1st-4th level Must Have spells for Wizard

[Crake]

Ok, so for about the first time in my current campaign, I've gotten almost unrestricted access to any spell up to 5th. I'm currently incapable of 5th level spells, so lets stick with 4th level and below. We're running a core spells only game, so nothing outside of the players handbook and my banned schools are necromancy and enchantment (I'm planning on retraining into a generalist wizard down the track though, so feel free to throw in some of those spells that I will definitely not have, but they aren't a high priority for me right now). I have the following spells:

All non necro/enchantment 0th level spells
1st:
Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Protection from XYZ, Shield, Enlarge person, Feather Fall, Grease, Mount, Identify, Expeditious Retreat, Alarm, Burning Hands, True Strike, Nystul's Magic Aura, Disguise Self
2nd:
Invisibility, Fox's Cunning, Scorching Ray, Web, Resist Energy, Mirror Image, Rope Trick, See Invisibility, Knock, Glitterdust, Acid Arrow, Cat's Grace, Bull's Strength, Bears Endurance, Alter Self, Spider Climb, Levitate
3rd:
Fly, Fireball, Dispel Magic, Slow, Tiny Hut, Magic Circle vs XYZ, Blink, Stinking Cloud, Explosive Runes, Lightning Bolt, Summon Monster III, Shrink Item, Secret Page, Arcane Sight, Phantom Steed
4th:
Evard's Black Tentacles, Arcane Eye, Scrying, Wall of Fire, Polymorph, Dimension Door, Stoneskin, Dimensional Anchor, Phantasmal Killer, Greater Invisibility, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability

The only limit that has been placed on me is spells with a name before them. I know for a fact that Otiluke doesn't want me going through his spells, so none of his spells. Any of the others I'll have to ask next session. If it matters at all, I'm a Conjurer, but as I said, I'm planning on retraining that soon.
I have 8175gp left to spend, prices, including scribing materials, are costing me:
125gp for 1st level spells
350 for 2nd
675 for 3rd and
1100 for 4th

Edit: Forgot I had phantom steed too.

[Morbis Meh]

Well you have slow but don't have haste (which imo is the better of the two spells) and the distinct lack of Solid Fog is unsetteling that is one of the best conjuration crowd control spells since there is no save. Too bad you can't use other spells... the orb line of spells is much better for blasting and they're conjuration to boot!

[killem2]

Color Spray is pretty awesome, as is Benign Transposition.

[Crake]

Well you have slow but don't have haste (which imo is the better of the two spells) and the distinct lack of Solid Fog is unsetteling that is one of the best conjuration crowd control spells since there is no save. Too bad you can't use other spells... the orb line of spells is much better for blasting and they're conjuration to boot!

Yeah, I went with Evard's when I hit level 7 for crowd control so we could at least see our enemies. All the 4th level spells I have right now aside from Evard's and Arcane eye were literally obtained at the very end of the session while I was gleefully writing in spells into my spellbook. I'm technically still there, so I can add any more spells I can afford, but I figured, since I'll still be a conjurer next level, I may as well leave SOMETHING good to get for my required conjuration spell, so I settled on solid fog for that.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

The only limit that has been placed on me is spells with a name before them.

Evard's Black Tentacles

Sorry, but as per your restriction, I believe that this one is out.

The best spells for a Wizard to have are directly effected by his party. I mean if you already have a Cleric, why should you spend your spell slots on spells like Bull's Strength when that same slot could be used as a glitterdust or invisibility?

Haste should be in your third level spells unless you don't have any martial combatants.

Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Acid Arrow and all the other damage dealing spells would (in my opinion) be better served as other spells (explosive runes gets a pass though, you can get very creative with the application). The martial characters (again, if you have them) can deal damage, why should you waste your spells doing the same (even though you can do it better)?

Also, unless you have someone who benefits from Sneak Attack or some other form of bonus damage vs dex-denied, Greater Invisibility is worse for YOU. It has a shorter duration (x/rounds instead of x/minutes) and you shouldn't be attacking anyway so you shouldn't need to 'upgrade' in the first place.

[dextercorvia]

The only limit that has been placed on me is spells with a name before them. I know for a fact that Otiluke doesn't want me going through his spells, so none of his spells. Any of the others I'll have to ask next session.

Leomund called. He wants his Tiny Hut back.

Other than that: Silent Image, Wind Wall, Major Image, Haste, Stone Shape, and Enervation.

