Arcane Preparation or Craft Wand ?

[Thanee]

Weird question, you say? Nah, not at all. Read on!


Say, you are a Sorcerer/Incantatrix, and you have a feat to choose.
You want access to Quicken Spell, obviously you have to pick the feat (as a bonus feat).
But what then?

There are two options, which seem pretty workable.

Arcane Preparation is the obvious choice. Or you could get Craft Wand and make use of the Metamagic Spell Trigger ability. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

AP has no long term cost (crafting costs gp and xp), so you could use it a bit more careless. Also spells scale, which is also somewhat cost-related, since you can craft higher caster levels as well, but that costs even more resources. You can use spells, that allow a save a lot better this way.

CW+MST gives you extra "castings", which can be quickened, and also gives you the ability to craft wands with the help of others and expand your repertoire this way.

Basically, with the latter route, one would look for options, that have no save, or are not very caster level dependant (i.e. shield/resist energy, or higher caster level magic missile/ray of enfeeblement/scorching ray).

To me the latter route seems better, what do you think?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I'd go the latter route. I tend to not use Quickened Spells often, unless I know I'm going to need to throw everything I've got in one encounter. I hate giving up my top of the line spells, too.

Plus, with the wand option, you keep the sorcerer's advantage of not having to plan his spells ahead of time as well as all the other cool wands you can make.

OTOH, if you're play style or campaign requirements are such that you're blowing through multiple quickened spells per day, then the XP requirements could get out of hand.

 

[Voldrath]

Unless I'm missing something about the Incantatrix(never read it), the craft wand option only allows up to fourth level spells. seing as quicken is +4 spell level quickened cantrips probably aren't worth the cost. Craft staff though...

 

[Marshall]

To me the latter route seems a lot better, what do you think?

Bye
Thanee

Take CW and then pester you DM enough until he realizes that AP is not a feat but an option for spontaneous casters.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

As a sorceror/incantatrix, you're obviously pretty high level. Take Arcane Preparation and Quicken spell. As a sorceror, you'll have lots of slots to spend on quickened rays of enfeeblement, scorching rays, hastes, etc. As an Incantatrix, IIRC, you get Improved Metamagic so Quicken is only +3 levels. If you have enough fights to blow through all of your spellslots even using quickened spells, you're in a rather unusual situation.

 

[Thanee]

Unless I'm missing something about the Incantatrix(never read it), the craft wand option only allows up to fourth level spells. seing as quicken is +4 spell level quickened cantrips probably aren't worth the cost. Craft staff though...

You can quicken up to 4th level spells, since you do not make wands of quickened spells, you quicken normal wands (or apply any other metamagic feat to them, which you possess).

This works with any charged Spell Trigger item, but you need the corresponding item creation feat and it drains extra charges from the item (1 per additional spell level, so you could quicken a wand spell for a total of 5 charges).

It's a bit like Divine Metamagic with the turning attempts.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Sidenote:

Take CW and then pester you DM enough until he realizes that AP is not a feat but an option for spontaneous casters.

Nice try.

Nah, I really think Quicken is worth two feats (QS+AP) for Sorcerers.

They can prepare quite a few spells and still have their full alotment of spells available (not as many slots, but the fewer slots can still cast all the spells, and given that you only have so many different high level spells, this is not too bad), while for a wizard every prepared quicken spell means one high level spell less prepared!

For example, at the level where I am thinking to pick up this (12th), I could prepare five quickened spells (three 1st and two 2nd level) and still have plenty slots available.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

As a sorceror/incantatrix, you're obviously pretty high level.

9th. One of those feats will be my 12th level feat.

If you have enough fights to blow through all of your spellslots even using quickened spells, you're in a rather unusual situation.

Yep, that's what I see as the main advantage of AP, which I meant with being more careless, basically, that you can blow through more spellslots per day, as they replenish for free.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... I think I'll go with Craft Wand at 12th, since at 13th level I get Instant Metamagic 1/day, which can also be used to quicken any one spell each day.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Oscar carramiñana]

Another vote for AP and QS
I think the CW spend a lot xp.

I hope that helps