why I would bother with this. I take some basic light armour instead and have another spell slot. Early on that extra slot is important. Amour proficiency costs a feat but you can retrain it later when you get some . Now called Mystic Armor

Magic Aura ★ fake a magic aura.

Magic Missile ★★★★ now called Force Barrage. Lots of missiles that don’t miss. A good fallback if you run into something with a high AC, saving throws and broad immunities. One of very few direct damage spells that doesn’t require you to have a high spell casting DC. It is still useful even if you are outclassed by an enemy. Sometimes useful as a one action spell if you are prepared to burn slots to get that little bit extra damage out.

A note on the interaction of this and Dangerous Sorcery Sorcerous Potency.

Balance wise

+1 for the whole spell is too weak
+1 per missile is far too strong
+1 per target is reasonable - the same sort of result you would get with a Fireball. Confirmed here by Logan Lead Designer

The wording of Magic Missile combines the damage against each target. You get the bonus damage on each damage roll, that is against each target.

Another change from earlier editions is that Magic Missile is affected by Concealment.

Check out the Wand of Manifold Missiles or the new version Wand of ShardStorm

Magic Weapon ★★★ useful for a while an extra dice of damage to a weapon. Eventually you have enough magic weapons. Strong at low levels. Largely replaced by Runic Weapon.

Mending ★ use the crafting skill instead. Very narrow. Do you have a creature you can heal with this in the party?

Message Rune ★ G&M another type of magic mouth. Leave a message which activates on a trigger

Mindlink ★ why would you use this? I mean just talk to them instead.

Misdirection ★★ Now called Disguise Magic. Protect something from being detected as magical. not useful in combat. Narrow uses out of combat. Permanent at level 2.

Mystic Armor ★★ PC This used to be called Mage Armor It works. But so does normal armour. Not really sure why I would bother with this. I take some basic light armour instead and have another spell slot. Early on that extra slot is important. Amour proficiency costs a feat but you can retrain it later when you get some .

Nudge the Odds ★ SOM a poor spell that is a disadvantage to the activity (gambling) it is trying to boost.

Object Reading ★★★ APG a broad and useful divination. It could tell you something you couldn’t work out yourself.

Overselling Flourish★★ FB distract your enemy with a dramatic death. Unfortunately they get over it at the start of your turn. So this is tricky to use.

Penumbral Shroud ★★ G&M DM a short reduction in light for light sensitive creatures. Maybe useful against creatures without darkvision.

Pet Cache ★★★ APG hide your pet in an extradimensional space for 8 hours. Good for smuggling them somewhere. Even getting your warhorse into a dungeon.

Phantasmal Minion ★★★ a simple invisible summon that can interact for you. Because it can’t be seen there are all sorts of tricks out of combat that you can do with this. Lasts as long as you concentrate, so it’s easy to have it precast. For pranksters, wizards with labs, or any caster that has Effortless Concentration or Final Sacrifice. Was called Unseen Servant.

Phantom Pain ★★★★ SOM pain as a weapon. Reasonable scaling damage even if they succeed on their will save. Some persistent damage, sickening.

Pocket Library ★★★ SOM helps with recall knowledge. Probably not your thing as a Sorcerer but there are going to be some people who like this. Only for when you can afford to spend the spell slots on this.

Protection ★★★★ a narrow defensive buff to AC, limited by alignment. Excellent against summons or creatures who like to dominate. In the right campaign it still works well. Upgraded in the remaster. Gives you a +1 status buff to AC and saves. Becomes a 10ft emanation at 3rd rank.

Quick Sort ★ SOM not something you need to do while adventuring.

Rainbow's End ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Teleports adjacent volunteers through a rainbow up to 60 ft from you. An Einstein Rosen bridge (?). At the same time it is a low spirit damage sustained dazzling area. Read this one carefully. As I see it the damage and dazzle effect is just on the creatures in the area, the sustain is to allow your allies more time to teleport. Seems optimal for breaching operations.

Ray of Enfeeblement ★ an attack roll then they get a save? Retired for Enfeeble

Reed Whistle ★ P203 a minor bonus to point out and seek. Only for prepared casters.

Restyle ★ SOM minor cosmetic change

Runic Body ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Fang. It now scales as it heightens. How useful it is depends on your group. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks. Note that technically this provides item bonuses so animal companions don’t get full benefits from it.

Runic Weapon ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Weapon. It now scales as it heightens. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks.

Sanctuary ★★★ you can cast this on others. Good for protecting a vulnerable ally. Though you would prefer if they could still contribute. The definition of hostile action is a bit loose. Check some scenarios with your GM. Casting a blocking wall, obscuring vision, bless, healing should be OK. Controlling a minion who attacks maybe. This spell has turned combats.

Schadenfreude ★ SOM cast as a reaction when you critically fail against an enemy's effect. This is just not going to happen often enough to be worthwhile. Come on Paizo this would have worked if it was triggered on a failure.

Scorching Blast ★★★ KM two or three action attack spell, burns on a critical.

Seashell of Stolen Sound ★ SOM record a minute of sound. For social intrigue games.

Share Lore ★ G&M grant others knowledge one of your lore skills. Fairly narrow that multiple people need the same Lore Skill. Yeah this is for wizards.

Signal Skyrocket ★ ROE a very long range signal flare. Technically useful but unlikely that you will need it in normal adventuring.

Sleep ★★ Heightened ★★★★ Very different to other versions of this spell. Best used before combat. A 5ft burst means one creature, maybe two adjacent creatures. Technically there could be more clumped together but that seems much less likely. Yes the -4 status penalty from unconscious and potential -2 circumstance penalty from off-guard are good debuffs. Note that Sleep only prones when you heighten it to rank 4, until then it is a standing upright sleep.

Incapacitation makes it necessary to heighten it and renders it largely useless against bosses.

Soothe ★★★★ strong single target healing. The Book of the Dead says that this works on undead PCs. But also this spell targets a living creature so it doesn’t work. Probably worth errata to fix it up.

Spirit Link ★★ a bit hard to use.

Spirit Ward ★★ SK bonus defence against spirits and haunts. A bit specific. Protection is often just better. Still at low rank the variable cast options are good. You don’t need to heighten this. For prepared casters.

Summon Fey ★★★★ for missions too dangerous for your other minions. Not very efficient at doing damage but they make excellent alternative targets for your enemies to attack. Great for trap detection and helping with flanking. Needs its own guide. Have a look at the monster filter for options. Costs you an action to control. Some of them have useful spells like the unicorn or the sprite. But pay attention to the spell level you used to summon them with as they can’t cast spells of that level or higher. The description of the Summon Animal spell hints that you can summon a lower level creature.

Grimple has effective lice and vomit powers

Summon Undead ★★★★ PC this version of undead is the same as all the summon spells. Was called Animate Dead - this brings it into line as all the other Summon X spells. Options at every spell rank. Here are some nice suggestions for level 1. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Crawling Hand has a good claw hand grab.
Skeleton Guard has some resistances that will make it very tough against opponents that can’t do bludgeoning damage.

Sure Strike ★★★★ PC Was called True Strike. But now with errata that says once once per 10 minutes. Unless you were taking a Staff of Divination so you could use it most rounds most people won’t mind. Still a great spell but maybe 3 or 4 are enough.

Synchronize ★ for coordinating actions at distance. I suspect Message will be a better option most of the time. But I can see uses for this.

Synchronize Steps ★★★ KOL turn your reactions into moves. Good for setting up flanking or a mobile style of combat. Typically you'd prefer your reactions to be attacks though.

Thicket of Knives ★★ SOM a +2 status bonus to Deception checks for a minute. They probably should have limited this to just Feint actions. Could be a useful buff. Only if you plan on using this a lot.

Thoughtful Gift ★★ APG teleport an object. One action. Fairly marginal unless the GM is mad enough to let you identify items with it.

True Strike ★★★★ Now called Sure Strike. If for some reason you are meleeing and staying there. A good option if you are a part time caster or if you are trying to land a big attack spell. Negates miss chances, so it's valuable against blur or invisibility. There are a few more spells apart from cantrips with attack rolls. That list was heavily affected by errata. If you like some of them, this is very good.

Unbroken Panoply ★ RA temporarily repair a weapon.

Unseen Servant ★★★ a simple invisible summon that can interact for you. Because it can’t be seen there are all sorts of tricks out of combat that you can do with this. Lasts as long as you concentrate, so it’s easy to have it precast. For pranksters, wizards with labs, or any caster that has Effortless Concentration or Final Sacrifice. Renamed to Phantasmal Minion.

Ventriloquism ★★ good for more complex distractions. It depends on how your GM plays things. But if you like illusions this can be helpful to get spells with verbal components off without alerting enemies. When I GM I don’t require it in most circumstances, but if you are trying to get an illusion to work against someone with an Arcana score, or if they are aware you are an illusionist then you may want this. Seems to need the Subtle trait to be useful, I would assume that it has this or the spell is too bad to be true.

Occult 2nd level spells

Heightened spells: Illusory Disguise covers voice and scent, Illusory Object gets sound smell and touch, Lock is permanent

Albatross Curse ★★★★ HoW this is a strange almost unique spell on this list. The albatross spotlights an enemy. Not normally many ways to get a +1 circumstance bonus to attack an enemy for your team.

Animated Assault ★★★ APG sustainable bludgeoning damage in an area. Occult doesn’t have that much area of effect physical damage so this may be important to you.

Animus Mine ★★ G&M useful protection against mental manipulation. It lasts for an hour and triggers so that part is good. The only real issue is how common is this going to be? A good spell to sit in a spell book, for when you need it.

Augury ★★★ reconnaissance is not always possible. Often you just have to ask the fates about the future. If you have ever survived Tomb of Horrors you know that sometimes you need this.

Banishing Touch ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. A melee spell attack. Flick them away with your finger. Good damage if they have no way to avoid a fall, but even if they do then it will use up their reaction.

Bee-Man's Summons ★ P201 hears when someone mentions your name.

Befitting Attire ★ illusionary fine clothes for the party. Only for the right game. I am generally happy to buy my clothes, and not run the risk they will be disbelieved or dispelled.

Binding Muzzle ★★★ P195 stops speaking and biting, including a nice flat check to stop spells. Useful against certain monsters.

Blistering Invective ★★★ APG insult someone for persistent fire damage. Heightens to multiple targets and it's good then. I’m not that big a fan of persistent damage.

Blood Duplicate ★★ P182 create a fake copy of an object for an hour.

Blood Vendetta ★★★★ APG reaction spell that inflicts beed damage. There are simply not that many good magical reactions, this is one.

Blur ★★★ reasonable defence, gives a DC 5 flat check to target - you need some defensive options.

Calm or originally Calm Emotions ★★★★★ area of effect compulsion to stop fighting. One of very few spells that is an area of effect takedown on a regular failed save. On level opponents have around a 50% chance of being neutralised by this spell. It gives you the time to defeat their friends. The targets snap out of it individually. Such a strong effect that lasts for a minute, that even though it has the Incapacitation trait I’m still rating it very highly. You must heighten this to keep using it. It doesn’t work so well against very intelligent foes who understand magic as they will snap each other out of it. If it ever happens to your party, headbutt the barbarian, he will get over it…. Hopefully. Even so, it's still ridiculously strong.

Carrion Mire ★★★★ WTD4 this is a sustainable area that will knock people prone. Great if there is forced movement in your party or just lots of opportunity attacks.

Charitable Urge ★★★ APG save or give away your items. A good way to waste their actions. Incapacitation

Cleanse Affliction ★★★★ you will need this eventually. Removes curses diseases and poisons.Replaces Neutralize Poison

Clear Mind ★★★★ PC a new more general healing of fleeing, frightened, and stupefied., higher levels can get confused, controlled, and slowed, doomed and stunned . Can get a partial suppression on a failed counteract check.

Coiling Dance ★★★ RA grants Holy to your allies spells and attacks, plus can give them an escape attempt. Rare.

Comprehend Language ★★★ hour long. No denying its utility. But it depends on your campaign. Now called Translate.

Confetti Cloud ★★★★ FB creates concealment in a cloud of confetti.

Continual Flame ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened.

Cutting Insult ★★★★ FB like fear but with real damage but not fleeing on the critical failure

Dancing Shield ★★★★ BC raise a shield for someone else but with your actions and reactions.

Darkness ★★★ very effective against many enemies. Do you have dark vision?

Darkvision ★★★ yes you do. But is this a good use of your spells.

Deafness ★ bat slayer.

Death Knell ★★ a nice bonus that has some limitations. Only for a very evil party.

Dispel Magic ★★★★ useful protection against a wide range of things, and Sorcerers value versatility. The counteract check can be hard.

Embed Message ★★ PC an improved Magic Mouth. Permanent, not really a combat spell but might be useful in an ambush.

Empathic Link ★★ KOL telepathy up a mile range. Useful but the message cantrip is cheaper.

Empty Pack ★ an illusion that your pack is empty. It has a use but a Sorcerer can’t afford spells as specific as this.

Everlight ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened. This spell is just a new name for Continual Flame. At least they removed the hideously scaling gem cost.

Faerie Fire ★★★ a partial counter for invisibility with no save. The problem with this is the small area of effect so it's hard to go fishing with this. You need to time it for when you know where they are. It combines well with Obscuring Mist especially if you aren’t storm born

False Life ★★★ a few extra hitpoints for 8 hours, not super strong but it is a long term buff. Renamed in the remaster to False Vitality

False Vitality ★★★ a few extra hitpoints for 8 hours, not super strong but it is a long term buff. A name change for False Life

Far-Flung Fetch ★★ NPC steals an unattended object. It is subtle so you’ll likely never be caught. So I think you are set for your life of crime. Useful but situational. Definitely book it.

Fear the Sun ★★★ P172 dazzles or blind an opponent. Still affects them for one round if they make the spell.

Feast of Ashes ★★ G&M a slow curse of hunger. Probably good to nudge the behaviour of a beast or person. Just a bit slow and narrow to be recommended for an adventurer to take day to day.

Final Sacrifice ★★★ APG detonate your summoned creature in a reasonable sized fireball. It says minion, but doing this to your familiar or animal companion is probably not your plan A. Sadly illusionary creatures aren’t solid enough to work with this. Works on an Unseen Servant. Eidolons are not minions, but um er a Witch’s Familiar gets replaced free every day… With the removal of alignment this is no longer Evil but rather a noble sacrifice for the greater good.

Gentle Breeze ★★★ ROE out of encounter healing and recovery bonuses. This really depends on your campaign. If you get ten minute breaks between fights but not half hour breaks then this is a useful bonus. Otherwise, this is mostly better handled by focus point based healing.

Gentle Repose ★ for religious ceremonies.

Ghoulish Cravings ★★★★ a very evil curse that turns someone into a ghoul over several days. Postremaster it inflicts sickened even when they make their save. It is a pretty good debuff.

Ghostly Carrier ★★ PC New version of Spectral Hand. Useful if you like a lot of touch spells. No feedback damage if it is slain.

Grave Impressions ★ remote sensing for a necromancer. Sort of useful I guess.

Helpful Reload ★★ BC a reaction to do a single action reload of an allies weapon. Useful and an interesting way to help their action economy. Not sure it is a good use of a spell slot.

Hideous Laughter ★★★ this is good action denial. Slowed if they fail. Unlike Slow this is a Will save. If your enemy is using a reaction effectively then this is a reliable way to stop it. Best against brutes with Reactive Strike or other good reactions. New name is Laughing Fit.

Horrifying Blood Loss ★★ P181 frighten a bleeding creature. Useful but too narrow.

Humanoid Form ★★★★ a useful disguise, to just look like someone else. Especially nice if you are a Sprite or some other unusual creature. Comes with Enlarge in built at level 5. Take deception with this. But also options for Darkvision and Enlarge. The duration is not great at ten minutes for a spell that you want to use out of combat. If your GM makes you roll the deception check constantly then this is a problem.

Illusory Creature ★★★★★ an illusionary pseudo minion that does real damage. Dies as soon as it is hit, which is only a bit shorter than many summon spells. But your opponent doesn’t know that yet. Lasts as long as you can sustain it. Like a summon spell, more flexible but fragile and less damage. All types of distractions are possible, you are limited by your imagination not any level of reality. What you really want to do with an illusionary creature is not to fight but to bluff.

Useful in combat and out of combat.

A dragon flying in will cause some people to run away. The guard might open the gate and rush out to help when he sees an injured man in uniform returning. Natural Selection means that almost everyone runs and hides before they confirm what they think is dangerous, actually is.

If you want the illusion to do something on its first turn then sustain it.

Illusory Shroud ★★★ FB provide concealment to enable a rogue to hide in plain sight.

Imp Sting ★★★ a range touch poison effect, good effects.

Impart Empathy ★★ P175 allows you to negotiate with an animal.

Inner Radiance Torrent ★★★★ a line of force direct damage spell with blinding on a critical failure. You can take 6 actions to cast this for about twice the damage. This is really useful if your allies can shove or push enemies into the area if they try to move away. Indications from Mark that this spell scales too strongly. I will be using his suggestion as unofficial errata. It is now official.

Instant Armor ★★★ a nice utility spell if combat breaks out at the grand ball, or just so you can get a good night's sleep and be ready at a moment's notice. Yes, Sorcerers can easily get significant armour. But this is probably for a multiclass Sorcerer.

Instant Parade ★★ FB hide in an illusionary parade.

Invisibility ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ always a good spell. Even better in this edition as the defences against this are not as good. Very effective for escaping, scouting, and surprise. Better in combat if you heighten it, so that it stays up after you attack. Even if they attack the square you are in it is a 50% miss chance. True strike and area of effect spells are useful against invisibility if you have nothing else specific. Rules problem: hostile action is subjective.

Kgalaserke's Axes ★★★★ RA +1 status bonus to attack for 1 creature for a minute as a single action spell. Compare it to Bless. Very action efficient, especially if your party doesn’t have another source of status bonuses. Also a two action version for some extra damage too.

Knock ★★ there are other ways to open doors. Occasionally useful. Check out the item Insistent Door Knocker

Laughing Fit ★★★★ this is good action denial. Slowed if they fail. Unlike Slow this is a Will save. If your enemy is using a reaction effectively then this is a reliable way to stop it. Best against brutes with Reactive Strike or other good reactions. Used to be called Hideous Laughter.

Loose Time's Arrow ★★★★ DA a mini quicken for moving up to 6 creatures. Could be very useful

Lucky Number ★★ a very nice contingency effect. Optional reroll a d20 dice if it is the number you selected. It is probably only good if your roll is in the bottom half of numbers.

Magic Mouth ★★ permanent, not really a combat spell but might be useful in an ambush. Updated with Embed Message which has some more advanced options.

Marvelous Mount ★★ PC The new Phantom Steed. Very much the same except now divine casters get it and it can make saving throws.

Mimic Undead ★ you are just not going to need this.Perhaps it's a way to infiltrate the necromancers castle.

Mind Games ★★★ a contest of will single target stunning spell. Sustain for additional effects. Still useful at a high level. Probably only use it if you know their will defences are poor. You can sustain it to retry if the target is unaffected.

Mental Map ★★ RA limited mind reading. Gain information from an unwilling target about a place they have been. This spell is uncommon and mind reading is something some GMs don’t like. But if you are travelling a lot in your game this can be useful. Personally I prefer to extract information with skills.

Mirror Image ★★★ a defensive spell but it doesn’t last very long as duplicates are taken out by a miss.

Noise Burst ★★★ PC an area of effect sonic attack. Damage is mediocre. Worth taking because sonic is rare. Scales up. Casters who get deafened as it will give them a DC 5 flat check on spells with an auditory component, but that is only a few spells and doesn't seem to apply in general. Was named Sound Burst

Osseous Cage ★★★★ WTD4 drop a bone cage on someone to screw up their day and stop movement. Unlike mist wall type effect this offers a reflex save. It works as lesser cover as well.

Pack Attack ★ P175 gain the ability to flank more easily. Rogues have this feat GangUp which does the same. But you have to sustain this. Not useless to the right build. But generally you can use your actions better than this.

Paranoia ★★★ this should be an effective fear spell. A GM could do anything with this.

Peaceful Rest ★ the remastered version of Gentle Repose. A simple funeral spell to prevent undeath and protect the body for possible raising..

Penumbral Disguise ★ if you are using Stealth alot. Not sure why you wouldn’t take Invisibility instead.

Persistent Servant ★ a flexible servant for non combat tasks. OK. I’d probably prefer to animate one via Animate Object and save a spell slot.

Phantasmal Treasure ★★ APG fascination is not that strong but it's a lot better when the target of the fascination is not you. It still ends if an ally is attacked.

Phantom Crowd ★★★ I’m not really a fan of a spell that can only do one very specific thing. I mean Illusory Creature can do this, just you only get one of them. But if you are in a city then I can see that this is useful for bluffing your opponents, or encouraging them to back off. How a GM will play this is a bit unknown.

Phantom Steed ★★ normally you can just buy a horse instead. Good for overland travel. Better at higher level when it's faster and can walk on water or even fly. The problem is that when you start using this spell you are going to want it for the whole party.

Radiant Field ★ P172 DM a light spell with extra penalties for those with light blindness. Too specific. Maybe useful in very specific circumstances.

Reaper's Lantern ★★ APG enfeeble undead, sustainable.

Remove Fear ★ most fear effects you have access to will recover themselves soon enough. Rarely worthwhile.

Remove Paralysis ★★ not likely to be needed.

Resist Energy ★★★ flexible energy protection.

Restoration ★★★ someone always fails their save and needs help.

Restore Senses ★★ not used often.

Revealing Light ★★★ PC A partial counter for invisibility with a reflex save. The original is Faerie Fire for which there was no save. Still affect the targets if they make their save for 2 rounds so it is not so bad. The problem with this is the small area of effect so it's hard to go fishing with this. You need to time it for when you know where they are. It combines well with Obscuring Mist especially if you aren’t storm born.

See Invisibility ★★★ invisibility is common in some campaigns. But this spell doesn’t negate invisibility as well as it used to. Heighten to use all day. Now upgraded to See the Unseen.

See the Unseen ★★★. PC Renamed See Invisibility. But you can now see incorporeal things hidden in walls and get a bonus against illusions.

Shadow Zombie ★ P181 turn a zombie into a shadow for a while.

Shatter ★ candidate for worst spell in the game, use an axe and smash the object instead. Doesn’t even affect demiliches anymore. I’m sure the wizard is upset he no longer gets it. No saving throw, but only affects unattended objects.

Silence ★★★ Heightened ★★★★ at level 2 it is just a bonus to stealth, At level 4 you can use it to interfere with spell casting. An assassin hunting a wizard is going to like this. You might like to check which of your spells doesn’t have a verbal component, post remaster the Subtle trait is want you need to cast in an area of silence. Also defends against Sonic attacks which are very rare.

Sonata Span ★★ make a bridge, cute, unusual effect for Occult, it works do you want it?

Sound Body ★★★★ PC a new more general healing of blinded, dazzled, deafened, enfeebled, or sickened, higher levels can get drained and slowed and stunned . Can get a partial suppression on a failed counteract check.

Sound Burst ★★★ an area of effect sonic attack. Damage is mediocre. Worth taking because sonic is rare. Scales up. Casters who get deafened as it will give them a DC 5 flat check on spells with an auditory component, but that is only a few spells and doesn't seem to apply in general. Now named Noise Burst

Spectral Hand ★★ how to do range touch spells at range. Take this if you are building around a lot of touch spells. I wish it had move uses as a hand? Will your GM let you do anything else with it? Replaced by Ghostly Carrier

Spirit Sense ★★ APG narrow detection for haunts and spirits. Take it when it is needed.

Spiritual Armament ★★★★ PC was Spiritual Weapon a sustainable ranged attack that doesn’t care about your deity. Can be sanctified.

Spiritual Weapon ★★★★ now Spiritual Armament a useful ranged weapon attack. That you can use round after round, or even multiple times in a round. Its best use is typically in combination with another spell that causes a saving throw, so that the multiple attack penalty doesn’t cripple its value. Incompatible with Godless Healing etc. Probably not much point if you have invested in a ranged weapon.

Spy's Mark ★★★ FB creates a security camera on the wall.

Status ★★ a remote communication spell? How many times have you been told not to split the party

Stupefy ★★★ PC replacement for Touch of Idiocy. Fortunately this is now ranged. A good debuff to put on casters.

Summoner’s Precaution ★★★★ a summoner only safety spell. IMHO it is compulsory for summoners. You don’t go down when your Eidolon does. Get it in an item if you have to. Maybe technically the better thing to do in some cases is to go down and be healed by an ally. You still get that choice. The Summoner themselves is a reasonable character, and the eidolon survives in a way if you do. The one minute cool down assures that this won’t be abused in combat. Mostly I like it because I can play the Eidolon as being that bit more expendable which is the whole point of being a Summoner - taking less risks yourself.

Summoner’s Visage ★★★ a summoner only utility to make their eidolon look normal and fit into normal society. In practice it's about saving the actions required to summon it.

Sure Footing ★★★ PC a new more general healing of paralysis and clumsy. It can remove grabbed and restrained, but it is range touch so you probably want to use the Reach Spell feat with it.

Swallow Light ★ P181 counteract light to gain a weak breath weapon.

Teeth to Terror ★★★ P181 mental damage and fear effect. A cool illusion.

Telekinetic Maneuver ★★ it is just one trip or shove attempt at range. That is unlikely to be worth your action let alone a spell slot. I think it works as a utility for Arcane Archers and Magus.

The Parrot's Whisper ★★★ RA gain knowledge about a target's highest weakness. Might be useful if Recall Knowledge is not an option (likely).

The Queen's Rainbow ★★★★ RA create a dazzling line that stays around. Useful tactically especially in corridors and rooms. This is almost a wall.

Thundering Dominance ★★★ a status bonus to your eidolon or companions intimidation check. So probably more for Druids and Summoners. Plus it gives them a single action frightening sonic damage emanation. Only one Roar per casting of the spell.

Timely Tutor ★★ mostly for wizards a Recall Knowledge buff if they have a familiar or Eidolon. Probably very useful in certain out of combat ways. You are likely not invested in these skills.

Touch of Idiocy ★★ a serious penalty to an enemy caster. Range touch. I think there are better spells for this. Renamed in the remaster to Stupefy

Translate ★★★ PC hour long. No denying its utility. But it depends on your campaign. Was called Comprehend Language.

Tremorsense ★★★★ ROE a useful special sense. Imprecise. Lasts 8 hours at 5th level.

Umbral Extraction ★ an effective spell for its mission. But needing to steal spell slots is rare. Is this a preemptive counterspell? Requires a Thievery check. I guess this is a way to drain a captured spell caster of spells.

Umbral Mindtheft ★★ P181 steal lore from your victim.

Undetectable Alignment ★ might get you past some low level detections. How useful is it going to be?

Veil Of Spirits ★★★ SK dazzles and hands out weakness to spirit damage. Very useful if there is a lot of spirit damage potential in your group.

