Question About an Intensified MetaMagic Rod

[Phergas]

Hey all,

An Intensified MetaMagic Rod functions like the feat "Intensified Spell" which says:

"Your spells can go beyond several normal limitations.

Benefit: An intensified spell increases the maximum number of damage dice by 5 levels. You must actually have sufficient caster levels to surpass the maximum in order to benefit from this feat. No other variables of the spell are affected, and spells that inflict damage that is not modified by caster level are not affected by this feat.

Level Increase: +1 (an intensified spell uses up a spell slot one level higher than the spell’s actual level.)"

But a metamagic rod says:

Metamagic rods hold the essence of a metamagic feat, allowing the user to apply metamagic effects to spells (but not spell-like abilities ) as they are cast. This does not change the spell slot of the altered spell.

So the feat says they use a spell slot one level higher than the spell's actual level, but the metamagic description says it does not change the spell slot of the altered spell...

So... Suppose I want to cast an intensified "Searing Light"; which is a level 3 spell. What spell slots do I use? Level 3 or level 4 for this spell?

Thanks for your help!

[Peachbottom]

It would be a 3rd level spell slot. With metamagic rods, you don't have to prepare spells at higher slots. The whole benefit of using metamagic rods is that it ignores the increase in spell slot part of the feat. Metamagic rods are great. The limiting factor is they are expensive and can only be used 3/day.

[Hubaris]

Peachbottom wrote:

It would be a 3rd level spell slot. With metamagic rods, you don't have to prepare spells at higher slots. The whole benefit of using metamagic rods is that it ignores the increase in spell slot part of the feat. Metamagic rods are great. The limiting factor is they are expensive and can only be used 3/day.

Re: Limiting Factors

They also require you to be holding them in a hand (and an additional hand needs to be free for somatics), and you can only apply 1 Rod at a time per spell.