Spell immunity / heighten spell question

[Ohtari]

Hi there,

When I cast the spell "spell immunity" on the spell Fireball (among others), will this grant me protection against the following....:

- Maximized Fireball with elemental dmg changed to Ice ?
- Heigtened Fireball ? (Fireball is made lvl 5 via heighten)
- Vile/Holy/Unholy Fireball ? (where half is other source of dmg, so fire protection wont help much)
- all other variation of metamagic on the spell Fireball"
I persume spell immunity will protect me from all.

Reason for asking is that I presume a spell changed by metamagics will still count as the spell specified by the "Spell Immunity" wich states you need to select a spell of lvl 4 or lower. If the spell later gets boosted to lvl 5, its still the selected spell for spell immunity.

Then, a Shadow Evocation is cast as a quasi-real, illusory version of fireball. Now what happens ? (no spell immunity I presume).

[Deaxsa]

i think it blocks from everything except the heightened fireball. the others (ice fireball, etc,) are all still a fireball spell, and all still low enough level to be blocked.

this is because heighten spell actually makes it a higher level spell, and you cannot block spells above level 4.

[Ohtari]

thnx for your quick reply !

"The warded creature is immune to the effects of one specified spell for every four levels you have. The spells must be of 4th level or lower. The warded creature effectively has unbeatable spell resistance regarding the specified spell or spells."

I read this as "the spell you select must be lvl 4 or lower". It does not say the spell only protects against lvl 4 or lower.

[Khedrac]

I think I would agree that a heightened fireball is still blocked - it's still a fireball after all.

[Karoht]

Spell Immunity also does not make you immune to any spell with SR: No
Just in case that was unclear.

While we are here, Globe of Invulnerability (and Lesser) stop spells in much the same manner as an anti-magic sphere. Lesser version stops spells 3rd level or lower, which is where heighten spell becomes very useful for getting around the globe.
Assuming your caster level wasn't high enough with dispel magic to dispel the globe, that is, or if you didn't want to take the action economy time to do so and just want to start busting up your target.

[Oscredwin]

As for the shadow evocation, you're right it gets through. You're immune to fireball, not shadow evocation.

Although, I'm now noticing that spell immunity does shut down the killer gnome somewhat.

[TuggyNE]

I persume spell immunity will protect me from all.

Everything except Heightened (or Sanctum, cast from within sanctum, but that's pretty niche).


I think I would agree that a heightened fireball is still blocked - it's still a fireball after all.

No, Deaxsa has it right; Heighten actually changes the spell level, not merely the spell slot required.

[Tulya]

It depends how you want to parse the text of Spell Immunity - whether the spell level restriction refers strictly to the spells you can specify, or the success of the attempts to ward against the specified spells.

Personally, I believe the latter is the most mechanically simple and independently useful interpretation: Spells don't have an inherent spell level set out in the rules that exists outside of any context to begin with. If we go by this interpretation, unmodified Fireball would be blocked as if by unbeatable SR*, Heightened x2 Fireball wouldn't be, and unmodified Flame Strike would depend on whether the Cleric or Druid list was used to cast it.

If you go with the former interpretation, you're forced to define further rules, and the answer depends on that rule. You might set eligibility according to the level of the spell on the list used to cast the spell, or the highest/lowest level of the spell that appears on any spell list, or the highest/lowest level of a spell possible to produce using any class spell list and effects which modify spell levels, etc. The first rule is probably the easiest to use, since it isn't dramatically complicated by the inclusion of non-core material, but then you'll still get the inconsistency of spells like Flame Strike.

*Edit: This also applies to any modifications that fail to bring the actual spell level (not the spell slot used) up to at least 5th level. Also note that effects that partially or completely ignore spell resistance would still work through Spell Immunity. Thus, unmodified caster level 5 Kelgore's Firebolt would still deal 1d6 fire damage if named, while Heightened x4 Kelgore's Firebolt would deal the full 5d6 fire damage.