Fun with Earth spell and Sanctum spell.

[OblivionSmurf83]

Quirky build I just came up with.

Imagine the following build:

Human Wizard 4/Fighter 16

At first level, our Wizard takes Heighten Spell, and Earth Sense.

At third level, our Wizard takes Earth Spell.

At sixth level, our Wizard takes Sanctum Spell.

Now, whenever our Wizard casts a Heightened spell in their Sanctum, it is treated as if it were two levels higher than it is. That is, when you heighten a spell to 3rd level, it is treated as if it were a 5th level spell.

By 20th level, you have acquired 11 bonus fighter feats.

You pay a Spellcaster to perform the Embrace/Shun the Dark Chaos shuffle on one of your Fighter bonus feats. You select 'Extra Slot', and gain a 4th level spell slot. If you heighten a spell into this slot, it is treated as a 6th level.

You pay the Spellcaster to perform another shuffle, and another, and another, until all your Fighter bonus feats are used up.

You should now be able to cast 14th level spells. Good times.

Obviously, this trick relies on sanctum spell and earth spell working together. If this doesn't suit, feel free to choose any other combination of feats that lets you cast spells of a higher level than you should be able to.

[SorO_Lost]

Is qualifying for a Feat an effect?

[Tr011]

I worked on something similar a week ago.
First of all, I didn't finish it by beeing not clear enough about the rules.

Then, this doesn't work exactly as you said: Heighten only works up to level 9 spells. So you can take 6 feats for extra slot and then have a slot of each spell level (3rd to 8th). Now some questions:

1. Do you gain additional spell slots at level 3-8 for having high attribute?
2. Do you gain additional spell slots at level 3-8 for being a specialist wizard?
3. If you gain additional spell slots by one of the above, could you then use Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle again to retrain your extra slot-feats into fighter feats, loosing the slot but keeping the "additional" spell slots?

/edit: by the way, some additional ways for "free heighten": Illumian with Improved Sigil: Krau, Easy Metamagic, Metamagic School Focus, but best of all: the level 3 ability of Magical Trickster (+4 spell levels) and the capstone of Anima Mage (hard to get :/, but it's free Heighten spell to level 9).
@Soro: I don't really get your question but I think the answer is no.

Even if you need to keep the Extra Slot feat, you can go broad in dual casting.

(click to show/hide)

Illumian Conjurer 1/Sorcerer 1/Shadowcaster 1/Spellthief 1/Magical Trickster (improving sorcerer+2) 3/Shadowcaster +2/Nocturmancer 10 (sorcerer+10)/Incantatrix (sorcerer+1) 1
level 1 feat+flaws: Heighten Spell, Metamagic School Focus: Conjuration, Easy Metamagic: Heighten Spell
level 3 feat: Improved Sigil: Krau
level 6 feat: Extra Slot (for wizard): 4th level spell
level 6 bonus feat: Practical Metamagic: Heighten Spell
level 8 bonus feat: Extra Slot (for wizard): 8th level spell
level 9 feat: Master Spellthief
now you swap out via Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle Metamagic School Focus, Easy Metamagic, Practical Metamagic, Improved Sigil to gain Extra Slot: 3, 5, 6, 7. Also swap Heighten Spell for Quicken Spell.
level 12, 15 and 18 feats should be Practised Spellcaster (Wizard and Sorcerer), Extra Slot: 2
level 13 bonus feat should be Extra Slot: 1.
At level 15 you retrain the Wizard level for a new Shadowcaster level, using the rules of ToM. At level 19, you take Iron Will as a bonus feat. Take Empower as bonus metamagic feat at level 20.

So you end up like that:
Shadowcaster effective level is 14, thus he got level 7 mysteries.
Wizard effective level is 0, but has spell slots of level 1-8 and a CL of 26.
Sorcerer effective level is 14, thus having level 7 spells and a CL of 26.

[SorO_Lost]

1. Do you gain additional spell slots at level 3-8 for having high attribute?

@Soro: I don't really get your question but I think the answer is no.

1. No, "In addition to having a high ability score, a spellcaster must be of high enough class level to be able to cast spells of a given spell level."

2.

A sanctum spell has an effective spell level one level higher than normal if cast in your sanctum (see Special, below)--but if not cast in the sanctum, it has an effective spell level one level lower than normal. All effects dependent on spell level (such as save DCs or the ability to penetrate a minor globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the adjusted level. A sanctum spell uses a spell slot of the spell's normal level, modified by any other metamagic feats.

A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level. For example, a cleric could prepare hold person as a 4th-level spell (instead of a 2nd-level spell), and it would in all ways be treated as a 4th-level spell.

Not that it matters much, but calculated is also a strong word (as FAQ notes for bloodlines) and qualification isn't numerical but boolean.

What I'm saying is this doesn't work, and you agreed on at least one of the whys without ever looking up the details of the trick you readily want to support. Quite frankly, you're not the only one that has done this (think of all the 'myth' that have been smashed over the years) but you should still take a lesson away from things. Read up on the trick.

[zook1shoe]

even if you bypassed or didn't agree with what Soro has said... you would have to contend with the minimum CL requirement of the spell level that a 4th level wizard/16th-level fighter would have major difficulty coming up with.

[SorO_Lost]

"If it's too good to be true it probably isn't"

[OblivionSmurf83]

Yeah, I'm afraid I have to agree with SorO. So much for that idea!

Doesn't this also kill the Chameleon dual 9s trick?

[Tr011]

Yeah, I'm afraid I have to agree with SorO. So much for that idea!

Doesn't this also kill the Chameleon dual 9s trick?

It would kinda kill most Early Entry Methods, so I wouldn't be too fast on this one.

A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level. For example, a cleric could prepare hold person as a 4th-level spell (instead of a 2nd-level spell), and it would in all ways be treated as a 4th-level spell.

It says that all effects dependent on spell level are calculated accordingly. But before that, it says the spell just gets a higher spell level, without any "but" or "only". It actually increases the level. And because it does that, everything gets re-calculated accordingly.

I also read that phrase you need enough class levels, but since the feat says you gain an extra slot you gain that extra slot IMO.

[SorO_Lost]

This may shock you, but I don't care if someone made made a handbook or if it breaks a build.

Your rebuttal seems to be based on reading the first and only first sentence (or the example). Which time and time again has been demonstrated as the least useful section of text, even behind PHB example text. See also Powerful Build makes you large right? And as pointed out already, you still have to refute the meaning of calculation, prove prerequisites are effects, have minimum CL, and so on. One of the things I like to bring up in this is, count the number of hoops you need to jump through to make something work. And why? Because each one has an argument against it even if no one voices it, and the more you have the more improbable it ever was to begin with.

Edit - Post typo corrected, stupid auto-correct.