Feat(s) to replace Earth Spell on Shadowcraft Mage Builds?

[Schattenbach]

Hello,

as my attempt to look into some way to somehow get Earth Spell on creatures with the Air Subtype or Aquatic Subtype hasn't been succesful thus far (and I#m annoyed by the restrictions of Earth Spell to begin with), I'm currently looking for something that could replace it for Shadowcraft Mage so that they can still use their Heightened Silent Images for the same effect as usual (i.e. to cast these spells without being forced to use some one level higher spell slot & to use Silent Image to mimic the 9th level spells that would otherwise be hard to replicate without using 10th level slots).

Do Metamagic Cost reducers (be they things like the capstones of Incanatrix/Dweomerkeeper or other class features or feats that reduce the slot requirment of metamagic feats - like, for example, Practical Metamagic - work on Heighten Spell so that it can do that job just fine or are there problems with that (or are there some that work and some that don't)?

Thanks in advance.

[Technetium43]

Look into Sanctum Spell maybe? It's a level of cheese I don't usually touch, but it seems to do something to that effect, and if you're making a shadowcraft mage in the first place, what's a little more cheese. :smalltongue:

[Necroticplague]

Eldritch Corruption let's you Heighten a spell by two levels without a slot adjustment by dealing 2 con damage to an ally.

[Schattenbach]

Look into Sanctum Spell maybe? It's a level of cheese I don't usually touch, but it seems to do something to that effect, and if you're making a shadowcraft mage in the first place, what's a little more cheese. :smalltongue:

I do remember Sanctum Spell's use for early PrC entry ... but as this isn't what this is about ... so in what ways can Sanctum Spell be of use here?


Eldritch Corruption let's you Heighten a spell by two levels without a slot adjustment by dealing 2 con damage to an ally.

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't really know about that feat at all. That should work ... but gets annoying over time, doesn't it? What with subjecting others to Con damage (I guess that's something that could be dealt with one way or another, even if that's not all that easy due to only being able to select targets that the Con damage actually works on) or requiring Taint mechanics (not that they're that bad as is, despite their loopholes or their great abuse potential, i.e. the ease at aquiring the evil subtype - though (Evil Subtype?) Outsiders, just the same as Undead, get the short end of the stick here in that their effective depravity score is set at fixed values - and the brokenness of stuff like Tainted Scholar) that doesn't fit in every type of game and can be quite irritating to deal with in general (not that I dislike taint itself to begin with, though).

...

About something else ...

As "Practical Metamagic [Heighten Spell]" (which, as opposed to Easy Metamagic - that is material from Dragon Magazin, though, but it's not like thats much of an issue to begin with - either requires one to have the Dragonblood Subtype or to spend a feat to gain the Dragonblood Subtype) is actually used as suggestion for the use of Sorcerers in the Shadowcraft Mage Handbook ... does stuff like Practical Metamagic or Easy Metamagic (both of which don't include the wording of the Arcane Thesis feat about not being applyable to Heighten Spell) or the Metamagic Cost reduction class features of Incanatrix, Dweomerkeeper, ecetera, actually apply in such a way to Heighten Spell that it works out for Shadowcraft Mages (i.e. allows them to use their Heightened Silent Images just fine to mimic spells without being forced to use one spell slot higher and thus to replicate 9th level spells without any issue)?

[Necroticplague]

About something else ...

As "Practical Metamagic [Heighten Spell]" (which, as opposed to Easy Metamagic - that is material from Dragon Magazin, though, but it's not like thats much of an issue to begin with - either requires one to have the Dragonblood Subtype or to spend a feat to gain the Dragonblood Subtype) is actually used as suggestion for the use of Sorcerers in the Shadowcraft Mage Handbook ... does stuff like Practical Metamagic or Easy Metamagic (both of which don't include the wording of the Arcane Thesis feat about not being applyable to Heighten Spell) or the Metamagic Cost reduction class features of Incanatrix, Dweomerkeeper, ecetera, actually apply in such a way to Heighten Spell that it works out for Shadowcraft Mages (i.e. allows them to use their Heightened Silent Images just fine to mimic spells without being forced to use one spell slot higher and thus to replicate 9th level spells without any issue)?

Yes, except for the 'to replicate level 9th level=spells' part.

A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level)
So any Heighten-based methods max out at using a level 9 spell, simulating a level 8 spell.