Most important "back pocket" spells?

[47948201]

You know, the kind of thing that's not really exciting to take like fly or cloudkill, but where if you don't have it, certain situations become way more dangerous. For example, if nobody in your party takes dispel magic, then magical dungeon traps and enemy casters are instantly super deadly compared to if you just had just taken that one spell instead of vampiric touch or whatever. Or if nobody gets plane shift, then getting dropped into the abyss or something and having to get back to the material plane turns into an absolute ordeal that can really screw with whatever you were previously doing.

So yeah, what should a cautious party containing a wizard/cleric/druid want to make sure they pick up at each spell level, "just in case"?

(I'm sure this has been asked a lot of times, but it's the kinda thing that's pretty hard to search for)

[el minster]

see invisibility

[Fizban]

If the party contains a Cleric and the adventure was written reasonably, then the Cleric already has everything and the only question is of what scrolls to have ready (but even then, time crunch is not actually a standard encounter problem for most monsters- it's added by the DM to increase difficulty). Most "required spells" are actually on the Cleric list- all the resistance and immunity buffs and status removal, Air Walk, Plane Shift two levels lower, Word of Recall, and the divinations which give you actual information- Divination, Commune, Find the Path, as well as Scrying if you want that anyway, Stone Shape creates or breaches walls two levels lower, etc. The Cleric is the game's safety, the actual class that allows monsters and adventures to be written with the expectation that magic can solve X. There are some monsters that exceed what a level appropriate Cleric can fix, but generally speaking as long as the party is not trapped or pressured (which again, are increases in difficulty, which warrant their own xp increase), then the party can always run and come back with a solution. And of course, this is why their PHB list, and even splat list to a greater extent than most admit, is so short on offensive spells. The arcanist does the magical offense, and the Cleric does the defense and fixing.

See Invisibility is one of the only things which Sor/Wiz is actually better on, as it works to line of sight where Invisibility Purge is a much smaller area (which benefits the whole party so it's still a wash).

What scrolls should you have? One or two of everything above that isn't dependent on caster level if you can, depending on what spells you like to prepare all the time and what the rest of the party has. What should the arcanist take? And assortment of spells with varying saves, SR, and effects, such that they have something to spam against most enemies. If it is expected Dispel Magic spam will be a need in this game, then that'll be the arcanist's job, because the Cleric's slots already have a lot of lifting to do.


As for lesser remembered spells, Water Breathing and Gaseous Form care little about caster level but are theoretically invaluable. Room fills with water and room crushes everything/bars shut from the outside/just a whole cave in traps are rarely used, for obvious reasons of them being rather unfun. But they are standard traps or problems that could show up at any time, which are in fact countered by a pair of 3rd level spells (hence why they're considered fair game by the game). Gaseous Form is actually a non-Cleric spell, and while Dimension Door is more popular, Gaseous Form is lower level and has a different set of strengths and weaknesses.

[Telonius]

Water Breathing and Dimension Door have already been mentioned; those would be my top two. Death Ward and (for lower levels) Magic Weapon/ Magic Fang would be others. Being able to say 'no" to negative energy attacks and overcome DR/magic (before you can really afford the weapons) can turn potential party wipes into survivable encounters.

[Quertus]

So, "see invisibility" can be replaced with a bag of flour. And it's tough to say whether the optimal party's first purchase should be a +1 weapon or a Wand of Lesser Vigor (although, often, with their first haul, they can afford both). So Magic Weapon / Fang… has a limited shelf life. Spells like Teleport Without Error / Plane Shift? How many times have we heard stories of the party not having enough castings of these spells? Quite a few, in my case. Granted, they can be cast via Miracle, a scroll of which should run just over 4k, if I've got the math right. What I find terribly useful is the ability to remove negative levels, and the ability to remove the "dead" condition. Also, a Wand of Resurgence, to remove most anything else.


see invisibility

You missed the opportunity to include invisible text :smalltongue:

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Water Breathing is the best, of course, but having an emergency scroll of Gust of Wind or Fireball has saved my wizards in the past. Swarms and gases are threats that parties often rely on casters to handle!

Another nice "back pocket" spell is Meld into Stone, or Teleport. A way to hide and a way to escape.

For everything else (all the status effect removers, etc), just have a Cleric in the party.