Heighten Spell Explained

[gniht]

For any who are interested or unsure of how this feat works I thought I would consolidate and repost here. In another thread there has been a lot of discussion over the heighten spell metamagic. I am pleased to say that I finally have a complete understanding of how the feat functions as written, which I will elaborate on below with some Q/A. it is important to note that this is not a claim as to the intended functionality of the feat but rather a statement of how heighten does work as worded in the feat text.

for reference:

Quote:

Heighten Spell (Metamagic)

You can cast spells as if they were a higher level.

Benefit: A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.

the feat text as written means that when heighten is applied to a spell it:

makes a spell's effective level equal to the level of slot it was prepared in or cast from. it does not adjust the level of slot used, it adjusts the level of the spell cast from or prepared in that slot

Q: so how does this function in practice?

A: normally casters are allowed to prepare and cast lower level spells in higher level slots. if they choose to do so the level of the spell remains unchanged, it simply occupies a higher level slot. when applied to a spell that occupies a higher than normal level slot, heighten spell changes the actual level of the spell to be equal to the level of the slot it occupies.

Q: well, how does that work when other metamagic are applied to a spell along with heighten?

A: all level increases imposed by metamagic are cumulative, and must be added together to determine the slot that a spell augmented by meta will occupy. however, not all meta alter the slot level of spells (merciful spell, for example). heighten spell is one that doesn't modify the slot level that the spell uses, instead it adjusts the level of the spell cast from or prepared in that slot.

when you apply heighten to the spell, whatever slot you choose to place the spell in becomes the effective level of the spell. keep in mind that this slot must be at least high enough to accommodate the cumulative adjustments of other meta you have applied.

Q: doesn't this make heighten overly powerful?

A: Possibly, but it's not all roses. when you alter a spell with other meta you don't change the level of the spell in any way, you only change the minimum level of the slot it must occupy. as such, an empowered fireball remains a 3rd level spell even though it takes up at least a 5th level slot.

if you heighten this empowered fireball that resides in a level 5 slot, it would become in all aspects a level 5 spell.

so what's the drawback? without heighten on the spell you can still use a minor metamagic rod to augment an empowered fireball prepared in a level 5 slot because it remains in all aspects a level 3 spell

if you choose to heighten the spell, it becomes a level 5 spell and although you gain 2 dc, you then would need a normal metamagic rod to augment it while cast.

another thing to keep in mind is that normally there are powerful high level spells one can already prep in that higher level slot that already do more base damage and automatically have higher base dc.

so thanks for reading...

in closing I would like to give a special thanks to all those who took the time to argue against this description in the other thread. before that discussion I was not convinced, but you guys forced me to take a closer look at the exact wording in the feat and I really appreciate that.

also I would like to reiterate that this is not a claim as to the intended functionality of the feat but rather a statement of how heighten does work as worded in the feat text.

[HangarFlying]

Except, in your example, a heightened empowered fireball would take up a 7th level slot.

[Fabius Maximus]

HangarFlying wrote:

Except, in your example, a heightened empowered fireball would take up a 7th level slot.

No, he's essentially right. He just explained it backwards.

[wraithstrike]

His explaining is hard to read. He should have given an example without resorting to a rod so it would be easier to understand. I know what his base position is from another thread, so it is pointless to debate it with him again here. There is thread by Robert which compares the two points in an easier way. I would suggest FAQ'ing that one.

[Anguish]

Heighten Spell (Metamagic)
You can cast spells as if they were a higher level.
Benefit: A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs
and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.

Okay. So you take a fireball which is normally a 3rd-level spell and you Heighten it. By putting it into a 4th-level slot, the spell effectively becomes a 4th-level spell for purposes of DC etc.

Easy so far, yes?

Now take a fireball and Empower it. That spell needs to be prepared in a 5th-level slot but is still considered a 3rd-level spell. No DC change. No change in DC for Concentration checks to cast it defensively, and so on. It's a 3rd-level spell.

