Top 10 Arcane Spells per spell level.

[Asmotherion]

This post is my opinion. Feel free to disagree with it, and even comment your own lists. This is focused on the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list, but if you want to include an other list, feel free to do so.

The purpose of this List is to help (mainly new) players who want to play an Arcane Caster find better picks for their Spells. I consider this extra helpful for Spellcasters who have a limited list of spells Known, especially Sorcerers. The lists are in no particular order.


Not a whole lot of spells to choose from here, but here goes.

1) Mage Hand: Telekinesis has a ton of utility. Even as limited as a cantrip, it's great.
2) Prestidigitation: Practically Wish as a cantrip. Tons of utility, as long as you are creative.
3) Detect Magic: Cheap solution to Detecting Magic.
4) Ghost Sound: As most people know, your creativity can make this into one of the best things ever.
5) Resistance: +1 bonus on saves? Great until you get an item that provides you with a better resistance bonus.
6) Disrupt Undead: Undead can be troublesome at low levels, and 1d6 damage to them as a Ray is not bad at all.
7) Acid Splash: It might be only 1d3, but it's a ranged touch attack that denies Spell Resistance. At low levels, it's a good alternative to using a bow when out of higher level spell slots, and at higher levels you might give it some Metamagic effects (Fell Drain for example) to make it relevant.
8) Mending: Mending is a fantastic spell. IMO it would still be worth it as a 1st or even 2nd level spell.
9) Message: For when you want to discuss stuff like dethroning the king
10) Detect Poison: Very good cantrip, and depending on the campaign it might save your life.

Honorary Mentions:

Daze: Fantastic at low levels, but unfortunatelly useless after you hit your 5th level.
Light: Someone is bound to carry a torch; Very good if underwater though. But since not everyone has Darkvision in 3.5 it might save you some money on torches.



1) Mage Armor: I wouldn't call Mage Armor a good Spell; I'd call it Essential. Even if you're no front liner, Bows, Rays and other stuff are bount to target you eventually, and having a half decent AC never hurts.
2) Shield: A good addition to your AC.
3) Magic Missile: A level 1 spell that hits multiple times. The autohit is just a bonus. Combined with the right metamagic, this can deal some pain.
4) Lesser Orb of Sound: Not a lot of things are resistant to Sonic. Ranged Touch Attack. No spell Resistance. What else do you want as a 1st level spell?
5) Nerveskitter: Playing First is essential for a Mage. Place that Fireball before everyone gets in melee, Buff the Fighter etc.
6) Strength of the True Form: A great Investment for Latter, when you PAO/Shapechange yourself into a Dragon/Solar and then Change Shape into your Humanoid Form again.
7) Charm Person: Excelent if you're the face of the group. Still great if you're not.
8) Grease: Have fun hitting me when you can't stand up. Arguably a good way to initiate an AoE; Grease is flamable, right?
9) Disguise Self: Good for infiltrations and other RP aspects.
10) Silent Image: Be creative is all you need to make this one of the best spells of the game.

Honorary Mentions:
Sleep: Practically a Save or Die at level 1; Won't be useful for long, but it's worth taking at low levels.
Magic Aura: Situational but useful.
Throw Voice: You have Ghost Sound for that, and for a cheaper spell slot.
Identify: Because you want to know right away what your new magic item does, don't you? Only reason it's not on the list is because it feels like a Spell Tax, and you only need 20 more gp than the spell costs to have it cast by someone.
Enlarge/Reduce Person: Great for buffing the Fighter/Rogue respectivelly.
Feather Fall: Situational, but might save your life one day.



1) Ghoul Touch: A Save or Die at 2nd Level? Yes please. Just remember to tell your Fighter to Coup De Grace the poor victim before the duration ends. Depending on the type of enemies you face, you face, this might be relevant for a long time. Just remember it's humanoid only, and arguably it doesn't work on Elves.
2) Glitterdust: Invisibility can be a trouble until your party gets true sight. And blinding opponents is fun too.
Cloud of Knives: Is persistable, and can include some other fun metamagics to play with, like Fell Drain if you have some way to apply it (Incantatrix comes to mind).
3) Summon Swarm: Swarms are a touch opponent at low levels, and keep being useful at high levels.
4) Detect Thoughts: One of the best spells in the Game.
5) Hideous Laughter: Save or Suck. Great control spell at a low level cost.
6) Blindness/Deafness: Blinded opponenst can't hit you.
7) Rope Trick: Poor Man's Magnificent Mansion.
8) Alter Self: Tons of Utility. Fly? Check. Swim Speed? Check. Climb Speed? Check. Useful in infiltrations? Check. Great Spell? Check.
9) Baleful Transposition: Picture this: The enemy runs past the Fighter, and Attacks you. What do you do? Well, you switch places with the fighter.
10) Command Undead: If you plan to double as a Necromancer, and don't intend to turn yourself Undead, this spell can ensure your creations won't eat you.

Honorary Mentions:
Stat Buffing Spells: I assume you will have access to items that give an enhancment bonus to your Main Stat in your game. Otherwise, those spells are a great way to buff yourself and your allies and are essential in getting those items made for you.




1) Haste: Buffing the Fighter is one of the Best ways to win.
2) Shrink Item: Fun to play with. Shring a Big Boulder, toss it over your opponent's heads and say the word for example. Also a great way to deal with Antimagic Field Users.
3) Phantom Steed: Need a Horse? You have this spell, that just gets better as you level up.
4) Displacement: Because you have a d4 HD and you can't afford to be hit.
5) Shivering Touch: Also famous as the spell that fells dragons. Maximise it for paralizing virtually any target in the game.
6) Magic Circle against X: It's a good spell on it's own, but it's true glory comes from synergy with the Planar Binding Line of spells.
7) Slow: Great Debuff.
8) Keen Edge: Great Buff and allows you to make a weapon Keen.
9) Magic Weapon, Greater: Good Buff if your DM is stingy with Magic Items.
10) Dispel Magic: Ongoing spells your enemy casts are a liability. Deny them their AoE or Summon.



1) Polymorph: I think of polymorph as having the Monster Manuals as a new Magic System for your Character.
2) Black Tentacles: One of my favorite Spells. Control and Damage in the same spell.
3) Ray Deflection: Immunity to Ranged Touch Attacks? Awesome.
4) Dimensional Anchor: Denying teleporting Foes their mobility advantage is awesome, plus it has synergy with the Planar Binding Line of Spells.
5) Dimension Door: Battle Teleportation is Awesome.
6) Ruin Delver's Fortune: Pretend you're a Paladin.
7) Orb of X: Pick your Favorite Element, and thow it as a Ranged Touch Attack.
8) Solid Fog: Solid Battlefield Control.
9) Animate Dead: Your first "Necromancer/Minionmancer in a Can" spell.
10) Invisibility, Greater: The Perfect Buff.




1) Dimension Shuffle: Great Control Spell.
2) Dimension Jumper: Escape Grapples and great mobility in general.
3) Cloudkill: Amazing Spell for dealing with big amounts of creatures.
4) Major Creation: It's great Utility.
5) Planar Binding, Lesser: Have a look at the monster manual, and choose what you want as an ally.
6) Wall of Stone: Amazing Battlefield Control. I like it over Wall of Force, as you can shape it however you want.
7) Fabricate: Craft stuff quickly, the spell.
8) Overland Flight: Deny most melee bruisers the oportunity to hit you all day, every day.
9) Arcane Fussion: Cast two Spells with 1 Casting. Sorcerer Only, but great potential.
10) Summon Undead V: You can Summon Allips. Enough Said.

Honorary Mentions:
Vitriolic Sphere: If you're into Blasting, Vitriolic Sphere is an AMAZING spell. It's SR: No, Instantaneus, and can even hurt Golems.



1) Contigiency: Can be used with great synergy.
2) Dispel Magic, Greater: For the same reasons Dispel Magic is Great.
3) Starmantle: One of the most broken spells in the game. Ask for DM permission before you use it. Combine with Ruin Delvers Fortune for Virtual Immunity to Weapon Damage.
4) Antimagic Field: If you can somehow Grapple, this is a Mage Killer. Even if not, it's still great for protecting your allies against Mages.
5) Planar Binding: Great for the same reasons as the Lesser Version.
6) Create Undead: Careful, they bite.
7) Summon Monster VI: You have a lot of options at this level, plus don't forget you have some options that can smite as well.
8) Legend Lore: Learn a lot of useful Stuff.
9) True Seeing: Effectively cancel out an entire school of magic.
10) Circle of Death: A Massive Save or Die Spell.


1) Arcane Spellsurge: Who Needs "Quicken Spell"? Sorcerers Love it. Combined with Arcane Fussion, you can cast up to 4 spells per turn.
2) Teleport, Greater: No off-chance and able to go anywere on the same plane.
3) Scrying, Greater: Ever heard of Scry and Fry tactics?
4) Limited Wish: It's awesome for it's Utility.
5) Forcecage: Save or Suck for a Boss Fight.
6) Finger of Death: Save or Die.
7) Plane Shift: Think of all the Shopping.
8) Banishment: A lot of High Level Enemies are Extraplanar.
9) Simulacrum: Pick a Creature, and make a duplicate as your Pet.
10) Greater Arcane Sight: Knowlage is power.