[dextercorvia]

Also, unless you have someone who benefits from Sneak Attack or some other form of bonus damage vs dex-denied, Greater Invisibility is worse for YOU. It has a shorter duration (x/rounds instead of x/minutes) and you shouldn't be attacking anyway so you shouldn't need to 'upgrade' in the first place.

Not so sure about this. Unless you can completely avoid casting any spells at your opponents...

[Crake]

Sorry, but as per your restriction, I believe that this one is out.

The best spells for a Wizard to have are directly effected by his party. I mean if you already have a Cleric, why should you spend your spell slots on spells like Bull's Strength when that same slot could be used as a glitterdust or invisibility?

Haste should be in your third level spells unless you don't have any martial combatants.

Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Acid Arrow and all the other damage dealing spells would (in my opinion) be better served as other spells (explosive runes gets a pass though, you can get very creative with the application). The martial characters (again, if you have them) can deal damage, why should you waste your spells doing the same (even though you can do it better)?

Also, unless you have someone who benefits from Sneak Attack or some other form of bonus damage vs dex-denied, Greater Invisibility is worse for YOU. It has a shorter duration (x/rounds instead of x/minutes) and you shouldn't be attacking anyway so you shouldn't need to 'upgrade' in the first place.

Leomund called. He wants his Tiny Hut back.

Other than that: Silent Image, Wind Wall, Major Image, Haste, Stone Shape, and Enervation.

These spells are one's I found either in scroll shops around, where their access wasn't restricted, or from personal research (aka, levelup) in which case, they're ruled as not actually being their spell, as much as a reverse engineered personal version of that particular spell.

The place I'm at now currently restricts access to any spells I get from this particular place.

As for greater invis, we do happen to have a rogue who I had in mind for that, My damaging spells are mostly just legacy to fuel my reserve feat fiery burst, with a bit of energy specific damage incase we fight something that is weak to certain types of damage.

We do have *A* martial character, a paladin, but hes decked out in some pretty sweet assed gear, so his damage output isn't TOO bad. That said, sometimes his damage output is too slow, and the cleric (or sometimes clerics, if our second cleric actually shows up) cant keep him alive. I like to keep a scorching ray or two handy for sweet 8d6 damage over 2 ranged touch rolls.

As for my buffing spells, those are actually for Item creation, as I'm the party item crafter. The DM lets other party members spend their XP when I'm making them stuff, but I still need the spells.

Haste I overlooked before since it only gives you a movement speed boost and an extra attack, but now that I have money to spare, I don't see why I should omit it from my collection.

So with haste, my money pool is down to 7500

[dextercorvia]

Haste I overlooked before since it only gives you a movement speed boost and an extra attack, but now that I have money to spare, I don't see why I should omit it from my collection.

So with haste, my money pool is down to 7500

The following is what haste is for.

We do have *A* martial character, a paladin, but hes decked out in some pretty sweet assed gear, so his damage output isn't TOO bad. That said, sometimes his damage output is too slow, and the cleric (or sometimes clerics, if our second cleric actually shows up) cant keep him alive. I like to keep a scorching ray or two handy for sweet 8d6 damage over 2 ranged touch rolls.

8d6 averages 27 points of damage. I'm guessing your paladin can do that with one extra attack. Haste gives him one extra attack/round. That helps him 'keep up'.

[Spuddles]

Summon Monster IV gets you mephits, which come with energy descriptors on your spells, which will let you fuel fiery burst. Also, SMIV is pretty good to have around, as there's some decent utility there (flyers, grapplers, some spells on the mephits like glitterdust, at will continual flame on lantern archon).

[Crake]

8d6 averages 27 points of damage. I'm guessing your paladin can do that with one extra attack. Haste gives him one extra attack/round. That helps him 'keep up'.

You do raise a good point, the extra attack is actually extremely potent on the paladin. You may have heard of the Final Word swords? Hes got one.

[Crake]

Summon Monster IV gets you mephits, which come with energy descriptors on your spells, which will let you fuel fiery burst. Also, SMIV is pretty good to have around, as there's some decent utility there (flyers, grapplers, some spells on the mephits like glitterdust, at will continual flame on lantern archon).

If I recall, spells that get a descriptor upon casting cant be used to fuel reserve feats. But you're right aside from that, there are definitely some interesting things on the 4th level list I didn't realize mephits were on there.

[Eldariel]

You do raise a good point, the extra attack is actually extremely potent on the paladin. You may have heard of the Final Word swords? Hes got one.

Don't forget, Haste is multitargeting. It'd allow your Clerics to hit an extra attack too, which can hurt quite a bit provided they have some Strength or Dex.