Okay, so take that empowered fireball. It's sitting in a 5th-level slot. If you've got the Heighten Spell feat, you haven't applied it. Not yet. Try to. Well, hey, nothing in the feat says anything about slots. It's understood (though literally not written per RAW) that you Heighten a spell by as many levels as you wish, by elevating the spell into a higher level slot.

Good news. You've got a single 6th-level slot and you really want to use it. So you Heighten your empowered fireball up one slot. It becomes a 4th-level spell prepared in a 6th-level slot. The DC goes up by one because that's how many slots you Heightened it by.

You do NOT get to turn it into a 6th-level spell for free.

Let's demonstrate that. You Heighten a standard fireball into your 6th-level slot. Groovy. It's now a 6th-level spell, with the DC increased by 3. Powerful, yeah? Well, that's great, but we'd like to Empower it as well. So let's... do... oh, wait. It's a 6th-level spell and you need to increase the spell-slot level by two to apply Empowered Spell. You don't have an 8th-level slot. Oh noes! Does not work!

There you go. Simply put, all Heighten does is let you decide how many spell-levels you want to increase the spell by. You still have to actually be able to DO it. And it doesn't overlay other spell-slot-level increases. It requires its own discrete increase.

TLDR: apply Heighten Spell last, if you have available higher-level spell slots.

[Chemlak]

Am I being dense? Is this the world's longest statement that can actually be written as "RTFM"? Has anyone seriously tried to argue that it's possible to prepare an Empowered Fireball Heightened to spell level 5 in a 5th level spell slot?

[gniht]

Chemlak wrote:

Am I being dense? Is this the world's longest statement that can actually be written as "RTFM"? Has anyone seriously tried to argue that it's possible to prepare an Empowered Fireball Heightened to spell level 5 in a 5th level spell slot?

many people have argued both sides. some cannot see how this interpretation can be made, while others cannot see any other way of interpreting the text.

The reason this post is so long is because simply providing examples in other threads hasn't been sufficient to make people understand how the feat text reads to me.

to break it down, the essence of my argument is that:

1. the feat doesn't list an associated slot increase, so it doesn't have one. if this kind of meta did have a slot increase, it would realistically need to take the form of a simple formula such as +x (where x is...) but this doesn't exist in the feat text.

2. what does it say? it says that it changes the effective level of a spell. that's all it says it does, and that's all it does.

3. what is this new effective level? well, the feat text

Quote:

The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.

clearly states that the effective level is simply equal to the slot in which the spell resides.

[gniht]

wraithstrike wrote:

His explaining is hard to read. He should have given an example without resorting to a rod so it would be easier to understand. I know what his base position is from another thread, so it is pointless to debate it with him again here. There is thread by Robert which compares the two points in an easier way. I would suggest FAQ'ing that one.

+1

Robert puts the question very well for a FAQ here.

[wraithstrike]

Chemlak wrote:

Am I being dense? Is this the world's longest statement that can actually be written as "RTFM"? Has anyone seriously tried to argue that it's possible to prepare an Empowered Fireball Heightened to spell level 5 in a 5th level spell slot?

Yes he is saying that and he is not the first.

[wraithstrike]

Anguish wrote:

Heighten Spell (Metamagic)

You can cast spells as if they were a higher level.
Benefit: A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs
and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.

Okay. So you take a fireball which is normally a 3rd-level spell and you Heighten it. By putting it into a 4th-level slot, the spell effectively becomes a 4th-level spell for purposes of DC etc.

Easy so far, yes?

Now take a fireball and Empower it. That spell needs to be prepared in a 5th-level slot but is still considered a 3rd-level spell. No DC change. No change in DC for Concentration checks to cast it defensively, and so on. It's a 3rd-level spell.

Okay, so take that empowered fireball. It's sitting in a 5th-level slot. If you've got the Heighten Spell feat, you haven't applied it. Not yet. Try to. Well, hey, nothing in the feat says anything about slots. It's understood (though literally not written per RAW) that you Heighten a spell by as many levels as you wish, by elevating the spell into a higher level slot.

