List of free Persist Metamagic

[Condé]

HOW TO MAKE YOUR SPELLS LAST ALL DAY


Everyone talk about it. It is considered cheese by many and strangely enough is recommanded nearly all the time. I don't think there is a list already which is weird since how popular it is.
So... Here is one. Let's try to be as exhaustive as possible.

If I missed any, do not hesitate, I will gladly at your addition to the list. Anything goes as long as it makes a spell last all day.

CLASSES


Incantatrix (Magic of Faerûn, p. 31, Player's Guide to Faerûn, p. 61) - Metamagic Effect, Spellcraft check to fuel metamagic.
Spelldancer (Magic of Faerûn, p. 37) - Spelldance, Perform check to fuel metamagic.
Anima Mage (Tome of Magic, p. 50) - Vestige Metamagic, loose vestige abilites for 5 round but can apply a metamagic feat for free on a spell. (1/day at 5th level and 2/day at 8th level)
Soulcaster (Magic of Incarnum, p. 142) (See Midnight Metamagic in FEATS section) Incarnum + Arcane caster PrC, convenient for the feat.
Wyrm Wizard (Dragon Magic, p. 55) Draconic Discovery, can apply a metamagic for free for a 2nd/4th/6th level spell. [Thanks to Gruftzwerg]
Artificer (Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 29) Metamagic spell completion

Required feats: Extend Spell, Persist Spell, Reach Spell (not required but nice: Wand Surge, Maximize Spell)
Required lvl: 11, you want metamagic spell completion
Step 1) Have a schema of Metamagic Item
Step 2) Use Metamagic Scroll (1st lvl infusion), to apply reach to your metamagic item schema
Step 3) Use metamagic spell completion to apply persist to your metamagic item schema (it is now valid due to reach)
Step 4) Use the metamagic item schema to persist a metamagic feat on an item (most likely a staff)
Step 5) Have fun
Ultimate Magus (Complete Mage, p. 77) - Augmented Casting, Sacrifice spell slots to fuel Metamagic feats. Augmented spell is maxed at 1/2 class level so 5th at level 10. [Thanks to Jay R]
Tainted Scholar (Heroes of Horror, p. 113) - Blooded Metamagic, Sacrifice Con for reduce metamagic on a 1:1 scale. Capped, so if you want to Persist a level 1 you'd need a level 7th spell.
Tainted Sorcerer (Unearthed Arcana, p. 191) - Tainted Metamagic, same as Tainted Scholar.

RACES


Illumian (Races of Destiny, p. 51) - NaenHoon sigils, twice per day use Turn/Rebuke Undead to fuel metamagic.

FEATS


Divine Metamagic (Complete Divine, p. 80) - Use Turn/Rebuke Undead to fuel metamagic.
Midnight Metamagic (Magic of Incarnum, p. 39) - Can invest essentia points to fuel metamagic.
Metanode Spell (Champions of Ruin, p. 25) (Underdark, p. 26) "As long as you're standing in an earth node, deduct the class of the earth node from the increased spell level of your metamagic'd spell." [Thanks to Saintheart]

LOCATIONS


Temple of Mystra (CoV p. 51) + Acorn of Far Travel (Via wand, scroll, custom magic item...)
The text might be fluff only but it is RAW technically speaking. Clerics of Mystra can cast metamagic spells for free while they are in a Temple of Mystra. With an Acorn of Far Travel you can be considered in a temple wherever you are, then you can cast metamagic'd spell for free all day long.

SPELLS

Shapechange: Old Tome Dragon (Dragon#343) Free Metamagic (Only -3 but you can add other Metamagic reducer, if you want more see Here. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25748470&postcount=8) [Thanks to Anthrowhale]
"The Obvious" Using a higher level slot... It's free. [Thanks to Chronos]


ITEMS

Phylactery of Change (Arms & Equipment, p. 135) Polymorph(-self) for unlimited time, usable every 24 hours, caster level 7. So max 7HD.
Skin of Proteus (SRD (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#skinofProteus)) Metamorphosis, 7HD. No duration.