[Archmage1]

I kind of like Greater mirror image, as it is an immediate, and used properly, it makes you insanely hard to hit.

[Crake]

Don't forget, Haste is multitargeting. It'd allow your Clerics to hit an extra time too, which can hurt quite a bit provided they have some Strength or Dex.

That's true, but our clerics don't do that much weapon swinging in battle. Now that we've hit 7th level though, one of the clerics has been preparing that spell that gives you str + full bab, so he could potentially get something out of that.

[Crake]

I kind of like Greater mirror image, as it is an immediate, and used properly, it makes you insanely hard to hit.

Not in the player's handbook D=

[Eldariel]

That's true, but our clerics don't do that much weapon swinging in battle. Now that we've hit 7th level though, one of the clerics has been preparing that spell that gives you str + full bab, so he could potentially get something out of that.

That, and y'know, when you do cast Haste, at that time he could consider swinging 'cause it's significantly more efficient. You're also reaching the point where they don't even need a real weapon since Greater Magic Weapon does everything you need (once you reach Caster Level 8, it becomes wonderful).

[Sudain]

What is your combat role? Damager? Buffer? Battlefield control? Dispeller? Summoner?

Picking wizard spells is a lot like picking magic cards. You want to be consistent so you can do your job(whatever that is) whenever called upon. You also want to be versatile in how you do your job; so if you run into an immunity you can get around it.

You wouldn't want your healer to say, "Whoops; sorry I didn't prepair that. Good luck!" Your party doesn't want you to be inconsistent in what they will rely upon you for.

[Crake]

What is your combat role? Damager? Buffer? Battlefield control? Dispeller? Summoner?

The inquisitor cleric (aka, the one that reliably shows up) is definitely the dispeller, getting a +4 from the inquisition domain thats not limited by the caster level requirement of dispel. There's an average amount of damage around the field usually, but it always helps? Definitely not the buffer, most people either have gear that provides enough buffs, or they self buff. The druid is easily the summoner, with augment summoning and natures ally spontaneous casting.

I think I'd be battlefield control/damage.

The thing is, we're frequently fighting small numbers of enemies that are pretty powerful, and I've noticed alot of my save negates spells are wasted on most of them, so I've been moving to either no save or save for half spells to try and actually do something in combat rather than just achieving nothing when the enemy makes their saves. Up until recently I haven't had access to any control spells that weren't save negates. I've usually had a grease or two prepared, which has certainly helped here and there, but glitterdust very often fails to blind, Web can be nice, and I'm realizing as I'm typing this that I stopped preparing it because we fought a series of clerics that cast freedom of movement before combat, rendering it useless, but that's behind us for now, so I should prep that more often.

Tiny Hut I actually bought to use as something of a combat control spell, giving us vision while restricting enemies to blind fighting, but I've never had a chance where it was really applicable. Stinking cloud, more often than not results in enemies making the save, which sucks, its just a 3rd level fog cloud in in that case. Even Evard's has let me down in 2/3 of the combats I've had with it. In the 1/3 though, it was pretty damn amazing, holding a group of 4 gargoyles back while we fought some lycanthropes.

But yeah, my point is, I try to be combat control, but I like to keep damage spells in reserve so if/when my control spells fail me, I have some raw damage as back up.

Edit: Although, now that I finally have myself a 4th level fire spell, wall of fire, I suppose I can just save my 4d6 fiery burst as damage and prepare control in everything else, with the occasional Acid Arrow incase we fight something immune to fire.

[Spuddles]

If I recall, spells that get a descriptor upon casting cant be used to fuel reserve feats. But you're right aside from that, there are definitely some interesting things on the 4th level list I didn't realize mephits were on there.

The wording used from reserve feats:
"As long as you have a fire spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast"

Take what "available to cast" means. It's a bit more vague than "prepared" so leaves some room for shenanigans.

[Crake]

The wording used from reserve feats:
"As long as you have a fire spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast"

Take what "available to cast" means. It's a bit more vague than "prepared" so leaves some room for shenanigans.

That's a topic for debate, one that I've had with my DM already, and he said no.

[dextercorvia]

The wording used from reserve feats:
"As long as you have a fire spell of 2nd level or higher available to cast"

Take what "available to cast" means. It's a bit more vague than "prepared" so leaves some room for shenanigans.

It is clarified in the Reserve Feats section. Crake has the right of it so far as I've always seen.

[Sudain]

I think I'd be battlefield control/damage.

Awesome! :) You have a focus! :D I can certainly work with this.

