Half-Elves, Heightened Grease, and Omni-Sorcerers

[Yargoyle AKA Endarire]

Intro
Greetings, all!

This is a build concept that requires a legality check. The essence is learning a variety of Sorcerer spells via paragon surge, Expanded Arcana, and the Human Sorcerer favored class bonus, but of the same spell level as my maximum castable. Below are the pertinent points needing legality checking.

1: Can I use the Magical Lineage trait applied to the feat Heighten Spell to allow me to access spells of my highest spell level for the Human Sorcerer Favored Class Feature? Note that if I Heighten a Grease spell by 1 level with this trait, it's treated as a level 2 Sorcerer spell cast from a level 1 Sorcerer spell slot. At later character levels, I can Heighten Grease to higher spell levels to continue to fulfill prerequisites to learn Favored Class bonus spells at my highest spell level instead of one less. For example, if I'm a Sorcerer6, I could Heighten Grease by 3 spell levels and cast it from a level 3 slot, but have it be treated in all ways as a level 4 spell. This combo is attractive to me due to it expanding my versatility as a Sorcerer, and I realize that I can't use the Heighten Spell feat to Heighten a spell above spell level 9.

Note that as a Half-Elf, I specifically qualify for things as if I were a Half-Elf, Human, and an Elf.

Relevant wording from Heighten Spell: "All effects dependent on spell level... are calculated according to the heightened level." This also may matter, "The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level." As a Sorcerer, I don't prepare spells but I do cast them!

If allowed, the net effect of a "Yes" ruling to this is me spending a trait and a feat initially and my favored class bonus each character level to know one additional Sorcerer spell of the highest spell level I can cast.

Half Elf: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/half-elf#TOC-Standard-Racial-Trait s
Human Sorcerer Favored Class Feature: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer#TOC-Favored-Class-Bon uses
Heighten Spell: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/metamagic-feats/heighten-spell-metamagic---fi nal
Magical Lineage: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/magic-traits/magical-lineage

2: Paragon Surge: The FAQ has changed it to be 'choose once at the first casting of this spell for the entire day.' If we're using the FAQ ruling, how does that interact with the feat Emergency Attunement? And, yes, my first question was in part so I could use Paragon Surge on Expanded Arcana to gain spells known of any spell level I can cast as a Sorcerer.

Emergency Attunement: http://www.archivesofnethys.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Emergency%20Attun ement
Expanded Arcana: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/expanded-arcana
Paragon Surge: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/p/paragon-surge

3: Could I instead apply the Half Elf's Multitalented racial ability to Sorcerer to get two favored class benefits per favored class level? This wouldn't be the same benefit (so no bonus spells twice), but bonus spells and either skill points or HP per level.

[Manly-man teapot]

After the death of SLA Qualification, "able to cast" should probably be interpreted as "has spell slots" in all cases.

But I might just be saying that because I hate Heighten Spell shenanigans.

[ryric]

I'm fairly certain that Magical Lineage doesn't really apply to Heighten Spell - it's an oddball metamagic feat that doesn't really work like the others.

But the answer to 1 is certainly no. Heighten Spell has nothing to do with the level of your spells known. There's also no way to apply a -1 level adjustment to a spell - Magical Lineage can't reduce a metamagic adjustment below 0.

2, I'm not familiar with Emergency Attunement, but the intent of the Paragon Surge FAQ is exactly to stop the ability to just learn any spell at a moment's notice. Given that, I'd think your plan would not work.

3. No. It must be two different favored classes.

[James Risner]

1) You can't be considered to be able to cast spells at a level higher than your current level.

At the very least, you will encounter table variance on your core concept.

2) If you mean to say that a Paragon Surge for Emergency Attunement cast at 9 am has exactly the same benefit as one cast at 3 pm, then yes.

3) No

[Yargoyle AKA Endarire]

A major question about the post was due how to spell level and spell slot level interact. An Empowered fireball is a level 3 spell, usually cast from a level 5 slot. A globe of invulnerability will block it. However, a fireball Heightened to level 5 behaves in all ways as a level 5 spell.

[Blakmane]

Yargoyle AKA Endarire wrote:

However, a fireball Heightened to level 5 behaves in all ways as a level 5 spell.

This argument is somewhat self-defeating. You can't use magical lineage to reduce a spell's level below its base spell level. If a heightened level 5 fireball is in all ways a level 5 spell, then magical lineage cannot reduce it lower than a level 5 spell as per the FAQ. If it isn't in all ways a level 5 spell, the claim that heighten is then applicable to e.g. FCB is not strong enough on the basis of this argument alone.

Regardless, I would not expect this interaction to slide past the DM at any table, and never at a PFS table.

[Yargoyle AKA Endarire]

Blakmane: I suspected this to be true, but brought it to the board for examination. Thankee!