Vicious Jealousy ★★★ P181 stop your enemies from coordinating. Probably mean they won’t flank effectively.

Voice on the Breeze ★★ ROE long range one way communication.

Vomit Swarm ★★★ APG 2d8 piercing damage in a cone plus sickened. Great imagery

Warriors Regret ★★★★ A curse designed to hurt an enemy if they keep attacking. It is about damaging not attacking so it works very well against arcane blasters as well. A bit slow to have an effect. But it has its effect even if they make a normal saving throw. If you are playing a character that wants to talk to their enemies then this spell will likely deescalate some conflicts.

Worm’s Repast ★★★★ a single target damage spell that inflicts flatfooted. Better damage against some undead.

Occult 3rd level spells

Heightened spells: Fear multi targets and becomes awesome, Illusory Disguise lets you impersonate a specific target, Comprehend Language gives you speech

Agonizing Despair ★★★ APG single target damage and frightened

Annunciation of the Outer Gate ★★★ RA a combination of an invitation to negotiate and a more durable Fear spell if they refuse. Rare. Only versus particular types of creatures. Better if you have a spell book.

Behold the Weave ★★★ DA a cute time lock. It is effective but skip it as Slow is just better. No Slow? Then try Roaring Applause instead.

Bind Undead ★★★ steal a minion for the day. Maybe a little narrow, and not if your cleric likes to burst heal.

Blindness ★★ strike a target blind. Fort save. Effect lasts long enough. Being blind makes them flat footed so timing of your turn is important. But with Incapacitation so it has limited use except in your top spell slot. I really would only take it if I had Razzle Dazzle

Bonewall Bulwark ★★★★★ WTD4 this is a small short range wall. So it probably is best used in a corridor. It provides cover, presumably blocks movement, you get a free(?!) attack against an adjacent creature each turn with it. It is only 2 not 3 actions. This has real limitations but if you can accept those it is a very strong wall for this level.

Bottomless Stomach ★ a bag of holding of sorts. Fun but no.

Bracing Tendrils ★★ DA defence against being pushed. Nice but narrow. Book it.

Burglar's Blind ★★★ NPC just like Invisibility but it includes a silence effect and you have to sustain it. Heightens for 5 creatures. Not sure how you will coordinate the party if you are all silent.

Caster's Imposition ★ P182 a narrow curse about ritual casting.

Circle of Protection ★★★★ a good party buff to AC that goes with you. The 4th level version lasts an hour. But you have to be going against a foe that you can predict their alignment. On a crusade against hell then great, but if the plot is a bit grey then it is just not going to be useful at all.

Claim Curse ★ maybe an interesting way to suppress a curse for a few minutes. Which for some curses that could be enough to negate them. But just too narrow for a Sorcerer to want.

Clairaudience ★★★ spying tool. This is a good spell. It works and is safe, but other methods of spying are more flexible. Ask yourself how often will you use it? Definitely as a Wizard, a bit less as a Sorcerer.

Cozy Cabin ★★★ APG a temporary (12hr) house.

Cup of Dust ★★ G&M DM inflicts fatigue on the target, and makes them very thirsty. Fatigue is -1 to AC and saves. Useful, but what else can you do with fatigue? Stop Barbarians from raging if they lose to your initiative.

Curse of Lost Time ★★★ APG/PC2 single target, clumsy and enfeebled. Works for a round even if they make a save.

Cyclone Rondo ★★★ WTD knock people prone in an area, then sustain for a slow moving area of difficult terrain and some damage.

Day’s Weight ★★★ similar to Curse of Lost Time. SIngle target, a small effect on a normal successful save. Nothing wrong with it, I just want a bit more at this level.

Deep Sight ★★★★ P194 long term dark vision or greater darkvision.

Disruptive Transfer ★★★ RA dazzles adjacent creatures and teleport a move away.

Distracting Chatter ★★★ inflicts flat footed at range on a Will save. Better when heightened.

Dream Message ★★ long range messages.

Echo Jump ★★★★ SK teleport up to 30ft leaving a force explosion behind.

Enthrall ★ fascinate is just not strong enough. Hostile acts break the effect. Fascination doesn’t protect you, so you can have fascinated the whole crowd and they will still stone you to death. I guess it has a place out of combat if you have Conceal Spell or Melodious Spell to make it Subtle. That is available from Witch, Wizard or Bard. Is it worth a spell slot just to make a distraction? Technically it affects the caster and everyone else in range.

Excise Lexicon ★ P186 destroys words from memory. Very narrow.

Familiar's Face ★★★ APG look and hear through your companion or familiar

Far Sight ★ P177 it does what it says but not well enough for me to ever want to take it.

Fate's Travels ★★★ P194 reviews the last ten minutes of a creature's life.

Focusing Hum ★★ DA defence against being stupefied or confused.

Ghostly Weapon ★★ if you have a spell book it is good against incorporeal creatures.

Glyph of Warding ★★★★ make a spell trap, or a bomb if you can make yourself immune. Don't forget you can heighten it and get some very big spells in here. Well the designers have addressed this spell and made some clarifications. Basically you can’t force someone else to activate it, they have to interact with it. So using this spell on an item to use like a grenade is just going to fail. Which is sensible. You also have to use all the triggers - move, touch or open - not just one. But this still effectively allows you to put glyphs on small items, which you can trigger when you want. By having someone else, perhaps your familiar, trigger the item by touching or moving them, or maybe just even deliberately saying the wrong password when you touch them. Or maybe you can convince an opponent to take a trapped item. The question really is what hostile effect can you put in them that is useful when triggered? It is possible to get immunity to effects if you might be caught in an area of effect. Metamagic and Safeguarded Spell work in Staves, so probably in scrolls and glyphs too. Heal and Harm are hostile to some creatures and not others. What will your GM let you do? This has been released in the remaster as a Ritual Rune Trap.

Gravity Well ★★★★ like a mini black hole. Everyone moves towards the centre. Ranged, area of effect forced movement. Highly unusual. I guess the obvious use is to suck people off the edge of a cliff. Great if you have some terrain or damaging areas.

Haste ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ you get an extra action but only for a stride or strike. You can take it at any time but you only gain it at the start of your turn so it doesn't help the caster on the first round it is cast. A very strong buff, just not superpowered anymore as it takes a while to pay off. Better when it is heightened to multiple targets.

Heatvision ★★★★ ROE a new PRECISE sense. Heatvision duration 1 or all day at 6th rank. Very nice but it is not going to work versus undead or constructs,

Heroism ★★★★ a strong boost that gets much stronger at higher levels. It is worth it, providing they don’t already have a status boost.

Hypercognition ★★ it is nice to have time to think through all your knowledge skills. You may have 2 to 4 knowledge skills to try on one target if this is your thing.Example Occult, Bardic Lore, Society, Gossip Lore. You might want 6 actions if you have multiple targets. For some builds though especially when you are higher level this will work well. But trust your gut - you are a Sorcerer not a Wizard.

Hypnotic Pattern ★★ fascinate is just not strong enough. Hostile acts on allies break the effect. Fascination doesn’t protect you, so you can have fascinated the whole crowd and they can still throw rocks at you and doubtless be fascinated by your dead body. However no save on an area Dazzle is useful. Though I prefer other spells like Mist . They are fascinated by the pattern, not you. There are better options than this. Renamed to Hypnotize.

Hypnotize ★★ PC see Hypnotic Pattern above.

Infectious Ennui ★★★★★ KM very much like Slow but it spreads to secondary targets. There are a group of people who think Slow is too good a spell and should be nerfed. Well until rank 6 this is better.

Impending Doom ★★ cute but too slow to be much use outside the roleplaying value.

Invisibility Sphere ★★★ party invisibility before an encounter only. Now called Shared Invisibility.

Levitate ★★★ can’t be used offensively as you can’t move. Maybe take it till you have a way to fly. Easy way to get out of reach. Could lift a heavy object. Out of combat, it's a safe way to climb.

Lashing Rope ★★ P188 turns a rope into a melee spell attack that can trip. Not really much different apart from attack attribute over having a magical weapon.

Life Pact ★★★ KOL if you have good healing, or a source of temporary hitpoints. Then several party members and prop up another in trouble.

Locate ★★★ a useful detection, but of something you have seen first.

Magical Fetters ★★★ P158 a nice way to make one target clumsy, slow and vulnerable. Incapacitation

Martyr's Intervention ★★★★ KOL a reaction that stops someone from dropping to zero hitpoints.You take some damage and the target is on 1 HP. You both become Wounded 1.

Mind of Menace ★★★ a nice counterattack reaction against a mental attack. Prepared casters will definitely want this available, for Sorcerers may be worthwhile.

Mind Reading ★★ depends on how you play. Can be powerful depending on how much information the GM lets you have. You could just use skills instead.

Moth's Supper ★★★ DA some slow healing bonuses and the ability to smell blood. Lasts for an hour.

Nondetection ★★ Now renamed to Veil of Privacy. This is not going to stop anything you are worried about. If you want to cast this you will want to cast it at high level. Good against cantrips, ie detect magic so it has a place for illusions. Hard to justify unless you have a spell book. Take Private Sanctum instead as it actually works.

Nothing Up My Sleeve ★ FB hour long bag of holding.

Oneiric Mire ★★★ illusionary difficult terrain and a speed penalty. The speed penalty persists when they leave. 3 actions to cast. Reasonable range and area. Maybe

Ooze Form ★★★★ this is awesome. For sure these forms are all slow which is a major problem, but you get some really amazing abilities. It's a melee option. Immunities to critical hits and precision damage, abysmal AC, motion sense, some swimming and climbing options, acid attacks. Plus it scales so far up levels even level 8. There is reach, a stunning attack option. Rogues and Swashbucklers are going to hate that this is in the game and Druids will be jealous. This spell breaks through the limits normally associated with the Occult list. Here you are getting a polymorph, a battle form, an elemental acid attack. It gives Occult so many options they don’t have another easy way to get.

Organsight ★★★ weirdness galore. Bonus to medicine and precision damage on a target for a minute. But you have to succeed at a lore roll or a medicine check and you have to deal slashing or precision damage (spell is OK). So if you have the right skills it is a good buff, especially if you can combo it with a reliable damage. Invisible assassins are going to like this.

Overwhelming Memory ★★★ RA single target stupefy with some other effects. Useful to sustain if they fail their save. Probably good against enemy casters.

Painted Scout ★★★ P175 scrying spell through a stone surface, useful.

Paralyze ★★★ single target will save. Most living things can be paralyzed. Only for one round, but your target is still stunned 1 on a successful save? It has Incapacitation which is annoying as the right place to use spells like this is when you outnumber the enemy. Better when it's heightened to multiple targets.

Perceive the Threads of Fate ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Roll twice on attack or skill check for the next 3 times you sustain this spell. Very much like 3 Sure Strikes. Now on all lists.

Percussive Impact ★★★ FB a lower damage sonic fireball that splashes and deafens.

Perseus’s Precautions ★★★ a useful precaution roll twice on initiative.

Phantom Prison ★★ this is a good concept just don’t expect that it will work as well as it sounds. If they fail their save they are trapped. But they can get another roll for every action. So basically they lose as many actions as it takes to disbelieve their prison. Heightened to 5 targets at level 8 that is cool. Use it on the right enemy. Incapacitation. I think slow is just better, but that is a fortitude save and this is will. It would be useful if they only got one save per turn against this.

Pyrotechnics ★★★ P152 a range of effects that requires a fire source to use. Area of effect flash for blind till end of next turn without the dreaded incapacitation trait. Or smoke for area of effect sickened and perception penalties.

Rally Point ★★ DA a prearranged short range dimension door.

Ring of Truth★ Detecting truth is technically useful but this is so unreliable I’m not sure it has any value. Relapses Zone of Truth

Roaring Applause ★★★★ it's a single target slow, but they lose their reactions anyway. It does nothing much extra on a critical failure (maybe if you are out of combat). If your allies have Attack of Opportunity it will likely trigger that. Heightens at level 6 to multiple targets. Obviously if it is successful, sustain it and keep triggering those attacks. Deadly in the right party.

Rouse Skeletons ★★★★ this is the necromancer's response to Flaming Sphere or Spiritual Weapon. A mass of skeletons that attack an area and can be moved every round when you sustain. Less damage, but also difficult terrain.

Sculpt Sound ★★ APG finer control over silence. For a stealth bonus?

Scrying Ripples ★★★ ROE a useful scrying spell.

Sea of Thought ★★★ DA an area of difficult terrain

Secret Page ★ not an adventuring spell

Shadow Projectile ★★★★ a reaction that triggers on an ally's ranged attack. It will very likely give them flat footed on their target. Plus some extra damage. Obviously if you have an archer, especially a rogue archer, in your group this is a big bonus. Is this spell worth it? Maybe not if your 3rd level slot is your top slot, but once you get above that level it's a really nice addition to a tough fight.

Shadow Spy ★★★ DA spying via a fake bird.

Shared Invisibility ★★★ party invisibility before an encounter only. Previously called Invisibility Sphere.

Shift Blame ★★★ a reaction to change the perceived origin of an attack or Deception, Diplomacy, or Intimidation check. I think it can be used well in a lot of social situations, even combat situations. Might be able to split apart fractious enemies for a round or so.

Slow ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ costing your enemy actions is very effective. Great when it is heightented to 10 targets. It is still very good against one target as your enemy still loses one action on a normal successful save. Whether one action is significant or not depends on the enemy and how your team plays. If all everybody does is run forward into melee then this won’t make much difference outside of a critical failure. But if the team is striking and moving back, forcing the enemy to spend actions moving as well, then this is much stronger. Useful against a boss even if he saves as you are trading two actions for one of his - that’s a good deal as you outnumber him. When heightened it is one of a small category of multitarget spells that can still be used when the enemy has engaged and is mixed in with your party.

Sparkleskin ★★★ FB a plus 2 status bonus to deception and performance checks. Dazzles close creatures when hit.

Speak with Plants ★ only when you need it. Lower level after the remaster, but the spell is still encouraging the GM to say nothing useful.

Strenght of Mind ★ P209 a poor version of Heroism that only works against a limited number of spells.

Sudden Recollection ★★ a slower more subtle suggestion. I think I prefer suggestion.

Temporal Twin ★★★★ DA creates a temporal copy of a single action from an ally on your last turn. They have to have a reaction to use it. Seems like replaying the Barbarians Strike is a pretty good option. But there is a lot of flexibility here.

The Four Hunters ★★ RA single action spell but you can get extra targets for more actions. A buff to a number of useful things. Only lasts a round.

Threefold Aspect ★ APG a day long bonus to disguising yourself as younger or older.

Time Jump ★★★★ two moves for the price of one action plus a third level spell slot. Poor value early. Important at higher levels as it is a cheaper escape spell. Note that you seem to teleport, you don’t actually teleport, so the move has to be possible.

Time Pocket ★★ DA hides one bulk item for a day or till you want it.

Trade Items ★★★ SK swap an item with an item on another creature. Given that you can be holding something of low value, this spell is basically stealing an item as a reflex save. What if you are holding something dangerous?

Transcribe Conflict ★★ KM Recall knowledge about certain enemies to get an initiative bonus.

Vampiric Touch ★★★★ range touch drain and temporary healing. Better if you can add range to it. In the remaster this is called Vampiric Feast

Vampiric Feast ★★★★ PC range touch drain and temporary healing. Better if you can add range to it. Renamed from Vampiric Touch

Veil of Privacy ★★ Renamed from Nondetection. This is not going to stop anything you are worried about. If you want to cast this you will want to cast it at high level. Good against cantrips, ie detect magic so it has a place for illusions. Hard to justify unless you have a spell book. Take Private Sanctum instead as it actually works.

Wall of Shadows ★★ P172 DM a line of darkness, useful to hide or fight behind. I’d give it an extra star but I think normal Darkness does a better job at lower level.

Wanderer's Guide ★ faster overland movement - or you could use a horse or hire a guide.

Warding Aggression ★★ this is a defence for someone who is casting spells and meleeing like a Magus.

Web of Eyes ★★ party TV. Cute but a verbal description is normally enough.

Whirling Scarves ★★★ G&M concealed against strikes only. 20% miss chance. Effective

Wooden Double ★★★★ ROE a reaction to negate most of a critical hit.

Zone of Truth ★ often fun to role play. But not a normal adventuring spell. It's not reliable so I'm not sure it has a point. You can get generic bonuses on checks so why you would want to invest in a spell for such a narrow bonus is beyond me. Now called Ring of Truth.

Occult 4th level spells

Heightened spells: Darkness even if they have darkvision, Sleep is save or be unconscious, Invisibility keeps working even after you attack, Silence is useful offensively, Circle of Protection is hour long, Phantom Steed can walk on water and ignore difficult terrain. Carryall becomes useful as it flies and can carry people for 8 hours.

Aromatic Lure ★★★ LOL Rare. Incapacitation. Stupefied by smells. Odd in that it does not require the target to have a good sense of smell. But if they fail they have to go to a specific square for a round. It's a great way to waste their turn for certain monsters.

Bestial Curse ★★★ APG clumsiness, weakness and a flat check of 5 to do any manipulate actions.

Blink ★★★★ resistance to almost everything, optional sustain to random 10ft teleport. Very different from previous editions. Flicker is the remastered name

Bloodspray Curse ★★★★ SOM an excellent debuff to make an enemy vulnerable to more damage. The real bonus is that it still works even if they succeed on their save. Pretty good effect to put on a tough opponent.

Bursting Bloom ★★★★ FB vines burst out of you and squeeze. OK damage and an effective debuff.

Call the Blood ★★★ P165 I’ve been reading the wrong. It is really only for negative healing casters. Its damage with a minor bonus for yourself.

Chroma Leach ★★★ APG enfeebled and drained, best against a gnome. A touch spell?

Chromatic Armor ★★ SOM dazzle attackers that melee at close range. Plus 3 mostly random types of resistance. Quite good as a precombat buff if you are going to be in melee a lot. Possibility to get sonic/mental/force resistance which is difficult to get other ways, but it's totally random. Can only dazzle every other turn. It's complex and too weak.

Chromatic Ray ★★ SOM a single target attack spell with a random effect. The damage can be good, but I’d always rather choose.

Clairvoyance ★★★ a good choice, you do need a spying tool. Could be effective directly with Seeker Arrow depending on how your GM views it.Not that because it doesn’t require line of effect you can create this effect on the other side of a wall.

Clownish Curse ★ P152 inflicts penalties to stealth and thievery for an hour or so. Ok but a bit narrow. Attack tag here is wrong, ignore it.

Compel True Name ★ SOM Rare Incapacitation requires the target's true name. Just so rare to be useful and probably not much more effective than a normal charm or suggestion in most cases.

Confusion ★★★★ single target confusion, level 8 before it is multitarget. Effective on a boss or a caster who wants to do something other than strike or use a cantrip. Not particularly effective if you can easily flank your enemy anyway and they are just going to swing at you anyway. So if you have ranged strikers in your party it's good, less so if you have several people who will charge into melee.

Containment was called Resilient Sphere ★★★★ lock one creature away for a short while. Still useful if they make their save.

Countless Eyes ★★★ APG protection from being flanked

Dawnflower's Light ★ KM a fancy light spell. The secondary effects are very specific and have annoying gaps.

Daydreamer’s Curse ★ P164 a curse. A quite effective debuff. But not effective in combat unless you are playing a hiding game. Attack tag here is wrong, ignore it.

Deathless March ★★★★ WTD4 an emanation that quickens undead and frightens living creatures. Obviously for team undead only, but like all emanations the caster can exclude themselves.

Detect Creator ★ KOL find who created an Undead. Useful but too narrow for a sorcerer.

Detect Scrying ★★ you do want this in your spell book if you have one.

Dimension Door ★★★★ short range teleport. Very handy. Question: would a swarm stop this from working, by that I mean a spider in your pocket? Maybe. Ask your GM if you can take your familiar with you.

Dimensional Anchor ★★ stopping an enemy teleporting away is too narrow for a Sorcerer to want every day. But put it in your spell book. Remastered name change to Planar Tether

Dirge of Remembrance ★★★ P186 a specific spell to flush out incorporeal undead. Probably too narrow for a sorcerer.

Discern Lies ★★ you could use it a fair bit, but you could still need skills anyway.

Dispelling Globe★★★ protects against all spells. But it is immobile, and there is one level lower counteract. So this is like an extra 50% defence against magic up to the level of the globe. Useful. Old name was Globe of Invulnerability.

Dull Ambition ★★ APG gives the target the worst of two initiative rolls for a day. So it should be used before combat? This is going to be difficult to get off.

Enervation ★★★★ APG persistent negative damage in a line.

Enhance Senses ★★★ KOL double the range of your imprecise senses.

Entangle Fate ★★★ P197 targets 2 to 4 creatures within range. Makes them off-guard and probably stupefied. Party safe. Useful debuff.

Fallen Soldier's Lament ★★ BC Rare. A weak repeatable fear spell dressed up as a dead soldier. Sustain this to repeat. Perhaps this is useful if your team is set up to work with the frightened condition, or if you need to be really slot efficient.

False Nature ★ DA a forget style illusion for an object. Cute but narrow.

Favorable Review ★ P152 make a target think the performance was good. Pretty narrow, given that this is probably being done by a bard with an actually good performance skill.

Fey Form ★★★★ SOM good combat battle form. Attacks with trip/fire/good+ghost touch options. Main issue is that it doesn’t scale so you will want it for 1 or 2 levels then you will ignore it.

Flicker ★★★★ resistance to almost everything, optional sustain to random 10ft teleport. Very different from previous editions. Blink is the original name

Fly ★★★★ too flexible to ignore better when heightened. Pity you don’t get air walk.

Forgotten Lines ★ never going to get used except by professional librarians.

Gaseous Form ★ It has its uses but resistance 8 is not immunity to damage. It is more like a death trap.. Generally Fly will be better. You have other means of infiltration or escape that don’t stop you from doing things. Remastered name is Vapor Form. Technically you can’t even Escape in this form - it is a Trap. Only take it if your GM is going to allow it to be useful.

Ghostly Tragedy ★★★ APG a speak with dead that recreates their death, with side effects.

Girzanje's March ★★★★ a good buff to allies within 30ft. A Bard has other options. But this is still good. It does heighten to larger bonuses with higher level slots.

Glibness ★★ +4 to lie for an hour. For social games. Renamed to Honeyed Words.

Globe of Invulnerability ★★★ protects against all spells. But it is immobile, and there is one level lower counteract. So invulnerable is a big overstatement of how effective this is. New name is Dispelling Globe.

Hallucinatory Terrain ★★★ an illusion with a good duration. But you’ll have to think about how to use it. An illusionary moat, a pit of lava, a meadow of heather over a real pit, a bridge with no missing planks …. Now called Mirage

Honeyed Words ★★ PC +4 to lie for an hour. For social games. Was called Glibness.

Implement of Destruction ★★ DA buff a weapon with mental damage. Too slow and too specific.

Infectious Melody ★ SOM an area of effect ear worm. Sure it gives enemy spells a miss chance, but it's just not really strong enough to be worth it in most cases.

Infiltrator's Tunnel ★★★ NPC creates a teleport tunnel only you can use. Unfortunately you will only be able to use it like a real tunnel if you can see the other side. However something like Share Senses, or Beastmaster Trance or Clairvoyance will work. Can heighten to get more people through.

Internal Insurrection ★★ SOM inflicts clumsy. Not enough at this level and too slow to have its full effect.

Invisibility Curtain ★★★ SOM a new concept. A wall of invisibility to hide behind. Will require some thinking about how to use it. Perhaps a good way to prepare an ambush. Nice if you can fight behind it and keep your enemies out, which you can do from spell level 7. Providing you don’t have to hunt enemies down, this can be very effective as a portable fort.

It Is Written ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Get a big bonus on your next d20 check

Liminal Doorway`★★★ PC a good place to hide for the night. Not reliably safe, but with some thought it is probably still good. Based of the Rope Trick spell.

Luring Wail ★★★★ HoW lure enemies closer and makes them chase you. I assume this only affects enemies as it implies otherwise this is useless. The spell fascinates but individually. Talk to your GM about this spell.

Magic Mailbox ★ SOM teleport between two containers. Nice for smuggling, but not a normal adventuring pick. Go to a Wizard for this, or an Arcane Sorcerer. Should be a ritual instead.

Mercurial Stride ★★★★ ROE double move through an enemy and do poison damage. In some ways better than a dimension door.

Mirage ★★★ PC an illusion with a good duration. But you’ll have to think about how to use it. An illusionary moat, a pit of lava, a meadow of heather over a real pit, a bridge with no missing planks …. Was called Hallucinatory Terrain

Mirror’s Misfortune ★★ SOM a spell designed to inflict misfortune on an opponent. Meaning that they will likely miss their next couple of attacks. An interesting debuff that will be reliable against most low to mid intelligence enemies.

Modify Memory ★★ can be an effective way to turn someone to your side. But it should be planned for so keep it on your spell book. Now called Rewrite Memory

Morass of Ages ★★ DA generates difficult terrain and slows people down close to you. Probably too slow to be much use.

Mutilate ★★ P209 mutilate yourself in order to do slashing damage to an enemy. Not enough damage. For 3 action you get a burst effect.

Necrotic Radiation ★★★ up to 24 hour area or object denial with ongoing necrotic damage.

Nightmare ★ so ineffective. Bad dreams is all it does.No a player spell.

Ocular Overload ★★★ SOM a defensive reaction to give an attacker a miss chance against you. Good but only when you have spare spell slots of this level.

Outcast's Curse ★★ a good social curse. But that is not something I’d need day to day.

Painful Vibrations ★★★ SOM sonic single target damage, plus sickened.

Peaceful Bubble ★★★ PC replaces Private Sanctum. Creates a sound/sight/scrying proof area. A better non detection as it actually works.

Pernicious Poltergeist ★★★ SOM fairly minor area damage and control, sustainable.

Pest Swarm ★★★ BC incarnate swarm of various pests. Lots of low damage options. Very flexible but not especially strong. Probably a good choice if you know your enemies weaknesses.

Phantasmal Killer ★★★★ good mental attack. Does real damage, a chance they will run away or just die. Heightens for extra damage. The spell gets updated in the remaster to Vision of Death.

Phantasmal Protagonist ★★★★ KM a useful illusion which is much like a summoning spell. 3 different modes. Handing out temporary hit points, or melee.

Planar Tether ★★ stopping an enemy teleporting away is too narrow for a Sorcerer to want every day. But put it in your spell book. Was named Dimensional Anchor

Private Sanctum ★★★ creates a sound/sight/scrying proof area. A better non detection as it actually works. Replaced by Peaceful Bubble.

Procyal Philosophy ★★★★ P183 some nice Aid bonuses. A useful option.

Ravenous Portal ★★ SOM might be useful in a dungeon crawl. Potentially turns a door into an ally if the enemy tries to go through it. For running away I guess.

Read Omens ★★★ nice. The GM can hint when the plot is thin, or we have missed the obvious clues. You can cast it before adventures. Good if your GM likes this.

