Encyclopaedia Arcanum: FedoraFerret’s Guide to Spells

Spellcasting has always been one of the coolest aspects of fantasy roleplaying games. After all, we’re here to do awesome things we can’t do in real life, and I don’t know about you but I for one can’t shoot lightning from my fingertips (no matter how many times I’ve tried). The balance of spells has been tumultuous over the editions, usually on the side of “I eventually just win the game by existing,” but as with many things PF2 broke out the bat and aimed for the knees with spells. That’s not to say spells are bad now, but they’re definitely a shadow of their former ludicrousness. Except cantrips. God damn are cantrips awesome. A day before the time of writing this I saw an electric arc do 50 damage to one target and that’s more than a lot of PF1 spells ever even approach.

The question of how to tackle spells and spellcasters in my guides has been a difficult one, but writing a guide to all spells will not only let me skip having to do it six times (counting the APG classes, not even thinking of the classes to come over the years), but it will let me go into far greater detail on them. So without further ado, let’s take a look at magic.

Special Mentions: Big thanks to my friends Dylan and Brandon for between them playing three of the four spell lists and giving me a lot of insight on a lot of spells, and to /u/PioVIII over on Reddit for suggesting adding the spell lists to each entry.

The Ratings Guide

Five Stars (*****) Best in class, hands down, if you just want the most optimal thing you can possibly get then this is it, this is the option.

Four Stars (****) Very, very good thing, this is a very compelling option or a very compelling facet of an option that should make you want to take it.

Three Stars (***) Solid, but not particularly thrilling. Generally reserved for things that are average, that are worth taking but not necessarily going out of your way for.

Two Stars (**) Not actively bad, but inferior. There are better options for the thing you want to do here. Normally this rating in my guides also denotes situational options, but we’re playing around with the format.

One Star (*) This means that the option is bad. Very often, I personally imagine I will be going back and upgrading a one-star to a two-star because someone pointed out a reason someone might find it valuable. If it’s one-star, that means that I, the author of this guide, cannot fathom any possible reason someone would want to choose this over another option.

Battle Forms and Summoning

Self-transmutation and summoning are cool concepts, but they’re also concepts that require a lot more depth than I can cover in this guide. In the coming months I’ll be publishing guides to both of these types of spells, examining all of the various options you have for them, but we’ll be passing over them here. If you’re interested in them, I’ll tell you that battle forms are generally good, and summoning favors outsiders with magic over animals or other beatstick type creatures.

Spell Categories

More than anything, spells are incredibly varied in terms of what they do and why you would take them. It would be incredibly reductive for me to just say, for instance, that both invisibility and acid arrow are three star spells when that doesn’t really tell you much about them relative to each other. To that end, I’m going to be giving every spell multiple ratings based on the various categories and uses they fall into. For most categories, I’m not going to be looking at how generally useful the spell is, but instead at how good it is at the thing it’s intended to do. The categories are as follows:

Blast: The classics. Shocking grasp, burning hands, fireball, lightning bolt, acid arrow; any spell that does damage will get a Blast rating. As a general rule of thumb I’m just going to be comparing damage dice, potential number of targets and potential for collateral, but it’s worth noting that fire and poison will get a small penalty to its rating because everyone and their mother resists or is immune to them, while sonic and force will get a small bump for the opposite reason. I’m sticking one subcategory underneath the main Blast category, which is Execute. Executes are those spells that just straight up kill the target, or otherwise completely remove them from a battle, usually permanently but sometimes temporarily.

Control: Control is one of the best roles a spellcaster can take on, in large part because control spells never fall off. Most 1st level control spells will be just as good at level 20 as they were at level 1. Control comes in three variants: Area Control, which creates adverse terrain, Debuffs, which inflict negative conditions, and Domination, which actively controls enemy actions. I’ll be calling them out by subcategory. Many control spells have the Incapacitation tag, which increases the degree of success by 1 for any creature of double the spell level or more, which is, being honest, most enemies you face that are worth your highest level spells. As such, any Incapacitation spell gets docked a star.

Support: Support spells aid allies. Haste, heroism, stoneskin, etc. all focus on empowering your friends and making them stronger (or yourself, if you’re feeling selfish). Support, like Control, has two subcategories; Buffs make up the spells I mentioned before as well as the vast bulk, while Healing will be addressed separately, because a spell can both heal and buff with the buff not being fantastic.

Utility: This refers to the spell’s value out of combat. Spells that aid skill checks, reduce travel time, provide vision, or otherwise assist the party for things other than killing the bad guy faster or getting killed less fast.

Versatility: This category isn’t about how how you use a spell, but how much. A spell like knock is fantastic for exactly one purpose, whereas you can always have a use for fireball or guidance. We all know my opinion on niche, situational options, but I’m taking advantage of this expanded format to go into more details about how the option is at the niche that it fills. If something has a high rating in one category but low in versatility, that means it’s really good at the one thing it’s meant to do, not necessarily for every situation. This is an odd exception to the rating’s system too, because 1 star doesn’t necessarily mean it’s garbage, only that it’s so situational you would have to know for a fact you’re going to run into its use case to justify taking it. One star spells aren’t necessarily worth overlooking, though, because they can (and I’ll mention it where applicable) make for useful scrolls, especially lower level ones.

