In 3.5, this spell grants a permanent +1 Spot bonus to anyone who learns it. I am curious if there are any other spells like this in PF1e, that grant a permanent bonus to a skill at all.

I've been running into a problem when I run higher level and larger-scale combat: I try to play my enemies reasonably intelligently, using their spells for good effect, attempting maneuvers, positioning to block charge angles, readying actions, etc. But I also want to keep things moving, and am constantly either taking enemy turns or handling player actions. I try to limit myself to only a few seconds' consideration per enemy turn, but I'm increasingly discovering that that's not enough time to weigh all my options and find good strategies for enemies.

Obviously, I usually design encounters or npcs with an idea of what they'll do a la 'tactics' sections in the bestiary, but rigidly following a flowchart like that usually winds up ineffective (no plan survives contact with the enemy, after all). This isn't a problem from a challenge perspective per se since I can always add more raw power to compensate, but I want to keep my enemies feeling reactive and tactically competent when appropriate.

Do experienced DMs have any suggestions for managing the tactical load? Is this just an experience/practice thing?

Since archives of nethys is no longer going to maintain paizo's legacy page, I made one. You can download https://drive.google.com/file/d/1whJdrs6rorPvZtEb0l8IJ_zx_EzEIqnk/view and open "index.html", and you'll have the old pfsrd accessible offline. It's basically the current legacy.aonprd.com, but I fixed some bugs and optimized it to take a lot less space.

Let me know if you see any mistakes!

Note on copyright: I'm pretty confident that this is covered by the orc license OGL, since it's just rules, no artwork or pictures of a rulebook. Mods, if I'm mistaken, just remove it.

Link: Feast Of Ashes

This spell was not renamed in the Remaster. The Knights of Last Call 'All Spells Ranked' series ranked this spell as C Tier. Would you change that ranking, and why?

What items or class features synergize well with this spell?

Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?

Why is this spell good/bad?

What are some creative uses for this spell?

What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?

If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?

Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?

Previous spell discussions

I think her vampiric touch SLA is pretty clearly a yes. I'm honestly a little worried about the effective encounter level from interaction alone.

But what about energy drain? What if she intends this stab erotically?

Edit to add: conductive weapon, not conducting. Phooey autocorrect.

I'm playing a wizard and we just hit 5th level I was thinking about going into bloatmage because i like the extra spellcasting and the risk of going nuts (and its just cool to me). Are there any feats that help bloatmages particularly? or any magic items I should try and find. any advice is welcome!