Rebounding Barrier ★★ SOM burns a level 4 spell slot into a shield block, with some minor damage to the attacker. Extra damage when you have extra slots. A shield works better I think.

Reflected Beauty ★★ P205 duplicates your image onto someone else and then disguises you. Lasts up to an hour. Cute illusion which will be fun in the right game. Replicate is likely a better option.

Remove Curse ★★ in your spell book please. All the best curses take days anyway. Not reliable as there is a counteract check.

Replicate ★★★★ SOM create an illusionary double of a PC or even a creature you have just knocked out. Useful for infiltration.

Resilient Sphere ★★★★ lock one creatue away for a short while. Still useful if they make their save. Now called Containment.

Rewrite Memory ★★ can be an effective way to turn someone to your side. But it should be planned for so keep it on your spell book. Was called Modify Memory

Rope Trick ★★★ a good place to hide for the night. Not as reliably safe as it used to be, but with some thought it is probably still good. The spell is remastered as Liminal Doorway.

Sanguine Mist SOM ★★ an area effect drain that does small damage and doesn’t seem to work very well. Though you do eventually get a tiny amount of temporary hitpoints. Not strong enough.

Savant’s Curse ★ P164 a fairly useless curse

Seal Fate ★ APG inflicts weakness for a minute or so. It is far too weak to be relevant at this level.

Soft Landing ★★ DA an air bag to protect everyone from falling damage. Perhaps it is a bit specific, but you might be in a game where this is regularly needed.

Spell Immunity ★★★ flexible but there is a counteract check. Its saving grace is the 24 hours duration, so you can cast it yesterday. Two main use cases are if you know the spells your enemy is likely to cast. Or if you want to make yourself or an ally 55% immune to one of your spells. Say for example if you put spell immunity and have a resistance effect it may be Ok to fireball a party member if they get surrounded. Do you need immunity to heal as your cleric likes to spam it but you have negative healing?

Spiritual Anamnesis ★★★★ P147 a very different spell likely to stun undead and many extraplanar creatures.

Spiritual Attunement ★★★ SOM get alignment based damage and opposite alignment resistance. A nice buff.

Steal Voice ★★★ P186 as making someone mute stops normal spell casting; this spell has Incapacitation. It still can be very handy though it is unlikely to work on a boss.

Suggestion ★★★★ I’d like this spell at any level. So effective, so flexible, so much fun. But note Incapacitation. The remaster Suggestion now has the Subtle trait. So it means you can cast it without most people noticing. This makes it a lot more useful.

Talking Corpse ★★★ speak with dead is regularly and surprisingly useful. But this spell is full of reasons for the GM to be unhelpful. You can only reliably use this if the target would be helpful to you.

Telepathy ★★ useful but a bit short range.

Tomorrow's Dawn ★★★ P197 light, a slow aura against undead, and the rather rare mental resistance. Sustainable.

Tortoise and the Hare ★★★ SOM a paired slow haste.

Trickster’s Feathers ★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. An improved version of Illusory Disguise

Translocate ★★★★ short range teleport. Formerly known as Dimension Door.

Umbral Graft ★★★ SOM steal or counter a spell using a Thievery check.

Vampiric Maiden ★★★ APG piercing and negative damage. Temporary hitpoints for the caster. Immobilised till their turn.

Vapor Form ★ PC Originally called Gaseous Form It has its uses but resistance 8 is not immunity to damage. It is more like a death trap. Generally Fly will be better. You have other means of infiltration or escape that don’t stop you from doing things. Technically you can’t even Escape in this form - it is a Trap. Only take it if your GM is going to allow it to be useful.

Variable Gravity ★ SOM make yourself heavy or light for very minor benefits.

Veil ★★★★ party disguise. If your GM just allows it to work, monsters shouldn’t normally get a check to notice, then this spell is good.

Vision of Beauty ★ KM this spell has Incapacitation and I can’t work out why. It is very weak. Maybe against solo bosses.

Vision of Death ★★★★ PC good mental attack. Does real damage, a chance they will run away or just die. Heightens for extra damage. The spell is based on Phantasmal Killer. It has been simplified to remove the partial incapacitation trait but is no longer an illusion and does more damage on the critical.

Wall of Mirrors ★★★★ P197 an effective wall that blocks sight and movement. Damages whoever Strikes it. Very welcome on the Occult list.

Whispers of the Void ★★★ PC2 an area of effect void damage that can also drain and doom. GMs will use this a lot. But it is only a 10ft burst.

Winning Streak ★★★ SOM one action spell to quicken an ally. It infectiously spreads amongst allies with everyone keeping the effect providing some gets a critical attack roll. I probably wouldn’t use it if this was my top spell slot. But if you have a large party with a few bonuses set up and martials who like to flurry attacks I imagine this can work reasonably well.

Occult 5th level spells

Heightened spells: Command ten creatures, See Invisibility 8 hours, Dimension Door you no longer need line of sight, Hallucinatory Terrain can now hide structures, Veil gets voices and scent, Locate can now find specific creatures. Tremorsense lasts 8 hours.

Aberrant Form ★★★ SOM some different nice battle form options. Climb, swim and grab options. OK but nothing that seems really good.

Abyssal Plague ★★ a deadly out of combat curse.

Ancestral Winds ★★★ P209 a mixed effect ranged burst. Causes fear and a little void damage.

Bandit’s Doom ★★ SOM trap an item so only limited people can use it. A useful little trick. But probably too complex for everyday use.

Banishment ★ the saving throw is good but for Incapacitation, but obviously only on selected targets. Do you really want a spell that only works on “little” demons?

Belittling Boast ★★★ FB a combined intimidation and Bane? No, not that strong. Maybe there is some action economy efficiency going on here.

Black Tentacles ★★★★ lowish damage area of effect grapple that is Fort based. It will notch up a good amount of damage over time. Escaping it is not too hard for most creatures but it will typically cost them a check or attack plus a move meaning they have wasted a turn. Very popular. Replaced by Slither.

Blind Eye ★ P182 stop equipment from being used to scry, or cast scrying magic for a day. Very narrow.

Blinding Bottle ★★★★ BC a huge area save or blind effect with some poison damage. The poison progresses rapidly and the blindness will continue until they can make the saves to beat the affliction. The Incapacitation is only on the subsequent saving throws.

Blinding Foam ★★★ FB Incapacitation - a spell attack (which means use this with Sure Strike) that blinds and does modest acid damage.

Blink Charge ★★★ SOM teleport and strike with some bonus force damage. A bit like the barbarians/fighter’s Sudden Charge. Who is this for - it plays like a Magus? Most GM will probably let you get away with using this as a slow dimension door.

Blister ★★★★ APG awesome plague effect probably 14d6 acid on the target plus a 15 ft cone around him

Blood Feast ★★★ a melee bite for 12d6 damage plus temporary hit points. Vampiric Touch for Magus

Chromatic Wall ★★ a wall. Which you can walk through. It is just not strong enough, a lot of opponents will just choose to go through it. You would have been better off just using a stronger area of effect damage spell instead. Or just cast a better wall.

Cloak of Colors ★ attackers that hit get blinded, or stunned. Retriggers once every round. Put this on your barbarian friend. There is a really sneaky Incapacitation marker in here. Sorry but I have to downgrade this as it triggers only when you are hit and lasts for a round. Targeting is when being blinded would matter, and that occurs before you would hit. So this spell is almost non functional. Take it only if your GM lets it work.

Crushing Despair ★★★★ a cone area of effect slow.This is good but it is harder to use as it will affect your friends. New name is Wave of Despair

Death Ward ★★★ a useful protection against negative energy

Diadem of Divine Radiance ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Make ranged spirit attacks for the duration. The damage is Ok but your attack bonus will be very high.

Dreaming Potential ★ a spell to do down time. No, just no.

Ectoplasmic Expulsion ★★ P165 a counter for an emotion or possession. A must for any ghostbuster.

Etheric Shards ★★★ DA ethereal caltrops? It has a use.

False Vision ★ unless you are playing scry and seek you don’t need this.

Flame Dancer ★★★★ ROE a 2d6 fire damage buff for an ally with an unarmed attack. Allows them to use performance to intimidate. If you have such an ally or have the performance skill this is good.

Flames of Ego ★★★★ ROE well fascination and Incapacitation is normally enough to rule a spell out. But this can work. If you delay your turn till just before your opponent you have a good chance of wasting their turn. Even if they succeed it will waste one action.

Forceful Hand ★★★ SOM a utility hand of force. At level five it is just a shield effect, At higher levels you can also do a push, grapple, punch on a sustain. I mean maybe a summoning spell could do much the same thing. But it's still a useful blocker with a repeatable attack effect.

Glimmer of Charm ★★★★ SOM A real charm that affects everyone around you. Can handle a room full of targets, but it's better if they aren’t already hostile to you. This is an incredibly useful spell. Incapacitation

Hallucination ★★/★★★★ well played it might make someone change sides for a while. Could be useful. Will require some thought and scheming. Incapacitation. Worthwhile when heightened to multitarget.

Illusory Scene ★★ a complex eventually permanent illusion. For defending you lair not adventuring

Imaginary Lockbox ★ PC2 this is a simple haulage spell like Floating Disk but invisible and lasts all day. Has some value for smuggling. Are you going to need it?

Inevitable Disaster ★ SOM a cute slow acting curse of doom.

Infectious Comedy ★★★★ P185 stops enemies from using reactions and slows them. This is like an infectious

Hideous Laughter

Instant Minefield ★★★★ BC subtly creates mines on the battlefield. Great with forced movement or obvious movement paths. The damage is very good if you can get the enemy to trigger multiple mines.

Invoke Spirits ★★★ SOM a moving sustainable area of damage. Like Rouse Skeletons. Not a lot of damage, but there is a fleeing effect on a critical failure.

King's Castle ★★ SK swap location with an ally, teleport up to 60ft. Useful but I’m always going to want to choose something else like Translocate instead. Perhaps if I wanted to swap places with a minion?

Mariner's Curse ★ I’m not seeing the point of this.

Mind Probe ★★ we don’t torture our prisoners at all.

Mirecloak ★ P171 2D8 damage and one clue from the attacker. This is very niche.

Mirror Malefactors ★★★ SOM inflicts frightened and sustainable mental damage on a will save. Ends when they make their save. Can do a lot of damage if they have bad will saving throws.

Portrait of the Artist ★★★ SOM a social spell. Pretend to be someone famous in the artistic world

Prying Eye ★★★ PC a good safe scouting spell. Renamed to Scouting Eye

Quicken Time ★★★ DA haste and concealment in a fixed area.

Rallying Banner ★★★ FB a much larger and flashier Bless.

Ravening Maw ★★★ start eating dead bodies with 2 actions a turn.

Repelling Pulse ★★★ SOM strong force damage in an area around you and a push away.

Return Beacon ★★ P166 a return home spell. The limitations on the duration and range mean that it is not a great spell.

Rewinding Step ★★★ SOM better as this is a single action go home.

Rip the Spirit ★★★★ SOM a flexible action, damage and drain.

Ritual Obstruction ★ P182 stops rituals occurring here for a day. So while this works, you are very unlikely to want to take it.

Scouring Pulse ★★★ KOL a nice blast that lights up undead.

Scouting Eye ★★★ PC a good safe scouting spell. Renamed from Prying Eye

Secret Chest ★★★ APG a temporary bag of holding

Sending ★★ long range communication. You probably want it, but Teleport can handle this next level.

Shadow Blast ★★★ a small amount of damage but of almost any type, almost any area. But the target can choose to save on either Will or Reflex. Very flexible but not very strong. Post remaster an extra damage dice has been added to it. I’d prefer to have a few different elemental spells instead. But this is the Occult list, elemental damage is rare here.

Shadow Siphon ★★★★★ a reaction counterspell with a built in bonus but only against a damaging effect. Widely useful party defence.

Shadow Walk ★★★★ 20 days travel in 1 day for the whole party. 1 minute to cast. Teleport light. In the remaster this becomes Umbral Journey.

Shock and Awe ★★★★ BC a very large area fear and stunning spell. It doesn’t get the fleeing result on critical failure but the stun is effective.

Slither ★★★★ PC The remastered version of Black Tentacles. Grabs and can potentially restrain creatures in an area.Modest damage.but still useful.

Soulshelter Vessel ★★★ stash some healing in an object so it can be withdrawn later at 10 HP per action.OK but probably action intensive.

Spiritual Torrent ★★★★ P186 huge spiritual damage.

Stagnate Time ★ DA a terrible fixed location slow spell.

Strange Geometry ★★★ APG really weird barriers. Not entirely sure how to use them. Probably best near dangerous terrain.

Speak with Stones ★★ PC talk with stones about who walked on them recently or what is underneath them. Used to be called Stone Tell.

Subconscious Suggestion ★★★ triggered suggestion. Incapacitation. Subtle.

Summon Dragon ★★★ some types of enemies are very vulnerable to flyers with breath weapons. It's also a good way to prepare a local population to believe your illusions.

Summon Entity ★★★★ summon an aberration. Look them up. For example a cloaker or a gibbering mouther. What do you mean I need to summon it 60 ft away ?? No … what. Maybe you should think through these a little first. These creatures are weird.

Synaptic Pulse ★★★★ an area stun that will cost them 0-3 actions, and probably their life. But Incapacitation. Timing and placement are important here. Some people debate if it is party friendly but the 3rd errata has cleaned that up - it is just enemies.

Synesthesia ★★★★★ a different spell. A strong debuff versus Will that makes it harder for them to target anyone, and gives them a penalty of 3 to their AC. Good on big solo monsters.

Telekinetic Haul ★★★ move big objects around with your mind. Sustainable and reusable. I think the target object means you can’t pick up allies or enemies directly, unless they are in a cart. No restrictions on dropping things. No save.

Telepathic Bond ★★★ secure radio system for the team. Lasts 8 hours.

Temporary Glyph ★★ SOM Compare this to Glyph of Warding. Temporary Glyph only lasts for a minute, can only be a two action spell, but you can cast it in 3 actions. I don’t think you will normally use this, as its main purpose is for creating a trap. It will always cost you another spell to use. Tactically I can see its value. I just think that you are better off casting a buff on yourself. Maybe if you are going to get a couple of rounds to set up then this is a good idea.

Tongues ★★★ any language all at once. A bit better than Comprehend Language but is it enough that you want to spend the higher level slot for it. Renamed to Truespeech.

Truespeech ★★★ PC just the new name for Tongues. No changes.

Umbral Journey ★★★★ 24 days travel in 1 day for the whole party. 1 minute to cast. Teleport light. Was called Shadow Walk

Wall of Flesh ★★★★ APG one of very few walls on your list so try to like it. Some interesting options.

Wave of Despair ★★★★ PC a cone area of effect slow.This is good but it is harder to use as it will affect your friends. Old name was Crushing Despair

Wisdom of the Winds ★★★ ROE some free advice from the wind.

Occult 6th level spells

Heightened spells: Hallucination, Slow and Roaring Applause target up to ten creatures, Heroism is +2 and very strong now, Phantom Steed can fly for 8 hours. Heatvision is all day.

Aura of the Unremarkable ★★★★ SOM the classic SEP field. Very nice to see it in this game now. An infiltration or escape spell. Like a party invisibility, but it's not. The area or the duration are limited (curiously the area is not big enough to do what is described in the text). But it still does something very useful that wasn’t in the game before.

Awaken Entropy ★★★★ DA a sustainable ranged burst of Negative or Force damage. Very effective if you want an enemy to move, or if they can’t move.

Blanket of Stars ★★★ APG a stealth bonus, plus dazzling adjacent creatures.

Blinding Fury ★★ APG reaction. Hide from what attacked you. It doesn’t negate the attack though.

Boots on the Ground ★★★ BC a day long illusion of there being more troops on your side. This is hard to rate as this is mostly an out of combat illusion to convince potential enemies not to bother with you. In combat it will chew up some enemy actions but not yours as you already had it cast, so in a sense it has the action efficiency associated with spells like Contingency. I assume that you can get the illusionary troops to follow you around though the spell is not clear. There is no disbelieve roll associated with this spell - by default illusions need to mention disbelief explicitly. Tactically some of this sort of effect can already be done with normal illusions like Illusory Creature. Some players are going to really love this spell.

Bound in Death ★★★ P186 a life link that you inflict on your enemy. If he fails his save he will take half the damage instead of you once per turn. You can choose to take more damage yourself to hurt him, but that will require some thought.

Cast into Time ★★★ SOM a cone area damage spell a mix of mental and bludgeoning damage. Plus it inflicts sickened. Technically the targets disappear - even on a normal success - till the end of your turn. Which means it’s really nice if you wanted to move through them, or if there is something else you can do to take advantage of that.

Catch your Name ★ SOM more true name madness. I mean in the stories knowing someone's true name was devastating. I haven’t seen anything beyond a whimper so far. There has got to be a better balance point for these spells.

Chromatic Image ★★ SOM a mirror image with a bite. Not strong enough to justify the increased spell level, but if you have spare level 6 slots then why not?

Collective Transposition ★★ teleport 2 people within 30ft. Any Teleport is very useful. I’m just not sure that you have to have it. Looking at the rest of level 6 spells it is falling behind in value.

Cursed Metamorphosis ★ PC post remaster the Baleful Polymorph spell is available on the occult list.

Toad. A fun save or suck spell. Useful even on a normal failed save. Game over on a critical fail. But only useful on minions because of Incapacitation. I’m just not going to use it when I have better options. Single target save or suck is always a bit hit or miss, but now I have to worry about the level of the enemy? Why would I use one of my big spell slots for this?

A stat block for a harmless creature would be nice. I can’t find one even in the bestiary. For now I suggest using the stats from Pest Form.

Dominate ★★★ obviously awesome. Very powerful if they critically fail. Target the lowest will powered opponent. Limited in that they get another save if they attack allies. Also note Incapacitation.

Dragon Form ★★★★★ pretty much what you would expect: large size, fly, breath weapon, big bite attack, elemental resistance, special senses. If you only have one polymorph spell in your list make it this one. Lots of flexibility in your choice of breath weapon. Very hard to pass this up, though some other forms have a couple of extra points of AC

Fateful Condemnation ★★★ P197 slows an enemy and does mental damage. Competes with the regular Slow spell. It also targets will not fortitude which is typically a plus. There is an aura of despair about this as well impacting enemies. You may want this as an alternative.

Feeblemind ★★ seriously neuters an enemy caster. But note Incapacitation. Now called Never Mind

Hag's Fruit ★ P182 this is Snowwhite’s poisoned apple. You are not going to need this. Take Glyph of Warding instead.

Heinous Future ★★ WTD this is like an improved slow with longer duration and added stupify but then it has Incapacitation. Not useless but I think I'd prefer a normal slow.

Lure Dream ★★★ MoM a normal summon spell but the creature you get is a dream.

Mislead ★★★★ another way to mysteriously teleport away. No not really but improved invisibility plus an illusionary duplicate can really screw with your enemies thinking. You of course need the Deception Skill and Effortless Concentration for this to be really good.

Missed Cue ★★★★ P205 frighten, slow and great damage. An awesome mental spell.

Never Mind ★★ PC seriously neuters an enemy caster. But note Incapacitation. Was called Feeblemind

Phantasmal Calamity ★★★★ big area mental blast. A shade under fireball for damage but a larger area.

Phantom Orchestra ★★★★ ROE this is a 10 foot burst that you can sustain anywhere within 120ft. Sonic damage on a fortitude save.

Poltergeist's Fury ★★★★ DA a big sustained damage aura.

Ravenous Darkness ★★ P186 greater darkness and damage in an area. Useful but the damage is not the best and it only occurs at the end of your turn - so it is hard to combo with forced movement.

Repulsion ★★★★ a very good way to keep creatures at range. But often it is OK if a few make their save, your allies can deal with them. It affects them too though. If you want to kite enemies this is your go to spell.

Scintillating Safeguard ★★★★ APG reaction. Party resistance against an attack

Siege Weapon's Blessing ★★★ BC a nice bonus to a siege weapon but only a siege weapon.

Seize Identity ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Really useful for sowing chaos amongst your enemies forces. Very effective against enemy spellcasters. Turn into Ariel and marry Prince Eric!

Skeleton Army ★★ BC incarnate. Do less damage that you normally would expect and do it over two rounds. Not terrible but just not enough either.

Spellwrack ★★ a bit slow to be useful as there is only one lot of persistent damage. Ideally you want spells with a duration and no save eg Guidance is nice, but even something like a level 1 Fear spell has a duration.

Spirit Blast ★★★★ force damage against a creature's spirit. Nice damage.

Suspended Retribution ★★★★ DA is a damage spell that your enemy has to choose to trigger. But the damage is high and you can force a trigger condition that will really cripple your opponent.

Teleport ★★★★ awesome. For the whole party if it's small. This version of it is imprecise but safe unless your GM is very nasty with his 1 mile off.

Temporal Ward ★★★ maybe to defend a doorway, useful for the GM heightened to level 10

True Seeing ★★★ still very good. Seriously depowered from earlier editions in that it doesn't just automatically see through everything - there is a counteract roll. I like the change. Hopefully we will see more high level illusionists and players will have to think again. Now renamed to Truesight

Truesight ★★★ PC was True Seeing, see above.

Unexpected Transposition ★★★★ SOM a cool escape spell that you can cast as a reaction to get out of melee. Your champion may be willing to do this for you. Then again it is fairly easy to arrange to have around a low level creature that will almost certainly fail its will save. Which makes this like a reflexive dimension door.

Utter Destruction ★★★ P209 a ranged cone of sonic and void.

Vampiric Exsanguination ★★★★ drain life over an area. Gain temporary hitpoints.

Vibrant Pattern ★★★ area of effect dazzle and blind. They have to leave the area for the blind to wear off, so probably good for a turn. But no, it has Incapacitation. Compare it to the level 2 spell Ignite Fireworks - Vibrant Pattern is better but still not great.

Wall of Force ★★★★ a very good wall. 30 Hardness means it won’t be taken down by most things. But it only lasts a minute. Totally unclear if you can shape this wall or not. Some walls say you can, some say you can’t, this one is silent. Ask your GM. Wall of Force clearly blocks physical effects, incorporeal and ethereal (effects) but allows teleportation and visual effects. All because it is a Force effect - but the definition of force says almost nothing.The Line of Effect rule requires a line from the caster to the target or the center of the spell effect, then a line from there to everywhere the area of the spell might reach. It allows for the spell to get through significant gaps. Importantly, the line of effect is blocked by a solid physical barrier. A Wall of Force is definitely that. Which means it blocks all spells - because unless they say otherwise all spells require a line of effect. The exceptions being the effects mentioned; Teleportation and Visual. Which are traits that you can look up.There are Light spells which by the description of wall of force being invisible probably still work. The problem is that there are many other types of effects that are just not mentioned. For example illusions and mental effects without a light or teleport component you can argue should probably still work. e.g. Phantasmal Killer doesn't really exist except in one's mind. I'm happy to argue it doesn't have a physical effect. A lot depends where you draw the line. So Teleportation and Visual can likely be cast through a Wall of Force, some GMs will expand on that.

Word of Revision ★★★★ KM a reaction to reroll a save or keep someone up at 1 hitpoint.

Zealous Conviction ★★★ the pep talk before you head out. Small party boost to temporary hit points and will saves.

Zero Gravity ★★★ SOM an area of zero gravity. Cool but how do you use it?? It doesn’t really say. Talk to your GM it may be great if they interpret it as totally screwing up non flyers, maybe it wastes an action or two - maybe it wastes several rounds. I just don’t know what they will allow you to do with it.

Occult 7th level spells

Heightened spells: Haste party wide, Fly for an hour, Invisibility Curtain that doesn’t go down when you attack, Veil the whole party can be specific individuals, Forceful Hand can now grapple at range, Girzanje's March is +2, Paralyze is multiple targets, Rally Point can teleport a group.

Attacked From Within ★★★★ SK single target. Reasonable damage and a fear effect on a will save.

Blightburn Blast ★★ weak damage but an ongoing sickness

Curse of the Spirit Orchestra ★★ inappropriate music causes penalties on Diplomacy, Intimidation, Performance, or Stealth checks. This is fun but minor.

Devouring Void ★★★★ RA a sustainable damage area that you need to roll a save to get out of. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Dimensional Lock ★★★ in the remaster it is now called Planar Seal. Quite nice defensively over an area, there is still a counteract check. Not often you will want to use it adventuring. Spell book it if you can.

Duplicate Foe ★★★ another way to get a useful minion. Like a slightly stronger summon with a save. It will probably only last a couple of rounds but it will be a threat and it should be capable of doing real damage. You should be happy if they attack it and not you.

Energy Aegis ★★★★ a day long buff, but a bit weak at this level. Very flexible.

Ethereal Jaunt ★★★★ take a short walk through the floor.Very good for scouting.

Final Fate of the Locust Host ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Every enemy is going to be sickened and drained.

Force Cage ★★★ APG a good trap. Reflex save or be caught inside.

Indolent Haze ★★★★ RA a sustainable damage area of sleep and death. Cast this when you have enemies already prone. Limited to Runelords and a specific wizard school, so this is tricky to get.

Inexhaustible Cynicism ★★★ SOM a mental effect like an illusion that stops allies from trusting each other plus a bit of damage. They need to spend an action with a Seek to get out of the ongoing mental damage. I generally don’t like these sorts of mixed spells as it is hard to get value for them. Fairly short range, targets very well so you can use this after the enemy has engaged in melee, will likely negate flanking bonuses, it should screw up the enemies tactical position. Very much a mixed bag, in the end it will depend on how well they roll their saves and how much the GM wants to play it up. It could be very good. It should be a lot of fun.

Interplanar Teleport ★★★ PC the new name for Plane Shift.

Leng Sting ★★ P160 a fortitude save for a draining poison. Probably not deadly enough unless you can follow up with other damage. A reasonable debuff, a bit slow acting for me, like most poisons.

Magnificent Mansion ★★★ a whole minute to cast. There are other lower level ways of doing similar things. The benefit of this is you can basically make it your permanent address if you want to spend the spell slot to extend it in your daily preparations. The remaster renames this to Planar Palace.

Mask of Terror ★★★ a triggered fear which is almost like a defensive buff. It heightens next level to protect the party.

Maze of Locked Doors ★★★★ P158 this is a maze spell. Incapacitation but it's OK as your enemy still disappears for one round if they make their saving throw. They need to critically succeed to avoid it altogether. A really good way to take out one enemy for a few rounds while you deal with their friends, or just so you can get through.

Momentary Recovery ★★★ DA a teleport at the cost of one action next turn, and two actions this turn. But you can spend those actions to Dispel Magic on yourself or heal yourself. I think this works sort of.

Planar Palace. ★★★ PC a duplicate of Magnificent Mansion

Planar Seal ★★★ PC Originally called Dimensional Lock. Quite nice defensively over an area, there is still a counteract check. Not often you will want to use it adventuring. Spell book it if you can.