1) Arcane Fussion, Greater: More Powerful spells, and, as written, you can put the lesser version inside the greater version.
2) Celerity, Greater: The single most powerful spell in the entire game. Lets you Deny anyone else the oportunity to play before you. Ask DM permission to use.
3) Polymorph Any Object: This spell is broken, abusable and I love it.
4) Mind Blank: Effectivelly Blocks 2 Schools of Magic; Enchantment and Divination, as well as similar effects.
5) Create Greater Undead: If you hadn't figured already, I'm a huge fan of Necromancy/Minionmancy.
6) Clone: Because death is permanent.
7) Maze: Don't use on a Minautaur though.
8) Incendiary Cloud: Great for stacking time stop damage sources.
9) Summon Monster VIII: You can summon a lot of lower level options, and the leveled options are amazing.
10) Greater Shadow Evocation: Gives you a lot of Blasting options in just 1 spell.



1) Gate: Virtually any moster is yours to command. Conjure a Solar, Pit Fiend, Balor or anything else you might want. Bonus, the transportation to other Planes. And, if you Conjure the right thing, it might be compelled to perform the Wish Spell for you, at a much lower cost.
2) Wish: Any Spell of lower Level you might want is yours, at some XP cost.
3) Time Stop: Lots of things you can do in still time.
4) Shapechange: Too powerful to miss.
5) Metero Swarm: Gives an other Dimension to AoE Damage.
6) Energy Drain: Negative Levels are the best debuff for non-undead enemies.
7) Etherealness: Useful when you want to ethereal travel.
8) Dominate Monster: Make any Monster (That's not immune to Mind Affecting) your Pet.
9) Prismatic Sphere: Excelent Deffensive Spell.
10) Mage's Disjunction: While the spell is a Nuke, it has the downside of destroying your loot.

[Anthrowhale]

Level 9 spells

Maw of Chaos > Meteor Swarm in most cases.
Energy Drain is pretty meh since it's like Twin Enervation. I'd pick something like Absorption instead, which is a unique effect.
Etherealness is often a trap since you have less visibility than creatures with See Invisibility on the prime plane. Perhaps Mindrape instead?
It's worth noting that Timestop removes the disadvantage of Disjunction.

Level 8 spells:

Veil of Undeath gives comprehensive immunities.
Ghostform makes you immune to nonmagical attack.
Mystic Shield negates magical attacks.
Greater Planeshift replaces two L7 spells.

I'd drop Clone (use Wish instead), Maze (Mindrape instead), and Incendiary Cloud (Maw of Chaos instead).

Level 7:
Necrotic Tumor would let you drop Dominate Monster.
Finger of Expulsion is typically better than Finger of Death since there are fewer immune critters.
Avasculate is a pretty unique effect.

[pabelfly]

For level 2 spells, I think Combust is the best. 10d8 damage for a second-level spell slot is pretty good damage.

This does come with downsides, like being a touch attack, being SR: Yes, and being fire element, but those are easily fixed with feats and metamagic and it's easy to make a build based around this specific spell.

[noob]

Why no Mystul magic aura? It is basically mandatory for allowing a rogue to sneak at all (else people and magical devices can detect the magical auras of the items of the rogue).

[Gruftzwerg]

Are you excluding Sorcerer only spells on purpose here?

Because I feel (Greater) Arcane Fusion is one if not the most important spell for a Sorcerer.

[FactualArcher]

I think that ray of enfeeblement should be on the first level list. With a ranged touch attack and no saving throw, it is ridiculous against bruisers, and combined with anything else that does strength damage, it's almost as good as shivering touch.

[Biggus]

It's worth noting that Timestop removes the disadvantage of Disjunction.


What do you mean by this?

[SirNibbles]

This post is my opinion. Feel free to disagree with it, and even comment your own lists. This is focused on the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list, but if you want to include an other list, feel free to do so.

The purpose of this List is to help (mainly new) players who want to play an Arcane Caster find better picks for their Spells. I consider this extra helpful for Spellcasters who have a limited list of spells Known, especially Sorcerers. The lists are in no particular order.

8) Grease: Have fun hitting me when you can't stand up. Arguably a good way to initiate an AoE; Grease is flamable, right?

No, it's not. Incendiary Slime (Complete Mage, page 108) is specifically called out as a flammable version of Grease, which would imply that Grease is not normally flammable.

[Thunder999]

Level 9 spells

Maw of Chaos > Meteor Swarm in most cases.
Energy Drain is pretty meh since it's like Twin Enervation. I'd pick something like Absorption instead, which is a unique effect.
Etherealness is often a trap since you have less visibility than creatures with See Invisibility on the prime plane. Perhaps Mindrape instead?
It's worth noting that Timestop removes the disadvantage of Disjunction.

Level 8 spells:

Veil of Undeath gives comprehensive immunities.
Ghostform makes you immune to nonmagical attack.
Mystic Shield negates magical attacks.
Greater Planeshift replaces two L7 spells.

I'd drop Clone (use Wish instead), Maze (Mindrape instead), and Incendiary Cloud (Maw of Chaos instead).

Level 7:
Necrotic Tumor would let you drop Dominate Monster.
Finger of Expulsion is typically better than Finger of Death since there are fewer immune critters.
Avasculate is a pretty unique effect.

Most things can't actually do anything about an ethereal character, and you can always just hide inside/behind solid objects. It's not the most amazing. Of course you could just use shapechange as something like a phase spider, Or just Gate yourself to the Ethereal Plane (though that's probably not worth it since you'd need a second to get back)
Maze is no save, mindrape is will negates, really not a replacement, to say nothing of spell level difference.
Wish costs xp and a 9th, Clone is just 1000gp. Wish won't bypass the growing time, just the 10 minute cast time.
Necrotic Tumor requires the target to have a Necrotic Cyst. Necrotic Cyst is a 2nd level touch range fort negates spell that allows SR. Even if we ignore the action cost of a second spell, that's extra chances for failure and an extra slot. Also Mindrape (which is definitely a great rec) beats Dominate Monster

[Anthrowhale]

What do you mean by this?
Timestop makes a creature's items immune to anything you can do. Hence disjunction in timestop nukes all spells without wiping out possessed items.


Most things can't actually do anything about an ethereal character, and you can always just hide inside/behind solid objects. It's not the most amazing. Of course you could just use shapechange as something like a phase spider, Or just Gate yourself to the Ethereal Plane (though that's probably not worth it since you'd need a second to get back)

Agreement?


Maze is no save, mindrape is will negates, really not a replacement, to say nothing of spell level difference.

Given Forcecage the extra scope of Maze for no-save disposal is limited?


Wish costs xp and a 9th, Clone is just 1000gp. Wish won't bypass the growing time, just the 10 minute cast time.

How often do you plan to die? If it's not often wish-instead seems reasonable.


Necrotic Tumor requires the target to have a Necrotic Cyst. Necrotic Cyst is a 2nd level touch range fort negates spell that allows SR. Even if we ignore the action cost of a second spell, that's extra chances for failure and an extra slot.

Yeah, there are hoops. But it's not-mind-affecting dominate monster 2(!) full spell levels earlier so systematic use on defeated enemies is often game-breaking. Nonlethal Substitution starts looking pretty attractive.


Also Mindrape (which is definitely a great rec) beats Dominate Monster
That seems reasonable.

[Gruftzwerg]

1) Arcane Spellsurge: Who Needs "Quicken Spell"? Sorcerers Love it. Combined with Arcane Fussion, you can cast up to 4 spells per turn.

Note that you need to apply some kind of metamagic to the 2nd Arcane Fusion you want to cast.
Otherwise the 2nd AF would be again a swift action and we only 1 swift action to spend.

The metamagic increases the casting time of the 2nd AF to a full round action, so that Arcane Spellsurge can speed it up to a standard action back again.

It's an important ingredient for the combo to work and thus should be mentioned imho.

[bekeleven]

A few spells I'll add to the list:

0: Slim pickings, I agree. I'd probably mention Heat Water [Dr302] and Dry [SaSD] as interesting utility spells, but they don't have a ton of mechanical relevance.
1: Skill feats suck. Skill spells can be better. That's why I like Friendly Face and Magecraft for their +5s to relevant skills, and Skillful Moment [Dr350] for the 20. And while we're on 1s I'll mention Endure Elements and Comprehend Languages. Classics for a reason!
2: Speaking of skill spells, Insidious Insight is a cool +10 to diplomacy, sense motive, bluff, or intimidate against someone that fails a will save. Heroics grants a fighter feat for 10 minutes/level, and there are some decent fighter feats. Levitate does a ton; Ray of Stupidity is the OG shivering touch, disabling any animal with no save; Wraithstrike is absurd if cheesed and noticeable otherwise; Whispercast strips components from spells, and is fun to apply Silent Spell to.
3: Touch of Jubilex is the cheapest way to simply make someone no longer exist. Sure, there's a fort and SR, but if it succeeds the target can't even be rezzed; they're goner than gone. Bite of the Wererat is one of the first efficient R/L buff spells and can be applied on top of polymorph effects. Celerity is obvious. Disobedience is basically lesser mind blank and that's a steal at level 3. I prepared explosive runes this morning. Sonorous Hum doubles your spell efficiency. And while we're aging out of skill spells I guess I'll point out Mask of the Ideal and Agent of the Omniscient Eye.
4: Column of Ice is technically a combat spell but it's also one of the most world-breaking spells ever devised; it has no XP or expensive material components but can literally solve global warming. Feeblemind is a great "save or lose but not die" option. Friendly Fire is pretty similar to ray deflection, and it's even modal! This is also the level of Greater Invisibility, which has **** duration but still. Stone Shape is another world-builder, Voice of the Dragon might be the last skill spell I mention, Wall of Salt breaks greyhawk's economy, and of course Shadow Conjuration is somewhere between "the most versatile spell of its level" and "even more broken than many of the things it can emulate, depending on how your DM runs it."