Alright. We have our ratings system in place, let’s start discussing spells, shall we?

Clerical Note: If I refer to Level 3, I’m talking about character level. If I refer to 3rd level, I’m talking about the spell level. A pox on Gygax for making those things the same word.

Table of Contents

Volume 1 (Introduction, Cantrips, and 1st-level spells)

Volume 2 (2nd-level spells)

Volume 3 (3rd-level spells)

Volume 4 (4th-level spells)

Volume 5 (5th-level spells)

Volume 6 (6th- and 7th-level spells)

Volume 7 (8th-, 9th- and 10th-level spells)

Cantrips

Acid Splash (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (**), Versatility (**)

Acid splash is unfortunately the weakest of the elemental damage cantrips. No static damage at level 1 and heightening at half the speed of the others is pretty bad. It has one primary benefit in proccing splash weakness, which basically makes it a swarm-killer, but even then the static damage at level 1 on your other cantrips will cover that, and their faster scaling will easily outpace the extra splash damage. While it’s not completely unusable by comparison, it does roughly keep up with the damage of other cantrips, you’re better off with produce flame for an SAR and electric arc for raw damage output.

Chill Touch (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Blast (**), Debuff (**), Versatility (***)

Chill touch provides negative energy damage on a cantrip, a very neutral damage type that applies to all living enemies pretty equally. Cool, except for that pesky touch range. If you’re willing to burn all three actions on it, a reach chill touch will provide reliable damage. On the control side, we’re looking for a critical failure for any kind of substantial effect (I do not count “make them flatfooted” as substantial given that condition is a dime a dozen.), making it subpar if not without use.

Dancing Lights (Arcane, Occult, Primal)

Utility (***), Versatility (**)

A classic spell for exploration, dancing lights took quite a bit of a nerf bat because of a sustained duration. It essentially means that you don’t want to use it as a close range light source, because if combat breaks out you’ll need to burn an action every round or lose your light. That’s not to say it isn’t without its uses, though; in conjunction with a torch it can be used for long range scouting of dark places.

Daze (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Blast (***), Versatility (**)

Daze is significantly weaker in terms of damage than any of its counterparts, even acid splash, but it makes up for it by being a reliable source of nonlethal damage specifically. The versatility rating holds it back in two ways: one, creatures that are immune to mental effects, of which there are many; and two, how your GM handles nonlethal damage is vitally important to this spell. RAW, nonlethal damage is pretty hit or miss; many GMs, including myself, will houserule nonlethal to work more like PF1 where if a significant portion of the damage a creature’s taken has been nonlethal, they’re knocked out instead of killed. If this is the case, it’s a pretty good spell. Otherwise, meh.

Detect Magic (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (***), Versatility (**)

Detect magic has two primary uses in this game. The first is figuring out you’ve looted a magic item, although this requires doing funky shenanigans with rotating the items in and out of range until you hit 7th level and can isolate the magical auras. The second is that you can cast it as an exploration activity, letting you pick up the presence of magic as you go and possibly use your associated caster skill for your initiative.

Disrupt Undead (Divine, Primal)

Blast (***), Versatility (**)

A bit more oomph than other damage cantrips at the cost of only working on undead. Fortunately that’s a common enough enemy to justify keeping this in your back pocket, especially with the more limited cantrip selection of divine casters.

Divine Lance (Divine)

Blast (***), Versatility (**)

Much like disrupt, only working on certain enemies. Generally speaking, if you have a good deity it’s worth picking up, lawful or chaotic is unreliable but not the worst, and evil is not worthwhile at all unless you’re in an evil campaign.

Electric Arc (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (*****), Versatility (***)

The best damage cantrip in the game, bar none. Do twice as much damage as any other cantrip and it’s save based so you still have an effect on a “bad” roll (bad for you anyway). I’ve seen this spell do more than 60 damage. 60. From a cantrip. God, what a world we live in. Anyway, not much to comment on here, this is your big damage spell.

Forbidding Ward (Divine, Occult)

Buff (****), Versatility (****)

This can be used in literally every combat, putting it as one of the best cantrips a divine or occult caster can pick up, especially if you favor support and defense over offense. This boosts anything an enemy can throw at your ally, and the sustained duration makes it easy to keep going in a boss fight.

Ghost Sound (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (**)

An illusion with no chance to disbelieve. As a long time fan of illusion magic I approve. This is primarily good for distraction, although its combat utility is limited leaving it mostly for the old standby of “make the guards go somewhere else so you can sneak by them/bait them into your trap.” The only downside is with a verbal component you would need to use Silent Spell, particularly if you’re close to the people you’re trying to trick.

Guidance (Divine, Occult, Primal)

Buff (***), Versatility (****)

A +1 to any check is sweet, and it has both in- and out-of-combat use, which is really nice. The hour cooldown is a bit annoying, but my experience thusfar is that the 15 minute adventuring day has died a horrific death, so it’s not the worst thing in the world, you just can’t spam it.

