Low level Wizard spells to persist? (Anima Mage)

[Story]

I am currently playing an Anima Mage (Binder 1/Wizard 3 entry) and will gain the ability to persist 1 spell a day at level 9.

So which Wizard spells up to 4th level are the best to persist? The problem is that I'm looking for spells that will help the whole party rather then trying to go Clericzilla and wade into combat myself. But nearly all persistable spells are personal only. Haste would be ideal, but it can't be persisted.

So what should I do? The rest of party currently consists of 2 range based Rogue types, a Druid, and an unoptimized Cleric.

[Fouredged Sword]

Get occular spell. Now everything can be persisted. It set the range to a fixed value.

[TiaC]

Last time I made an Anima mage I bound Paimon and Persisted a BoTT Thunderlance. It makes for a very effective debuffer.

[Story]

Get occular spell. Now everything can be persisted. It set the range to a fixed value.

I already looked into that. The main issue is that it is limited to 1 target and can't be used with Personal spells (i.e. all the good buffs).

[DarkSonic1337]

I already looked into that. The main issue is that it is limited to 1 target and can't be used with Personal spells (i.e. all the good buffs).

1. You can target yourself
2. You can already persist personal spells (unless you meant cast personal spells on other people and then persist them)

[Story]

Exactly. I was trying to find ways to buff the party with this. But there don't seem to be any.

Being able to give say, Wraithstrike or Haste out to everyone would be really helpful. But no dice.

[aeauseth]

I've done a presistent Cleric/Spelldander and made my own cheat sheet (http://aaronwiki.us/index.php?title=Category:Persistent_Spell) you might find helpful. Most of the Persistable spells are Cleric.

I'm sure someone else will post something more targeted for arcane spells.

[Story]

Just had another thought. Do you think Glyph Seals would work? It's unclear if personal spells are considered to have a target.

[JaronK]

Exactly. I was trying to find ways to buff the party with this. But there don't seem to be any.

Being able to give say, Wraithstrike or Haste out to everyone would be really helpful. But no dice.

Have you considered the Runesmith PrC? Wizard 3/Binder 1/Anima Mage 10/Runesmith 5 is incredibly strong and would let you do this easily... but might delay when you take Anima Mage levels.

JaronK

[Evolved Shrimp]

Get occular spell. Now everything can be persisted. It set the range to a fixed value.

Actually, it doesn't (unless there are errata of which I'm not aware): "its effect changes to a ray with a range of up to 60 feet". "Up to 60 feet" is not a fixed range.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Greater Invisibility (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/invisibilityGreater.htm) when cast on yourself has a range of personal.

[Story]

Well it looks like there's no way to buff the party, so I'll just have stick to personal defense/utility buffs.

For 4th level, I'm thinking of doing Greater Invisibility and Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. I have a question about the globe though - does it prevent you from buffing yourself while it's up? Because it might not be so useful then.

At 5th, I guess I'll switch one out for Greater Blinking. Draconic Polymorph is nice, but being a monster all day is inconvenient when in town.

Any others you'd recommend? Ray Deflection is nice, but it seems too situational, and I only get two spells. Permanent Arcane Sight could be useful, but I'm not sure it's worth giving up the globe. There are a ton of low level persistable buffs in CAdv like the infamous Wraithstrike, but those seem oriented more to gish types, and I don't want to overshadow the mundanes in our party.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Globe of Invulnerability is stationary, "An immobile, faintly shimmering magical sphere..." It stays where you cast it, it doesn't move with you.

You can Draconic Polymorph into something strong, and Alter Self back into yourself and keep the physical ability scores.

Other top choices include Shield, Expeditious Retreat, Swift Fly, Ray Deflection, and Greater Mirror Image. Another favorite of mine to persist is Fell Drain Cloud of Knives. For an even more offensive approach, you can invest into Snowcasting, Energy Substitution: Electric, and Born of the Three Thunders, you can use that with spells like Thunderlance and Dragon Breath, as well as Cloud of Knives. Use ((Eternal) Wand of) Summon Component in CM to get snow for Snowcasting if there's none available locally.

Edit: Fell Drain/Frighten Death Armor and Fell Drain/Frighten Fire Shield twice are also amazing to persist.

[Story]

Greater Mirror Image seems pretty useless since anything which will beat Greater Invsibility doesn't care about mirror images.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Greater Mirror Image seems pretty useless since anything which will beat Greater Invsibility doesn't care about mirror images.

Use it with Invisible Spell and anything that can see you also sees the images and doesn't know which one to attack!

[ZamielVanWeber]

Greater Mirror Image seems pretty useless since anything which will beat Greater Invsibility doesn't care about mirror images.

Immediate action and can be used to foil line based attacks. Honestly, it is mostly the immediate action there. Saved my hide a few times.

[Story]

But Invisible Spell costs yet another feat. Greater Blinking at least provides defense that stacks with invisibility.

[Roguenewb]

I was playing an anima mage recently and was pleasantly surprised how effective mage armor, dex, shield, and persisted Blink were at keeping me safe, even relatively melee heavy moments, so I could use my binder abilities.

I'm also a fan of Greater Invisibility all day, but its the kind of thing that will drive a lot of DMs so insane they throw books at you.

[Chronos]

Quoth Evolved Shrimp:

Actually, it doesn't (unless there are errata of which I'm not aware): "its effect changes to a ray with a range of up to 60 feet". "Up to 60 feet" is not a fixed range.
A range of "up to 60 feet" means the same thing as a range of "60 feet". Unless you want to argue you can't Fireball something that's less than 400' away.