Burning hands: 2nd Level 10d4 cone.
Shocking grasp: 2nd level 10d6 touch with no save. Don't want your caster in melee? Use spectral hand or cast the grasp on your fighter companion's spell storing weapon.
Searing light: 4th level 15d6 single target unread nuke with no save.
Intensify spell will see most of its usefulness on lower level spells, at least until you get to about lvl 15+. That is because the level caps for damage dice don't start to come into play until around 11th level, and don't matter a whole lot until about level 15. And at those levels, the higher level spells that the caster will have won't be subject to the cap yet.
For instance, as Blave pointed out, 1st level spells like Burning Hands and Shocking Grasp are useful with intensify spell because they cap out quickly and would only occupy a 2nd level spell slot when intensified. Both those spells cap out at 5th caster level. Now even at 6th or 7th level they might not be worth intensifying, but at around 9th or 10th level and above you are getting a 100% increase in damage for a one level spell slot boost.
At higher levels, you have your spells that cap out at 10th caster level, such as Fireball and Lightning Bolt. So these spells don't benefit much from Intensify until around 14th caster level, when you start to get a 40 to 50% boost from the feat. And at the same level, the higher level spells such as Cone of Cold cap out at 15th level anyways. So unless you are around 19th or 20th caster level, intensify won't do much for a Cone of Cold.
And at highest levels, the spells aren't effectively capped. Chain Lightning, Disintegrate, and Horrid Wilting cap at 20th level, so unless you are playing in a campaign past lvl 20, your 6th lvl + spells won't have any use for Intensify spell at all.
I think Intensify works best for a Sorcerer as opposed to any other class. The feat allows the Sorcerer to make use of his lower level spells without a significant cost in spell slots. Thus, it effectively adds 'spells known' to the sorcerer, and that is by far his most limited resource. A wizard can usually have access to better spells to put in those slots (i.e. Intensified Cone of Cold vs Chain Lightning), although there may be some instances where the Intensified spell is a better choice. Still, those instances are probably pretty rare, and won't justify the choice of the feat.
Its also potentially useful for a wand crafter, for similar reasons as above. For instance, a burning hands wand at 5th caster level is not of much use after about level 5, but an Intensified wand of burning hands at 10th caster level can find some use. (I also like a wand of intensified shocking grasp at 10th caster level for say a rogue to use with sneak attack.)
I think the feat works best when combined with other metamagic feats, again particularly for the sorcerer who should have the metamagic feats and the spell slots to make use of them. For example, a Sorcerer could cast a Quickened, Intensified, Reach (1 level) Shocking Grasp using a 7th lvl slot to shoot a close range ray dealing 10d6 electric damage to a single target as a swift action. Not a bad use of a 7th level spell slot, assuming hes got a lot of high level slots available.
The main drawback of the feat is the limited number of spells that it can affect, combined with the level issues listed above (i.e. not being of much use till higher levels). Looking at the spell lists from the CRB and the APG, heres the spells that I can tell can be affected by the feat (not counting those who have an effective cap of 20th lvl or higher, such as Vampiric Touch):
1st lvl: Burning Hands, Shocking Grasp
2nd lvl: Shatter, Confess (Inquisitor only)
3rd lvl: Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Glyph of Warding, Searing Light, Thundering Drums
4th lvl: Detonate, Dragon's Breath, Shout (very specific effect though), Chaos Hammer, Holy Smite, Order's Wrath, Unholy Blight, Rebuke (Inquisitor only)
5th lvl: Cone of Cold, Fire Snake, Shadow Evocation (if emulating a spell listed here), Blight, Flame Strike
6th lvl: Freezing Sphere, Blade Barrier
7th lvl: none
8th lvl: Greater Shadow Evocation
9th lvl: none
So thats not really a lot of spells for any particular class. Thus, about the only people who can make good use of the feat are blasting sorcerers and the occasional blasting oracle. Other classes should likely have a better spell that can be prepared instead, or simply won't find the benefits of the feat worth the cost of taking the feat.
