Darkness
Hand and Eye of Piratecat [Moderator]
You are reading it wrong; by your logic, you could prepare an empowered, maximized vampiric touch as a 3rd-level spell, for example.Sir Hawkeye said:Maximize Spell: "A maximized spell uses up a spell slot three levels higher than the spell's actual level"
Heighten Spell: "Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the level of the spell it modifies."
Spell Storing: "allows a spellcaster to store a single targeted spell of up to 3rd level..."
Emphasis mine in all cases. However, I think it is clear that an empowered, maximized vampiric touch is considered a 3rd-level spell for the purposes of spell-storing. This is one of the rare cases where counting as a lower level spell is beneficial.