The thing is, we're frequently fighting small numbers of enemies that are pretty powerful, and I've noticed alot of my save negates spells are wasted on most of them, so I've been moving to either no save or save for half spells to try and actually do something in combat rather than just achieving nothing when the enemy makes their saves. Up until recently I haven't had access to any control spells that weren't save negates. I've usually had a grease or two prepared, which has certainly helped here and there, but glitterdust very often fails to blind, Web can be nice, and I'm realizing as I'm typing this that I stopped preparing it because we fought a series of clerics that cast freedom of movement before combat, rendering it useless, but that's behind us for now, so I should prep that more often.

Humm... not sure if your DM's rigging the fights so his monsters don't get crippled or not. Freedom of movement is a 4th level spell(level 7 caster) for clerics. Maybe it was an above CR fight? Either way moving to some effect upon a successful save is smart. Grease and web are awesome. I prefer pyrotechnics over glitter-dust honestly. I will type out a list of my preferred battlefield control spells; and why I like them. All PHB baby. :)

Tiny Hut I actually bought to use as something of a combat control spell, giving us vision while restricting enemies to blind fighting, but I've never had a chance where it was really applicable. Stinking cloud, more often than not results in enemies making the save, which sucks, its just a 3rd level fog cloud in in that case. Even Evard's has let me down in 2/3 of the combats I've had with it. In the 1/3 though, it was pretty damn amazing, holding a group of 4 gargoyles back while we fought some lycanthropes.

Tiny hut is difficult to use. Only application I've seen is a deliberate ambush where they are trying to creep up on you. Or camping.

Battlefield control spells typically fall into 2 uses for me. Movement restriction, and sight restriction. Movement is awesome because they can't run away, charge towards you, makes flanking more difficult, etc... Sight restriction is awesome because it makes people WANT to move. Archers can't shoot; casters can't target to cast, melee don't want to be flanked. I've found people exiting a cloud don't typically do it in unison so formations are broken up.

Alot of the time the cloud spells have a rider effect - create a cloud that if people stay in XYZ happens to them or they have to make the save. Just count that as an awesome. Feel free to pick your spell based upon the rider effect(stinking cloud for example) but don't depend on it. You are casting the cloud to block vision and break up formations. As a side benefit (for stinking cloud) people with low fort(casters, and lower level people) will be sickened. They are sorting themselves into their high/low saves for you. If you manage to toss on a movement impairing effect while they are in there(black identical/web, etc.. all the better.

Conversely if you are fighting people that are highly mobile and will leave your clouds within 1 round restrict their movement with walls, slow, sleet storm, etc... Or put clouds up so that to target you they have to go through the clouds and get close. Battlefield control is about relying upon the effect itself to do the job(walls, block line of sight, extinguish torches, etc...), anything extra is just cool.


^^ That's my sermon on how I think about using battlefield control spells. Hopefully it's helpful to you.


Direct Damage/Blasting - Great choice as a back up. :D


-=-=-
Battle Control Spells
Movement Impairing
Open/Close - highly specialized; but it's also a 0th level spell. If you've got nothing better why not.
Grease - makes them trip and fall. Even if they save if they don't have 5 ranks in balance they are considered flatfooted. Most people don't have 5 ranks.
Web - slows people down even if they make their save.
Slow - Multi-target that moves with the target. Sadly if they save then no effect.
Black Tentacles - impairs movement via grapple. Casters typically have low grapple.
Resilient Sphere - Yup you don't have access to it but it's still an amazing single target spell.
Wall of Ice - Create a wall of ice to split the baddies up. Or capture one. Be creative. :)



Sight Impairing
Pyrotechnics - long range and allows you to target saves when blinding people. Sadly it is no partial on save. So just target the save you need to.
Fog Cloud - no save and 10 min/level.
Sleet Storm - Long range; no save. Wide range, and forces them to use balance to get out faster.
Stinking Cloud - No save. Could and rider effect that may make them sickened.
Solid Fog - No save. Movement and sight impairing. Allows much better positioning for your team.
Ice Storm - No save. A cloud that does NOT stick around. does damage as a rider effect.
Illusory Wall - *Permanent duration* It creates a figment that they must see through first(so but until then they see the wall; and as such do NOT see what's behind it). Not great in an open field; but in a dungeon or city much more useful.


