I just noticed an odd little trick...

[Amechra]

Alright, I was just reading the Earth Spell feat over again, and...

Well. If you take a gander at the feat:

Earth Spell
[General]

You draw magical power from the earth beneath your feet.

Prerequisite: Earth Sense, Heighten Spell, CON 13, WIS 13

Benefit: As long as you are standing on stone or unworked earth (including normal soil), you can use the Heighten Spell feat to added effect. If you cast a spell using a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level, the spell is treated as a spell of two levels higher and your effective caster level is increased by one. If you use a spell slot two levels higher, the spell is treated as three levels higher and your effective caster level is increased by two, and so on. You cannot gain the benefit of this feat when casting a spell with the air, fire, or water descriptor.

If you look at it, something funny rears its head; namely, the fact that the bold section doesn't actually require the use of Heighten Spell.

It automatically is triggered when you prepare a spell of lower level in a higher level slot.

Congratulations, now ANY METAMAGIC FEAT you use (without mitigation) is also treated as being Heighten Spell+1 and ALSO increases your CL, as well as its normal effects.

I kinda like using Fortify Spell with this; who can say no to a metamagic feat that gives raises the spells CL by 1 per slot level increase (henceforth SLI), the spell's level by SLI+1, and gives a bonus to SR penetration checks equal to 2*SLI?

Another trick is preparing a spell as a Sanctum Spell outside your Sanctum; the spell is counted as a spell of lower level when cast out of a slot of its own level, so it gives a two level increase and a +1 to the CL, for a total boost of +1 spell level and +1 CL for the spell.

Of course, this doesn't actually break the limits on what spell levels you can "Heighten" spells, which is saddening. Still, this does mean that you can abuse Silent Image+Shadowcraft Mage even more now.

[Childe]

It's written a bit poorly - I'll grant that - but that period is better parsed semantically as a colon. It's a syntactical deductive structure (i.e. what follows after the period - where the bold starts - is explaining what the "added effect" is).

Again, it is not the best way to write it, but it's easy enough to decipher what's going on from the context. Otherwise you'd just strip the first sentence away and, not only would you not need to use Heighten Spell, you wouldn't need to be on stone or unworked earth.

[Solo]

Alright, I was just reading the Earth Spell feat over again, and...

Keep reading it.

[Mooncrow]

Yeah, have to agree with Childe here.  Reading it as a mistaken punctuation mark seems more reasonable than assuming that they never bothered to tell us what the added effect from Heighten Spell was. 

[Amechra]

Hey, I'm not arguing that this is RAI; this is totally RAW.

Besides, read with the period in place (is there an Errata for this? I'm not sure where to find it, and if there is a semicolon there... (which there should be, I agree)) it can be read as that this applies to spells being Heightened, but incidentally also applies to spells being cast out of higher level slots through other means.

The only requirement the feat actually applies is that the caster be on unworked earth, and that the spell cannot have the Air, Fire, or Water descriptors. It does not actually state that Heighten Spell needs to be used; elsewise, it would say 'using the Heighten Spell feat' at some point in the bolded part.

So, I maintain this is a valid ruling by RAW. I totally agree with you in the RAI, however.

[spacemonkey555]

The table on page 134 shows rai, and if you're ignoring the intent of the rules, may as well go all the way. The earth and stone requirement only applies to using heighten, the way you're reading it.

[Amechra]

Except the way that I'm reading it doesn't obviate the need for unworked earth. As I have previously stated.

[caelic]

This falls into "Hey, if I deliberately misread this, look at how powerful it is!"  There are two ways to read this:

1. Assume that the second sentence references the first, which provides us with a logical and coherent whole.

2. Assume that the second sentence does not reference the first, in which case the authors simply told us that we can use Heighten Spell to some unspecified added effect and then tossed in an unrelated effect more-or-less at random. 

Deliberately choosing to read one portion in a way that renders the rest of the paragraph nonsensical isn't optimization, IMO; it's willful misinterpretation of the "Let's see if I can talk my DM into believing something I know is wrong!" variety.

Similar logic would indicate that if I use the Trample feat, my mount can make a hoof attack--whether it has hooves or not.  If I'm riding a banana slug, it can still make a hoof attack by RAW.