Plane Shift ★★★ out of combat movement for the whole party, renamed to Interplanar Teleport

Possession ★★★ short term control of your target. That may be long enough. Incapacitation

Prismatic Armor ★★ a defensive spell that will make you resistant to a lot of different damage types all at once. But five resistance is not that special at this level, plus the dazzle only works against enemies who don’t have reach. I definitely would have this as an option as a wizard. I’m just less confident of it as a sorcerer. Best as a buff on someone who likes to grapple and get in close.

Prismatic Spray ★★ works fine but it is so random. I’d prefer to be choosing my effects.

Project Image ★★ you can set this up pretty well. To give you a line of effect through a wall of force or resilient sphere if you cast it first. I guess it works with improved invisibility. But ultimately it goes down to the first hit. So it seems pretty expensive for one round.

Recall Legacy ★★★★ RA grants an ancestry feat for a day. This is a flexible long term buff and is quite unusual. Because of abilities like Natural Ambition, Advanced General Training, Otherworldly Acumen, Expert Longevity you can get a lot from this.Of course they probably already have the best feats already. This is probably a good idea but you will need to think about it.

Retrocognition ★★ useful divination of previous events at this location

Return to Essence ★ counteract a magical ward. Can’t Dispel Magic do the same? Maybe you can take it to replace Dispel Magic but it's too narrow.

Reverse Gravity ★★★★ everyone has flight now, or do they? No saving throw.

Shadow Raid ★★★ SOM a long range burst illusion that does moderate damage and blocks line of sight. The effect persists for a minute - without you having to sustain it. I guess your side can disbelieve the illusion to see their targets. Allies are safe in the area. A good way to get enemies out of an area and make it safe for your side. Enemies get a choice of saving throws.

Shock to the System ★★★★ ROE brings someone back from the dead who just died. They are hasted. Just cast it on a PC, familiar, animal companion, or summon and you have a 1-action Thunderstrike of rank 5 every round. Doesn’t matter if they are dead, though summoned creatures disappear when they die. So a follow on from Final Sacrifice for your brave Animal Companion or Familiar? Ouch! That is one evil team.

Spell Riposte ★★★★ important defence at this level, like a second saving throw. Sends the spell back at its caster. Same as Spell Turning but without extra safeguards and now on your list.

Tempest of Shades ★★★★ SOM an Incarnate spell. Ally friendly huge 60ft radius at 100ft range. Save for drained on the first round and frightened on the second. Very effective.

Telekinetic Bombardment ★★★★ DA is a Telekinetic Projectile spell but scaled up to an area. The size is not large but the range and the damage is good, and your victims are knocked prone if they fail.

Time Beacon ★★★★ G&M an undo spell till the end of your current turn. Single action to cast. You get a counteract check to stop anything bad. Also there seems to be no reason you can’t keep trying things till you get a result that you like, as you seem to keep getting the rest of your turn back. Page 469 of the CRB says that you choose the order of steps at the end of your turn. So choose to rewind time and not let this spell expire. At least till you have the result you want. With some limitations, potentially an infinite turn. You can use this to keep retrying an attack time you get a critical hit with maximum damage, or until an enemy critically fails a spell!

Minions act in your turn as well. So you can endlessly try options with your minion till you get the right one. Even if the minion is killed each time, you can retry.

True Target ★★★★★ true strike against one target for up to four of your allies. Check the errata.

Vibrant Vibrato ★★★ P205 a sustained emanation of flexible size. Causes minor sonic damage and can stun.

Visions of Danger ★★★★ a very large area of ongoing illusionary swarm. Some creatures may stay and fight.

Warp Mind ★ single target confusion. At least they aren’t saving every round though. But confusion itself gives you a flat DC 11 check when you take damage. But no, it has Incapacitation. So much worse than Slow.

Occult 8th level spells

Heightened spells: Confusion multiple targets, likewise Mask of Terror.

Antimagic Field ★ is not generally useful to you as it really cripples your spell casting, and takes out everyone's items bonuses. But not for monsters where their numbers are all factored in and not in item bonuses. The higher level enemy caster will still be able to get his spells off. It's not fit for purpose. Great for a GM who wants to wipe the floor with a party. It is broken. If you play with the variant rule Automatic Bonus Progression it is a good option.

Canticle of Everlasting Grief ★★★★ SOM a single target debuff, that works really well on a target that is getting circumstance and status bonuses. Partial effect on a successful save. Some mental damage.

Confusing Colors ★★★★ PC2 creates an area of confusion. Sometimes this will be a better choice than the heightened version of Confusion sometimes not.

Devour Life ★★ actual healing plus temporary hitpoints from killing a target. Not value compared to other spells.

Disappearance ★★★★ real invisibility against any sense even when attacking. Undetected is strong.

Discern Location ★★★ find anything. New name is Pinpoint.

Divinity Leech ★ P162 a very specific anti cleric spell. They have to make a save to get a spell off. Effective but not an everyday spell.

Dream Council ★★ no need to walk all that way to Rivendell.

Falling Sky ★★★ DA makes flyers fall in an area but with Incapacitation. You have other options. This spell has its place if your team needs to get enemies on the ground, as there is no save for that part of the effect.

Hidden Mind ★★★★ PC day long mind and detection protection. Renamed from Mind Blank.

Holy Host ★★★ BC Incarnate. Ally friendly effects. Including damage, some healing, buffs. Decent area of effects and quite a lot of flexibility. Not really as much damage as I’d like to see at this level.

Hypnopompic Terrors ★★★★ MoM Low mental damage (for this level) but targets 10 creatures at close range. Very likely to inflict frightened 2, and a save to be paralyzed for a round. Better if you can sleep them first, but I’m not sure if that is something you can meaningfully exploit or if you had them asleep you would do this to them. Incapacitation

Maze ★★★★ a very effective take down of just about anything. Push them into another dimension for a few rounds. Now called Quandary.

Mimic Spell ★★★★ RA counter an arcane or occult spell being cast. If successful you can cast it yourself in the next minute.

Mind Blank ★★★★ day long mind and detection protection. Renamed to Hidden Mind.

Musical Shift ★★★★ P205 a good number of buffs and debuffs that you can change every round when you sustain this spell. Perhaps not as strong as some dedicated effects but this is very flexible.

Part the Mists to Paradise ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Rest for days in ten minutes.

Pinpoint ★★★ find anything. Old name was Discern Location.

Prismatic Wall ★★★ a good wall. But a lot of things teleport at this level.

Prying Survey ★★★ search at range for an hour.

Quandary ★★★★ The remastered Maze. Thievery based not survival. A very effective take down of just about anything. No initial save. Push them into another dimension for a few rounds.

Scintillating Pattern ★★★ will save. Area confusion and stun. But note Incapacitation.

Spirit Song was Spirit Song ★★★★ a huge cone attack spell. This has changed in the remaster. It is now a few less dice. Is spirit damage not necromantic force damage, and can stun. Also now on the Divine list.

Spiritual Epidemic ★★ a curse designed to take out a group of clerics.

Sudden Transposition ★★★★ SK short range teleport and damage 2 creatures.

Summon Irii ★★★ DA an incarnate spell. Gives your party some mixed luck bonus like minimum of 10 on a d20 roll, or choose the better of two damage rolls. Might be worthwhile in large groups.

Take Your Places ★★★ P205 teleport and rearrange up to 4 willing creatures within 60ft. An upgrade to Collective Transposition.

Uncontrollable Dance ★★★ an incapacitating dance. Even partial effect costs them actions.

Undermine Reality ★★★★ disbelieve something that is real to make it not real. Incapacitation. But it still has full effect for a round even if they save.

Unholy Army ★★ BC poor damage spread over two turns. Some flexibility here but there are better options out there.

Unrelenting Observation ★★ useful for the catch and release scenario. Good but specific. For sorcerers with a spell book.

Occult 9th level spells

Heightened spells: Heroism is +3 which is insanely good, Banishment multi targets and becomes useful, Synesthesia is multitarget

Astral Labyrinth ★★ a day long ward spell of alarm.

Beseech Arcanotheign ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Wham bam thankyou ma'am. A bang, a zap, a heal, and a fond memory.

Bilocation ★★ be in two places at once for ten minutes. Nice effect. I’m just not sure what you can do with it. Looks like a prepared caster spell to me.

Bind Soul ★ trap a soul. To what end? It strikes me as an expensive revivify. I presume souls have a plot dependant meaning. Now called Seize Soul.

Call Fluxwraith ★★★★ WTD an Incarnate spell. It seems to be an area of effect will save or disappear as per maze.

Dimensional Excision ★★★★ P212 a rare banishment spell that does damage and expels extraplanar creatures. Plus they leave their equipment behind. Looks like it was designed by a player.

Foresight ★★★★ advantage defensively for an hour but you have to trigger it as a reaction. Good, but costs your reactions even if you are helping someone else. Personally I sorted out my reaction well before now as a caster, so I don’t need this. But if you haven't then it is very good.

Overwhelming Presence ★★★★ demand that they fall down prostrate. Nice big burst will save. Incapacitation. Even on a success it still slows them effectively for two rounds.

Phantasmagoria ★★★★ PC Similar to Weird but the targets can be confused rather than frightened. An effective spell.

Prismatic Shield ★★★★ P162 rare. A strong defence against ranged attacks and spells.

Prismatic Sphere ★★★★ trap a non teleporting creature.

Proliferating Eyes ★★ SOM an eye infection literally. I’m not sure exactly what the game use of this is as by this level you really do need special senses which this doesn’t support. I guess it is a defence against blindness, and has value in remote sensing.

Resplendent Mansion ★ a nice mansion for a day. But isn’t the level 7 version good enough.

Seize Soul ★ imprison a freshly deceased soul for the purpose of stopping them from being raised. This is the new Bind Soul.

Summon Ancient Fleshforged ★★★ IL incarnate. A range of different debuff and damage area effects.

Telepathic Demand ★★★ planetary range suggestion. But note Incapacitation.

Undertaker ★★★ P184 try to bury your opponent.

Unfathomable Song ★ weird random penalties to your enemies. Far too weak for this level. Then there is Incapacitation on top?

Unspeakable Shadow ★★★ SOM a single target fear spell. It's a significant debuff and they can die (Incapacitation) or will stay frightened for a minute. Stacks with Slow. I just want more from this level of spell.

Voracious Gestalt ★★★★ SOM a large area of negative energy damage, that spirals out the more creatures that die. Ridiculously easy to abuse by sacrificing a few low level minions. Tip: never ally with a high level necromancer. Not party friendly in any way though, so that may limit its use by players.

Wail of the Banshee ★★★ large area damage and drained is a nasty condition. Now called Wails of the Damned.

Wails of the Damned ★★★ PC see Wail of the Banshee.

Weird ★★★★ mass psychic damage. The is a new version Phantasmagoria that does similar damage but with different effects.

Occult 10th level spells

Heightened spells: Girzanje's March is +3, Temporal Ward is permanent

Alter Reality ★★★★ a wish. Its replacement is Manifestation.

Fabricated Truth ★★★ like a super suggestion. It still has Incapacitation You wouldn’t think that would be a problem at this level but still…

Fated Confrontation ★★ SOM 1 ally and 1 enemy fight and can’t be affected by other actors. I think you really need to set this up. It is mostly a way of ignoring effects from third parties. Nothing stops the targets from attacking others.

Freeze Time ★★★★ take 9 actions instead of 3, but self only. New name for Time Stop .

Gate ★★★ you need to know what you are doing and it's totally campaign dependent, but this can be very important.

Indestructibility ★★★ APG you are immune from whatever you want to be till your next turn. Good, but it doesn’t solve any of your problems.

Jassim's Allegiance ★★★★ BC Incarnate. Rare. The first round damage is OK and it follows up the next round with even more.

Manifestation ★★★ PC a replacement for Wish and Alter Reality. It is almost the same but it doesn’t allow anything in the way the old wish does. You are limited to existing spells.

Nullify ★★★ SOM a reaction to counter a lower level spell automatically but you take damage as a result. The most reliable counterspell option in the game with the largest scope. This could be worth it.

Remake ★★ really a level 10 spell? Replace a destroyed item or magic item within limits. Too narrow. I’ve been corrected - this is about abusing Wands by overcasting then remaking them. I still don’t think it is level 10 material.

Shadow Army ★★★★ SOM a modest amount of damage on a will save, plus the ability for you to hide in the area. The area is big, you get to choose a condition, the damage reoccurs if they stay.

Summon Oliphaunt of Jandelay ★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Lots of trample damage. Automatically destroys all force effects.

Time Stop ★★★★ take 9 actions instead of 3, but self only. Renamed to Freeze Time

Primal Spells

One of the best lists. It gains a lot of elemental direct damage spells. The healing available is pretty good. There are lots of good options at every level and several low level spells that heighten well throughout. Maybe at very high level 8,9,10 the spells fall off a bit in power. To give you a taste for the list here are some typical Primal spells.

For direct damage Electric Arc, Scatter Scree, Scorching Ray, Fireball Chain Lightning Horrid Wilting The primal tradition is chock full of these options. They are simple fun and a useful default, though often you have better options.

For buffing Longstrider, Protector Tree, Shattering Gem, Haste, Stoneskin , Clone Companion, Envenom Companion, Organsight, Elemental Gift

For debuffs Slow, Obscuring Mist, Ignite Fireworks, Dispel Magic

For healing Heal, Restoration, Neutralize Poison

For control plenty of shove/prone/walls Gust of Wind, Lose the Path , Aqueous Orb, Wall of Water, Wall of Stone, Pillars of Sand, Burning Blossoms

For utility the basics are covered Darkvision, Light, Dragon Form, Air Walk

For melee you have all the Polymorph Battle forms starting with Animal Form and going all the way up the list to Nature Incarnate for Godzilla form.

The list has spells that target Reflex and Fortitude, but for standard offensive spells that target the Will defence there is not much. At lower levels it is Fear - which is quite good BTW as it lowers all their defences typically. Plus from level 3 it works on multiple targets after they are mixed into your ranks.

What you are missing are illusions, enchantments beyond the basic Charm and Fear, force spells, raise dead, teleport plus anything that is meta in the sense of modifies attack numbers directly, or meta magic. Secrets of Magic added a few more enchantments, but you are still light on: Lose the Path, Glimmer of Charm and Burning Blossoms

Cantrips, Combat

Choose at least two offensive cantrips. These are good default zero cost actions throughout your adventuring career. These are a key reason you need your Charisma maximised.

Acid Splash ★★★ acid can be useful if all else fails. It is rarely resisted. Attack roll. Splash damage which is good against swarms, but the damage scales poorly. (Yes this spell does actually splash read Corrosive Body). In the remaster this is replaced by Caustic Blast.

If you get this cantrip via the Elemental Wrath elf feat it is verbal only, which means that it won’t trigger an Attack of Opportunity/Reactive Strike if you are caught in melee. Hence some Magus take this to spellstrike with. Personally I like it from the same place to get non acid splash damage.

Bramble Bush ★★★ P203 does d4 damage to a one square area within 30ft. But even more damage when people move through that square later. Really good in confined terrain/corridors.

Caustic Blast ★★★★ PC a 4 square area of effect acid cantrip that is a replacement for Acid Splash. This is very good. In tight quarters you may be able to get multiple targets. Being an area of effect it will ignore concealment and invisibility, and trigger some weaknesses. Further it is a reflex save and not an attack roll. If only it scaled better.

Disrupt Undead ★★★ more damage but only versus undead. But sufficiently better against undead so you’ll want to have it if you suspect they will be around.

Electric Arc ★★★★★ feel the power of the dark side! Best offensive cantrip as it can target two creatures, no attack roll - just a reflex saving throw, which means you can use it and make a ranged weapon attack in the same round with no multiple attack penalty. Also not affected by cover, but because it is targeting it is affected by concealment, Note that some GMs insist that the targets be within 30 ft of each other, even though it's not technically in the rules. Post remaster the damage drops slightly.

Elemental Counter ★★★★ ROE counter an elemental spell with another spell. It will cost you spell slots but with a bit of planning you should be able to cover many of the elements. Useful in the right campaign. Take Elemental Annihilation Wave to give yourself full elemental coverage.

Frostbite ★★★★ PC replacement for Ray of Frost. Its range has dropped to 60 ft but now it is a fortitude save which is a useful option

Gale Blast ★★ some minor damage in an emanation around you, pushes away. Scaling is improved in PC2. Perhaps useful as an escape or versus swarms. Useful maybe but that's a bit narrow. A rank in Acrobatics is probably better. Not an option for a Magus with Expansive SpellStrike as it is an emanation.

Glass Shield ★★★ ROE a different shield cantrip. Not as much hardness but a chance to do some damage back. Nice to get on the primal list as you don’t have the regular shield spell.

Gouging Claw ★★★ SOM a melee spell attack that does the most single target, damage for a cantrip. Clearly this is ideal for a Magus who doesn't care about ranged or melee with their spells. It would be a very strange tactic to want to stay in melee range as a spell caster, but you don’t always get a choice. Aberrant Sorcerers might like this but it doesn’t start on their list.

Ignition ★★★ PC replacement for Produce Flame fire ranged attack spell, very good critical damage. Burn it helps. Because it has a melee option you can benefit from flanking with this if you are at range zero.

Invoke True Name ★ SOM this is a useful debuff to put on an enemy but the requirement that you know the target's true name restricts this to characters and campaigns that are built around it. So to spontaneous casters it's almost useless. A prepared caster may want this if they have done their research.

LiveWire ★★★★ PC2 is a good attack cantrip with mixed slashing and electric damage. Errated.

Needle Darts ★★★★ ROE this is essentially Telekinetic Projectile with different dice and more range. Special material use is clear rather than a rules hellhole. Plus it is on every spell list. Nice for Primal as you didn’t have this.

Produce Flame ★★★ replaced by Ignition. Fire ranged attack spell, very good critical damage. Burn it helps. Because it has a melee option you can benefit from flanking with this if you are at range zero.

Protect Companion ★★★ SOM you can protect your minion (mount/ familiar/ animal companion/ summons /eidolon) so you will have a lot of targets. For Summoners as you are Shielding at range, Likewise if you are doing this on an animal companion that is standing between you and the enemy. It's just not normally worthwhile to spend an action to do this. I mean you actually want them to attack your minion rather than you. So pay attention to your action economy, this is not a priority, but if you are often getting the action to do this then OK. At higher levels for a Summoner you can prevent a fair bit of damage like this.

Puff of Poison ★★★ SOM updated in PC2, a really short range spell that does poison damage. The damage is slow and poison is commonly resisted by monsters (though not players). The range has been improved to 10 ft (from 5) and the damage increased. Useful if you really want this damage type, or you must play a Poison Ivy character. I guess this shines if your opponent is the fussy type who will fret over even a small amount of ongoing damage. Note that it does some persistent damage even if they make their save. Unusually it is a fortitude save, and also not an attack roll, so give him a swift kick when you blow him a kiss.

Ray of Frost ★★★★ 120ft range cold attack spell, the others are typically 30 ft or less. If you want a long range cantrip this is it. You can squeeze out a bit more range with Reach Spell. Technically Frostbite is a replacement for this, but that is a very different spell.

Rousing Splash ★★★ ROE temporary hit points plus recover from persistent acid or fire.

Scatter Scree ★★★★ SOM generates 2 squares of loose rock for bludgeoning damage and generates difficult terrain. There are some circumstances where this is better than Electric Arc. If two enemies are adjacent to each other this does the same damage as Electric Arc. Plus it may cost them an extra action next turn if they need to move. Where it is valuable is if you have choke points as it becomes a 10ft tax on enemy movement. Or if your party is into tactical movement in general, this is an excellent cantrip. Combines well with Grease. Not being able to step is great if your martials use Reactive Strike. Plus it's an area effect attack which is useful against concealed or hidden enemies, swarms or mounted enemies. A reflex save and not an attack, so it combines well with attacks.

Slashing Gust ★★★★ ROE a two target damaging cantrip. So comparable to Electric Arc. Range 60ft, but it is an attack roll, a little less damage, and you need 2 hands free.

Spout ★★★ SOM an area of effect reflex save. Similar damage to Scatter Scree but only one square, unless in the circumstance your target is adjacent to a pond then you may be able to affect a bigger area. I like it, but it is almost strictly inferior to Scatter Scree. Maybe if you're a professional firefighter or in the right game where lots of creatures are vulnerable to water.

Take Root ★ ROE plus 1 against being tripped, disarmed, or shoved. Very narrow, even though it is one action I’m not sure I’d ever cast it even if I took it.

Tanglevine or originally Tanglefoot ★★★ one of the few control cantrips. Take this if you think you can use the 10ft speed penalty to your advantage, like when you are fighting dwarves, or if your group has good ranged attacks and can keep the range for a while, or if you can keep an enemy out of range for a round. If you are using large area difficult terrain as a control mechanism this can really lock an enemy down. It gets a lot better if the enemy doesn’t have ranged options, or there are just fewer of them. At level 1 one round is not great but at higher levels the duration is much better. Without some thought, it can easily be of no value - so think about it.

Timber ★★★★ ROE falling tree does bludgeoning damage in a 15ft line. Area of effect, reflex save. This is effective in combat plus an excellent way to generate compost.

Vitality Lash ★★★ PC strong cantrip against undead.

Cantrips, Utility

Approximate ★ SOM counting is so hard and it is important to do it quickly ?!?

Dancing Lights ★★ a distraction. A light source. Can be used for scouting as you can project your light in front of you, not over you.

Deep Breath ★★ ROE hold your breath for a very long time. Useful at higher levels when you don’t need damage cantrips much and this lasts 8 hours.

Detect Magic ★★★ for finding magic, someone should have it. You can get it via feats though. This can detect illusions as well.

Detect Metal ★★ ROE mostly not useful unless you are a miner, but I can see it being a good detect in certain dungeons for finding doors and hinges. Might be useful for guards to detect hidden weapons.

Draw Moisture ★★ ROE a cantrip to dry things, which will create a few cups of water.

Eat Fire ★★★ ROE this is new, fire resistance as a reaction and a cantrip. With the secondary ability of creating a smoke cloud. Very nice if you want to be concealed. Note that there are ways of seeing through smoke like a Gos Mask or Blindfighting or Ifrit have an ancestral feat.

Glamorize ★★ DM a minor cosmetic effect. Lasts for an hour. Useful if you like performing or impersonating.

Guidance ★★★★ lots of +1 bonuses.

Healing Plaster ★ SOM turns mud into bandages. Only useful if there is a shortage of bandages.

Illuminate ★★★ ROE a different light cantrip.

Inside Ropes ★ P181 use your intestines as rope and survive to tell the story. More than a bit silly and also very specific.

Know Direction ★ find true north. Useful after you have gotten lost in the wilderness. Too narrow for a Sorcerer. Renamed to Know the Way.

Know the Way ★★ find true north. Useful after you have gotten lost in the wilderness. I agree it is useful but what about a rank in the Survival skill? Only for particular games. This is a rename of Know Direction with the bonus that you know where you were in the last 24 hours.

Light ★★★ there are normally a few people in the party who need light. As cantrips are automatically heightened, it is very useful if you run into enemies who use magical darkness against you. Note that the Light cantrip doesn’t counteract the Darkness spell as it can’t target it. But suppression can occur both ways. Sigh Paizo at their worst. They have unofficially clarified something completely the opposite way to how everyone read it. Please clarify it with errata. The Light Trait needs to be changed so that it doesn’t imply that it provides the targeting ability.

Prestidigitation ★★ good story value.

Read Aura ★★★ someone in the party should have access to assist with identification of items. Not entirely necessary and normally gets trimmed from my list. But if you are prepared to cast it on every object that you may think is magical - taking a fair bit more time - I guess it sort of supersedes Detect Magic in a lot of situations.

Root Reading ★★★ ROE for finding unnoticed creatures.

Sigil ★ very minor uses. Prepare it when you know you are going to use it.

Stabilize ★★ theoretically useful but actual healing is almost always a better choice of action in practice. Are you out of healing? No potions? Your ally really wants to be active, not unconscious. Also you will eventually pick it up on a staff of healing. Perhaps a reasonable option for the first few adventures in your career when you don't have other resources. I guess it makes sense in a large battle situation where you have potentially hundreds of wounded allies.

Tame ★ SOM for when you run into a violent domestic animal. For animal lovers and burglars, and only at low level.

Temor Signs ★★ ROE short range communication Through walls. Single action, Similar role to Message but very different flavour. As a party this is nice, but do you have the slots to take it.

Primal 1st level spells

500 Toads ★★ NPC 15 ft radius burst toads and difficult terrain. Useful for triggering traps and for slowing your opponents, and just the cool factor. If only it lasted longer than a round.

Acidic Burst ★★ G&M 5 ft radius burst acid damage. The damage scales well, but it is so small it's not affected by Widen Spell. Why aren’t you getting out of melee?

Air Bubble ★★ useful, situational and therefore not something you will take with a spontaneous caster until you have spare spell slots. You have at least 3 rounds underwater anyway. There are some circumstances where it is just not going to work for its intended purpose, because it is verbal and you might already be underwater. There are rules for spell casting underwater and it is difficult if you can cast without speaking otherwise it will just send you unconscious. The Subtle trait can avoid that. There is an additional situation where this can apply - if you are swallowed. If your GM lets it work and allows you to combine it with Cloudkill it can be very good. But perhaps poison gas won’t even trigger it.

Airburst ★★ push people away from you. Surely there is a better solution to this problem. But it is a single action....so I guess once you have extra spell slots. Grapplers tend to have good fort defences.

Alarm ★★★ required if you can’t set a watch. Some people will take one every day.

Animal Allies ★★ for when you are surrounded in melee and cant get away. Being close range makes this hard to use

Ant Haul ★★ , situational

Aqueous Blast ★★★ KM water attack spell to use against 1 or 2 targets with a third action. Prones on a critical.

Breadcrumbs ★ use this spell if you want to show off how awesome a mage you are that you can waste a slot on this rather than just marking a trail.

Breathe Fire ★★★ PC was called Burning Hands . Early area effect damage. Scales OK, but starts low.

Briny Bolt ★★★★ solid damage. Good water attack spell. Chance of a Blind.

Buffeting Winds ★★ KOL a weak selective push against undead. Not enough of a bonus to be worried about such a specific spell.

Buoyant Bubbles ★★ ROE a one action swim spell. Heighten for the party ★★★. Can keep enemies on the surface. Only for the right campaign. Technically castable against enemies with no save.

Burning Hands ★★★ now called Breathe Fire. Early area effect damage. Scales OK, but starts low.

Camel Spit ★★★ HoW an acid spit attack that dazzles. Can repeat twice as a single action.

Charm ★★★ I’d give it 4 stars but for Incapacitation. The target won’t always know what you have done, so it is a bit safer than it used to be. Do you have the social skills to work them over?

Chilling Spray ★★★ G&M cold damage in a cone, that gives a minor speed penalty.

Cleanse Cuisine ★ PC not sure why they bothered. Was called Purify Food and Drink

Conductive Weapon ★★★★ ROE charges a metal weapon and makes it +1 and Shocking. Great at low level. Eventually you will get runes of your own. It doesn’t scale at higher levels, but I think it remains cumulative. It does seem to stack with Runic Weapon.

