PBAOE = player-based area of effect, i.e. a spell whose center is on the player and then radiates damage/whatever outwards from there I'm not sure how many of these there are; I know the last Promethean skill is one, and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out when you'd want to use this. The ONLY thought I have is for if you use a tile teleport and find yourself surrounded.. but unless it one-shots everything around you'll probably die unless you also have Psychokinetic Shove or some kind of short-range teleport to get you out of the way. The trouble, of course, arises in that you basically never, ever want to be in a situation where you need to use this, and you should carry things like Invisibility Potions (or similar items or skills) to extract yourself safely from bad situations, not rely on a 20+ MP spell to maybe do some damage.