Intensify spell works really well for clerics and oracles. They get several spells that get capped at five dice at level 10 -- raising that cap by 5 puts those spells into the 10d8 range.
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I'm in agreement with Blave & Father Dale - I see Intensify being best applied to lower level spells (though I'd add Corrosive Touch to the list of 1st level spells).
Personally, I'm planning to add Intensify to my Black-Blade Magus' feat list at 7th level. At that point, a crit with his keen facata should yield 3d8 + 15ish + 14d6 for the shocking grasp. And for those times when the crit just doesn't happen, 1d8 + 5ish + 7d6 just doesn't suck. And it'll only get better from there.
OM
Compared to using magic missile to trip up to five opponents and deal damage to them using only a first level spell slot?
No.
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I'm in agreement with Blave & Father Dale - I see Intensify being best applied to lower level spells (though I'd add Corrosive Touch to the list of 1st level spells).
Personally, I'm planning to add Intensify to my Black-Blade Magus' feat list at 7th level. At that point, a crit with his keen facata should yield 3d8 + 15ish + 14d6 for the shocking grasp. And for those times when the crit just doesn't happen, 1d8 + 5ish + 7d6 just doesn't suck. And it'll only get better from there.
OM
Yeah, Intensify has "magus should take me" written all over it.
okay would you mind explaining that or directing me to a thread about that? i'll search in the mean time. :D
Same trait you mentioned then use toppling spell from Ultimate magic. Toppling gives you a trip attempt on any foe damaged by your force spell at a +1 spell level, magical lineage on magic missile does away with the spell level increase, magic missile can have up to five targets giving you five trip attempts and the damage out of a first level spell slot.
The problem with intensify, is that at the point you are able to utilize it, you will probably have some better alternatives to spend your actions on.
But it surely has its uses, and it is a nice boost for those quickened fireballs.
I would like to try a spell storing weapon with intensified shocking grasp. Adding those extra 10d6 damage, even if it's only once per combat, could be worth it.
Intensify is great for a Gimmick NPC caster: the ORC not half orc wizard who only has a 14 Int but has 6th level slots. Its good not awesome for those low level spells that have been mentioned and for clerics/oracles for sure.
7th might work for Maximized Intensified fireballs and lightning bolts. 90 points of damage!
The best thing about Intensify Spell is that it lets you get a LOT more mileage out of your lower level spell slots.
You go from not using burning hands and shocking grasp at all (without the feat) to using them all the way up to ~12th-level (with the feat).
Spells like Fireball and lightning bolt usually don't see much use at 11th- to 12th-level (without the feat), but could remain useful till ~17th-level with the feat.
I'd say that's pretty darn useful.
Intensify spell works really well for clerics and oracles. They get several spells that get capped at five dice at level 10 -- raising that cap by 5 puts those spells into the 10d8 range.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but - how does this one work?
If you're casting searing light, which does 1d8 per 2 levels (max of 5d8 at 10th level) and you raise the max number of damage dice by 5 levels, doesn't that get you to 7d8 at 15th level (well, 14th, odd levels don't do anything), not 10d8?
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Intensify spell works really well for clerics and oracles. They get several spells that get capped at five dice at level 10 -- raising that cap by 5 puts those spells into the 10d8 range.Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but - how does this one work?
If you're casting searing light, which does 1d8 per 2 levels (max of 5d8 at 10th level) and you raise the max number of damage dice by 5 levels, doesn't that get you to 7d8 at 15th level (well, 14th, odd levels don't do anything), not 10d8?
That's correct.
Holy double necro Batman!
But yeah intensified, magical lineaged, shocking grasps are great for Magi. It might as well be a class feature at this point.
can you take magical lineage more than once?
No. You may only select one Trait from a given category (in this case, Magic).
However, if your GM is cool with regional traits, you can pair Magical Lineage with Wayang Spellhunter.