Know Direction (Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (**), Versatility (**)

Know where north is. Yay. The 7th level heighten is a bit more useful for getting your bearings, but I’ve never run into an issue with finding north before.

Light (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (****), Versatility (***)

Light does one thing, but it does that one thing well. Typically your front liner is going to not have any hands available for a torch unless they’re a monk or natural attacker (even an einhander fighter needs to keep that hand free), so the light spell will provide it for you.

Mage Hand (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (**), Versatility (****)

Mage hand’s uses haven’t changed since PF1, with the exception that you can now lift magic items. Pick things up at range, fiddle with puzzles, etc. A creative individual can come up with a million and one uses for it, but those uses are mostly going to be parlor tricks or mildly useful rather than super valuable.

Message (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (****)

A very utilitarian spell, message has one use and one use only: silent, long range communication. Can be useful in any kind of setting or situation, from combat to stealth operations to cocktail parties.

Prestidigitation (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (*), Versatility (*)

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Once known as least wish, prestidigitation has had its capabilities restricted even further to only four marginally useful things. Though situations like the apocryphal “cleaning the blood off an altar to interrupt the apocalypse ritual” can still show up as well as the ever-popular “clean ourselves off after leaving the sewers” and “make our hard tack not suck”, presti is now more of a flavorful party trick than anything else.

Produce Flame (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (***), Versatility (**)

While produce flame has probably the best critical effect, it also suffers from being the worst damage type. There are plenty of good fire spells that you don’t need to pack this, use this slot on a better damage type.

Ray of Frost (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (****), Debuff (**), Versatility (***)

Here, on the other hand, is a spell attack cantrip with a good damage type, but not a great critical effect. If you’re looking for an energy-based spell attack roll, particularly as a primal caster, this is a little better than produce flame.

Read Aura (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (**), Versatility (*)

Hampered by the simple fact that detect magic does it better. At level 7, when detect becomes a 4th level spell, it can determine the presence of ten magic auras in one minute, same as read aura’s 3rd level, but if there are any duds in the ten items you chose, detect will isolate them faster than read. The only advantage is the 6th level read can get a ton of loot all at once, but if you’ve got a dragon hoard to sort through, you can probably afford the time.

Shield (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Buff (****), Versatility (***)

Self-buffs count. Shield is a life saver. Like, a literal life saver, as in my character has lived through something only because she cast shield. +1 AC and an ever scaling one-shot damage reduction, especially given that casters tend to be light on reactions to take, is a huge boon. If you aren’t taking this the only reason should be because you already have shield proficiency.

Sigil (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (*), Versatility (*)

Magical graffiti. Woo. Flavorful, but this guide is dedicated to mechanical value, not flavorful. There are some use cases, I’ll give it that, but nothing that can’t be done with a bit of paint.

Stabilize (Divine, Primal)

Healing (***), Versatility (**)

This game. Is. Deadly. And you will almost definitely run into situations where an ally is dying and you’re out of spells. Eventually Medicine can be an almost guarantee of stabilizing a target (an actual guarantee if you have Assurance, given that by level 2 trained Medicine with Assurance can’t fail to stabilize a target), but until you hit that point stabilize is a must-have spell.

Tanglefoot (Arcane, Primal)

Control (***), Versatility (**)

Tanglefoot is an odd duck of a spell in that its usefulness is entirely dependent on how far from you your enemy is. If you win initiative and your friends probably lost, tanglefoot can waste scores of actions… unless they’re close enough the 10 feet doesn’t matter, in which case you’re praying for the crit. On the other hand, critically hitting a flying creature with it also has the benefit of potentially making them fall, so it’s still a worthwhile spell to cast.

Telekinetic Projectile (Arcane, Occult)

Blast (****), Versatility (****)

This right here is the best spell attack roll cantrip and the second best damage cantrip, boasting a hefty damage die and not one, not two, but three damage types to choose from, guaranteeing you can hit any physical damage type weakness and ignore any resistance that isn’t just all physical damage.

1st Level

Acidic Burst (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (***), Versatility (**)

The damage on acidic burst is decent but the self-centered emanation is a little unwieldy. Not a bad pickup for martials looking for an innate or multiclass spell though.

Agitate (Arcane, Occult)

Blast (***), Domination (***), Versatility (***)

A fantastic spell to grab, particularly if you have a fighter in the party. You’re either doing a fairly decent amount of damage with no basic save, or you’re burning an action from them that provokes a reaction. Occupies a similar space to command, but without the linguistic trait and with better degrees of success (and the possibility of damage if they’re stubborn).

Acidic Burst (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (***), Versatility (**)

The damage on acidic burst is decent but the self-centered emanation is a little unwieldy. Not a bad pickup for martials looking for an innate or multiclass spell though.

Agitate (Arcane, Occult)

Blast (***), Domination (***), Versatility (***)

A fantastic spell to grab, particularly if you have a fighter in the party. You’re either doing a fairly decent amount of damage with no basic save, or you’re burning an action from them that provokes a reaction. Occupies a similar space to command, but without the linguistic trait and with better degrees of success (and the possibility of damage if they’re stubborn).

