Metamagic Rod Cheesery

[coqauvin]

So I've been trying to cheese out my Dread Necromancer. My DM had restrictions on race, but, inspired by the reanimated Dread Necromanver Handbook, I snuck in an Illumian to aim for a Scarecrow sort of build.

We start with 5000g of spending gold at level 6.

Through a little bit of internet sleuthing, someone posted a table for the cost of metamagic rods at various levels:


(minimum caster level necessary to use a 0-level spell affected by feat) x (maximum spell level affected by rod/3)^2 x 4500

...and then divide everything by 5 and multiply by 3 for the charges per day. And then fudge a bit.

Using this formula, we wind up with the following values (assuming we use .5 as the minimum caster level for a for a 0-level spell affected by a metamagic feat):

+0 metamagic rod: 1350 lesser/5400 normal/12150 greater
+1 metamagic rod: 2700 lesser/10800 normal/24300 greater
+2 metamagic rod: 8100 lesser/32400 normal/72900 greater
+3 metamagic rod: 13500 lesser/54000 normal/121500 greater
+4 metamagic rod: 18900 lesser/75600 normal/170100 greater

I'm particularly interested in this, because, although we get generic gear for free, everything remotely magical or masterwork must be bought, and all the stat boosting gear tends to sit around 4k. I can, however, load myself up with wands out the butt.

I suppose there's not really a rule regarding this, but my DM is allowing a metamagic rod of invisible spell, which is awesome, but I haven't asked him about my ultimate cheese: a metamagic rod of Lord of the Uttercold. Because I'm running Kelgore's Grave Mist, if I could get a Lord of the Uttercold metamagic rod (which is ridiculous and technically a +0 LA), I can walk around in my own grave mist all day. There are, of course, further abuses, but I haven't really got around to exploiting them yet.

Anyways, this seems a little... overpowered. I mean, invisible spell has it's uses, but it's hardly a overpowered, especially when limited to lvl <3 spells on the DN spell list, although there are a few fun tricks I can pull.

I'm going to ask if these seems reasonable, legal or what?

[Tommy2255]

Because I'm running Kelgore's Grave Mist, if I could get a Lord of the Uttercold metamagic rod (which is ridiculous and technically a +0 LA), I can walk around in my own grave mist all day.

How are you persisting that?

Also, it says "All living creatures within the mist become fatigued and take 1d6 points of cold damage per round." You're not a living creature, so you're taking 0 cold damage. Half of that is negative energy, if you're using uttercold. Half of 0 is 0. I don't see the point of making it uttercold, because I don't see how you could have it heal you (assuming that's what you meant it to do). Also, it'll be hurting your allies all the time, in exchange for a relatively small 1d6/round damage, and even that only when you're within 20ft.

Also, in what way is the metamagic rod more powerful than just taking the feat? The benefit of rods is flexibility, so that you can use things you don't have the feats for, or to allow you to use metamagic at lower levels. If there's no difference in spell slot to start with, and you're going to be using it all the time anyway, then why is it so important to do this with a rod?

[coqauvin]

How are you persisting that?

I'm a naenhoon illumian dread necromancer, so I can apply my persistant spell with my turn attempts twice per day.


Also, it says "All living creatures within the mist become fatigued and take 1d6 points of cold damage per round." You're not a living creature, so you're taking 0 cold damage.

I didn't take the necropolitan template, though I was pretty tempted to, so I'm not undead and subject to the fatigue and cold damage.


Half of that is negative energy, if you're using uttercold. Half of 0 is 0. I don't see the point of making it uttercold, because I don't see how you could have it heal you (assuming that's what you meant it to do). Also, it'll be hurting your allies all the time, in exchange for a relatively small 1d6/round damage, and even that only when you're within 20ft.

Well, the idea is that the tomb-tainted soul feat would have the cold damage cancel out. I'm not using it for healing. NOw that you mention the fatigue, though, I realize that even with the metamagic applied I'm still going to be getting fatigued in the mist.

[QUOTE=Tommy2255;16866157]Also, in what way is the metamagic rod more powerful than just taking the feat? The benefit of rods is flexibility, so that you can use things you don't have the feats for, or to allow you to use metamagic at lower levels. If there's no difference in spell slot to start with, and you're going to be using it all the time anyway, then why is it so important to do this with a rod?

Because there's 2 or 3 requirements for Lord of the Uttercold that I wouldn't have to qualify or pay for in the slightest, because the cost is only based on level adjustment. I was considering doing this with Black Lore of Moil, but it's got a couple pre-req feat and something seems off - is it reasonable to dodge a feat tax for strong metamagics by just getting a rod? I don't think there are metamagic rods outside the core ones anyways, so that's why I wanted some commentary on it.

[Tommy2255]

I didn't take the necropolitan template, though I was pretty tempted to, so I'm not undead and subject to the fatigue and cold damage.

Sorry, I was thinking you were necropolitan, largely because that's how I always build dread necromancers (because Spell-Stitching FTW).


Well, the idea is that the tomb-tainted soul feat would have the cold damage cancel out. I'm not using it for healing. NOw that you mention the fatigue, though, I realize that even with the metamagic applied I'm still going to be getting fatigued in the mist.

Now that is something that could be avoided if you were a Necropolitan. Also, you wouldn't even need to bother with the metamagic, since that spell doesn't affect undead to start with. It really seems like an easier way to do all of this.


Because there's 2 or 3 requirements for Lord of the Uttercold that I wouldn't have to qualify or pay for in the slightest, because the cost is only based on level adjustment. I was considering doing this with Black Lore of Moil, but it's got a couple pre-req feat and something seems off - is it reasonable to dodge a feat tax for strong metamagics by just getting a rod? I don't think there are metamagic rods outside the core ones anyways, so that's why I wanted some commentary on it.

Dodging feat tax is what metamagic rods do. That's half their core function (the other being the ability to cast at lower level. I was actually looking at some of this the other day for a druid that I wanted to be able to cast Maximized Empowered Awaken), but for +0 Spell Level metamagic, dodging feat tax is the only reason rods exist. It's not true that there aren't metamagic rods outside core, a lot of books that introduce new metamagic include the rods, but I don't believe that there's a general formula given in official material. It's up to your DM, but there's enough precedent in written material that extrapolating from those rules is reasonable.