Kicking Ass with Style and Staves (and an Occasional Greatsword)
I decided to move away from Pathfinder 2E just as I decided to move away from 1E a while back. Sadly the system is hardly suited for the games that i want to play so I’m gone looking for greener pastures. The document is in viewing only mode for now. If anyone wants to take over - feel free to contact me in Discord or Telegram and I'll transfer ownership to you. https://t.me/hettikus or Discord: Hety (Ruben)#3243
Thanks to all the contributors - I learned a lot from your comments.
Cheers.
All spells from all the books as of 15/02/2021 are present.
Casters have changed a lot in Pathfinder Second Edition and that's, for the most part, due to changes to cantrips and an overall nerf of spells - now they don’t magically solve every problem you have. No Caster Level scaling and the need to heighten spells to higher levels for them to become more useful or more convenient made me think that the regular Treantmonk style ratings don't really work anymore. You can evaluate the usefulness of the spell on its own - yes, but you also have to consider how high you have to heighten it to become useful for a party.
I will color code spells according to their average usefulness and then specify it for some heightenings if it will be applicable:
Mage Armor [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1st [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑], 8th [⭑], 10th [⭑]) where
Gold [!!!] - beyond awesome, must have
Purple [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] - pure awesomeness
Blue [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - good one, will be useful at this level
Green [⭑⭑⭑] - a decent pick, but maybe a bit situational
Orange [⭑⭑] - situational at best
Red [⭑] - useless junk, unless situation is specifically tailored for it
Comments are enabled so you can write your ideas right here. If you want to have a discussion regarding one spell or another - you can find me in Telegram: https://t.me/hettikus or Discord: Hety (Ruben)#3243
Some assumptions I make here:
As a caster, you have no way to get an item bonus to spell rolls and DC’s, so, in the end, you will be 3 points behind dedicated damage dealers with legendary proficiency. Up to level 19, you will be 2-3 points behind almost any martial class.
If an enemy can crit fail on something above 1 - he’s quite weak and won't pose a problem. In all other cases, only nat 1 will net you a crit fail, which is unreliable.
Same applies to crit successes - if you can achieve one at something lower than nat 20 - you are fighting something meek and they won't pose a problem anyway.
Both effects are unreliable and I won't factor them into the final score.
I will, for the most part, ignore the fact that some spells with saves are even worse for non-dedicated casters (Warpriests) which don’t pump their Wisdom to the absolute maximum. This adjustment is on you.
Unlike in 1E, cantrips are relevant all the way up to 20, so you can't just free all the cantrip slots for support magic. Also, the lack of high-level slots makes you rely on them for DPS.
Several things to remember about Innate spells and cantrips:
This leads us to the following conclusion: Bards, Sorcerers, and Oracles can “steal” cantrips and spells of other traditions and use them to full potential even for offense. Clerics are close second due to the fact that they need Charisma.
Effects with the darkness and light traits interact in specific ways. Non-magical light always shines in non-magical darkness and always fails to shine in magical darkness. Magical light always shines in non-magical darkness but shines in magical darkness only if the light spell has a higher level than that of the darkness effect. Spells with the darkness trait or the light trait can always counteract one another, but bringing light and darkness into contact doesn’t automatically do so. You must usually cast a light spell on a darkness effect directly to counteract it (and vice versa), but some spells automatically attempt to counteract opposing effects.
Essentially it means that automatically heightened Light [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) will shine normally in darkness at higher levels unless you invested into heightening darkness. It makes Darkness much less potent overall.
From the Errata: Several sustained spells are meant to provide once per turn benefits when they are sustained, not be used multiple times per turn. In flaming sphere, implosion, unfathomable song, impaling briars, and storm lord add "the first time you Sustain this Spell each round"
I think it will be safe to at least assume that any damaging spells that you can sustain to do damage you can sustain only once.
At this point, it is not clear how runes from Handwraps of Mighty Strikes (apart from potency runes, which specifically don’t work) interact with your attacks in battle forms. Until further clarification, I assume they don’t work at all.
Also, there was a heated debate about the potency of battle forms. I initially deemed them useless, but it looks like I was absolutely wrong. There are several things to remember here:
Very dirty math is here
From Errata 2: “Staves are also staff weapons (page 280). They can be etched with fundamental runes but not property runes. This doesn’t alter any of their spellcasting abilities."
Which for us means that Shifting Rune is not an option anymore.
There are several things to remember about summoning:
Here is the table of level of creatures you can summon vs your level:
Spell level | Your level | Summon max level | Diff (even levels) |
1 | 1 | -1 | 2(3) |
2 | 3 | 1 | 2(3) |
3 | 5 | 2 | 3(4) |
4 | 7 | 3 | 4(5) |
5 | 9 | 5 | 4(5) |
6 | 11 | 7 | 4(5) |
7 | 13 | 9 | 4(5) |
8 | 15 | 11 | 4(5) |
9 | 17 | 13 | 4(5) |
10 | 19 | 15 | 4(5) |
As we see here summons will be much closer to your level until level 5-6 and then it will cap out at 4-5 level difference. This means they are almost useless in combat unless you flank with them or hope for nat 20 and a followup without check - Grab or Knockdown.
I removed the descriptions of individual summons (at least for now). You can find the old section here.
And you can check out this guide here (it's not mine, so…).
Reach [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] - this one is actually huge for dedicated casters. While armor-wearing hybrids can afford to be in stride range, wizards and sorcerers can't. This metamagic will allow you to blast away at 60 ft with most of the cantrips and you will only get attacked once if enemies will try to chase you down. This, together with heightened Longstrider [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) will protect your life and sanity. It will also allow you to use touch spells with relative ease.
Conceal [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] - very nice metamagic for social campaigns, but it calls for not one, but two perception checks from onlookers. Unless you are not investing heavily in Deception and Stealth - don’t bother. Having a Silent Spell greatly increases itэs utility and makes it blue.
Silent [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - this one is very nice. Dungeon, ball - whatever the environment is - being silent is a nice thing. It requires Conceal [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] though.
Widen [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - this one is interesting. 5 ft or 10 ft does not sound like much, but for a 20 ft burst is 44 squares while 25 ft burst is 68. We just increased a typical spell area by more than 50%. For lines, it is not that great though.
Overwhelming Energy [⭑⭑] - Level 10, reduce energy resistance against a spell by your level. Does nothing against immunity. Probably better to just have spells of multiple energy types.
Quickened Casting [⭑⭑⭑] - Level 10, 1/day reduces a spell’s casting time by 1 action, but only for spells at least 2 levels lower than your maximum. Casting a second spell is good, but only being able to use it 1/day really limits it.
Blessed Spell (Blessed One) [⭑⭑⭑] - this one looks nice especially if you multiclassed from a caster. Ability to apply Mercy to a single target spell like Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑] is great. The problem is that classes that target allies on a regular basis with single target spells already have means to remove those conditions.
Call and Response (Bard) [⭑⭑] - Bards tend to lack spare actions and ability to offload some of those onto other party members looks like a nice idea. For example your party champion that does not plan to move anywhere can strike, raise shield and give response to your cantrip, freeing your action for the next round. There is an issue here though - you use one additional action to give others the ability to make action instead of you. In the end as a party you lose one action overall without any added mechanical benefit.
Familiar Conduit [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Familiar Master) - this one is better or worse version of Reach metamagic and it all depends on how much your GM likes to kill your familiars. First of all your Familiar is just a point of origin and not the caster. So if its under effects of Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - it is safe. Which makes Imp Specific Familiar so much better - it can technically be invisible ⅙ of the time or 10 minutes every hour which will probably cover all your bases. Also your familiar can get to angles impossible to you and, for example, a 15 ft cone just became a 3x3 square on the ground. Tactical possibilities are limitless. And you can retrain your Reach [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] into something else after. But, again, if your GM will target your familiar specifically - it can hurt. A lot.
I sincerely thank all those who invented their time into giving comments and discussing spells. You are awesome. Thank you.
Ilya Ksenevich - changes and additions
Nya Fairy - thanks, you ruined Time Stop
Dustin Knight - thanks, you brought at least some life into Time Stop
Rekijan - multiple fixes and suggestions, thanks :)
Xenken - corrections and making summoning great again
Delioth - making summoning great again too :)
Pomme Verte - suggestions and corrections
confusedneophyte - corrections and suggestions
Cyouni - creative ways to use Time Stop
Anonymous Legion - typos and fixes and multiple corrections and overall awesomeness. Legendary!
Fraser Stanton - thanks for adding AP spells, man
Nik Gervae - for all da stars
Here is the list of spells per level that won’t hurt to have. I tried to add only those that will be most useful: http://bit.ly/PF2ArcaneSpellsByLevel
A list of buffs casters should have on 8 hours a day in Level: Spell notation
1: Ant Haul [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - golden for those with low strength (ahem, wizards)
1: Mage Armor [⭑⭑⭑] - until you get yourself Bracers/Runes
1: Pet Cache [⭑⭑⭑] - animal companion storage
2: Longstrider [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - 10 ft bonus to speed is awesome
2: False Life [⭑⭑⭑] - 10 hp at level 3 and 13 at max level may not seem like much, but it is almost two levels worth of hitpoints and while not as effective as Heal gives you a nice cushion to fall onto
3: Nondetection [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - because if you want to get away using Invisibility - this may save you
3: Item Facade [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - slap it on your spellbook and recipe book if you are as paranoid as I am
3: Show the Way [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - travel as fast as you can across difficult terrain
4: Water Breathing [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - 24 hours of inability to drown. You can actually rest underwater!
4: Status [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑]) - it is always good to know what is going on with your party members
5: See Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - because you don’t want to get ambushed
5: Telepathic Bond [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - always know what’s happening with your comrades
6: Spirit Sense [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - haunt relief
7: Tongues [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] - being able to speak any language is golden
7: Contingency [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - not-so-dead man’s switch. Nice to have
7: Energy Aegis [⭑⭑] - multi protection. Is it worth it? Good question. At least it lasts a whole 8 hours
8: Mind Blank [!!!] (U) - buff everyone you can reach unless they have insane will saves
Acid Splash [⭑] /A/P/ - it is a good cantrip against stuff that has a specific vulnerability to acid, but low range makes it quite weak on open terrains unless you do Reach metamagic. On a critical, you get decent persistent damage, but the damage itself will not be multiplied so it is still underwhelming. It is a ranged attack, so all the modifiers and penalties for cover apply here. Splash is ok and can trigger weaknesses. The heightening is bad though and overall it's the least damaging cantrip out there.
Chill Touch [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - this one is tricky. It is not a ranged attack, it requires saves vs undead (two saves, to be precise), it does no damage to undead and against living it has a chance to apply enfeebled 1 on a crit fail. So it has some feasibility as a “GET AWAY FROM ME!” card against the undead, but you have to cast it and suffer a potential AoO and then the enemy has to fail TWO saves to run. Meh.
Dancing Lights [⭑⭑] /A/O/P/ - good for long-range exploration, but requires sustain, which is not good. Light is more reliable.
Daze [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - it has a 60 ft range, it does not require an attack, but scales badly, compared to other cantrips. It can be used to knock enemies out because it is Nonlethal and targets Will, so animals won't like it one bit. Overall it is okay, thanks to d6 die.
Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - in 1E it was purple. Now it is a good spell, but until level 4 it gives vague results. Still a must for at least someone in the group. You can also do triangulations with several party members staying up to 60 ft away to pinpoint the specific location of magic even at level 1. Just don't piss off your GM with your shenanigans too much.
Disrupt Undead [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] /D/P/ - it is very nice in an undead-heavy campaign, but so-so otherwise. Good choice for adapted cantrip (due to the fact that it uses main class tradition) for Arcane and Occult casters. Damage dice are awesome and the possibility for enfeeblement is okay.
Divine Lance [⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - this one is tricky. You have to have a deity to use it and preferably one with two non-neutral components. Assuming most of the enemies are evil or neutral and they are quite evenly split over the Lawful-Chaotic spectrum any Good deity will be a nice pick. Damage is ok at best, but not many creatures have resistance to alignment damage, which makes it rather consistent. If you can hit.
Electric Arc [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - this is positively awesome. Reflex save is quite often not the best save enemies have and it has double the damage potential of other cantrips. Also with Reach metamagic, it becomes the most reliable way to inflict maximum damage. Every offensive caster worth his salt should pick it up via adapted cantrip because it's awesome.
Forbidding Ward [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - this one looks good on paper and even better if you can position your frontline party member in a narrow corridor and clock a single strong enemy. It gives bonuses to both AC and saves, which is nice against monsters with poison or disease on hit. +1 at level 1 is not much, but +2 at 6th will make your champion friend an impenetrable bulwark. Just remember - you are not considered your own ally, so you cannot cast it on yourself. Also, it's only one enemy, who may choose another target and you effectively wasted two actions just now.
Ghost Sound [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - okay, this one’s usefulness increases with level and is limited only by your imagination. Add Silent metamagic on top of it and you become the master of misdirection.
Guidance [⭑⭑] /D/O/P/ - it is one verbal action - best you can get. It’s just one roll though and only once an hour. It can be useful to not fail checks miserably (I’m looking at you, Treat Wounds). Otherwise not the best pick.
Join PastsAoA3 [⭑⭑⭑] (U) (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 5th+ [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /O/ - this cantrip is insanely good, especially when you reach levels, where you can connect the whole party. Ability to use any Lore skill on Recall Knowledge means that you can cast it, Recall Knowledge twice and receive pretty huge buffs to your checks, especially at higher levels, where the ability to exploit weaknesses of opponents rules supreme.
Know Direction [⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/P/ - let’s do with a cantrip that any decent survivalist can do. Not that useful until level 7, where you can (assuming you traveled a lot) triangulate your position with relative ease. A nice spell to have then if you are in a campaign with lots of uncharted territory and you lack a party member with good survival skills.
Light [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - well, if you can't see in the dark - you need it. If you can - you don't, unless some of your party members require light. It even scales with levels now - awesome. You can't get 60 ft light with a torch.
Mage Hand [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] /A/O/ - it all depends on what you can call an “unattended object”. If your GM allows you to pull that lever on the wall with it - it's awesome. If not - not so much. Blue to orange - depends on interpretation.
Message [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - a decent spell for RP and general social things. Good to have, but probably not worth a slot.
Prestidigitation [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - it's all about creativity. If you know your way around social stuff and your GM cares, if your clothes are dirty or not - it's good. Otherwise - not so much. Still a solid green.
Produce Flame [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - as Acid Splash, but with fire and without splash and with more damage and can crit. A good thing when you need sweet sweet fire damage. It's better for Goblins with Burn It!
Ray of Frost [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - this baby is awesome on open plains thanks to 120 ft range. Pairs nicely with Electric Arc. Nice crit success effect is just a bonus when you need to kite a bit.
Read Aura [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - well, this one is tricky. 1 min cast time, one object at level 1. It seems that it's much more useful for quick downtime identification until it scales to level 3. Then it's worth preparing during crawls itself.
Shield [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - this one is a strange one. If you go with any metamagic on a regular basis - you don't have the spare action for it. At the same time, it effectively gives you a pool of temporary hit points that are replenished every 10 minutes. It can be of better use for gishes and classes that don't care about cantrip being of their tradition (like clerics) because you don't care about spell attack roll and DC’s and it allows you to free a hand.
Sigil [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑], 7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - Purely out of combat cantrip this one is rather useless. You may find some RP use for it: to prove something is yours or mark the culprit or something, but the fact that you can identify it and scrub it off makes it less useful. Duration is also horrible until level 5. Having it memorized is not worth it almost always.
Stabilize [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - party saver and can be taken via any means because it is not an offensive cantrip.
Summon Instrument [⭑⭑⭑] (5th [⭑]) /D/O/ - nice to have as a bard or a follower of the arts deity maybe. Heightening is good but not really. Probably cheaper to just buy a good lute.
Tanglefoot [⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - okay, you say I need to waste two actions to MAYBE make the target slower and almost always fail to immobilize it and the duration is one round? I’ll pass. Maybe somewhat useful if you need to catch someone, but against approaching enemies it's a joke. But at level 4 it lasts for one minute, which offers some nice tactical options.
Telekinetic Projectile [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - okay, this one is a bit tricky. First of all, you need unattended objects: carry them with you at all times. Copper coins, needles, and pebbles will do. You don't want to hear that: “You see no appropriate objects in this neatly cleaned room”. With that being said this cantrip is rather awesome - you get three damage types without the need to switch weapons. Versatility! D6 die is just an icing on a cake. You can also bring along adamantium arrowheads/sling bullets/coins or items of any other special material and sling them at the enemies. It all depends on a GM ruling, though. If he says “no” - it becomes blue.
Acidic Burst [⭑] /A/P/ - let's take Burning Hands [⭑⭑⭑], turn fire into acid and make it extremely hard to use. A spell with a somatic component that hits adjacent targets… yeah, right. Crap.
Admonishing RayAoE2 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/ - nice range, good damage and nonlethal trait make this spell good. What makes it awesome is the ability to bitchslap people at 60 ft. This one will compete for a slot with Magic Missile [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]. I mean you don't even have to heighten it - it will be more humiliating. Almost purple.
Agitate [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - it's a nice spell if you have several melee guys with Attacks of Opportunity, that can exploit it. It works even on a successful save and it's good. The problem is, that you have to heighten it for it to become relevant (or target can just soak the damage - AoO’s can be much much nastier later on). The damage potential is still good but Mental and Nonlethal traits limit applications of this spell. If the target is not threatened one stride will probably change nothing due to the fact that the first two attacks are usually the deadliest. Still, having one on a scroll is not the worst idea.
Air Bubble [⭑⭑] /A/D/P/ - if you are in a maritime campaign - it's probably worth it. At least less athletic party members won't drown immediately. Also can help against effects like Stinking Cloud, if your GM allows it, which makes it so much better. All in all - situational.
Alarm [⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - okay, let’s waste a slot on a spell that will be triggered by anything small and bigger, can be ignored with successful stealth check and has a stupidly small radius. Unless you are locking a corridor or something it is not very useful. Good to have when you have free low-level slots, but that's it. Put some party members to guard duty, for heaven's sake. The heightened version is slightly better due to the specific criteria you can set.
Animate Dead /A/D/O/ - another way of summoning stuff. Boring. Slows down combat unless tokens and stat blocks are prepared beforehand. Maybe some of the creatures have nice abilities but I can't be arsed to look at them all. At least it does not have an Evil trait.
Animate Rope [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - the arcane spell list just keeps giving. This spell is positively awesome and makes climbing mountains so much easier. You can sustain it multiple times per round and your companions will love you for it. Heightenings make it more suitable for higher mountains but the basic functionality is there from the beginning. It's a swiss army knife and deserves a purple rating. I think you can even tie yourself to the rope and make it crawl up, provided you can command a sufficient length of it (up to GM), effectively giving you climb speed.
Ant Haul [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - this spell is pure gold: lasts 8 hours, gives you +3 Strength Modifier worth of Bulk. At higher levels, that's what you use your level 1 spell slots on. With recent changes on how stored/stowed items work, low Strength races or those who picked voluntary flaws may find themselves starved for bulk again. Get a wand of it and cast it every day. Problem solved.
Errata made it slightly less useful. Errata 2 made it slightly more useful.
Anticipate Peril [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - there are not many ways to get status bonus to initiative and combats are lost or won due to high or low initiative. I would say it's a good spell to have even unheightened. Duration is painfully low though.
Bane [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - moderately useful for melee characters, but rather useless overall. Still better than Bless [⭑], because you don’t have a composition cantrip that is much better and does not expend resources.
Befuddle [⭑] /A/ - duration of one round kinda kills this spell. It is probably more beneficial to just nuke the enemy than to try to slightly lower its rolls for one round. Its borderline shit color.
Bless [⭑] /D/O/ - our favorite 1st level spell from 1e just became almost utter crap. Affects attack only, you need to waste actions to increase its size and it starts at 5 ft. Just get a bard. It is still better than nothing if you don't use a shield cantrip or Raise Shield action.
Burning Hands [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd+ [⭑]) /A/P/ - good low-level AoE, but requires you to be close to the enemies. Swarms don't like it though. At the 3rd level and up it is completely replaced by fireball, which does the same damage at a bigger range and on a larger area.
Charm [⭑] /A/O/P/ this one is tricky. If the target is lower level than you and you have a decent chance to crit - it's pretty good. Duration is ok from the get-go but gets better later on. Crit success on save will probably make the target hostile though. More or less useless in combat. Diplomacy works better to improve relations than this spell.
Chilling Spray [⭑] /A/P/ - let's make Burning Hands for ice wizards and give it a rather useless status effect and lower its damage. Sorry, it's crap.
Color Spray [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - just as 1e - this one is positively awesome. Only crit success will give the enemies complete immunity and failure and crit failure are a pain. Blinded for one minute without the ability to remove the condition is brutal. Incapacitation trait requires you to heighten it to a maximum level, which makes it less useful overall.
Command [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - it's not that good, because at most the target will lose two actions to, for example, drop the sword and pick it up later or run away and run back. Critical failure is rather unlikely. When you can target 10 creatures the chances to get a failure or crit failure skyrocket and the spell becomes much much better. If there are less than 10 targets it's rather useless.
Create Water [⭑⭑] /A/D/P/ - situational, but useful for survival games or games where you track supplies.
DéJà VU [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - strange spell from 1e make a comeback here. It has multiple tactical applications. For example if a wolf runs at you and you are on an edge of a cliff - you can make it run off a cliff. Will save makes the spell slightly less useful. You need creativity for this one to work properly.
Detect Alignment [⭑] (U) (2nd [⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - without the ability to pinpoint location, it is a rather useless spell. Thankfully you start doing that at level 2, but to waste a spell slot on it is not something I would do.
Detect Poison [⭑⭑] (U) (2nd [⭑⭑⭑]) /D/P/ - a decent spell for high politics-ridden campaigns or to see if that snake is poisonous. It is still cheaper to just assume everything is poisoned and the world tries to kill you.
Disrupting Weapons [⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - not a bad spell with decent scaling and can affect several weapons at once. Nice to have at least one memorized for an undead-heavy campaign.
