Rod of Absorption

[WebTiefling]

Is this really as broken as it seems to me? You get essentially unlimited casting if you have this thing.

Have someone with an unlimited SLA cast at you to charge the Rod, and then you have unlimited spells per day. If you don't happen to have an SLA-type available, you could probably make do a magic item of casting some spell - 3600 gp gets you unlimited use of a level 1 spell.

Unlimited spell casting.

Not to mention it's primary purpose - to protect you from hostile spells being cast at you.

[Cog]

A rod of absorption absorbs a maximum of fifty spell levels and can thereafter only discharge any remaining potential it might have. The rod cannot be recharged. The wielder knows the rod’s remaining absorbing potential and current amount of stored energy.
It's not unlimited.

[Cruiser1]

Is this really as broken as it seems to me? You get essentially unlimited casting if you have this thing. Have someone with an unlimited SLA cast at you to charge the Rod, and then you have unlimited spells per day. Unlimited spell casting. Not to mention it's primary purpose - to protect you from hostile spells being cast at you.
Although the Rod of Absorption has limited charges, the spell Absorption (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212739) is much more abusable (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280365). :smallbiggrin:

[Jack_Simth]

Although the Rod of Absorption has limited charges, the spell Absorption (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212739) is much more abusable (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280365). :smallbiggrin:
A note is that the method seems to ignore the Stacking Effects (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm#stackingEffects) rules. So you cast Absorption, and mitigate the metamagic to make it maximized as a 9th level spell, getting you ten spell levels to burn when your warlock buddy charges you up with some at-will spell-likes. You've got ten spell levels to burn. So far, so good. You cast another Maximized Absorption, and have your Warlock buddy charge you up for ten again.

The question, however, is 'do the two castings of Absorption stack?' Do you now have 11 levels of spells you can use without expending the actual slots (one from the first casting, ten from the second), or do you still only have 10 levels of spells you can use without expending the slots (the most recent casting trumps the others)?

Almost any abuse of the spell will require that they stack, when general D&D rules say they really shouldn't.

[Magesmiley]

Is this really as broken as it seems to me? You get essentially unlimited casting if you have this thing.

Have someone with an unlimited SLA cast at you to charge the Rod, and then you have unlimited spells per day. If you don't happen to have an SLA-type available, you could probably make do a magic item of casting some spell - 3600 gp gets you unlimited use of a level 1 spell.

Unlimited spell casting.

Not to mention it's primary purpose - to protect you from hostile spells being cast at you.

Yeah... I find that it gets used more as a spell battery than as a defensive item. Even a typical caster can dump spells into it on non-adventuring days.

[Jack_Simth]

Yeah... I find that it gets used more as a spell battery than as a defensive item. Even a typical caster can dump spells into it on non-adventuring days.
Note that at 1,000 gp/spell level, it's pretty expensive as a spell battery. Scrolls, wands, and staves will generally be much less expensive.

[TuggyNE]

Almost any abuse of the spell will require that they stack, when general D&D rules say they really shouldn't.

One notable exception would be using Spellblade Tennis to charge up mitigated Fell Drain magic missiles or sonic snaps or whatever (at spell level 1, you can cast one of each every time you use Maximized absorption and still have enough for another cycle), and then just unleashing as many of those as needed on a given target. Unlike regular Spellblade Tennis, it doesn't use up spells/day (even saving for later), so it massively expands your killing capacity, leaving all but a very few spells for pure defense/utility.

[Douglas]

Is this really as broken as it seems to me? You get essentially unlimited casting if you have this thing.

Have someone with an unlimited SLA cast at you to charge the Rod, and then you have unlimited spells per day. If you don't happen to have an SLA-type available, you could probably make do a magic item of casting some spell - 3600 gp gets you unlimited use of a level 1 spell.

Unlimited spell casting.

Not to mention it's primary purpose - to protect you from hostile spells being cast at you.
Congratulations, you just spent 50000 gp to cast... 10 level 5 spells? 5 level 9 and 1 level 5? 50 level 1?