Create Water ★ should be a cantrip, very weak, very situational. If you feel tempted to take this try Spout ★★★ instead. Only take it when you have no water and are stuck in a desert.

Dehydrate ★★★ ROE a nice debug against plants and water trait creatures. OK against everyone else. Enfeebled plus persistent fire damage. As it scales the area of effect becomes significant and the spell is more useful. Potentially very high persistent damage.

Detect Poison ★ can’t you do this with a medicine check instead? Should be a cantrip.

Elysian Whimsy ★★★ P183 save or perform a random social action.

Equal Footing ★★/★★★★ SK this spell has potential. Inflicting clumsy even on a successful save. It is also good at slowing your enemy down. But technically it will just fizzle unless they are faster than you. You should normally be improving your base land speed so this spell will often be useless. However if you are a dwarven sorcerer who wears heavy armour and rides a mount, or you are a merfolk flopping around on land, this can be useful. Prepared casters will also like this against specific enemies.

Fear ★★★★, Heightened ★★★★★, one round of fleeing is often enough to be decisive, better if using intimidation. Gets multiple targets when heightened to level 3 and is one of a small number of multi target spells that is effective when your enemy has gotten mixed in with your party. Then it's a great option. The frightened condition affects saving throws, checks and DC, so it's useful to inflict. On the plus side, Fear is always useful out of a level 1 slot when you get to a higher level. The down side is it doesn’t last long.

Feather Fall ★★★ a bit situational, but if you need it you really need it.

Fleet Step ★★★ escape spell.

Flourishing Flora ★★ ROE grow plants and do a tiny amount of damage.

Foraging Friends ★★ HoW food for the day. Not a combat spell.

Forge ★★★★ HH short range fire damage. Penetrates metal objects better. Why does it get 4 stars? Because this is a Fortitude save. Most direct damage is Reflex.I had this situation last night where a successful recall knowledge had identified the lowest save as Fortitude, but the players kept going for Reflex spells. The monster's reflex save was 6 higher BTW.

Funeral Flames ★★ P216 charges a club or staff. Useful as a light, but discharges for persistent damage - more on undead. Technically not terrible but too narrow.

Gentle Landing ★★★ PC a name change for Feather Fall.

Glowing Trail ★★ P194 leaves a trail behind you which you can hide or not. Useful if the GM likes mazes.

Goblin Pox ★★★ range touch debuf, fort save but has an effect even if they save.

Grease ★★★ too much fun, make a roll or fall over. Combines well with Scatter Scree.

Gritty Wheeze ★★ ToK a lowish damage cone with a one action dazzle. OK early in your career but not really strong enough to take after that unless water and plant creatures are expected.

Gust of Wind ★★★★ line of effect save or be knocked prone. TIme it so your fighters can take advantage of it.

Heal ★★★★★ all your healing spells. Take this, use it throughout your career. All three casting options have their place. A high level burst 3 action heal can pick your party up off the ground. It is required when you get fireballed. Single action range touch heal can be done in combination with another useful two action spell. Sadly you don’t get Harm :(

Don’t take too many, as out of combat there are other healing options that don’t cost spell slots.

Helpful Steps ★★ FB suspends a staircase in the air. It is basically a 40 ft length and you can heighten it. Useful and easier to carry rather than a larger ladder - especially if you height this for another 40 ft per rank. But it is one of those spells you need to know you are going to need in advance. Maybe take it on a couple of scrolls.

Hippocampus Retreat ★★ HoW strike and SWIM away. Underwater only.

Horizon Thunder Sphere ★★★ this is very unique. A spell you can power up for two rounds for extra damage. Plus a minor fire shield style effect.

Hydraulic Push ★★★ sometimes pushing can be useful, but gust of wind is more flexible. I guess it is good if you want single target direct damage, and are prepared to heighten it.

Inkshot ★★★ KM single target direct poison damage with a dazzle. Seems worse than Briny Bolt and Purifying Icicle but not bad.

Instant Pottery ★★ ROE create simple pottery objects. You probably can be quite creative with this, but normally you will have an object at hand.

Interposing Earth ★★★ ROE a reaction to create a shield bonus. I mean a regular shield would work too, but maybe you have your hands full. Lasts for a few rounds if you don’t move.

Jump ★★★ does what it says, single action spell. Better at level 3 when you can repeat it every round. Nice if you can't get a flight power or you don’t want to pay for it.

Juvenile Companion ★ an alternative to Pet Cache Probably better roleplaying value. Needs to last for days to be useful.

Leaden Steps ★★★ PC2 makes a target clumsy, slower and weak to electricity. Useful debuff. Very nice at low level with electrical damage. It's rare to see these on this list.

Lose the Path ★★★★ difficult terrain for a creature on a will save. A good way to keep someone at range a turn longer. Move them where you want on a critical fail. Why do I like it? Because it is a reaction and thus is almost free to cast in terms of actions. Stuff up the movement of a Boss and waste their action(s). This spell is not a strong enough effect at low levels. Mostly useful when you have a few extra slots from mid level.

Longstrider ★★★★ a useful long term buff - one of very few. Now called Tailwind.

Know Location ★★ P194 know the way to a location you can describe. Useful in the right type of game.

Magic Fang ★★★ good initially if you have an animal companion and you know you are going into combat. It has RAW problems with animal companions as it is at least partially an item bonus . Hopefully your GM will wave that away and allow it to work. Some will make it totally useless, I think the extra damage die applies if the animal has a single damage die but the attack bonus does not.

Magic Stone ★★★ APG enchant 3 sling stones to do extra damage. Only useful if someone has a sling. Good against some undead.

Mending ★ - use the crafting skill instead. Very narrow.

Mud Pit ★★★ create difficult terrain in a burst at range. No save, it just happens.

Mystic Armor ★★ PC This used to be called Mage Armor now it is on all lists. It works. But so does normal armour. Not really sure why I would bother with this. I take some basic light armour instead and have another spell slot. Early on that extra slot is important. Amour proficiency costs a feat but you can retrain it later when you get some.

Negate Aroma ★★ invisibility to bears and a few other predators ?!

NettleSkin ★★★ defensive barbs that damage people you melee you. Best if you want to get into melee. Works well in battleform.

Noxious Vapors ★★ APG hide in a 10ft radius cloud and poison others a little.

Pass Without Trace ★★★ a bit situational, but a useful long term buff. I don’t really like it until level 4 and covers the party. Now called Vanishing Tracks

Personal Rain Cloud ★★ P151 you can cast it on other people. So I’m sure some groups are going to have fun with this. It would be better if it had a longer duration than 1 minute. Some fire resistance benefits, and obviously everything gets wet. Firemen will love it.

Pest Form ★★★ turn into a small animal, think rat, domestic cat (at spell level 4 it can be a bird) for 10 minutes. Which is better than all the other forms. They default to 1 minute. Very good for scouting or hiding. If you duck through a grate or into a pipe you probably just can’t be followed. Lots of utility value. Make sure you are trained in Athletics so you can climb. Surprisingly this is the one form that doesn’t have a restriction stopping you from using your other attacks. So technically your Fist or whatever you are calling it in this form still works. (Errated) But you have weakness to physical damage and no reach as you are tiny, so it is not a practical choice to be in melee.

Pet Cache ★★★ APG hide your pet in an extradimensional space for 8 hours. Good for smuggling them somewhere. Even getting your warhorse into a dungeon.

Protector Tree ★★★★ conjure a shield plant. This will save some damage if your party doesn’t have to move. Might be useful to hide behind. Becomes a permanent tree if in a reasonable place for a tree to grow. There is a rules problem - does it protect you? Technically you aren’t your own ally, but some people consider that you are an ally to the tree and that is how the description reads. This is broken when used by the Wood Kineticist as they get the benefit of free scaling and at will use.

Pummeling Rubble ★★★ APG cone of rocks for bludgeoning damage plus a push.

Purify Food and Drink ★ in 35 years of D&D I’ve yet to see a player glad this was in his spell list, yet no writer has hit the delete key. Now called Cleanse Cuisine.

Purifying Icicle ★★★★ KM single target direct damage with mixed types. If there is no resistance or the target is undead it is decent damage. Fortitude save.

Putrefy Food and Drink ★ P158 there are so many other ways to do this. You don’t need a spell for it.

Quick Sort ★ not something you need to do while adventuring.

Rainbow's End ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Teleports adjacent volunteers through a rainbow up to 60 ft from you. An Einstein Rosen bridge (?). At the same time it is a low spirit damage sustained dazzling area. Read this one carefully. As I see it the damage and dazzle effect is just on the creatures in the area, the sustain is to allow your allies more time to teleport. Seems optimal for breaching operations.

Reed Whistle ★ P203 a minor bonus to point out and seek. Only for prepared casters.

Restyle ★ minor cosmetic change

Runic Body ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Fang. It now scales as it heightens. How useful it is depends on your group. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks. Note that technically this provides item bonuses so animal companions don’t get full benefits from it.

Runic Weapon ★★★★ PC an improved version of Magic Weapon which you didn’t get before with Primal casting. It now scales as it heightens. Strong early before you get the right gear, and strong again at particular level breaks.

Sacred Beasts ★★★ HoW a small burst beast attack.

Scorching Blast ★★★ KM two or three action attack spell, burns on a critical.

Scouring Sand ★★ P151 I think this is a spell designed to mow the lawn?!? The effect is mostly minor unless you critically save. Are you going up against a druid? No? Then don’t take this.

Seashell of Stolen Sound ★ record a minute of sound. For social intrigue games.

Shattering Gem ★★★ G&M a nice scalable defence against melee attacks. I guess you can use a cheap bit of quartz as no particular cost is listed. Useful if you can precast it as a buff. But probably not strong enough to cast in combat. Protector Tree ★★★★ but is used differently

Shielded Arm ★★ ROE turns your arm into a shield. You can still use it normally as well. Works perfectly well I just think I'd prefer a normal shield.

Shillelagh ★★★★ strong at low level, but are you sure you should be in melee? At higher levels you will have a better magic weapon than this.

Shocking Grasp ★★★★ excellent damage but range touch. Scales well. A good argument for the Reach Spell metamagic feat or the Aberrant bloodline but sadly that is occult. Technically replaced by Thunderstrike but that is a different spell.

Shockwave ★★★★ G&M a 15 cone of save or be prone. They are still flatfooted if they save. Very useful in a party where several PCs have attacks of oppourtunity or with a rogue. Heightened for a bigger area.

Signal Skyrocket ★ ROE a very long range signal flare. Technically useful but unlikely that you will need it in normal adventuring.

Snowball ★ single target cold attack. Not a lot more effective than cantrips. Really unclear why you would ever take this even if you knew your enemy was weak to cold.

Spider Sting ★★ poison is too slow for me. Are your opponents really lasting 4 rounds? Does your party really slowly weaken your opponents one by one, or do they concentrate on one and take them down in turn?

Summon Animal ★★★★ for missions too dangerous for your other minions. Not very efficient at doing damage but they make excellent alternative targets for your enemies to attack. Great for trap detection, helping with flanking, or blocking by simply being in the way. Needs its own guide, have a look at this one by Exocist. Have a look at the monster filter for options. Costs you an action to control. Some staples at level 1:

Skunk has Spray Musk for sickened in an area DC 16
Common Eurypterid (a scorpion) to grab enemies
Flash Beetle to dazzle them

Summon Fey ★★★★ as per summon animal. Some of them have useful spells and abilities like the unicorn or the sprite. But pay attention to the spell level you used to summon them with as they can’t cast spells of that level or higher. Look at a summoning guide for other levels.

Grimple has effective lice and vomit powers

Swampcall ★★★★ P171 creates an area of difficult terrain and reduces speed/flat footed for those already there. Lasts for a minute.

Summon Plant or Fungus ★★★ another summons. Surprisingly there are a lot of mindless options here. That can be a useful option.

Yellow Musk Thrall is very weird. It is slow, but grabs everything it is adjacent to.

Synchronize ★ for coordinating actions at distance. I suspect Message will be a better option most of the time. But I can see uses for this.

Tailwind ★★★★ PC a useful long term buff - one of very few. Was called Longstrider. This invalidates a few too many class features and probably is too good.

Tether ★★★ G&M slow or maybe immobilise a target. Useful but normally you want to have the option of getting away from them. You can’t with this spell.

Threefold Limb ★★★ RA melee spell for some damage and to reposition or conceal. Spell heightens for more damage.

Thunderstrike ★★★★ excellent damage and range 120ft. Scales well at d12+d4. Technically a replacement for Shocking Grasp but that is a different spell. Please treat it as such.

Vanishing Tracks ★★★ a bit situational, but a useful long term buff. I don’t really like it until level 4 and covers the party. Was called Pass Without Trace

Ventriloquism ★★ good for more complex distractions. It depends on how your GM plays things. But if you like illusions this can be helpful to get spells with verbal components off without alerting enemies. When I GM I don’t require it in most circumstances, but if you are trying to get an illusion to work against someone with an Arcana score, or if they are aware you are an illusionist then you may want this. Seems to need the Subtle trait to be useful, I would assume that it has this or the spell is too bad to be true.

Verdant Sprout ★★ ROE , P151 grow a plant for cover, salad thrown in for free. Permanent. A bit slow to be useful in combat. Protector Tree ★★★★ seems better.

Verminous Lure ★ a useful out of combat distraction for animals and swarms.

Wall of Shrubs ★★★ ROE instant cover. Very useful if you need to prepare ground. Heightened versions offer better cover and more duration.

Weaken Earth ★ ROE makes an object weaker. Useful to someone with a spellbook.

Weave Wood ★ ROE makes some wooded objects. Why not just make a crafting check?

Wooden Fists ★★★ ROE self only, creates a magical weapon with reach. This transforms your fists so remember they are still agile and finesse. You can still use your arms normally. Better duration at higher level so it all scales well.

Primal 2nd level spells

Heightened spells: Longstrider / Tailwind for an 8 hour buff, Pass Without Trace is an 8 hour buff

Acid Arrow ★★★ now replaced with Acid Grip. This spell has its advocates. It is reasonable direct damage and not something commonly resisted. A bit slow to kill them.

Acid Grip ★★★★ PC was Acid Arrow. No longer an attack spell but a reflex save. It is reasonable direct damage and not something commonly resisted. But now it interferes with their movement. Definitely some combo potential here if there is interesting terrain. Moves an enemy even if they make a save so might be able to break a grapple or just move them aside. It is mildly annoying that Paizo violates their rules convention by creating a negative bonus rather than calling it a penalty. Mathfinder has a video on how to use this spell.

Advanced Scurvy★ P188 a slow acting disease.

Albatross Curse ★★★★ HoW this is a strange almost unique spell on this list. The albatross spotlights an enemy. Not normally many ways to get a +1 circumstance bonus to attack an enemy for your team.

Allfood ★★ P194 makes an object edible. I guess it is effective for opening locked doors.

Animal Form ★★★★ a staple. Also can get it from multiclassing Druid for Wild Shape. Your first combat form. You have options that can climb and swim, the frog starts with reach, some of them are very fast. There are agile attacks on some of them. Take your pick. A Canine form for a base 2d8+1 damage and 40ft move is probably your sensible base if you don’t need anything special.

The damage is Ok initially but gets a lot better as the spell level goes up. All forms get reach by spell level 4. Caps at spell level of 5.

Animal Messenger ★ far too specialist for a spontaneous caster.

Ash Cloud ★★ SOM a damaging area of effect against flyers. The effects are fairly minor. Bit of damage, a bit of fire damage. OKish, perhaps best for Flame druids.

Avenging Wildwood ★★★★ SK this is the offensive version of Protector Tree. Summon a tree that will strike for you when you sustain it. 15ft of reach will make it useful in many scenarios.

Banishing Touch ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. A melee spell attack. Flick them away with your finger. Good damage if they have no way to avoid a fall, but even if they do then it will use up their reaction.

Barkskin ★★★ useful damage resistance with a moderate duration.Be careful about the fire weakness. Now called Oaken Resilience

Bee-Man's Summons ★ P201 hears when someone mentions your name.

Blast of the Bellows ★ P195 a minor inconvenience for flyers.

Blazing Armory ★★★ ROE a flaming weapon, for everyone from level 4. If your GM is stingy with treasure, or likes to disarm or destroy weapons, or just if you know there are fire vulnerable creatures out there. It has got a few uses, but mostly you won’t need it.

Blazing Blade ★★ KM a scimitar of flame, just for you. Blazing Armory is better.

Blazing Bolt PC ★★★★ was called Scorching Ray. Reasonably good fire damage against multiple targets. The nice part about this is it is multitarget but not area of effect. So it can be cast after the enemy has closed with the party. You will almost always prefer to use the 3 action variant.

Bone Spray ★★★ P176 a nice necromantic damaging cone

Boneshaker ★★★ P176 a nice necromantic single target damage, with some forced movement.

Bralani Referendum ★★ P183 damages a creature in the area when they inflict particular conditions. This is a bit specialised but maybe workable against particular opponents.

Breath of Drought ★★★ P151 area of effect sickened while you sustain it. Moveable when heightened.

Brine Dragon Bile ★★★ ROE a ranged reaction attack that you can trigger off certain allied attacks. It is useful extra damage in a tight fight. But the damage is low and all persistent so it is slow acting.

Burrow Ward ★ ROE stop burrowing creatures and eject them to the surface. Put it in your spellbook, this is very specific.

Buzzing Servants ★★★ RA fill a square with a pillar of bee wax. Useful to create defensive terrain. The Pillars last for 24 hours . You can sustain the bees for up to a minute to build up to 10 pillars.

Cauterize Wounds ★★ ROE take one damage to roll to stop bleeding. Works for the entire party. Useful only versus specific monsters.

Clad in Metal ★★★ ROE temporarily turns an item into a special metal. Well worthwhile if you come up against something with a particular vulnerability.

Claws of the Otter ★★★ HoW a long running buff to gain a scaling claw/cold attack.

Clawsong ★ P171 give a creature a better claw attack

Cleanse Affliction ★★★★ PC you will need this eventually. Removes curses diseases and poisons.Replaces Neutralize Poison

Cleanse Air ★ ROE cleans the air in a radius. A very big radius at higher level. This is going to be useful only in very specific games.

Clear Mind ★★★★ PC a new more general healing of fleeing, frightened, and stupefied., higher levels can get confused, controlled, and slowed, doomed and stunned . Can get a partial suppression on a failed counteract check.

Continual Flame ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened. Renamed to Everlight

Create Food ★ very situational, you’ll know when you need it. Not really something you will choose to take adventuring unless the game has a lot of food problems. Normally it's easier to buy and take food with you. The cantrip Prestidigitation can flavour this food.

Dancing Shield ★★★★ BC raise a shield for someone else but with your actions and reactions.

Darkness ★★★ very effective against many enemies. Do you have dark vision?

Darkvision ★★★ yes you do. But is this a good use of your spells?

Deafness ★ bat slayer.

Dismantle ★ APG temporarily dismantles an object. So narrow.

Dispel Magic ★★★★ useful protection against a wide range of things, and Sorcerers value versatility. The counteract check can be hard.

Elemental Zone ★★ granting a +2 or better status bonus with a spell of a particular elemental trait is useful. I am struggling to imagine how you are managing to get your enemy to stand still while you do it. Maybe useful if there are a number of casters cooperating in a team.

Endure Elements ★ rarely useful protection against environmental effects, not energy damage. Affects only one character, if you need this you’ll want it for the whole party. Now called Environmental Endurance.

Enhance Victuals ★ at least the poison is permanently removed, assuming you made your counteract check. Protip - save yourself a spell and don’t eat it. This spell is best used as part of a complex social situation.

Environmental Endurance ★ PC a rebadged Endure Elements.

Enlarge ★★★ Heightened ★★★★ +2 to damage, reach, but -1 to AC. Doesn’t stack with other polymorph effects. Heightens for more damage and at level 6 more targets.

Entangle ★★★ now called Entangling Flora nice area of effect but it will likely only cost two actions unless they critically fail. Can be used very successfully on large groups, and the difficult terrain combines well with Tanglefoot.

Entangling Flora ★★★ PC was called Entangle

Erase Trail ★ KOL another example of a skill check becoming a spell. Best when combined with a good survival skill. I see the point in Pass Without Trace but not this. Because of the small area (yes that is small for tracking)I don;t think this spell functions well enough to be of any real use.

Everlight ★ buy it from a shop. The light cantrip is better because it is automatically heightened. This spell is just a new name for Continual Flame. At least they removed the hideously scaling gem cost.

Expeditious Excavation ★ G&M instant pit underneath your opponent. Save or fall prone. Fall in only on a critical failure. Doesn’t work on stone, but is otherwise useful for a quick dig. There are better spells to make someone prone.

Exploding Earth ★★ ROE spell attack that does physical damage and some splash damage. That may be useful but it scales too slowly.

Extract Poison ★★★ you can get quite a strong poison onto a weapon. Which will give you a lot of bonus damage for an attack. Might be OK but there is still a counteract check and you have to hit. If you were going to attack anyway, it is a good boost. Or just to neutralise a poisoned object.

I see this as working best for a multiclassed martial rather than a pure caster.

Faerie Fire ★★★ a partial counter for invisibility with no save. The problem with this is the small area of effect so it's hard to go fishing with this. You need to time it for when you know where they are. It combines well with Obscuring Mist especially if you aren’t storm born

Falsify Heat ★★ ROE impersonate an undead or a construct. It is a bit narrow.

Fear the Sun ★★★ P172 dazzles or blind an opponent. Still affects them for one round if they make the spell.

Feast of Ashes ★★ G&M a slow curse of hunger. Probably good to nudge the behaviour of a beast or person. Just a bit slow and narrow to be recommended for an adventurer to take day to day.

Feral Shades ★★★ SoM moderate damage in a large 30 ft cone. Odd that this includes negative energy damage.

Final Sacrifice ★★★ APG detonate your summoned creature in a reasonable sized fireball. It says minion, but doing this to your familiar or animal companion is probably not your plan A. Sadly illusionary creatures aren’t solid enough to work with this. Works on an Unseen Servant. Eidolons are not minions, but um er a Witch’s Familiar gets replaced free every day… With the removal of alignment this is no longer Evil but rather a noble sacrifice for the greater good.

Fireproof ★ ROE fire resistance for an item plus a counteract check. But this is only objects. I like it from level 6 ★★★ when it becomes permanent.

Flame Wisp ★★★ for the caster who likes to melee. Note that Burn it helps but not Dangerous Sorcery. A nice amount of bonus damage if you get time to prepare. The action economy is nice once you get going but I’m not sure there is enough damage here.

Flaming Sphere ★★★★ repeatable fire damage when you sustain. Broken if your GM is foolish enough to let you sustain it multiple times in a round. There is errata to make it clear you can’t do this. Replaced by Floating Flame

Floating Flame ★★★★ PC The replacement for Flaming Sphere. This is much stronger as you take half damage if you make your save and you affect whoever you move through during the turn, not just where you are at the end.

Frog Tounge ★★★ HoW if the tongue hits them (reflex save 30 ft) they can’t move away. Scales well.

Fungal Hyphae ★★ G&M in an environment with plants, you gain imprecise tremour sense. Heighten to control the plants. Ends when you move. Ideal in forests, especially if there are some troublesome invisible faires. There are much better options.

Fungal Infestation ★★★ APG persistent poison damage in a cone, weakness to fire and slashing.

Gecko Grip ★★★ a useful buff early to mid levels. It is really nice to be able to walk on the ceiling. The old name of this spell was Spider Climb

Gentle Breeze ★★★ ROE out of encounter healing and recovery bonuses. This really depends on your campaign. If you get ten minute breaks between fights but not half hour breaks then this is a useful bonus. Otherwise, this is mostly better handled by focus point based healing.

Gentle Repose ★ for religious ceremonies. Now called Peaceful Rest.

Glitterdust ★★★ a counter for invisibility. Side effects aren’t as good as they used to be. It works even on a normal successful save. But the area of effect is small. Replaced by Revealing Light

Guiding Star ★★ a really nice spell to help people find you. Can be useful if the party separates, as a heartbeat, or to help a lost person get home. A lot easier to use than Sending.

Heat Metal ★★★ APG useful against enemies with metal armour or weapons. Can be hilarious with Lock Item.

Helpful Wood Spirits ★★ ROE a mix of utility options including making an enemy off guard. Cute and flexible but it is a very small area.

Hidebound ★★★★ HoW a good scaling reaction to resist physical damage for anyone within 30 ft.

Humanoid Form ★★★★ a useful disguise, to just look like someone else. Especially nice if you are a Sprite or some other unusual creature. Comes with Enlarge in built at level 5. Take deception with this. But also options for Darkvision and Enlarge. The duration is not great at ten minutes for a spell that you want to use out of combat. If your GM makes you roll the deception check constantly then this is a problem.

Ignite Fireworks ★★★ SOM dazzle creatures in a 10 foot burst. Which may get a reasonable group. Light damage, but a good way to dazzle a group of enemies

Impart Empathy ★★ P175 allows you to negotiate with an animal.

Instant Armor ★★★ a nice utility spell if combat breaks out at the grand ball, or just so you can get a good night's sleep and be ready at a moment's notice. Yes, Sorcerers can easily get significant armour. But this is probably for a multiclass Sorcerer. I mean personally I prefer Dragon Form for this situation, but you may like this.

Iron Gut ★★ G&M a spell for smuggling gear internally. Usefully sometimes but you can’t carry much

Lock Item ★★ KOL BC is typically too specific. Affects held items. So locking something in the hand of an opponent? Could be fun. Maybe it is useful with Heat Metal.

Loose Time's Arrow ★★★★ DA a mini quicken for moving up to 6 creatures. Could be very useful

Magnetic Attraction ★ SOM this is a useful way to grab metal objects like weapons off people. What do you do if the weapons are held in someone's hand? Well it says - make a Disarm check. The problem is for Disarm to work properly it needs to get a critical success. On the plus side you can do this to ten objects which will often be enough to get secondary weapons. I think this spell works in certain situations. Targeting ten things only working on a critical success is not great as there is a total bulk limit of 1 bulk.

Magnetic Repulsion ★★★ this is a good defensive buff against enemies who use metal weapons and armour - which is a lot. Don't forget almost every arrow or bolt is metal tipped. Worth heightening. Nice spell to precast if you are using a Battle Form.

Manifestation Of Spirits ★★★★ SK stupefy an enemy. This is stupefy 3 even on a success. So very good against an enemy caster. Multitargets for more creatures at rank 6. One of few will saves on the Primal spell list.

Marvelous Mount ★★ PC The new Phantom Steed. Very much the same except now divine casters get it and it can make saving throws.

Peaceful Rest ★ the remastered version of Gentle Repose. A simple funeral spell to prevent undeath and protect the body for possible raising.

Mist ★★★★ PC the new name for Obscuring Mist

Oaken Resistance ★★★ PC useful physical damage resistance with a moderate duration. Be careful about the fire weakness. Originally called Barkskin.