Acidic Burst (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (***), Versatility (**)

The damage on acidic burst is decent but the self-centered emanation is a little unwieldy. Not a bad pickup for martials looking for an innate or multiclass spell though.

Agitate (Arcane, Occult)

Blast (***), Domination (***), Versatility (***)

A fantastic spell to grab, particularly if you have a fighter in the party. You’re either doing a fairly decent amount of damage with no basic save, or you’re burning an action from them that provokes a reaction. Occupies a similar space to command, but without the linguistic trait and with better degrees of success (and the possibility of damage if they’re stubborn).

Air Bubble (Arcane, Divine, Primal)

Buff (**), Utility (***), Versatility (*)

The reaction speed is nice, but the spell’s use condition is so niche that preparing or learning it is a waste. You would need to a) know that someone is going to be unable to breathe and b) know that they’ll only need the effect for a minute. In other words, you’ve prepared stinking cloud or cloudkill or some other spell that’s going to ruin the air around an area.

Alarm (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (****), Versatility (**)

A very useful spell when you think it will be needed, especially as your 1st level spells become less and less valuable and the stuff you have to haul around becomes more. Probably something I might get a wand of more than I would want to prepare though.

Ant Haul (Arcane, Primal)

Utility (***), Versatility (*)

Honestly, if you’re at the point where you don’t have someone physically strong enough to carry something even with their Strength modifier and a backpack, buy a pack horse. This might be worth shelling out for a scroll or two of, but I wouldn’t waste my time learning or preparing it.

Anticipate Peril (Arcane, Occult)

Buff (**), Versatility (**)

Don’t get me wrong, a bonus to initiative is great, but you can very easily end up sidetracked on the way to the next fight for more than 10 minutes, which would waste the spell, and honestly a +1 isn’t worth that risk. Not a terrible use of your 1st level spells when you get to higher level though.

Bane (Divine, Occult)

Debuff (***), Versatility (**)

A very solid debuff for a melee caster, putting this on yourself before walking into combat will knock down enemy hit bonuses. The sustain makes a solid third action every turn, widening the area and forcing more saves. Although there’s no effect on a save, you get multiple chances to trigger it, making that less of an issue.

Befuddle (Arcane)

Debuff (***), Versatility (***)

Only 1 round of effects but what a round it is. You’ve hit their AC, their Reflex and Will saves, their spell DCs, possibly ruined their casting, and if you’re very lucky made them attack their enemy. Most importantly, you do this even on a success. I would say fear is the better general 1st-level debuff spell, but befuddle is up there.

Bless (Divine, Occult)

Buff (***), Versatility (***)

The inverse of bane, bless serves a similar space in being primarily for melee casters, although you can do it from more of a mid-ranged support casting space. Unlike bane, there is no save, just pop it and go, meaning that as long as your allies are still within the sphere you don’t have to keep expanding it (although that option is available to you). If you have a bard it’s less valuable since it doesn’t stack with inspire courage, but otherwise it’s a very solid 1st level buff.

Burning Hands (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (**), Versatility (**)

Cones, and really any self-centered indiscriminate AoE (meaning an AoE that hits allies as well as enemies) are difficult to aim. On top of that we’re looking at only 2d6 fire damage (per level, but that really only matters for 1st and 2nd level because at 3rd fireball becomes the better option), which is about 7 points per target. The only thing burning hands has going for it is that it doesn’t have much competition for 1st level AoE, but later on as a blaster you’re better off prepping more utility or support stuff in 1st level and leaning on 3rd level and higher spells.

Charm (Arcane, Occult, Primal)

Domination (*), Utility (**), Versatility (*)

Charm is a great spell for getting information from people who don’t want to talk, getting into places you’re not supposed to be, and getting favors from mooks. Unfortunately, the incapacitation tag means you have to use higher and higher level spell slots to get any use out of it, and all of the various restrictions make it borderline unusable in combat. Hence, the versatility rating: you should prepare charm as a preparation for a specific task, but packing extras that you might use is a waste of space.

Chilling Spray (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (**), Debuff (**), Versatility (**)

It’s like a worse burning hands with some control thrown in. You’re giving up an average of two damage per level with a damage type that’s only one tier above fire, and the Speed penalty is kind of irrelevant in most casts unless you’re trying to run away. Another spell that’s not bad on a diiping martial but not great on a full caster if they have other blasting options.

Color Spray (Arcane, Occult)

Debuff (***), Versatility (**)

Oh incapacitation, how I hate thee. Fortunately, color spray is less limited than charm in how it’s applied. A 1st level shot of it from level 2 or 3 onwards effectively has the failure condition of dazzled for 1 round and critical failure of stunned 1, blinded for 1 round and dazzled for 1 minute, and that’s still solid even if there’s no effect on a success.

