Advice: Pathfinder Low Level Wizard spells and their usefulness

[Minwaabi]

I'm playing a 4th level arcanist in an upcoming short term campaign (so this guy's not making it to level 20 or probably even level 6). And I was wondering what are good 1st and 2nd level spells to take? (Arcanist uses the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list).

I know Sleep is probably loosing it’s usefulness about now and grease is always useful, but what about color spray? Note that I can easily up the DC or CL by 1 a few times per day. (and I’ll probably take the exploit that lets me up either by 2). Other spells that are more or less useful when fighting monsters at 4th level? For those not familiar with the class, Arcanists get Wizard/Sorcerer spells, prepare them like a wizard and cast like a sorcerer . So I can cast 5 1st level spells chosen from 3 prepared spells and I can cast 1 2nd level spell three times. (I can also cast any of 6 cantrips as many times as I like).

I'm familiar with several of the guides, but a lot of times they say stuff like: Sleep is great at level 1, but looses power fast. Grease is great for a really long time. But they don't say when sleep becomes useless, etc.

Thanks in advance.

[Sayt]

Obscuring mist can be a great defensive buff, just don't drop it on your party Fighter/Archer. Invisibility is good, and magic weapon is a good buff if you parties Fighting Guys one up yet.

[Arbane]

Unseen Servant has a million household uses, and almost as many adventuring ones.

[Geddy2112]

Sleep is almost useless at level 4-you might get 2 creatures if you are lucky, and they can be woken by anything else to prevent the coup. Color spray is still useful against creatures with 5 or more HD, and will do more work against lower hordes. You might be swapping out color spray if you get to level 6.

Silent image has a lot of power in and out of combat, as does invisibility. You could probably get by with invisibility on a wand though. Protection from evil is good in most campaigns as the majority of the things you fight are evil-it is also a good wand spell. I would shy away from any damage spells that don't have some other effect- a crossbow will do almost as good as any damage spell at this level, without using a spell slot.

[Florian]

This is level 4 and an Arcanist, so wands and scrolls will provide the gamut of spell longevity and the actual slots should go towards more combat focused spell that can work with exploits.
At that level, swarms are still pretty deadly, so some AoE damage is pretty much needed.

1st level spells:
Burning Hands, Color Spray, Enlarge Person
2nd Level spells:
Acid Arrow, Glitterdust, Web

Wands:
Mage Armor, Shield, Shocking Barrier, Obscuring Mist

[Seward]

One thing to not overlook in a low level wizard/arcanist/whatever is to supplement the very limited number of spell slots by spending wealth by level on cheap scrolls of useful L1 spells that don't depend on caster level or save DC to function.

If it is in your head, it needs to have a reason to need your massive intelligence or caster level 4, because you only get a handful of those, not enough to cast every round in the expected fights per day (you really don't want to be "contributing" by tossing a ray of frost or shooting a crossbow or even one of those baby things like force-missiles that do single-digit damage - that stops helping in a meaningful way by about level 2).

So stock up on some of these (in rough order of the ones I often carry on nearly any arcane caster. As I level and do most of my fighting out of slots-per-day I stop replacing scrolls that are no longer needed. I often carry obscuring mist to level 20 though if it doesn't make it into a spell slot someday, it's just that useful an "oh ****" option.)

Combat stuff

obscuring mist
silent image
prot evil (ideally cast when you ID mind-controlling monsters BEFORE they dominate your barbarian)
magic weapon if any martial character in the party does not yet have a magic weapon.
enlarge person (for your fighter types)
reduce person (for your scouts, ray specialists or others who like being small, or for you if you use rays)
grease (to get folks out of grapples - DC11 isn't good enough for other purposes)
truestrike (every bit as good on a scroll as in your head. Never, ever waste a slot on this spell)

if you do melee, longarm is worth a look, if you use pyrotechnics, snapdragon fireworks at caster level 2 or greater
lets you place a flame anywhere in the pyrotechnic range.

a bit more pricey but still worth it at level 4 - see invisible and glitterdust.

in pathfinder society you see a lot of wands of shield because they can be had for "prestige" instead of cash.
in a normal wealth-by-level game, shield is something that works better as a spell slot once L1 slots aren't needed
for actual fighting. In low levels a shield scroll can be handy as an anti-magic-missile situational thing, and when
it isn't needed anymore just burn it right before you kick down the door in some fight or other.

=============
Utility stuff


detect secret doors
heightened awareness (a perception buff that is burned to boost initiative)
unseen servant
disguise self
monkey fish
touch of the sea
mount (more efficient than tenser's disk and lasts twice as long)
ant haul (cast on mount, triples its capacity, lasts same duration as mount, better than 2 mount scrolls)
(ant haul + enlarge + strong guy with decent climb skill or touch of the sea can often move an entire party
past obnoxious terrain challenges)



Other things -

The party needs a plan for endure elements. Usually you can travel by leaving slots open (prep casters) and/or
having whatever spont caster knows the spell cast it right before they sleep on everybody - prep casters can
fill open slots before they sleep and cast it in a similar fashion, or burn unused pearls of power and prep
it only once. But you want a few scrolls or a wand or something for the day all those spell slots/pearls get burned fighting
and you still aren't under shelter. So having everybody invest 25gp in a scroll for that day is worthwhile if you're entering really hostile environments.

Summon spells where you can communicate are great utility. Summon Nature Ally1+undercommon is the best,
you get a mite for a round that'll do damn near anything. Arcane casters are stuck with Summon Monster, and
at L1, the best you can do is summon a pony where the trap might be and hope it triggers. Summon II lets you
bring in elementals and earth, water and air are tremendously useful as scouts if you can talk to them, so learn
your auran/terran/aquan. Summon III gets you lantern archons which can translate for anybody, or if you speak
infernal you can order around dretches which are quite durable trapspringers, have stinking cloud and such. If
you can't talk to them though, summons in Pathfinder kinda suck....they decide what an obvious enemy is and
attack it mindlessly.

