Level 3 Ice/Alch. Shallow wave.
Beam. Creates shallow water in the target area for n turns.
Similar to the primal wave, but does not deal damage.
This means that Merfolk’s passive ability must be actively induced, while at the same time Merfolk should manage the spell appropriately to use.
This is exactly the sort of “you almost always want this” buff effect spell that leads to lots of repetitive “cast this before every fight” behavior which ultimately led to a lot of stuff getting redesigned or axed entirely(charms spell school) in order to avoid said behavior.
Something like this might be more appropriate as a limited-use ability, similar to draconian breath or poltergeist cacophony or revenant enkindle. If it’s use was limited so that you could not use it every battle, it becomes a cool tactical tool.
Because Merfolk move fast through water (and many monsters move slow in it), it might mostly end up being used to run away which is kind of unfun? Maybe it would be fine. The combat buff is significant.
I think as a breath-like ability it would be fine; limited-use escape tools make possible higher-risk play!