Is Heighten Spell a good choice for a Factotum?

[Mr Adventurer]

On the basis that they get one spell of the highest level and all their other spells can be of any lower level. So essentially whenever they choose to prepare a spell of lower than normal level, they can Heighten it to be one level lower than their maximum for free (plus cost of feat).

Or isn't Heighten really worth it even in that situation?

[Person_Man]

Arcane Dilettante grants the Factotum spell-like abilities, not spells. And thus the Heighten Spell Feat would have no effect on them.

[Cog]

Arcane Dilettante grants the Factotum spell-like abilities, not spells. And thus the Heighten Spell Feat would have no effect on them.
Except for this line:

If you wish to enhance a spell with a metamagic feat, you must apply the feat when you prepare the spell. In addition, you must be capable of using a spell of the modified spell's level.
It still leaves you well behind on DCs compared to a main caster, and since you have free access to your list, it shouldn't be hard to find decent options of an appropriate level if you're looking for save-or spells anyway. Even if there's a single particular spell you'd like to use with this... you're still stuck with it 1/day.

An interesting idea, but probably not worth it.

[Doc_Maynot]

Yeah, I'm going to agree with the not really worth it.

[Slipperychicken]

I think most Factotums would get more utility out of another Font of Inspiration.

I mean, since Factotum spells are SLAs, you could probably grab some overpowered feat which requires "cast X spell as an SLA".

[Mr Adventurer]

Fair enough. In the absence of any other arcanist in the party I've been leaning on the 'any Wizard spell you like' aspect of Factotum pretty heavily for utility casting; the game generally has downtime for this. I don't use it for blasting at all. I suppose I was really thinking of two things:

- Planar Binding. As I can only do one each day, being able to boost the DC could be useful.

- Globe of Invulnerability. Having all my spells ignore a Globe could be useful, especially since Factotum spellcasting is weighted toward lower levels anyway; plus I have an intelligent item that can create a Globe.

[Rubik]

Two levels of chameleon. Use the bonus feat for Heighten for the day if you feel you need it -- such as for Planar Binding, or for stocking up on Explosive Runes.

You may also want to look at the Spell-Like Ability metamagic feats (www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm) in the Monster Manual. Add metamagic to your Arcane Dilettante spells 3/day for no metamagic cost. Since Arcane Dilettante is a single spell-like ability with multiple uses, you can use those feats spontaneously, at your whim.

[Mr Adventurer]

Cheers Rubik.

Sadly I don't have any room in the build for Chameleon since I'm going full Factotum; I've played a Chameleon before and it rocked but I want to have the complete Factotum experience this time since 3.5 TT games don't always come around any more :).

I know about the SLA metamagic feats; I've used them on a Hellfire Warlock in the past. However I don't think the GM will like the idea of me treating Arcane Dilettante as an SLA especially since we're treating it more like normal spellcasting in a number of other ways (to qualify me for Obtain Familiar, for example). I'll sound him out on it, though.

Looks like I'll be taking EWP: Spiked Chain this level! :D

[Rubik]

For your perusal. (http://dndtools.eu/feats/?name=spell-like+ability&feat_categories__slug=&rulebook__slug=&description=&benefit=&special=&normal=&required_feats__required_feat__name=)

There's also the Supernatural Transformation feat, from Savage Species. Keeps your caster level up, prevents AoOs and fizzles, and you'll never have to make a Concentration check again. It arguably rids you of the need for somatic components, as well.

[Mr Adventurer]

Supernatural Transformation only applies to innate spell like abilities, looks like.

[Rubik]

Supernatural Transformation only applies to innate spell like abilities, looks like.And "innate" isn't actually defined anywhere. It's mentioned in relation to psionics, but nowhere else in the rules, so far as I know.

[Mr Adventurer]

Not everything needs to be defined in the rules though; otherwise the core book would be bigger than an encyclopedia. Seems like innate is pretty obviously distinct from, say, learned; which Factotum stuff is.