For about 250gp you can essentially have 10 more spell slots to do interesting things with, in and out of combat,
a priceless boon for a baby arcanist who is having a very long or intense day.

[Florian]

@Seward:

I partly disagree with you here, because its an Arcanist, not a Wizard, so some things are done a bit different (based on my experience, YMMV).

This class reaches peak efficiency when you create different prep sets, like "Dungeon Set", "Investigation Set" or "Travel Set" and shunt everything else over to items, especially the stuff that doesn´t need a high CL, DC or any special scaling.
That mostly means that the slew of BFC-type stuff also should go to items, that stuff not needing DC at all, and so you can have it at hand no matter what "set" you are in right now, while the spells on the set are those that have to deal with the aforementioned criteria.

[Minwaabi]

For about 250gp you can essentially have 10 more spell slots to do interesting things with, in and out of combat,
a priceless boon for a baby arcanist who is having a very long or intense day.

I'm not 100% certain what you are talking about here. Are you talking about picking up wands or some other thing?



Also, anybody have thoughts on spells where it would be particularly good to have memorized so I can increase the CL or DC of the spell by 2?

[Florian]

I'm not 100% certain what you are talking about here. Are you talking about picking up wands or some other thing?

A 1st level scroll (CL1) is 25gp, so lugging around 10 scrolls is 250gp, a very cheap investment and stuff you should "burn" at a prodigious rate before it becomes obsolete when you get 3rd level spells.

[Topaz]

From what my experience playing an Arcanist is worth:

Color Spray is better than Sleep, but your go-to damage spell at low level is Snowball (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/snowball), if it's available.

As many Cantrips as you get, preparing a damaging one like Acid Splash or Jolt is OK, but usually you're better off lugging a Light Crossbow.

Glitterdust is astonishingly useful, especially when you can up the DC. My Arcanist is 8th level now and still makes good use of it (with Potent Magic).

Mage Armor is better as a spell than a wand, for the duration. Shield isn't going to last long anyway, so a wand is better.

Create Pit and Grease are a fun combination.

Potent Magic and Quick Study are your friends. All other Exploits come later. And once you have Potent Magic, Extra Reservoir lets you do it a lot.

Second level slots are precious, so consider Vanish as an alternative to Invisibility for tactical use - though if you get targeted a lot, you might prefer Windy Escape.

[Seward]

My experience with all spellcasters in 3.x/Pathfinder is that your top two tier spell slots are needed for offense of some kind, not buffing, defense or utility unless the spell is also offense (such as Haste) . That's where your fight-swinging effects will be, and you need about 6 per day to really do your job (in level 1-2, a few cantrips like Daze or for clerics, Guidance tend to make up the difference). Offense means damage, battlefield control, debuffs or powerful short-duration buffs that usually affect the whole party (haste, good hope, blessing of fervor). It can also mean "get the most powerful melee in the party next to the enemy" spells like fly, dimension door or even telekenesis, or spells that undo a party-wide negative condition (daylight, invisibility purge). One reason Glitterdust is a top rated spell is that it is both a debuff (blind) which affects more than one enemy AND it removes a serious party-wide handicap (unable to target an invisible or concealed enemy). A third level wizard who takes mirror image instead of a spell like glitterdust is just hurting the party. Nobody is going to target that wizard because he's casting defensive spells or lacks any offensive spell slots because he wasted half of them on mage armor, shield and mirror image. And weirdly, a defensive spell that isn't targeted is kind of wasted - the whole point of such spells is to let the caster get their big game-changing effects off without interference and/or survive being focus-fired after they've demonstrated what a big threat they are by sticking one of them.

Because of this I don't recommend prepping or casting (as a spont caster, even if you get the spell known for free, as from Draconic heritage) Mage Armor until you have 3rd tier slots, or at least more than a half dozen spell slots (a sorc can cast it around level 4 if the day doesn't look too hectic) because you just can't afford to lock down a crucial spell slot that could be holding color spray or whatever. You suck it up with scrolls or just live with lower AC and try not to get into the middle of the battle (use distance, cover, prone vs ranged attacks, whatever.).

Because you don't have 3rd tier spell slots until level 5-6, your early levels of buffing and utility spells will be on scrolls. As your higher tier spell slots rise you'll have more and more low tier spell slots for the kinds of things you used to have on scrolls - and you'll really appreciate the extended duration, the better action economy (no move action to pull it out) and more powerful effects of even smaller spells (eg remove fear can affect multiple targets for a cleric compared to a scroll, floating disk can move a heavily armored dwarf instead of just the slow gnome, etc).

An arcanist is no different from a wizard or sorcerer in this respect. They'll have different scrolls perhaps, but they'll still have about the same number overall, because the number of spellcasting actions and problems you'll encounter in a typical adventure are the same for all three, and their spell slots at any given level are actually pretty similar (sorcerers get more per level, but wizards get higher levels faster). Typically a prep caster wants situational spells that either might already be cast or there isn't room for in their spell slots, and a sorcerer is plugging holes in spells known. An arcanist is doing a bit of both (because of the modal preparation, they're sort of like a sorcerer with several sets of spells known, which wierdly might want even more scrolls than a sorcerer because an option they have in one mode they still want at least one of when in a different mode).

I've got a Spirit Guide oracle who is in that boat - his spells known change a bit with each wandering spirit he hooks up with on a daily basis, but he'll have, say, a scroll or two of lesser restoration for when he isn't getting that spell from his spirit bonus spells.