I might tackle higher levels, but already I can see the trend that you focused a lot more on spells that kill people than I did.

[Biggus]

Timestop makes a creature's items immune to anything you can do. Hence disjunction in timestop nukes all spells without wiping out possessed items.



While the time stop is in effect, other creatures are invulnerable to your attacks and spells; you cannot target such creatures with any attack or spell. A spell that affects an area and has a duration longer than the remaining duration of the time stop have their normal effects on other creatures once the time stop ends.

I can't see how you're getting from this that Disjunction can work when you're Time Stopped?

[Anthrowhale]

I can't see how you're getting from this that Disjunction can work when you're Time Stopped?

Disjunction has no effect on creatures, so nothing from your quote is relevant to Disjunction fired off in a Time Stop.

The relevant part is here:


You cannot move or harm items held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time...

In particular, you can't disjoin an item held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time. Thus, you can fire off a Disjunction wiping out all the spells in an area without fear of destroying magical items (unless they are not possessed of course).

[Crichton]

3: Touch of Jubilex is the cheapest way to simply make someone no longer exist. Sure, there's a fort and SR, but if it succeeds the target can't even be rezzed; they're goner than gone.




The subject turns into green slime over the course of 4 rounds. If a remove curse, polymorph other, heal, greater restoration, limited wish, miracle, or wish spell is cast during the 4 rounds of transformation, the subject is restored to normal but still takes 3d6 points of damage.

I guess I'm not following your logic. Why are they goner than gone? Seems like a simple Break Enchantment would fix this without any issue. Probably other spells too?

[Anthrowhale]

I guess I'm not following your logic. Why are they goner than gone? Seems like a simple Break Enchantment would fix this without any issue. Probably other spells too?

Break Enchantment is a 5th level spell while Touch of Juiblex is a 3rd level spell. That's basically a 4 character level gap. The only remedial level-similar spell is remove curse which _might_ be ready to cast in the 4 round window. Otherwise it's the end.

The problem with Touch of Juiblex is that it doesn't do anything until round 4. It's a bit like Power Word Pain that way. The delayed onset makes this more of a niche spell in my mind. If a party cooperates though you could adopt a tag-and-run kind of strategy.

[bekeleven]

I guess I'm not following your logic. Why are they goner than gone? Seems like a simple Break Enchantment would fix this without any issue. Probably other spells too?

Break enchantment targets a creature. Slime is a dungeon hazard; it has no ability scores, stat block, etc. Green slime isn't a corpse - regardless of if corpses are items, or creatures with the dead condition, green slime is a totally different category.

Turning a creature into something that's not a creature, with an instantaneous duration, is in the territory of "maybe a wish can undo this." There are other ways (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?419197-And-Stay-Out-A-Guide-to-Staying-Dead-(for-the-other-guy)) to get this level of certainty but few if any are available by level 5; most come online after level 10.

[Gruftzwerg]

I can't see how you're getting from this that Disjunction can work when you're Time Stopped?
&

Disjunction has no effect on creatures, so nothing from your quote is relevant to Disjunction fired off in a Time Stop.

The relevant part is here:

In particular, you can't disjoin an item held, carried, or worn by a creature stuck in normal time. Thus, you can fire off a Disjunction wiping out all the spells in an area without fear of destroying magical items (unless they are not possessed of course).

You sole wipe out area spells that are on the battlefield and not any rider effects/spells that are on creatures. Those spells can't be affected since you don't have Line of Effect (LoE) to the creature during a timestop (because timestop denies you to affect creatures = no LoE towards creatures). And if you can't effect the creature, you can't affect any spells on the creature.

Thus the benefit here is very limited imho.

[Anthrowhale]

&
You sole wipe out area spells that are on the battlefield and not any rider effects/spells that are on creatures. Those spells can't be affected since you don't have Line of Effect (LoE) to the creature during a timestop (because timestop denies you to affect creatures = no LoE towards creatures). And if you can't effect the creature, you can't affect any spells on the creature.

I recall this from our previous argument about AMF. The claim that failure to effect is always about lack of LoE is an example of the affirming the consequent (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent) fallacy. In real life, the 'then' consequent can arise for multiple reasons, only one of which is is the 'if' and so 'if you lack LoE then the the effect is blocked' does not mean that effect blocked implies a lack of LoE.

[Gruftzwerg]

I recall this from our previous argument about AMF. The claim that failure to effect is always about lack of LoE is an example of the affirming the consequent (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent) fallacy. In real life, the 'then' consequent can arise for multiple reasons, only one of which is is the 'if' and so 'if you lack LoE then the the effect is blocked' does not mean that effect blocked implies a lack of LoE.

1. Even without referring to LoE the arguement still holds. You can't affect the creature and thus anything that is on the creature.

2. Compare it with Line of Sight. As soon as you lose "sight" to the creature by any means, we say that you "lost LoS", or that your "LoS is broken".
The same way as soon as you can't "affect" a target, it's natural to say that your "LoE is broken" or that you "lost LoE" to the target.

Any non-area spell that is affecting creature shares the same space/volume (not square!) as his body. Since you can't affect the creature, it's body acts as a barrier against the burst of the disjunction. But the spells that you are trying to affect share the same space.

Just like you can't have LoE and not have LoE to the same point in space/volume at the same time.
You can't have LoS and don't have LoS to the same space/volume at the same time.

These things are logically impossible since they are self contradicting.

Either you see a creature and thus have LoS or you lack both.
Either you can affect a creature and thus have LoE or you lack both.

[Anthrowhale]

Either you can affect a creature and thus have LoE or you lack both.
Yup, that's a great statement of the affirming the consequent fallacy.

[Troacctid]

Here's my list, before looking at yours.

Level 0
Detect Magic
Mage Hand
Message
No Light
Ghost Sound
Daze
Acid Splash
Sonic Snap
Songbird
Read Magic

Level 1
Chill Touch
Parching Touch
Swift Invisibility
Nerveskitter
Color Spray
Charm Person
Feather Fall
Mage Armor
Instant of Power
Enlarge Person


Level 2
Dimension Leap
Alter Self
Animate Dead
Wings of Cover
Suggestion
Heroism
Glitterdust
Arcane Turmoil
Luminous Armor
Command Undead
Invisibility


Level 3
Dispel Magic
Haste
Heart of Water
Primal Instinct
Marked Pulse
Glibness
Hesitate
Fireball
Greater Magic Weapon
Scrying


Level 4
Dimension Door
Wings of Flurry
Evard's Black Tentacles
Celerity
Flame Sands
Celestial Brilliance
Dalamar's Lightning Lance
Polymorph
Dominate Person
Solid Fog
Heart of Earth
Greater Mirror Image
Friendly Fire


Level 5
Overland Flight
Teleport
Storm Touch
Mass Suggestion
Greater Dispel Magic
Lesser Planar Binding
Call Faithful Servants
Arcane Fusion
Spell Haven
Wall of Force
Greater Enlarge Person
Unfettered Heroism


Level 6
Planar Binding
Heroes' Feast
Contingency
Fire Seeds
Otto's Irresistible Dance
Superior Resistance
Mudslide
Greater Dispel Magic
Mass Suggestion
Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability


Level 7
Greater Shadow Conjuration
Scalding Touch
Simulacrum
Limited Wish
Energy Immunity
Spell Turning
Gem Tracer
Earthquake
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion
Arcane Spellsurge


Level 8
Polymorph Any Object
Mind Blank
Greater Planar Binding
Chain Dispel
Greater Arcane Fusion
Greater Shadow Evocation
Unyielding Form of Inevitable Death
Maze
Embrace the Dark Chaos
Veil of Undeath


Level 9
Shapechange
Ice Assassin
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Gate
Wish
Chain Contingency
Genesis
Shades
Programmed Amnesia
Iceberg

[Harrow]

A couple of comments on the original list: Light is useful because it saves a hand. You can cast it on the fighter's sword and he doesn't need three hands now. Better yet, cast it on a dull grey ioun stone. It's just nice for solving some logistical awkwardness.
Wizard:"I cast Magic Missile on the orc!"
DM: "You can't see the orc, he's too deep in the shadows."
Wizard: "But, he's right next to the barbarian!"
Half-Orc Barbarian: "Oh, right, I dropped my torch when the fight started so I could two-hand my greatsword."

As for Mage Armor it's... alright. Especially at level 1. Just remember that it doesn't work on Ray effects. Incorporeal foes can't bypass it like regular armor, but it doesn't change your touch AC.

As for my own contributions...
Improvisation at least deserves honorable mention. It's a Bard 1 spell that grants a scaling luck bonus that can contribute to attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks. You don't get too much mileage out of it, only lasting a round per level and the pool of points you spend to gain the bonus runs out after a few uses, but, for a 1st level spell, it's useful.
At (Sorc, Wiz) 3rd, I really like Greater Mage Armor. At this level, it's competing with a suped up chain shirt, but if you're carrying a monk around or something, it's useful. I dunno, I guess I just like this spell.
(Bard, Sorc, Wiz (and others) 6) brings us Superior Resistance. Like with Greater Mage Armor, you're trading spell slots for cash, but I think it's a great trade. For prepared casters, just replace it with other spells as party members buy up Cloaks of Resistance. For Sorcerer and Bard... maybe only get this spell on a runestaff or something.
And my favorite arcane spell to mention: Body Outside Body. It's A Wu Jen 7 spell which is... problematic. If it was one level lower, tricks like putting it on a Minor Schema or copying scrolls of it using the Unbound Scroll's ability to add charges to scrolls would work on it. But you can kind of see why it's worth having to jump through hoops for. One duplicate of you per 5 caster levels! They can't cast spells or activate spell completion or spell trigger items, but there are a lot of builds that would benefit from having a few extra "you"s around.