Endure [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - well, this spell is kinda interesting. It gives you temporary hit points for one round
And can, in theory, be used to mitigate damage that will certainly come, providing a buffer of sorts. At the same time False Life will probably do a better job overall, unless you need to soak a lot of damage at higher levels.
Exchange ImageAoA3 [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - can be useful during chases - just “find” a corpse and make it look like you. Or just target an unconscious commoner or something. So situational, but good to have on a scroll or smth.
Fear [⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - frightened 1 condition for one round on success and 2 on failure. Not that good. Crit failure effects are better (fleeing 1 and frightened 3) but those will be rare and many monsters are immune to Mental spells. At level 3 you can target 5 characters which makes it much more effective.
Feather Fall [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - a good spell to have just in case, just as Air Bubble. More useful when you start getting fly speeds or if you climb often.
Fleet Step [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - pretty decent if you need to catch up to someone. Duration is decent. Good to have at higher levels. Good for a scroll.
Floating Disk [⭑] /A/O/ - it is a way to move 5 bulk of stuff w/o much hassle, but it won't be on your person and has some limitations. Still an ok spell. The inability to transport downed allies makes it even more useless. Use Ant Haul [⭑⭑⭑⭑].
Goblin Pox [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - a touch spell. Sickened is a nasty condition, but the target has to fail quite many Fort saves to contract it properly. You can hope for a failure on a save and the fact that the disease progresses quickly makes it a viable choice.
Grease [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - oh, our favorite level 1 spell from 1e. First of all - you cannot target 2 bulk weapons with it now. Dropping items is crit failure only. Still, you can provide protection from grappling and make zones difficult terrain. Also, the “square only” limitation is gone. You can make it a line or anything else. Still a good one just because of its versatility.
Grim Tendrils [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd+ [⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - this one is interesting. Decent damage, with Widen it's a 40 ft line, which is okay, but unless you align them perfectly the damage is equal to electric arc against two enemies plus the bleed. It is a different save though. A decent damage spell and negative damage on top. At higher levels it is outshined by fireball. Useless against undead.
Gust of Wind [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - feasibility severely depends on the way it disperses mists and clouds, like Stinking Cloud. If it's just the line - it's decent. If it also disperses mists around the line - it's very good. Up to GM. Also, it affects all creatures in the line with a pretty bad condition - being prone.
Harm [⭑][⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - if you need to heal undead - it’s an ok spell. If you need to do damage to a large group of enemies it is an ok spell too, but the fact that it will damage your allies too severely limits its usability. Apart from that, there are much better uses for your spell slots.
Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - scales nicely, two-action version effectiveness is stellar and healing is always a nice thing to have. Still, save it for in-combat healing.
Hydraulic Push [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - ok, this one is tricky. Knockback is so-so and the damage is decent but requires spell attack roll and damage on success is equal to 3-action Magic Missile. So quite situational IMO, but can be nice in spell storing weapons.
Ill Omen [⭑⭑] /O/ - this one is interesting. Reverse True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] that enemy can save from. I would say that killing the enemy faster is a better option, unless you are trying to save one of your comrades from certain death.
Illusory Disguise [⭑⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - good during chases at first and gets more applications later one. +4 status bonus to Deception is huge. As soon as you can impersonate people it becomes insanely good. Impersonating the captain of the guard? Easy! For social campaigns, I would say it's a must.
Illusory Object [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - only your imagination sets limits here. 2nd level makes an image much more believable and the 5th makes it permanent. The amount of fun stuff you can do with that is amazing.
Imprint Message [⭑⭑] /O/ - APG version is exactly the same adn Age of Ashes version but without the Uncommon trait.
Imprint MessageAoA3 [⭑⭑] (U) /O/ - a spell, allowing you to counteract Object Reading [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (U). If you don’t want to allow that knife to witness against you in the murder case - it is your best bet. Your tampering will be visible to spellcasters of high enough level unless you cast it as a level 10 spell. Very niche.
Invisible Item [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - absolutely gorgeous. Against targets without See Invisible the possibilities are endless. Without heightening the duration is rather disappointing though.
Item Facade [⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - same as Illusory Object [⭑⭑]. Applications are slightly more limited, but if you want something NOT to be stolen from you - here’s the solution. Social applications, for the most part.
Jump [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - well, this one is tricky. When you need it - it's good. When you don't - it's completely useless. Good for a scroll. Also it's a Leap - so no need to stride first.
Liberating Command [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - single action “try to get out of jail” spell. You can also use it on yourself - it's verbal only. Awesome and scales with the party. I would say every occult caster should have one memorized or on a scroll.
Lock [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - a decent spell if you have a base of sorts and need to lock your possessions down. +4 status bonus to lock difficulty is huge. Apart from that - not that useful. Also 2nd level makes duration unlimited, which is when it becomes useful.
Longstrider [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - one hour is good. 8 hours is awesome. 10 ft bonus is nothing to sneeze at, especially if you have a base speed of 20 ft.
Mage Armor [⭑] (1st [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - ok, this one is so bad after level 4 it is not even funny. Overall it's only good for the first few levels because there are basically no runes available until level 4 and after level 11 you get runes at the same levels as next heightening. After that runes will be aplenty. At the same time, you probably should not be in melee so it will not matter much. Even at level 19 with the 10th level heightening, you will probably have enough money to get a full +3 rune even if you don't really need it.
Magic Aura [⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - want to hide magic items from prying eyes? Here’s your spell. Level 3 version can hide all items on one character. Duration is decent too.
Magic Fang [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /P/ - Magic Weapon [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] for unarmed attacks with all its pros and cons.
Magic Missile [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - this staple spell became more useful in 2E. First of all - no rolls. So it doesn’t care if the target is ten levels above you - it will hit and it will deal damage. It is reliable, it scales well, it does full damage to incorporeal creatures. I would say keep at least one memorized at each level where it scales. A must, always.
Magic Stone [⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /D/P/ - a Magic Weapon [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] substitute for primal casters. Divine caster are better off just using Magic Weapon [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑]. Becomes useless quite soon. Still nice in the early game when you hunt undead.
Magic Weapon [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /A/D/O/ - this one is pure gold until you get basic runes sorted out. Then it's useless unless you need to quickly buff a secondary weapon which has appropriate damage type. But until character level 4 or 5 - it's what you should fill ALL your 1st level slots with. Your mileage may vary depending on the availability of runes and money in your campaign.
Mending [⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑], 3rd [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - works on non-magical items only until level 3. Can't fix shields unless heightened to level 2 and two-handed weapons and heavy armor heightened to level 3. So not very useful, maybe on a scroll and only in specific situations. Not sure if it is worth the slot.
Message Rune [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - good for conveying messages to other people and making sure only relevant people will receive it. Too bad there are no heightenings - the duration is so-so at best.
Mindlink [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /O/ - well this one is tricky. It allows you to instantly do 10 minutes of explanations, but the need to do such things is rare and most useful in campaigns full of intrigue and social interactions. Overall it is either good or useless. Keep it on a scroll.
Negate Aroma [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - good vs blind creatures that hunt using only scent. Or during chases. At level 5 you can affect the whole party and pets, which is much better.
Noxious Vapors [⭑] /A/P/ - obscuring mist with smaller area of effect and poison damage. Good escape option but removal of universal attacks of opportunity made it less useful. Also if you need to resort to concealing yourself (and fucking up your own ability to attack anything inside the cloud) it means you screwed up royally somewhere and its time to run. Duration of 1 round almost qualifies it for “shit” rating.
Object Reading [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (U) /O/ - this spell is the detective’s best friend. You can solve cases using it alone. It is up to the GM to determine if an object was “involved” in an event, but apart from that, you get to know stuff about things in situations with no live witnesses. Heightening allows you to solve older cases, but that’s it.
Pass Without Trace [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /P/ - awesome during chases and +4 to DC is a lot. Heightening allows you to hide the whole group, which is nice and actually makes this spell good unless you are trying to hide from enemies solo.
Penumbral Shroud [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - give your sensitive friends the ability to endure bright light. Low duration and lack of heightenings kill the spell though.
Personal Rain CloudEC1 [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (U) (2nd+ [⭑]) /A/P/ - this spell is either pure theatrical nonsense or an extremely nasty way to kill enemies if they have weakness to water. Fire resistance is meh.
Pest Form [⭑] /A/P/ - everything is nice here, except for the duration. Not enough for any serious scouting. And no darkvision limits its usability even further.
Pet Cache [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - hello, old friend, i’ve been waiting. Awesome for anyone with a large animal companion or when in need to traverse difficult terrain. Why the duration is not 24 hours is beyond me. For 24 hours you need to memorize three of those, which is not good.
Phantom Pain [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - nice damage, nice persistent damage, some damage even on save, sickened condition as a bonus. Heightening is nice. The only problem is the fact that it is not a cantrip and it has a Mental trait. But it is a nice way to inflict some pain on living creatures.
Protection [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/O/ - this one is pretty good. No scaling, but for a 1st level, it is solid. Different forms of mind control are nasty and the ability to repel them is golden, especially with a +3 bonus, which is huge.
Pummeling Rubble [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - umm. Let's make another cone spell with reduced damage and ability to move targets a wee little bit from you. Why would anyone need something like that is beyond me. Heightenings are shite and don't increase the pushback range at all. Crap, unless you are in dire need of bludgeoning damage against targets with low Reflex save.
Purify Food and Drink [⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - why detect poison if you can just remove it and be done with it? Nice to have on a wand.
Putrefy Food and DrinkAoE2 [-] /D/P/ - is this spell for real? Unless you for some reason can't open the bottle you can just pee into the potion or pour it out. Wasting something is hardly a complicated task. Pure garbage.
Ray of Enfeeblement [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - pretty decent against Strength-based melee monsters. Duration is ok too. Even success does at least something. You still need to hit with it, which makes it a much less viable option.
Sanctuary [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - just put this one on your healer/buffer (it will probably be you) and keep any high-level foes away from them. At least enemies will waste some actions trying to attack them, but they still can move away after they failed their first attack.
Scouring SandEC1[-] (3rd+ [⭑]) (U) /A/P/ - so niche it's not even funny. Unless you are in a jungle and everything is difficult terrain it's completely useless. All the effects are counteracted by a single action, to counter magical effects you need to pass a counteract check - so you need to heighten. 10 ft burst is too small to be useful and if you use it to get through jungle you will have to deal with the sand itself and pass the saves. I don't know who invented it, but it’s “shit” level worthless.
Share Lore [⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - this spell does not look like much at first, but when heightened it can provide your group with ability to, for example, look through the library as good as someone with appropriate Lore. 8 hours durations makes it quite a potent tool. The problem is that you need to have appropriate Lores and for that you need to either have high Intellect or waste some of your skill training on the
Shattering Gem [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - well, let's make enemies think twice before hitting us, right? Wrong. 50% chance to soak damage, mediocre heightening damage, range of 10 ft - all that make this spell crap.
Shillelagh [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] /P/ - this one is so insanely powerful in the right situations, it's not even funny. You get 3(three) damage dice against selected enemy types and all the benefits of Magic Weapon [⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] on top of it. Very nice until you get better runes.
and even then it is mighty useful when in need to strike some undead. Limited to weapons you hold. Limited to clubs or staves so you dice will not be stellar.
Shocking Grasp [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - well, this one is, again, tricky. Very nice damage, but the range is touch. You get a bonus if the target wears metal armor and they take persistent dmg. Reach metamagic will be very nice here. And still, it will be worse than fireball at later levels unless you target enemies in metal armor.
Shockwave [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - ability to make multiple creatures flat-footed or prone sounds nice, but you have to avoid your companions and have ways to exploit such benefits. So it can be a nice addition to certain parties, but overall it's not that good.
Sleep [⭑] (4th [⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - well, this one sucks, unless it is level 4 one that makes enemies drop stuff and become prone. Otherwise, they can be awoken with an Interact action. Also, it's just a 5 ft burst. The debuff is nasty, though.
Snowball [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - damage is on par with Electric Arc used against two targets. Nothing interesting here. Speed penalty isn't that great, the range is just 30 ft.
Soothe [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - nice heal with an added bonus to saves vs Mental effects. Scales worse than Heal, but you are not a cleric, after all.
Spider Sting [⭑] /A/P/ - well duh. Damage sucks, poison is so-so at best. Avoid it.
Spirit Link [-] /D/O/ - I wonder, who invented this abomination of a spell? It disables natural regeneration, it lasts ten minutes, it transfers minuscule 2 hit points per spell level. Utter and complete crap, thus the color. If you can come up with an application for it - be my guest.
Summon Animal /A/P/ - check the part on summons.
Summon Construct /A/ - check the part on summons.
Summon Fey /O/ - - check the part on summons.
Summon Plant or Fungus /P/ - check the part on summons.
Temporary Tool [⭑⭑⭑] /A/ - this one is positively awesome.It won't save a party, but it can save the caster. Small bridge to cross that pit, grappling hook to climb that cliff. I’ll keep a scroll on my arcane casters at all times. The only reason it's not blue is that you can actually prepare and have all those tools on your character already. And the 1 minute time limit is a problem too.
Tether [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - duration is ok and range is ok, but the fact that if someone will push the target out of the 30 ft zone it will immediately end the spell kinda ruins it. Only nice as an anti-escape option on easy targets.
Thoughtful Gift [⭑⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - this. Is. AWESOME! I mean the spell itself is ok but abilities to exploit it are so numerous it's not even funny. With heightened version you can send someone with fire immunity into the enemy base, teleport a lockbox with multiple glyphs of warding filled with fireballs into his hands and KABOOM! You can come up with your own clever ways of exploiting it. Keep a scroll around.
True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - I would say that's what you use your level slots at top levels. When you need that Shocking Grasp to hit no matter what. Not to mention the fact you ignore concealment.
Unseen Servant [⭑] /A/O/ - good for something… I guess. You need to waste an action every round, which is not nice at all.
Ventriloquism [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - ok, this one is nice for performances of different types. At level 2 it lasts for a whole hour, so you can use it for sermons or other social interactions. You can also use it to hide your position and misdirect enemies to other locations (possibly traps).
Verdant SproutEC1 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /P/ - this is awesome and applications of this spell are limitless. Create barriers, drive people nuts, feed small armies and the rest is up to your imagination. The best thing is that the trees don't go anywhere after. Activist’s wet dream!
Acid Arrow [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - the range is good - 120 ft. Guaranteed persistent damage is also good and it scales well, but the basic damage dice is somewhat lacking and scales poorly. Overall a solid thing but requires a slot, unlike cantrips. Solid green.
Animal Form [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑]) /P/ - I already did form math earlier in this guide. This one is optimal when heightened to level 5.
Animated Assault [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - its a nice spell, but the area of effect is quite small and can't be moved. So unless enemies don't have anywhere to run (small room maybe and you block the exits) its a meh spell. Damage is okay-ish and the fact that you can be an ass to multiple people for 10 rounds using one spell slot is an added bonus. Too limited to be useful every day.
Animal Messenger [⭑⭑] /P/ - it is a rather nice spell to have on a wand - you probably won’t need it more often than once a day. Utility is limited by range a critter can traverse in 24 hours, so you better either pick a fast one or attract a bird.
Animus Mine [⭑] /O/ - only really useful if you know you are going up against an enemy you know has mind control abilities, and how many times will you know that ahead of time? Maybe scroll worthy?
Augury [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - it all depends on how you phrase your request and there is also a flat check and you may find yourself in a situation of even greater ambiguity than before. Still, it is an interesting spell and I think it may have its uses unless the GM is bad at foretelling the future. 30 minutes is not much though.
Barkskin [⭑] /P/ - oh, this one is a trap and a big one. You gain resistance to two damage types and weakness to one, but there is a caveat. Weakness is 1.5 times bigger than resistance. Weakness is the most common damage type. You are never attacked by an attack which is bludgeoning and piercing at the same time, so only one resistance applies. Duration is also abysmal. A waste of a slot.
Blistering Invective [⭑] /O/ - looks good on paper but unless you know a lot of languages it becomes quite niche. Also persistent damage is hit or miss. At worst the target will only take damage from it once.
Blood Vendetta [⭑] /A/D/O/ - range is ok and effects can be quite devastating. Or can be absolutely useless because persistent damage is applied at the end of the round of the attacker and he may yet pass the save or just be dead at this point. Still it's a reaction spell, which is nice, I guess. Overall hardly useful.
Blur [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - 20% chance to miss you with weapons and spells is okay. Not that good, not that bad, just okay. Stays relevant across levels, unless enemies can locate you without using sight. But overall a decent spell to fill level 2 slots at higher levels. It can also be cast on your fellow frontliners and is much better if you are one and will be relevant up to higher levels unless enemies have precise senses not based on sight.
Breath of DraughtEC1 [⭑] (U) (4th [⭑⭑], 7th [⭑⭑⭑]) /P/ - looks nice if you target something made of moisture and rather useless otherwise. You need to end your turn inside it for it to work which limits its usefulness even more. The 4th level version alleviates this issue a bit.
Calm Emotions [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - this one is nasty and it allows you to potentially shut down groups of enemies. Incapacitation trait makes it slightly less useful, but still, this one is good if you need that minute of non-violence to save some lives.
Charitable Urge [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /A/D/O/ - really? Let's make a cumbersome spell with a boatload of rules and marginal usefulness. Don't get me wrong, it's funny, but there are a few things that make it useful and another few that make it useless. First of all it does not work on animals and creatures that don't have stuff. Then if the creature only has a weapon it loses one action and that's it. And you just wasted two of yours on that spell. Then in a situation where the target failed the save, has items and the nearest creature is quite far from it it may waste up to several rounds trying to give it the item. I mean reaching for a lone archer on a steep cliff - nice. You need Reach metamagic for that though. Overall quite niche but can be devastating. Keep a scroll around.
Comprehend Language [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - decent duration, high level of usefulness, heightenings don’t push the spell into high circles and are useful. Overall a nice choice for a scroll or a wand or even for memorization, if no one in the group knows the local language.
Continual Flame [⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - your downtime spell. It has its uses when you need to keep an area lit no matter what. Sufficiently heightened continual flame will shine through magical darkness. The price is rather steep though. Frankly speaking, it's quite a niche spell if heightened and eats money if not. At the same time, Everburning Torch is 7.5 GP and this spell is 6 GP, so you can cast it on a stick, sell for 7.5 GP and profit from it. No idea why you would waste your time on that though.
Create Food [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/P/ - depends on the type of game you are playing. Survival - yes, please. It will be awesome. Somewhere with readily available food - not so much. Heightening doesn’t change anything for a party so they are largely useless.
Darkness [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - if your foes don’t have darkvision/greater darkvision - they have just been had. If they do - it does more or less nothing. The heightened version does not affect greater darkvision and will affect the group 100% of the time. Not sure it's a good tradeoff. Situational.
Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - useful if you need to be sneaky and avoid being detected, but before level 5 duration is not that great, sadly. Also if one plans to make a sneaky character - he will pick a race with darkvision. There are items that grant darkvision, which makes it even worse choice overall.
Deafness [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - can be used to somewhat hinder enemy spellcasters or protect the group from auditory effects. SItuational, but can help in certain conditions.
Death Knell [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - First of all, it is not an evil spell - so go ahead and drain lives - no one cares, even gods. Second, it actually finishes off creatures and they are dead. You get an effect equal to False Life [⭑⭑⭑] and Bless [⭑] together for ten minutes, during which you can take part in a few more combats or show better results in the current one. Slightly more usable by melee characters, but ranged can have their go-to with Reach metamagic.
Note: at this point, the spells will not work on enemies RAW because they die instantly at 0 and you cannot target them. Also, you should use it in the beginning of the fight on one of the weaker enemies, because after you will probably use more than 10 minutes on Treat Wounds, etc and the duration will run out. At the moment, you can use it with spells that have a Nonlethal trait.
Dismantle [⭑] (4th [⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - spell for social stuff. Dismantle your custom arbalet and pretend those parts are just fashion bits. 1 minute is not enough obviously, but 6th level heightening makes it very good. Also only the caster can dismiss the spell. Still situational and as a caster you have all your weapons with you all the time.
Dispel Magic [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - a good one just because there are little to none other ways to dispel magical effects. Keep at least one memorized at all times. It also scales and does not require heightening to increase the counteract check but you will need to do it to counteract higher-level effects. On success you can counter effects up to 1 level higher, on crit success - 3 levels higher, on failure - one level lower. So unless you want to target only low-level stuff (which is perfectly fine too) you will have to heighten it.
Endure Elements [⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]) /A/D/P/ - a decent spell, if you really need one, but with a few caveats. First of all, you can’t heighten it to affect a whole group, which limits its usability severely. I doubt you will often find yourself in such conditions, but for your own safety, this one is good to have on a scroll or at least in the spellbook. Heighten to level 3 will protect from BOTH hot and cold, which will probably be rarely needed. 5th level will protect from more severe conditions, which may come in handy. The duration is perfect.
Enhance Victuals [⭑⭑] /D/P/ - you Purify Food and Drink [⭑⭑⭑] and then make it tastier. For one hour. I mean, come on, who eats for only one hour? If you have one hour for your food - you don’t care about the taste. It could be nice for social situations, but this limitation makes it rather useless.
Enlarge [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - okay, this one is, again, tricky. Second edition changed sizes and the way they affect things greatly, so Enlarge became slightly less useful. You get bonus to dmg and reach and penalty to Reflex saves and AC, which at low levels can be quite deadly. Bigger sizes keep the penalties but increase the bonuses, which makes them a better choice. Mass Enlarge is not something a group may need.
Entangle [⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - difficult terrain is good and so is potential speed penalty. It will not work in an area without plants, so try to avoid it in urban environments and caves and such.. A solid area control spell.
Expeditious Excavation [⭑] /A/P/ - lets make someone drop 5 ft. Or fall prone and not even drop 5 ft. Or completely ignore us on a save. I see only one decent application of this spell - heightened to level 3 you can quickly dig a grave. You need to heighten it to level 7 to actually make a Large creature roll for a save. Completely useless.