Obscuring Mist ★★★★ now called Mist very useful especially if you multiclass into Druid for storm born. Gives a DC 5 flat check or they just can’t target you and lose their action while in the mist. But also it gives the option to hide, and sneak. Check with your GM on how he will play it for creatures on opposite sides of it but aren’t in the mist what happens? He will probably just treat it as concealment - same as if someone was in the mist. If he lets people be targeted normally even when their only line of sight is through the mist, then don’t take this spell and get ready for some odd rulings. Make sure your martials take blindsight so they can avoid the penalty.

One with Plants ★★★ PC The new Tree Shape but with the option to merge with existing plants. Great for surveillance.

Quench ★★★ APG damage for fire creatures, sustainable, puts out fires. Good at its job. You may want access to this. Can be used to counterspell any fire spell

Pack Attack ★ P175 gain the ability to flank more easily. Rogues have this feat GangUp which does the same. But you have to sustain this. Not useless to the right build. But generally you can use your actions better than this.

Pave Ground ★★★ ROE create a path.

Phantom Steed ★★ normally you can just buy a horse instead. Good for overland travel. Better at higher level when it's faster and can walk on water or even fly. The problem is that when you start using this spell you are going to want it for the whole party.

Propulsive Breeze ★★★ ROE a reaction for +15 move to a stride or a jump. It is useful but slots are expensive.

Pyrefowl Rebuke ★★★ P216 a reaction that does a small amount of damage when you are struck and damaged that allows you to fly away. Useful to avoid a followup attack.

Radiant Field ★ P172 DM a light spell with extra penalties for those with light blindness. Too specific. Maybe useful in very specific circumstances.

Rapid Adaptation ★★ for your companion or Eidolon (no idea why not familiar?) So for most Sorcerers this is not relevant. Useful as Darkvision and Longstrider are self only. Not sure it's important.

Reaper's Lantern ★★ APG enfeeble undead, sustainable.

Remove Fear ★ most fear effects you have access to will recover themselves soon enough. Rarely worthwhile.

Remove Paralysis ★★ not likely to be needed, won’t work often even when you need it.

Resist Energy ★★★ flexible energy protection.

Restoration ★★★ someone always fails their save and needs help.

Restore Senses ★★ not used often. But when you need it you need it. Keep it in mind if you are a prepared caster, and not a sorcerer. Won’t work often.

Revealing Light ★★★ PC A partial counter for invisibility with a reflex save. The original is Faerie Fire for which there was no save. Still affect the targets if they make their save for 2 rounds so it is not so bad. The problem with this is the small area of effect so it's hard to go fishing with this. You need to time it for when you know where they are. It combines well with Obscuring Mist especially if you aren’t storm born.

Rime Slick ★★★ P151 burst cold damage, creates difficult terrain. Heightens for a lot more damage and a bigger area.

Rubble Step ★★★ ROE if you are in a dungeon this is a party run away spell as it should effectively have the speed of your pursuers. If you jump or have a fly speed you could create some interesting shaped effects with this.

Scorching Ray ★★★★ reasonably good fire damage against multiple targets. The nice part about this is it is multitarget but not area of effect. So it can be cast after the enemy has closed with the party. You will almost always prefer to use the 3 action variant.

Sea Surge ★★★ P151 a wave that knocks creatures over. Doesn’t require you to be near water though.

Shape Wood ★★ make a pole, a brace, a canoe, totally block a door. 20 cubic feet is enough to do something useful and it's permanent.

Shatter ★ candidate for worst spell in the game, use an axe and smash the object instead. Doesn’t even affect demiliches anymore. I’m sure the wizard is upset he no longer gets it. No saving throw, but only affects unattended objects, and not even effective.

Shrink ★★ I’m not sure what actual game effect it has but I figure you can hide well with this. Ask your GM.

Slough Skin ★ G&M a weird defence against persistent damage and contact poison, that operates by giving you a serious dandruff problem. Hour long duration.

Sound Body ★★★★ PC a new more general healing of blinded, dazzled, deafened, enfeebled, or sickened, higher levels can get drained and slowed and stunned . Can get a partial suppression on a failed counteract check.

Speak with Animals ★ often not useful.

Spider Climb ★★★ a useful buff early to mid levels. It is really nice to be able to walk on the ceiling. The new safe name is Gecko Grip

Splinter Volley ★★★★ ROE very much like Scorching Ray but with wood.Useful in the 3 action form.

Status ★★ a remote communication spell? How many times have you been told not to split the party?

Steel Fortifications ★★★ BC to create some terrain you can take cover behind. Poorly worded but I assume you can use these structures for regular cover without getting into the details mentioned in the spell. Useful for archers and casters in general but especially for small ones who can climb inside.

Sticky Fire ★ BC single target fire attack spell. The persistent damage is OK but this is woefully underdone and scales poorly.

Sudden Blight ★★★★ APG negative energy fireball that works better with disease. Fortitude save.

Sudden Bolt ★★★★ P151 single target lightning bolt. 4d12 damage which scales up. Very nice.

Summon Elemental ★★★ worthwhile having at least one summon in your list. Sacrificing minions is there any problem it can’t solve? There are some useful elemental abilities and immunities.

Summoner’s Precaution ★ summoner only safety spell. IMHO it is compulsory for summoners. You don’t go down when your Eidolon does. Get it in an item if you have to. Maybe technically the better thing to do in some cases is to go down and be healed by an ally. You still get that choice. The Summoner themselves is a reasonable character, and the eidolon survives in a way if you do. The one minute cool down assures that this won’t be abused in combat. Mostly I like it because I can play the Eidolon as being that bit more expendable which is the whole point of being a Summoner - taking less risks yourself.

Summoner’s Visage ★ a summoner only utility to make their eidolon look normal and fit into normal society. In practice it's about saving the actions required to summon it.

Sure Footing ★★★ PC a new more general healing of paralysis and clumsy. It can remove grabbed and restrained, but it is range touch so you probably want to use the Reach Spell feat with it.

The Queen's Rainbow ★★★★ RA create a dazzling line that stays around. Useful tactically especially in corridors and rooms.

Thermal Remedy ★★★★ ROE temporary hit points for the party. This has a long enough duration to be useful to cast early. Scales up too.

Thundering Dominance ★★★★ a status bonus to your eidolon or companions intimidation check. So probably more for Druids and Summoners. Plus it gives them a single action frightening sonic damage emanation. Only one Roar per casting of the spell. I’m ranking it higher on the primal list as this is a will saving throw - which you don’t have a lot of here.

Tree Shape ★★★ PC a vastly improved alarm spell - perfect for sleeping, or staking out a site. Can even be an escape route. Was called One with Plants.

Tremorsense ★★★★ ROE a useful special sense. Imprecise. Lasts 8 hours at 5th level.

Voice on the Breeze ★★ ROE long range one way communication.

Vomit Swarm ★★★ APG 2d8 piercing damage in a cone plus sickened. Great imagery.

Water Breathing ★★★ works for the whole party.

Water Walk ★★ one person can stay dry. Maybe the barbarian can be persuaded to carry everyone across one at a time.

Waterproof ★ ROE protection from acid. But only for an item. Useful to someone with a spellbook.

Web ★★ difficult terrain and a chance of immobilisation. More effective if they have slow movement rates. Web(4) ★★★ heightened to level 4 it's big enough to waste a full turn on a normal failure. Which is pretty good control

Worm’s Repast ★★★★ a single target damage spell that inflicts flatfooted. Better damage against some undead, but worth it regardless.

Primal 3rd level spells

Heightened spells: Fear multi targets and becomes awesome. Jump keeps going. Dehydrate is 10ft radius and 4d6 persistent damage.

Animal Vision ★★★ very cool scouting.

Antlion Trap ★★★ HoW sucks people into a trap and hinders them as they escape. I think it will work if you can keep pushing people in.

Aqueous Orb ★★★★ APG move an orb of water around to put out fires or grab people. It is multiturn sustainable forced movement. Yes people can get out of it with a trivial athletics check on their turn. But next turn you can try again. If you really want to push people around, normally only important if you want to break up a formation or if there is some good terrain around, then this is a good spell.

Blastback ★★★ ROE this is like Blazing Dive but done as a feather fall style reaction. Cute. Definitely some manoeuvres and special entry techniques you could do with this. You probably can trigger it OK with jumping. Just check with your GM as it involves a bit of interpretation. Ways to do that is the Jump spell which is actually a reasonable thing all by itself. Or items like Greater Boots of Bounding (still have to roll) or Blast Boots (moderate and up). Or you can just fall with Cat Fall. After some other sort of flying first.

Blazing Dive ★★★ SOM 10 out of 10 for style points. Such a great cinematic special effect. If you have a strong offensive party then this is really good, maybe a bit risky to dive into the centre of battle all the time as a Sorcerer. How aggressive is your character? Plus it is a short range utility fly. Fantastic if you want to close with the enemy.

Blindness ★★ strike a target blind. Fort save. Effect lasts long enough. Being blind makes them flat footed so timing of your turn is important. But with Incapacitation so it has limited use except in your top spell slot. I really would only take it if I had Razzle Dazzle

Blister Bomb ★★★ BC a small area sickened effect with ongoing disease. Themed on biological weapons ?!. It is a useful debuff. You don’t have that many as Primal so take note.

Bottomless Stomach ★ a bag of holding of sorts. Fun but no.

Caster's Imposition ★ P182 a narrow curse about ritual casting.

Cave Fangs ★★★★ ROE fireball piercing damage plus difficult terrain that lasts for a minute. Useful.

Cloud Dragon's Cloak ★★★★ ROE reaction to make a ranged attack roll a 50% miss chance. Should be commonplace. Great pick when you have 5th level or higher spells so you can afford to use these slots quickly.

Conjured Conveyance ★★ P203 creates a magically propelled wooden wagon, boat or similar. Lasts for an hour. Might be useful.

Coral Scourge ★★★ ROE this is debuff combined with a slow, hence Incapacitation. Clumsy reduces their AC and reflex saves so this is always a useful debuff. Better if they have dex based saves. If they don’t spend actions removing it then it gets worse.

Cordyceps Command ★★★ P203 primal mind control by fungal infiltration. Fortitude save to stupify. Great against casters. Unfortunately they have to get to stage 3 of the poison before you can command them.

Crashing Wave ★★★ APG 6d6 cone of bludgeoning damage, that heightens nicely. The water equivalent to Fireball but the area is just not as easy to use.

Croak Voice ★★★★ HoW inflict a frog's voice on an enemy caster, even if they save.

Cup of Dust ★★ G&M DM inflicts fatigue on the target, and makes them very thirsty. Fatigue is -1 to AC and saves. Useful, but what else can you do with fatigue? Stop Barbarians from raging if they lose to your initiative.

Curse of Lost Time ★★★ APG/PC2 single target, clumsy and enfeebled. Works for a round even if they make a save.

Cyclone Rondo ★★★ WTD knock people prone in an area, then sustain for a slow moving area of difficult terrain and some damage.

Day’s Weight ★★★ similar to Curse of Lost Time. SIngle target, a small effect on a normal successful save. Nothing wrong with it, I just want a bit more at this level.

Deep Sight ★★★★ P194 long term dark vision or greater darkvision.

Dive and Breach ★★★ ROE teleport a short distance through the plane of water leaving some damage behind. An interesting combination spell. Great if you are close in melee.

Dividing Trench ★★ BC KOL instant trench. Useful but not really enough to be a problem for anyone. Maybe an action sink for people moving over it.

Eagle's Cry ★★★★ SK a cone of sonic damage and a fear effect on a fortitude save. Can be better than Fear 3 at this level as it affects mindless creatures; area of effect is better against some creatures though selecting targets is easier to avoid allies. Very good spell.

Earthbind ★★ are you hunting griffins? It is just a bit narrow isn’t it? Worth taking if you don’t have good ranged or flying options in your party.

Elemental Absorption ★★★ a flexible resistance to an element which can be handy for a Sorcerer. But you have to be taking a lot of damage for the attack to be worthwhile. Normally creatures you encounter with elemental attacks tend to be resistant to that attack So I don’t really consider that the final attack is that useful.

Elemental Annihilation Wave ★★ despite it having all six elements it basically only includes fire damage but it has all the traits. Complex to work out what happens when you have immunities and weaknesses. It's below the curve in damage. You can take a second round to get extra area, but are your enemies sitting still? Most useful as fodder for Elemental Counter.

Envenom Companion ★★★★ or Eidolon. +1d8 poison damage, plus inflicts clumsy, per round. A solid buff. Obviously you need a companion.

Familiar's Face ★★★ APG look and hear through your companion or familiar

Far Sight ★ P177 it does what it says but not well enough for me to ever want to take it.

Feet to Fins ★ water breathing seems better.

Fireball ★★★★ not as much damage as you would hope, but great range and area of effect.

Gasping Marsh ★★★★ P177 area of effect poison damage and sickened. You can sustain it and use it on other targets next round.

Glass Sand ★★★ FB a lower damage fireball with slashing and persistent damage.

Glyph of Warding ★★★★ make a spell trap, or a bomb if you can make yourself immune. Don't forget you can heighten it and get some very big spells in here. Well the designers have addressed this spell and made some clarifications. Basically you can’t force someone else to activate it, they have to interact with it. So using this spell on an item to use like a grenade is just going to fail. Which is sensible. You also have to use all the triggers - move, touch or open - not just one. But this still effectively allows you to put glyphs on small items, which you can trigger when you want. By having someone else, perhaps your familiar, trigger the item by touching or moving them, or maybe just even deliberately saying the wrong password when you touch them. Or maybe you can convince an opponent to take a trapped item. The question really is what hostile effect can you put in them that is useful when triggered? It is possible to get immunity to effects if you might be caught in an area of effect. Metamagic and Safeguarded Spell work in Staves, so probably in scrolls and glyphs too. Heal and Harm are hostile to some creatures and not others. What will your GM let you do? This has been released in the remaster as a Ritual Rune Trap.

Haste ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ you get an extra action but only for a stride or strike. You can take it at any time but you only gain it at the start of your turn so it doesn't help the caster on the first round it is cast. A very strong buff, just not superpowered anymore as it takes a while to pay off. Better when it is heightened to multiple targets.

Heatvision ★★★★ ROE a new PRECISE sense. Heatvision duration 1 or all day at 6th rank. Very nice but it is not going to work versus undead or constructs.

Holy Light ★★★ reasonable against fiends and undead, but not really against other targets. Converted from Searing Light

Ibex's Harvest ★★★ RA grants temporary hitpoints. Has a single action option which might make this a useful spell you can squeeze into a busy turn.

Insect Form ★★★ These forms are actually not as good in a simple fight as the animal forms. But what you get here are some forms with darkvision, and even Scorpion with tremorsense 60ft. Which is very good if your GM is plaguing you with invisible foes. More options with poison - if that suits your character. Caps at spell level of 5. In the remaster now available to arcane.

Life Connection ★★★ I mean normally the caster is the person to defend but sometimes this will make sense and all it costs you is a spell slot and a reaction. Plus some hitpoints of course.

Life Pact ★★★ KOL if you have good healing, or a source of temporary hitpoints. Then several party members and prop up another in trouble.

Lightning Bolt ★★★★ Better damage than a fireball but harder to get all the targets you want lined up.

Lotus Walk ★ ROE this is almost the same as Water Walk just higher level.

Mad Monkeys ★ APG just a bit of weird madness. Might be fun. But its just too wild to be reliable.

Magnetic Acceleration ★★ single target damage, the +1 to hit doesn’t really help as you are attacking AC which is typically higher. Not terrible, just not great value.

Martyr's Intervention ★★★★ KOL a reaction that stops someone from dropping to zero hitpoints.You take some damage and the target is on 1 HP. You both become Wounded 1.

Meld into Stone ★★★ hide inside a block of stone. Might get you through a simple stone wall. Now called One with Stone

Mind of Menace ★★★ a nice counterattack reaction against a mental attack. Prepared casters will definitely want this available, for Sorcerers may be worthwhile.

Moonlight Ray ★★★★ KOL a ranged spell attack. Mixed damage but it is decent especially against fiends and undead.

Moth's Supper ★★★ DA some slow healing bonuses and the ability to smell blood. Lasts for an hour.

Neutralize Poison ★★★ you will need this eventually.

Nondetection ★★ Now renamed to Veil of Privacy. This is not going to stop anything you are worried about. If you want to cast this you will want to cast it at high level. Good against cantrips, ie detect magic so it has a place for illusions. Hard to justify unless you have a spell book. Take Private Sanctum instead as it actually works.

One with Stone ★★★ PC The new Meld into Stone. Great for hiding.

Oneiric Mire ★★★ illusionary difficult terrain and a speed penalty. The speed penalty persists when they leave. 3 actions to cast. Reasonable range and area. Maybe

Organsight ★★★ weirdness galore. Bonus to medicine and precision damage on a target for a minute. But you have to succeed at a lore roll or a medicine check and you have to deal slashing or precision damage (spell is OK). So if you have the right skills it is a good buff, especially if you can combo it with a reliable damage. Invisible assassins are going to like this.

Painted Scout ★★★ P175 scrying spell through a stone surface, useful.

Perceive the Threads of Fate ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Roll twice on attack or skill check for the next 3 times you sustain this spell. Very much like 3 Sure Strikes. Now on all lists.

Pillar of Water ★★ P152 probably should be called swimming pool of water. Good as difficult terrain or putting out fires. Might stop an animal from following you. Ok it has its uses but doesn’t seem very important.

Positive Attunement ★ a sustainable single target positive energy healing or attack versus undead. Give me heal any day.

Primal Chorus ★★ HoW an encounter mode spell. Check out what animals and beasts are within a mile. Gain a small initiative bonus.

Remove Disease ★★ does what it says.

Safe Passage ★★ APG protection against hazards in an area. You really need to know that this is going to happen for this to be worth taking.

Sand Form ★★★ ROE resistance to piercing and slashing damage and immunity to bleeding. If you like Stoneskin then this is a lower level version.

Scrying Ripples ★★★ ROE a useful scrying spell.

Searing Light ★★★ reasonable against fiends and undead, but not really against other targets. Remastered as Holy Light

Shadow Spy ★★★ DA spying via a fake bird.

Shifting Sand ★★ G&M an area of difficult terrain that you can sustain and move around. Very odd. The other effects are not especially strong but I’m sure some people will like it.

Show the Way ★★ G&M a weak Find the Path, that only applies to terrain out of combat.

Slow ★★★★ Heightened ★★★★★ costing your enemy actions is very effective. Great when it is heightented to 10 targets. It is still very good against one target as your enemy still loses one action on a normal successful save. Whether one action is significant or not depends on the enemy and how your team plays. If all everybody does is run forward into melee then this won’t make much difference outside of a critical failure. But if the team is striking and moving back, forcing the enemy to spend actions moving as well, then this is much stronger. Useful against a boss even if he saves as you are trading two actions for one of his - that’s a good deal as you outnumber him. When heightened it is one of a small category of multitarget spells that can still be used when the enemy has engaged and is mixed in with your party.

Speak with Plants ★ only when you need it. Lower level after the remaster, but the spell is still encouraging the GM to say nothing useful.

Soothing Blossoms ★★ and area of effect assistance versus persistent damage, bonuses against disease and poison. Useful only when there is a lot of that happening at once and you can’t take actions to assist normally.

Stinking Cloud ★★★ for when you run out of obscuring mists.

Strenght of Mind ★ P209 a poor version of Heroism that only works against a limited number of spells.

Tempest Cloak ★★ ROE a very limited shield. It works fine. I'm just not sure that is enough to warrant taking this spell. If you are a melee character with Terrain Advantage then go for it

The Four Hunters ★★ RA single action spell but you can get extra targets for more actions. A buff to a number of useful things. Only lasts a round.

Threefold Aspect ★ APG a day long bonus to disguising yourself as younger or older.

Travel by Turtle ★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Summon a turtle to serve as your boat. Heightens for more passengers.

Unseasonable Squall ★★★ P151 ranged area burst of wind that knocks people prone. Very good against flyers.

Veil of Privacy ★★ Renamed from Nondetection. This is not going to stop anything you are worried about. If you want to cast this you will want to cast it at high level. Good against cantrips, ie detect magic so it has a place for illusions. Hard to justify unless you have a spell book. Take Private Sanctum instead as it actually works.

Wall of Radiance ★★★ P172 DM a wall of concealment which is useful defensively if you can make your enemy come to you. Take fire damage when you pass through it. Heightens for more damage.

Wall of Thorns ★★★★ wall spells are good and this is the lowest level solid one. Separate a group of enemies for a round or two - it’s all you’ll need. Give the party a chance to run away or just take out half of your enemies while the other half can’t get to you. Cover from ranged attacks. In the remaster now available to arcane.

Wall of Water ★★★★ an interesting wall. I think it was good value if you can breathe water, or defend just behind it. Because you have to swim through the wall it will cost actions. They have to stop moving and use another movement action to get through. They also can’t step in water, only stride. If you have long range piercing weapons or polearms, it won’t hurt you much. So you may be able to force them to come to you. They will have to move up one action, swim through one action, move again to get to you. Most of the abilities to do extra steps won’t help them as you can’t step in water. But against certain enemies it's just not going to be useful. If they have lots of archers then use Wall of Wind instead. Your GM might rule that Huge creatures can just walk through it, but hopefully he will still have it take an extra action.

Wall of Wind ★★★ situational, but good if you have a lot of direct damage spells and they have archers.

Web of Eyes ★★ party TV. Cute but a verbal description is normally enough.

Wooden Double ★★★★ ROE a reaction to negate most of a critical hit.

Primal 4th level spells

Heightened spells: Darkness even if they have darkvision, Pest Form gets flight, Enlarge is size huge, more damage and more reach, Web at this level is big enough to waste a full turn on a normal failure, Pass Without Trace is an 8 hour buff for the party, Phantom Steed can walk on water and ignore difficult terrain. Thermal Remedy is 10 hit points for the party for 2 hours. Blazing Armory is for everyone.

Aerial Form ★★★ fly with wild shape. These forms allow you to fly and melee. Bat of course has echo location which is very nice. At this level utility fight can be done by Pest Form and so this is perhaps not as useful as you might think. For starters you only have melee attacks, so no ranged or spell attacks. So you can’t exploit flight all that well offensively. If you have a high Dexterity score and not Strength you might get a better attack value from that.

Caps at spell level of 6, which gets you reach

Airlift ★★★★ ROE party fly once for 60 ft. Cute if nobody else can fly as you can get everyone. But it is a one off move. It can be used offensively against enemies.

Air Walk ★★★★ fly and still talk and cast spells, if you don't have another way to do it. Because you don’t have to sustain flight with hover actions this is better than Fly.

Bestial Curse ★★★ APG clumsiness, weakness and a flat check of 5 to do any manipulate actions. OK against an enemy caster, not really good enough for general use.

Bloodspray Curse ★★★★ SOM an excellent debuff to make an enemy vulnerable to more damage. The real bonus is that it still works even if they succeed on their save. Pretty good effect to put on a tough opponent.

Bridge of Vines ★★ RA a spell to create some favourable terrain or a bridge. Better if you have a spell book.

Bursting Bloom ★★★★ FB vines burst out of you and squeeze. OK damage and an effective debuff.

Call the Blood ★★★ P165 I’ve been reading this wrong. It is really only for negative healing casters. It's damage with a minor bonus for yourself.

Cinder Swarm ★★★★ ROE sustainable damage that is centred on one creature, but is a small area. Like Flaming Sphere but they can’t run away from it. You have a choice of using reflex or fortitude versions.

Cloak of Light ★★★★ DM a damaging aura versus undead that heals the living. Kind of nice. The damage has been improved.

Compel True Name ★ SOM Rare Incapacitation requires the target's true name. Just so rare to be useful and probably not much more effective than a normal charm or suggestion in most cases.

Coral Eruption ★★★ SOM burst damage in 2 x 10ft bursts for mild damage. But difficult terrain that damages as you move through it. Create difficult terrain that damages those who move through it. The targeting is quite good and the area is flexible and large enough to be useful. I think in the end the total damage will be good enough and it will likely cost your enemy an action or two on top of the damage. Costs 3 actions to cast though.

Countless Eyes ★★★ APG protection from being flanked

Creation ★★ somebody smarter than me needs to work out how to use this. It works. But at this level everything you actually want will be magical.

Deathless March ★★★★ WTD4 an emanation that quickens undead and frightens living creatures. Obviously for team undead only, but like all emanations the caster can exclude themselves.

Dinosaur Form ★★★★ combat wildshape form. This is the successor to Animal Form for pure combat crunch comparable at this level and goes all the way up to level 7. Lots of reach options. Triceratops is the best but sometimes a TRex is just irresistible. These forms have some very high Athletics scores if you want to trip or grab.

Draw the Lightning ★★★★ SOM, a very cinematic spell. Strike a foe and charge your weapon. Better on a Stormy sky. Great if you are a martial or like to mix in weapon attacks with your spells. Probably combines with most battle forms.

Elemental Gift ★★★★ SOM a very flexible set of bonuses including fast land speed and a one minute fly option, swimming, bonus against being tripped or shoved, or just extra fire damage on strike. There are other spells that give you flight for longer but there is a flexibility factor here.

Elemental Sense ★★★ ROE gain one of a range of special senses for 10 minutes. Most are imprecise except in special circumstances. Heightened to 6th level it is 8 hours. Very useful.

Elephant Form ★★★★ P177 another option instead of dinosaur form. It's got a good grab feature and may be a more natural animal in many settings.

Enhance Senses ★★★ KOL double the range of your imprecise senses.

Fey Form ★★★★ SOM good combat battle form. Attacks with trip/fire/extra hitpoints/good+ghost touch options. Main issue is that it doesn’t scale so you will want it for 1 or 2 levels then you will ignore it. Not something a Wildshaper gets.

Filter Air ★★★ BC Reaction. A defensive buff to give you better saves against inhaled poisons and diseases. Prepared casters will like this in their books. As a sorcerer I’d only take this if I was using such spells myself.

Fire Shield ★★★ useful anti-melee buff. So cast it before a battle form and charge into melee.

Fly ★★ Air Walk is faster and normally a better choice till you can heighten this for the longer duration.

Freedom of Movement ★★★ helps with a wide range of conditions. Not full immunity as it used to be in older d20 games, but still very useful. In the remaster the name becomes Unfettered Movement.

Gaseous Form ★ It has its uses but resistance 8 is not immunity to damage. It is more like a death trap.. Generally Fly will be better. You have other means of infiltration or escape that don’t stop you from doing things. Remastered name is Vapor Form. Technically you can’t even Escape in this form - it is a Trap. Only take it if your GM is going to allow it to be useful.

Glass Form ★★★ ROE a weird set of benefits and penalties. Useful if you want to be permanently concealed so you can hide even in plain sight, or if you are being tracked by scent and very certain damage types but not others. You will need to think about this one.

Grasp of the Deep ★★★★ ROE a ranged grapple with modest damage.

Grasping Earth ★★★★ ROE a ranged area grapple..