Looking at my suggestions they feel, I dunno, not super practical. But they all feel like they should be useful, you just have to work them a bit.

[Gruftzwerg]

Yup, that's a great statement of the affirming the consequent fallacy.

Sorry but you can repeat it as much you want, just because you made the statement it doesn't become true.

Lets have a look at the definition of LoE (PHB 176):

Line of Effect: A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is canceled by a solid barrier. It’s like line of sight for ranged weapons, except that it’s not
blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight.
You must have a clear line of effect to any target that you cast a spell on or to any space in which you wish to create an effect (such as conjuring a monster). You must have a clear line of effect to the
point of origin of any spell you cast, such as the center of a fireball. A burst, cone, cylinder, or emanation spell affects only an area, creatures, or objects to which it has line of effect from its origin (a spherical burst’s center point, a cone-shaped burst’s starting point, a cylinder’s circle, or an emanation’s point of origin).
An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a spell’s line of effect. Such an opening means that the 5-foot length of wall containing the hole is no longer considered a barrier for purposes of a spell’s line of effect.

A solid barrier can block LoE. The creates body can't be affected, and since it is solid it acts as a barrier for LoE. You have no option to pierce the body and affect the spells that share the same space.

Just like any barrier that blocks sight causes you to lose LoS,
any barrier that blocks a spells effect make you lose LoE.

This ain't affirming the consequent fallacy, but simply checking the answer to a binary question of the rules. Do you have LoE or is broken?
in our case,..
"Yes it is broken. Because the creature's body that can't be affected (Time Stop) is a solid barrier. You can't affect any spells on the creatures body, because you can't affect the creatures body"

[Anthrowhale]

...
No amount of affirming the consequent will make it not affirming the consequent.

If you want to defeat such an argument, you should be answering questions like:

Are there ways that creatures can be unaffected by spells without blocking LoE?
How have all the possible alternatives been ruled out?
Do the rules state that creatures are barriers for spells affecting them?

[RNightstalker]

Wraithstrike

I'll second this.

I'll also suggest Greater Blink, Enervation, and Assay Spell Resistance.

[bekeleven]

A few fun higher level spells I don't believe have been mentioned:

5: Draconic Polymorph: The polymorph with a 20HD limit and some stat buffs. Nothing fancy, but doesn't have to be. Lesser Ironguard: This is pretty situational since it only works on nonmagical metal, but it's still super sweet and lets you walk through some walls. Mage's Private Sanctum for your hole in the wall. Permanency, for said sanctum, and many other things (like the comprehend languages I mentioned earlier, or Telepathic Bond). Lesser Spell Matrix as the wizard's (worse) arcane spellsurge variant. Shadow Evocation because obviously. Unfettered Heroism for an action point every round, if your campaign uses 'em.

6: Greater Anticipate Teleportation: I love buffs I can leave on all day that guard against some uncommon but relevant thing! Disintegrate, another classic for a reason, even if it can't kill a tree. Freezing Glance is a rare combat spell I enjoy; unsurprisingly, it's nonlethal. Geas to get someone out of your hair, at least, if it works (https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/554464169873899559/940054297922633778/unknown.png?width=672&height=680). Mental Pinnacle as a combat encounter in a can. Glimpse of the Prophecy for all-day buffs. Permanent Image is absurdly good, especially if you get theoretical with it. Mage's Lucubration, both for TO tricks and extra versatility; Shalantha's Delicate Disk for scrolls with no XP cost.

7: 7th level has some of the "immune to everything" spells like Body of War and Elemental Body, but note the downsides; becoming a warforged titan turns off your spellcasting. Glass Strike as a construct-and-undead-killer. Summon Monster VII is actually one of my favorites because of Avoral, Invisible Stalker, and Djinni, among others. Vile Rebellion is the only spell with its own Fleetwood Mac soundtrack. Unicorn Heart is a buff, but sneakily, it's also the best way to teleport an unwilling target with no save or SR.

8: Discern Location is one of the simplest and most powerful divination spells. The Dark Chaos spells show up at this level, if your campaign is into that. Greater Familiarity of Place has some hoops, but you only jump through them once, since the spell is permanent and requires no expensive components. Moment of Prescience is one of the best panic buttons.

9: Most of the good ones have already been mentioned. I guess I'll throw in Genius Loci (great pairing with Familiarity of Place), Hindsight and Teleport Through Time as the campaign-breaking one two punch, Instant Refuge for a more limited contingency that stacks with everything, Hide Life and Kissed by the Ages are Immortality for dummies, Undermaster to reshape the world as you choose.

[Kalkra]

I'll mention Shieldbearer and Shield Companion (Dragon #308). Both are basically the same, enchanting a shield to hover next to somebody and grant its AC bonus for rounds/level. Given that a tower shield grants +4, this is equivalent to the Shield spell, only with worse duration and it doesn't protect against incorporeal attacks and Magic Missile. That being said, at higher levels you can get an enchanted shield, and the shorter duration probably won't matter. Shieldbearer can grant the shield to an ally, and Shield Companion grants all protective benefits, which might include cover.

I wouldn't necessarily consider them to be among the best 1st-level spells, but they're better than Shield once they reliably last the whole encounter.

[Gruftzwerg]

No amount of affirming the consequent will make it not affirming the consequent.

If you want to defeat such an argument, you should be answering questions like:

Are there ways that creatures can be unaffected by spells without blocking LoE?
How have all the possible alternatives been ruled out?
Do the rules state that creatures are barriers for spells affecting them?


If you would have explained your thoughts earlier instead of repeating the rhetorical phrase I could have addressed these things earlier and it would have same time. Nothing against the use of some spicy phrases, but don't leave people in the dark at what you mean with em.

1: Are there ways that creatures can be unaffected by spells without blocking LoE?

Anything that makes the creature somehow be unaffected by the spell causes you to lose Line of Effect to the creature.

It doesn't matter if it's the explicit text of a specific spell, a save roll or a straight immunity against the spell.
All result in a loss of Line of Effect, because the spell simple doesn't effect that creature's body.

And since a creatures body is solid, it acts as a barrier as soon as it is unaffected somehow. If you can't affect a creature for some reason, you can't affect any spells that have "Target: creature". The spell simply can not target those effects on the creatures body.


2: How have all the possible alternatives been ruled out?

So you expect me to check and confirm if any possible alternative exists and than somehow prove it to you? How much time and posts should I wast on this topic and how will I ever prove you if there are no possible alternatives?

Sorry, but that is a lame argument. If you disagree so hard with my interpretation, it's up to you to present any possible alternatives. If you can't present one, assume that there might be none. Otherwise this would become some kind of "joker" argument that you always can pull out. "But there might be other possibilities" Yeah, we can never be sure about this on ANY topic in life. Therefore it ain't an argument.


3: Do the rules state that creatures are barriers for spells affecting them?

As I said above, it's the other way around. As soon as you have something that can't be affected by the spell somehow and that is solid at the same time, it acts as a barrier.
It doesn't matter at all what causes you to not being able to affect that solid stuff.

[Anthrowhale]

Anything that makes the creature somehow be unaffected by the spell causes you to lose Line of Effect to the creature.

Another restatement of the consequent.

Most people would say that a red dragon is unaffected by a fireball because it is simply immune to fire which is after all what the rules state.


2: How have all the possible alternatives been ruled out?
...
Sorry, but that is a lame argument.

Yes, questions aren't arguments...



As soon as you have something that can't be affected by the spell somehow and that is solid at the same time, it acts as a barrier.

Those just aren't the rules. If a Blue dragon is hit by a lightning bolt, the human standing behind it is affected. The relevant text is here (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#area):

A line-shaped spell affects all creatures in squares that the line passes through. The fact that:
It starts from any corner of your square and extends ... until it strikes a barrier that blocks line of effect. is inapplicable since there is no rule stating that the blue dragon is a barrier for lightning.

I don't plan to respond further, as I don't think we should hijack this thread, and it appears no amount of evidence can persuade you.

[Thunder999]

8: Discern Location is one of the simplest and most powerful divination spells. The Dark Chaos spells show up at this level, if your campaign is into that. Greater Familiarity of Place has some hoops, but you only jump through them once, since the spell is permanent and requires no expensive components. Moment of Prescience is one of the best panic buttons..

What's Greater Familiarity of Place? Nothing came up on google and I've never heard of it.

[bekeleven]

What's Greater Familiarity of Place? Nothing came up on google and I've never heard of it.

Dragon Magazine #308 has an article on dragon magic. Every spell in it requires the Dragon Magic feat to cast, which requires CL3, INT13, CHA15, and Draconic, and you get for free if you're a dragon. (Nobody tell Dragonwraught Kobolds that they have another feat to DCFS). Anyway, once you get 8s you can use a type-changing polymorph effect to become a dragon and cast this spell, as (like I said) it requires only verbal and somatic components and its duration is permanent.