Other Utility
Dispel Magic - removes some of the suck on you and their goodies. Use with care.
Phantom Steed - Most of the you BC spells have a range of medium. ABUSE this to keep you safe.
Arcane Sight - Great for finding invisible people. :) Or finding who's the biggest baddest of them all(via magic) so you can dispell them. :) Or being creepy in the middle of the night to scare the inn-keepers daughter.
Remove Curse - worth keeping a couple(1-2) scrolls on hand for, or be able to prepair.
Wind Wall - specialized but it forces archers to change positions. Also part defensive. Possible RP uses.



I know you don't have access to 5th level spells yet but here are a few to keep your eyes on.
Cloudkill - moving cloud. Rider fort effect. No save for the cloud effect.
Wall of Stone - Shape able wall. Harder to break through than wall of ice. Also breaks sight.
Wall of Force - blocks pretty much everything but line of sight.
Break Enchantment - again great to have 1 or 2 scrolls of(or be able to prepair)
Prying Eyes - Personal favorite.
Contact Other Plane - Again personal favorite.
Dream/Nightmare - just cool utility.
Persistent Image - you don't have to concentrate on the illusion. Set it and forget it. Huge plus.
Permanency - talk to your DM about this one.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

As for greater invis, we do happen to have a rogue who I had in mind for that...

Ok, that would do him wonders.

We do have *A* martial character, a paladin, but hes decked out in some pretty sweet assed gear, so his damage output isn't TOO bad. That said, sometimes his damage output is too slow...

Ok, so you have a Paladin and a Rogue as your martial characters, casting haste for them will have a huge effect on their overall damage output, especially for the Rogue.

...and the cleric (or sometimes clerics, if our second cleric actually shows up) cant keep him alive.

As for my buffing spells, those are actually for Item creation, as I'm the party item crafter. The DM lets other party members spend their XP when I'm making them stuff, but I still need the spells.

IIRC you can have another spellcaster provide the spell component for a magic item. If you have a cleric who is there most of the time, he could provide them for you, and you don't have to worry about it at all.

[Invader]

With a little prior planning shrink item and animate dead can be extremely useful.

[Spuddles]

Shrink item is an incredible spell. Did you know you can turn lava into little cloth patches, then throw it at someone for a disgustingly large amount of damage?

Per the rules, you can copy spells into your spellbook even if you cannot cast them yet. I would pick up teleport and overland flight asap.

[Crake]

Awesome! :) You have a focus! :D I can certainly work with this.



Humm... not sure if your DM's rigging the fights so his monsters don't get crippled or not. Freedom of movement is a 4th level spell(level 7 caster) for clerics. Maybe it was an above CR fight? Either way moving to some effect upon a successful save is smart. Grease and web are awesome. I prefer pyrotechnics over glitter-dust honestly. I will type out a list of my preferred battlefield control spells; and why I like them. All PHB baby. :)




Tiny hut is difficult to use. Only application I've seen is a deliberate ambush where they are trying to creep up on you. Or camping.

Battlefield control spells typically fall into 2 uses for me. Movement restriction, and sight restriction. Movement is awesome because they can't run away, charge towards you, makes flanking more difficult, etc... Sight restriction is awesome because it makes people WANT to move. Archers can't shoot; casters can't target to cast, melee don't want to be flanked. I've found people exiting a cloud don't typically do it in unison so formations are broken up.

Alot of the time the cloud spells have a rider effect - create a cloud that if people stay in XYZ happens to them or they have to make the save. Just count that as an awesome. Feel free to pick your spell based upon the rider effect(stinking cloud for example) but don't depend on it. You are casting the cloud to block vision and break up formations. As a side benefit (for stinking cloud) people with low fort(casters, and lower level people) will be sickened. They are sorting themselves into their high/low saves for you. If you manage to toss on a movement impairing effect while they are in there(black identical/web, etc.. all the better.

Conversely if you are fighting people that are highly mobile and will leave your clouds within 1 round restrict their movement with walls, slow, sleet storm, etc... Or put clouds up so that to target you they have to go through the clouds and get close. Battlefield control is about relying upon the effect itself to do the job(walls, block line of sight, extinguish torches, etc...), anything extra is just cool.


^^ That's my sermon on how I think about using battlefield control spells. Hopefully it's helpful to you.


