Runesmith Permanent Rune: Good candidates?

[Particle_Man]

I was thinking of a cleric 3/wizard 2/runesmith 1/mystic theurge 10/runesmith 4. The capstone ability of the runesmith would be to trade in a spell slot to get a spell-like ability 2x/day of a spell one level lower. At level 20, this could be any wizard spell up to level 8 (although it would be painful to give up the 9th level spell slot for it).

What would be good candidates for this permanent rune?

[Firebug]

I normally play Pathfinder, but I've had a good amount of experience in 3.5...

Remind me, do SLAs have to pay XP or material component costs in 3.5? And cast times, same as the spell or standard action?

If no xp/material costs, Limited Wish is probably a good pick. You will only sacrifice an 8th level slot, so you keep all of your 9s, but its very versatile.

Planar Binding, Greater for multiple 18 HD outsiders would be nice. IIRC Planetar Angels are 17th level clerics and are only 14 HD. And if the task is open ended enough we're talking 2 angels a day and a task of 1 day per CL... so a troop of 30-40 angels? This... feels like a campaign boss. Even if it keeps the 10 minute cast time... 30-40 clerics with 9th level spells.

Similarly, Creater Greater Undead or Simulacrum.

Clone? Normally you don't need more than one though...

Those are just some ok ones from the core book, I'm sure there are much more powerful ones elsewhere.

[Particle_Man]

SLAs have no xp cost or material component, although if a limited wish SLA duplicates a spell that itself has a material or xp component I am not sure what happens.

[Jowgen]

Component free True Creation would allow you to produce an ungoldy ammount of wealth from nothing.

Also, with the casting time defauling to 1 standard action, it becomes incredibly versatile for the purpose of producing whatever non-living, non-magical matter you may need in a given situation. If you can't think of a way to solve a problem with 1 cu.ft/lvl of Voidstone dropped in the middle of it, you aren't trying.

If that isn't your speed, Vision and Create Greater undead are both useful options.

Energy Transformation Field can also potentially open a lot of great optimisation doors, depending on what spell you link to it.

[Rebel7284]

For reference:


Permanent Rune (Ex): A 5th-level runesmith knows the secret of inscribing a permanent rune of a single chosen spell into his flesh. To inscribe a permanent rune, a runesmith must permanently sacrifice an arcane spell slot of one level higher than the spell to be inscribed as a permanent rune, and spend 24 hours inscribing the rune. If the spell has a costly material component, he must expend resources equal to 20 times the gp cost of the material component. If it has a costly focus, he must expend resources equal to the cost of the focus. If the spell has an XP cost, he must spend XP as if he had cast the spell normally. Once he has inscribed a spell as a permanent rune, a runesmith can activate the chosen spell as a spell-like ability (using his arcane caster level as the caster level) twice per day.


So this particular class feature bypasses XP, GP, and focus costs after a one-time payment! Whether or not it also bypasses casting times is not 100% clear as per rules of SLAs.

So with that, Limited Wish is indeed a great candidate.
Simulacrum is a really good one too, although the variable XP cost is curious, can you just spend a bunch of XP and then use the SLA for anything UP TO that much XP?

[aglondier]

Sounds like a great use for an epic 10th level spell slot...

[Particle_Man]

Sounds like a great use for an epic 10th level spell slot...

Agreed but my DM doesn't do epic so 20th level is the cap.