The spell has a 10ft/level radius and within that space it grants you a scaling luck bonus to saves (at least +4), and you can use a standard action to have a scaling chance to learn the location, name, race, and level of each creature in the area.

My particular brand of spellcasting really de-emphasizes combat. I notice my spell listings including a lot of


Downtime spells with Permanent / Instantaneous durations with no expensive components
Other permanent and instantaneous spells
All-day or multi-day buff spells
Spells that avoid combat encounters

[RNightstalker]

With the exception of a natural 1, True Strike is essentially an auto hit at any level...how is it not on a top 10 list of any level 1 spells? What am I missing?

[JNAProductions]

With the exception of a natural 1, True Strike is essentially an auto hit at any level...how is it not on a top 10 list of any level 1 spells? What am I missing?

Action economy.

[Troacctid]

With the exception of a natural 1, True Strike is essentially an auto hit at any level...how is it not on a top 10 list of any level 1 spells? What am I missing?
It's usually only good if you can quicken it. Spending two standard actions to make one attack is too inefficient otherwise.

[Gruftzwerg]

Another restatement of the consequent.

Most people would say that a red dragon is unaffected by a fireball because it is simply immune to fire which is after all what the rules state.
No it's the base logic behind the definition of Line of Sight/Effect. One relies on sight, the other relies on whether you can affect it or not.
And if something is "unaffected" and acts as a solid barrier, you can't penetrate it to affect something that shares the same volume of space.



Yes, questions aren't arguments...

Originally it was your rhetorical statement to discredit my interpretation which lead us to this "question".

If you want to discredit my interpretation, the burden of prove is on you, not me. You have to show other possibilities.
Otherwise the question becomes sole a joker to discredit anything because it's very hard to prove the nonexistent of "other possibilities" you know..





Those just aren't the rules. If a Blue dragon is hit by a lightning bolt, the human standing behind it is affected. The relevant text is here (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#area):
The fact that: is inapplicable since there is no rule stating that the blue dragon is a barrier for lightning.
I argue that it is the base definition of Line of Sight that you have sight and that the base definition of Line of Effect is that you can affect the creature.
Thus if you can't affect it, the sole logical option is that you don't have LoE.

You are ignoring that LoS is sight dependent and that LoE is dependent whether you can "affect" it or not.

Either you have can affect something and have LoE or you don't have LoE and can't affect it.


I don't plan to respond further, as I don't think we should hijack this thread, and it appears no amount of evidence can persuade you.
We can make a separate thread if you like. While I'm a bit short on time the last day I would definitively join it.
And btw, ain't it arrogant to have a conversation where you are prejudging the other to be wrong and that sole you are correct?
We should have an on open mindset to be able to convince each other and not be on a crusade where everybody has to join/accept the same believe.
I'm not fanatically behind my statement and I am open for change. Can you say the same? This last sentence from you makes me doubt it..

[Anthrowhale]

It's usually only good if you can quicken it. Spending two standard actions to make one attack is too inefficient otherwise.

It fits quite nicely into Arcane Fusion. (True Casting is another one.)

[RandomPeasant]

Action economy.

Also hitting with one attack is just ... not that good. Unless you are specifically doing Mailman-style metamagic stacking, your offensive options are often going to be full attack routines (where any individual attack is not that valuable) or spells that target saves (which obviously do not make attack rolls). Even if you are a Mailman, you're typically making touch attacks that usually hit anyway.

[Twurps]

Action economy.

And that's why I'd second 'wings of cover' as a great spell. I'm surprised it's only been mentioned once so far.

[Troacctid]

Here's my list, before looking at yours.

Level 0
Detect Magic
Mage Hand
Message
No Light
Ghost Sound
Daze
Acid Splash
Sonic Snap
Songbird
Read Magic

Level 1
Chill Touch
Parching Touch
Swift Invisibility
Nerveskitter
Color Spray
Charm Person
Feather Fall
Mage Armor
Instant of Power
Enlarge Person


Level 2
Dimension Leap
Alter Self
Animate Dead
Wings of Cover
Suggestion
Heroism
Glitterdust
Arcane Turmoil
Luminous Armor
Command Undead
Invisibility


Level 3
Dispel Magic
Haste
Heart of Water
Primal Instinct
Marked Pulse
Glibness
Hesitate
Fireball
Greater Magic Weapon
Scrying


Level 4
Dimension Door
Wings of Flurry
Evard's Black Tentacles
Celerity
Flame Sands
Celestial Brilliance
Dalamar's Lightning Lance
Polymorph
Dominate Person
Solid Fog
Heart of Earth
Greater Mirror Image
Friendly Fire


Level 5
Overland Flight
Teleport
Storm Touch
Mass Suggestion
Greater Dispel Magic
Lesser Planar Binding
Call Faithful Servants
Arcane Fusion
Spell Haven
Wall of Force
Greater Enlarge Person
Unfettered Heroism


Level 6
Planar Binding
Heroes' Feast
Contingency
Fire Seeds
Otto's Irresistible Dance
Superior Resistance
Mudslide
Greater Dispel Magic
Mass Suggestion
Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability


Level 7
Greater Shadow Conjuration
Scalding Touch
Simulacrum
Limited Wish
Energy Immunity
Spell Turning
Gem Tracer
Earthquake
Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion
Arcane Spellsurge


Level 8
Polymorph Any Object
Mind Blank
Greater Planar Binding
Chain Dispel
Greater Arcane Fusion
Greater Shadow Evocation
Unyielding Form of Inevitable Death
Maze
Embrace the Dark Chaos
Veil of Undeath


Level 9
Shapechange
Ice Assassin
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Gate
Wish
Chain Contingency
Genesis
Shades
Programmed Amnesia
Iceberg

I have a little more time to chat today, so I'll elaborate some on my picks and compare them to the OP.

Long post incoming!

Level 0
Our lists are mostly pretty similar, except that I have the 3.0 cantrips no light and songbird on there, and I have daze over disrupt undead.

No light is more impactful in combat than most other cantrips. Notably, it combos very well with the ring of the darkhidden, which makes it punch way above its weight class, essentially functioning like a better version of blacklight spell.

Songbird speaks for itself. It's just a nice effect that works well with the bard's kit.

Daze is IMO a must-have at low levels because it actually does something in combat. The fact that it becomes obsolete later on is unimportant.

Level 1
Wow, we have almost no overlap.

From my list:
1 & 2. Chill Touch and Parching Touch top my list because they got buffed hard by Rules Compendium, which consolidated all their attacks into a single standard action, although I think they are also still quite good without the buff.
3. Swift Invisibility. This is a great 1st-level spell for a bard, and even greater for a trickster spellthief. It's just a nice, action-efficient buff spell that can be used offensively or defensively.
4. Nerveskitter. We agree on this one.
5. Color Spray. In my mind, it is the low-level combat spell. It says to the enemies, "Hi, make a save! If you fail, you die." It's easily better than Sleep—the difference between a standard action and a full round casting time is massive, and still being able to blind enemies if you underestimate their HD totals is a big deal too.
6. Charm Person. We agree on this one.
7. Feather Fall. There aren't a lot of 1st-level spells that make your whole party functionally immune to a common hazard as an immediate action.
8. Mage Armor. Putting this at #1 is overrating it. It's good, but it's not that good.
9. Instant of Power. Same reasons as #3, except it's not quite as strong an effect.
10. Enlarge Person. I actually don't feel very strongly about this last slot. I picked it because it's a nice buff spell that's almost entirely independent of your caster level and save DC. On reflection, though, Grease is probably better here, if only for its ability to utterly screw over golems. Haha, taste it, golems!

From your list:
Shield. I don't even think this spell is especially good. Surely you have better ways to spend your action than "tank moar." The best defense is a good offense.

Magic Missile. It's admittedly iconic, but it's also extremely medium in my experience. I mostly only cast it against ghosts, and even then I'm not very happy about it. And for the metamagic spells you could combo with it...I think you can do better. For example, with Chill Touch!

Lesser Orb of Sound. This is like the worst one! It's just an Eldritch Blast that you have to pay a spell slot for! If you're picking a Lesser Orb spell, it should be Lesser Orb of Fire if you have elemental synergies (e.g. Bloodline of Fire feat), or Lesser Orb of Acid if you don't.

Strength of the True Form. If your true form were beefy, you wouldn't need to polymorph. I do not like this spell.

Disguise Self, Silent Image. Decent picks. Defensible. I'll grant you them.

Sleep. Worse than Color Spray, as noted above.

Level 2
Dear lord, you have a lot of SOL spells on your list. All of them pale in comparison to the true lord of the SOL: Suggestion.

From your list:
Ghoul Touch. It's medium. Shouldn't be anywhere near #1. Yeah, it nerfs them hard if they fail the save, but it also has no effect at all if they succeed, and you have to be right up next to them to use it. The risk is too high.

Glitterdust. We overlap on this one, although I have more spells above it.

Cloud of Knives. What? No. What? Even on most persistomancy builds, it's just okay, unless you're building around sneak attack or something. It's not even a touch attack.

Summon Swarm. I think this one is actively bad. In my experience, swarms do not, in fact, scale well into high levels. Their DCs are static and their damage falls off quick. Also, the full round casting time is a problem, and you don't control the swarm, so it might just turn around and start attacking you. NTY.

Detect Thoughts. The 5e version is fantastic, but the 3.5e version is save negates. You could just cast Suggestion on them.

Hideous Laughter, Blindness/Deafness. Why would you take these when you have a perfectly good Glitterdust? Redundant.