[Beni-Kujaku]

You might want to look at this (https://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=972.0), "Metamagic and you, a thesis", section "replacing costs", though they didn't take Incarnum into account.

[Fero]

Helpful list. Thank you!

[Goldlizard]

"Midnight Metamagic" is misspelled

[MaxiDuRaritry]

It's not Persist-related directly, but you can use the acorn of far travel spell combined with an oak tree on another plane that is timeless with regards to magical effects, such as the Astral Plane, to make all of your spells last until the acorn is no longer on your person.

Also, this can be used as an alternative, if you don't have access to other planes:

Find or plant an oak tree somewhere, preferably on a plane that is timeless with regards to magic. Cast a Sculpted (un)hallow spell so that it affects some of the tree's canopy; a cone aimed down from above would work. Tie the acorn of far travel (https://web.archive.org/web/20160816163754/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) spell to it. Now all the acorns in the AoE are affected by the spell, so you can give acorns out to whomever you like. (You can only have one AoFT spell in effect at once; this doesn't preclude you from affecting multiple acorns with the same spell.) Now use Sculpt Spell to make a bunch of line-shaped (un)hallow spells pointing straight up. Now each of these (un)hallow spells has a different spell attached to it, such as haste, polymorph, magic circle against evil, death ward, etc. Now you count as being under the tree's canopy while you hold the acorn, and all these spells are in effect under the tree.

Assuming the tree isn't on a timeless plane, that allows you to utilize those spells for up to a year at a time, or two years with Extended (un)hallow.

[Saintheart]

Similar trick to Mystra's Temple + Acorn of Far Travel would be Metanode Spell (Und): as long as you're standing in an earth node, deduct the class of the earth node from the increased spell level of your metamagic'd spell. Takes some DM cooperation since an earth node's class is basically for the DM to determine.

[Inevitability]

Similar trick to Mystra's Temple + Acorn of Far Travel would be Metanode Spell (Und): as long as you're standing in an earth node, deduct the class of the earth node from the increased spell level of your metamagic'd spell. Takes some DM cooperation since an earth node's class is basically for the DM to determine.

Note that there's a few canon nodes with power 6, though! If you're playing FR you can safely assume their existence and travel there to fuel your persists.

[Anthrowhale]

It is possible to make the cost of Persistent Spell free using a combination of feats, spells, and class abilities.

Feats:
Practical Metamagic: -1, Races of the Dragon.
Easy Metamagic: -1, Dragon #325.

Spells:
Free Metamagic: -3 Shapechange(24HD Old Tome Dragon, Dragon #343)

Class abilities:
Adroit Spellcasting: -1, Halruaan Elder 1, Shining South.
Improved Metamagic: -1, Incantatrix 10, PGtF
Cloak of Mysteries: -1, Dweomerkeeper 10, Complete Divine

So, for example, Practical+Easy+Free+Cloak of Mysteries for a spontaneous caster or Easy+Free+Adroit+Improved for a prepared caster.

Edit: Separately, it's perhaps worth noting that Cooperative Metamagic (Incantatrix 2) and Metamagic Effect (Incantatrix 3) can add Persistent to a spell.

[pabelfly]

Spelldancer PrC and Sheltered Vitality is an OP combo. Spelldancer is limited by your CON and too much spelldancing leads to fatigue and then exhaustion, Sheltered Vitality makes you immune to fatigue so you can persist all of your spells. All of them.

[thethird]

What I like to do as an artificer is:

Required feats: Extend Spell, Persist Spell, Reach Spell (not required but nice: Wand Surge, Maximize Spell)
Required lvl: 11, you want metamagic spell completion
Step 1) Have a schema of Metamagic Item
Step 2) Use Metamagic Scroll (1st lvl infusion), to apply reach to your metamagic item schema
Step 3) Use metamagic spell completion to apply persist to your metamagic item schema (it is now valid due to reach)
Step 4) Use the metamagic item schema to persist a metamagic feat on an item (most likely a staff)
Step 5) Have fun

The metamagic feat that you persist can easily be persist spell. From there you use the staff to cast any spell (in it) and those will be persisted for free. The persisted metamagic will last for a day, so if somehow someone dispell your buffs it's cheap to get them back on. You can also persist other kind of metamagic feats in case you want to blast for example with maximize spell.

