Naerai Tactics

Naerai has a metric ton of options, which can be a bit paralyzing when it gets to his turn and there is no obvious best choice. Keep some of the following in mind if you get stuck. The most complicated of Naerai's choices actually come when selecting which spells to use each day. His usual list is a pretty solid mix, but a bit of tuning based on expected events can go a long way. In any case, once the spell list is fixed, if you are not sure what to do on a given turn, ask yourself some questions in roughly this order:

Can I tag someone with acid?

OK, this isn't really your first consideration, but Naerai's acid dart ability only costs a swift action to use, which means you can usually toss out a 1d6+1 of acid damage each time you act and still do whatever else you want to do. In a day when you expend all your uses of this ability, that's basically 45 points of free damage. This damage is also a good way to force a caster concentrating on maintaining a spell to make a concentration test (most spells don't require concentration to maintain, but wall of fire is an example).

Is the party hasted?

The haste spell is one of the most useful in the whole game. This should probably be memorised multiple times a day (which is tough, because there are a lot of good third level wizard spells). Keep one in reserve for a "boss battle".

Can I alter the environment to give the party an advantage?

Battlefield control is Naerai's bread and butter and he has a lot of spells that do this in ways that can't be resisted on his current list. You have a good handle on how to use these already, so just remember that this sort of stuff is really what Naerai was built to do. You'll probably only really need one or two of these per battle.

Spell	Spell level	Defense	Effect
faerie fire	1	none	Outline anyone in the burst area, removing concealment."
grease	1	Reflex (DC 19)	Targets in area slip and fall
obscuring mist	1	none	Provides concealment
chill metal	2	Will (DC 20, object)	Slowly building cold damage from metal armor on six targets.
darkness	2	none	Radiate darkness
glitterdust	2	Will (DC 20, blinding only)	Outlines invisible, targets in area may be blinded)
pyrotecnics (fireworks)	2	Will (DC 19)	Blinds creatures. Extinguishes fire.
pyrotecnics (smoke cloud)	2	Fort (DC 19, penalties only))	No sight inside cloud (not even darkvision). Those inside take -4 to Str and Dex
soften earth and stone	2	none	Softens unworked ground (wet ground becomes thick mud, dry earth becomes loose sand, etc.)
web	2	Reflex (DC 20)	Grapples those in area; makes terrain difficult; provides cover
wind wall	2	none	Vertical curtain of upward wind along any path. Prevents passage by small creatures and fouls arrows.
stinking cloud	3	Fort (DC 21)	Nauseates those within for 1d4+1 rounds
stone shape	3	none	Form a stone into any crude shape you like
black tentacles	4	Combat Maneuver Defense	Targets in area hit with grapple attack each round
confusion	4	Will (DC 21)	Targets in area at casting time become confused.
spike stones	4	Reflex (DC 20)	Impede movement through an area and deal 1d8 damage for each 5 foot section crossed.
wall of fire (sheet)	4	none	Sheet of fire dealing fire damage to those close to one side. Double damage to undead.
wall of fire (ring)	4	none
transmute rock to mud	5	none	Turn natural stone into mud
wall of stone	5	none	Create a plane of stone in any shape, which will merge into existing stone.

For these spells (and others), consider the type of save the target gets when choosing one. Caster types tend to have high Will saves and low Fortitude saves. Most brute strength fighting types are the opposite. Both tend to have bad Reflex saves, but agility fighters/sneaks have good Reflex saves (and often Evasion).

Generally speaking, if you can setup your front line fighters so that they engage only one or two enemies at once (and don't have to move, so they can full attack them), you're doing good. Another consideration is to pin foes such that they line up nicely for a blast from Oreni or yourself.

Can I mess with a big bad guy?

If there is a big boss type of enemy, Naerai has some tricks to gimp him, so look to do that next. If there is only a big boss, this might be more important than battlefield control (but maybe not). For casters, particularly arcane casters, feeblemind and dispel magic are good choices. At the right time, telekinesis can also be useful.

You often have charm person memorised, but this might not be a great choice anymore for three reasons: a) you haven't faced a lot of humanoids lately, b) the save DC is really low, since it is a first level spell and c) you're a better conjurer than an enchanter. Even the higher DC and greater target choic of charm monster isn't all that compelling, as you have better things you can do with a third level spell. Could be that you'd get more mileage out of pfsrd-spell:u/unseen-servant as a first level spell.

Can I summon help?

Creatures summoned by Naerai tend to be better than average, thanks to some feats and his Ally Infusion ability. In addition, he can make use of summoned creatures in ways that others can't (as as using them as a spell conduit). Some summoning choices are better than others.

Creature	Summoned by	Suggested infusion	Use

flaming sphere

Can I make Rauros more effective or vise versa?

create water, hydraulic push, slipstream, aqueous orb.

detonate

Can I buff a party member?

Spell	Spell level	Ideal target

enlarge, prot from evil, vanish, mirror image, fly, elemental aura, invisibility greater, produce flame, magic fang greater, air walk, blur, owl's wisdom (self)

Does anyone need set on fire?

fireball

Other

position wands scimitar