Rope Trick. I respect this pick. Good spell.

Alter Self. We overlap on this one, although I have it higher.

Baleful Transposition. Dimension Leap is better.

Command Undead. We agree here.

From my list:
1. Dimension Leap. It's a mini Dimension Door, two levels lower, with almost all of the same functionality. Absolutely fantastic. If you're not taking this spell on your arcane casters yet, I highly recommend it.
3. Animate Dead. In order to leave this off the 2nd level list, I think you have to forget that it exists. Obviously busted, and having it at this level is the main draw of the entire Death Master class.
4. Wings of Cover. Other people have talked about this one. It's great.
5. Suggestion. It's so flexible and powerful! Easily the top SOL effect.
6. Heroism. I think of this as being like a second Alter Self. It has a kickass long duration and it buffs practically everything you do. Very strong.
8. Arcane Turmoil. Dispel Magic is my #1 spell for 3rd level, so getting it a level lower than normal is really, really good. Love this spell. Don't sleep on it!
9. Luminous Armor. Two Mage Armors and a Daylight in a trench coat. Gives a very stupid amount of effective AC compared to, well, any other option. And it stacks very well.
10. Command Undead. We agree on this one.

Level 3
We don't overlap a lot here.

From my list:
1. Dispel Magic. It's deceptively good, because you think, well, what if I'm not fighting a mage? But the truth is, if you're not fighting a mage, your superior arcane magic should easily win the day. The only fights you actually have to worry about are the ones where magic is involved, and for that, you want Dispel Magic. Also, it works out of combat too! Get rid of traps! Etc.
2. Haste. I think we agree on this one. Best-in-slot buff spell.
3 & 4. Heart of Water & Primal Instinct. "It's the action economy, stupid." Action economy is no joke, and it's a recurring theme in my 3rd level picks. Heart of Water is a swift action Freedom of Movement, one level lower, that also doubles as all-day Water Breathing and Swim. Primal Instinct is a huge initiative buff that lasts 24 hours!
5. Marked Pulse. I figured this would be a sleeper pick because it's both obscure and niche. But it is an immediate action spell that deals legit damage to all enemies in a radius around you and also forces them to save or fall prone. As an immediate action! And imagine metamagicking it to add even more debuffs! Do you have to take multiple feats in order to unlock it? Yes. Is it worth it? Also yes.
6. Glibness. +30 Bluff is just nonsense. That's too much Bluff.
7. Hesitate. More action economy. Trade your immediate action for their standard action, already great. And then for some reason the spell keeps going over multiple rounds!
8. Fireball. Folks don't appreciate this spell enough. The fact of the matter is that damage wins encounters more reliably than almost any other strategy. Any time there are multiple enemies in a fight, dealing 1d6/level damage to all of them at the same time is probably going to be very effective. A good Fireball trivializes any encounter with a horde of minions, and carries metamagic like a champ. There are other great 3rd-level blasting spells—Shockwave, Boccob's Rolling Cloud, Scintillating Sphere, and Arcane Maul are all very good in their own rights, and all of them are reasonably close in power level—but Fireball is the original, and the others are hipster imitations, so I'm picking Fireball as a synecdoche for all of them in order to fit more spells onto the list.
9. Greater Magic Weapon. We agree on this one.
10. Scrying. It's an okay spell at 4th level, but a bargain at 3rd. Although if I weren't deliberately trying to diversify, slots 9 and 10 would just be Scintillating Sphere and Boccob's Rolling Cloud.

From your list:
Shrink Item. I don't think it's actually that good. And the anti-antimagic function feels more like a "Haha, what if we..." joke than a serious strategy.

Phantom Steed. Good mobility spell. This would have been one of my honorable mentions, probably.

Displacement. No, the duration is too short. Action economy is too important to be spending a standard action on this. You want defensive buffs that you can pre-cast. I don't think this spell is good.

Shivering Touch. A defensible choice.

Magic Circle. See, this is a real defensive buff. I'm always happy to have one around. That said, I prefer to borrow a secondhand one from a conjured lantern archon where possible; I'm not as keen on spending known spells on it.

Slow. This is a great spell for bards and beguilers, who don't have much in the way of better options for attacking enemies. But across all arcane classes, you could be casting something that doesn't do nothing to the enemies who pass their saves. "Save negates" is a big drawback, and the upside is ultimately situational.

Keen Edge. A good buff, but not exactly one I'm excited by. I'll cast this if I have Earth Bloodline or something, but I have a hard time picturing an arcane build that would spend a known spell on it. Especially over Heroism, which is far superior at the same spell level for sorcerers and wizards!

Level 4
1. Dimension Door. Somehow it's good in every situation. Dimension Door lets you go around any problem. I've never been unhappy to have access to it. Amazing spell. Top-tier.
2. Wings of Flurry. Probably the best blasting spell in the game, and it's also a potent save-or-suck. Overpowered.
4. Celerity. There's already a lot of power in being able to quicken any action. Adding in the ability to take actions out of turn makes this, quite frankly, a broken spell, even if you aren't immune to daze.
5. Flame Sands. This is another really obscure one, but the slot efficiency, action economy, and damage potential are really fantastic here, and the fact that it ignores spell resistance is the cherry on top.
6. Celestial Brilliance. Talk about your long-duration buffs! There's long durations, and then there's durations so long that you functionally don't have to spend a spell slot at all. And this is an actual good effect! It provides free damage against common enemy types round after round, with crushing inevitability, making it painful just for them to stand near you. At the low cost of one spell slot every week or two, it's a bargain.
7. Dalamar's Lightning Lance. Boy, there sure are a lot of obscure overpowered blasting spells at 4th level. This is some of the best pure single-target damage in the game: 26d6 damage at CL 10, up to 39d6 at level 15. That's more damage than a failed save against Disintegrate, for comparison. They get a save against this one too, but they still take like 2/3rds of the damage on a success. It's a lot.
8. Polymorph. I think Polymorph is somewhat overrated as a combat spell, but not by much.
9. Dominate Person. The fact that you get to keep them around afterwards as an effectively permanent minion is pretty silly. It does make you soft against certain countermeasures if you lean on it too heavily, though.
HM: Heart of Earth, Greater Mirror Image, Friendly Fire. Action economy!

Your picks:
Ray Deflection should be Friendly Fire, the better version of the same effect.

Dimensional Anchor. What? Teleportation isn't that common. This is nice to have in a scroll, but otherwise...I mean, I guess for Planar Binding purposes, sure, I'll give it to you.

Ruin Delver's Fortune. This would be worthy of another of my honorable mentions.

Orb of X. Great spells, but simply outclassed by the more obscure ones I have on my list.

Greater Invisibility: Nah, the duration sucks. I mean, it's okay sometimes, especially if you're sneak attacking with it. But Swift Invisibility is the truth.

Level 5
Your picks:
Dimension Shuffle. I've never cast this, and for such a short range and Will negates, I'm not sure I want to. This isn't 4e; in a lot of fights, positioning barely even matters. Skeptical.

Dimension Jumper. As much as I appreciate the action efficiency, as long as your game includes MIC and its multiple cheap tactical teleportation options, it's hard to justify spending a 5th-level spell on this effect. Especially since Heart of Water is only 3rd level, and does a lot of the same thing. Hard disagree with this pick.

Cloudkill. What? This spell sucks! Pick seriously any blasting spell instead, really. I mean, you mentioned Vitriolic Sphere, but there's also Flaywind Burst. Channeled Sound Blast. Cyclonic Blast. Even a regular Cone of Cold is better than Cloudkill. C'mon.

Major Creation. At 5th level? No way. I don't buy it.

Wall of Stone. I prefer Wall of Force, but okay, defensible, both are good.

Summon Undead V. Just because allips can theoretically fight the Tarrasque doesn't mean they're good in ordinary adventures.

My picks:
1. Overland Flight. The all-dayness of it all is just very good. It always feels like you're getting away with something.
2. Teleport. It's absurd that this is only 5th level.
3. Storm Touch. See Chill Touch, except this does 9d6 damage per level and stuns the target. Honestly, should probably be even higher on the list.
4 & 5. Mass Suggestion & Greater Dispel Magic. These spells are good enough that they could crack the top 10 at their normal level. Getting them a level earlier as a bard means they just blow away the competition.
7. Call Faithful Servants. This spell is obscure, but it's damn good minionmancy. Those minor celestials are tiny, but they are fierce, and you can call a lot of them for a long duration at a low price.
9. Spell Haven. It's like Contingency without the restriction. You can set up any spell of the appropriate level, whether it affects you, or someone else, or whatever, and then release it later as an immediate action. This is one of the best spells you've never heard of.
HM: Greater Enlarge Person. Just a strong version of the effect.
HM: Unfettered Heroism. Allows for a couple different infinite spell slot combos.

Level 6
1. Planar Binding. Yeah, we all know about it.
2. Heroes' Feast. Love this one. Easy immunities and buffs, for the whole party, for the whole day.
3. Contingency. Action economy!
4. Fire Seeds. Another blasting spell that does obscene amounts of damage. The long duration allows you to pre-cast the holly bombs and then detonate them all at once to deal 8d8 + 8 * CL damage. And that's all multiplied by Empower Spell, by the way. You can one-shot a surprising number of unprepared enemies with this.
5. Otto's Irresistible Dance. With the bard discount, it's very good for its level.
6. Superior Resistance. Not only a 24 hour duration, but a better bonus than an actual maxed-out Cloak of Resistance. Saving throws are very important, so I think this spell is excellent.
7. Mudslide. I just think this spell is neat. It covers a nice big area, does damage, locks down anyone who failed the save, sets up a possible Mud to Rock wombo combo, and then sticks around forever to leave a mess in the enemy's house.
8. Greater Dispel Magic. Not the slam dunk at level 6 that it is at level 5, or level 3, but dispelling is still important. East your vegetables.
9. Mass Suggestion. It's the best single-target SOL at 2nd level, and still ranks pretty highly as a mass SOL at 6th level.
10. Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability. Action economy! Why cast your own spells when your buddy can do it for you?