The rod is now exhausted, by the way, and no longer provides any benefit, either defensive or spell battery.

The rod has 50 charges of absorption, and uses 1 per level of spell it absorbs. These charges are single-use only and do not recharge, ever. The spell battery charges can only be charged up by spending absorption charges. Which, again, do not recharge.

The Rod of Absorption is very much a finite use item, and quite expensive if the spell battery benefit is what you care about. You could make a staff of whichever spells you were going to use it for, and for the same number of castings with the same caster level and save DC it would cost substantially less.

[Maginomicon]

Although less powerful, you could go for the Spellfire Wielder feat (which treats your body much like a refillable Rod of Absorption), something that I definitely will do next time I play a mundane/spellthief, (for the flaaaavor :smallbiggrin: ) or as or in response to a party-member warlock (SLAs like Eldritch Blast can be absorbed as Spellfire).

[Cruiser1]

The question, however, is 'do the two castings of Absorption stack?' Do you now have 11 levels of spells you can use without expending the actual slots (one from the first casting, ten from the second), or do you still only have 10 levels of spells you can use without expending the slots (the most recent casting trumps the others)?
It doesn't matter if Absorption instances stack, because you can get infinite spells from it either way. :smallbiggrin: For example, Priya the Prismatic Priestess (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280365) casts Repeat Maximized Absorption (with full metamagic reduction so it only uses a 9th level slot). Then she, her familiar, and/or other allies target her with free nukes or other spells/spell-likes to absorb 9 spell levels. Use those 9 spell levels to cast a spell (such as Miracle to duplicate a buff). Now repeat the nuking to do the same with the other casting of Absorption. Use those 9 spell levels to cast Repeat Maximized Absorption again to repeat the process, resulting in infinite spells from a single "real" 9th level slot. This works even if one rules that multiple castings of Absorption fully replace each other, because Repeat Spell actually casts the spell separately again at the beginning of the next round, and one can cast a free spell using the first Absorption instance before the second instance gets cast.

[Jack_Simth]

One notable exception would be using Spellblade Tennis to charge up mitigated Fell Drain magic missiles or sonic snaps or whatever (at spell level 1, you can cast one of each every time you use Maximized absorption and still have enough for another cycle), and then just unleashing as many of those as needed on a given target. Unlike regular Spellblade Tennis, it doesn't use up spells/day (even saving for later), so it massively expands your killing capacity, leaving all but a very few spells for pure defense/utility.
That's part of why 'almost'. With the Empowered (rather than Maximized) variant, you'll get 10 to 15 spell levels each time - eating the cost of your massively mitigated Absorbtion means you've got 1 to 6 spell levels available at any given moment - which is enough to do the stone castle thing via Wall of Stone.

It doesn't matter if Absorption instances stack, because you can get infinite spells from it either way. :smallbiggrin: For example, Priya the Prismatic Priestess (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280365) casts Repeat Maximized Absorption (with full metamagic reduction so it only uses a 9th level slot). Then she, her familiar, and/or other allies target her with free nukes or other spells/spell-likes to absorb 9 spell levels. Use those 9 spell levels to cast a spell (such as Miracle to duplicate a buff). Now repeat the nuking to do the same with the other casting of Absorption. Use those 9 spell levels to cast Repeat Maximized Absorption again to repeat the process, resulting in infinite spells from a single "real" 9th level slot. This works even if one rules that multiple castings of Absorption fully replace each other, because Repeat Spell actually casts the spell separately again at the beginning of the next round, and one can cast a free spell using the first Absorption instance before the second instance gets cast.
And here's another part of why 'almost'. Of course, you're mitigating... what, 6 levels of metamagic there for every casting (5 using Empower rather than maximize, which is actually preferred as it gives the same result at a minimum, and a better result at a maximum)? You *might* upset your DM a bit.