It's not literally free. But it's rather cheap.

[Chronos]

If we're just looking for ways to use Persist, let's not overlook the obvious: Using a genuine high-level slot to persist a low-level spell by increasing the level. When I played a Clerzilla, after I had used up all of my Turn Undead uses on other spells, I would use a 7th-level slot for persisted Divine Favor, because why not?

[Crake]

Y’all always take the effects of the acorn of far travel’s effects one degree of separation too far. It effectively makes the acorn an extension of the tree, it doesnt shrodinger you under it. You dont get to inherit all the aoe effects that are around the tree.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Y’all always take the effects of the acorn of far travel’s effects one degree of separation too far. It effectively makes the acorn an extension of the tree, it doesnt shrodinger you under it. You dont get to inherit all the aoe effects that are around the tree.You count as standing under the tree. If there are effects affecting the area under the tree, you count as standing under the tree. If there are planar traits in effect under the tree, you still count as standing under the tree.

[Fero]

Y’all always take the effects of the acorn of far travel’s effects one degree of separation too far. It effectively makes the acorn an extension of the tree, it doesnt shrodinger you under it. You dont get to inherit all the aoe effects that are around the tree.

I agree that people take the Acorn too far. Yes, the clause at issue says that you count as being under the tree. However, the next set of clauses explain what that means (ie being able to use the acorn as an optional component for certain forest based spells).

[Gruftzwerg]

Spelldancer PrC and Sheltered Vitality is an OP combo. Spelldancer is limited by your CON and too much spelldancing leads to fatigue and then exhaustion, Sheltered Vitality makes you immune to fatigue so you can persist all of your spells. All of them.
I agree. I discovered it a while ago and recently used it my Lion-O (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?655281-TO-Lion-O-amp-the-Thundercats-(an-Uber-Spellguard-build)) adaptation.
Being able to persist as much as you want (or have spellslots) is just to OP.
And if you don't have the spell on your class list, then get it via a 2 lvl dip into Wyrm Wizard. 3 lvls for free metamagic. Compare that to Incantatrix which is normally considered to be the top dog here..

Imho it would be nice to add this to the Spelldancer description.


I also found a specific item that has a great interaction with Spelldancer (see the build. I don't wanna spoil it here for now^^).


I agree that people take the Acorn too far. Yes, the clause at issue says that you count as being under the tree. However, the next set of clauses explain what that means (ie being able to use the acorn as an optional component for certain forest based spells).

RAI, you have a valid argument.

RAW, the spells rule text never implies any limitation to which extend "you count as being under the tree" goes.

And the "next clause" is just a specific exception to the main effect. It doesn't try to limit the main effect in any way.

I know that it is cheesy and I also like to use it for my TO builds. My Shadowcraft Warlock (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?652658) uses it for getting the "benefit" (+1 spell lvl) of Sanctum Spell all day long.

It it broken? Imho not really. It depends how much power the build gets (depending on the trick/build used) and how the overall optimization of the rest of the party does look like.

Imho stuff like this should be a DM call for each situation separately. Talk about the theoretical power gain for the build in question and decide if that is fine for the current party.

Personally I like it when people show clever use of the rules/their abilities, from a DM and player perspective. As long as it doesn't break the groups balance it's fine.

[Condé]

Similar trick to Mystra's Temple + Acorn of Far Travel would be Metanode Spell (Und): as long as you're standing in an earth node, deduct the class of the earth node from the increased spell level of your metamagic'd spell. Takes some DM cooperation since an earth node's class is basically for the DM to determine.

I knew Node were a thing but never took a close look into it. Thanks for your suggestion.


Note that there's a few canon nodes with power 6, though! If you're playing FR you can safely assume their existence and travel there to fuel your persists.

Interesting. Do you know where they are or is it up to the DM?