Command (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Domination (****), Versatility (****)

No success effect is annoying, but the failure and critical failure are legitimately worth it for all the various things you can do with it. Reposition the enemy, disarm them, trip them. Stand still is the worst choice, if you’re doing that you might as well tanglefoot them for all the actions it’s likely to waste (especially since Drop Prone ruins their mobility just as much), but the other four options are all great, and if you get the critical failure condition, all the better (also efficient, depending on your GM. I have them spend actions being able to do the thing if they can’t and would still have actions left, such as dropping their weapon, picking it up, and then dropping it again. This, of course, provokes AoOs).

Create Water (Arcane, Divine, Primal)

Utility (***), Versatility (*)

Remember when this was a cantrip? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Realtalk if you’re traveling this will solve any water concerns you might have and as a 1st level spell it’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s never going to be a default prep. I still recommend it go in every wizard’s spellbook though, you never know when you’re going to be dropped into a desert.

Detect Alignment (Divine, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (**)

The 1st level version is so unhelpful as to be useless, but the 2nd level version has potential. If you know you’re in a room with a murderer or a hidden cleric of Norgober/Ghlaunder/etc., pop detect alignment and see who pings. Not sure about the mayor of the town who’s oddly blasé about people vanishing and is instead very insistent you go deal with the bandits way outside of town? I sure was, and I would’ve liked to have this spell handy. Something to consider having in your pocket if your regular 2nd level preps start falling off.

Detect Poison (Divine, Primal)

Utility (***), Versatility (**)

This spell has one use, and one use only, but damned if that isn’t a good use. Another one that’s worth keeping in your pocket for when you’re offered food or drink by a shady character.

Disrupting Weapons (Divine)

Blast (***), Buff (***), Versatility (**)

Another pocket pick, this is one that I wouldn’t bother heightening. In the early game an extra 1d4 on all of your friends’ attacks will be plenty, and in the later game increasing that to 2d4 isn’t going to make enough of a difference to justify a 3rd level spell (and really you’re probably just looking to proc positive weakness). As a 1st level spell, though, very good, especially if you expect to be fighting undead.

Endure (Arcane, Occult)

Healing (***), Versatility (**)

Temporary hit points aren’t real healing but it fills the same space so I’ll take it. Endure is a good spell to pick up if you’re going to be on the front lines, whether as a martial or simply a close range caster, if only for the action economy.

Fear (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Debuff (*****), Versatility (***)

A universally available debuff with a linear but very lovely progression on the degrees of success, inflicting what is in my opinion the second best basic debuff in the game (the best is sickened). This is one of the few cases of an offensive spell where I think the heightened version is a top contender for “best in class for the level” as well, because five targets will hit an entire encounter’s worth of enemies at once and that’s just straight value is what that is.

Feather Fall (Arcane, Primal)

Utility (**), Versatility (**)

Falling sucks, but the deadliness of a fall drastically falls off (hah) as your level, and by extension your hp, goes up. It’s not quite as ridiculous as in PF1, where my barbarian once got yeeted off a 200 foot high castle tower, stood up, brushed off her shoulders, activated her celestial armor and flew back into combat without remotely caring, but being honest she would still survive that fall easily, it’d just hurt more. On top of that there are a lot more ways to mitigate fall damage, including the Grab the Edge reaction. Not without its uses, particularly in the early game, but there are better utility spells out there.

Fleet Step (Arcane, Primal)

Buff (***), Utility (**), Versatility (****)

Speed is king in this system. This is best suited towards a melee caster, as they’re most likely to need to reposition quickly, but the back lines caster will still enjoy being able to get away from enemies that slip past the defenses, cut off enemy escape routes, or just enjoy the utility benefits of going fast.

Floating Disk (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (*), Versatility (*)

Much like ant haul, I think this spell exists to solve a problem that 90% of PCs don’t have. I also think ant haul is the better solution to that problem, because of the limitations on what you can even put on floating disk.

Goblin Pox (Arcane, Primal)

Debuff (****), Versatility (****)

Remember how I mentioned sickened being the best debuff? Goblin pox is only held back compared to fear because of its touch range and the lack of a heightened multi-target, but the former is solved with Reach Spell and the latter doesn’t matter at 1st level. If you’re an arcane debuffing specialist, those are your two best choices in level.

Grease (Arcane, Primal)

Area Control (***), Debuff (***), Versatility (****)

Gotta love the classics. The area version of grease works like it always did, knocking people prone and otherwise inconveniencing their positioning desires. I’m actually more in favor of the targeted version, which is functionally equivalent to the Disarm action, but you only have to do it once and also it doesn’t suck. I’m a big fan of this for generalist types, a very well rounded control spell.

Grim Tendrils (Arcane, Occult)

Blast (***), Versatility (***)

Lines, as a contrast to cones, are very easy to aim to avoid friendly fire, although getting enemies into a proper Lightning Bolt Formation is a bit harder than grouped up for a cone. We’re looking at another 2d4 damage, this time negative (making it neutral to everything except undead). The bleed damage… exists, but it’s negligible enough not to care.

