Good spells for metamagic rods?

[Balor01]

FOR RODS UP TO 10k of WORTH AND SPELLS UP TO LVL 4! NOT A PINCH MORE

.. because people always spam ideas for lvl 20 chars. So. My lvl 7 wiz has 10 k that he intends to spend on a metamagic rod but to be sincere I have no clue on what spells to spend this rods' abilities except Mage Armor (extend). I'd appreciate any good suggestions.

thanks

[bekeleven]

More Hour/Level buffs and extend. Disobedience, Greater Mage Armor, Greater Mighty Wallop your monk or club user, Greater Magic Weapon your other fighters, Greater Resistance...

Rods of Chain are, obviously, also good for buffs.

[eggynack]

Agreed. 24 hour buffs are even better to extend, cause you can reduce the cost of a spell to close to zero like that, but I dunno what that list looks like for wizards. There's a good number of other hours/level spells for wizards in that level range though. Heart of water/air, luminous armor, and rope trick are some of the better ones that have not been mentioned.

[Slipperychicken]

Silent and Still are good picks also, particularly if you go by the reading that possession is sufficient to confer the benefit. Then you can hook them up with a 3rd or lower teleportation effect, and that can get you out of all sorts of sticky situations.

Chain Spell is very nice for Align Weapon and GMW if your fighters were too lazy/stupid to get oils of align weapon, and you run into a creature with DR nobody prepared for (like if people were too dumb to get silver/cold iron weapons and ammo). I'm AFB so I don't recall how much it costs though.

[Phelix-Mu]

It really depends on your role in the party. I echo what has already been said, and add that, if you like to deal some damage, then nothing is wrong with some good old empower. But extend really does have the bang-for-buck.

Energy substitution rods are also very useful, particularly in campaigns that have a thematic enemy that has some kind of energy resistance.

I think someone is going to mention Fell Drain, too, so there's that.

[Balor01]

Greater Mighty Wallop
I actually thought this was a joke.

thanks for answers :)

[Valtu]

If you have multiple rods, would you have to use a standard or move action to switch between them during combat?

What about the possibility of a rod with multiple effects, or say, a quarterstaff, but each end is a metamagic rod? (probably super expensive!) I know you can't use more than one rod at once, but just for the sake of having multiple ones at your disposal, for different situations.

Rods don't run out of charges, do they? It's just limited uses per day, right?

[Agincourt]

If you have multiple rods, would you have to use a standard or move action to switch between them during combat?

What about the possibility of a rod with multiple effects, or say, a quarterstaff, but each end is a metamagic rod? (probably super expensive!) I know you can't use more than one rod at once, but just for the sake of having multiple ones at your disposal, for different situations.

Rods don't run out of charges, do they? It's just limited uses per day, right?
1. I believe a metamagic rod needs to be held to activate it. Presumably you could have one rod in each hand and could use either without problem. If you needed a third, it would depend on where it is stored for how long it would take to draw.
2. That would be a custom magic item to combine metamagic rods. It's allowed under the rules, but is more expensive.
3. You are correct.

[ericgrau]

Three lesser rods of extend spell. Gets you >24 hours of four buffs. Mage armor, false life, greater magic weapon and/or craft magic tattoo (SpC) for example. Though GMW should wait until level 8 for the +2. Also get 1,000 gp in tatoo ink. Alternatively get two rods and 4,000 gp in tatoo ink depending on how many party members can benefit. Spam it without a second thought; campaigns have astoundingly few encounters.

[bekeleven]

Three lesser rods of extend spell... false life

Don't extend any buffs that get discharged. Sense Weakness, etc.

[hymer]

Presumably you could have one rod in each hand and could use either without problem.

Just for clarity: You need a free hand to cast spells with somatic components.

[PraxisVetli]

It really depends on your role in the party. I echo what has already been said, and add that, if you like to deal some damage, then nothing is wrong with some good old empower. But extend really does have the bang-for-buck.

Energy substitution rods are also very useful, particularly in campaigns that have a thematic enemy that has some kind of energy resistance.

I think someone is going to mention Fell Drain, too, so there's that.

There's a Fell Drain Rod??

[Techwarrior]

I think it might be flighty out of budget right now, but a lesser rod of Quicken is great for tossing out those round/level buffs you didn't trick the DM into letting you persist. I'm a big fan of Quickened Haste

[ericgrau]

Don't extend any buffs that get discharged. Sense Weakness, etc.
So cast it again after the fight. If you're in a dungeon and can expect it to get used up soon, then ya cast it unextended first. But if you're constantly afraid of getting hit and don't, you'll need 4 spells when 2 could have gone to something else.

[Valtu]

1. I believe a metamagic rod needs to be held to activate it. Presumably you could have one rod in each hand and could use either without problem. If you needed a third, it would depend on where it is stored for how long it would take to draw.
2. That would be a custom magic item to combine metamagic rods. It's allowed under the rules, but is more expensive.
3. You are correct.

Ok, nice. I'll be buying my first metamagic rod(s) at our next session. I was wondering about switching between them because my character is a monk/sorcerer/enlightened fist, so I'd like to keep a hand free for unarmed strikes (and somatic stuff, too, I suppose).

Edit: Didn't see Hymer's post earlier, confirming the bit about needing an empty hand for somatic components.

[Phelix-Mu]

There's a Fell Drain Rod??

My understanding was that it's fairly common practice to simply extrapolate the prices of metamagic rod of (whatever) to cover metamagic rod of (whatever has the same spell level adjustment as whatever). I think that this is what was done when they added some new metamagic rods in...was it Complete Arcane? Somewhere there were some additional ones, I believe.

[ericgrau]

Ok, nice. I'll be buying my first metamagic rod(s) at our next session. I was wondering about switching between them because my character is a monk/sorcerer/enlightened fist, so I'd like to keep a hand free for unarmed strikes (and somatic stuff, too, I suppose).
You're in luck then, because a monk can attack with various parts of his body. You can knee foes with hands full. The bigger issue is that you need a free hand to cast, so that does limit you to 1 rod at a time. The sudden still feat can overcome this limitation 3 times per day, which combined with quick draw is plenty. Only drawback is that it costs you two feats. OTOH both feats may also be used for other things: for example grapple a foe and then continue casting. Or quick draw a monk weapon for more damage.

It's moot with extend though because you cast all your buffs in the morning.

[Drachasor]

My understanding was that it's fairly common practice to simply extrapolate the prices of metamagic rod of (whatever) to cover metamagic rod of (whatever has the same spell level adjustment as whatever). I think that this is what was done when they added some new metamagic rods in...was it Complete Arcane? Somewhere there were some additional ones, I believe.

Theoretically you could do this for rods that combined multiple metamagics too, but I don't think anyone ever does this.


Anyhow, for the OP, while blasting is inefficient, if you are going to do any then Metamagic Empower is awesome. Similarly, Metamagic rods to change the elemental damage to another type can be good.

[eggynack]

My understanding was that it's fairly common practice to simply extrapolate the prices of metamagic rod of (whatever) to cover metamagic rod of (whatever has the same spell level adjustment as whatever). I think that this is what was done when they added some new metamagic rods in...was it Complete Arcane? Somewhere there were some additional ones, I believe.
Yep, complete arcane has a few, particularly for chain spell, cooperative spell, sculpt spell, and energy substitution. There's not all that much extrapolation involved though, because between all of the core rods, all of the adjustments are represented, except for +0 and +6. The complete arcane rods seem to be priced differently, however, which is kinda weird.