Rain of Metamagic Ballista Bolts -- Legal? [3.5]

[Sir_Elderberry]

So I was talking with a friend of mine about some of our old 3.5 campaigns, and he mentioned how eerily useful it was that we'd gotten such mileage out of Launch Bolt (it was pathfinder, so unlimited cantrips). I mentioned that I'd read (on this board) people saying that you could launch any size bolt, as the spell doesn't specify. Furthermore, you could get around the problem of carrying colossal size bolts by taking Eschew Materials, as the M component of Launch Bolt is the bolt itself.

Our next plan was to find a way to put the spell onto a bolt, so we'd have a bolt that shot bolts so we could shoot while we shot. Unfortunately, Arcane Archer only permits area spells, and spell-storing is a melee weapon enhancement only.

I proposed a new tactic: metamagic. Quickened Chained Twin Repeated Launch Bolt, followed by Chained Twin Repeated Launch Bolt. The first round, you launch four bolts, and every round you can keep it up for, eight bolts happen and bounce from target to target. Eight giant ballista bolts.

The most obvious problem was that QCTR Launch Bolt is a level 14 spell, and CTR Launch Bolt is level 10. Which is an issue. Now, honestly, I didn't play 3.5 all that much, and I never played a caster, but I'd heard of a thing or two from lurking around these boards, and set out to metamagic-reduce my way to a rain of bolts.

Base: 0 (Launch Bolt) + 3 Chain + 3 Repeat + 4 Twin + 4 Quicken

Incatatrix 10 reduces all costs by 1: 0 Launch Bolt + 2 Chain + 2 Repeat + 3 Twin + 3 Quicken = Level 10 and 7 spells--only doable with epic levels, still.

Take Easy Metamagic (Chain), Easy Metamagic (Repeat), Easy Metamagic (Twin), and Easy Metamagic (Quicken): 0 Launch Bolt + 1 Chain + 1 Repeat + 2 Twin + 2 Quicken = Level 6 and 4 spells

Finally, take Arcane Thesis (Launch Bolt). I'm not sure how this is meant to work--it says that when you apply a metamagic spell besides Heighten, the empowereed spell costs one spell slot less. If that means it only applies to the final product, we're at Level 5 and 3 spells. If it applies to each metamagic individually:
0 Launch Bolt + 0 Chain + 0 Repeat + 1 Twin + 1 Quicken = Level 2 and 1 spells.

So with a Wizard 5/Incatatrix 10 you can keep raining these things for a very long time, assuming you can use your higher level spell slots entirely for Launch Bolt. Now, the question is, first of all, is all this legal? (As I said, I'm dabbling in systems I'm not really familiar with) Second of all, is there anyway to get even more bolts?

[DragoonWraith]

Arcane Thesis works like the Incantatrix ability, but only for a single spell.

So with Incantatrix and Arcane Thesis (Launch Bolt), you'd have 0 + 1 Chain + 1 Repeat + 2 Twin + 2 Quicken = 6th level spell.

I'm not sure Chain Spell works with Launch Bolt, though.

[Keld Denar]

Needs more Echo Spell (+4 MM). Launch Bolt isn't CL dependant, so its a prefect candidate for Echo Spell. Its in one of the Eberron sourcebooks.

Basically, if you spend ALL of your spell slots on metamagiced Launch Bolts, it would increase your daily output by CL/4 times (ie, if you CL was 13, it would give you 3x as many castings per day of Launch Bolt.

[Sir_Elderberry]

Arcane Thesis works like the Incantatrix ability, but only for a single spell.

So with Incantatrix and Arcane Thesis (Launch Bolt), you'd have 0 + 1 Chain + 1 Repeat + 2 Twin + 2 Quicken = 6th level spell.

I'm not sure Chain Spell works with Launch Bolt, though.

Chain Spell works on "any spell that specifies a single target and has a range greater than touch".

[senrath]

And Launch Bolt has a range of "Touch".

[balistafreak]

And Launch Bolt has a range of "Touch".

Wamp wamp wamp waaaaaaaaaaaaaaamp.

[Wonton]

So take one level of Archmage....

[lsfreak]

There is one problem, and that's that the description does mention being launched from a light crossbow. Since weapon damage relies, at least in part, on character size, this could mean that you must use a crossbow bolt of your size. There's also the issue that it mentions a 1sp bolt in the material component, but this can be seen as merely clarifying that bolts are not a 'free' component.

[Sir_Elderberry]

There is one problem, and that's that the description does mention being launched from a light crossbow. Since weapon damage relies, at least in part, on character size, this could mean that you must use a crossbow bolt of your size. There's also the issue that it mentions a 1sp bolt in the material component, but this can be seen as merely clarifying that bolts are not a 'free' component.

A "light crossbow" doesn't imply a size, it's just a type of weapon compared to a "heavy crossbow." There ought to be such a thing as a "colossal light crossbow", oxymorons aside.