Spells#
Spells in particular are somewhat interesting because they don’t require any hands or action cost unless you’re supplementing with scrolls, staves, and wands. In that way, they typically ignore all of the tradeoffs weapons experience. However, they come with their own separate tradeoffs, usually by being a limited resource or by requiring two actions for their usage.
Cantrips#
Gains:
Infinite usage
Auto-scaling
Usually get about 5 if you’re a caster, 2 if you’re hybrid
Often can pick ones to enable targeting a weakness or work around a resistance
Costs:
Damage scales roughly on par with a martial using a backup weapon
Usually 2 actions
Focus spells#
Gains:
Roughly “per encounter” usage
Typically up to 3 uses by mid-game
Auto-scaling
Strong, ranged single target damage scales roughly on par with ranged martials available to some subclasses
Strong AoE spells available to very few subclasses
Costs:
Typically requires feats to gain access
Usually 2 actions, but some 1-action attack spells
Typically too few available to you pivot to a different focus spell in bad matchups
Mitigation:
Around level 11, many classes get access to an item that grants a focus spell recharge once per day
Slotted spells#
Gains:
Strong AoE spells
Strong, ranged single-target damage that competes with melee martials available to some traditions
e.g.: Force Barrage and Thunderstrike
Sustainable spells for solid 3rd actions that do recurring damage
e.g.: Floating Flame
Large variety of effects
Lower ranks are spammable in late-game
Higher rank AoEs keep the standard damage scaling but are much easier to use and affect much more on average
Fail-fishing AoE status conditions to be more likely to have a large impact on some creatures
e.g.: 5th rank Command, 3rd rank Fear
Buy time or turn-tides with battlefield control and walls
Abundance of choices at high levels
Costs:
“Daily” usage
Usually 3-4 per rank per day
Not auto-scaled
Usually 2 actions, but some are 1 or 3 actions for different effects
Mitigation:
Buy scrolls, wands, and staves to supplement a long adventuring day
Use cantrips and focus spells to preserve slots if your team is clearly going to win
Use a sustain spell with focus spells or cantrips to stretch out the impact of a slot over a battle
Traditions generally#
Arcane can easily target all defenses and do battlefield control, but cannot heal.
Primal can heal and do a variety of elemental damage, but struggles to target Will.
Religion can heal, buff, debuff, and hit unholy/holy for massive damage, but few spells target Reflex.
Occult can heal, buff, debuff, but few spells target Reflex and often countered by mental immunity.
Spells vs. Weapons#
To some extent, this is a broad-strokes comparison of full casters with full martials. I love both, but I also tend to build martials in a way that gets me focus spells to play with.
Spell Gains:
Little to no hand action-economy management
Easier to adjust to weaknesses, resistances, and distances
Caster cantrips automatically scale like martial ranged backup weapons
Buy more interesting things with the money that would be spent on weapon runes
No need to maintain a backup weapon either
Usually some effect even when an enemy makes their saving throw (compared to no effect on a weapon miss)
Significantly more accessible and often more powerful variety of effects
Much more AoE access and variety (bombs are the only semi-AoE splash weapons)
Much more heal, buff, and debuff capacity than most feats related to weapons
High skill ceiling
Weapon Gains:
Little to no per encounter or per day resource management
Usually usable with a single action
Ranged weapons
Similarly ranged Strikes are usually as strong as focus spells for single-target damage
Melee weapons
Not dangerous to use near an enemy with Reactive Strike-like abilities
Martials using their favorite weapons are often as strong as ranged slotted spells for single-target damage
Low skill floor