Can you Improve my metamagic?

[Orran]

Yesterday I decided to see what I could do with a focused conjurer, a lesser orb of electricity, metamagic, and 7 class levels. Heres what I got:

Grey Elf Focused Conjurer 5/ Master specialist 2
1st level: Flaw:Noncombatant, Pathetic Charisma
Spell Focus conjuration
Enlarge Spell
Metamagic School focus (Conjuration)
3rd level: Twin Spell
5th level:Sudden Maximise
6th level: Arcane Thesis (lesser orb of electricity)
Skill focus: Spellcraft
7th level: Expanded spellbook

So for a my 4 4th level spells I had:
Twinned (+2) Enlarged (+1) Empowered (rod) Maximised (Sudden) Lesser orb of electricity (120 damage)
Twinned (+2) Enlarged (+1) Empowered (Rod) Lesser orb of electricity (10d8*1.5)
Celerity
Greater Invisibilty

Plus a twinned, empowered, orb for a 3rd level slot. Leaving the rest of the slots for general utility, buffing, and other important spells.

Is there any way of improving on this?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There would be a huge improvement in forgetting about how much damage you can deal altogether.

As for this specific character, I can see a few areas for improvement. First of all, Enlarge Spell doesn't help you deal more damage. I would take the Rapid Summoning and Enhanced Summoning variants from UA. I would also go Wizard 3/ Master Specialist 4.

Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augment Summoning, Imbued Summoning (PH2), and Metamagic School Focus: Conjuration at level 1. Get Sudden Maximize at 3, Skill Focus: Spellcraft at 4, and Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration and whatever else you want at 6.

4th level spells:
Summon Monster IV, Imbued Summoning with Metamagic School Focus (+0) prepared three times. You can apply Sudden Maximize to one casting on the fly.
2nd level spells:
Bull's Strength x3

You'll be summoning 1d3 Fiendish Wolverines, maximized once. Once enraged each will get +12 Str, +8 Con, and +7 hp. They'll get 2 claws +10 for 1d4+8, and a bite at +5 for 1d6+4. That's 6 claws at +10 and 3 bites at +5, for a total of 6d4+48+3d6+12, or an average of 85.5 damage per round for 7 rounds, or 598.5 damage for one round of actions on your part spending one 4th level spell and one 2nd level spell.


Also note that if a spell is both Maximized and Empowered, you still roll and add half of the rolled result to the maximum result. The empowered portion is never maximized, which is specifically pointed out in the feat's description.

[Orran]

My mistake on the empowerment, but I can't take the rapid summoning and enhanced summoning variants since I'm already a focused specialist and I'm only allowed one variant.

As for being batman, I am aware of that and not opposed to it. I just chose to do it this way because I think it can make an equally effective character. The advantage of the orbs is that they offer no save or spell resistance and at high levels can do arbitrairly high amounts of damage (I believe you can average around 250-300 per orb with several per round.)

That's why I chose to try it out and was asing for help finding more metamagic alternatives.

You're wolverines are very nice but this was for a wizard v wizard battle at level 7 and my opponent was a focused abjurer so they would have been dispelled pretty quickly. Your damage calculations assume all hits, and that they will get to full attack every round. Also wouldn't it take a round to bull's strength just one of them? And doesn't their rage begin once hit in combat? They could easily be beaten by any flying enemy.

As for Conjurer 3/MS 4, I'd miss out on a bonus feat for GSF (Why? they don't get a save) and get better summons (I don't summon.) Which isn't very good for me.

[jcsw]

IIRC you can have more than one variant, so long as they change different parts of your character.

Focused Specialist loses one school, and one normal spell slot/day. He gains two specialist spells a day.

Rapid Summoning loses familiar, and gains the rapid summoning ability...

They're called variant class features after all, not variant classes.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Imbued Summoning allows you to combine Bull's Strength into the Summon spell, so that they appear buffed.

For that type of fight, cast Suspended Silence (SC) on a crossbow bolt and activate it just prior to firing it into your opponent. Or use Shrink Item to turn several cubic yards of molten lava into cloth patches, tie them into a ball, and throw it at your opponent and speak the command word.

[Orran]

I thought the summoning trick would be something like that, and the one variant rule was a houserule, probably should of expanded that.

This was an arena type battle with no spells active upon entering, my tactic was to either use celerity on the first turn and outright kill them with a massively metamagicked orb, or to turn (greaterly) invisible and use nondetection to avoid being attacked. I considered a silence trick but decided that it was too inefficient in actions (standard to cast, move to load, standard to shoot!)

[ericgrau]

Does the level limit on metamagic rods apply before or after you increase the spell level due to your own metamagic?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

After, IIRC. I'm certain that's RAI, though the RAW is vague.

[Starbuck_II]

Does the level limit on metamagic rods apply before or after you increase the spell level due to your own metamagic?

After by a rules reading. Afte all, it is no longer a Fireball 3rd level slot when empowered. You can't use Lesser Metamagiuc Rod anymore since not a 3rd level slot.

[Tsotha-lanti]

You'll be summoning 1d3 Fiendish Wolverines, maximized once. Once enraged each will get +12 Str, +8 Con, and +7 hp. They'll get 2 claws +10 for 1d4+8, and a bite at +5 for 1d6+4. That's 6 claws at +10 and 3 bites at +5, for a total of 6d4+48+3d6+12, or an average of 85.5 damage per round for 7 rounds, or 598.5 damage for one round of actions on your part spending one 4th level spell and one 2nd level spell.

This is an illusory amount of damage. It hasn't been multiplied by the percentage chance of hitting for each attack (which is pretty low for +5, and not that great for +10 if you're dealing with CR 7+ enemies), and it doesn't account for the fact that it takes one attack by most enemies to remove a wolverine. It also doesn't account for the fact that the wolverines will not be making 3 attacks per round every single round.

[Douglas]

Does the level limit on metamagic rods apply before or after you increase the spell level due to your own metamagic?

After, but it is based on the spell's actual level, not the level of the spell slot used. An empowered maximized Fireball is still a 3rd level spell even though it takes (usually) an 8th level slot, and can be improved by a lesser metamagic rod. A Fireball Heightened to 8th level is an 8th level spell, however, and requires a greater metamagic rod.