For the Shadowcraft Mages

[Fero]

Sabar's Gazing Globe (http://web.archive.org/web/20060628101950/http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/dl/magicitems) is a interesting item. In short, it is a Crystal Ball that lets you cast Silent Image through the scrying sensor. This means you can cast Silent Image anywhere in the world, or even across planes.

This raises a number of interesting possibilities for metamagic, etc. However more dramatically, it lets Shadowcraft Mages to cast heightened silent images (if the group allows such combos) and thereby mimic powerful conjuration/evocation spells at infinite distance.

I suspect this combo is already known but I have not seen it yet so I thought I would share for anyone who is interested and/or has any other idea how to take advantage of this fascinating item.

[Rebel7284]

I have not seen this before, but that is indeed VERY good for a Shadowcraft Mage, casting remotely from an Earth Node fortress or something.

[Chronos]

Heck, even if your fortress isn't an earth node, just the fact that it lets you cast from your fortress (wherever that is) is huge. Even if you go with a completely normal, right-out-of-the-box shadowcraft mage, with none of the usual cheese (aside from this item), being able to cast spells (even quasi-real, lower-than-your-max-level spells) anyplace you can scry on is amazing.

[Fero]

Heck, even if your fortress isn't an earth node, just the fact that it lets you cast from your fortress (wherever that is) is huge. Even if you go with a completely normal, right-out-of-the-box shadowcraft mage, with none of the usual cheese (aside from this item), being able to cast spells (even quasi-real, lower-than-your-max-level spells) anyplace you can scry on is amazing.

I agree. Honestly, just mimicing 0 level evocations and conjurations from an abandoned shack on the other side of the world would be amazingly powerful, especially with metamagic.

Of course, if you want to cast from an uber Stronghold, I wonder if you could place an Earth Node in the Plane of Shadow to get even more free MM.

[Rebel7284]

I agree. Honestly, just mimicing 0 level evocations and conjurations from an abandoned shack on the other side of the world would be amazingly powerful, especially with metamagic.

Of course, if you want to cast from an uber Stronghold, I wonder if you could place an Earth Node in the Plane of Shadow to get even more free MM.

It's an option if you can deal with the +5 Will save penalty.

On a typical Shadowcraft Mage, Planar Bubble + Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis is the usual way of accomplishing being on the Plane of Shadow.
Depending on various factors like availability of Earth Node on the plane of shadow, using Planar Bubble may or may not be better even with Sabar's Gazing Globe.

Edit: It is also not 100% clear to me that a maximized Silent Image leads to a maximized emulated spell. It's a reasonable way of doing it, but it's not ironclad as far as I see.