Nice flavour. Unfortunately a 5th level spell for imposing the sickened condition and for slowing the enemies a little on a failed save is a bit light in effect for the level. Compare to the [slow](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Slow) spell, 3rd level; slow has a more reliable effect on movement and stops full attacks. The chaotic effect of impossible angles may appeal but it's just not as practical in most situations.
Situations where it might be especially effective: when the enemies need to approach along a fairly narrow path and you can weave the area in S-bends to make best use of the shapeable area. When you can overlap the area of effect with another defensive spell ([etheric shards](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Etheric%20Shards) perhaps?) and the stuttering movement and sickened effect has some synergy. When the random movement might drop the enemies into a bottomless chasm or a pool of lava, you know the drill. It's still not really worth +2 spell levels, but you might use it anyway if you expect such things (so probably on an NPC.)
> in addition, whenever a disoriented creature uses an action to move (including taking a 5-foot step if it can do so in difficult terrain), roll 1d8 to see which direction it moves
This is the real gem. It's more of a GM battlefield thing than anything else.
It's an interesting image it paints, but this is a very random effect even if the targets fail the save. If the target rolls a 1 after failing a save, you're potentially spending an SL 5 for one tile of difficult terrain and are sickened for... um... wait, it doesn't say what duration of time they're sickened. Are they only sickened for as long as they're in the one tile?! Meaning, if they just move through the whole area in one go, they're not even sickened for any rounds where someone else gets to take advantage?
Hypothetically, if you get lucky, a creature will run into a line of this spell, you'll make SR, it'll fail its will save, *and then* roll a 4, 5, or 6 (don't you love how it's one of these weird arbitrary numbers where middle and slightly high numbers are bad for the target but both high and low are good?), which makes them walk backwards out of the field, at which point they walk forwards again, and then hopefully fail their save again AND roll a 4, 5, or 6 again. Theoretically, this will waste all the movement of a melee-only monster who can't just shoot over the affected tiles, preventing that melee monster from attacking you. Presuming a 50% chance of failing the save and beating SR, there is a 9/512 chance of this happening, or 1.76% chance. Do you feel lucky punk? Alternately, casting a spell like Web or Entanglement or Create Pit just stops movement the first time they fail a save. Most of those don't have SR, so by the same assumptions, works 50% of the time, and count as difficult terrain (or an obstacle you have to go around or jump over) even if they make the save. It's not often you see a SL 5 that does less *if the target fails the save* than a SL 1 does *if the target makes the save*. Quality spell-crafting here!
Because each time they leave and re-enter the area, they make another save, the best way to use this is to make an "C"-shaped line of effect so that they go through one row, and if they make it through that, there is another row that has no AoE, then the next row that is part of the AoE and requires another save. Space the rows out more if there are larger creatures. Hypothetically, you could make an "S", but at one square per caster level, you don't want to cast this at a level when you could actually pull that off.
This spell is a level lower for psychic classes and mediums get it two levels lower, but it's overpriced for all of them. This is an effect that belongs at SL 2, and SL 5 for this is a farce.
Nice flavour. Unfortunately a 5th level spell for imposing the sickened condition and for slowing the enemies a little on a failed save is a bit light in effect for the level. Compare to the [slow](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Slow) spell, 3rd level; slow has a more reliable effect on movement and stops full attacks. The chaotic effect of impossible angles may appeal but it's just not as practical in most situations. Situations where it might be especially effective: when the enemies need to approach along a fairly narrow path and you can weave the area in S-bends to make best use of the shapeable area. When you can overlap the area of effect with another defensive spell ([etheric shards](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Etheric%20Shards) perhaps?) and the stuttering movement and sickened effect has some synergy. When the random movement might drop the enemies into a bottomless chasm or a pool of lava, you know the drill. It's still not really worth +2 spell levels, but you might use it anyway if you expect such things (so probably on an NPC.)
> in addition, whenever a disoriented creature uses an action to move (including taking a 5-foot step if it can do so in difficult terrain), roll 1d8 to see which direction it moves This is the real gem. It's more of a GM battlefield thing than anything else.
It's just as useless as a GM
How is mucking with 5 foot steps useless?
Because you're spending a 5th level slot to do it, and difficult terrain already has that effect
Look again, this is difficult terrain *and* makes maneuvering difficult
No, this is difficult terrain if you fail a will save, so worse than normal, yet using a 5th level spell.
It's an interesting image it paints, but this is a very random effect even if the targets fail the save. If the target rolls a 1 after failing a save, you're potentially spending an SL 5 for one tile of difficult terrain and are sickened for... um... wait, it doesn't say what duration of time they're sickened. Are they only sickened for as long as they're in the one tile?! Meaning, if they just move through the whole area in one go, they're not even sickened for any rounds where someone else gets to take advantage? Hypothetically, if you get lucky, a creature will run into a line of this spell, you'll make SR, it'll fail its will save, *and then* roll a 4, 5, or 6 (don't you love how it's one of these weird arbitrary numbers where middle and slightly high numbers are bad for the target but both high and low are good?), which makes them walk backwards out of the field, at which point they walk forwards again, and then hopefully fail their save again AND roll a 4, 5, or 6 again. Theoretically, this will waste all the movement of a melee-only monster who can't just shoot over the affected tiles, preventing that melee monster from attacking you. Presuming a 50% chance of failing the save and beating SR, there is a 9/512 chance of this happening, or 1.76% chance. Do you feel lucky punk? Alternately, casting a spell like Web or Entanglement or Create Pit just stops movement the first time they fail a save. Most of those don't have SR, so by the same assumptions, works 50% of the time, and count as difficult terrain (or an obstacle you have to go around or jump over) even if they make the save. It's not often you see a SL 5 that does less *if the target fails the save* than a SL 1 does *if the target makes the save*. Quality spell-crafting here! Because each time they leave and re-enter the area, they make another save, the best way to use this is to make an "C"-shaped line of effect so that they go through one row, and if they make it through that, there is another row that has no AoE, then the next row that is part of the AoE and requires another save. Space the rows out more if there are larger creatures. Hypothetically, you could make an "S", but at one square per caster level, you don't want to cast this at a level when you could actually pull that off. This spell is a level lower for psychic classes and mediums get it two levels lower, but it's overpriced for all of them. This is an effect that belongs at SL 2, and SL 5 for this is a farce.
Difficult terrain and at best wasting an extra 10ft of movement for a 5th level slot with will negates is pretty bad.