Gust of Wind (Arcane, Primal)

Area Control (**), Blast (**), Utility (****), Versatility (***)

The combat application of this spell is moderately good, knock enemies in a line prone and absolutely waste flying enemies. It does a little damage, a little knockdown, a little control. Where it really shines is in the utility. Fog spells? Get out. Have you ever really thought about how often you need to deal with things being on fire? Because I and everyone else who preps this spell have definitely noticed. One particularly fun and creative use I’ve seen was people jumping in the same direction and intentionally critically failing to add 30 feet to their leap and clear a gap.

Harm (Divine)

Blast (***), Versatility (****)

The bread and butter blast spell for divines, particularly a large number of clerics. I’m a big fan of variant-action spells, but unlike its brother below, heal, I think the best use of harm is the 1 or 3 action version (depending on how many enemies you have, how many allies you can exclude, and what kind of caster you are). In particular, for a melee caster using harm as your third action is a really solid use. Also worthwhile to heighten at multiple levels if you don’t have a font to just get it at max level (or even if you do, to be honest).

Heal (Divine, Primal)

Healing (*****), Versatility (****)

You will want this spell. Guaranteed. Someone will be brought to the brink of 0, and you’ll be grateful you had it (clerics, being #blessed, get them for free and are lucky bastards for it). Use on action for efficient action economy, two for maximum single target healing, three to heal everyone. As with harm, get multiple levels of prep whether you have a font or not.

Hydraulic Push (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (***), Area Control (***), Versatility (****)

A pretty sweet basic shoot’em spell, the knockback will get enemies away from you or knock them off high places. All in all, a pretty decent single target damage spell.

Ill Omen (Occult)

Debuff (***), Versatility (***)

The inverse of true strike, you do give them a save and it annoyingly has no effect on a success (you’d think it would at least give a -1 to their next check or something), but the failure result is a potential life saver and on a critical failure it can ruin an enemy’s entire round. If it weren’t for no effect on the save this would be 4*, but oh well.

Illusory Disguise (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (**)

Illusory disguise is inherently a spell of deception, even more than any other illusion. As such, its primary use and value to you will depend on your character, what kind of stuff they’re willing to pull, and how well they can pull it off. I can tell you my illusionist is a big fan, but it is a very character specific type of spell.

Illusory Object (Arcane, Occult)

Area Control (****), Utility (***), Versatility (***)

Illusory object is one of the best area control spells you can get at 1st level and in the entire game, don’t @ me, because it can be anything. Need to escape? Make a fake wall of stone. Abominable snowmen? Heighten that baby to 2nd level for some crackling and heat and toss a bonfire in their way. Need a distraction? Think of the most distracting thing your brain can come up with, and make it. Massively nerfed from PF1’s silent image line, but still really good, especially if you make things like walls that enemies have no reason to touch or examine (and even if you do, a) disbelieving still provides cover and b) you still just wasted an action on their part).

Item Facade (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (**), Versatility (**)

I don’t really understand the purpose of this spell. Like, I can think of a number of uses (scamming merchants, showing someone what a broken thing looked like when it was whole, tricking someone into overlooking something really nice), but I’m not sure what the intended use was. Regardless, I could in fact think of several uses, albeit specific ones, and it’s definitely worth trying.

Jump (Arcane, Primal)

Buff (***), Utility (****), Versatility (***)

This spell is one of my favorites. On the surface, it seems like it does one thing, and that one thing is jumping, but in practice jumping can mean a lot of things. It can quickly scale you to a higher position than you have any right to reach (especially at level 1), it can clear a farther distance than you can walk, and because it allows you an action after jumping but before falling, it can let you get a hit in on a flying enemy you couldn’t otherwise reach (take Cat Fall though, the drop afterwards is a pain). Best part, one action. The 3rd level heighten is also a solid buff for all the same reasons.

Liberating Command (Occult)

Buff? (****), Versatility (**)

There’s a lot of things that like to grab or immobilize your allies, and at one action on your part this is a valuable tool for getting them the hell out of there. Very sizeable range too, which is helpful.

Lock (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (*)

Another spell that does one thing and one thing only. There are two instances where you should be casting this spell: the first is the heightened 2nd level to keep something secure, the second is as part of a heist spell. For the latter case buy a scroll, for the former you can just have it in your spellbook/the aether where you draw spells prepped from (or just buy a scroll, but that’ll get expensive if you want to keep re-upping it when your DCs increase).

Longstrider (Arcane, Primal)

Buff (***), Utility (**), Versatility (**)

Longstrider occupies an awkward space as a buff. Effectively, compared to fleet step you’re getting a third of the speed for about (in my own PF2 experience thusfar) triple the time (three-four encounters per hour feeling relatively standard for me, personally). At the 2nd level it’s a much better deal, but a 10-foot speed increase, while valuable, still have less value than 30-foot, especially since there are a lot of sources of 10-foot status bonuses.

