[3.5] Metamagic Cradle

[Grushvak]

Regarding the feat Metamagic Cradle: the only requirement listed is a Charisma of 19. This, paired with the fact it comes from Quintessential Sorcerer, indicates it is a feat destined for sorcerers only. However, nothing says a wizard that meets the requirements can't take it as well.

With that said, is it worth it for a wizard? Is it too cheesy? My wizard already has high charisma since he's taking leadership for story purposes. By sacrificing a few points here and there at character creation and by purchasing a tome of influence +1, I could easily meet the requirements.

So, basically, which would be the best path:

Wizard 5 / Mindbender 1 / Artificer x with Metamagic Cradle

or

Wizard 5 / Mindbender 1 / Ultimate Magus x using Alacritous Cogitation to meet the spontaneous spellcasting requirement

Basically, spontaneous metamagic allocation limited to level 5 spells or prepared metamagic casting with absolutely no level cap?

Note: I know that none of these builds are particularly optimized. It's more of a RP campaign in the first place. I just like the idea of pulling off heightened chained hold monsters and the likes at relatively low levels.

[tyckspoon]

Er.. considering you're talking about a third-party source, would you mind telling us what Metamagic Cradle *does*? I'm sure I'm not the only one who has no idea what you're talking about and therefor cannot really help.

[Grushvak]

Metamagic Cradle (Metamagic)

You can dedicate a portion of your spell energy to hold prepared metamagic effects, allowing you to cast with greater speed and efficiency.

Requirements: Cha 19+

Benefits: At the beginning of each day, following a normal period of rest, you can dedicate spell slots for the day to holding metamagic effects for later use. The spell slot dedicated must be of a level at least equal to the level penalty associated with the metamagic effect to be stored. So, for example, a sorcerer with the Maximise Spell feat could choose to store it in a spell slot of 3rd level or higher. A spell slot dedicated to storing a metamagic feat in this fashion cannot be used for any other purpose, it is considered to be a precast spell. In addition, once it cradled, the metamagic effect cannot be altered, so a cradled Maximise Spell metamagic feat cannot be exchanged for an Empowered Spell feat.

The benefits of cradling metamagic effects are two fold. First, when you wish to modify a spell with a cradled metamagic effect, the casting time of the spell is not modified. So, a fireball spell modified by a cradled Maximise Spell feat requires only a single action to cast, rather than a full round. Second, a spell modified by a cradled metamagic effect does not require a higher level spell slot. So, for example, a magic missile spell modified by a cradled Maximise Spell feat uses a 1st level spell slot and the 3rd level spell slot, rather than a 4th level spell slot. Cradled feats and the slots that store them, are expended after a single use.

EDIT: The more I read this, the harder I facepalm. I'm actually feeling cheap for considering this as a possibility. I mean, there's no drawback and no limitations. 24 hours of Time Stop at the cost of one level 9 and one level 6 spell slot? Check. The cheese is overwhelming.

EDIT2: I went over Ultimate Magus again, specifically, the Augmented Casting ability.


Augmented Casting (Su): Starting at 3rd level, you can choose to sacrifice a spell or spell slot from one of your classes to apply the effect of a metamagic feat that you know to a spell cast using another arcane class. (For instance, you could sacrifice a sorcerer slot to apply a metamagic effect to a wizard spell.) This sacrificed spell or slot is lost (just as if you had cast the spell) in addition to the spell you are actually casting.

Important part is underlined. Basically, can't sacrifice wizard slots to apply metamagic effects to prepared arcane spells. In the end, the feat turned out too strong, and the prestige class didn't work out as intended.

I'll just play a vanilla artificer and use metamagic rods...

[arguskos]

Uh... yeaaaaaaaaah, that reads as pretty cracked out. I do not recommend it.

[Grushvak]

Uh... yeaaaaaaaaah, that reads as pretty cracked out. I do not recommend it.

At first, I thought it was pretty reasonable, but I wasn't thinking as a munchkin. There's a way to use this reasonably, but when you start making Empowered Chained Twinned Maximized Energy Drains (Repeat), that's when it starts getting a bit too crazy.

[tyckspoon]

Ooh. That's.. quite tasty. I would take it, but not for either of the two build stubs you outlined. With the Artificer thing (unless you have another source for a PrC called Artificer and don't mean the Eberron setting base class) you're not going to have enough or high enough level spell slots to make good use of the metamagic mitigation, and I'm reasonably certain you can't apply metamagic to infusions (if you can, it'll be weak but workable for things like Empowered Healing Armor.) The Ultimate Magus I'm not sure even does anything, unless your DM is allowing you to double up the caster level progression by letting you get progression on your spontaneous 'side' despite not having one. The UM class features I know aren't of much use, because Alacritous Cogitation gives you 1 and exactly 1 'spontaneous' slot per day.


Edit: I see OP has thought better of it while I checked stuff. Carry on.

[Grushvak]

@tyckspoon
I used the dandwiki to check up prestige classes because I didn't have all my books with me, and I just now realized the Artificer prestige class I was working towards was homebrew.

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Artificer

I guess that means another change of plans. I might just go Wizard all the way with only one level of Mindbender for RP purposes.

[Grushvak]

Also, regarding Ultimate Magus, it does give me +4 to caster level with full progression. I just don't know if it's worth losing one feat.

Maybe techsmith? I really don't know what PrC to look into now. I'd like to be good at making magic items, so Techsmith could make sense.