Metamagic Rods Question

[Savage Wombat]

A wizard in my campaign bought herself a metamagic rod from Tome & Blood (Lesser Empowerment, if you're curious.) First time one came up in the campaign.

First time she used it, I had the sudden thought that she should take a full round casting action to spontaneously modify a spell. So we looked it up to see if the book said otherwise.

To my surprise, I discovered that I seemed to have misinterpreted the point of the rod. Since all the rod does is give you the feat, a wizard still has to prepare the spell with the feat in advance. Only sorcerors can spontaneously modify a spell with the rod.

This seems pretty clear, from my reading of the rules. What I want to know is this:

1) Do you agree with my interpretation of the literal rules?

2) If (1) is "yes", do you think that this violates the intent of the Rod? Were casters supposed to modify spells on the fly using it, or not?

3) If (2) is "yes", do you think the item should be rewritten and/or recosted?

4) If (2) is "no", do you think the player shouldn't have bought the damn thing?

 

[kreynolds]

No, I don't agree with your entire interpretation, though some of it I do.

1) Yes, it takes a full round for a sorcerer to use the rod and cast a metamagically enhanced spell.

2) It is a free action to activate the rod but the rod DOES NOT increase the casting time of the spell for a wizard.

3) No, it shouldn't cost more and it doesn't need to be rewritten.

4) In the case of wizards, NO, you DO NOT have to prepare the spells in advance. You activate the rod on the fly as a free action and metamagically enhance the spell being cast. Note that the spell level is never actually altered by the rod.

5) Caster most certainly were supposed to modify spells on the fly. The rod does not allow you to prepare a spell ahead of time using a feat it contains. It only allows you to use them at the time of casting, which is when you activate the rod.

Just my opinion of the rules.