Mage Armor (Arcane, Occult)

Buff (**), Versatility (**)

So here’s my problem with mage armor: it burns a spell slot. This isn’t the worst thing in the world once you hit levels… we’ll call it around levels 3 to 5. At that point, you’re able to look at Explorer’s Clothing with a +1 potency rune, which will give you the same amount of AC without burning the spell slot. If you want more value than that out of mage armor, you have to start burning higher level spell slots. So the question I have for you is, is a 4th level spell slot every single day worth the 340 gp cost of a resilient rune? Or a 6th level for the 900 to upgrade to +2 armor potency? You’re giving up your most powerful spell slots to save on gold (gold, I should add, that you don’t need to spend on weapons since you have no armor proficiency and are therefore definitely not a gish). If you want to do neither, then the 1st level version is alright, but honestly it’s probably more worth it to just invest the gold in your defense.

Magic Aura (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (*)

While there are a lot of potential uses for magic aura, none of them are going to be common enough to justify taking it as a regular spell. If you’re going to need it, you’ll know you’re going to need it, and if you don’t know ahead of time then you’ll figure something out or have it on a scroll for just in case.

Magic Fang (Primal)

Buff (**), Versatility (**)

Most useful for druids, of course, but if you’re a monk or another unarmed attacker this might be worth snagging as an innate spell. Falls off for everyone as soon as you get handwraps or advance your companion to mature, and when I say falls off, I mean it becomes worthless.

Magic Missile (Arcane, Occult)

Burst (*****), Versatility (****)

Easily the best targeted damage spell at this level. No roll, no save, just do 1d4+1 damage per action split among targets however you like. There does not exist in this game a single combat situation where magic missile is useless (except arguably a caster with shield, but even then you’re popping their shield and that’s a use).

Magic Weapon (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Buff (**), Versatility (**)

Hey look exactly the same as magic fang for exactly the same reason.

Mending (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (*), Versatility (*)

Just… just take Crafting. Literally just take Crafting.

Mindlink (Occult)

Utility (**), Versatility (**)

Not without its uses, but mindlink serves a very specific purpose and that purpose is “save 10 minutes,” and only works if you only need to save 10 minutes of talking to one person. I suppose there’s also that you aren’t saying it out loud, but you can use message for that, and besides it’s still a somatic/verbal spell that someone can see you cast easily and know you just passed a lot of information.

Message Rune (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (*)

One of those spells that’s very useful when you need it, but usually you’ll know when you need it. Grab a scroll or wand and call it good.

Negate Aroma (Arcane, Primal)

Buff (***), Versatility (*)

Not a bad pickup as an innate spell for rogues or other sneaky types, but for a regular caster, negate aroma is something you prep while getting ready for an operation where you know you need to sneak around a creature with scent, not something you take for every day use.

Pass Without Trace (Primal)

Utility (**), Versatility (*)

Pass without trace has a serious disadvantage in that its 4th level heighten explicitly spells out that the 1st level version affects your tracks, and your tracks alone. You are not traveling alone, you are an adventurer and are almost definitely traveling with an average of 2-5 other people. So unless you’re willing to burn a 4th level spell on saving one person in your party an exploration activity/buffing them on it, don’t bother.

Penumbral Shroud (Arcane, Occult)

Debuff (****), Versatility (**)

I love the bit of flavor injected here as a spell that was intended to be helpful, being turned into a control spell. Against enemies without any kind of fancy vision, it may as well say “dazzle them” with a frankly disgusting duration on a failure. Enemies with low-light or darkvision (which, let’s be honest, is most of them), however, will most likely not care.

Phantom Pain (Occult)

Blast (***), Debuff (***), Versatility (**)

This is a cool space. You get the full instant damage even on a save, and on a fail or crit fail you’re adding persistent damage and the best basic debuff in the game. It’s also nonlethal and it’ll take a while for daze to outpace its damage (not even accounting for the debuff and the persistent).

Protection (Divine, Occult)

Buff (***), Versatility (***)

A really nice buff that feels like a solid upgrade to forbidding ward, although I still struggle to understand its Uncommon status. Tag a martial at the start of what looks like a tough combat against obviously aligned enemies, and especially against summoners and enchanters.

Purify Food and Drink (Divine, Primal)

Utility (***), Versatility (*)

A nice spell to be aware of but not to prepare, PFD’s main use is going to be based in downtime allowing you and a community you serve to eat or drink even in hostile, toxic environments.

Ray of Enfeeblement (Arcane, Divine, Occult)

Debuff (**), Versatility (**)

Enfeebled is less universally good than clumsy, sickened or frightened, but still really good where valuable. Unfortunately, this falls significantly short for the crime of requiring both an attack and a save. The success condition is still pretty alright, but I look poorly on any such spell when there’s plenty of debuffs that don’t have such requirements.

Sanctuary (Divine, Occult)

Buff (*****), Versatility (***)

You want to know why clerics now rock at initiative? It’s so they can open combat with sanctuary. Pure support characters without armor should lean heavily into this spell, as it’s the best way to keep yourself safe. Pray for a failure though, because on a success you’re gonna have a bad time.

Share Lore (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (*)

The value of this spell is kind of all over the place. At 1st level, it mostly means that you can use it to get multiple attempts at Recalling Knowledge and some other niche uses of your Lore. At higher levels, though, you can use it for all of those fancy, long term Lore skill uses, like the occasional Tracking Lore used in PFS scenarios to find your way.