Faerie Fire [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/P/ - another spell from 1e. No save allowed, 5 minutes duration, decent area. Overall a nice pick in an already crowded spell level.
False Life [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd+ [⭑]) /A/O/ - your hit points aren't exactly stellar and this spell helps you to not die a horrible death, which is quite possible in Second Edition even at levels beyond the second. Heightening it doesn’t really give much and the spell scales poorly, but for a 2nd level spell, 10 temp hit points are quite a lot.
Feast of Ashes [⭑] /A/O/P/ - Seems more like a spell for a bad guy.
Final Sacrifice [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - while being ok at low levels this quickly falls behind a regular fireball. At level three though it's awesome due to high damage. Just use a low level flying summon and make them pay. Ability to do cold damage is an added bonus.
Flaming Sphere [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - this spell was ruined by the fact that on a save it does no damage at all. And you have to sustain it. It is effective against targets with abysmal reflex saves, namely oozes, but against creatures with decent saves it is relatively useless. It also has no additional effect and scaling is just okayish.
Fungal Hyphae [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑]) /P/ - this spell is as cool as they come. Low-level makes you a decent spotter if you are in darkness or have your vision impaired in some way and heightened one makes you a formidable force on the battlefield. I wish they added traits of those Strikes. 6th level heightening is not worth it unless you want to spring a trap or something.
Fungal Infestation [⭑] /P/ - poison damage is okay but persistent damage is quite unreliable. The weaknesses are ignorable.
Gentle Repose [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - when you absolutely have to keep someone from raising as undead or saving your body for later Raise Dead. Nice for RP, keep on a scroll, useless otherwise.
Ghoulish Cravings [⭑] /D/O/ - okay, this one is useful only to scare children. You can create a ghoul in 3-5 days. Noice! (not really). Maybe some social applications, but this one is definitely not for everyday memorization.
Glitterdust [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - range is okay, 10 ft burst is fine too. Does something useful even on a successful save. Dazzled on a failed save is not a nice condition to have too, which makes this spell a nice addition to any repertoire.
Heat Metal [⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /A/P/ - good against anyone in metal armor and useful if you want an enemy to drop their weapon. Persistent damage can be quite nasty. You can also start a fire with it.
Hideous Laughter [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - useless against mindless, but can save your group from those nasty AoO’s. Failure and crit failure incur pretty severe effects (slowed and prone). If you fight a lot of monsters with reactions it may come in handy.
Humanoid Form [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]) /A/O/P/ - if you are the master of deception - you don’t need this one. If you are not - it probably won’t help much. Duration isn’t impressive either. Large size can be used to trick some larger humanoids in some cases. Also, it can’t be used on others, which severely lowers its effectiveness.
Illusory Creature [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - well, this one is actually quite nice for RP purposes and general misdirection. It is quite frail though, so just keep it far enough from the enemy. Overall a good spell for creative players and the downside is bad damage scaling and the need to sustain. At the same time, nothing says that your illusionary dragon can't create illusionary fireballs that target multiple creatures.
Imp StingAoE4 [⭑⭑] (R) /D/O/ - conditions this poison inflicts are quite bad for anyone and it still does some damage regardless of the save. It's an Evil spell though which limits its usefulness.
Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - when you need to survive no matter what. Being trained in Stealth makes you much sneakier, so you better be. Heightening turns it into Greater Invisibility, which is nice. A good pick overall.
Iron Gut [⭑] /A/P/ - maybe useful for hiding something important or whatever. Very very situational.
Knock [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - if your thief needs that extra nudge. +4 is very good and you don’t have to be close. Very nice to have as a scroll or wand.
Magic Mouth [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - RP applications are limitless. Not something to have memorized though.
Mirror Image [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - a good protective spell, that eats critical hits and may save you from certain death. A low amount of images is quite distressing though.
Misdirection [⭑] /A/O/ - you need to be quite creative to find a practical application for this one. I can’t imagine a situation where I would waste time doing something like that.
Obscuring Mist [⭑] /A/P/ - was hit by a huge nerf stick. You only get concealment and everyone gets concealment against you, so it is rather impractical now. Maybe drop one behind while you run away from someone. Storm Born feat (available to Storm order druids) can make it slightly less useless.
Paranoia [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑]) /O/ - more useful in social situations for effective applications of divide and conquer tactics and hilariousness on crit failure. Just get that sweet Silent metamagic. Mental trait somewhat decreases the range of its applications.
Phantasmal Treasure [⭑] /A/O/ - Mental trait so useless against many creatures. Range is okayish at best. Can be disbelieved if touched. Rather useless unless you are extremely creative and there are better spells for creative people out there.
Phantom Steed [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑], 5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/P/ - when you need to get from A to B across seas, swamps, mountains and the like - this is your kind of spell. Just keep in mind that it is rather frail. Heighten according to obstacles you will encounter. It can also transport quite a bit of bulk. 5th and 6th level allow the steed to fly.
Quench [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - we had Breath of DraughtEC1 [⭑] for water creatures - now we have this for fire ones. Damage is nice and you can move the area of effect each round. Niche but good.
Reaper’s Lantern [-] /D/O/P/ - why would anyone use that? Apart from the fact that you need free ahds and you need to sustain - you hinder your allies more than you hinder your enemies. Shite.
Remove Fear [⭑] (6th [⭑⭑]) /D/O/P/ - being frightened is not a nice condition, but it will pass on its own. Most of the spells and effects with the Fear trait either do damage instantly or leave you frightened. Touch is another nail in the coffin of this spell.
Remove Paralysis [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/P/ - I don’t really know how common paralysis effects are, but it is much more useful than Remove Fear [⭑] because paralysis does not go away on its own. Nice to have on a scroll or on a wand. I’m not sure how often AOE paralyze will come up, so the heightened version is probably useful vs some enemies, but not mandatory for memorization, I believe.
As anonymous pointed out it will only dispel magical effects and it requires a check, so for all intents and purposes, it is a specialized Dispel Magic [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] which only differs if you heighten it to level 6. I think the errata is coming so I will leave the old text and rating intact for now, but just memorize Dispel Magic [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] for now.
Resist Energy [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑], 7th [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - this one is nice and useful, too bad the duration is so-so. Low-level version isn’t that good because you waste two actions on one creature, but starting from the 4th level it gets better.
Restoration [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/P/ - best friend of everyone and is now available for three traditions out of four. Praise the Sun! Heightened versions just make it more versatile and allow you to remove permanent Doomed condition
Restore Senses [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑]) /D/O/P/ - you may need it if you got permanently blinded or deafened, but the heightened version is rather useless due to the fact that there are no spells that can blind several people (save for Eclipse Burst [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]. Thanks, Anonymous).
Same as with Remove Paralysis [⭑⭑⭑] - for now just use Dispel Magic [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑].
Rime SlickEC1 [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - this is a rather interesting AoE with nice secondary effects. If fighting against multiple opponents at least some of them are bound to fail the save, especially at higher spell levels. If you can convince your GM that standard rules for ice are applied the spell becomes purple and will scale nicely even without heightenings. But beware - if used against the group it can become a real party-killer.
Sea SurgeEC1 [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - good area of effect, you can clean your deck with it and push enemies into the sea. Overall I quite like the spell and it has its uses. Slot? No. Scroll? Definitely.
See Invisibility [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - this one is pretty good when you need to not let that pesky wizard get away from you. Heightening will give you a full 8h duration, which makes it a must for daily preparation.
Shape Wood [⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - let’s make a 20 cubic ft of wood into a… rough shape. I wish you could heighten it to create gates or something, but you are limited to crates and doors. Still, a nice utility spell to have.
Shatter [⭑] /O/P/ - let’s waste a spell on something that a maul can achieve without using a spell slot. Ignoring the minuscule amount of objects' hardness does not help and the fact that an object has to be unattended destroys combat applications of this spell.
Shield Other [⭑] /D/ - this spell was completely ruined in Second Edition. First of all, it does not provide an Armor Class bonus anymore. Range is 30 ft - just as 2-action Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑], which makes it rather useless. 10-minute duration, automatic end if target moves more than 30 ft from you and lack of situations, where this can be useless, save for the need to provide hit points shield for someone makes it so useless it is not even funny.
Shrink [⭑] /A/P/ - when you really want to be sneaky and small. Duration is terrible though. One good thing you can do with it is put on a bunch of items, get into some building, remove them and make everyone wonder how the hell they got there.
Silence [⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - applications are the same, as before - slap it on your BSF and send him to ruin casters day (no save!). That’s when Silent metamagic becomes much more useful. I would slap it on a monk - this will surely ruin someone’s days somewhere. All of the above is applicable to a heightened version of course. Unheightened it is only useful to counter Noisy traits on armor or something during stealth missions, but duration is killing it.
Slough Skin [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - usefulness of the spell is extreme and does not go down with levels. Keep it on a scroll at all times. It can potentially save your life. Ease of tracking is of zero actual consequence in most situations.
Sound Burst [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - more or less decent AOE spell that does damage type most of the creatures don’t resist. Heightenings are okayish. Nothing to write home about though.
Speak with Animals [⭑⭑] /P/ - 10 minutes or intelligent conversation with a hedgehog. Don’t forget to invest in diplomacy or the bang for the spell slot will be less than impressive.
Spectral Hand [⭑][⭑⭑] /A/O/ - if it provokes attacks of opportunity - this spell is quite terrible. If it doesn’t - for some builds that focus on touching others, it can actually be a decent pick. Or just use ranged spells.
Spider Climb [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - when you need that climb speed. You rarely need more than a few minutes, and Slippers of Spider Climbing can be a better pick IMO.
Spirit Sense [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - this spell is awesome for its ability to detect haunts but the duration is so-so. Heightened version is a must have when you explore ruins and whatnot.
Spiritual Weapon [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - first of all - you have to be a believer. Then you use your spell attack roll which is good, do force damage, which is awesome and can do that for a full one minute.
Status [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/P/ - a nice spell that allows you to know where exactly and how badly hurt someone is. The heightened version allows you to target multiple creatures which will increase the number of possible applications. Overall a nice spell and the ways you can use it may vary from situation to situation. A scroll or wand would be nice to have.
Sudden Blight [⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - damage is ok at best but the save is fort, which is nice. Killing plants may allow you to make a potential ambush site useless. One can argue that Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑].would do a better job but this one is a 2nd level spell and turrets a different save. Overall it's ok.
Sudden BoltEC1 [⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - nice damage, single target, decent range. It’s nice and does approximately 30% more damage than Electric Arc but it's a 2nd level slot vs cantrip. Overall I think that using slots for single target damage is a waste, unless the target has extremely low Relex and high AC this spell does nothing that your fighter can't do better.
Summon Elemental /A/P/ - check the part on summons.
Telekinetic Maneuver [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - can be a decent spell to topple an enemy or do something equally nasty. The thing is that failure will mean a wasted spell slot. So maybe better just zap it and be done with it. Can be quite useful if precast in Spell Storing weapon - just use it when you crit and results can be quite devastating.
Touch of Idiocy [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - requires a failure to work, which severely limits its effectiveness, but the need to pass a flat check to cast is good. A touch spell with a decent duration.
Tree Shape [⭑⭑] /P/ - can be decent if you need to spy on someone in a forest. Right. Or if you need to get some rest in a forest risking only to be pissed on by some rabbit. Get a wand.
Undetectable Alignment [⭑] (U) /D/O/ - let’s see if enemies care about your alignment… nope, they don’t. It can be used to apply to a monastery or druid order or whatever else, but apart from that - hardly. Also, it will not protect you from spells that target alignment - it will just won’t allow enemies to detect yours.
Vomit Swarm [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/P/ - large area, sickened is a nasty condition and damage is quite decent. Also it looks disgusting, which can be awesome in some cases.
Water Breathing [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/P/ - when you need to dive there is no real choice here. Heighten it asap, it will become so much better when you won’t be pressed to move forward as fast as possible.
Water Walk [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/P/ - without heightening it has the potential to split groups, which leads to many deaths. While heightened it has decent duration, targets a whole group and is overall a nice pick.
Web [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - hardest nerf of second edition. Penalties aren’t that big, the web is easily destroyed. Overall it sucks now and is not worth it. There are better ways to create difficult terrain.
Worm’s Repast [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd+ [⭑⭑]) (R) /O/P/ - it is not an evil spell and you can eat the target from the inside out. Against corporeal undead it is extremely deadly due to increased persistent damage. Heightening it does not do much compared to initial damage.
Agonizing Despair [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - nice against low Will targets such as animals. Frightened conditions are nothing to sneeze at. Damage is ok at best. Not sure if it's worth it.
Animal Vision [⭑⭑] /P/ - ability to share sight is nice and it is even nicer for classes with familiars with flying speed. At the same time if a familiar has speech it is kind of redundant. You can’t communicate with the creature, just look through its eyes and listen with its ears. For a level 3 spells
Aqueous Orb [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - one of my favorite 1e spells makes a comeback. It’s something to make a chokepoint with, partially disable and debuff or even drown an enemy (highly unlikely though). Overall its very nice crowd control and the only thing that keeps it from being blue is low movement range on sustain and a trivial Athletics check to escape. You can sustain it several times per round.
Bind Undead [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - nice as a way to get a mule or a trap disarming dummy or just something that ooze can waste its actions on. Apart from that, it has close to none combat utility due to the fact that you can bind at most level 10 mindless undead. But I’ll mark it green just for the sheer amount of fun you can have with this one.
Blindness [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - deafness older and nastier brother. Regular failure is enough to switch off combatants for the full duration of the fight or forever. There is no better way to scare peasants. Incapacitation tag makes it useless against higher level enemies unless you heighten it.
Chilling Darkness [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] /D/ - long-range - check, decent damage - check, good heightened damage - check, bonus vs celestials makes this spell extremely good against them. If it's something else - just use Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]. Nice for evil campaigns or crusades against Heaven but apart from that it's just okayish due to the Evil trait, which is not something you want on a non-evil character. Using it against anyone dependent on light spells (if you aren't) is amazing. It likely auto extinguishes any everburning torches in the area and has a good chance of putting out most other magical light sources - even if the ray misses the target. Then they are blind until they get to recast a light spell, assuming they can. One to watch out for the BBEG having.
Circle of Protection [⭑⭑] (U) (4th [⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - if you know you will be fighting summoned creatures or there is a chance you will be mind-controlled or something. Very situational due to the fact that +1 is not that big of a change at this point and you also pick one alignment component (it will probably be Evil). Good to have on a scroll or a wand. The heightened version increases the duration and it makes the spell slightly more viable choice.
Clairaudience [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/- eavesdropping never gets old. Too bad you rarely have this nice spell memorized when you need it, so keep a scroll around. Guard shifts, political intrigue, gossip - will work for anything.
Cozy Cabin [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - i have one question here… why three cots? Why not four? Thanks for the chamber pot, by the way. They care for casters that can't leave the cabin obviously. A good place to rest or where you can set up an ambush maybe.
Crashing Wave [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - okay damage and decent one and ok heightening plus it removes non-magical fires. As average as they come. If you are a druid it can be more thematically appropriate than Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑].
Crisis of Faith [⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - on paper this spell looks good: nice damage, only critical success saves you from the effects completely, increased damage against divine spellcasters, a decent increase when heightened. At the same time, Divine spellcasters are either clerics or sorcerers at this point and clerics will probably have very good will saves due to high Wisdom. Against sorcerers, this spell can be devastating though. A decent pick for Divine spellcasters.
Cup of Dust [⭑] /A/O/P/ - Just as bad as feast of ashes, but it is a 3rd level spell instead of 2nd.
Curse of Lost Time [⭑⭑⭑] (4th+ [⭑]) /A/O/P/ - its a somewhat niche spell but if you know you will encounter constructs it may help greatly. Clumsy and Enfeebled are bad for almost everyone. Scroll, please. Heightening this one is completely pointless
Dream Message [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - both the base spell and the heightened version are nice and useful. Situational, but you prepare it or cast it from a scroll or just keep a wand around.
Earthbind [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - this spell is okay if you don’t have enough ranged DPS in the group. If you do it will be rather useless. Still can be useful if you fight fliers on a regular basis.
Enthrall [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - some out of combat utility but useless if the targeted creatures save. Still it's a 120 ft radius and no limit on targets. Many conditions break fascination though so it is quite unreliable.
Familiar Face [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - you can now make a perfect scout out of your familiar. Range is good and duration is unlimited. Give your familiar darkvision and flyer abilities and make it fly around your camp at night. Usefulness depends on the companion you have and its abilities.
Feet to Fins [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - good spell if you have some means to get constant flying or if you need to navigate this particular sunken cave. Again, the basic duration is limited and full-day one is nice mostly for aquatic campaigns.
Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - first decent AOE spell with insane radius, insane range, and very nice heightening scaling. A staple, but a good one. Several of those memorized for all your mook cleaning needs.
Ghostly Weapon [-] /A/O/ - get an equivalent of a 75 GP level 4 rune which can’t be applied to weapons that already have runes? I gave it a special “utter shit” color. Should be a level one spell.
Glyph of Warding [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - traps are awesome both in a dungeon to prevent the enemies from jumping on the sleeping party and as a castle defense or even to protect your backpack. You can cast it while doing downtime activities. Heighten it to use higher-level spells.
Gravity Well [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - gather them up before you blast them. Drown them some more if they are in the water. Pull them off a cliff. To be honest that's all I could come up with. Marginally useful.
Haste [⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/P/ - unless you can heighten it its crap. You sacrifice two actions to give someone one action, which, basically, means that you will even in two rounds. Situations, where you chase someone or something like that are when this spell actually becomes useful. The heightened version is pretty good overall and you give 6 actions per round and sacrifice two which is a nice trade and must be done every fight IMO.
Heroism [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 9th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - hello, old buddy. We meet again. This little scary monster will turn your martial friend into a machine of destruction, at the same time giving him or her the ability to notice stuff, evade negative effects and so on. The duration is terrible though, so this one should be saved for boss fights or situations, where you fight several fights in a row.
Hypercognition [⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - okay, this one is mighty fine - lots of Recall Knowledge checks and it takes only one action to cast. Against a diverse set of enemies, this is pure gold. You can repeatedly Recall Knowledge against a single enemy only until you fail, so it's much less useful against single targets or groups of enemies of the same type.
Hypnotic Pattern [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - fascinated is not the worst condition to have, unless you are a caster. This spell forces targets to make several saves, which is good, success negates completely, which is bad, and it's a 10 ft burst, which is also bad. Overall a meh spell.
Invisibility Sphere [⭑⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - sneak past guards, scout, ambush, limited to 12 people due to 10 ft emanation. So you can sneak past a small army.
Insect Form [⭑] /P/ - forms were discussed earlier. One of the better ones is the scorpion with its darkvision and tremorsense. Still not as useful as other forms.
Levitate [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - is quite good if you need to circumvent the need to make climb checks. Duration is ok and you can do creative stuff with it. Levitate a huge boulder above the entrance. Stop levitating it when needed - there is no limit on bulk or anything.
Lightning Bolt [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - unless your enemies are positioned in a straight line (which won’t happen often), have fire immunity or you just like to go full Zeus on everyone fireball is strictly better due to larger range, being less dependent on environment and lesser chance that your friends will prevent you from using it effectively. A decent spell, but no point in using it over Fireball.
Locate [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - don’t let anyone steal from you again and live. Extremely nice out of combat utility and that feeling, when you find those who stole your mother’s sword. Heightened allows you to find kidnapped people.
Mad Monkeys [⭑⭑] /P/ - comedy gold. Flagrant Burglary is probably the best course of action here. Too bad you can not move the area of effect.
Magical FettersAoE2 [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - Clumsy 3 on a failure with no chance to escape is very very nasty. Target should have limbs though and the spell has Incapacitation trait. If you need to restrain and subdue a target it's pure gold.
Meld Into Stone [⭑] /A/P/ - a good way to hide somewhere with stone walls. Still not for everyday memorization.
Mind Reading [⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - so, you want to apply for the school of interrogators? Nice spell you have here. “Surface thoughts” are subject to GM’s whims, so the spell can be quite unreliable.
Neutralize Poison [⭑⭑] /D/P/ - a good thing to do, when your friend is suffering from poison effects. Simple, effective. Keep it on a scroll or maybe even memorize it if you fight poisonous enemies on a regular basis. Still, it is probably better to just use Medicine, which is faster and uses just one action.
Nondetection [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/P/ - works against See Invisibility. Nuff said. Huge duration, nice effect, simple to use. What not to like here? Don’t go outside without one.
Paralyz
e [⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - again spell, which is pretty useless unheightened. Waste two actions to take one action from the enemy on success. 7th level one will try to strip 10 targets from actions and, possibly, paralyze them - now we are talking.
Pillar of WaterEC2 [-] (U) /A/P/ - if you can come up with uses for this spell - be my guest. For now it's a waste of a slot, unless you need to allow fish to move from one body of water to another.
PyrotechnicsEC2 [⭑] (U) /A/O/ - unless you want to cosplay Gandalf or scare the living shit out of people around a campfire - use this spell. As for me - i would rather add some fire on top with Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑].
Remove Disease [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - attempting to remove disease is nice, but what makes it much better than Medicine activity Treat Disease is the fact that it takes only 10 minutes to cast a spell. Keep it on a scroll.
Safe Passage [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/P/ - let your group pass through some hazardous area. After heightening it's entirely possible to walk on lava. Pretty nice.
Sanctified Ground [⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - ability to prepare an area for a final showdown with a specific creature type isn't bad at all. A large number of different bonuses, decent area of effect, and 24-hour duration make this one a very solid choice. Casting time prevents it from being used in combat though.
Sculpt Sound [⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - highly depends on your creativity as a player. Rules are a bit vague so discuss it with your GM. High rating mostly due to versatility.
Searing Light [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - undead are quite common and fiends are common too and they also tend to be big baddies quite often. Damage of this spell against them is insane and the heightening is also quite insane. The range is also solid and darkness being dispelled is just an added bonus. Though if you can actually see the creature to target it I guess there is no darkness there already.
Secret Page [⭑] /A/O/ - RP uses only. Highly situational.