Your picks:
Starmantle. I can see you value these short-duration buffs a lot higher than I do. I just don't want to spend a combat round casting this.

Antimagic Field. Yeah, this one is good. Just a little tricky to leverage effectively in combat, which is why I don't have it this high.

Create Undead. Would rank higher if you didn't have to have a separate method of controlling them. Planar Binding is better.

Summon Monster VI. Not sure that the smiting is really a selling point, but I agree this is a good level for the Summon Monster line. Valid.

Legend Lore. If you're putting it anywhere, it should be on the 4th level list. It's not nearly as exciting at 6th.

True Seeing. Someone else mentioned Dragonsight, which is a lot better. Lower level and an all-day duration means it's not really that close, even if True Seeing is more absolute.

Circle of Death. What??? Why????? I can't imagine the aversion you would have to have against blasting spells in order to spend a 500 gp material component on a spell that does nothing to enemies who pass the save and still only kills the ones who had low HP anyway. It doesn't even affect enemies who have 9 HD! For a 6th level spell, which you have to be at least level 11 or 12 to cast! Sorry but this is a big miss. Not only is this spell not good, it is actively bad.

Level 7
Your picks:
Arcane Spellsurge. I've cooled a lot on this one because by the time you're high enough level to cast it, there are too many other ways to spend your swift action, and even too many other ways to quicken spells more cheaply. It's still solid, but it's fallen way down in my rankings.

Greater Teleport. I don't understand why this made it so high for you when regular Teleport didn't, but it is a great spell, so, respect.

Greater Scrying. What's your rush? Just use regular Scrying, it's fine.

Forcecage. Not my favorite. Most enemies can just attack at range if you use a barred cage, and the cube prevents you from attacking them, so it's more of a delaying or dividing tactic than a fight-ender.

Finger of Death. Well, this one is at least a pretty decent, reasonable SOD spell, I'll give you that. I'd definitely rank it lower, though. We've had Disintegrate since two levels ago.

Plane Shift. Valid.

Banishment. Extraplanar creatures are common at high levels, but it's also common for them to have spell resistance and high Will saves, which means you really need to be prepping anathema options to make it reliable. The difficulty of using it on the fly combined with the limited application...I disagree with this choice.

Greater Arcane Sight. I do think this spell is a little underrated, but I would generally prefer to dispel first and ask questions later. That said, I respect the choice.

My picks:
1. Greater Shadow Conjuration. It's just too versatile. You get to pull from an incredible list, and the bump from 20% real up to 60% real is...well, it sure is real.
2. Scalding Touch. As if Storm Touch couldn't get any more powerful, here's an even bigger version.
3. Simulacrum. Well-known powerful minionmancy effect.
4. Limited Wish. Even more versatile than Greater Shadow Conjuration, but with the xp cost, it's more of a sometimes spell.
5. Energy Immunity. That duration though.
6. Spell Turning. Now this is a pre-buff. Where is your targeted dispel now? Mwahaha! Okay, it's very specifically counter-counterplay against dispels, but damn, it's really good at being counter-counterplay against dispels.
7. Gem Tracer. Just a fun permanent scrying effect for very cheap.
8. Earthquake. It's big. It's flashy. It's incredibly destructive. Screw your secret hideout, screw your castle, I don't even need to go inside. I'll just bring the building down on top of you. And you can use it in combat as a blasting/BFC spell too! I'm a fan.
9. Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. The ultimate safe place to rest for the night. Spacious, luxurious, and best of all, impenetrable. It's even a standard action to cast, so you can use it defensively in combat!
10. Arcane Spellsurge. It may be overrated, but it's still good.

Level 8
1. PAO. I don't know how you have anything else at the top. It's so busted, I don't even have to write out the whole name.
2. Mind Blank. A total no-sell against common attacks that might otherwise be straight-up loss conditions, and it just lasts 24 hours. Like, it barely even costs a spell slot, let alone an action. It's just something that you have now, all the time.
3. Greater Planar Binding. Blah blah blah minionmancy.
4. Chain Dispel. At this level, magic is all that really matters, and this is one of the best tools around for fighting it.
5. Greater Arcane Fusion. Yeah, it's good.
6. Greater Shadow Evocation. I don't think it's worse than Greater Shadow Conjuration—there are a lot of great evocation spells too—but the competition is fiercer at 8th level.
7. Unyielding Form of Inevitable Death. I think this spell is underrated. Besides being incredibly cool and metal, it also has a lot of utility in the SLAs it gives you, which notably can continue their duration even after the Unyielding Form of Inevitable Death (man, that's fun to say) wears off. It also heals you and gives you construct immunities.
8. Maze. Forcecage has got nothing on Maze. Maze is a really nasty spell.
9. Embrace the Dark Chaos. Famously cheesy. Trade away your useless whatever bonus feats for actual real relevant feats.
10. Veil of Undeath. Undead immunities are sick. Obviously it's no Unyielding Form of Inevitable Death, I mean that goes without saying, but the duration is long enough for it to make a fantastic pre-buff that should last most of a dungeon crawl.

Your picks:
Greater Celerity. Nah. It's just a more expensive version of a regular Celerity. You don't need a whole full-round action. A standard is plenty.

Create Greater Undead. Over Greater Planar Binding? I don't think so. I'd much rather have an outsider minion.

Clone. Pssh. Sure. If you're a coward. 😉

Incendiary Cloud. AUGH. No. It's so bad! 4d6 damage, are you kidding? And they still get a save for half? That's an average of only 14 damage a round, and that's if they fail the save every time! You're at least 15th level by this point, and you can literally do four times as much damage with no save by casting a Polar Ray, a Polar Ray, one of the BOTTOM 10 arcane spells in the game! If you want to stick them in a cloud that damages them and blocks vision and is hard to get away from...Acid Fog was right there, two spell levels ago! Heck, Wall of Fire was right there four spell levels ago! I hate this spell.

Summon Monster VIII. Okay, this one is fine.

Level 9
1 & 2. Shapechange & Ice Assassin. Well known busted effects, hopefully not much explanation needed here. Shapechange copying Su abilities gets it the nod for #1.
3. Mordenkainen's Disjunction. Everyone cries about blowing up loot. I say screw the loot, this is a 9th level spell, you're at the end of the campaign anyway! Blow it all up!
4 & 5. Gate & Wish. Also well known busted effects, ranking lower on the list because of the xp cost. (Although, again, you're at the end of the campaign, so consider sucking it up!)
6. Chain Contingency. Just some 3.0 nonsense.
7. Genesis. This spell lets you create a hyperbolic time chamber, which lets you do some pretty silly things.
8. Shades. AKA "We Have Wish At Home."
9. Programmed Amnesia. If we're talking mind control, this is the way to go. It's a very thorough and hard-to-undo way to mess with someone's head. I believe others have mentioned Mindrape, but Programmed Amnesia is better because it's harder to undo and doesn't have an Evil tag or a needlessly uncomfortable name.
10. Iceberg. Forget Meteor Swarm. This is what a real 9th-level blasting spell looks like. How about no save on the damage, and you're buried under 20 feet of snow, also with no save? (Someone else mentioned Maw of Chaos, which is another good example of what a real 9th-level blasting spell looks like, and I would accept it in this slot as well.)

Your picks:
Meteor Swarm. Nah. Either take a real 9th level blasting spell or use metamagic on a lower-level one.

Energy Drain. I mean, it's not fun to get hit by it, but for a 9th level spell, surely you can do better.

Etherealness. Just teleport like a normal person.

Dominate Monster. I mean, I respect the minionmancy, but at this level, it's going to be a very fragile control, and a dispelling effect could quickly turn your asset into a liability. Programmed Amnesia is a lot safer.

Prismatic Sphere. An excellent defensive spell...that also cuts you off from the fight. It's good by warmage standards, but it's too much of a double-edged sword to make my top 10 of all arcane spells.

[Anthrowhale]

I have a little more time to chat today, so I'll elaborate some on my picks and compare them to the OP.
Nice. Some peanut gallery:


Strength of the True Form. If your true form were beefy, you wouldn't need to polymorph. I do not like this spell.

This seems situational. The most common useful situation is where baseline-you has a significantly better dexterity than polymorphed you and you are already persisting anyways.


Cloud of Knives. What? No. What? Even on most persistomancy builds, it's just okay, unless you're building around sneak attack or something. It's not even a touch attack.

The use of caster level instead of BAB at least makes hitting reasonably plausible.


9. Luminous Armor. Two Mage Armors and a Daylight in a trench coat. Gives a very stupid amount of effective AC compared to, well, any other option. And it stacks very well.

This one seems situational to me, because it implies on giving up on stealth.



5. Marked Pulse. I figured this would be a sleeper pick because it's both obscure and niche.

Definitely a freaky one, but the feat cost feels pretty high.



