Can we build the math from the ground up? (And does Vancian help or hurt that?)

[johnbragg]

The Wizard has always been a bully of the weak and buffs/debuffs are better options for the strong.

But can the Pathfinder 2 caster effectively debuff strong opponents? At all?

Without a Critical Failure on a save, can they...make a Pit Fiend more vulnerable to attacks? (5e Advantage is what I'm thinking of). Can they use their action-and-spell-slots to negate a Pit Fiend action or two? Can they counterspell Pit Fiend spells/ SLAs?

I'm 100% on board with the Big Strong Fighter guys doing the bulk of the HP damage. What I want to know is, in PF2 at high levels, do the casters get to manipulate the BSF vs BBEG dogfight in meaningful ways, or are they just clearing away minions to kill time?

To use a pro wrestling, the caster is the "heel" manager and the Big Strong Fighter is the heel wrestler vs the Champion. The manager distracts the ref--so the wrestler can cheat. The manager tosses a Foreign Object to the wrestler (big bonus to a single attack). The manager takes a cheap shot at the Champion (debuff status effect on the BBEG).