Pathfinder 2e Optimization – Which Spell’s Damage Benefits Most from Dangerous Sorcery?

optimizationpathfinder-2espells

Dangerous Sorcery adds to the damage of spells that lack a duration, and deal damage.

Which qualifying spell has the lowest damage per level on its own, so DS adds the most relative improvement?

Any official spell is fine, preferably below level 5. The more enemies it can effect the better.


Why I would like to find it: PF2 has a pretty good balance, so if a spell tends to do less damage, it usually has other redeeming qualities. Larger area than usual, other effects like sickened (Vomit Swarm), and so on.

Best Answer

As expected, there is never one perfect spell for a given situation, especially since sometimes a spell list will have a similar but notably different version from others. I'm going to note a few spells that will be beneficial, sorted by area types.

Burst

Burst are possibly the easiest spells to hit a large number of enemies while minimizing friendly fire, making them a good choice even if some of the others are theoretically able to hit more targets. Fireball is also in this area, and the choice between it and sudden blight is debatable given the limited scope of sb's added effect, but sb comes online sooner and isn't necessarily as well known so I wanted to give it a shout-out. Sound burst doesn't have the area of other options, but its additional effects buys it a space on the list.

  • sudden blight (level 2, Heightened +1)
    • damage: 2-9 d10 negative
    • area: 20ft burst
    • volume: 1,508ft³ (44 squares on a plane, up to approx 200 squares)
    • add'l effect: removes vegetation-based difficult terrain, enemies with disease take a penalty when Saving
  • sound burst (level 2, Heightened +1)
    • damage: 2-9 d10 sonic
    • area: 10ft burst
    • volume: 754ft³ (12 squares on a plane, up to 32 squares)
    • add'l effect: deafened, stunned 1rd (crit)

Cone

No list about maximizing area damage would be complete with the resident 60ft cone, the scope of which is tough to grasp in 3 dimensions. Elemental annihilation wave actually fits this question better, but costs 2 full turns to do so.

  • elemental annihilation wave (level 3, +2 Heightened)
    • damage: 4/8/12/16 d6 fire & bludgeoning
    • area: 30ft or 60ft cone
    • volume: 7,069ft³ or 56,549ft³ (24/96 squares on a plane, up to 100-400 squares)
    • add'l effect: knockback, prone (crit), gust of wind (1 round)
  • cone of cold (level 5, +1 Heightened)
    • damage: 12-20 d6 cold
    • area: 60ft cone
    • volume: approx. 56,549ft³ (96 squares on a plane, up to around 400 squares)
    • add'l effect: none

Cylinder

Oddly, the other cylinder I looked at (geyser) has a duration of 1 round and is therefore officially not compatible with Dangerous Sorcery. If your GM is willing to homerule it, geyser is a better spell in this circumstance for its larger area and additional effects.

  • flame strike (level 5, +1 Heightened)
    • damage: 8-16 d6 fire
    • area: 10ft radius/40ft tall
    • volume: 12,566ft³ (96 squares)
    • add'l effect: ignores half fire resist and can affect fire immune creatures

Line

Lines. Nearly impossible to hit more than a couple of things, but theoretically so powerful. This one is hard to decide between kamehameha inner radiance torrent and blazing fissure, so I went with both for different reasons. Similar to elemental annihilation wave, irt is probably the better answer but has issues due to it's abnormal casting.

  • inner radiance torrent (level 2, +1 Heightened)
    • damage: 4(8)-32(64) d4 force
    • area: 60ft or 120ft line
    • volume: 1,500ft³ or 3,000ft³ (120 or 240 squares)
    • add'l effect: counteract darkness, blind 1rd (crit), 1-8 force damage aura
  • blazing fissure (level 5, +1 Heightened)
    • damage: 10-18 d6 fire & bludgeoning
    • area: 120ft line
    • volume: 3,000ft³ (240 squares)
    • add'l effect: prone

Other notes:

These spells might work with Dangerous Sorcery; they cause persistent damage but don't have a duration themselves. As a GM, I would rule against it (except grim tendrils initial damage), but both are good spells in their own right and would be excellent choices when using the feat, if allowed. Magic missile isn't helped enough to fully list it out, but suffice to say that you can hit 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 different targets for 1d4+2 with the combo. Wooo.

  • grim tendrils (level 1, Heightened +1)
    • damage: 2-18 d4 negative
    • area: 30ft line
    • volume: 750ft³ (60 squares)
    • add'l effect: 1-9 persistent bleed
  • enervation (level 4, Heightened +2)
    • damage: 4-10 d8 persistent negative
    • area: 30ft line
    • volume: 750ft³ (60 squares)
    • add'l effect: drained, doomed (crit)

Source: Used pf2easy.com/spellbook/ to filter to spells with the Traits: Acid, Attack, Cold, Death, Electricity, Fire, Force, Mental, Negative*, and/or Sonic. Also limited search to level 5 (some higher ones, such as prismatic spray or meteor swarm, would have been likely candidates), then sifted for area effects. *Added Negative under the pretense of the more common situation of facing living enemies; for basically any Negative spell there is a corollary Positive spell that I did not want to sift through but exists if you find yourself fighting undead.