Inflect Pain is a level one necromancy spell perfect for some of the lawful evil or just plain evil clerics out there. Here’s what it does: Inflict pain surrounds your hand with a dull red glow, allowing you to send blindingly hot pinpricks through your target’s body. This deals 2d6 points of nonlethal damage plus 1 point per caster level (maximum +5), and the target suffers a -1 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks for 1 minute. A successful saving throw results in half damage and negates the penalty. Well, guiding bolt is pretty good, because inflict pain just allows you to do non-lethal damage, and you do also debuff the target for 10 rounds or a minute of combat. However, the extra damage from your caster level caps out at +5, it can’t be upcasted, and the target can half the damage and negate the penalty with a successful Constitution saving throw. If you happen to have a choice between these two spells, which most clerics don’t, you should take the guiding bolt due to its longevity throughout the entire game.