Hallucinatory Terrain ★★★ an illusion with a good duration. But you’ll have to think about how to use it. An illusionary moat, a pit of lava, a meadow of heather over a real pit, a bridge with no missing planks …. Now called Mirage.

Hydraulic Torrent ★★★★ a weaker lightning bolt with a push effect and a Fortitude save.

Ice Storm ★★★ APG difficult terrain, cold and bludgeoning damage in a small large area (errated to 20ft burst). Minor damage persists without being sustained.

Life-Draining Roots ★★★ ROE a bit of damage in a straight line. With a tiny amount of hit points for you.

Life's Fresh Bloom ★★ P197 a sustainable area of healing with a +5 speed bonus. Not strong enough.

Luring Wail ★★★★ HoW lure enemies closer and makes them chase you. I assume this only affects enemies as it implies otherwise this is useless. The spell fascinates but individually. Talk to your GM about this spell.

Mirage ★★★ PC an illusion with a good duration. But you’ll have to think about how to use it. An illusionary moat, a pit of lava, a meadow of heather over a real pit, a bridge with no missing planks …. Was called Hallucinatory Terrain

Misty Memory ★★ ROE review something that happened near a body of water in the last day. It is a bit narrow.

Movanic Glimmer ★★★ P183 a daylong buff to an animal. +2 status to perception, will saves. But the real benefit here is that your mature animal companion is no longer restricted to taking Stride or Stike when not commanded.

Mountain Resilience ★★★★ PC a solid buff heightens well. Was called Stoneskin.

Murderous Vine ★★★★ SOM grab a target and squeeze for damage. The damage is a bit light but at least you aren’t stuck grabbing next to it. So in many ways it is superior to a melee grab. Attack roll against fortitude DC which is very different.

Mutilate ★★ P209 mutilate yourself in order to do slashing damage to an enemy. Not enough damage. For 3 action you get a burst effect.

Ocular Overload ★★★ SOM a defensive reaction to give an attacker a miss chance against you. Good but only when you have spare spell slots of this level.

Pest Swarm ★★★ BC incarnate swarm of various pests. Lots of low damage options. Very flexible but not especially strong. Probably a good choice if you know your enemies weaknesses.

Petal Storm ★★ SOM minor area of effect damage for a minute. It's worthwhile only if your party has effects that will push enemies back into the area.

Phoenix Ward ★★★ ROE if you drop to zero hitpoints from fire you are immediately reborn. Grants fire resistance as well.

Ranage's Circle ★★★ RA immobilize a target at range.

Rust Cloud ★★★★★ ROE good damage in a burst but conceals your targets. Really strong if you set up for it by having forced movement options to shove enemies back into the area plus your martials have Blindsight or Goz Masks so they don’t take the concealment penalty. The damage area continues for a minute and triggers on start of turn so they can’t avoid it if you push them back in.

Reflective Scales ★★ G&M scalable resistance to energy or poison damage. But with a burst explosion option when you are done with them. The problem is that many creatures are immune to the type of energy damage that they deal out, the duration is only one minute. Ideally you would like to be able to take the scales into the next encounter.

Radiant Beam ★★★★ KOL a spiritual lightning bolt with a dazzle on top.

Radiant Heart of Devotion ★★★★ P183 sustainable bonuses for good and penalties for evil.

Rigid Form ★ ROE protection from polymorph. Only against very specific opponents.

Rusting Grasp ★★ APG destroy metal

Life's Fresh Bloom ★★★ P197 a sustainable area of good damage. Seems effective but your GM is going to have to remaster this themself.

Shape Stone ★★★★ a poor mans’ passwall spell. Block a corridor really well. Fast enough to do little tricks in combat with it. Instant wall or cover at just the right spot.

Sliding Blocks ★★★★ ROE a weird spell. It is like a small wall you can move. You can use this as a wall, or maybe like a flying carpet as you can climb on it and levitate around. Good in narrow dungeons.

Snake Fangs ★★★ HoW gain a fangs finesse unarmed attack. You can potentially swallow enemies.

Soft Landing ★★ DA an air bag to protect everyone from falling damage. Perhaps it is a bit specific, but you might be in a game where this is regularly needed.

Solid Fog ★★★★ another obscuring mist spell with difficult terrain.

Soothing Spring ★★ SOM creates a large hot tub that heals the party in an hour. Actually there are so many ways to do that without having to use a spell slot that this is almost certainly a waste. One thing this does do extra is remove fatigue, another - maybe a roleplaying opportunity.

Spike Stones ★★★ APG instant terrain.

Stifling Stillness ★★★★ ROE a damaging poison area and Fatigued unless you hold your breath. Enemies are unlikely to be doing this already so this is a no save Fatigued (-1AC and -1 Saves). Otherwise this would be fairly mild.

Swarming Wasp Stings ★★★ P160 area effect clumsy and slow poison damage. I guess it's OK but I find such spells a bit slow.

Stonesense ★★ P194 tremorsense for a minute. Not as good as Tremorsense unless you really need the extra range.

Stoneskin ★★★★ a solid buff heightens well. Now called Mountain Resilience.

Tomorrow's Dawn ★★★ P197 light, a slow aura against undead, and the rather rare mental resistance. Sustainable.

Tortoise and the Hare ★★★ SOM a paired slow haste.

Trickster’s Feathers ★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. An improved version of Illusory Disguise

Unfettered Movement ★★★ PC was called Freedom of Movement This helps with a wide range of conditions. Not full immunity as it used to be in older d20 games, but still very useful.

Vapor Form ★ PC Originally called Gaseous Form It has its uses but resistance 8 is not immunity to damage. It is more like a death trap. Generally Fly will be better. You have other means of infiltration or escape that don’t stop you from doing things. Technically you can’t even Escape in this form - it is a Trap. Only take it if your GM is going to allow it to be useful.

Vital Beacon ★★★★ action intensive. But you can precast it.

Wall of Fire ★★★★ wall spells are good. This one does damage to any creature in it at the start of their turn. No saving throw. So it's really useful to push people into it. Especially if your team has forced movement, shove, and grapple options.

Weapon Storm ★★★ reasonable damage area of effect spell with no range. Just make sure you have a d12 weapon on hand. You don’t have to be proficient in it. If you see a caster with a greatsword, run.

Ymeri's Mark ★★★ ROE this is a tracer spell that you put on a target that you release, so you can follow it to its lair. That is probably useful enough to take in general adventuring. I have a treasure hungry player who will love this. The actual damage is minor.

Zephyr Slip ★★★★ ROE a reaction to fly away when a creature gets next to you. It doesn’t actually give you flight though. Better if you have your own flight or glide available.

Primal 5th level spells

Heightened spells: Spider Climb hour long, Hallucinatory Terrain can now hide structures, Humanoid Form gets darkvision and enlarge. Tremorsense lasts 8 hours.

Acid Storm ★★ G&M acid damage over an area. It is low damage, but it keeps on going each round. A good way to get someone to give up a position. Acid is rarely resisited. But typically one lot of damage straight up is normally much better they have to take the damage 3 times before it would be as good as Fireball

Banishment ★ the saving throw is good but for Incapacitation, but obviously only on selected targets. Do you really want a spell that only works on “little” demons?

Blackfinder’s Blades ★★★ P171 quite a nice poison buff to the party's weapons.

Blazing Fissure ★★★★ SOM line of effect damage and prone just on a normal failure. No range? 120ft I guess.

Blessing of Defiance ★★★ SOM a good buff to saving throws, plus maybe some poison resistance, mental resistance, or speed. Those resistances are hard to get. But only for one round

Blinding Foam ★★★ FB Incapacitation - a spell attack (which means use this with Sure Strike) that blinds and does modest acid damage.

Blister ★★★★ APG awesome plague effect probably 14d6 acid on the target plus a 15 ft cone around him. Only fair because there is an initial save, then a save for each blister. But if your target has a bad fortitude save he is in trouble.

Boomerang Shot ★★ P203 a weak spell attack for bludgeoning damage.

Chameleon Coat ★★★ APG a significant party stealth bonus.

Cloudkill ★★★ recurrent damage if you can keep pushing them into the cloud. Can be very strong if your team is built to use it. New name in the remaster is Toxic Cloud.

Cone of Cold ★★★ reflex save, good damage. Replaced by Howling Blizzard.

Confusing Cry ★★★★ HoW a 20 ft radius confusion. Will save. Stuns on a successful save (!). Incapacitation.

Control Water ★★ The main problem with this spell is it doesn't say what it does. Is it raising the level of water that is already there, or is it creating water? It is an Evocation but the title is says Control. There is no duration so the water probably returns to normal if it's not trapped somehow, how long does that take. What happens if you cast it on a small pool is it still going to work? Say you tip over a barrel of water, can you then fill a room with water? Is it going to break a boat when you lift it up by raising the water, which then lets go and drops it. Perhaps it will just swamp a boat and sink it. Maybe it's useful. Talk to your GM.

Corrosive Muck ★★★ PC2 make 2 pools of acid. Better damage than Acid Storm.

Death Ward ★★★ a useful protection against negative energy

Desperate Repair ★★ BC KOL save a shield from being destroyed as a reaction. Useful I guess but not to most casters.

Diadem of Divine Radiance ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Make ranged spirit attacks for the duration. The damage is Ok but your attack bonus will be very high.

Domora's Defense ★★★ RA grants shield to 3 creatures.

Elemental Breath ★★★ ROE a damage blast with flexible types. Some good options. I suspect prepared caster will value this more than Sorcerers.

Elemental Form ★★ These forms have darkvision and 2 use Dexterity. The classic form elemental forms all have their uses. Air is very good at speed and evasion, an excellent run away form. Fire for setting things on fire. Earth for burrowing. Water for shoving. But typically for combat, try another form. This is not a combat option, because you can’t cast in a battle form and the attack is just not strong enough to be a good tactic.

Engrave Memory ★ ROE engrave a memory inside a stone. This is plot specific and not normally of any use. Pen and paper works.

Entwined Roots ★★★★ ROE party damage resistance of 5 to piercing and bludgeoning damage. Scales up.

Fire's Pathway ★★★★ ROE out of combat teleport through fire. Nice on this list as you don’t get teleport.

Flammable Fumes ★★★ SOM delayed blast fireball. You can’t detonate it till a round has passed. Superficially it looks bad. But then you realise it has no saving throw. They either get out of the area or don’t. Suddenly forced movement, blocking and grappling become important. With tactics this can be very nice.

Flame Dancer ★★★★ ROE a 2d6 fire damage buff for an ally with an unarmed attack. Allows them to use performance to intimidate. If you have such an ally or have the performance skill this is good.

Flames of Ego ★★★★ ROE well fascination and Incapacitation is normally enough to rule a spell out. But this can work. If you delay your turn till just before your opponent you have a good chance of wasting their turn. Even if they succeed it will waste one action. A useful spell that attacks will defence.

Flowing Strike ★★★ SOM a water themed move, strike and push. A bit Magus-like.

Freezing Rain ★★★★ ROE a sustainable moveable area of minor damage and slow.

Geyser ★★★ SOM a really long range attack. It does almost the same total damage as a Fireball on a smaller area, unless you want to use or can see through the concealed effect. Don’t forget the falling damage and that they are prone.

Glimmer of Charm ★★★★ SOM A real charm that affects everyone around you. Can handle a room full of targets, but it's better if they aren’t already hostile to you. This is an incredibly useful spell. Incapacitation

Grisly Growths ★★★ APG 10d6 instant cancer plus sickened for everyone, including the caster if they are close enough.

Healing Well ★★ SOM some slow action intensive healing

Howling Blizzard ★★★★ PC An improved Cone of Cold slightly less damage but creates difficult terrain and has a long range area blast. It is just easy to use well.

Impaling Spike ★★★ APG 8d6 piercing plus immobilized.

Incendiary Fog ★★★ P177 a fireball effect or an expensive obscuring mist. You can probably use this to play a few good tricks. Sadly it doesn’t scale at all but the damage is respectable for its level.

Lashunta's Life Bubble ★ P187 This is a space suit / deep diving suit for 8 hours. It works but Water Breathing is most of what you need for the whole party. So while this works, you are very unlikely to want to take it.

Lightning Storm ★★★ APG call lightning. You can bring the lightning down anywhere with range. Very much like Flaming Sphere, it is a sustain for a one action elemental damage a turn. It has got better range, but can’t be moved as far. It does a little more damage. (Errated from original)

Magic Passage ★★★ bypass the GMs traps, attack through the side entrance. An effective response to Wall of Stone . The new name for Passwall.

Mantle of the Frozen Heart ★★★ SOM a nice ice based self buff. Choose two out of 4 benefits and you can change your mind.

Mantle of the Magma Heart ★★★ SOM a nice magma based self buff.

Mantle of the Melting Heart ★★★ ROE choose one out of 4 benefits: Electrical resistance, poison immunity.

Mantle of the Unwavering Heart ★★★★ ROE choose one out of 4 benefits, but you probably want the first 2: fast healing and an odour aura to sicken creatures. Obviously for a martial caster who might get into melee.

Mariner's Curse ★★ I’m not seeing the point of this.Maybe against a single target for one around.

Moon Frenzy ★ useful for scarring peasants. This is going to be a strict debuff for most parties as they have lost their item bonuses from magic weapons. Very minor movement bonus and temporary hitpoints for a group.

Nature’s Pathway ★★★ PC out of combat teleport via trees. It works but it is slow and is only for you. Renamed from Tree Stride

Passwall ★★★ bypass the GMs traps, attack through the side entrance. An effective response to Wall of Stone . In the remaster it is given a new name Magic Passage.

Pillars of Sand ★★★★ successive create pillars of sand to pin targets against the ceiling. If they succeed, sustain and do it again, and again even forcing them to reroll in the same turn.

Plant Form ★★★ the forest is attacking. Poison Resistance, and excellent reach. Better than a Dinosaur at spell level 6. OK but more of a thematic choice.

Pressure Zone ★★★ ROE a long range, good area, short term clumsy debuff.

Ravening Maw ★★★ start eating dead bodies with 2 actions a turn.

Ritual Obstruction ★ P182 stops rituals occurring here for a day. So while this works, you are very unlikely to want to take it.

Soulshelter Vessel ★★★ stash some healing in an object so it can be withdrawn later at 10 HP per action.OK but probably action intensive.

Speak with Stones ★★ PC talk with stones about who walked on them recently or what is underneath them. Used to be called Stone Tell.

Stormburst ★★★★ P171 modest damage with a good chance of proning and stunning.

Summon Giant ★★★ like summon animal,ranged attack options.Note that entire races of giant have magical weapons!?

Summon Healer Servitor ★★★ IL incarnate. Some temporary hit points then some healing in an area..

Temporary Glyph ★★ SOM Compare this to Glyph of Warding. Temporary Glyph only lasts for a minute, can only be a two action spell, but you can cast it in 3 actions. I don’t think you will normally use this, as its main purpose is for creating a trap. It will always cost you another spell to use. Tactically I can see its value. I just think that you are better off casting a buff on yourself. Maybe if you are going to get a couple of rounds to set up then this is a good idea.

Toxic Cloud ★★★ PC recurrent poison damage if you can keep pushing them into the cloud. Can be very strong if your team is built to use it. A relabelled Cloudkill.

Transmute Rock and Mud ★★★ permanent and can be cast in reverse. No difficulty given for the escape roll so assume it is spell DC

Tree Stride ★★★ out of combat teleport via trees. It works but it is slow and is only for you. Now called Nature’s Pathway

Wall of Flesh ★★ APG some interesting options. But you have better walls.

Wall of Ice ★★ a wall that stops movement, but why would you take it over…

Wall of Stone ★★★★★ a bigger, tougher wall that is permanent. The best wall. Unlike Wall of Force it is shapeable into different things. Always one of the top spells in the game and one of the few that hasn’t been depowered in this edition. This spell is designed to be a barrier, normally for the purpose of keeping some or all of the enemy away for a few rounds. Note that walls don’t typically have a saving throw or attack roll - they just work. Eventually the enemy will be able to batter it down. It has some good utility use as well. In terms of making a bridge/stairs etc.

Limits some GMs put on the spell to tone it down:

Maximum width, height. You can’t fully cover a 30’x30’ gap, only up to 120’x20’ as a maximum.
No doubling up on the breadth to make it stronger.
The walls rules say The path of a shaped wall can’t enter the same space more than once, but it can double back so one section is adjacent to another section of the wall. Which means you can’t run the edge of the wall back over itself.
It’s a wall so it can be argued it has to exist as one folded plane. Each section has to be placed next to the previous section like a wall. So perhaps you can’t fold the top over into a box or a house shape. Which means that you can fly or climb out. But given most dungeons have ceilings, that often doesn’t matter.
Its edges can’t pass through objects can be interpreted too harshly to insist it can have gaps under it as it must be on one level, so it doesn’t work well on broken ground.
It can’t be placed horizontally - this is just wrong as the spell says otherwise. It can clearly be rotated 3 dimensionally.
Insist that the wall must be 20ft high exactly as you can grammatically infer that the up to only applies to the 120ft.

But each of these is arguable. I typically go with the first 3 limits here and don’t accept the rest.

I also always have larger creatures bash larger holes in the wall, not little 5x5 sections which would doom them to being trapped for a very long time.

To defend yourself versus this spell pick up an Insistent Door Knocker

Wisdom of the Winds ★★★ ROE some free advice from the wind.

Wyvern Sting ★★ SOM a range touch poison attack. Serious ongoing damage. I think this spell will suit assassins who like to make an attack then escape. I just find it too slow to kill your enemies for general adventuring use.

Primal 6th level spells

Heightened spells: Slow target up to ten creatures, Manifestation Of Spirits up to 5. Enlarge for the whole party, Phantom Steed can fly for 8 hours, Stoneskin at resistance 10 is great. Elemental Sense is 8 hours. Fireproof becomes permanent. Heatvision is all day.

Arrow Salvo ★★★★ ROE fairly comparable damage to a fireball. Shorter range but bigger burst radius.

Baleful Polymorph ★ toad. A fun save or suck spell. Useful even on a normal failed save. Game over on a critical fail. But only useful on minions because of Incapacitation. I’m just not going to use it when I have better options. Single target save or suck is always a bit hit or miss, but now I have to worry about the level of the enemy? Why would I use one of my big spell slots for this? Remastered spell name is Cursed Metamorphosis

A stat block for a harmless creature would be nice. I can’t find one even in the bestiary. For now I suggest using the stats from Pest Form.

Blanket of Stars ★★★ APG a stealth bonus, plus dazzling adjacent creatures.

Blinding Fury ★★ reaction. Hide from what attacked you. It doesn’t negate the attack though.

Bounty of the Sky ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Birds come and give you and your friends gifts for the next minute. Ongoing healing and restoration effects.

Catch your Name ★ SOM more true name madness. I mean in the stories knowing someone's true name was devastating. I haven’t seen anything beyond a whimper so far. There has got to be a better balance point for these spells.

Chain Lightning ★★★★ one of the best multi target damage spells in the game, none of the side effects of the original, it is totally under your control. Full damage till someone critically succeeds.

Cursed Metamorphosis see Baleful Polymorph ★

Dragon Form ★★★★★ pretty much what you would expect, awesome. Insane fly speed, breath weapon, reach. Choose an elemental attack type and resistance: acid, lightning, fire, cold, poison. Swimming and Burrowing are also available. Everything but stealth. Very hard to pass this up, though some other forms have a couple of extra points of AC if all you really want to do is slug it out in the front rank.

Elemental Confluence ★★★ SOM I assume the earth effect is for everyone within the confluence. But that is a guess. Some nice bonuses. A bit portable fort, a bit spiritual weapon. There is a down side, in that if you are in the confluence then targets outside are concealed. If you are mostly doing area effects this is fine. A group of casters would like this. Good for a tower defense type scenario.

Explosive Barrage ★★★ BC multiple secondary explosions - roll a d4. Fire and Sonic damage. About the same damage as a fireball but less than what you can get elsewhere at this level.

Field of Life ★ the healing is just too weak at this level. Use a heal spell instead and save yourself all those actions of sustaining. Tolerable when you get the feat Effortless Concentration. It should be twice as strong at least.

Field of Razors ★★★★ ROE creates an area of difficult terrain that does 5 damage to every square moved.

Fire Seeds ★★ interesting but just seems too weak compared to an upscaled fireball. Replaced by Tree of Seasons.

Flame Vortex ★★★ SOM a sustainable fire tornado.

Flesh to Stone ★★★ a better slow spell. The new name is Petrify

Frost Pillar ★★★★ ROE save or be restrained. Very useful. Certain types of creatures will need an ally to get themselves out. For others it will waste a round or two.

Frozen Fog ★★★★ BC a damaging concealing area that causes clumsy. You can sustain this and move it around. Affects creatures at the start of their turn. So very good if your team can push people into it.

Halcyon Infusion ★ rare. Give an ally one of your lesser spells. Which is a useful trick. But they have to be lower level than you so this won’t work for your party including companions (why?)

Hag's Fruit ★ P182 this is Snowwhite’s poisoned apple. You are not going to need this. Take Glyph of Warding instead.

Lignify ★★★ ROE this is just Flesh to Stone with different traits.

Nature’s Reprisal ★★★★ SOM this creates a huge area of effect, an 80ft radius burst that only affects enemies. Difficult terrain plus 6 poison damage for every square they move. As long as there are some plants around this gives your team a huge advantage. If they can burn themselves a path then at least it will cost them a lot of actions. If they fly, or have good ranged attacks then this is not going to be a great option.

Necrotize ★★ SOM a single target necrotic damage spell with a random other debuff. I prefer to choose my debuffs based on what the rest of the party can take advantage of. Still primal doesn’t get a lot of necrotic damage.

Personal Ocean ★★★★ ROE a nice defensive buff. Especially good if for some reason you have a high swim speed. Here are the rules for Aquatic combat. But a lot of enemies are going to be -2 to hit you. Personally I want to wild shape into a sea serpent then zoom around raking enemies with this.

Petrify ★★★ PC a better slow spell. Was Flesh to Stone

Phantom Orchestra ★★★★ ROE this is a 10 foot burst that you can sustain anywhere within 120ft. Sonic damage on a fortitude save.

Purple Worm Sting ★★ damage and a debuff, may be useful but so many things are hard to poison.

Rose's Thorns ★★★★ ROE creates an area of difficult terrain that does 5 damage to every square moved

Scintillating Safeguard ★★★ APG reaction. Party resistance against an attack

Stone Tell ★★ a chat with rocks, this can be useful.

Stone to Flesh ★★ as required. Not redone in the remaster.

Summon Dragon ★★★ some types of enemies are very vulnerable to flyers with breath weapons. It's also a good way to prepare a local population to believe your illusions.

Tanglecurse ★★ P211 a persistent curse that creates difficult terrain around a target. More of a GM spell.

Tangling Creepers ★★★ lowers speeds but the effect is not that strong. I mean I prefer the lower level spells over this apart from the burst size.

Tree of Seasons ★★★ PC provides 4 different blasts that can be thrown with an action. Replaces Fire Seeds.

True Seeing ★★★ still very good. Seriously depowered from earlier editions in that it doesn't just automatically see through everything - there is a counteract roll. I like the change. Hopefully we will see more high level illusionists and players will have to think again. Now renamed to Truesight

Truesight ★★★ PC was True Seeing, see above.

Utter Destruction ★★★ P209 a ranged cone of sonic and void.

Vitrifying Blast ★★★★ ROE damage and slowed in an area. Cool.

Wall of Metal ★★★ ROE a temporary wall of a special metal, almost a strict downgrade of Wall of Stone as you can’t shape it and it is temporary. Could be useful if the material is relevant. The spell doesn’t say the hardness to use so you have to look it up.I assume we should use structure as an iron plate wall is a sample structure. That would at least give it a hardness advantage. But if your GM insists that it is thinner then don’t ever bother with this spell.

Primal 7th level spells

Heightened spells: Haste party wide, Fly for an hour, Entwined Roots is party damage resistance of 10. Thermal Remedy is 15 hit points for the party for 8 hours.

Blightburn Blast ★★ weak damage but an ongoing sickness

Control Sand ★★★ P155 a reusable superior shield, attack or burst. Very flexible. Sustained. So good if and only if you have the Effortless Concentration feat

Corrosive Body ★★★★ SOM this is a pretty good attempt to turn a caster into a melee combatant. Acid immunity. An acid damage shield. Powers up Acid Splash into a huge splash. Lots of temporary hit points available. Polymorph trait so you can’t combine it with a battle form. Your attack roll remains the same, but you can cast other spells.

Cosmic Form ★★★ SOM a large battle form. Fast flyers with a ranged attack and fire based attacks. Nice complete package, but most enemies at this level should be able to deal with those tactics.

Dancing Fountain ★★ ROE three actions, sustained. Do some damage every other turn. Push or conceal in other turns. Very short range. Useful but there are better options.

Eclipse Burst ★★★★ huge range and area of effect, good damage with blindness on a critical fail. Not against the undead.

Energy Aegis ★★★★ a day long buff, but a bit weak at this level. Very flexible.

Execute ★★★★ PC The new name for Finger of Death. Single target death spell.

Fiery Body ★★★★ one of the few ways to get fire immunity. Also flight and no need to breathe. There has to be a combination here somewhere. I played around with triggering my own heightened glyphs of warding in a game with this.

Final Fate of the Locust Host ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Every enemy is going to be sickened and drained.

Finger of Death ★★★★ die. Renamed to Execute. Single target death spell.

Frigid Flurry ★★★★ SOM a line of effect damage that gives you 18 dice, won’t affect your allies. Plus you move to the other end of your spell effect. That move triggers reactions - but wastes them - as you can suffer no effect from those reactions. This is for a caster who often find themselves out of position. You get a move and decent damage.

Heaving Earth ★★★ ROE a single target damage spell with a chance to push and knock prone. 2 targets at level 9.

Hungry Depths ★★★ ROE an expandable sustainable damage area. Starts too small for a level 7 spell.

Interplanar Teleport ★★★ PC the new name for Plane Shift.

Lifewood Cage ★★ PC2 traps a target in a cage. Useful but underdone for this level compare it to Resilient Sphere.

Mask of Terror ★★★ a triggered fear which is almost like a defensive buff. It heightens next level to protect the party.

Plane Shift ★★★ out of combat movement for the whole party, renamed to Interplanar Teleport

Pollen Pods ★★★ ROE cool. This is a large area poison trap. Does damage dazzled and stupefied. A good way to set a few traps before a rest.

Ray of Corruption ★★★ P211 a rare attack spell that does effective spirit and poison damage. However it has the disintegrate problem in that you have to hit and they get a save as well. Fills much the same role in that it can destroy objects as well.

Regenerate ★★★ moderate single target healing

Restore Ground ★★★ RA there are a few effects here that might be useful. An earthquake? Greater difficult terrain. But mostly non combat value.

