I, like many others, got curious to pathfinder after the new OGL fiasco. I was told pathfinder was better balanced with less cheese. Today, I want to show that pathfinder is almost as breakable as 5e.

Desperate Weapon

Desperate Weapon is described as follows:

You create a one-handed object that you might expect to see in your current surroundings, which you can then use as an improvised weapon. The spell conjures such an object near your hand such that you can retrieve it as you complete the spell.

No matter what sort of object you picked, it functions as a one-handed improvised weapon appropriate for your size and that deals 1d6 points of damage for a Medium creature (1d4 for Small creatures). The item deals the type of damage you choose (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing) when casting the spell, though the object you request must conform to the damage type.

The spell ends prematurely if the improvised weapon leaves your grasp. The object has no value and can’t be used for other functions other than as an improvised weapon (for instance, this spell doesn’t allow you to conjure an expensive spyglass and sell it or use its other abilities, but you could still use it to beat someone over the head). The conjured object can’t already be a manufactured weapon, even in a location where you might expect to see manufactured weapons. It can be an object that would normally make for an unusual improvised weapon, like a herring at a fish market, and it still deals its full damage.”

So, how do we break this spell? it’s actually pretty simple, this spell lets us create an object which can be used as an improvised weapon. Something like a fish, or in my case, a staff, which is not itself listed as a weapon. Note that this object is not excluded from being magical. For the purposes of this break, We’ll be creating a staff of sieges.

However; “can’t be used for other functions other than as an improvised weapon (for instance, this spell doesn’t allow you to conjure an expensive spyglass and sell it or use its other abilities, but you could still use it to beat someone over the head). “

There’s two solutions for this; one, that casting a spell is still improvising a weapon [very shakey] or two. Magic aura.

“You alter the appearance of an item’s magic aura. You can choose to have the target’s aura appear as that of a common magic item of twice magic aura‘s level or lower, or to have it register as being under the effects of a spell of your choice of magic aura‘s level or lower. If the target is magical, you can instead choose to have it appear as entirely non-magical.”

Here we would make it read as non-magical, thus having an appearingly non-magical staff of sieges, making the modifier on desperate weapon not apply.

This adamantine staff is fitted with mithral plates resembling battlements on a castle. Lesser cover, cover, and greater cover don’t grant any bonus against your spell attacks or to saving throws against your spells that you cast from the staff.

Activate Cast a Spell; Effect You expend a number of charges from the staff to cast a spell from its list.”

the staff of sieges, along with coming with meteor swarm, has the spell ‘magnificent mansion’.

Magnificent Mansion Break

You conjure an extradimensional demiplane consisting of a spacious dwelling with a single entrance. The entrance connects to the plane where you Cast the Spell, appearing anywhere within the spell’s range as a faint, shimmering, vertical rectangle 5 feet wide and 10 feet high. You designate who can enter when you cast the spell. Once inside, you can shut the entrance, making it invisible. You and the creatures you designated can reopen the door at will, just like opening a physical door.

Inside, the demiplane appears to be a mansion featuring a magnificent foyer and numerous opulent chambers. The mansion can have any floor plan you imagine as you Cast the Spell, provided it fits within a space 40 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and 30 feet tall. While the entrance to the mansion is closed, effects from outside the mansion fail to penetrate it, and vice versa, except for plane shift, which can be used to enter the mansion. You can use scrying magic and similar effects to observe the outside only if they’re capable of crossing planes.

A staff of up to 24 servants attends to anyone within the mansion. These are like the servant created by the unseen servant spell, though they’re visible, with an appearance you determine during casting. The mansion is stocked with enough food to serve a nine-course banquet to 150 people.”

“The mansion can have any floor plan you imagine as you Cast the Spell, provided it fits within a space 40 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and 30 feet tall. “

This allows us to fill the mansion with an indefinite number of staves of seiges, luckblades, and other magic items. Note that in this version, nothing stops us from taking objects outside of the mansion, meaning these objects are permanent. We can also make clones, demiplanes with spells, and so fourth.

From here we create an indefinite number of clones within an indefinite number of hiding spaces, and have an indefinite number of spells on staves and magic items at our disposal, includes way to level to max within our magnificent mansion.

Conclusion

Turns out, this reading relies on shakier wording and more process than I had originally thought. It’s rather possible desperate weapon is not the tech spell we’re truly after. Relying on a specific interpretation of magic aura makes this a rather lower than average tier of tech. We will have to come back to pathfinder, as its ultra-raw potential has only just started being explored