Rods of Metamagic

[Liminal Syzygy]

I'm just wondering, Rods of Metamagic are core now, but I still see very little mention of them.

Particularly two of the Rods seem like they would be extremely useful to spell casters.

1) Lesser Silent - for only 3000gp you keep the ability to:
a) cast dispel magic on yourself or an object if you are in the radius of silence, b) cast your 3rd and below level spells if that is going to help you more in a radius of silence
c) buff or cast other spells silently without alerting enemies.
Silence can completely shut down a caster so it seems to me A and B alone would make these rods standard issue above level 6 or so.

2) Quicken - Expensive, yes, but any of these for higher level casters is just amazing. 3.0 haste showed how powerful this is. Kind of sad that by the RAW Sorcerers cannot use this item.

 

[Avouz]

No question they are useful items, so I think they may be one of the "undiscovered gems" of 3.5. However, they do have some limitations that you don't bring up, not the least of which is they can't be combined (no using two rods on one spell) and can only be used 3 times a day.

Still, with a smart player, you've just about bypassed the old "I silence the mages" strategy.

 

[Storminator]

I have an epic level character with a Rod of Lesser Quicken and Lesser Maximize (one rod, double functions). It's huge. My PC is an Unfettered 12/Mageblade 12 (house ruled for standard d20 magic), and he keeps the Rod in a Glove of Storing, which means I can free action it out, and either Max or Quicken a spell at a moment's notice, then return it to the glove.

Adds a lot of power and flexibility. Since I'm a limited caster, and multiclassed on top of that, my spellcasting is fairly weak for the level we're at. Being able to tack on some metamagics is very handy.

PS

 

[diaglo]

don't you still have to pay the price/cost of the metamagic feat?

entend rod still costs 1 spell slot, etc...

 

[Li Shenron]

Thank God they can't be combined!

I haven't seen them used yet, but to me they always looked too cheap. They get around both the disadvantages of metamagic feats: the level increase and the need to choose metamagic at preparation time.

Furthermore, they even let you metamagic spells of 9th level (the greater rods of course), so you could have 3 Quickened 9th-level spells per day. The cost in gp is high but I think it's worth. You also save a feat for something else.

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

Diaglo--nope you don't have to raise the level of your spells or prepare them with the metamagic ahead of time -- they convert to the metamagic'ed versions of the spells completely on the fly. Yes only 3 spells per day, but it's still very nice.

 

[shilsen]

don't you still have to pay the price/cost of the metamagic feat?

entend rod still costs 1 spell slot, etc...

As Cordo said above. I dropped them from my campaign as soon as I saw them.

 

[Orius]

Yes only 3 spells per day, but it's still very nice.

You mean they rock. Haven't fully upgraded to 3.5 yet, but I am familiar with them from Tome and Blood. The 3 times per day limit balances them a little, and the most powerful greater rods are very expensive, over 300k gp, iirc.

 

[shilsen]

You mean they rock. Haven't fully upgraded to 3.5 yet, but I am familiar with them from Tome and Blood. The 3 times per day limit balances them a little, and the most powerful greater rods are very expensive, over 300k gp, iirc.

The prices are much lower in 3.5. The costliest of the greater rods is quicken (170k), maximize (121.5k), and empower (73k), followed by silent, enlarge and extend (all at 24.5k each).

 

[diaglo]

Diaglo--nope you don't have to raise the level of your spells or prepare them with the metamagic ahead of time -- they convert to the metamagic'ed versions of the spells completely on the fly. Yes only 3 spells per day, but it's still very nice.

wow. i would guess that makes the metamagic feats useless then in a game where magic items are readily available.