Shifting Sand [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - controlling the battlefield is always nice and this spell is here for you. Too bad it's limited to earth or snd and it's just a 20 ft burst. Apart from that the effects are okayish.
Show the Way [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /D/P/ - this spell is absolutely awesome if you need to often travel through difficult terrain. Heightened version just improves it even more but adds nothing new.
Shrink Item [⭑⭑⭑] /A/ - if you need to steal something big - this is the spell for you. You can effectively make duration infinite if you put it in a small box. Situational but nice.
Slow [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/P/ - same as Haste - much better when heightened, but even at the 3rd level, it can severely hamper a creature.
Stinking Cloud [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - nice effects, nice range, nice area. What not to like here, except for the fact that it's easier to just kill everyone with a fireball. Maybe if you have a choke point you can use it to great success, but it requires specific conditions to be at its peak effectiveness. Unless you block the enemies from going straight through the cloud they will not trigger its effects, because they have to end their turn inside it for it to happen.
Threefold Aspect [⭑⭑⭑] /O/P/ - oh the tricks you can pull on people with this one. A bunch of “maidens” in something that looks like a brothel but is actually a lab full of grandmas. Too bad you can only cast it on yourself.
Unseasonable SquallEC1 [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - nice spell to block passage of medium and smaller creatures for a few seconds. I still think that making a wall is a better option. Prone condition is nice - at least enemies will have to use one of their actions to stand up.
Vampiric Touch [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - nice damage, nice heightenings, you get half as temporary, its negative damage. It is a touch spell and it incurs some limitations but gishes (Warpriests, Oracles of War even Rangers or anyone with the ability to do two Strikes with one action) will love those sweet sweet temporary hit points. Or just pair with Reach metamagic.
Wall of Thorns [⭑] /P/ - good for blocking lesser creatures that can’t do damage above hardness consistently. Not that useful and heightenings don’t increase hardness. Damage dealt is negligible at this point, so creatures can just rush through it.
Wall of Wind [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - block all range attacks with one spell. If you want to approach a regiment of archers - it’s your pick. Or just blast them with a fireball from 500 ft. You see the trend here, right? Still, this spell is nice and the wall is big enough.
Wanderer’s Guide [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - not worth memorizing, probably just keep on a scroll for when you get lost.
Whirling Scarves [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - Slightly better version of Blur, but not sure it is worth a 4th vs 2nd level spell.
Zone of Truth [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/O/ - interrogator's best friend, this spell will help you greatly when in need to get something out of someone. Just keep in mind that it affects everyone in a pretty large area, including party members. Still, it all depends on how good the one answering questions is at dodging them.
Aerial Form [⭑] (5th+ [⭑]) /A/P/ - get crap AC (approximately +2 to your regular one), less temporary hit points than False Life, more or less decent attack modifier and decent damage plus some abilities for a 4th level slot. Why not just use cantrips, I wonder? Heightenings scale badly and are even less useful. Avoid.
Air Walk [⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - unusual duration (5 minutes) and you are not flying so you don't have to use an action every round to keep yourself in the air. Overall pretty solid choice.
Anathematic Reprisal [⭑] /D/ - it is not shit color only because it is a reaction and can be used for RP purposes. Apart from that damage is OK at most, the range is crap and can’t be increased (no metamagic for reactions) and on top of that, a Will save? Heightening is also crap. Avoid it.
Aromatic Lure [⭑] (R) /A/O/ - apart from some “lure this creature to/from us” shenanigans a simple thrown pebble will probably achieve the same results for most of the creatures and it will not have any verbal components. Without Silent or Conceal metamagic this spell is completely useless and even with them the effects are barely noticeable.
Bestial Curse [⭑] /A/O/P/ - range - touch. Effects are noticeable but rather meh for a 4th level spell. Unless you use it for some RP stuff, like saying that someone is cursed or is a lycanthrope or something like that it's rather useless.
Blink [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - get almost irrelevant levels of damage resistance, and if you waste an action on sustain you get a chance to blink into enemies, hazards, and whatnot. Is only useful if you are going against a multitude of weak attacks, which probably will not hit you anyway.
Chroma Leach [⭑⭑] /O/ - if you need a gnome killed - you start with this spell. The effects are really bad and on a Critical Failure they are really catastrophic. Too bad targets that are most affected by being Enfeebled usually have high Fortitude save.
Clairvoyance [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - like clairaudience but for peeping toms. Use them together for full experience. Together with lip-reading, it can actually be quite good. Still, for a level 4 spell it's a rather bland experience.
Clownish CurseEC2 [⭑] (U) /A/O/ - is this for real? I mean debuffing someone and then getting a crit failure out of him is probably the only viable application of this spell because being crippled like that for life is rather annoying. Maybe as a curse for thieves or assassins who did something extremely stupid.
Confusion [⭑⭑⭑] (8th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - decent effects, decent duration, not quite reliable, but its confusion, after all. Heightening does increase the amount of targets to ten, but its level 8, which is quite high. At the same time, the sheer amount of lulz makes it worth it.
Countless Eyes [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/P/ - this is something you want to put into a Contingency [⭑⭑⭑⭑]. All the rogues will hate you. Or put it on your ranger or someone with decent perception and all the sneaky characters will hate them instead. Pretty good spell even for a frontliner tank who is being swarmed. Overall a nice thing which becomes even nicer with Reach metamagic.
Creation [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - your imagination is everything here. Object is not permanent, obviously conjured and generally useless. Heightening allows you to use it to hold portcullises or something. I think it's rather useless. Just buy a bag of holding and put 5 cubic feet of wood into it. The effect will be the same.
Detect Scrying [⭑⭑⭑] (U) (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - anti-peeping tom. You can make a room a safe space for negotiations with this one. Just heighten it to the max. Having a scroll around can be useful.
Dimension Door [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - now you can’t use it and nasty evil wizards, that don’t care about minions, still can. Much hate. Still, it is an awesome spell when you don’t remember if you switched off your iron.
Dimensional Anchor [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - anti-evil wizard spell of choice. Keep one memorized at all times and also keep a scroll around. There aren’t many things more annoying than letting an enemy just run away. Forget it, keep two memorized! You can forgo it if you battle animals or something like that.
Dinosaur Form [⭑] /P/ - these forms are bad - no special abilities and mediocre stats.
Discern Lies [⭑⭑] (U) /A/D/O/ - +4 bonus is good. Duration is shit though. Not nearly enough for an evening of politics, but can be enough for a brief and violent interrogation. Underwhelming, IMO.
Divine Wrath [⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - spells like this make good and evil deities so much better. Good damage, good heightened damage, nice effect in failed saves, does at least something to enemies of non-matching alignments. It still limits your choice of deity, which is not nice.
Dull Ambition [⭑] /A/D/O/ - yet another strange curse spell. I mean it's an initiative check and the target may still roll high twice. Only the fact that it’s permanent on critical failure redeems it and it's just plain bad and not utter shite.
Enervation [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - another old friend. The spell is quite awesome. It's a line, the creature takes damage even on a save and if you fail you get debuffed with a Drained condition. Nice. Only the fact that the creature can succeed a flat check and take almost no damage whatsoever keeps it from being purple.
Favorable ReviewEC2 /A/O/ - extremely limited in scope (no show - spell does not work). Heightened version is bad too. If you are high level enough to cast it - you can probably just intimidate people into saying good things about your show. Shite.
Fire Shield [⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /A/P/ - cold resistance is nice, but you have Resist Energy for that. Fire retaliation is good, but you should not get hit in melee unless you are a gish and this spell suddenly becomes so much better. Heavily depends on your playstyle.
Fly [⭑⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/P/ - Hello, old friend. Speed is so-so. Heightened its level 7 and lasts for one hour - which is okay. You will need this one, but overall flying is not mandatory but can help.
Forgotten Lines [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (R) (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 9th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - knowledge is power. Such vast knowledge is doubly so. I think this spell will rock in any campaign with exploration elements. Lore is cool and relevant lore is even cooler. The 6th level version is awesome for its level. 9th is a wee little bit too high for my taste.
Freedom of Movement [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/P/ - finally it is an arcane spell too. Duration okay, but you need to heighten it for it to work on all the effects, but against monsters and martial characters it's a savior.
Gaseous Form [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/P/ - A catchall “oh shi…” spell. You can: avoid grapples, get into hard to get into places and come back, fly to some degree. It does all of that worse than Fly [⭑⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Dimension Door [⭑⭑⭑⭑] or Freedom of Movement [⭑⭑⭑] but you can use one spell for everything. Blue for versatility. Pair with a Gust of Wind from someone else and be propelled into the air.
P.S: thanks for the feedback.
Ghostly Tragedy [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (U) /D/O/ - uh-oh. This spell puts some real pressure on the GM so it will probably be easier for him to say “nothing happened here” or “it was not in the recent past” than play it out. If he does play it out - it's cool and can help uncover secrets. If he does not - it's useless.
Glibness [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /O/ - nice spell to have in social situations and it ignores the need to have Deception training. Duration is not that good though so it is a situational spell - keep it on a scroll.
Globe of Invulnerability [⭑⭑] (U) /A/D/O/ - stationary 3rd level dispel. If you battle against a regiment of apprentice wizards - it will be mighty useful. If not - not so much.
Hallucinatory Terrain [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/P/ - roads across quicksand, glades instead of swamps - you name it. Applications are almost limitless and allow you to screw large groups of enemies in new and unexplored ways. Also, no saves.
Holy Cascade [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - Holy Hand Grenade - Second Edition. See an army of undead or fiends on a march? You know what to do. Good damage, insane 3d6 for every level of heightening, insane range, burst radius of a Fireball, what's not to love? The need to use a vial of holy water, but hey, do you know other ways to turn yourself into a grenadier? The coolness factor moves it to a purple rating.
Hydraulic Torrent [⭑⭑] /P/ - overall decent damage and ok increase per heighten, especially if you want to use bludgeoning damage. Not good for anything else.
Ice Storm /A/P/ - this spell would be good if it was not 3-action cast, 5-ft burst and no damage save for cold on the following rounds. Still it's ok if you want to exploit cold weakness.
Modify Memory [⭑⭑⭑] (U) (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /O/ - the possibilities are unlimited here - it all depends on your imagination. The heightened version allows you to treat victims of violence and remove traces of said violence from their memory. Nice!
Necrotic RadiationEC4 (U) /A/D/O/ [⭑⭑] - umm… Well… This one is strange indeed. Casting it on an attended object is obviously a trap. Its touch (and judging by the spell descriptions you can't use Reach metamagic because you need to actually touch the object or can you?) and even on a failed save duration is reduced dramatically. I would say that the best thing you can do with it is cast it on a small ball and shove it down someone’s throat. Their death will be quite spectacular.
Nightmare [⭑] /A/O/ - messing with imaginary people are we? I really see no point in this spell, unless you have some sinister caster that really likes to make others feel miserable. In short - great for the story or for occasional intrigue and not that good otherwise. A spell for a GM, not players.
Outcast’s Curse [⭑] /A/D/O/ - again, a spell that only enemies will use. Or, maybe, you can use it as part of some intrigue. Highly situational, but it depends on your imagination.
Phantasmal Killer [⭑] /A/O/ - damage is average at best, creatures that have poor Will save usually have good Fort and creatures with poor Fort have good Will save. The chance to get crit failure is nonexistent. Ignore it. Prepare another Fireball.
Private Sanctum [⭑] (U) /A/O/ - you set up a perfect one-way mirror that blocks all scrying. Good for private negotiations or building a doomsday device or something as sinister. Basically a BBEG’s best friend and good as a plot device. More or less useless for the party.
Read Omens [⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (U) /D/O/ - heavily depends on your GM’s ability to rhyme, create cryptic yet useful memos and his general desire to screw the party over and players’ ability to get something useful out of it. It can be a bag of laughs and can be a pain in the ass.
Rebounding Barrier [-] (R) /A/O/ - lets waste a level 4 slot on something a Shield [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] cantrip can do. Damage done to the attacker is negligible at this point. This hite is rare indeed.
Reflective Scales [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - this one looks OK but actually using it may be tricky. You need to prep it and when fighting with something that reliably does the type of damage you set for to accumulate charge. The problem is that if you are fighting a fire elemental - it will be immune to the explosion. You also need multiple sources of damage to accumulate maximum charge. All in all it's kinda ok but using it to its full potential requires a lot of planning. Resistance to poison is hard to come by.
Remove Curse [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - curses can heavily hinder you and there is no way to deal with them by using skills. A very nice spell to have as a scroll or a wand, but probably suboptimal for everyday memorization.
Resilient Sphere [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - The sphere can take quite a bit of punishment and is mostly useful for protecting yourself or other willing targets from harm. It is especially nice against multiple weak monsters due to decent hardness. Reflex save that can dramatically reduce it’s hit points makes it a poor choice if you need to trap enemies unless their Reflex save is poor.
Rope Trick [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - good old rope trick. Still awesome. If you can pull rope into the extradimensional space it is 100% purple. If not - not really, but still pretty good.
Seal Fate [-] /A/D/O/ - what is this? Weakness 2? Maximum of weakness 5 at spell level 10? Looks like a joke to me. The fact that it instantly kills only enemies of level 7 and below on getting to 0 hit points makes this spell qualify for “shite” rating immediately.
Shape Stone [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - shape 1000 cubic feet of stone. Build stuff, melt stuff, do whatever you want with stone. Pretty awesome and has many applications. For example, you can melt stone into a millstone around someone’s neck. Or create a base of operations inside the mountain. Or whatever you want. For example, the surface of a 10 ft radius hemisphere is 628.3 ft2. Making such a hemisphere with a thickness of 1.5 ft will consume 942 cubic ft of stone.
Solid Fog [⭑] /A/P/ - good old obscuring mist. It can be disabled by level 1 gust of wind. Sorry, useless.
Speak with Plants [⭑] /P/ - gather information from plants. As boring as it could be.
Spell Immunity [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - it tries to counteract, which means that there is a chance it will do exactly nothing against an effect. Still, 24h of protection from nasty things like domination, confusion, polymorph, etc is totally worth it. You can have multiple of those.
Spike Stones [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - this one i like. Difficult terrain is good but guaranteed damage is even better. It's simple and it's effective. Going from one side of the burst to the other will do quite a bit of damage. And the duration - oooh. Every castle owner should have a druid just for that spell alone.
Spiritual Anamnesis [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/O/ - this one is quite decent and allows you not only to hinder the enemy but also possibly get information out of it. Undead and all the usual suspects (“celestials, fiends, monitors, and many other extraplanar creatures”) are more susceptible to it and are unable to critically save, which makes it so much better and on a critical failure, they are hindered for one minute and lose three actions on top which mean that they skip a round.
Stoneskin [⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /A/P/ - okay. So for a 4th level slot, I get at most 100 temp hit points if I’ll be constantly bashed. The problem is that at level 7 mobs hit quite hard and you will die much earlier than you will run out of duration. It may have some merits for gishes or when applied to party members that get hit harder. Wand of Continuation is actually pretty awesome when used on this one, because it not only increases duration but, effectively, improves total damage that can be soaked by half. In short for fat frontliners - green, for casters - red.
Suggestion [⭑⭑⭑] (8th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - you have to be сasting spell within 30 ft of the target and on a regular success, it will think you were talking to them normally. Yeah, right. At least it does not say that their attitude goes down on crit success. It can be a good spell in a “those are not the droids you're looking for” when heightened. You can dissuade a whole group of bandits from attacking you. At the same time fireball can help here too. Overall not the worst spell, but has its limitations.
Swarming Wasp StingsAoE2 [⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - nice burst, Fortitude save and Clumsy makes it quite good against feeble targets and lowered AC is nice. If you have a lot of martials and don't like Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] - this one will suit you just nicely. The problem is that to take all the damage one needs to fail saves repeatedly. Which is highly unlikely.
Talking Corpse [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/O/ - the best witness is the victim’s corpse. This spell should be the reason for each assassin to cut off the tongue and break the windpipe of its victims thus preventing anyone from finding them. Overall it is nice to have on a scroll just in case.
Telepathy [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - wasting spell slot on silent speech can be beneficial in some out of combat situations, campaigns with a lot of intrigue and so on and so forth, but it will shine when in need to communicate with creatures you don’t share language with or to share images and vivid descriptions of places and items, which you can then Locate, for example. Duration isn’t that great though.
Vampiric Maiden [⭑] /A/D/O/ - damage of this one is exactly the same as of an unheightened Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] but it targets one creature, Immobilized (especially on a regular save failure) that can be removed with one interact is negligible and you can even stay inside it if you wish - it does not do any damage past the initial one. The amount of temporary HP you will get will be on the level of unheightened False Life [⭑⭑⭑].
Veil [⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - a nice spell when you need to boldly enter some warded space and need everyone to think you are someone else. Heightened versions will allow you to impersonate specific groups of individuals, which opens many more possibilities. For an RP campaign, this one is pure gold. At the same time, it may be better to just use several wands of heightened Illusory Disguise if your group isn’t big.
Vital Beacon [⭑⭑] /D/P/ - after careful consideration i must say that this spell is not good at all. It has one niche application - casting it before expected combat and using actions when needed to Interact so even if cleric goes down - others can still get heals. And that's it, basically. It heals an average of 64 hit points for four Interact actions. 2-action Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑] does an average of 50 hit points (but single target) and 3-action Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑] does 72 hit if four people are healed and it scales with the party. So, sadly, when you have access to Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - you don't need this spell 95% o the time.
Thanks for a meaningful discussion, guys. Much appreciated.
Wall of Fire [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - a good way to block corridors. Two parallel walls in the 10 ft corridor can block 60 ft of it effectively for one minute. Damage is okay at best. Overall there are better spells out there unless you have a literal horde coming at you plus it can benefit from Goblins Burn It! And can be placed on enemies.
Weapon Storm [⭑][⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - you have to be in melee or close to melee. You have to avoid attacks of opportunity. You have to either wait for enemies to fall in line for your cone or get surrounded. And then you can attack for crap damage because you are a wizard or a druid and you don’t use d12 weapons. Clerics which receive it via their deity which has a decent weapon (hello, Gorum) can actually make it work.
Abyssal Plague [⭑] /D/O/ - unrecoverable Drained condition is not that good, but treating diseases is not such a big problem either. At later stages, you have a penalty to your Fort saves, which does not help the recovery, but a Medicine check will completely negate it. Also, it is a touch spell and it has an evil descriptor. Ok for NPCs, but rather useless for PCs.
Acid Storm [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - good duration, nice damage, no sustain required, large area of effect - perfect to cover that room in acid and block the entrance. Boring but effective. Enemies inside the area will take the damage at least once.
Banishment [⭑⭑⭑] (9th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/P/ - a decent spell if you know you will battle outsiders or summoned creatures or whatever. At the same time, wasting a 5th level slot does not look like the best of ideas in my opinion. Heightening is the 9th level and allows you to target more creatures, which makes the spell so much better. Penalty to save is just an added bonus.
Black Tentacles [⭑] /A/O/ - ”hello, darkness, my old friend” ©. Range is good, the duration is good but additional ways of escaping means that the spell was heavily nerfed by both them and the new action economy. In one round you can attack the tentacle (12 hp is nothing at this level) and destroy it, run, attack again, which means it's no longer that potent as battlefield control. 25% to fail a spell when grabbed is not even close to pain it gave casters in the first edition. Damage is negligible at this level. Sad to see one of the nicest spells fade into oblivion. The area isn’t even difficult terrain. And it costs 3 actions.
Blister [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/P/ - this one has immense comedic value but not good otherwise, unless you target enemy spellcasters or someone with low Fortitude save. But just imagine growing a blister on some dame’s ass and the bursting acid out of it! All in all its just remote controlled acidic Burning Hands [⭑⭑⭑].
Blood FeastEC4 (U) /A/D/O/ - this one is so good as a source of temporary hit points it is not even funny. Just Reach metamagic it (if your GM allows it) and gain an average of 40 hit points on a hit and 80 on a crit. I suggest you True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] it. And the fact that it's not an Evil spell is just a bonus. Extremely good for gishes of all kinds.
Breath of Life [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - now we are talking. This spell was improved so much since 1e it is completely insane. First of all, it is a reaction now, second - it has a 60 ft range. Keep it memorized at all times. At least one, maybe two.
Chameleon Coat [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 8th [⭑⭑]) /P/ - the bonus is nice but it only applies to Hiding and not Sneaking. Heightened versions can cover up your mistakes but going for +4 is not worth it in my opinion.
Chromatic Wall [-] (7th [-]) /A/O/ - randomness - check. Useless effects - check. 3 action cast - check Can easily be countered - check. Pointless heightening - check. Cannot be cast on top of someone - check. Good only for NPC’s and for plot purposes - check. Shit rating - check.
Cloak of Colors [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - decent duration, can target allies, gives decent debuffs to attacking enemies without save and even better ones with one. Nice combat utility buff.
Cloudkill [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - decent damage and heightening is okay. Overall a good damaging spell that is a bit hard to control due to automatic movement. Also, it is easy to avoid, not difficult terrain and you will probably get nothing good out of it after the first round unless you will cast it on space with difficult terrain. Bad against enemies with good Fort save.
Cone of Cold [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (6th+ [⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - now we are talking. Large range and area of effect (becomes even better with Widen metamagic), insane damage. Heightenings are okay, but that’s about it. Overall one of the best damage spells that are pretty good even without heightenings.
Control Water [-] /A/P/ - lacks duration so it is unclear how it works.
Nik Gervae: The problems go so far beyond lack of duration: Can you lift a small amount of water off the ground or out of its container? Is the border of effect a vertical line or a slope? Can you slam somebody into a ceiling by raising the water they are in? If/when the effect does end (instantaneously?) does the water splash out, possibly pushing creatures? That this got through editorial is shocking. I normally put a [?] in spells you don't rate, but I've given this one a minus.
Crushing Despair [⭑⭑] (7th [⭑]) /A/O/ - can be devastating against regiments of enemies that have a lower level than you and bad will saves. Widen metamagic will make this one so much better. The heightened version is probably an overkill unless you plan to battle armies.