Good news. You've got a single 6th-level slot and you really want to use it. So you Heighten your empowered fireball up one slot. It becomes a 4th-level spell prepared in a 6th-level slot. The DC goes up by one because that's how many slots you Heightened it by.

You do NOT get to turn it into a 6th-level spell for free.

Let's demonstrate that. You Heighten a standard fireball into your 6th-level slot. Groovy. It's now a 6th-level spell, with the DC increased by 3. Powerful, yeah? Well, that's great, but we'd like to Empower it as well. So let's... do......

We have already spent an entire other thread explaining this. He understands what we are trying to say. He just does not believe us. You are wasting your time. He will play it the other way, assuming he is the GM, until the devs say otherwise.

[Khelvan]

I got a question concerning Traits and heighten spell.

What happens when a 7 Level wizard with
Magical lineage Lightning bolt uses heighten Spell on this.
If he prepares it in a 4 Level slot could / would that spell count
as a 5 Level?

Third Level spell + 2 heighten - magical lineage = effective 4 Level.

In this case the Wizard doesnt have 5 level slots.
As what level would the lightning count?

4 or 5?

Best reegards

Khel

[blahpers]

(Edit)

Didn't notice this was a necro. For those just tuning in, read the FAQ entry specifically addressing this.

[DM_Blake]

Khelvan wrote:

I got a question concerning Traits and heighten spell.

What happens when a 7 Level wizard with
Magical lineage Lightning bolt uses heighten Spell on this.
If he prepares it in a 4 Level slot could / would that spell count
as a 5 Level?

Third Level spell + 2 heighten - magical lineage = effective 4 Level.

In this case the Wizard doesnt have 5 level slots.
As what level would the lightning count?

4 or 5?

Best reegards

Khel

I see no reason not to allow it.

You could Empower that fireball into a 4th level slot and still get all the benefit of the Empower feat (which normally takes a 5th level slot). So I would assume you could also Heighten it by two levels into a 4th level slot and get all the benefit of the Heighten feat (which normally takes a 5th level slot because you added two levels).

As the FAQ says, apply the Heighten first, then the other feats. After you're all done, you have the final adjusted level (4) so you need to use a slot of that level.

[Blackstorm]

Khelvan wrote:

I got a question concerning Traits and heighten spell.

What happens when a 7 Level wizard with
Magical lineage Lightning bolt uses heighten Spell on this.
If he prepares it in a 4 Level slot could / would that spell count
as a 5 Level?

Third Level spell + 2 heighten - magical lineage = effective 4 Level.

In this case the Wizard doesnt have 5 level slots.
As what level would the lightning count?

4 or 5?

Best reegards

Khel

Heighten spell modify the effective spell level. As per FAQ, traits like magical lineage and similar does not allow to cast a spell in a slot of lower level than the minimum required, and heighten spell modify the minimum required slot. So I would say that ML doesn't work on heighten spell.

[bbangerter]

Blackstorm wrote:

Khelvan wrote:

I got a question concerning Traits and heighten spell.

What happens when a 7 Level wizard with
Magical lineage Lightning bolt uses heighten Spell on this.
If he prepares it in a 4 Level slot could / would that spell count
as a 5 Level?

Third Level spell + 2 heighten - magical lineage = effective 4 Level.

In this case the Wizard doesnt have 5 level slots.
As what level would the lightning count?

4 or 5?

Best reegards

Khel

Heighten spell modify the effective spell level. As per FAQ, traits like magical lineage and similar does not allow to cast a spell in a slot of lower level than the minimum required, and heighten spell modify the minimum required slot. So I would say that ML doesn't work on heighten spell.

ALL MM feats increase the minimum spell slot level. Quicken, for example, adds +4 to the min spell slot required. Magical lineage reduces the amount MM feats increase that spell slot level by.

I don't see any reason why heighten could not be used with magical lineage.

As for the original (necro'd) post, he is wrong on several points based on several FAQ's. Already pointed out is how heighten interacts with other MM feats.