You could use the 2 traits on the same spell to reduce its metamagic adjustment by 2 levels, but IMO that gets awfully shady/cheesy, and is pretty clearly not RAI. Or you can use them on 2 different spells. Probably still cheesy IMO (unless you're actually a Wayang), but less so.
Intensify spell works really well for clerics and oracles. They get several spells that get capped at five dice at level 10 -- raising that cap by 5 puts those spells into the 10d8 range.Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but - how does this one work?
If you're casting searing light, which does 1d8 per 2 levels (max of 5d8 at 10th level) and you raise the max number of damage dice by 5 levels, doesn't that get you to 7d8 at 15th level (well, 14th, odd levels don't do anything), not 10d8?
Searing light does 1d6 per caster level to undead, or 1d8 per caster level to undead that are especially affected by sunlight. High-level caster + Intensified searing light = southern fried vampire (or wraith, or banshee, or...)
I have a question of my own. Someone further up the thread mentioned wands made with metamagic feats built in. Just where in the rules is this shown as being possible?
Dot
@Eric - I seriously doubt you would find a wand with a metamagic feat already attached, but if you have the craft wand feat, I see no reason you couldn't make a wand of reach (+1) shocking grasp for the price of a 2nd level wand.
Im fairly sure you cant put meta magic into a wand. There was a thread about it a while back.
EDIT: Looking at the SRD, it says you can. I cant find this in the Core book so now sure where the SRD site got it from.
Magic Items and Metamagic Spells: With the right item creation feat, you can store a metamagic version of a spell in a scroll, potion, or wand. Level limits for potions and wands apply to the spell's higher spell level (after the application of the metamagic feat). A character doesn't need the metamagic feat to activate an item storing a metamagic version of a spell.
Intensified Spell combines very well with magical Lineage though I agree that ML shouldn't help with crafting costs. Once spell I didn't see mentioned earlier in the thread is Thundering Drums. It is a 3rd level Bard spell which does 1d8 sonic damage per level. With the feat and trait it can become a nice 10d8 blast. It unfortunately targets the Fort save, but enemies who fail are knocked prone.
The Snowball spell from "People of the North" also cries out for Intensified Spell. A Master Summoner with an eidolon and an improved familiar both optimized for UMD could have a lot of blasty fun crafting wands of this spell.
As a player of level 14 evoker/admixture wizard with lineage(shocking grasp), I felt I should chime in here in the thread about intensify spell.
I have used intensified spell + reach spell + shocking grasp in basically every encounter in the game. The spell/feat combination is amazing, there is no save - and with reach spell it's a ray. Since I'm higher level now and dropping 10d6 on one target might not always be the best idea, I would like to point out that a quickened, reach spell, intensified shocking grasp is a 6th level slot. Being able to fire off these quickened rays has entirely changed my evokers combat dynamic. The admixture wizards ability to change the damage type of spells he casts to another basic energy type lets me get a lot of mileage out of this one combination.
I would recommend this combo to any blaster, since it scales well with you all the way up to high level play with quickened spell.
Since your thread is about intensify spell, I will say that it let's you get so much mileage out of your lower level spells, but at a cost of those spells having easier save DCs than their higher level equivalent (think intensified fireball vs cone of cold, both are 15d6 at level 15, but the cone has a +2 DC vs the fire, the fireball is only level 4 slot. Both have strengths and weaknesses)
You arent going to get much use out of the feat until around level 8 or so, and it can be replaced with a rod of intensify spell if you dont intend to use it as much as a blaster might, by losing some of the flexibility that it gives higher level casters.
My favorite was always Quickened Intensified Empowered Shocking Grasp as a level 3 spell on a Dragon Disciple.
I outlined it in a previous post and linked both descriptions of the feats and mathematical reasons to choose Empower over Maximize here.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
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You have to throw a little love to intensified cold ice strike, right? And I want to remind an early poster that you don't have to play over 20th level to have over 20 caster levels. I've cast an intensified disintegrate before, and it was nothing short of glorious. Remove the alleged blue dragon from time. Thank, you GenCon, goodnight!