Shock to the System ★★★★ ROE brings someone back from the dead who just died. They are hasted. Just cast it on a PC, familiar, animal companion, or summon and you have a 1-action Thunderstrike of rank 5 every round. Doesn’t matter if they are dead, though summoned creatures disappear when they die. So a follow on from Final Sacrifice for your brave Animal Companion or Familiar? Ouch! That is one evil team.

Summon Stampede ★★★ HoW a two phase Incarnate spell. First fear including fleeing on a critical failure, then 8d6 bludgeoning. Large area.

Sunburst ★★★★ eclipse burst but mega damage against undead.

Unfettered Pack ★★ ignore terrain for the party.

Vacuum ★★★★ ROE an ongoing vacuum around you that is probably going to cause those that fail against it to run away.

Volcanic Eruption ★★ the area of effect is very small.

Primal 8th level spells

Heightened spells: Dragon Form is very very fast, Mask of Terror now targets multiple creatures. Zephyr Slip helps the entire party.

All is One, One is All ★★★ Legends, rare. One side shuffles hitpoints and redistributes how they choose. Interesting and unique. But this doesn’t really heal any damage, just moves it around.Interesting when you have a few minions out.

Arctic Rift ★★★★ PC Supposed to be a replacement for Polar Ray. Solid single target damage spell attack and debuff. Slow on a failure and immobilise on a critical failure are great results. Obviously can’t use True Strike with this as it is now a Fortitude save. To my mind it is a different spell.

Boil Blood ★★★ SOM a fort save for single target damage plus drained. It works. The damage is not especially good though. Probably around the same as Chain Lightning cast at this level but only one target.

Burning Blossoms ★★★★ SOM slowly draws your enemies toward a burning tree. They can’t turn away, they must move towards it - soaking up their actions. Even when the fascinated condition ends, they will keep having to roll new saves till they critically succeed. Very interesting as this is a primal spell that is will based. Excellent if your party has strong ranged attacks.

Clone Companion ★★★★ SOM gets a duplicate animal companion for a minute. Requires you to sustain it. Obviously you have to have an animal companion for this to be good. But if you do it is geared for attack, then this is pretty good.

Deluge ★★★ Negates flying for a round.

Desiccate ★★★★ PC any number of selected living creatures within 500ft. Instant army killer. A little under average damage but the king will never harass you again. Your forest is saved. New name was Horrid Wilting.

Earthquake ★★★ destroy buildings and those inside.

Ferrous Form ★★★★★ ROE a lot of immunities like you were a construct, including healing unfortunately. None the less you should be able to exploit this. This is not a battle form, you can still cast, plus you get physical resistance as well.

Horrid Wilting ★★★★ any number of selected living creatures within 500ft. Instant army killer. A little under average damage but the king will never harass you again. Your forest is saved. New name is Desiccate.

Linnorm Sting ★★★ P160 No roll to hit just a save on the venom. Range touch? A moderately significant ongoing poison.

Migration ★★★★ out of combat party polymorph into animals. So it can be a party fly spell for 8 hours. But it could be climb, swim or burrow as well. Maybe Rhosgobel rabbits? Replaces Wind Walk but it also allows a party disguise of sorts.

Moment of Renewal ★★★★ a free day's rest which you can augment with Fast Recovery - note normal recovery is Long-Term Rest - so this is a lot of party healing

Monstrosity Form ★★★★ where do you scale up from after a dragon? Here is your answer. Purple worm for burrow and some cool immunities and rapid recoveries, Phoenix for fly and a fire aura, or Sea Serpent with an awesome rake ability.

Moonburst ★★★★ SOM a huge burst of cold and positive damage.

Part the Mists to Paradise ★★★★ WOI this is Rare and Mythic. Rest for days in ten minutes.

Polar Ray ★★★ solid single target attack and debuff. Combos really well with True Strike. There is a new version in the remaster Arctic Rift but it is not an attack it is a completely different spell.

Punishing Winds ★★ keep fliers locked down

Rainbow Fumarole ★ ROE a long range random effect that hangs around.No idea why Incapacitation is on this spell it is terrible.

Summon Elemental Herald ★★★ ROE an incarnate spell. Large range of damaging effects.

Summon Warden of the Wild ★★★ HoW a two phase Incarnate spell. A wide range of offensive effects and party buffs that vary according to the terrain you are in. Looks good but you are going to have to read it yourself.

Whirlpool ★★ ROE sucks people into the centre of a whirlpool. The damage is modest for this level and your enemies will be able to move out even if it takes them 2 actions. If the radius was bigger I’d be up for it.

Whirlwind ★★★ SOM a long range movable area of damage that lift’s creatures off the ground. It is a fun effect. Not super strong though.Probably good to move into groups of creatures.

Wind Walk ★★★ out of combat party fly for 8 hours. Now called Migration

Primal 9th level spells

Heightened spells: Banishment multi targets and becomes useful, Entwined Roots is party damage resistance of 15.

Beseech Arcanotheign ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Wham bam thankyou ma'am. A bang, a zap, a heal, and a fond memory.

Disjunction ★ destroy a magic item - except for the ones you really want to destroy as they are artifacts. Seems pointless to me.

Detonate Magic ★★★ PC deactivate a magic item or a spell effect, but with a blast as well. Overlaps with Dispel Magic though this spell replaces Disjunction.

FallingStars ★★★ big area of effect good damage. Multiple centres of effect. Replaces Meteor Swarm the important difference is you can choose damage type.

Forest of Gates ★★★ SK long range party teleport.10 minute cast.

Implosion ★★★ boom lose 75 points, repeatedly. Not stellar damage but the low action cost to redo it makes it useful when sustained.

Linnorm Sting ★★★ P160 No roll to hit just a save on the venom. Range touch? A moderately significant ongoing poison.

Magnetic Dominion ★★★ ROE move everybody with metal in a 100ft radius. Plus a Magnetic Repulsion built in if you want it. Sustainable so I can see some planned party movement shenanigans with this spell.

Massacre ★★★★ complicated, side effects, but a fair bit of damage in a straight line.

Metamorphosis ★ not so good because it is limited by the other form spells that you know and they are lower level. The statistics of forms are tightly level based. Fun but it disables your main ability - spell casting - for a poor combat form. Original name for this is Shapechange.

Meteor Swarm ★★★ big area of effect good damage. Multiple centres of effect. Replaced by FallingStars

Nature's Enmity ★ no save, your animal companion attacks you. Interesting but not a typical adventuring spell, or strong enough for a level 9 spell.

One with the Land ★★★ SOM sort of like a battle form as a terrain feature. The ability to take cover is nice (4 points of AC for an action) the tremor sense is so so as it is imprecise. Being able to create difficult terrain at will is OK. The ranged strikes are fairly pointless as you probably have a weapon that can do that at this level. What is not clear is how large you are, or how large the terrain feature is that you are in? Nor what is significant physical damage to terrain, I mean generally terrain ignores most damage so I will be ignoring most regular damage when I GM, it will need to be terrain specific to be relevant. But there will be a lot of GM interpretation here.

Shapechange ★ not so good because it is limited by the other form spells that you know and they are lower level. The statistics of forms are tightly level based. Fun but it disables your main ability - spell casting - for a poor combat form. Remastered name for this is Metamorphosis.

Storm of Vengeance ★★ very large area of effect. Damage reoccurs but it is not that intense. It serves a purpose if that is to destroy a city or an army. New version is called Wrathful Storm ★★

Trim the Blight ★ P212 a rare spell that does damage to blight and fiends. But it is limited to a specific style of opponent. Only take it in appropriately ‘blight’ themed games.

Upheaval ★★★ large area terrain rearrangement. Buildings collapse on people.

Wrathful Storm ★★ PC Was Storm of Vengeance. A very large area of effect. Damage reoccurs but it is not that intense. It serves a purpose if that is to destroy a city or an army.

Primal 10th level spells

Cataclysm ★★★★ a little bit of everything over a big area. Complex but it is 21d10 damage.

Dinosaur Fort ★ four T-Rex defending your fort for a day. So cool but this is just not good enough to be a level 10 spell - maybe level 6 it would be OK.

Element Embodied ★★★ SOM some utility elemental forms. The abilities are nice, the AC is good but the damage output is low.

Fated Confrontation ★★ SOM 1 ally and 1 enemy fight and can’t be affected by other actors. I think you really need to set this up. It is mostly a way of ignoring effects from third parties. Nothing stops the targets from attacking others.

Garden of the Green Man’s Growth ★★★★ WOI this is Incarnate, Rare and Mythic. Lots of bludgeoning and proning, then slashing and grabbing.

Indestructibility ★★★ APG you are immune from whatever you want to be till your next turn. Good, but it doesn’t solve any of your problems.

Manifestation ★★★ PC a replacement for Wish and Primal Phenomenon. It is almost the same but it doesn’t allow anything in the way the old wish does. You are limited to existing spells.

Nature Incarnate ★★★★ top level wild shape. For those of you who missed the reference, Godzilla is a Kaiju. Lots of resistance and immunities, great trample ability. Fantastic. The other option is Green Man which is the notable exception of being your only size medium battle form that is combat worthy.

Nullify ★★★ SOM a reaction to counter a lower level spell automatically but you take damage as a result. The most reliable counterspell option in the game with the largest scope. This could be worth it.

Primal Herd ★★★ how to gate crash the right way.

Primal Phenomenon ★★★★ a wish spell. Its replacement is Manifestation.

Remake ★★ really a level 10 spell? Replace a destroyed item or magic item within limits. Too narrow. I’ve been corrected - this is about abusing Wands by overcasting then remaking them. I still don’t think it is level 10 material.

Revival ★★ your fellow players won’t thank you. By taking it you are planning for a tragedy. Is this the last adventure in your campaign? Good healing I guess.

Summon Kaiju ★★★★ SOM rare incarnate. Lots of damage options and some pretty unique abilities. Includes: huge pushes, magic sickening, stunning 3 all foes, significant damage.

Focus Spells

Are covered with the bloodline in my Sorcerer’s Guide . A lot are single action and therefore useful even if they seem a bit less on average than a Druids focus spells. But most are still very good. I have not covered Focus spells move broadly. That is more suited to a specific class guide.

Rituals

Just a note to say you can use them if you can find them. You need the skill of the primary check. But yes an arcane sorcerer can perform a resurrection ritual if they have expert religion.

Most of these are clearly outside of normal adventuring. So if you are preparing a stronghold, creating a teleport portal, want to summon or talk to an extraplanar creature, bind things, reincarnate, awaken animals and animate objects etc etc. There is a lot here.

I’d just like to highlight. Animate Object This is where you go if you want to make yourself a broom to sweep your house, or a chest to follow you and carry your stuff, or a heavy crossbow that will reload itself when commanded (1 action instead of 2). Even a guardian suit of armour or a statue. It's all level gated so you can’t get combat effective followers like this. But still story wise and for utility it is pretty good.

Difficult Spells

This is a small list compared to most games of this type.

Wall of Stone placement rules for the wall vary widely.
Inner Radiance Torrent is pending errata as the damage is considered a bit too high as it scales up.

I’ll go through a couple in particular

Glyph of Warding

Has lots of different interpretations and the designers have addressed this spell and made some clarifications. In some games it's almost useless while adventuring because GMs won’t let it be moved, in other games it is 4+ free scrolls. I don’t accept that you can’t move it. More importantly in classic stories it has always been used like that, eg GITP (Explosives runes being the ancestor of this spell). Here is how to use it legally and efficiently.

Basically you can’t force someone else to activate it, they have to choose to interact with it. So using this spell on an item to use like a grenade is just going to fail. Ditto for putting it on an arrow, or on your armour etc. Which is sensible. You also have to use all the triggers - move, touch or open - not just one. But this still effectively allows you to put glyphs on small items that you can safely carry around, but which trigger when someone else touches each item.

Convince your enemy to take the trapped item. Cast a glyph on a pouch of coins, or a slab of fresh meat, or a bottle of wine (take a drink first). Toss it to your enemy, and see if they catch it or pick up the bait. Maybe your GM will ask for a Diplomacy or Deception check. It's not likely to work once combat has started but it may be a nice way to start a combat.
Toss the item close to your enemies and get an ally to move forward and touch the item to set it off. Hopefully that ally is immune or resistant to the effect, or just expendable. Wondering what to do with the Level 1 Summoned Animal you were using for trap detection, think no further. Then again a Summoned Elemental can be immune to the Fireball you have in your Glyph.
Get an ally to activate it, while it's on you. You can’t as you are carrying the item around. Though they could carry it then you could touch it. Perhaps your familiar can do it, they can’t activate items but they can activate traps. The problem is the spell has to be hostile and now you have included yourself and an ally in the area of effect.

The question really is what hostile effect can you put in them that is useful when triggered? Immunity is hard to organise but it's not impossible. Heal and Harm are hostile to some creatures and not others technically you could just use those, but your GM may require it to be hostile to you. Your GM might consider a darkness spell to be hostile, or a blinding flash - which you might be prepared to use as an escape plan. Fiery Body, Ooze Form have immunities and there are others especially in summoned creatures. But Divine casters have the best option, alignment based damage eg Divine Wrath. Post remaster it is even better being restricted to enemies. You and hopefully your party are immune and often your enemies won’t be. Spells like Ash Cloud work as well as you can potentially move away after triggering it and it only affects creatures at the start of their turn.

This has been released in the remaster as a Ritual Rune Trap.

Battle Forms

Wildshape and BattleForms have lots of rules problems unfortunately. The rules for 1-4 are clear but some people do other things anyway. So check with your GM.

Technically in a Battle Form you can only attack with the listed attack. Which technically stops Athletics skill checks that are attacks like Shove and Escape. Everyone ignores this limit on Athletics as it's just unreasonable for something animals do quite often and quite well.This has been errated
When you are working out your unarmed attack modifier to substitute into a Battle Form, you add up your unarmed Proficiency bonus, your Strength or Dexterity modifier, plus your Item bonus. Then later when you are using it in the Battle Form you may apply Circumstance or Status bonuses, plus penalties. Each type of bonus only applies once.
You get the +2 status bonus if and only if your unarmed attack modifier is higher.
You can’t talk or cast spells in a Battle Form.
Nobody knows for sure how to do damage for Battle Forms. It is defined using terms that aren’t used anywhere else. Use the Damage Bonus and the Damage dice in the form; you definitely can’t add in extra dice from Striking Runes on hand wraps, probably your Strength doesn’t add to damage as I think it's included in the standard damage equation in the total known as the Damage Bonus, most likely Additional Damage (Rage, Sneak Attack, Weapon Specialization, Flaming Rune, etc) does add as Paizo have said it's not a bonus but a separate lot of damage. For discussion goto the link

Sample Spell Lists

Just to help you get started putting together a spell list. Adjust to your taste. These are very generic spells from before the remaster with no particular build in mind. Paizo have provided sample spell lists for NPCs that could be worth a look if you want a theme.

Arcane Sample Spell List

10th: Wish

Low Spell DC

Spells for Arcane that depend less on your Spell DC or not at all.

Cantrips: Shield, Detect Magic, Light, Time Sense

1st: Magic Missile, Anticipate Peril, Exchange Image, Summon Animal, Animate Dead, Illusory Disguise, Illusory Object, True Strike, Longstrider, Feather Fall , Fleet Step, Lock, Magic Weapon, Mud Pit

2nd: Mirror Image, Illusory Creature, Invisibility, Blur, Enlarge

3rd: Ooze Form, Haste , Locate, Shadow Projectile, Wall of Water

4th: Blink, Fly, Dimension Door, Veil, Invisibility , Resilient Sphere, Replicate , Stoneskin

5th: Drop Dead, Passwall , Shadow Walk, Summon Dragon, Wall of Stone

6th: Unexpected Transposition, Wall of Force, Dragon Form, Mislead

7th: Duplicate Foe, True Target, Haste, Contingency

8th: Disappearance ,Monstrosity Form, Power Word Stun

9th: Foresight,

10th: Time Stop, Indestructibility

Debuffing

Most of the conditions are effective to debuff with probably the best are Stupefied, Frightened, and Sickened as they will lower your targets AC and more. Stunning, or slowing your enemy or otherwise denying them effective actions is also very good. It is hard to draw the line as to what type of spell fits into this category.

Cantrips: Daze, Tanglefoot

1st: Summon Animal for a Skunk which can immediately sicken, Befuddle, Fear, Charm , Command

2nd: Darkness , Fear the Sun, Hideous Laughter, Mind Games, Vomit Swarm

3rd: Aqueous Orb, Fear, Slow, Blindness if I have Razzle Dazzle, Gasping Marsh, Oneiric Mire, Paralyze

4th: Resilient Sphere, Phantasmal Killer, Web, Confusion,

5th: Crushing Despair, Command, Black Tentacles

6th: Slow, Flesh to Stone, Vibrant Pattern

7th: Power Word Blind, Maze of Locked Doors, Force Cage, Inexhaustible Cynicism

8th: Maze, Burning Blossoms, Power Word Stun , Scintillating Pattern, Uncontrollable Dance

9th:

10th:

Divine Sample Spell List

Level 1

Cantrips : Needle Darts, Daze, Forbidding Ward, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Bless, Command, Heal

Level 8

Cantrips : Needle Darts, Daze, Forbidding Ward, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Animate Dead, Bless, Heal, Magic Weapon, Sanctuary .Summon Lesser Servitor

2nd: Blood Vendetta, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Sudden Blight, Warriors Regret

3rd: Circle of Protection , Heroism , Vampiric Touch, Fear

4th: Calm Emotions, Circle of Protection ,Air Walk, Divine Wrath

Level 20

Cantrips : Needle Darts, Daze, Forbidding Ward, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Animate Dead, Bless, Heal, Sanctuary

2nd: Blood Vendetta, Faerie Fire, Spiritual Weapon, Sudden Blight,

3rd: Heroism , Vampiric Touch, Fear

4th: Circle of Protection, Air Walk , Divine Wrath, Freedom of Movement, Globe of Invulnerability, Spiritual Anamnesis

5th: Drop Dead, Prying Eye, Shadow Blast, Wall of Flesh

6th: Repulsion, Spirit Blast, True Seeing , Vampiric Exsanguination

7th: Eclipse Burst, Ethereal Jaunt, Finger of Death, Sunburst

8th: Antimagic Field, Devour Life, Discern Location, Divine Aura

9th: Crusade, Foresight, Overwhelming Presence, Wail of the Banshee

10th: Avatar

Low Spell DC

Further Spell Suggestions that don’t care much about your spell DC.

Cantrips: Forbidding Ward or Shield, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Bless, Heal, Summon Lesser Servitor

2nd: Augury, Faerie Fire, Darkness

3rd: Circle of Protection, Heroism

4th: Air Walk, Freedom of Movement, Silence

5th: Drop Dead, Prying Eye, Summon Celestial

6th: Scintillating Safeguard

7th: Ethereal Jaunt,

8th: Discern Location, Divine Aura

9th: Crusade, Foresight

Naughty Spells

Further Spell Suggestions that are Necromantic, Poison or EvilTM. I’m separating them out as many divine casters won’t see these as appropriate.

1st: Animate Dead

2nd: Sudden Blight, Bone Spray, Boneshaker, Final Sacrifice, Imp Sting

3rd: Rouse Skeletons, Vampiric Touch

4th: Bloodspray Curse, Enervation, Vampiric Maiden

5th: Blackfinder’s Blades, Blood Feast

6th: Devil Form, Vampiric Exsanguination

7th: Eclipse Burst, Tempest of Shades

8th: Devour Life

9th: Massacre , Wail of the Banshee

Occult Sample Spell List

Level 1

Cantrips : Shield, Needle Darts, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Color Spray, Soothe, Summon Fey

Level 8

Cantrips : Shield, Needle Darts, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Anticipate Peril, Exchange Image, Soothe, Summon Fey, Lose the Path

2nd: Mirror Image, Spiritual Weapon, Illusory Creature, Vomit Swarm, Hideous Laughter

3rd: Circle of Protection , Heroism , Vampiric Touch, Fear,

4th: Blink, Phantasmal Killer, Ooze Form

Level 20

Cantrips : Shield, Needle Darts, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Anticipate Peril, Exchange Image, Soothe, Summon Fey, Lose the Path , True Strike

2nd: Mirror Image, Spiritual Weapon, Illusory Creature, Vomit Swarm

3rd: Circle of Protection , Heroism , Vampiric Touch, Fear

4th: Blink, Fly, Phantasmal Killer, Resilient Sphere , Invisibility

5th: Glimmer of Charm, Black Tentacles, Blister, Synesthesia, Wall of Flesh

6th: Aura of the Unremarkable, Blanket of Stars, Spirit Blast, True Seeing ,Scintillating Safeguard, Slow

7th: Duplicate Foe, Reverse Gravity, True Target, Haste

8th: Disappearance , Maze, Spirit Song, Undermine Reality

9th: Foresight, Overwhelming Presence, Wail of the Banshee, Weird

10th: Time Stop

Low Spell DC

Spells for Occult that depend less on your Spell DC or not at all.

Cantrips : Shield, Forbidding Ward, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Magic Missile, Anticipate Peril, Exchange Image, Soothe, Summon Fey, Animate Dead, Illusory Object, True Strike

2nd: Mirror Image, Illusory Creature, Invisibility

3rd: Circle of Protection, Heroism , Ooze Form, Haste

4th: Blink, Fly, Dimension Door, Veil, Invisibility

5th: Synesthesia, Wall of Flesh

6th: Unexpected Transposition, Wall of Force

7th: Duplicate Foe, True Target, Haste,

8th: Disappearance ,

9th: Foresight,

10th: Time Stop, Indestructibility

Primal Sample Spell List

Level 1

Cantrips : Electric Arc, Ray of Frost, Guidance, Detect Magic, Light

1st: Gust of Wind, Heal , Shillelagh

Level 8

Cantrips : Scatter Scree, Ray of Frost, Guidance, Detect Magic, Light

1st: Gust of Wind, Heal , Shattering Gem, Summon Animal, Lose the Path

2nd: Animal Form, Flaming Sphere, Restoration, Sudden Blight, Ignite Fireworks

3rd: Crashing Wave, Fireball, Neutralize Poison, Wall of Thorns

4th: Dinosaur Form, Stoneskin , Draw the Lightning

Level 20

Cantrips : Electric Arc, Ray of Frost, Guidance, Detect Magic, Light

1st: Lose the Path, Heal , Shattering Gem, Summon Animal, Lose the Path

2nd: Animal Form, Longstrider , Restoration, Sudden Blight, Ignite Fireworks

3rd: Crashing Wave, Neutralize Poison, Wall of Thorns, Fear

4th: Dinosaur Form, Fire Shield ,Solid Fog , Stoneskin , Weapon Storm, Draw the Lightning

5th: Acid Storm, Chameleon Coat, Pillars of Sand, Wall of Stone

6th: Chain Lightning, Dragon Form, Scintillating Safeguard , True Seeing , Nature’s Reprisal, Slow

7th: Control Sand, Eclipse Burst, Energy Aegis, Sunburst, Frigid Flurry, Haste

8th: Horrid Wilting, Monstrosity Form, Polar Ray, Wind Walk

9th: Implosion, Massacre ,Meteor Swarm, Upheaval

10th: Nature Incarnate

Spell Suggestions for Direct Damage.

Note that most of these spells scale simply for extra damage so you are never really short of a choice. This is what most people think the Druid can do and they are not wrong.

Cantrips : Electric Arc, Ray of Frost, Produce Flame, Acid Splash,

1st: Burning Hands, Pummeling Rubble, Shocking Grasp, Shockwave

2nd: Acid Arrow, Feral Shades, Flaming Sphere, Fungal Infestation, Heat Metal, Scorching Ray, Sudden Blight, Sudden Bolt, Worm’s Repast

3rd: Crashing Wave, Fireball, Lightning Bolt,

4th: Weapon Storm,

5th: Acid Storm, Blister, Grisly Growths

6th: Chain Lightning

7th: Sunburst, Eclipse Burst, Finger of Death, Frigid Flurry

8th: Horrid Wilting, Moonburst, Polar Ray

9th: Implosion, Massacre, Meteor Swarm

Balanced Approach

Here are some spell suggestions for more control and debuff options. The damaging auras combine well with difficult terrains and push effects. Tanglefoot becomes quite good if you have some of these effects out. It really is possible to play a primal caster with very little direct damage.

Cantrips: Scatter Scree, Tanglefoot

1st: Fear, Grease, Gust of Wind, Lose the Path, Mud Pit, Swampcall

2nd: Boneshaker, Breath of Drought, Faerie Fire, Darkness, Dispel Magic, Entangle, Fear the Sun, Ignite Fireworks, Magnetic Repulsion, Obscuring Mist ,Rime Slick, Vomit Swarm

3rd: Aqueous Orb, Fear, Slow, Oneiric Mire, Wall of Thorns, Wall of Water, Wall of Wind

4th: Bloodspray Curse, Hallucinatory Terrain, Ice Storm, Spike Stones, Solid Fog

5th: Blazing Fissure, Cloudkill, Flammable Fumes, Glimmer of Charm, Wall of Stone

6th: Nature’s Reprisal, Slow,

7th: Mask of Terror

8th: Burning Blossoms, Whirlwind

9th: One with the Land, Upheaval

Low Spell DC

Spell suggestions for buffing or indirect options. You don’t really need to have a high Spell DC or cast directly into combat to be effective. A lot of these are good buffs just before combat. The battle form spells are good but only in top level slots, or maybe one lower level form for utility scouting.

Cantrips: Detect Magic, Light, Guidance

1st: Heal, Longstrider, Magic Fang, NettleSkin, Pass Without Trace, Protector Tree, Summon Animal, Summon Fey

2nd: Animal Form, Faerie Fire, Darkvision, Enlarge, Resist Energy, Spider Climb Summon Elemental, Water Breathing

3rd: Blazing Dive,Haste, Neutralize Poison

4th: Air Walk, Dinosaur Form, Draw the Lightning, Freedom of Movement, Fey Form, Stoneskin

5th: Passwall, Summon Giant

6th: Blanket of Stars, Dragon Form, Scintillating Safeguard, True Seeing

7th: Control Sand, Corrosive Body,Cosmic Form, Fiery Body, Haste

8th: Clone Companion, Monstrosity Form, Wind Walk

9th:

More Information

Look at the collection of class guides from either Falco271 or Broken Zenith there is a lot of overlap. You also should look at the wiki from the PF2 reddit site.

Other people's opinions on Spells:

PF2E Spells breakdown by Ruben "Hety" Arutyunyan

Encyclopaedia Arcanum: FedoraFerret’s Guide to Spells

SuperBidi’s Guide To Blasting

For Arcane SpellsTarondor's Guide to the Pathfinder 2e (REMASTERED) Wizard

For Divine SpellsTarondor's Guide to the Pathfinder 2e (Remastered) Cleric

Knights of the Last Call have a video series on youtube. Here is their public summary spreadsheet

Lord Generic RPG is working on a spell series on youtube.

For remaster changes try youtube Badluckgamer or Wonton77 on reddit has made this review of the changes.

Other Guides I’ve Written:

Builds For Every Class

Ancestry Guide