Persistent Spell + Spellguard of the Silvery Moon (3.5)

[SirNibbles]

Persistent Spell only works on spells with a fixed or personal range. Spellguard of the Silvery Moon 4 (Player's Guide to Faerun) allows you to cast defensive spells with a personal range on other people "with a touch." I'm assuming this means the range is now 'touch'.

Would this mean you can't use Persistent Spell if you're casting the spell on someone else since touch is no longer a fixed range?

In that case, would it be better to get Reach Spell or Archmage's Arcane Reach to bring it back to a fixed range? Archmage (RAW) doesn't specify that its effect turns the spell into a ray (whereas Reach Spell does) which means you couldn't use Split Ray to buff two people at once, but you don't have the issue of it raising the level of the spell being cast from both Reach Spell and Split Ray. Would you rule that Archmage does work in the same manner as Reach Spell and thus it does turn the spell into a ray? Is there a third option that is better than both those options (preferably a way to turn the spell into an area spell so I can buff everyone at once)?

Thanks.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Yes, you'd need to change the range post-Spellguard, in order to persist it again.

One powerful (and somewhat cheesy) buffing trick is to use Spellguard, Chain Spell and Reach Spell to turn shapechange into a multi-targeting spell, and then having the party turn into symbionts, which share spells with their host. The party attaches to one person, and bam, all buffs you cast affect the whole party.


Note: alter self and polymorph do not grant supernatural special abilities, hence the need for shapechange. If you're not level 17+, Assume Supernatural Ability will make the trick work at level 3 (probably before you can get Reach, Chain and Persist to work), but each party member needs to take it.