Or we can apply the barest minim of common sense and say that it makes whatever attack it would make in PLACE of a hoof attack, rather than suddenly sprouting a hoof that deals some unspecified amount of damage.

[Childe]

For extreme simplicity and to reduce wordiness, I've contracted the two sentences to the following:
1) You can use the Heighten Spell feat to added effect.
2) The spell is treated as a spell of two levels higher.

What you need for your argument to show is that there is no entailment. There is already clearly implicature, and I will argue that, for a given level of assumption, there is also entailment.

This is my assumption: unless stated otherwise, a feat refers to itself. (To clarify, if a feat provides a dodge bonus to Armor Class, it is referring to Armor Class; if a feat allows you to maximize a spell when using "the feat," it is referring to itself; and so on and so forth with increasingly bad examples of a fairly simple idea.)

If (2) is false, then (1) cannot be true. (1) requires another statement to be true because there is no inherent method to use heighten spell to greater effect.
So (1) & ~(2) is inconsistent.
You can run it through a number of tests, and you'll arrive at this result as long as we operate under the basic assumption.
NOTE: the basic assumption is to prevent arguments like, "Well, you can still have 1 be true if 2 is false if you use this feature 3 to enhance Heighten Spell." Feature 3 is irrelevant because it's not references in the feat. The feat doesn't know 3 exists.

Because 2 is entailed, you can't separate it from 1.

Yes, Wizards could have written it slightly better by using a colon or adding a clause to the second sentence saying, "When using Heighten Spell," but the feat still operates as we have all thought for a while (which is still usable to great effect with Shadowcraft Mages).

[spacemonkey555]

Except the way that I'm reading it doesn't obviate the need for unworked earth. As I have previously stated.

Childe's point stands. The way you're reading it the first sentence doesn't restrict the second. If the second sentence is explaining the first, you have to use heighten, if it isn't, you don't need to be on earth or stone. You're contradicting yourself in an absurd manner, I guess because you want your idea to seem more reasonable.

Actually, by your raw interpretation, heighten has a special restriction that no other metamagic does when used with earth spell. Even more absurd.

[Amechra]

Wait a sec...

Wow, do I feel stupid. I just noticed what you were talking about that makes my interpretation absurd.

Wow. No more reporting "awesome rules tricks that require nitpicky interpretations of rules texts" for me when I have gone this long without sleep.

Damn my insomnia.

[SorO_Lost]

Wow. No more reporting "awesome rules tricks that require nitpicky interpretations of rules texts" for me when I have gone this long without sleep.

You know, 99% of "Look at my awesome new trick" threads are based on misreading things. So in that regard, if the thought ever passes though your mind you should probably wait a week before posting it. By then you'll probably have taken the time to reread things in a different prospective, or at least come up with better grounds than squint your eyes and tilt your head and it looks like this to support your new find.

[weenog]

If I'm riding a banana slug

You've encountered the truly epic banana slugs they have in Mendocino County too, huh?

[caelic]

If I'm riding a banana slug

You've encountered the truly epic banana slugs they have in Mendocino County too, huh?

I'm a Buffalo Sabres fan.  That banana slug was the team mascot for a while.

[Tshern]

If I'm riding a banana slug

You've encountered the truly epic banana slugs they have in Mendocino County too, huh?

I'm a Buffalo Sabres fan.  That banana slug was the team mascot for a while.

They should start using Ville Leino correctly. The manager is killing his creativity just like what happened when he was in Detroit...

[awaken_D_M_golem]

The Sabres owner recently gave anear $100 Million gift, to start a Division 1 hockey program.

Earth Spell
[General]

You draw magical power from the earth beneath your feet.

Prerequisite: Earth Sense, Heighten Spell, CON 13, WIS 13

Benefit: As long as you are standing on stone or unworked earth (including normal soil), you can use the Heighten Spell feat to added effect. If you cast a spell using a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level, the spell is treated as a spell of two levels higher and your effective caster level is increased by one. If you use a spell slot two levels higher, the spell is treated as three levels higher and your effective caster level is increased by two, and so on. You cannot gain the benefit of this feat when casting a spell with the air, fire, or water descriptor.

Early qualifying perhaps ?