Death Ward [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/P/ - single target with okayish duration this spell is your best protection from all things undead and incorporeal. Or anything that tries to suck your life out of you or kill you instantly and whatnot. The biggest problem is the fact that it is hardly possible to give everyone in your group this protection and there are no heightenings to increase the duration or number of targets.
Dreaming Potential [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /O/ - double your retraining time, spend a day retraining and then a night retraining. It is positively awesome for prepared spellcasters, but having it in your repertoire every day is probably an overkill. Wand of this spell would be perfect for almost any party.
Drop Dead [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/ - hilarious, especially if heightened. Pretending to be the spirit of a slain creature and harass an enemy is an awesome chance for some nice RP. It also can save your party members from death. Sadly it is purely visual, so enemies that navigate by scent or other feelings won’t be affected.
Elemental Form [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - here we go again. Crappy stats, duration is suitable for combat only, not for out of combat activities. May help if you need to chase flyers or something. But it all changes at spell level 6, where we gain a huge armor boost that gives us an AC on par with the same level Champion that raised his shield.
False Vision [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - the best way to conceal things from third parties. Good thing is that even if others know there is something fishy - they still don’t know what exactly is going on. Using it against players is nice. For player characters - it's not that nice.
Flame Strike [⭑⭑] /D/ - a poor man’s Fireball. Damage is worse than Fireball, scaling is the same and you rarely have enemies positioned in a rather thin cylinder. Fire plummets down from above so it's always a standing cylinder. The ability to target creatures with resistance is ok, but the fact that immunities still make enemies less susceptible makes this spell much less useful as they have their save treated as one degree higher. But, as one anonymous user correctly stated, you can at least hurt them, which is good, but they will probably save, which will severely impact damage on top of resistance.
Grisly Growths [⭑⭑⭑] (6th+ [⭑]) /A/P/ - damage is ok and Sickened AOE is great but you can easily subject your comrades on the frontlines (who will rarely have stellar Will saves) to it too. Requires Reach metamagic for safe application. Overall it's fine but heightening it is useless.
Hallucination [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 8th[⭑⭑⭑⭑] ) /A/O/ - another spell to make fun of NPCs. Heightenings make it positively awesome, especially with unlimited durations. As with all illusions, applications are only limited by your imagination.
Illusory Scene [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑], 8th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - illusion again. And again - you can make it permanent, you can make it loop. You can make Harry Potter-like full-scale adverts on the streets of cities. Awesome. Imagination is the key!
Impaling Spike [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - cold itron is nice if you know you will fight something with a weakness to it otherwise damage is ok at best and unless the target critically fails the effects are ignorable. Good in situations when you need to stop someone from escaping.
Mariner’s Curse [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/P/ - a very nasty curse, especially in aquatic campaigns. The thing is that it is probably better and easier to just kill an enemy, but if you want to slow someone down when you are at sea, this spell is your best friend.
Mind Probe [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - this one is interesting. First of all, you need the target to fail the Will save. It is not a problem in the interrogation room environment, - you can always just cast again but can be an issue when on the go. Also, the target can deceive you or give no answers, provided their deception is high enough. It is decent, but definitely not omnipotent. Against targets not trained in Deception, it is pure truth serum.
Moon Frenzy [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑], 10th [⭑]) /P/ - well, let us morph a bit, shall we? Attack damage is nice, more so on heightening to the 6th level. The 9th level is just not worth it - silver weakness 20 makes you so vulnerable it is insane. I still do not understand why would anyone use it instead of just using weapons to inflict damage and Longstrider to increase speed? Money saved on runes is the only redeeming quality of this spell.
Passwall [⭑⭑] (U) (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/ - when you need to enter that castle without alerting anyone. At the same time, some tin foil will make it useless. Only the fact that this spell is uncommon, may prevent every castle in the world from having a paper-thin sheet of foil in its walls. Depth is so-so, 10 ft is not much for a wall. Heightened version is much better and even conceals the fact that there is a tunnel here.
Pillars of Sand [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - want to give yourself or someone else a vantage point, move allies to the top of the wall, move an enemy warrior away from the group or reach flying enemies? This is the spell for you. The problem is that it states that “You raise one or more pillars of solid sand from the earth.” which may mean that you can’t cast it when you are on a ship, for example. Still it offers a lot to a creative caster. Crumbling the pillar will probably do damage to an enemy taking the fall. Blue due to coolness factor.
Plant Form [⭑] /P/ - read about the forms at the beginning of the document. Duh...
Prying Eye [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - your ultimate spying spell, just don’t forget to slap Nondetection on it. The need to sustain it limits the duration to 10 minutes. Very good.
Ravening MawEC2 [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/O/P/ - Evil and Fun traits are often present together in spells. Target can do nothing but cannibalize the nearest dying or dead creature while you can shoot at it at your leisure. Is a wicked sort of crowd control and targeting will save is nice too. Should work perfectly on animals. Also if you block the buying creature the target will take mental damage. Not the easiest spell to use - but it has its perks.
Secret Chest [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - hiding stuff just became easier. A nice utility spell but the level is quite high.
Sending [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - ever wanted to tell that BBEG that you hate his guts? Well, here is your chance. It can be used for planetary-scale gaslighting. You can also communicate with your captured friends because nothing will stop it from working, save for the Prismatic Sphere, which will block mental effects and maybe some other spells.
Shadow Blast [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - an interesting spell with a ton of versatility. You trade damage for the ability to pick the damage type you want and exploit the weaknesses of your enemies. You can also shape the spell in different ways, which is also nice. Heightenings are ok, but, as I said, damage is mediocre at best. Keep on a scroll as a “do any damage type I want when needed” spell.
Shadow Siphon [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - let’s make one spell or magical effect less damaging. Until proven otherwise I will assume you can react after everyone rolled their saves and then decide if you want to use it or not. Which makes it awesome and you should keep one around so Cone of Cold from some nasty evil spellcaster won’t kill your party outright.
Shadow Walk [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - so, you wanted to travel faster and are ready to get killed by shadow beasts? We have a nice spell for you. Another thing is that it will allow you to pass borders, walls, etc and you move 20 times faster. Positively awesome.
Spiritual Guardian [⭑⭑] /D/ - you sustain your spell to deal 2d8 to 4d8 damage to any creature in 120 ft radius once per turn and you still have two actions this round. It sounds nice, but in reality, if you use a bow, for example, and are an expert in it and have +3 potency rune - your spell attack will not be that much higher than your ranged attack (maybe by one or two points) and you will not have to use spell slots. Overall I think it's a rather useless spell. The ability to protect allies is okay, but hitpoints of the guardian are abysmal.
Strange Geometry [⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - lets fuck up the battlefield completely! For no reason at all! The thing is that you can position one cube at the base of the wall and three at the top and you can easily get your soldiers up there. Usefulness is limited only by your imagination (and random rolls by the GM).
Subconscious Suggestion [⭑⭑⭑] (9th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - same as suggestion, but without speech. Using it on groups of enemies vastly improves effectiveness.
Summon Celestial /D/ - check the part on summons.
Summon Dragon /A/ - check the part on summons.
Summon Entity /O/ - check the part on summons.
Summon Fiend /D/ - check the part on summons.
Summon Giant /P/ - check the part on summons.
Synaptic Pulse [⭑] /O/ - usefulness scales with the number of creatures in the emanation radius. As a single-target spell, it is uninspiring at best. Mental trait limits usability even more and unless you trade your actions and a slot for at least 7-8 actions of actors around - it is not worth it.
Synesthesia [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /O/ - okay, this one is quite interesting. It can disable with equal effectiveness both casters and martials, failed save will make it last for an entire duration of combat and heightened version allows you to disable a whole squad. Looks decent.
Telekinetic Haul [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - moving boulders, blocking portcullises, assisting in construction - you can do it all. A decent spell which will require some planning if you want to use it in a combat environment. You can sustain it multiple times per round. Errata will hit it soon probably but as of today you can target attended objects with it. I will not change the rating because sane GMs will probably block that move.
Telepathic Bond [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - now we are talking. Exchange info at the speed of thought. Be the most silent and creepy band of adventurers there is. Don’t let anyone listen to your plans. Too bad it is up to five ppl only.
Tongues [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/D/O/ - useful during exploration and when in need to communicate with unknown races. Forget about guessing languages - you know them all now. The heightened version makes it a no-brainer.
Transmute Rock and Mud [⭑] /A/P/ - limitations on types of rock you can transmute (non-magical, unworked and unattended) and the fact that it is easy to escape from the effects makes this spell rather useless. Shape Stone [⭑⭑⭑⭑] is better and of lower level. And there are easier ways to create difficult terrain.
Tree Stride [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (U) (9th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /P/ - this sounds nice and even nicer when heightened but you have to consider some limitations. There should be trees in the place where you try to teleport and it should be of the same species. So you are roughly limited to the same climate zone and deserts or permafrost territories won't be accessible. Overall it greatly depends on the world you find yourself and it can range from awesome to mediocre spell.
Wall of Flesh [⭑⭑] /D/O/P/ - Mouths and Arms - “ends its turn within 5 feet” ruins it completely. Stride, Strike, Stride back. A minor issue and with an AC of 10 and lack of immunity to crits the wall will crumble in no time. Eyes are nice if you want to have a lookout in the area. Overall just another more or less useless wall spell.
Wall of Ice [⭑⭑] (7th+ [⭑]) /A/P/ - the damage it does is negligible, ac is nonexistent, hardness is decent and hit points are not entirely disappointing. It can be used to slow down foes with relative success. Heightened versions are not worth it in my opinion.
Wall of Stone [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - finally a wall spell that is useful. There are a multitude of applications for a quickly erected stone wall. Protect your camp. Make a ledge you can rest on a mountain surface, you name it. Heightening is useless - hit points give no additional utility. Keep at least one scroll around at all times.
Wyvern StingAoE4 [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - the poison is nasty, the target cant avoid piercing damage. Good for killing low-Fortitude targets. At the same time it's just single-target damage and your friendly barbarian is probably better at it than you.
Baleful Polymorph [⭑] /A/P/ - it was nerfed badly and you get to permanently transform the target only on a crit fail. Ability to use a full round to roll another Will save will eventually allow you to revert back and even if you ignore this opportunity it's still only one minute. The only real application I see here is to convert someone to sneak them past guards or something.
Blade Barrier [⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - it is a wall but it is not. First of all, you can put it on top of enemies. Second - it does force damage. Heightening is not that good, but passable. Overall better than most walls, but still has limited usability.
Blanket of Stars [⭑⭑⭑] /O/P/ - Will save is nice. Stealth bonus is nice. Duration is okayish. Overall a nice spell if you are into sneaking and is even useful in combat.
Blinding Fury [⭑⭑] /D/O/P/ - is this for real? At level 6? Anything above Critical Failure and the first (read “deadliest”) attack goes through unhindered. If there are several targets around it the creature can just choose to target someone else. Being a reaction and the Will save are the only redeeming qualities of this spell.
Chain Lightning [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - this is a real mass murderer here. Unlimited amount of targets, damage is not reduced. Just find a large group of enemies and see them die unless someone rolls a crit success. Heightening is pretty good too and it scales nicely. Whole armies can be decimated by it. Awesome.
Collective Transposition [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - let’s see. You have a chance to move the target to the position of your choosing with 30 feet, there is a chance the target will actually be able to choose where it will teleport. Not nice. Also, 30 ft means that the target is close enough to you to stride and kick your ass. Heightenings don’t help much. The only real application I can see is when you need to get friendly targets out of a prison cell or something.
Disintegrate [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/ - damage is awesome, heightenings are awesome, does not destroy gear, large range. Use True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] before you fire it and you will be fine. The only downside is that you need to do an attack roll and it allows a save. It even has some out of combat applications.
Dominate [⭑] (U) /A/O/ - you only get something useful out of it when target crit fails. Will save every round essentially means that the enemy will be out of your control after 3-4 rounds tops. Too bad. It was a nice spell back in the first edition. Heightening does nothing good for it - still needs a crit fail.
Dragon Form [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - repeat after me “I am not a frontline character”. Only useful to fly away or something. Armor class is abysmal and while other abilities are ok it won’t save you from being killed.
Feeblemind [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - another great spell. Feeblemind, while being awesome on its own, is an “enabler” spell. You want to Dominate/otherwise impose your will onto someone? Also turning someone into a mindless husk is actually the only way to deal with practically immortal creatures unless they are specifically immune to it. Just hold them tight and cast it over and over again, until they crit fail.
Field of Life [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (8th [⭑⭑⭑][⭑], 9th [⭑]) /D/P/ - heal allies, destroy undead. Over 1 minute is 10d8 to 10d12 healing and damage. That's all with the nice stuff, let's look at the bad stuff: stationary 20 ft radius area, need to sustain. Overall if you have more than 6 ppl and are targeted by undead - it is nice. If you have 3 - it's pointless. While heightenings increase the dice, the need to use the 9th level slot to see a difference is not worth it IMO.
Fire Seeds [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (8th [⭑⭑⭑], 9th [⭑⭑]) /P/ - wow, a decent Primal-only spell? Acorns last for a minute and fire they create lasts for another minute. You can cover 40 ft of 10 ft wide corridor and anyone passing through it will suffer 8d6 damage. Better wall than wall spells. Heightenings are okay
Flesh to Stone [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - you need a creature to fail at least three saves to actually turn it into stone. It is a fort save, which is rarely bad. Overall nice if you want to scare someone with a prospect of becoming a statue, but otherwise not that useful.
Halcyon Infusion [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (R) /A/P/ - sacrifice a 6th level slot to give the target ability to cast a spell of 3rd level or lower once per day. Using it for offensive spells is an obvious travesty so long-term buffs will be a better application of this spell. I dont think it's worth it but it may allow you to do something cool that you normally can not. So it's either good or very bad, depending on the situation.
Mislead [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - you can use it with great success, especially in open terrain. Misdirection is the key to wasting opponents’ actions and if the said opponent is not very intelligent you can practically outwit it with this spell. Being at least trained in deception is also nice. As with all other illusions, success is largely dependent on your imagination.
Phantasmal Calamity [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - this one is nice due to several factors: it targets Will save, it has a huge range and nice area of effect. If you target multiple creatures there is a decent chance at least some of them will get stuck, but ending this condition is easy. It can be used with great success against targets with low will saves, animals, for example.
Purple Worm Sting [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - its touch. There is some unavoidable damage, but the poison itself is a subject to save. Creatures rarely have bad Fort saves so they will probably pass it, which increases the damage somewhat, but it is still so-so at best.
Raise Dead [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/ - this spell allows you to resurrect dead people for a price. If possible use Breath of Life and not this spell, because of the material component. In all other cases - here you go.
Repulsion [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - a nice way to hinder enemies… and your party members. Usability is hugely dependent on terrain and your party members Will save. It can be nice to cover your party’s retreat or to block an encroaching army. For low-level enemies, it will be an impenetrable barrier.
Righteous Might [⭑⭑⭑] (8th [⭑⭑]) /D/ - polymorph time. It is good at level 6 and gets worse at level 8 due to inadequate increase to AC. Overall one of the better choices.
Scintillating Safeguard [⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/P/ - 10 energy or physical resistance against the triggering spell for up to 5 creatures in a 30ft area is pretty nice. It's 50 points of damage from a fireball or a huge boulder or something like that but it's a 6th level spell. Which makes it okay, but not good.
Scrying [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - another spell that was somewhat nerfed by the second edition. First of all, using it on target you don’t know or haven’t seen is pure insanity. Unless it is some peasant the 12 lower DC and crit success effect will make the target soy on you, not the other way around. It can be used on allies to locate them and they can auto fail save I think, which makes it better, but you will have to talk that over with the GM.
Spellwrack [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - this is one interesting curse. A decent curse that quickly expends buff rounds from creatures, can be easily reapplied after successful Arcana check (Sigil will work just fine) and will also do decent damage. What’s not to like here? On top of that if you slap Spell Immunity to Remove Curse on the target… Torture time.
Spirit Blast [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (7th+ [⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - this spell is quite specialized but, at the same point, it is equally insane. Damage is incredible - 16d6 - no divine or occult spell is even close. You can affect any creature with a soul, so only a limited number of creatures are immune - namely constructs and at least mindless undead, you can target anyone who projects their image or possesses someone, so it's a good way to kick someone from consciousness of others without harming them. I wonder if it works with spells that allow you to share vision or otherwise partially project yourself into other creatures? Heightening is not worth it - damage increase is not that good.
Stone Tell [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (U) /D/P/ - mm, well… You can gather information about all the butts that touched that stone throne. I guess. Usefulness of this spell is hugely dependent on your GM and your ability to pick the “right” stones to question. Stones are quite common though, so it should work fine.
Stone to Flesh [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - apart from obvious “revert back my poor party member” stuff this one is also useful as “let's create some nice meat and cook it afterward” spell. The amount of flesh the size of a human is good enough for quite a large party I believe. Blue for versatility.
Tangling Creepers [⭑⭑] /P/ - long-range area slow spell with the ability to potentially immobilize one creature. It can be good to slow someone down during chases but that is it.
Teleport [!!!] (U) /A/O/ - I wish we had a color better than purple. And I actually do have one. Meet pure gold! Utility of this spell is campaign breaking, heightenings make you godlike (teleport to any planet in the solar system? For real?). The only downside is that it can carry only five creatures. I wonder why developers came up with such a number, but it is actually irrelevant. It is unclear what happens if you transport creatures in an item, like a bag of holding.
True Seeing [⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - duration is ok, but it does not unravel illusions automatically, it just gives you an auto counteract check. Still pretty good.
Vampiric Exsanguination [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - nice AOE cone, even better with Widen metamagic, very good damage, nice scaling while heightened. Negative dmg is useless against undead. Temporary hit points are just gravy.
Vibrant Pattern [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - blinded is not a nice condition, but repeated saves makes it highly unlikely that it will stick. Crit failure probability is rather low so you can expect the target to be blinded for a few rounds at most. Also, you have to sustain this one. An ok spell which can be used to block chokepoints, but that’s about it.
Wall of Force [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - has a small duration, can be used to show the full moon to your enemies on the other side, possesses quite a bit of hit points and very nice hardness. The ability to block incorporeal creatures is just an added bonus. Overall its utility is somewhat lacking.
Zealous Conviction [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9th [⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - the range is ok, 10 targets are nice, bonuses are nice too - Will saves are a pain to fail, temporary hit points are just icing. You can force targets to do something nasty - murder, rape, genocide, you name it - though then they will get a WIll save. A nice spell when you need to slip that tiny amount of mind control under the guise of a buff spell. Heightening is not worth it - the difference is not that great.
Blightburn BlastEC5 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/P/ - the disease is godawful, the AOE makes it even deadlier for groups of enemies. Overall a nice spell but good luck getting it from your GM.
Contingency [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/ - oh, my love. I wish it lasted longer. Problem is - almost none of the arcane spells are that useful for contingency: it needs to be a buff or a heal that does not last long or can save you in dire straits. Activating it is a reaction so you can not do it while dead, sadly, but you can say a word or do something minor and trigger the required spell effects. It's like Quickened metamagic but better and for the cost of spell slots.
Control SandEC5 [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - three spells in one - love it. Sand Shield is golden with its high hardness and decent HP. It can absorb a whooping 14 damage every round! Sandblast is nasty against creatures with low Reflex saves and Sandstorm is just cool. Basic dazzling is just an added bonus. Purple for its versatility and this spell alone justifies Effortless Concentration feat.
Dimensional Lock [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/D/O/ - if you have a group of evil wizards teleporting to your location or you want to keep said group contained without access to their precious bags and whatnot - here is your spell. I doubt that it will be that useful overall and it will probably be more interesting if it is applied to the party and not by the party.
Divine Decree [⭑⭑] /D/ - a complicated spell. You need to align it properly for it to affect anyone at all and while the area is nice - 40 ft emanation is nothing to sneeze at - the real charm is in critical failure description and those almost never happen. Damage is okay at best. So it is a rather niche spell which is only good when you battle followers of a specific deity or you know your enemies all have an alignment component you can target. It sounds harder than to align planets or something.
Divine Vessel [⭑] /D/ - finally a non-Primal Morph spell for divine casters. Looks nice on paper but while hit points and fly speed are nice damage weakness is a liability and unarmed attacks are not very useful because you are only trained in them. Finesse ones are even worse - you gain effects of Enlarge with the Clumsy 1.
Duplicate Foe [⭑] /A/O/ -- and another summon-ish spell that sucks. It looks fine on paper and at level 13 you can duplicate a level 15 foe, BUT there is a Fort saving throw that the foe will pass almost always, which makes duration and damage so low it's not even funny. You also need to sustain it and, despite your efforts, it starts to crumble to dust almost immediately. Its borderline “shit color” spell.
Eclipse Burst [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/P/ - huge area, huge range, decent damage, slim chances to permanently blind and also affects objects. Scaling is as good as it could be (only one better than 2d6 so far) and damage is second to none. If you want to ruin the day of living creatures - this is the spell of choice.
Energy Aegis [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/P/ - I want to like this spell, I truly do. Duration is awesome, but resistance itself is so small, that at this level it is irrelevant. The same applies to the heightened version. The only reasonable application is to protect someone from persistent damage that is hard to counter (Spellwrack, for example) and that will tick for all eternity until countered. Or something like that. Also, I see no other way to get protection from non-elemental damage.
Entrancing EyesEC5 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/ - Extinction Curse has quite a few good spells for sure. Only problem here is that those who can be hindered by Stupefied usually have high Will saves. Ability to paralyze your foes though is golden and can be used against anyone. At the same time a barbarian that is Stupefied is unlikely to resist your gaze. You can also sustain multiple times per round to get multiple creatures paralyzed. Doing some nasty AOE on them or sneak attacks or anything else is a good idea. That is some real battlefield control.
Ethereal Jaunt [⭑⭑] (U) (9th [⭑⭑⭑]) /D/O/ - it can either be used as an escape spell or a way to gaze into the Ethereal plane. The heightened version allows you to take your party with you. Okay pick for a scroll but not good enough for everyday memorization.