Direct Damage/Blasting - Great choice as a back up. :D


-=-=-
Battle Control Spells
Movement Impairing
Open/Close - highly specialized; but it's also a 0th level spell. If you've got nothing better why not.
Grease - makes them trip and fall. Even if they save if they don't have 5 ranks in balance they are considered flatfooted. Most people don't have 5 ranks.
Web - slows people down even if they make their save.
Slow - Multi-target that moves with the target. Sadly if they save then no effect.
Black Tentacles - impairs movement via grapple. Casters typically have low grapple.
Resilient Sphere - Yup you don't have access to it but it's still an amazing single target spell.
Wall of Ice - Create a wall of ice to split the baddies up. Or capture one. Be creative. :)



Sight Impairing
Pyrotechnics - long range and allows you to target saves when blinding people. Sadly it is no partial on save. So just target the save you need to.
Fog Cloud - no save and 10 min/level.
Sleet Storm - Long range; no save. Wide range, and forces them to use balance to get out faster.
Stinking Cloud - No save. Could and rider effect that may make them sickened.
Solid Fog - No save. Movement and sight impairing. Allows much better positioning for your team.
Ice Storm - No save. A cloud that does NOT stick around. does damage as a rider effect.
Illusory Wall - *Permanent duration* It creates a figment that they must see through first(so but until then they see the wall; and as such do NOT see what's behind it). Not great in an open field; but in a dungeon or city much more useful.


Other Utility
Dispel Magic - removes some of the suck on you and their goodies. Use with care.
Phantom Steed - Most of the you BC spells have a range of medium. ABUSE this to keep you safe.
Arcane Sight - Great for finding invisible people. :) Or finding who's the biggest baddest of them all(via magic) so you can dispell them. :) Or being creepy in the middle of the night to scare the inn-keepers daughter.
Remove Curse - worth keeping a couple(1-2) scrolls on hand for, or be able to prepair.
Wind Wall - specialized but it forces archers to change positions. Also part defensive. Possible RP uses.



I know you don't have access to 5th level spells yet but here are a few to keep your eyes on.
Cloudkill - moving cloud. Rider fort effect. No save for the cloud effect.
Wall of Stone - Shape able wall. Harder to break through than wall of ice. Also breaks sight.
Wall of Force - blocks pretty much everything but line of sight.
Break Enchantment - again great to have 1 or 2 scrolls of(or be able to prepair)
Prying Eyes - Personal favorite.
Contact Other Plane - Again personal favorite.
Dream/Nightmare - just cool utility.
Persistent Image - you don't have to concentrate on the illusion. Set it and forget it. Huge plus.
Permanency - talk to your DM about this one.

Wow, that's a HUGE amount of insight, thanks XD

Shrink item is an incredible spell. Did you know you can turn lava into little cloth patches, then throw it at someone for a disgustingly large amount of damage?

Per the rules, you can copy spells into your spellbook even if you cannot cast them yet. I would pick up teleport and overland flight asap.

really? you can do that? I never even realised. Teleport is definitely one I'd take, but overland flight? We mostly use phantom steed for travel, is there something else that overland flight can be used for that I'm not seeing?
40ft flight with average maneuverability seems a bit lackluster for combat.

[Eldariel]

really? you can do that? I never even realised.

Shrink boulders, dispel the Shrink or throw 'em into AMFs and have some fun. Overall, the combination of shrinking something and returning it to its original state is quite potent.

Teleport is definitely one I'd take, but overland flight? We mostly use phantom steed for travel, is there something else that overland flight can be used for that I'm not seeing?
40ft flight with average maneuverability seems a bit lackluster for combat.

It lasts all day. That's about it. Hour/level means you never need to spend another action to cast Fly again. It's fast enough for most purposes and you're still faster than walkers in combat not to mention that you, y'know, fly.

[Crake]

It lasts all day. That's about it. Hour/level means you never need to spend another action to cast Fly again. It's fast enough for most purposes and you're still faster than walkers in combat not to mention that you, y'know, fly.

I feel like the average maneuverability makes it less useful in tight dungeon corridors. I can see it being useful in more open environments, but I don't think it's something I would spend my highest level spellslot on when I can cast something more potent for battle. There was a plot sequence when my wizard was basically told "stop looking out for number 1 and be more of a team player" so a self only buff that seems like it would be great mostly for running away seems a bit contrary to that.

[Eldariel]

I feel like the average maneuverability makes it less useful in tight dungeon corridors. I can see it being useful in more open environments, but I don't think it's something I would spend my highest level spellslot on when I can cast something more potent for battle. There was a plot sequence when my wizard was basically told "stop looking out for number 1 and be more of a team player" so a self only buff that seems like it would be great mostly for running away seems a bit contrary to that.

Well, certainly not in small dungeons but in overland travel, outdoors, etc. it's exceedingly useful. Of course, if you only ever encounter adversaries in small dungeons without enough room to fly, the utility of flight is sharply diminished.