It is possible to make the cost of Persistent Spell free using a combination of feats, spells, and class abilities.

Feats:
Practical Metamagic: -1, Races of the Dragon.
Easy Metamagic: -1, Dragon #325.

Spells:
Free Metamagic: -3 Shapechange(24HD Old Tome Dragon, Dragon #343)

Class abilities:
Adroit Spellcasting: -1, Halruaan Elder 1, Shining South.
Improved Metamagic: -1, Incantatrix 10, PGtF
Cloak of Mysteries: -1, Dweomerkeeper 10, Complete Divine

So, for example, Practical+Easy+Free+Cloak of Mysteries for a spontaneous caster or Easy+Free+Adroit+Improved for a prepared caster.

Edit: Separately, it's perhaps worth noting that Cooperative Metamagic (Incantatrix 2) and Metamagic Effect (Incantatrix 3) can add Persistent to a spell.

I am not going to add every metamagic reducers. As said earlier, another person did that way better than I could do and is not the point of this thread really. I am not really a big fan of Dragon mag material either but not everyone is like me so I added a link to your post for convenience if someone is interested. :)

Thanks for your suggestions.


Spelldancer PrC and Sheltered Vitality is an OP combo. Spelldancer is limited by your CON and too much spelldancing leads to fatigue and then exhaustion, Sheltered Vitality makes you immune to fatigue so you can persist all of your spells. All of them.

There is quite some other combinations you can do to spelldance all day. Sheltered Vitality is, indeed, the most convenient.


What I like to do as an artificer is:

Required feats: Extend Spell, Persist Spell, Reach Spell (not required but nice: Wand Surge, Maximize Spell)
Required lvl: 11, you want metamagic spell completion
Step 1) Have a schema of Metamagic Item
Step 2) Use Metamagic Scroll (1st lvl infusion), to apply reach to your metamagic item schema
Step 3) Use metamagic spell completion to apply persist to your metamagic item schema (it is now valid due to reach)
Step 4) Use the metamagic item schema to persist a metamagic feat on an item (most likely a staff)
Step 5) Have fun

The metamagic feat that you persist can easily be persist spell. From there you use the staff to cast any spell (in it) and those will be persisted for free. The persisted metamagic will last for a day, so if somehow someone dispell your buffs it's cheap to get them back on. You can also persist other kind of metamagic feats in case you want to blast for example with maximize spell.

It's not literally free. But it's rather cheap.

Never played as or with an artificer. Sometimes forget it even exist. Thanks for the addition.


If we're just looking for ways to use Persist, let's not overlook the obvious: Using a genuine high-level slot to persist a low-level spell by increasing the level. When I played a Clerzilla, after I had used up all of my Turn Undead uses on other spells, I would use a 7th-level slot for persisted Divine Favor, because why not?

I mean... You are right. Added to the list fot completeness sake.


Y’all always take the effects of the acorn of far travel’s effects one degree of separation too far. It effectively makes the acorn an extension of the tree, it doesnt shrodinger you under it. You dont get to inherit all the aoe effects that are around the tree.

I mean, it is in the name. It is an acorn of FAR travel after all.


I agree. I discovered it a while ago and recently used it my Lion-O (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?655281-TO-Lion-O-amp-the-Thundercats-(an-Uber-Spellguard-build)) adaptation.
Being able to persist as much as you want (or have spellslots) is just to OP.
And if you don't have the spell on your class list, then get it via a 2 lvl dip into Wyrm Wizard. 3 lvls for free metamagic. Compare that to Incantatrix which is normally considered to be the top dog here..

Thanks for reminding me about Wyrm Wizard. It is easy to forget since the class is mostly used to have access to any spell in the game and not so much about the rest.

And a big thanks to everyone else I didn't quote directly for participating. I don't think it is going to be a long list but I hope some of you will find it useful or at least convenient.

[Inevitability]

Interesting. Do you know where they are or is it up to the DM?