Fiery Body [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - good when you need to battle fire creatures and absolutely useless against them at the same time. One bonus damage die is irrelevant at this level, vulnerabilities will hurt. Retaliation damage is nice if you are attacked by a multitude of small creatures, but there are other ways to solve such problems. Three Produce Flame per round sounds nice on paper, but multiple attack penalties will completely destroy your ability to hit. Niche spell again.
Finger of Death [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - time to poke someone to death. Stable damage, not a touch spell, okayish increase to damage when heightened. Fort save makes it a decent mage killer. Reliable and boring.
Force Cage [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - trap a caster or a heavily armored warrior. Sounds nice, right? Wrong. They are concealed against you, they can move inside to avoid your attacks. Casters can still blast you because the cage does not stop spells and martials will burst out quite quickly due to AC 10. Only good to maybe stall someone or protect someone from outside activities to some degree.
Leng StingAoE4 [⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - piercing damage is unavoidable, Reach metamagic is a must and the poison gives you a drained condition that makes you more susceptible to the said poison. But, again, it's better to let the martials kill single targets - they are way better at this.
Magnificent Mansion [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - your ultimate “impress your girlfriend” spell. And you are gone in 24 hours. Or “impress your bloodthirsty band of 150 with lots of food”. It is a nice spell for RP purposes and can be used on many occasions. An added bonus of being hard to spy on is also nice.
Mask of Terror [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/P/ - nice buff spell, but there are some limitations. Won’t work on mindless creatures or creatures without eyes. Despite that, applying frightened 2 with a chance of wasting an enemy’s action is nice. Heightening is definitely worth it.
Maze of Locked DoorsAoE4 [⭑] (U) /A/O/ - on a successful save this spell does almost nothing and the classes that are likely to fail their Will save are the ones that will probably just bust through all the doors with relative ease. Incapacitation trait and inability to heighten it makes it absolutely useless quite fast.
Plane Shift [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/D/O/P/ - nothing interesting here. You need to travel between planes? You need this spell. You don’t need to travel between planes? - You don’t need this spell.
Possession [⭑⭑] (9th) /O/ - unless it is a critical failure - your control over the target is rather flimsy and you have a chance to eject every round. The heightened version is much better, because you don't need to worry about your own body, but the chance that you will make a higher-level target to critically fail is slim to none. Sadly this spell is not that good.
Power Word Blind [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/ - nice spell to switch off those nasty little spellcasters, that buff their allies and have low level. Still, its only one creature and heightening allows you to permanently blind creatures only up to level 17. Good for RP purposes, when you need to scare someone.
Prismatic Spray [⭑] /A/O/ - unreliable, save makes target completely immune to effects. I see no point in this. A 12.5% chance to apply two effects isn’t good enough to justify its usage.
Project Image [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - nice for misdirection, but the fact that it can be dispelled by a single magic missile is quite disappointing. And you need to sustain it, which, essentially, means that if you want to cast something - you will remain stationary.
Regenerate [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9th [⭑⭑⭑]) /D/P/ - positively awesome. For 10 rounds you can regenerate 15 hit points per round, virtually unkillable and can ignore 3 knockdowns. What's not to like? Heightening does not do much so it can be avoided. An added bonus of reattaching limbs can be used in hardcore environments where your GM actually tracks such stuff.
Retrocognition [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] /O/ - another Occult spell which heavily depends on a GM and his ability to come up with descriptions of events of up to several past centuries. Heightening changes the spell and makes it better and worse at the same time. Unreliable, hard to use, insanely good opportunity for RP.
Reverse Gravity [⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - fliers are immune, only 40 ft. If cast at an open terrain without ceiling enemies can just walk to the edge of the zone and fall down. Damage isn’t that great, after all. It is a funny spell, but that’s about it.
Spell Turning [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/ - nice duration, but you can affect only one spell. You need to roll on top of that. If you fail - the spell fizzles. I would say that unless you battle monsters which use nasty stuff at you (Flesh to Stone etc) it is useless.
Sunburst [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - damage is insane against undead and also there are some undead that are unraveled by sunlight. And this spell specifically states that it is actually sunlight. Ultimate “ruin that lich’s party” spell. Heightening it adds quite a bit of damage too.
Time Beacon [-] /A/O/ - rewinding back time sounds cool, right? But only if you will successfully counteract any hazards that may prevent you from returning to the initial point in time. It is unclear if you can go back in time if you are dead. The spell has only material components so your GM may allow you to, for example, caste a spell, give a short speech, check the reaction and roll back time. The problem with this spell is that as written it is unclear what it can do. Unrated for now.
True Target [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - a communal version of True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] it can be quite devastating and it scales with the group size. Even if you can hit only on nat 20 - you just doubled your chances.
Unfettered Pack [⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - if you need to get yourself and your flimsy companions through some irregular terrain - it will help. Heightening is okay, but I wonder, what terrible landscape do you have to traverse to have a need for it?
Visions of Danger [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - as our reader noted this spell does whooping 72 points of damage and is atm one of the most damaging spells out there. This is offset slightly by the fact that it is a three action cast (so no Widen) and is an Illusion spell with Auditory and Visual traits. Will save is a nice save to go against when targeting groups. The fact that you can push someone inside it and it will take damage at the start of the turn and not the end makes it even nastier. Pissing off bards was never that scary.
Thanks to Ido Zemach for his conviction. Rating upped and description changed :)
Volcanic Eruption [⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - for the sheer coolness factor of this spell I will up its overall rating. Damage is ok, but the area of effect is terrible at best. Nice to impress uncivilized natives or something. “ I summon thee, Spirit of the Mountain!” and all that.
Warp Mind [⭑] /A/O/ - confusion is a much nastier condition now. The problem is that it is useless against BBEGs - they will attack you most of the time and against mooks - they are irrelevant and can still attack you. Only crit failure yields nice results. So unless you are extremely lucky the results will be underwhelming.
Antimagic Field [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (R) /A/D/O/- 10 ft radius of “fuck you casters”. Mount your druid and charge the enemy wizard. The applications are numerous but heavily depend on your ability to adapt. You better be hastened because it's a 3-action activity.
DelugeEC6 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - another “statement” spell. One good thing you can do with it is quickly clean an area of debris and maybe small hovels, possibly with inhabitants still inside them. Funny thing is they take no damage so you will have to deal with soaked and uninjured people. It looks cool and that's what a spell should be like. Combat applications, save for bringing down fliers, are quite limited. Oh, no save is awesome.
Devour LifeEC6 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/O/ - looks perfect. Range is okay, you heal the hitpoints and then you gain the rest for one minute. Decent overall even on a save and does not have an Evil trait. Good in my book.
Disappearance [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - illusions, illusions everywhere. Slap Fly on yourself and you will become mostly undetectable. You can even cast normally because the spell will muffle sounds too. Nice duration is just an added bonus. The level at which you get this spell is quite high though.
Discern Location [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/D/O/- this spell is the reason why you heighten Nondetection. And a reason why you should never, never leave pieces of your body anywhere.
Divine Aura [⭑] /D/ - a Circle of Protection upgrade with mechanics of Bless with increasing radius, shitty duration and the need to sustain it. Very very situational so keep it on a scroll or just use several heightened circles.
Divine Inspiration [⭑] /D/ - trade an 8th level spell for focus points or 6th level spell. Are you kidding me? It definitely adds versatility, but it is better to just git gud at planning and not use such bad workarounds.
Dream Council [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - nice duration, planetary range, you can have a discussion in a space that cannot be spied upon as far as I know. Perfect. Just what a level 8 spell should be. Not for everyday use, but it is a nice one to have.
Earthquake [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (10th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/P/- this one is positively awesome. Buildings fall, creatures die a horrible death under rubble and you can laugh maniacally. Heightening is a must for optimal effect. I believe it is one of the few spells that can permanently affect reality.
Horrid Wilting [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/- time to destroy that forest army. Limitless amount of targets, huge range and decent damage makes this one hell of a spell. Another army killer. Heightening is ok, but that's about it.
Maze [⭑⭑] /A/O/ - the need to sustain it and the fact that just two successes are required to escape kills the spell altogether. It is probably easier and faster to just kill the target. At the same time if the target is blinded - it is screwed royally. Niche spell.
Mind Blank [!!!] (U) /A/O/ - now we are talking. Just as the first edition you just fill all the slots with this wonder and ignore everything else. After all, killing enemies is optional, but survival isn’t. +4 status bonus against the worst spells out there is insanely good and nondetection on top of that is an added bonus. Pure gold. If you can cast it - do it. If you can't - buy a wand and ask someone to do it or Trick Magic Item - at this level 15000 GP is a manageable sum. I
Moment of Renewal [⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - removal of conditions is nice, hit points are nice too. Usage heavily depends on groups’ ability to rest in its current environment and if monsters inflict conditions that go away after 24 hours.
Monstrosity Form [⭑⭑] /A/P/ - now we get some decent forms, but let’s do our math. 20 AC + level is equal to a champion in full plate +2, who is just trained in armor. Everything around will crit the hell out of you. So pick something that can hit and run in your current environment. Not even close in effectiveness to other picks of this level.
One is All All is One [⭑⭑] (R) /A/P/ - a nice spell for some on the spot battlefield tactics but if you screwed bad enough that you need it - you probably won't solve much with it anyway.
Polar Ray [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/- a decent attack spell and an enabler. Damage is ok at best but the fact that you drain without a save is awesome. After that, you can use those spells that require Fort save or poisons and they will actually be able to do something. Heightening is best there is for single target spells.
Power Word Stun [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/ - the “lets trade our action for theirs” spell. Verbal only - you can do it while grappled, it won’t provoke, etc. Not the best choice against high-level targets, but heightening kinda fixes that problem. I would keep at least one around for when you are in a tough spot.
Prismatic Wall [⭑⭑⭑][-] /A/O/ - ultimate spell to block passages. I can envision a party in need to deal with one, but actually using one against enemies is less relevant. Still, no one will get through that without preparation. Problem is that it's easier to go around it or teleport or dig than to actually counteract it. Or just wait a bit - an hour isn’t that long. You can also walk through the wall, cast a spell and walk back (just need to be hastened). The spell description states it’s size specifically, so unless you have enough space - it will not work at all. If your GM will not allow you to shrink it or change the shape - it is shit.
Prying Survey [⭑⭑] (U) (10th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /A/O/ - remember that moment from Prometheus where they sent out drones to scout the area? You can do that too now. Heightened version allows you to basically chart the dungeon without going into it.
Punishing Winds [⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - tired of flyers? Here is the solution. It comes pretty late and you probably already have other ways to deal with them, but this one is a top-notch AA weapon. The need to sustain makes it slightly worse though. The fact that creatures on the ground are not affected will allow you to use it as cover for your team.
Scintillating Pattern [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - another spell that needs sustaining. Yes, we will daze and confuse them, yes, those are nasty conditions. But maybe we will just blast them apart in the meantime? Combined with Disappearance it will force multiple saves and, possibly, make enemies turn on each other (thanks, Cyouni).
Spirit Song [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9th+ [⭑⭑⭑]) /O/ - 18d6 of force damage in a 60 ft cone that can hurt enemies within walls? Can it be more awesome? Small things, like inability to target constructs, are of no interest to us. This spell is insane! Don't bother to heighten it.
Spiritual Epidemic [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/O/ - oh my, that's one nasty curse. Even Success is nasty because you are more susceptible to spells with WIll save that come after. Crit failure will make one so useless it is not even funny.
Uncontrollable Dance [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - it is a mental spell so you are limited in whom you can apply it. It is a touch spell. It is hilarious. Failure is enough to make the target more or less useless (and for a caster - absolutely useless) in a fight. That’s why you need Mind Blank.
Undermine Reality [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/O/ - this one is quite interesting indeed. Stupefy and demoralize the enemy and then cast this baby and see it essentially becoming a ghost forever (or until someone dispels the effect). WHile combat applications are so-so the RP potential alone qualifies it for green.
Unrelenting Observation [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - duration is decent even on success. Applications are obvious - track an enemy or track a friend that infiltrates an enemy. Maybe you will be able to come up with more applications. Another reason why you need Mind Blank. Overall it is ok but it is too niche for my taste.
Wind Walk [⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - out of combat fast travel. It is unclear if it allows you to stay in the air or you can only travel along the ground. For most party members with a usual 25 ft speed, it gives an 8x boost to speed. Nice. Use it to get from A to B. Also I would argue that in this shape you are less affected by the environment and can ignore various types of difficult terrain.
Astral LabyrinthEC2 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/D/O/ - time to protect the area against incoming teleportations or thwart any attempts to move in or out. Pretty nice if limited in scope. Heightening it makes it slightly more convenient for you.
Bind Soul [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /D/O/ - your staple BBEG spell to prevent the party from just resurrecting their fallen comrades. Can make a decent quest out of this or something. For PCs, it is rather useless unless you want to prevent someone from resurrecting. Just don’t forget it's an Evil spell.
Crusade [⭑] (U) /D/ - some weird form of mass mind control. For higher-level targets the effect is close to the effect of a decent Diplomacy check. Another strange and relatively useless Divine spell.
Disjunction [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - disabling something of a power level lower than artifact is rarely needed. Usually, you can just smash it. Artifacts are unaffected. One real application for this I can think of is to completely negate a magical item and it will show no aura - so you can relocate it without any problems under the prying eyes of the city guard or anyone else. Maybe disable one trap or another. Maybe make Treerazers Axe non-magical.
Divinity LeechAoE6 [⭑] (R) /A/O/ - are they for real? Targeting Will save of a Divine spellcaster? Good luck with that. Things wrong with this spell: it's sustained, it targets only will save and even if the target fails the first one he has chances to ignore the effects by using non-attacking spells (which means success on save equals critical success). Baaaad.
Foresight [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - rerolls are powerful. As a caster, you rarely have anything to use your reactions on, so you can make an enemy reroll every round. Bonus to initiative and immunity to being flat-footed is just an extra. Buffing your champion, who protects you, or barbarian, who smashes your foes, is probably the best thing you can do.
Implosion [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - there are some limitations, but overall it is freaking awesome. Stable damage and can be reused 10 times, which nets you a 750 total damage from one spell. In places where enemies can approach you only one by one, it will work insanely well. Sadly you can’t implode the same creature twice in one casting, but it is still a solid mook killer.
Linnorm StingAoE4 [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - oh that poison is nasty. Drained condition does not help it either. Even if it's a success it's still 2d12 + 8d6 damage and only two stages with 12d6 damage every round for a second stage? Insane. But, again, single target spell.
Massacre [⭑] /A/D/P/ - its a line, okay? Which makes it a crap spell by default. Aligning enemies for this spell will be such a pain it's not even funny. The spell itself is nice and sounds cool and can even do some damage, but in the end, it won’t.
Meteor Swarm [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - now we are talking. I want to see this one used in a sea battle. Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Goodbye, fleet. Damage is very nice even taking into consideration the fact that fire damage won’t overlap.
Nature’s Enmity [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - that’s a nice list of debuffs that can seriously hinder several enemies. No save allowed and 10 minutes duration. So far it is one of the best spells available, limited only by availability of wildlife and plants in a particular environment.
Overwhelming Presence [⭑⭑] /D/O/ - 40 ft burst AOE that will affect intelligent targets and will make them lose a total of six actions (possibly over several rounds) paying tribute to you. Sounds nice and while it may prevent some creatures from using 3-action activities but it is the first action with no MAP that hits the worst. Incapacitation trait makes it more or less useless against 19+ creatures. Still good for mook cleanups. I guess.
Power Word Kill [⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/ - why would you need a spell to do something a same-level fighter will be able to do without wasting precious resources? Yes, it is verbal only and can be your “get out of jail” card and can be cast in the same round as other spells, but again - why?
P.S.: As Anonymous correctly stated - it looks like i think this spell is useless. It is not: its single action, it has decent damage and can save you in a pinch. I just don't like it.
Prismatic ShieldAoE6 [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (R) /A/O/ - one action, isane protective ability and it will dish out as much punishment as the enemies will direct towards you. Looks quite promising, too bad it's so high-level. As a dedicated caster you usually try to avoid being hit but for gishes it's golden.
Prismatic Sphere [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - creating an almost impenetrable barrier between yourself and the world is awesome. You can hide the whole party here and do medicine and whatnot. It can also be used for preparation in an extremely hostile environment.
Resplendent Mansion [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - in case your last girlfriend thought you were a mere noble after you cast Magnificent Mansion, now she will be certain you are a king. Apart from the size, it's the same old spell with added alarms. For those with a desire to overcompensate. Also not Uncommon spell.
Shapechange [⭑] /A/P/ - let’s make a spell to use all useless shapeshifting spells at will. Are you kidding me?
Storm of Vengeance [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (10th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) /P/ - for one minute you can go full Moses on a proverbial Egypt. Heightening makes it even more impressive - three square miles completely obliterated. Together with Cataclysm, this spell is a statement and some of the effects cannot be avoided.
Telepathic Demand [⭑⭑] /A/D/O/ - time to betray your party members! Or not. Niche spell that can be used to fuck with those, who dared to contact you before. Apart from that, you have to be quite creative to get something positive out of it.
Unfathomable Song [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /O/ - nice duration, nice range, several targets, decent effects. I would say that if you are lucky with rolls this spell is pure gold. If not - not so much. Overall a decent pick.
UpheavalEC6 [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) /A/P/ - spells like that are a reason one plays a caster. Want to clean a slum? Done. Want to rise above the crowd to show how far below they are? Done. Awesome.
Wail of the Banshee /D/O/ - 40 ft emanation, full damage on a successful save, ignores your allies and does nice damage. Drained is nasty and will add more damage on a failed save. Too bad it targets Fort save.
Weapon of Judgement [⭑⭑] /D/ - it would be a nice spell if your Spell Attack modifier was not complete trash compared to, for example, a regular attack modifier of the same level Fighter. You don't get an item bonus to attack, which hinders you greatly, and the full MAP will make the weapon useless after the first attack. If there are multiple hostiles it is also not good.
Weird [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - now we are talking. A lot of traits on this one so some creatures may get a bonus to saves, but the fact that it targets any number of creatures within 120 ft is awesome. Damage is nice, condition is ok and the crit failure effect is just gravy. Also, it is one of the precious few Will based spells out there.
Alter Reality [!!!] /O/ - see Wish [!!!].
Avatar [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - it is one of the better forms. Nice attack and AC, very nice attacks and various speed types. Bonus for coolness factor.
Cataclysm [⭑⭑⭑] /A/P/ - range: insane. Damage: horrendous. Area of effect: decent. Level of awesomeness: extreme. Actual usefulness: so-so. If you target weak creatures - they can be dealt with using lower-level spells. If you target strong ones - they will save. This spell is not an attack - it's a statement. If you don’t need to make one - don’t use it.
Fabricated Truth [⭑] /O/ - I wonder what this spell is doing here. It is useless against higher-level targets and you can probably achieve the same effect by using Alter Reality [!!!] to actually make stuff happen instead of playing pretend games.
Gate (U) /A/D/O/ - let’s rip a hole in reality and connect our plane to another. What can go wrong here? Practical applications may vary and depend on your and your GM’s knowledge of how such interactions work. But overall it is a nice spell to have when you need it, but definitely not suited for daily use.
Indestructibility [!!!] /A/D/O/P/ - complete immunity to everything for one turn. Pair with Prismatic ShieldAoE6 [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] and go right into the middle of insane melee. Reap the rewards. Pure gold.
Miracle [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/ - Almost as good as Wish [!!!] but your deity may oppose some of the stuff you request, so the rating is a tiny bit lower.
Nature Incarnate [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - one of the best forms out there but slightly worse coolness factor than Avatar. Kaiju lovers may disagree.
Primal Herd [⭑] /P/ - well, okay. If you want to pretend that you are a herd of mammoths - this spell is probably nice. For actual fighting - not so much.
Primal Phenomenon [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] /P/ - equivalent of a Miracle [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] due to the same limitations - you can't pollute the planet and make species go extinct and whatnot.
Remake [⭑⭑] (U) /A/D/O/P/ - can be used to recreate works of art. Probably. Maybe. I can hardly imagine conditions where you need this spell and not something of a more manageable level. It still does not work on 20+ level items. How about remaking carelessly overcharged 9th level wands ?
Revival [⭑⭑⭑⭑] /D/P/ - your ultimate “heal half an army and reenact attack of the dead men to boot” spell. Reach metamagic will make it so awesome it is not even funny. The only problem is the fact that it scales nicely only with the amount of actors on the battlefield and nothing else. It is still awesome.
Time Stop [⭑⭑⭑] /A/O/ - You have three rounds to run away, cast area spells (walls and fogs), do recall knowledge checks or use a form. That’s it. Bye Bye high magic, hello boring stuff. Good spells to use with it are Prismatic Wall [⭑⭑⭑], Disappearance [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Haste [⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]). The description states that you “stop time for everything but yourself” which may allow Spell Immunity to actually work against it because you don't speed yourself up but rather slow everyone down.
Wish [!!!] /A/ - probably the best way to use the 10th level slot. Cast any spell you want when you need it. Resurrect allies and change landscapes and whatnot. Gold, plain and simple.
Spells from other traditions can be a pain to get, especially if you want to add them to your tradition for those sweet sweet attack rolls and spell DCs. I’ll note ways to get those using feats, ancestries, etc. I will ignore Golarion-related requirements (ethnicities, countries of origins or anything else) because they are irrelevant and boring, in my opinion. That’s not how you make someone special.
Remember, that Bards, Sorcerers, and Oracles can use Innate offensive cantrips and spells just as good as spells from their own tradition. The same will apply to any Charisma-based spellcaster. That will greatly increase the effectiveness of many feats that give said cantrips. So far non-Arcane caster will benefit the most from that - all of the best cantrips and offensive spells are Arcane. The Secondary color will be the one for Charisma-based Casters. For example
Otherworldly Magic [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Elf) - average at best for a non-Charisma based caster, but awesome for Charisma-based caster.
Non-casters will still suffer greatly due to being only trained.
All caster dedication feats provide you with two cantrips and additional spells for additional feats. The problem is that you are only trained in those and you will only progress to master, which puts you too far behind to hit anyone anyway, sadly. So pick classes based on spells, that don’t require spell attack rolls or saves. In short - pick your buffs and utility spells.