5. Flame Sands. This is another really obscure one, but the slot efficiency, action economy, and damage potential are really fantastic here, and the fact that it ignores spell resistance is the cherry on top.

SR:No is wonderful, but is vomiting molten sand a standard action each round? It does make you want a good way to conjure puddles of water in various places.



6. Celestial Brilliance.

Also great on ammunition if you ever get into combat with an undead army.



Ray Deflection should be Friendly Fire

If your persisting, it's a bit unclear what happens to Friendly Fire when the designated target isn't within 30'.


Greater Invisibility: Nah, the duration sucks. I mean, it's okay sometimes, especially if you're sneak attacking with it. But Swift Invisibility is the truth.

Better for persisting though.



9. Spell Haven. It's like Contingency without the restriction. You can set up any spell of the appropriate level, whether it affects you, or someone else, or whatever, and then release it later as an immediate action. This is one of the best spells you've never heard of.

Definitely potent. One distinction is that you can trigger a contingency while flat-footed using the casting of nerveskitter as a trigger.



7. Mudslide. I just think this spell is neat. It covers a nice big area, does damage, locks down anyone who failed the save, sets up a possible Mud to Rock wombo combo, and then sticks around forever to leave a mess in the enemy's house.

Plus water to fuel Flame Sands.



Arcane Spellsurge. I've cooled a lot on this one because by the time you're high enough level to cast it, there are too many other ways to spend your swift action, and even too many other ways to quicken spells more cheaply. It's still solid, but it's fallen way down in my rankings.

It seems most impressive when precast / persistent avoiding the action economy issue.



2. Mind Blank. A total no-sell against common attacks that might otherwise be straight-up loss conditions, and it just lasts 24 hours. Like, it barely even costs a spell slot, let alone an action. It's just something that you have now, all the time.

It's good, but if you are elevating your caster level sufficiently, nondetection+disobedience starts looking like a nice alternative.



7. Unyielding Form of Inevitable Death.

A great name, but I'm not sure it's adding much over PAO? The SLAs are nice, I guess, but slot economy may not be such a big deal at this level.



9. Embrace the Dark Chaos. Famously cheesy. Trade away your useless whatever bonus feats for actual real relevant feats.

Technically, you need the other one also?



Ice Assassin.

The XP costs here are stiff.



9. Programmed Amnesia. If we're talking mind control, this is the way to go. It's a very thorough and hard-to-undo way to mess with someone's head.

I believe Programmed Amnesia is dispellable while Mindrape is not? I agree there is an ick factor.

A couple feat-dependent ones left out:
Necrotic Tumor (at level 7) provides much more comprehensive minions than Dominate Monster at a much earlier level. It costs a feat, but 'wow'.
Arcane Fusion (at level 5) is such a natural target for Arcane Thesis. You could deliver 78d6+10d8 from a 5th level slot for example.

[Troacctid]

Programmed Amnesia cannot be dispelled. Only a Greater Restoration (or a Wish or Miracle) removes it. Mindrape gets got by a mere Break Enchantment.

You don't need the other half of the Dark Chaos Shuffle to turn your junk feats into something more useful. Abyssal Heritor feats are already miles above your elven MWPs.

Disobedience doesn't stop mind-affecting, it only stops direct mental control, which is a much narrower subset of effects. Mind Blank blanks the entire enchantment school, the entire divination school, about half of the illusion school, and more.

Vomiting molten sand has no listed action cost in its description, so directing or redirecting it defaults to a move action.

Marked Pulse is a really solid payoff for dragonmarks that are already borderline takeable on their own. Like, the Mark of Passage rocks. Getting flight and teleportation SLAs is not at all a bad way to spend three feats.

Luminous Armor does mean giving up on stealth, but on the other hand, stealth is for cowards!

[Beni-Kujaku]

I think we've had quite a few propositions already. What do you say we have a vote to get the top 10 spells of each level according to the community? Maybe we could start with 0th and 1st level spells?

I suggest that anybody can make a list of up to 10 spells for a given level, giving points as follow, to emphasize highly ranked spells. You can list less than 10 spells. In that case, spells will be put at the highest point (so, if you only list Mage Armor and Color Spray, MA will get 14 pts and CS will get 11). Listing several spells at the same place will make them get the average point value, rounded down (listing three spells in first place will award them 11 points each).

1.-> 14 pts
2.-> 11 pts
3.-> 9 pts
4.-> 7 pts
5.-> 6 pts
6.-> 5 pts
7.-> 4 pts
8.-> 3 pts
9.-> 2 pts
10.-> 1 pt


I will also mention, for the sake of completeness, the spells Instant Diversion and Lesser Deflect (I'm a sucker for uses of your swift/immediate action at low levels, and these spells have quite a nice effect, almost as good as Swift Invisibility, one level lower for everyone but a bard), Benign Transposition (for a 1st level spell, being able to reorganize your party without them incurring AoO is incredible), Identify (basically necessary until you can afford an artificer's monocle. Knowing your loot is extremely important.), Obscuring Mist (lowest level concealment spell, and better than Darkness) and Unseen Servant (basically just a trained hireling, but having a free trained hireling can be interesting if you don't pay for it and they cannot be killed in combat).

In the end, we have:


- Acid Splash: Orb deals 1d3 acid damage.
- Daze: Humanoid creature of 4 HD or less loses next action.
- Detect Magic: Detects spells and magic items within 60 ft.
- Detect Poison: Detects poison in one creature or small object.
- Disrupt Undead: Deals 1d6 damage to one undead.
- Dry: dry object.
- Ghost Sound: Figment sounds.
- Heat Water: Heats water.
- Light: Object shines like a torch.
- Mage Hand: 5-pound telekinesis.
- Mending: Makes minor repairs on an object.
- No Light: Prevents normal light from illuminating.
- Message: Whispered conversation at distance.
- Prestidigitation: Performs minor tricks.
- Resistance: Subject gains +1 on saving throws.
- Songbird: Perform and gain +1 on your next Cha check.

Benign Transposition: Two willing subjects switch places.Charm Person: Makes one person your friend.
Chill Touch: One touch/level deals 1d6 damage and possibly 1 Str damage.
Color Spray: Knocks unconscious, blinds, and/or stuns 1d6 weak creatures.
Comprehend Languages: You understand all spoken and written languages.
Deflect, Lesser: Gain a deflection bonus of +1/3 levels (max +5) against one attack.
Disguise Self: Changes your appearance.
Endure Elements: Exist comfortably in hot or cold environments.
Enlarge Person: Humanoid creature doubles in size.
Feather Fall: Objects or creatures fall slowly.
Friendly Face: +5 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information.
Grease: Makes 10-ft. square or one object slippery.
Identify: Determines properties of magic item.
Improvisation: You gain a pool of luck bonus points equal to twice your caster level and can spend them to improve attack rolls, skill checks, and
ability checks.
Instant Diversion: Creates illusory doubles of you.
Instant of Power: Grant ally a brief +4 bonus on attacks, saves, or damage, even when it is not your turn.
Invisibility, Swift: You are invisible for 1 round or until you attack.
Mage Armor: Gives subject +4 armor bonus.
Magecraft: +5 competence bonus on craft for a day.
Magic Aura: Alters object’s magic aura.
Magic Missile: 1d4+1 damage; +1 missile per two levels above 1st (max 5).
Nerveskitter: Subject gains +5 bonus on initiative checks.
Orb of Sound, Lesser: Flying orb does sonic damage.
Obscuring Mist: Fog surrounds you.
Parching Touch: One touch/level deals 1d6 dessication damage and possibly 1 Con damage.
Reduce Person: Humanoid creature halves in size.
Shield: Invisible disc gives +4 to AC, blocks magic missiles.
Silent Image: Creates minor Illusion of your design.
Sleep: Puts 4 HD of creatures into magical slumber.
Strength of the True Form: Use highest physical ability scores between current and original forms.
True Strike: +20 on your next attack roll.
Unseen Servant: Invisible force obeys your commands.

What do you think. Should it be in another thread? Do you want to add a few cantrips and 1st-level spells?

[pabelfly]

We done a similar vote on this thread:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?646095-3-5-Most-OP-Spells-For-Their-Level/

This was the last tally I did in that thread, the overall list is pretty solid.
https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25480197&postcount=209

[Anthrowhale]

Programmed Amnesia cannot be dispelled. Only a Greater Restoration (or a Wish or Miracle) removes it. Mindrape gets got by a mere Break Enchantment.
I see what you mean, but the permanent duration also implies that Programmed Amnesia is vulnerable to AMF.



You don't need the other half of the Dark Chaos Shuffle to turn your junk feats into something more useful. Abyssal Heritor feats are already miles above your elven MWPs.
Sure, but there are even better other feats.



Disobedience doesn't stop mind-affecting, it only stops direct mental control, which is a much narrower subset of effects. Mind Blank blanks the entire enchantment school, the entire divination school, about half of the illusion school, and more.

Mind-affecting spells are also good, so it's a little tricky, On your list, it looks like the only one Mindblank gets that Disobedience does not is Color Spray.



Luminous Armor does mean giving up on stealth, but on the other hand, stealth is for cowards!
You misspelled "surivivors" :smallsmile: The occasional overwhelming challenge makes the ability to exercise the full survival onion fairly helpful.

[Beni-Kujaku]

You misspelled "surivivors" :smallsmile: The occasional overwhelming challenge makes the ability to exercise the full survival onion fairly helpful.

That's a sanctified spell, I'm sure the exalted party member will be happy to stay and cover the others' escape.