Born of the three thunders + call lightning

[Mystify]

Born of the three thunders is an interesting metamagic. It changes half of your electrcity spell to sonic, and it can stun enemies hit by the spell, and knock the stunned targets prone. However, instead of a spell level adjustment, it dazes the caster for 1 round.

If you tried to put this on something like a lightning bolt, you would be dazing yourself in the middle of combat. That is problematic, and its a cost that easily makes up for the added advantage.

However, you can cast call lightning before combat. It lasts for a minute/level. So you can cast it, daze yourself when it doesn't matter, and gain the ability to call down stunning lightning and thunder bolts.

[Manateee]

It's a cool combo.

Energy Subbed Flame Blades and Lightning Lances are big deals on Lyric Thaumaturges for just this reason.

And Quick Recovery can make it even cooler.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Use it with Persistent spells like Stormrage to deal the Three Thunders effect whenever you want. You can use Snowcasting in Frostburn (plus Summon Component (CM) if necessary) to add the Cold subtype to any spell, and Energy Substitute it for Electricity so you can use Three Thunders with it. With those you can have Persistent Three Thunders spells like Cloud of Knives, Holy Star, and Dragon Breath. Add on Fell Drain for good measure. Note that you can have multiple instances of Persistent Cloud of Knives and Holy Star, for multiple free attacks every round that deal the Three Thunders effect plus a negative level if you Fell Drain it.

If you want to skip Persistent Spell, you can still set up a Contingent Snowcast Energy Sub Three Thunders Dragon Breath ahead of time, and you're dazed when you set up the Contingency. Make it trigger when you say a specific word/phrase (free action), and you can immediately use the breath attack and have it last as normal for the rest of the fight.

[Gotterdammerung]

I played with a group once where a guy used it on flame arrow. It made the 2 archers in the group very disruptive for the enemies.


Sound Burst is another interesting low level spell to put BoTT on. It automatically damages everyone in the radius. Then they have to make 2 fort saves to prevent being stunned. And then if they get stunned 1 reflex or be knocked prone. It can get pretty disruptive at lower lvls when you force that many saves from one spell.