Eldritch Archer offers progression similar to Multiclass Caster Archetypes but it starts a wee little bit later.
One class here that works slightly better than the others is a Champion. You can multiclass into a Sorcerer and Champions Divine proficiency is quite respectable. You cast off Сharisma so you can pick cantrips from basically any source.
Defy the Darkness [!!!] (5) - one of the rare few ways to get Greater Darkvision. It is basically Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]) on steroids. Ability to completely beat one type of thing hampering your vision is golden.
Heroes’ Call [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9) - Heroism [⭑⭑⭑⭑] is awesome and gaining temporary hit points with supposedly unlimited durations is also nice.
Stonewalker [⭑⭑] (9) - Meld Into Stone [⭑] is not a good spell but additional benefits are nice if you do a lot of dungeon delving.
Stonegate [⭑⭑⭑] (17, requires Stonewalker) - Passwall [⭑⭑] (U) (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) is nice but this version works only on stone or earth.
Elemental Wrath [⭑] (1) - Acid Splash [⭑] is average at best but ability to pick damage type makes it slightly better. Still only good for Charisma-based casters.
Otherworldly Magic [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - Not so good unless you are charisma-based. Then it's positively awesome - all the best attack cantrips are on the Arcane list.
Share Thoughts [⭑] (1) - get Mindlink [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] but only to use on elves and half-elves. I don’t see how this is useful.
Wildborn Magic [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (1) - pick Primal cantrip as Primal Innate spell. Stabilize [⭑⭑⭑⭑] is probably your best pick or any attack cantrip for Charisma-based casters. Primal cantrips are second only to Arcane when it comes to dealing damage. Disrupt Undead [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] is a decent one and Electric Arc [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] is awesome.
Wildborn Adept [⭑⭑⭑] (5, requires Wildborn Magic [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U)) - Dancing Lights [⭑⭑], Disrupt Undead [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] or Tanglefoot [⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]). Nothing fancy and you probably already have those.
Brightness Seeker [⭑⭑⭑] (9) - Augury [⭑⭑⭑] and the reaction that actually allows you to overcome odds. Pretty decent.
Otherworldly Acumen [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9, at least one another innate spell from your Elf ancestry) - 2nd level spells are diverse and useful and heightened level 1 spells are nice two. Good examples are Illusory Object [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Longstrider [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Blur [⭑⭑⭑⭑] , Faerie Fire [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Glitterdust [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and lots and lots of spells that will be available from the new books. The fact that you can change that spell using downtime makes this feat so much more awesome.
Sense Thoughts [⭑] (U) (9) - you gain Mind Reading [⭑⭑] (U) as Occult Innate. Unless you are Occult already your DCs will be abysmal. Bad.
Fey-Touched Gnome [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Heritage) - primal cantrip you can change once a day? Perfect for a Bard or Divine/Occult Sorcerer.
Wellspring Gnome [⭑⭑⭑] (Heritage) - pick any non-primal cantrip and all innate spells you gain later have the same tradition. Decent but that's it.
First World Magic [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - same as Wildborn Magic [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U).
Natural Illusionist [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (5) - gain Illusory Disguise [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd[⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Item Facade[⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 3rd[⭑⭑⭑]), Ventriloquism [⭑⭑] (2nd[⭑⭑⭑]) as unknown tradition and type spell. I think an errata is coming that will make them all Primal Innate (Gnomes, duh!) and then it will be mighty good. At level 7 and 9 they will be heightened and will get a nice duration. Two out of three are not on the Primal list so any Druid can pick this feat for a nice and free spell slots.
First World Adept [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9) - you gain Faerie Fire [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] as Primal Innate spells. The latter is not in the Primal list, which is good, but will not be heightened, which is not that good against Perception checks and counteract checks. Overall it is pretty decent.
Instinctive Obfuscation [⭑⭑⭑] (13, at least one other arcane or occult spell from Gnome heritage) - a crappier version of Mirror Image [⭑⭑⭑] as a reaction. Improves action economy.
Homeward Bound [⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (17) - Plane Shift [⭑⭑⭑] (U) with limited applicability twice per week. Okay. Unless the campaign is First World related it's useless. If it is, it is ok.
Adapted Cantrip [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - the best way to get attack cantrips - you add them to your tradition which allows you to use your best proficiency with them even if you are a non Charisma-based caster.
Arcane Tattoos [⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (1) - gain Chill Touch [⭑⭑], Daze [⭑⭑], Electric Arc [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], Ghost Sound [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Shield [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑], Sigil [⭑], or Tanglefoot [⭑] as Arcane Innate cantrip. Looks nice, but they are all on the Arcane list already and are either attack cantrips, which makes them useless for non-caster characters, or are not that good overall. Charisma-based casters should look at Electric Arc [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] and rejoice.
Dragon Spit [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - gain Acid Splash[⭑⭑⭑], Electric Arc [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], Produce Flame [⭑⭑⭑], or Ray of Frost [⭑⭑⭑⭑] as Arcane Innate cantrips. All are on the Arcane list already and all are attack cantrips, but for the pure ability to cast them out of your mouth and RP applications of such ability, I’ll make it green. For Charisma-based casters, this is pure gold and you get points for awesomeness too.
Tupilaq Carver [⭑⭑] (U) (1) - you gain Summon Construct [⭑] as a Primal or Divine spell and add it to your spell list. You also can provide said construct with a better ability to perceive certain creatures. Overall summoning sucks and this just makes said constructs as good as PCs at finding one creature. Maybe okayish for RP, but it is not good overall.
Adaptive Adept [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (5) - it gets better and better. Gain another cantrip or 1st level spell from the same tradition as your Adaptive Cantrip. If you are a Cloistered Cleric gaining Electric Arc [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] and Telekinetic Projectile [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] - BAM! You just became awesome! Sadly, if you gain 1st level spell, you cannot heighten it. True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] is probably your best candidate.
Darkseer [⭑⭑⭑] (U) (1, requires Gloomseer) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better. For this one you have to be nidalese though. Two feats for Darkvision is a bit too much.
Ornate Tattoo [⭑⭑] (5) - gain 1st level arcane spell of the same schools as your Arcane Tattoos [⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) as Arcane Innate spell. Only spells that will scale with levels are Ant Haul [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑]. For the former, you need to get Sigil [⭑] first, which makes it worse, and for the latter - Shield [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] which is a much better combo. Overall it heavily depends on new cantrips and spells to be added in the future. So far it's rather bad.
Dragon Prince [⭑] (9) - gain a Dragon Breath Focus spell with mediocre damage as Arcane Innate spell. Useless.
Shory Aeromancer [⭑⭑] (9) - gain Fly [⭑⭑⭑] as Arcane Innate spell. Not bad, but duration is so-so so it is hardly worth it.
Virtue-Forged Tattoos [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9) - it gets more interesting at this point. Up to level 3 Arcane spell of Arcane Tattoos [⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) and Ornate Tattoo [⭑⭑] school as Arcane Innate or lower-level heightened to level 3. Decent choices are Illusory Disguise [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Longstride [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Magic Aura [⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Comprehend Language [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Mirror Image [⭑⭑⭑].
Irriseni Ice-Witch [⭑⭑] (13) - gain Wall of Ice [⭑⭑] as Arcane Innate spell. It is not proficiency dependent and you also gain decent cold resistance, but overall it is so-so.
Shadow Pact [⭑⭑] (13) - gain Creation [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) heightened to level 5 as Divine Innate spell unlimited times per day, but at the cost of 1 damage and it will be destroyed by bright light.
Cultural Adaptability [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Halfling) - does not grant spells itself but allows you to pick a feat from another heritage that does.
Fade Away [⭑⭑⭑] (Halfling) - grants you Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and Misdirection [⭑] as Occult Innate spells and can only target yourself with them. They are both on Occult spell list already and can't be heightened. Still a decent pick.
Spellscale Kobold [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (Heritage) - one arcane cantrip of your choice. Nice. Good for Charisma-casters and so-so for everyone else.
Dracomancer [⭑⭑⭑] (9) - this one is hugely dependent on your scale color. True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] for a level 1 spell is a good pick and just grab a decent level 2 spell that scales and you will be okay.
Elite Dracomancer (13, requires Dracomancer) - again anything that does no scale or requires heightening. Won’t rate it because it hugely depends on your playstyle.
Fungus Leshy [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Heritage) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Bark and Tendril [⭑⭑] (9) - gain Barkskin [⭑] and Entangle [⭑⭑⭑] as Primal Innate spells. The latter is relatively useful just for creating difficult terrain, but that’s about it.
Deep Rat [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Heritage) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Rat Magic [⭑] (5) - rat-only Animal Messenger [⭑⭑] is not good. No fly speed means it will only be adequate in urban environments.
Rat Form [⭑] (9) - Pest Form [⭑] limited to rat only? No, thank you.
Unrivaled Builder [⭑⭑] (13, requires Handy with Your Paws) - Creation [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) is not that bad, especially if its heightened to level 5. Two feats are.
Mountainkeeper Tengu [⭑⭑] (Heritage) - gain Disrupt Undead [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] cantrip and you can pick the tradition of your ancestry feats from primal and divine. Not so good.
Storm’s Lash [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - now we are talking. Electric Arc [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] is an excellent spell. Only due to lack of choice this feat is not purple.
Soaring Flight [⭑⭑⭑] (9, requires Skyborn Heritage) - non-magical equivalent to Fly [⭑⭑⭑]. Nice to have, but not that great.
Great Tengu Form [⭑⭑⭑] (17, requires Long-Nosed Form) - Fly [⭑⭑⭑] plus Enlarge [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑]) for 5 minutes heightened to level 4. It's okay.
I added Half-Elves and Half-Orcs here because as an optional rule they kinda become versatile. I know that by default they are not.
Celestial Eyes [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Halo [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (1) - a cool way to get basic Light [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) cantrip for classes that don't get spellcasting. Not good if you already have it. Ability to light it up with a single action is good though.
Empyreal Blessing [⭑] (5) - Bless [⭑] once per day? Really? If it was not bad enough it is a level 5 feat on top. Garbage.
Angelic Magic [⭑] (9, requires Angelkin) - Humanoid Form [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]) and Remove Fear [⭑] (6th [⭑⭑]) once per day each. Yeah, right.
Archon Magic [⭑] (9, requires Lawbringer) - Continual Flame [⭑] and Shield Other [⭑] - ugh. Aasimars just keep on giving crappy spells.
Azata Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (9, requires Musetouched) - Glitterdust [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and Remove Paralysis [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑]). Now we are talking. Both are nice and both are useful.
Celestial Wings [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9) - another awesome option equal to two casts of level 4 Fly [⭑⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]). Fly speed is always nice.
Aasimar’s Mercy [-] (13) - ability to cast Remove Curse [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Remove Disease [⭑⭑⭑⭑] or Neutralize Poison [⭑⭑] twice per day in any combination sounds nice, right? Wrong! The way counteracting works, 4th level spells can’t counteract effects from level 15+ monsters and level 8+ spells at all! So when you get those spells they are practically useless. Rate S for Shit.
Summon Celestial Kin [-] (13) - you can Summon Celestial as lvl 5th spell which at this level is so far behind and will only become worse with levels. Another trap.
Celestial Word [⭑] (17) - cast Divine Decree [⭑⭑] once per day? Really? I’ll pass.
Eternal Wings [!!!] (17, requires Celestial Wings [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - if you wanted to fly - now is the time to do it. Too bad it comes so late. This is unlimited flight that trumps all other types of magical flight - that's why it is here. Gold!
Hag’s Sight [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Hag Magic [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (13) - this one is huge. You pick one spell from the following list: Augury [⭑⭑⭑], Charm [⭑], Clairaudience [⭑⭑⭑], Clairvoyance [⭑⭑], Dream Message [⭑⭑⭑] and Illusory Disguise [⭑⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) as a 4th level spell and add some depending on your type of Hag.
Sea: Acid Arrow [⭑⭑⭑] and Water Walk [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑])
Green: Entangle [⭑⭑⭑], Outcast’s Curse [⭑] and Wall of Thorns [⭑]
Annis: Earthbind [⭑⭑]
Night: Nightmare [⭑]
There are quite a few good options here, especially Illusory Disguise [⭑⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) and Water Walk [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]). Lots of utility.
Eyes of Night [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Enthralling Allure [⭑] (5) - Charm [⭑], really? Get a wand.
Night Magic [⭑] (9) - 2nd level Animal Form [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑]) (wolf only) and Obscuring Mist [⭑]. Once a day each. Nothing to look at here, move on.
Form of the Bat [⭑] (13) - Pest Form [⭑] and bat only. 4th level. Ugh.
Symphony of Blood [⭑⭑⭑] (17) - Vampiric Exsanguination [⭑⭑⭑⭑] once a day is nice but it is already present in three traditions out of four and unless you are a Charisma caster it will be rather useless.
Gravesight [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Duskwalker Magic [⭑⭑] (9) - Augury [⭑⭑⭑] and Gentle Repose [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑]) once a day? It is okay but nothing to write home about.
Elf Atavism [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - depends on the Heritage. Cavern [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] is awesome thanks to Darkvision. Seer [⭑⭑⭑] gives you Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]). Overall an excellent pick.
Supernatural Charm [⭑] (5) - you gain Charm [⭑] as Arcane Innate spell, which is already on the Arcane spell list and is crap.
Orc SIght [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Fiendish Eyes [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - while it technically does not give you any spells it gives you Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]). And the spell is rated this poorly because the feats that give Darkvision are so much better.
Malicious Bane [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (5) - Bane [⭑⭑⭑] if you are a Charisma caster it is okay. If not, it’s effectiveness will be much lower than usual.
Daemon Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (9, requires Grimspawn) - Death Knell [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and False Life [⭑⭑⭑] once per day each? Sold!
Demon Magic [⭑] (9, requires Pitborn) - Paranoia [⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑]) and Shatter [⭑] - a solid pass.
Devil Magic [⭑⭑] (9, requires Hellspawn) - Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and Misdirection [⭑]. Okayish i guess, but the funny part that Halfling’s Fade Away [⭑⭑⭑] feat gives exactly the same spell. I knew they were all evil!
Fiendish Wings [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (9) - an awesome option equal to two casts of level 4 Fly [⭑⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]). Fly speed is always nice.
Fiend’s Door [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (13) - i’ll take that Dimension Door [⭑⭑⭑⭑] any day, please and thank you.
Summon Fiendish Kin [-] (13) - Summon Fiend once per day. At this level the summon will be absolutely useless.
Fiendish Word [⭑] (17) - cast Divine Decree [⭑⭑] once per day? Really? I’ll pass.
Relentless Wings [!!!] (17, requires Fiendish Wings [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - - if you wanted to fly - now is the time to do it. Too bad it comes so late. This is unlimited flight that trumps all other types of magical flight - that's why it is here. Gold!
Beast Speaker [⭑⭑⭑] (U) (Animal Trainer 4) - permanent level 2 Speak with Animals [⭑⭑] with an added bonus to diplomacy is actually pretty decent in a rural campaign and can even be useful in a city.
Magical Scholastics [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Archaeologist 4) - a full explorer’s package here: Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Read Aura [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) and Guidance [⭑⭑] just for an added value. First two you will have to have to memorize/have anyway so you just got yourself a better Cantrip Expansion.
Greater Magical Scholastics [⭑⭑⭑] (Archaeologist 10) - Augury [⭑⭑⭑], Locate [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) and limited version of Nondetection [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - this archetype just keeps on giving. It is one Common way to get an Uncommon spell.
Warding Light [⭑] (Bright Lion 4) - Light [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) at will and auto heightened Gentle Repose [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑]) on your corpse when you die? Every fatalist out there should grab it. Apart from that it is marginally useful as there are plenty of light sources available and keeping your corpse safe from becoming undead is usually the least of your problems. While the feat itself is Common the dedication feat is Uncommon.
Simple Crystal Magic [⭑] (Crystal Keeper 6) - you gain Sigil [⭑] and Read Aura [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) as Arcane Innate spells. Duh! The archetype Dedication feat is also Rare.
Arcane Sensitivity [⭑] (Edgewatch Detective 6) - crappy version of Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) which you can only heighten to level 4 every 8 hours. The effect itself is not magical, which makes it slightly more interesting.While the feat is common the dedication is Uncommon and comes from an Agents of Edgewatch AP.
Eldritch Archer Dedication [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Eldritch Archer 6) - you can pick any attack roll cantrip from any tradition, which is nice, or add one cantrip to your list of already known ones and you get a bonus cantrip slot if you are a prepared caster. Overall prepared casters get a bonus here. Also, the unique spell delivery method and the way weapon proficiencies scale compared to spellcasting proficiencies make it quite a viable way of delivering your spells and you can actually get some critical strikes. Purple for prep casters and blue for spontaneous.
Dragon Arcana [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (Dragon Disciple 4) - you get all the Draconic Bloodline spells, which are quite awesome. Quite useless for Draconic Sorcerers, obviously, but most of them are buffs so any caster, not just Charisma-based one will benefit from them. Very nice.
Shape of the Dragon [⭑⭑⭑] (Dragon Disciple 14) - you gain Dragon Form [⭑⭑] which is auto heightened later, which is very nice. Also you can breath at people more often. Overall it is okay.
Mighty Dragon Shape [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Dragon Disciple 18, required Shape of the Dragon) - this one just improves Shape of the Dragon, but, effectively, it gives you up to 24 (if you don't rest) casts of level 9 spell per day. More often than not it will be 3-4 casts but still - impressive. If you picked Shape of the Dragon - pick this also.
Magical Adaptation [⭑⭑⭑] (Horizon Walker 10) - Darkvision [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑]), Spider Climb [⭑⭑], and Water Breathing [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) heightened to 4th level is quite a repertoire that can get you out of a lot of trouble. Pretty decent.
Judgment of the Monolith [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Living Monolith 12, requires Ka Stone Ritual) - prerequisite feat is Rare and Zone of Truth [⭑⭑⭑] (U) and Talking Corpse [⭑⭑⭑] (U) are Uncommon. Overall a nice addition. At will part makes it good.
Stone Communion [⭑⭑] (Living Monolith 14, requires Ka Stone Ritual) - prerequisite feat is Rare, Stone Tell [⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] (U) is an okayish spell. Ability to do it at will is it’s only redeeming quality.
Magical Edification [⭑] (Loremaster 4) - Guidance [⭑⭑], Message [⭑⭑] and Sigil [⭑] (3rd [⭑], 5th [⭑⭑], 7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]). Boring and not very useful.
Greater Magical Edification [⭑] (Loremaster 10, requires Magical Edification) - auto heightened Secret Page [⭑] is still junk and Mindlink [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] and Comprehend Language [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) are both situational and the latter is okay at most without heightening.
Magaambyan Attendant Dedication [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Magaambyan Attendant 2) - you gain single Arcane or Primal cantrip and you base it off Intellect or Wisdom respectively. It will be nice for non-Arcane intellect-based spellcasters (Witch, for example) and non-Primal wisdom based spellcasters (Cleric, anyone?).
Cascade Bearers Spellcasting [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Magaambyan Attendant 10) - more spells and now you can select spells from all the lists… I mean… really? Effectiveness is somewhat lessened by the fact that you probably already have access to one of those.
Nameless Anonymity [⭑⭑⭑] (Magic Warrior 6) - Nondetection [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) for a full adventuring day is pretty nice and it even levels up automatically, effectively giving you a free spell slot for a decent spell. It will not be as nice if you don't buff yourself with magic, that can be counteracted with scrying.
Wayfinder Resonance Tinkerer [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Pathfinder Agent 4) - get any single cantrip from any tradition. Absolutely insane for Charisma-based casters.
Westyr’s Wayfinder Repository [⭑] (Pathfinder Agent 6, requires pre existing 1st level spell slot and Wayfinder Resonance Tinkerer) - it gives you a free 1st level slot for a feat. Meh.
Wayfinder Resonance Infiltrator [⭑] (Pathfinder Agent 8, requires Wayfinder Resonance Tinkerer) - Illusory Disguise [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd[⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) once per day as a 2nd level spell and some minor features. Another meh.
Basic/Advanced Red Mantis Magic [⭑⭑] (Red Mantis Assassin 4/6) - you get access to Illusion and Transmutation spells from Arcane list up to level 4 plus some additional spells. Not bad, but nothing to write home about either.
Vernai Training (R) [⭑⭑⭑] (Red Mantis Assassin 12, requires Advanced Red Mantis Magic, Achaekek’s Grip) - you gain two spells from a limited list of very nice spells. I’d say it's a good addition to your arsenal. Requires a lot of feats though.
Runescarred Dedication [⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Runescarred 2) - one Arcane cantrip as Innate Arcane spell. Awesome for Charisma-based casters, okayish for everybody else.
Spell/Greater Spell Runes [⭑⭑] (Runescarred 4/10) - you gain several runes that allow you to cast one spell of each level from 1st to 6th capping at level 14. You can't change them, they are once per day. Not versatile enough.
Basic/Expert/Master Scroll Cache [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Scroll Trickster 6/12/18) - you get temporary scrolls every day, they come from nowhere and there is no specific place where you store you learnt spells so you just “know” them (all the wizards will die of envy right now). Funny thing is that you can learn a spell then make a scroll and write it down in your book later (if you're a wizard). Fun times. You can even give those scrolls out to other people. Overall only a low amount of scrolls per day keeps it from being purple.
Lore Seeker [⭑⭑⭑] (Scrollmaster 8) - gain the ability to cast Comprehend Language [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Restore Senses [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑]) and See Invisibility [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) as an Arcane Innate spells based off Intelligence, not Charisma, once per day. Decent but not awesome.
Magic Finder [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Scrollmaster 8) - several nice things here. First if you are a caster you add Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Read Aura [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) and Locate [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑])(only to find magic items, but that is good enough) to your tradition otherwise they Arcane and based of Intelligence. On top of that you get to counteract illusions while using those spells. Nice!