Shattering Gem (Arcane, Primal)

Buff (**), Blast (**), Versatility (***)

You’re basically giving a target temp hp that’s only 50% there, and does piddly damage to the attacker with a basic Reflex save. Two mediocre effects for the action economy, Arcane is better off using a Reach endure and Primal is better off doing probably anything else.

Shillelagh (Primal)

Buff (***), Versatility (**)

Occupies a similar space to magic fang/weapon, but it’s a little better because the bonus die against aberrations, outsiders and undead will make it take longer to fall off.

Shocking Grasp (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (****), Versatility (***)

Touch range means you’re either going into melee or burning action economy on Reach, but it’s the biggest single target damage you can do, with the bonus of being super effective on tanky humanoid types. Worth a pickup, especially on a melee caster.

Shockwave (Arcane, Primal)

Debuff (***), Versatility (**)

It’s an AoE trip that uses their save instead of your Athletics. That’s, uh, that’s it, that’s the spell. Trip is really good, so shockwave, by association, is also really good. Burn enemy actions, flatfoot them, force AoOs if the situation is right, all around nice spell.

Sleep (Arcane, Occult)

Debuff (***), Utility (**), Versatility (***)

I can only make so many categories, so “unconscious” is a debuff. The 1st level version is effectively useless, courtesy of that damnable incapacitation trait; if you expect to be sneaking past level 1 guards a lot then it’s not the worst, and if you’re ambushing enemies the -1 penalty to Perception might apply to their initiative if your GM is on the more permissive side. The 4th level and higher version shows more promise, particularly for taking lower level enemies completely out of combat.

Snowball (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (**), Debuff (**), Versatility (***)

Imagine if tanglefoot did a small chunk of damage but lost its immobilization effect on a crit. Now imagine that it’s not a cantrip. Yeah, I thought so. Chilling spray is the better choice for a cold damage spell.

Soothe (Occult)

Heal (***), Buff (***), Versatility (***)

It’s no heal, but it’ll do. You’re looking at an average of 9.5 hp per level, which is about 3 points behind 2-action heal. The buff against mental effects isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. Fortunately, you’re not forced to choose between the two, because they’re on mutually exclusive lists!*

*I’m so sorry, Tsukiyo clerics.

Spider Sting (Arcane, Primal)

Blast (*), Debuff (***), Versatility (**)

The poison spells are thematically cool but suffer heavily from poison being the most common immunity in the game. The damage is almost negligible on this spell, so you’re really only here for the enfeebled.

Spirit Link (Divine, Occult)

Heal (**), Versatility (***)

It’s like someone said “hey, let’s take life link and turn it into a spell with limited duration and it heals less in a system where both max hp and damage output is much higher.” Like, I get it, life link was way too good in PF1, but this is an overnerf if I ever saw one.

Temporary Tool (Arcane)

Utility (*), Versatility (*)

It’s a spell that you will never know you’re going to need in advance, and is worthless unless you know you’re going to need it. And even if you do know you’re going to need it, because it’s arcane and there’s no way to pluck it out of the aether you’ll have to have gone out of your way to learn it, and while you were doing that you could’ve just bought the tool you needed instead.

Tether (Arcane, Primal)

Debuff (***), Versatility (***)

This is a tanking spell and as such is made more for martial characters that splash casting (or that rare sorcerer who mixes it up in melee). It keeps the enemies on you and therefore away from your allies, which is good.

True Strike (Arcane, Occult)

Buff (****), Versatility (**)

A fantastic supplement for any kind of caster that likes to attack. About to fire off that disintegrate? True strike it. Gish making their second attack for the turn? True strike it. … that’s basically it, that’s the uses. Okay, so it’s not the most versatile spell in the game, but what it does, it does very, very well.

Unseen Servant (Arcane, Occult)

Utility (***), Versatility (**)

Unseen servant has three uses: either lifting stuff you can’t reach that’s a little too heavy to mage hand, opening potentially trapped doors on your behalf, and stealing things on your behalf. It’s good at those three things, but those are the only three things it can really do.

Ventriloquism (Arcane, Divine, Occult, Primal)

Utility (***), Versatility (***)

Another spell that scales with your creativity. The 2nd level version is significantly better than the 1st, but for both there are a lot of things you can potentially do with them. The mostly revolve around distraction and misdirection, but you can also replay conversations using the actual voices heard, provide a form of entertainment for NPCs, or give voice to the voices in your head. … no? Just me?

You may be wondering: Where’s the rest of it? Well, the answer is that this guide is, in total, about 27,000 words. That is. A lot of words. It also took a lot of time and energy to write. So with that in mind, this month I’ll be doing bi-weekly posts on Sundays and Wednesdays, with one new level of spells per post (I’ll combine 9 and 10). If you’d like to see the rest of the levels, they’re all available on Patreon, along with regular posts of new feats, ancestries, and rules and next week, a cleric guide.

Until Wednesday, good luck, have fun, and roll nat 20s.