OP wrote:

without heighten on the spell you can still use a minor metamagic rod to augment an empowered fireball prepared in a level 5 slot because it remains in all aspects a level 3 spell

This is also incorrect per a more recent FAQ.

[Ignipotens]

I would rule it no.

The trait says it reduces the spell slot. Heighten spell (unlike other MM feats) increases the whole spell not just the slot.

With regular MM feats they just increase the spell slot but the spell remains at it's regular level. With the Heighten spell both spell and slot are effected.

If I caste a heighten 4th level Fireball it is a 4th level spell. Applying the feat would then make it a 4th level spell in a 3rd level slot...not allowed.

bbangerter wrote:

OP wrote:

without heighten on the spell you can still use a minor metamagic rod to augment an empowered fireball prepared in a level 5 slot because it remains in all aspects a level 3 spell

This is also incorrect per a more recent FAQ.

They are correct, the FAQ actually supports it. You can empower a fireball and still use a minor metamagic rod since the spell is still a 3rd level spell. Being able to do this is the basis behind a blasting sorcerer.

[Ignipotens]

Ignipotens wrote:

I would rule it no.

The trait says it reduces the spell slot. Heighten spell (unlike other MM feats) increases the whole spell not just the slot.

With regular MM feats they just increase the spell slot but the spell remains at it's regular level. With the Heighten spell both spell and slot are effected.

If I caste a heighten 4th level Fireball it is a 4th level spell. Applying the feat would then make it a 4th level spell in a 3rd level slot...not allowed.

Correction. Applying the trait would make it 4th level spell in 3rd level slot.

[ryric]

Ignipotens wrote:

They are correct, the FAQ actually supports it. You can empower a fireball and still use a minor metamagic rod since the spell is still a 3rd level spell. Being able to do this is the basis behind a blasting sorcerer.

Not per the most recent metamagic FAQ (from 10/18/13):

FAQ wrote:

In general, use the (normal, lower) spell level or the (higher) spell slot level, whichever is more of a disadvantage for the caster.

It would be a disadvantage to treat empowered fireball as 5th level for purposes of using a metamagic rod, so thus it is.

[Ignipotens]

Edit. Mind blown!!

[Ignipotens]

I do have one question then.

A Wizard prepares one of his daily level 6 spell slots with a fireball. He is not using any metamagic feats just preparing it in that slot. So it is still a level 3 spell. Now he wants to use his Lesser Quicken rod but can't because it was cast from a level 6 slot? That doesn't make sense.

[ryric]

Ignipotens wrote:

I do have one question then.

A Wizard prepares one of his daily level 6 spell slots with a fireball. He is not using any metamagic feats just preparing it in that slot. So it is still a level 3 spell. Now he wants to use his Lesser Quicken rod but can't because it was cast from a level 6 slot? That doesn't make sense.

As the FAQ only applies to metamagic enhanced spells, I would say you're safe in treating the fireball as 3rd level in every way in that situation.

[Bizbag]

Heighten Spell should be rewritten as such; as I think it is more clear:

"Increase the Level of the spell by one. For example, a Heightened Fireball is treated as a level 4 spell. This affects DCs and all other effects that depend on spell level, such as whether it is blocked by a globe of invulnerability

Level Increase: +1 (a Heightened spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell's normal level.)

Special: You may apply Heighten Spell to a given spell more than once. Its effects stack and the spell slot increase is cumulative."

I don't know if there is a special rule that you can't use rods or feats to reduce the Metamagic cost of Heighten. If there is, include "Effects that reduce the Level Increase cost of Metamagic feats cannot be used to remove the cost of Heighten Spell."

[peterrco]

So we've looked at DC'so here, which is fairly clear.

But can we have a ruling on a couple of things?

If the save DC goes up, I assume I'm right to think the the DC for a Rogue to search for a spell "trap" also goes up.

Does my normally 2nd level, continual light spell, heightened to level 5, trump a 3rd level deeper darkness spell?

[Plausible Pseudonym]

yes.