Cautious Delver [⭑] (Scrollmaster 10) - again we add spells to our tradition (or we add them as Arcane Intelligence-based). This time it is Dispel Magic [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], Knock [⭑⭑⭑] and Resist Energy [⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑], 7th [⭑⭑⭑]). Sadly, the way counteracting works the first two will become useless by the time you will get them. Avoid.
Determined Lore Seeker [⭑⭑⭑] (Scrollmaster 12, requires Lore Seeker) - first of all you get three casts of any spell granted by Lore Seeker [⭑⭑⭑]. You also get maximum heightening for Comprehend Language [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) and Restore Senses [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑]) and slight changes to the way See Invisibility [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) works. Overall it is okay but not sure if it is worth a feat.
Shadowdancer Dedication [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Shadowdancer 8) - while technically this feat gives no spells it supplies us with one of the rare few ways to get Greater Darkvision. Very good.
Hidden Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (Vigilante 4) - an automatic Magic Aura [⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) for all your items and the DC is based off Deception. Nice. It is actually better than the regular spell because you can increase the DC using items.
Arcane Sense [⭑⭑] (1, requires Trained in Arcana) - you technically get a Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) cantrip which heightens when you increase your proficiency. Too bad 4th heightening comes so late. Okayish for people who will rank up Arcana and bad for anyone else.
Halcyon magic is like the most broken thing one can imagine. You gain spells from multiple traditions (possibly all! traditions) as spells of either Arcane or Primal schools. You gain increases to spell rolls of one of these traditions up to Master. You gain spells up to the 7th level and they are spontaneous. I don't want to go into much detail here because someone will surely write a guide about it and I don't want to touch this pile of overpowered dung with a 10 ft pole. For those familiar with the first edition its Dreamed Secrets/Exploiter Wizard/Pact Wizard level of “broken”. Avoid it for the sake of fairness.
Blessed Blood [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (1) - you get up to three of your deities spells. Sounds nice, right? It becomes even nicer if you consider the fact that you can have this one on your Champion with Sorcerer Dedication for sweet sweet True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] or Haste [⭑⭑] (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]). The fact that there will be more deities with more spells makes it absolutely insane.
Crossblooded Evolution [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (8) - get any spell from any tradition and add it to yours. Extremely good.
Greater Crossblooded Evolution [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (18) - pity this one comes so late. Three(!) spells from any tradition. Insane.
Basic Lesson [⭑] (2) - this one heavily depends on the specific lesson. None of the spells here are worth much so you can pick one based on hexes. Maybe going for Mage Armor [⭑] (1st [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑]) if you are Divine or Primal.
Greater Lesson [⭑] (6) - while Chilling Darkness [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] is okay the rest is boring. Not worth it, unless you want the hex.
Major Lesson [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (10) - good for non-Divine casters, crap for Divine. The spells are nice so far. Raise Dead [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) is awesome.
Rites of Transfiguration [⭑] (14) - learn Baleful Polymorph [⭑] and gain ability to use it when you need it. Except you don't. Crap.
Deities provide Clerics with additional spells and some of them can be good or bad which largely depends on the type of Cleric you are playing. Also Divine Sorcerers can get access to three of the spells using Blessed Blood [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑].
Below are the items that give you spells directly or provide a reasonable substitute for casting spells.
0+: Staff Nexus Wizard Thesis Staff [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - you get a staff with one cantrip and one 1st level spell which you can then make into any other staff of your choosing provided you have the recipe. Awesome. Pair with True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (because it scales nicely) and ability to pump more charges into it thanks to Thesis and you can end people rightly all day long.
1: Everburning Torch [⭑⭑⭑] - sounds good on paper but requires a free hand. Better than nothing or a regular torch but much worse than Light [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]).
2: Hand of the Mage [⭑⭑⭑] - cheap and easy way to get a moderately useful cantrip (Mage Hand [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑]). 30g and it is yours.
2: Archaic Wayfinder [⭑⭑⭑] (U) - a nice storage for Stabilize [⭑⭑⭑⭑].and can save your friends in a pinch. Apart from that one cast of one cantrip is nothing major. Also Uncommon.
2: Wayfinder [⭑⭑] (U) - Light [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) is an okay thing to have but no heightening makes it so much worse. At least it is cheap.
3+: BullhookEC2 [⭑⭑] (U) - Command [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) spell usable only on animals once per day for 55 GP in addition to other effects. Greater version uses heightened command and costs 1900 GP. Probably not very useful outside Extinction Curse AP.
3+: Rope of Climbing [⭑⭑] (Moderate[⭑⭑], Greater [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - this rope possesses limited functionality of Animate Rope [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] spell. It is very useful but there is one problem - it can not be longer than 50 ft. So unless you can use it constantly - it wont allow you to climb high cliffs. One good thing here is that the Greater version gives you unlimited activations which makes it a very good investment for 300 GP.
3+: Staff of Fire [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - a cheap way to get a bonus damage cantrip (Produce Flame [⭑⭑⭑]) and a 1st level Burning Hands [⭑⭑⭑] for just 60g. You can only have one staff though.
3: Pendant of the Occult [⭑⭑⭑] (Greater [⭑⭑]) - Guidance [⭑⭑] is okay and Dream Message [⭑⭑⭑] granted by the Greater version is fine too. But the base variant is much more cost effective.
3+: Hat of the Magi [⭑⭑⭑] - you get Prestidigitation [⭑⭑⭑] and a +1 Arcana bonus. Not that bad for 50g. The upgraded version is hardly worth its price.
3+: Maestro’s Instrument [⭑] - bonus to Performance and Charm [⭑] once per day. Bad.
3+: Ventriloquist’s Ring [⭑⭑] - for 60 Gp you gain the ability to cast Ventriloquism [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑]) once per day and +1 to Deception. The upgraded version heightens it to level 2 and gives you unlimited usage for 670 GP and +2 to Deception. Not very useful but quite funny.
4+: Demon Mask [⭑⭑] - Fear [⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑]) is not that good so skip this one unless you want bonus to Intimidate checks.
4+: Staff of Healing [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] - any dedicated caster with healing spells should get this one. The spells it provides are all nice (except for those, which become irrelevant due to the way Counteract works) and the healing bonus is nothing to sneeze at either.
4+: Medicine Gloves [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - the effect is a nice heal and Medicine bonus is an extra. Buy them if you use Medicine on a regular basis.
4: Scroll Case of Simplicity (Arcane [⭑⭑], Divine [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Occult [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Primal [⭑⭑]) (U) - items usefulness depends on the type and the best are Divine and Occult due to fact that Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and Soothe [⭑⭑⭑⭑] are such a nice spells. Others are crap, more or less. The case allows you to turn useless scrolls into useful spells.
4: Shining Wayfinder [⭑] (U) - shining wayfinder that does not shine. Logic, eh? Grants Guidance [⭑⭑] at will but for two actions and Bless [⭑] once per day/ Mediocre at best.
4: Wayfinder of Rescue1-03 [⭑⭑⭑] (U) - 1st level Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑],is a ice thing to have and the price is not prohibitive. I am not sure if its addition to 1st level Light [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) or not.
5: Merchant’s Guile [⭑⭑] (U) - single object Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) is, funnily enough, quite nice and can be used with greater ease than the regular one. The cost is too high though.
5: Necklace of Fireballs [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] - looks nice - check. Can cast Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] - check. Awesome - definitely. Fantasy equivalent of a grenade bouquet.
5+: Goggles of Night [⭑⭑] (Greater [⭑⭑⭑], Major [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - +1 to Perception and 1 hour of Darkvision [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑]) (which is not a good spell, but nice ability to have) for 150 GP. Greater: +2 Perception and all-day Darkvision for 1250 GP. Major: +3 to Perception and all-day Greater Darkvision which you can't get via spells. Overall an awesome item for any character especially if Perception is used by you for Initiative. Pricing is the only issue. Greater Darkvision will cost you 20000 GP.
5: Ring of Minor Arcana [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - three cantrips, ranging from mandatory to moderately useful (Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Mage Hand [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑], Prestidigitation [⭑⭑⭑]) for 160g is nice.
5+: Skeleton Key [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (11th [⭑⭑⭑]) - provides a bonus to Thievery and allows you to ignore the need to carry around that Knock scroll. It is essentially a Wand of Knock, but costs 125 GP, not 160 and can be upgraded to be used once an hour (will cost 1250 then). Upgrade won’t be that useful unless you tend to find a lot of chests or locked doors.
5+: Holy Prayer Beads [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - both basic and greater versions are quite nice. Bless [⭑] and Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑] are good, but the upgraded version with a full set of Bless [⭑], Heal [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Divine Wrath [⭑⭑⭑], Neutralize Poison [⭑⭑] and Remove Disease [⭑⭑⭑⭑] is even better. The added effect is just a bonus.
5+: Spectacles of Understanding [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Greater [⭑⭑]) (U) - basic version gives you limited version of Comprehend Language [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) (writing only) but it applies to all languages an all that for a mere 130 GP. While the Greater version is nice, the price difference makes it too costly to use in my opinion.
5: Stalwart’s RingFoP [⭑⭑⭑] (U) - costs like a 2nd level wand but provides only half of False Life [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd+ [⭑]) hit points. The positive side is that anyone can use it.
5: Vanishing Pathfinder [⭑⭑⭑] (U) - Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] with half duraton once per day for almost the cost of 2nd level wand. Not that good - 5 minutes isn't much.
6+: Clandestine Cloak [⭑⭑⭑] - provides 1 hour of nondetection and some other benefits for 230 GP and 8 hours of 5th level Nondetection for 900 GP. Limited usefulness due to the inability to heighten the spell more.
6: Horn of Fog [⭑] - Obscuring Mist [⭑] every hour for a 230 GP. Too bad the spell sucks.
6: Pathfinder's Pouch [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - constant Magic Aura [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and you can also hide your books in an extradimensional space. Just slap Item Facade [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 3rd [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - it will be even more unassuming. All for 200 GP.
6+: Primeval Mistletoe [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑⭑] - gaining this early can save you money on runes. Base version grants you Shillelagh [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑⭑] once every 10 minutes which is pretty much every fight, works as a primal focus and you gain Tree Shape [⭑⭑] once per day as an added bonus. - all for 230g. Upgraded version allows you to cast Field of Life [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] (8th [?][⭑], 9th [⭑]) once per day. If you are in an undead-heavy campaign - it is a must.
6+: Staff of Divination [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - spells are all nice and useful and on top of that it can be a source of near-infinite casts of True Strike [⭑⭑⭑⭑]. Other spells are nice too. Too bad there is no Darkvision [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑]) heightened to level 5. Now have a melee weapon suited for a gish or just use with Disintegrate [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]. After Errata 2 you can not add property runes to staves so you can't use Shifting rune to modify the staff which means it's just blue now, not purple.
6+: Staff of Healing [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] - an awesome assortment of spells, all of which are useful. A bonus to healing done is just an extra. A must for every divine spellcaster and especially for Clerics.
7: Gloves of Storing [⭑⭑] (U) - Sadly it cannot be used to cast reaction spells from scrolls due to the fact that it's free action to retrieve the item has no Trigger entry. But it can be quite useful for a wand or something. Probably. Maybe. If you will be able to convince your GM to allow you to use reaction spells using those - it’s green (but it will be against RAW). And 340 GP is a rather steep price for an item that is at most just a convenience thing.
7: Greater Hat of Disguise [⭑⭑] - won’t allow you to impersonate others, but unlimited times/day is mighty fine. Price is rather steep though - 340g. At this point, it is probably better to get the spell.
7: Decanter of Endless Water [⭑⭑⭑] - a Wand of Create Water with unlimited charges per day and additional effect for 320 GP. Not bad for survival campaigns, especially if your party is large.
7: Slippers of Spider Climbing [⭑⭑⭑] - a decent way to get that sweet sweet climb speed when you need it for 325 GP.
7+: Cloak of Elvenkind [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (with Boots of Elvenkind [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) - this one is positively awesome for almost any character who wants to survive. Ghost Sound [⭑⭑⭑⭑] as an Arcane Innate spell for general misdirection, Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] once or twice per day (depending on whenever you have the matching boots or not) and upgraded version allows you to use Invisibility [⭑⭑⭑⭑] heightened to the 4th level to attack your enemies without them seeing you. A superb item that costs just a little bit more than two 2nd or 4th level wands respectively: 360 and 1750 GP.
7+: Ring of Wizardry [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - if you can get your hands on this baby - you just received the best possible wizard item. It is the cheapest way to get bonus slots and it provides an item bonus to Arcana. 360g is quite affordable for this beauty and the level 10 version and up gives you not two, but three slots. Insanity!
7: Dragon’s Eye CharmAoA2 [⭑] (U) - gives effects of several spells once per day but they are either quite weak or require constant Sustaining. It also requires a hand to hold it in which further limits its usefulness.
8+: Bracers of Armor [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - let’s see: +1 version costs 450 GP while the same runes together cost 500 GP, +2 is 4000 GP while runes together are 4500 and +3 is 60000 vs 70000. There is only one problem - you can not add property runes on those but you can put on regular explorers clothing with +1-2 potency rune and get decent results too.
9: Messenger’s Ring [⭑⭑] - you get +2 to Diplomacy, can cast Message [⭑⭑] at will for 700 gold, and a decent activation ability. The Greater version gives +3 Diplomacy and an ability to cast Sending [⭑⭑⭑⭑] every hour for 13500 GP.
9: Triton’s Conch [⭑⭑⭑] - provides effectively unlimited Water Breathing [⭑⭑⭑] and a bonus to swim checks, just do that Interact every minute. For 640 GP I say it’s a good trade, assuming it's not a spell effect, so it cant be dispelled. A good way to save a slot.
9: Bountiful CauldronAoA3 [⭑⭑] (U) - Create Food [⭑⭑][⭑⭑⭑] heightened to 4th level is nice and you will be able to feed a party of 12 or a smaller one with several animal companions. Stew it creates is a vegetable one so carnivores like cats or bears will not be thrilled. Bonus to crafting alchemical items potions and oils is nice. But not good enough. All for 680 GP.
9: DreamstoneAoA3 [⭑⭑] - casting a fourth level spell with Sleep trait or anything related to dreams is pretty good. It is almost as good as a wand with a few caveats: first of all, you need to have the spell memorized already - you can cast it twice now. Currently following spells can be used with it: Sleep [⭑] (4th [⭑⭑]) (one of the whole TWO spells with Sleep trait so far), Dream Message [⭑⭑⭑], Nightmare [⭑]. Really, that's what you get for 700 GP.
9: Dreadsmoke Thurible [⭑] (U) - Obscuring Mist [⭑] is bad as it is. Making it more restrictive makes it even worse. Junk for NPC villains.
9: Elemental Wayfinder (Air [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Earth [⭑⭑], Fire [⭑⭑⭑⭑], Water [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) (U) - these are all nice and provide both a decent spell and a decent effect, except Earth one. Stoneskin [⭑⭑⭑][⭑] is not that good and double digging speed? Only dwarves need apply.
9: Phylactery of Faithfulness [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - Augury [⭑⭑⭑] is an okay spell but no one gets this item to cast anything anyway. A nice thing to have anyway.
10: Grail of Twisted DesiresEC2 [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (Unique) - being Unique you will probably won't encounter this one in play. In any case, Restoration [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑], 6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) is awesome but the fact that you can not remove permanent Doomed condition with it and you need a chaotic party member to use it properly kinda spoils it a bit.
10: Cape of the Mountebank [⭑⭑⭑] - Dimension Door [⭑⭑⭑⭑] once per day is pretty nice and the bonus to Deception is quite good too. 980 GP is a steep price though.
10: Demon Mask [⭑⭑] (Greater) - Fear [⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑]) is not that good on a basic 85GP version, but a greater version with 3rd level one and a DC of 29 is better. Costs 900 GP though.
10: Ring of Lies [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - 850 GP for an ability to cast silenced and stilled version of Glibness [⭑⭑⭑] and +2 to Deception. Very nice for social-heavy campaigns.
10: Cloak of the Bat [⭑] - fly speed or Pest Form [⭑] once per day for 10 minutes. Costs too much, comes too late and a wand will be 6 times cheaper. Trash.
10+: Thurible of Revelation [⭑] - lesser one has no spell-like effects. Standard one gets you See Invisibility [⭑⭑] for one round once a day and True Seeing [⭑⭑⭑] once a day for an upgraded version. Pretty bad.
10: Winged Boots [⭑⭑] - Feather Fall once every 10 minutes without the need to use reaction and fly speed of 30 ft once per day for 10 minutes. Nice but not for 850 GP.
11: Boots of Elvenkind, Greater [⭑] - constant Pass Without Trace [⭑⭑] (2nd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) in woods is nice, but what you need those for is to give your Cloak of Elvenkind [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (with Boots of Elvenkind [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑]) a boost. So use a 145 GP version and don’t bother upgrading. 1,250 GP is too much unless you are in an area with many forests and are a dedicated scout.
11: Crafters Eyepiece, Greater [⭑⭑⭑] - Creation [⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑]) once a day heightened to level 5. Not bad, but creation itself is not that good.
11: Quill of Passage [⭑] (U) - Passwall [⭑⭑] (U) (7th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) once per day is nice but the fact that you can not heighten it is not. Marginally useful for 1200 GP.
11+: Ring of Maniacal Devices [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - apart from being a nice item on its own ability to cast Glyph of Warding [⭑⭑⭑⭑][⭑] with Fireball [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] inside once a day makes it a great defense mechanism for your camp. Upgraded version scales nicely and increases the price from 1,175 GP to 4,250 GP.
12+: Marvelous Medicines [⭑] - Remove Disease [⭑⭑⭑⭑] and Neutralize Poison [⭑⭑] are nice but useless without heightening. Standard and Greater versions are both useless in that regard. Crap. Bonus to medicine makes it okay but too costly in my opinion.
12: Hummingbird Wayfinder [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - a regular wayfinder with an added bonus. Prying Eye [⭑⭑⭑⭑] but with a visible bird. Unless the environment is actively hostile to small flying creatures it can probably blend in nicely. Overall a nice item and once per hour activations is an added bonus.
13+: Medusa’s Scream [⭑] - this shield would not be so bad if not for the fact that the DC is bad for both versions and it becomes irrelevant at level 18 and onward. And for Flesh to Stone [⭑⭑] to work properly the target needs to fail several saves.
14: Rod of Negation [⭑] - having an item that an cast Dispel Magic [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] up to 12 times a day sounds nice, but it's a 6th level spell and counteract modifier of +23. Let's do our math for level 14. 14 from level, 4 form proficiency and 5 from main ability equals 23. At level 15 dedicated casters receive master in their respective traditions and the gap becomes huge. Overall this item will be relevant for 1-2 levels tops. Not worth it unless you gain it for free.
15: Demilich Eye Gem [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (R) - it is basically a wand with no spellcasting limitations which you can not activate more than once per day but it's cheap. An awesome (and rare) item.
17: Cauldron of NightmaresAoE5 [⭑] (R) - works on creatures of level 15 and lower, the creature you create will be quite weak, Fear [⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑]) is not that good too. Nice fluff but useless overall.
17: Daredevil Boots, Greater [⭑] - Freedom of Movement [⭑⭑⭑] once per day is pretty nice, but the price is 10k GP more than the price of the basic one (14,000 vs 900 GP) and only other difference is a slightly higher bonus to Acrobatics and Tumble Through. Not good enough. 4th level wand will cost you 700 GP.
17: Voyager’s Pack [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] (U) - combine Bag of Holding with the ultimate means of transportation: Plane Shift [⭑⭑⭑] (U) and Teleport [!!!] (U). Price is more than manageable for a party - 14,800 GP. Just give it to someone with a good Survival rating.
17: Dread Blindfold [⭑] - Darkvision, autofrighten and Phantasmal Killer [⭑] once per day on top. An ok thing at most.
17: Robe of Eyes [⭑⭑⭑⭑] - constant See Invisibility [⭑⭑] (5th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), a variant of Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (3rd [⭑⭑⭑], 4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) and Prying Eye [⭑⭑⭑⭑] at will. Not without its issues but the sheer amount of things this piece of equipment does is quite amazing.
18: Clockwork RejuvenatorAoE5 [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] () - like Breath of Life [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] but better. Yes, the cost is quite steep but you can use it even after death and if you are out of reactions. It also provides a nice heal afterwards. Slap it on your resident Cleric and keep it there so you can just activate it when needed. Too bad it's from AP and Rare.
19: Third Eye [⭑⭑⭑] - this one will cost you an arm and a leg (40000! GP) but provides constant Detect Magic [⭑⭑⭑] (4th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]) heightened to level 9 which allows you to perceive all auras, not just the strongest, allows you to see hit points and afflictions of anyone and once per day you can cast True Seeing. I’m not sure if it is worth it or not, but the item is an interesting one at least.
19: Mask of the Banshee, Greater [⭑⭑] - Wail of the Banshee [⭑⭑⭑⭑] is a nice spell but 35000 GP is a bit too much.
19: Locket of Sealed NightmaresEC6 [⭑⭑⭑] (R) - no need to sleep - nice. Ability to cast 9th level Hallucination [⭑⭑⭑] (6th [⭑⭑⭑⭑], 8th [⭑⭑⭑⭑]), Sleep [⭑] (4th [⭑⭑]) or Weird [⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑] once per day is also quite nice.The price is abysmal though.
20: Planar RibbonEC6 [⭑] (Unique) - Scrying [⭑⭑⭑] (U) is nice and ability to swap places is even nicer but the cost is prohibitive.
20: Ring of Recalcitrant WishesAoE6 [⭑⭑⭑] (R) - you can make a selfless Wish [!!!]. Sorry, prince Ali, this is not the Genie you were looking for. At least it costs close to nothing.
20: Ring of Spell Turning [⭑⭑⭑⭑] (R) - a better version of Spell Turning [⭑⭑⭑] (U) which is quite nice. Counteract modifier is as high as one can get at level 20. A very nice and very costly thing.
20: Whisper of the First Lie [⭑⭑] - I will not discuss basic qualities of this item, but to pay 60,000 GP to cast Fabricated Truth [⭑] once is quite insane. DC is great though - no other way to get 47 by any other means.