I was thinking of Nuur Troth, detailed in Underdark on page 164. Looking at the map, it's... basically directly beneath Neverwinter? The dwarven city of Gauntlgrym is relatively close by and works as a confirmed surface-underdark connection point, so getting there in-game is remarkably realistic.

https://i.imgur.com/65HsI1P.png

[Jay R]

An Ultimate Magus has two arcane classes. She can sacrifice a spell or spell slot from one class to apply the effect of a metamagic feat that she knows to a spell cast using another arcane class.

The level of the spell slot sacrificed must equal or exceed the spell level adjustment of the metamagic feat. Once one of her classes can cast 6th level spells, she can apply Persist Spell to the other one by sacrificing a spell slot.

[Condé]

I was thinking of Nuur Troth, detailed in Underdark on page 164. Looking at the map, it's... basically directly beneath Neverwinter? The dwarven city of Gauntlgrym is relatively close by and works as a confirmed surface-underdark connection point, so getting there in-game is remarkably realistic.

https://i.imgur.com/65HsI1P.png

Interesting. I have some difficulty to understand how you can abuse it tho. Since nodes seem to be located in the underdark... There is a spell to teleport to another Earth Node... But you need to be on one already. And you'd need to cast it twice to go back where you were from.
And there is not many trees in the UD to cast Acorn of far travel...
Am I missing something?


An Ultimate Magus has two arcane classes. She can sacrifice a spell or spell slot from one class to apply the effect of a metamagic feat that she knows to a spell cast using another arcane class.

The level of the spell slot sacrificed must equal or exceed the spell level adjustment of the metamagic feat. Once one of her classes can cast 6th level spells, she can apply Persist Spell to the other one by sacrificing a spell slot.

You are right. But you are limited to 5th level spell max. Added to the list nontheless, thanks.

[loky1109]

Residual Magic from complete mage. You still need to persist spell once, but second time is free.

[Inevitability]

Interesting. I have some difficulty to understand how you can abuse it tho. Since nodes seem to be located in the underdark... There is a spell to teleport to another Earth Node... But you need to be on one already. And you'd need to cast it twice to go back where you were from.
And there is not many trees in the UD to cast Acorn of far travel...
Am I missing something?

Potted oak?

More seriously, you could have a pair of dvati twins and have one half be in the underdark casting free persisted selfbuffs, which can then be transferred to the other, adventuring half.

[Akal Saris]

Residual Magic from complete mage. You still need to persist spell once, but second time is free.

Such a wonderful feat!

[Gruftzwerg]

While not really efficient, a craftlock can specialize in metamagic too.

1) Warlock 12 / Chameleon 2
2) Push UMD
3) Scribe Scrolls
4) Pick metamagic feats. Either sole via Chameleon or combine regular feats with it (e.g. Extend as regular feat and Persist as floating bonus feat)

You just need to pass the UMD roll to "fake" the entire spell cast (including faking material components for the spell).

Sole downside is the price tag (xp & gold), but the "metamagic is free"...^^

[Jay R]

You are right. But you are limited to 5th level spell max. Added to the list nonetheless, thanks.

True. But in a non-epic game using the feat, you are normally restricted to 3rd level spells max (since the spells level +6 for Persist can't exceed 9). So this is actually a higher limit than the feat allows.

And in an epic game, you can extend a 10-level Prestige Class, which (slowly) extends that 5th level limit.

[Condé]

Added Phylactery of change. It is technically even better than Persistent since it is... For an unlimited amount of time. Sadly, only 7HD but still very strong and very cheap.

[Zarvistic]

Ordained champion level 4 ability to quicken some spells. Feels like there has to be more classes like this but I cant remember any.

Heroic metamagic + any sudden feats, but not sure how acceptable you find this.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Added Phylactery of change. It is technically even better than Persistent since it is... For an unlimited amount of time. Sadly, only 7HD but still very strong and very cheap.The psychoactive skin of proteus? It's ML 7, too, but it doesn't have the limitation of only one form per day (or take up an item slot), which is a HUGE boost in power and versatility, although it makes up for it in gp cost, which is significant. Still, it's one of the best items in the whole game, artifacts included.