RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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Have you also considered the Furious Spell metamagic? It gives Fireball an additional 6 points of damage. Since it only increases the Spell Level by 1, you can buy it cheap as a metamagic rod.
Furious Metamagic rods don't seem to exist. About half of the metamagic feats don't have a corresponding "rod" listed, and the rod rules say nothing about allowing them for every metamagic feat printed.
...it's not unreasonable for the GM to allow them, but for the purpose of a handbook it's worth mentioning that these are custom-made items.
Furious Metamagic isn't worth the price, feat or otherwise. It's really only good for casting spells when you Rage, and the good options which involve Rage cover that already.
I mean, it's only +6 damage; it's good in the early game, but in the late game, +6 damage is "meh" when that +1 can be used for other, more worthwhile metamagic feats (for example, Selective, so you don't hit your allies with an outrageous fireball).
I wanted to note that at CL 17 the Irradiate spell has the best damage potential, an 8th level slot (w/o reducers) that is Empowered and Maximized causes 24 + 2d6 in poison Constitution damage on a failed Fortitude save. Kill joy (I.e smart) GMsmight say the radiation is an indirect spell effect and not allow the boosters, though.
Irradiate . . . Even with the link, this still makes me think of Science Vessels. Not exactly BLOWING them to smithereens, but close enough for Dominion government work. And now I've got this vision of Dominion of the Black Wizards(*) built around this . . . .
(*)Strangely, this is a Conjuration spell rather than Evocation, despite being Instantaneous, which seems weird but is useful if you want to build them as hybrid blaster/controller Wizards.
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I will post this here as well since Battering Blast does not get much attention in the replies earlier in this tread as it deserves.
The trick is to maximize caster level:
Orc bloodline Sorcerer level 20
Feats:
Spell focus evocation (prerequisite)
Mage's tattoo (+1 caster level)
Spell specialization (+ 2 caster level)
Bloodmage initiate (+1 caster level)
Empower Spell metamagic
Intensified Spell metamagic
Maximize Spell metamagic
Spell Perfection (1 free metamagic & double feat bonuses)
Traits:
Magical Lineage (lower metamagic cost 1 level)
Wayang Spellhunter (lower metamagic cost 1 level)
Magic Items:
Flawed Orange Prism (+ 1 caster level)
Otherworldly Kimono (+4 caster level)
Prayer Beads - Karma (+4 caster level, needs UMD skill check to use)
So a Intensified, Empowered, Maximized Battering Blast (caster level 37 – remember feats are doubled due to Spell Perfection) only use a 4th level spellslot.
It creates 7 blasts of 7d6+7 (+empowered +maximized) = 7x7x6x1,5+49 = 490 force damage for a single 4th level spell.
No save and no problem with most SR due to the high caster level.
The icing on the cake is the 7 bullrushes of CMB 37+60+cha bonus (use the highest).
If you like to go to the extreme on increased caster level see this ridiculous thread:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r6pu?Challenge-Highest-caster-level#1
Some critique here, Khan.
Otherwordly Kimono doesn't grant a +4 bonus to Caster Level, only on Caster Level checks, so it doesn't apply to the effects of your spells (though it applies for bypassing SR and dispelling effects, which is already stupid-easy at that level).
Karma Beads are a one/day item, which is nice. I'm not saying they're useless, but that relying on them for consistency isn't a good thing to do.
Of course, you can still reliably reach those numbers on a Blood Arcanist with:
20 (base CL) + 8 (Feats and Spell Perfection) + 1 (Ioun Stone) + 2 (Potent Magic) = CL 31. If you have this item:
You can have a base CL of 30, and not have to spend any Arcane Reservoir on Potent Magic.
You can then pop your Potent Magic and Karma Beads for a total of CL 36, which is how you get your 7 blasts. Otherwise, you're getting a standard 6 blasts for 0.5(3.5 X 6 X 7 + 42) + (6 X 6 X 7 + 42) + 10, or 388 damage total.
Increasing it to 7 blasts, we get: 0.5(3.5 X 7 X 7 + 49) + (6 X 7 X 7 + 49) + 10, or 463 damage total.
With Rods (or Spell Perfection), we can tack on Quickened to replicate this all over again, effectively doubling the results.
The good news is that this is all Force Damage (which can't be hardly negated), and the damage is not reduced on a successful save.
The downside is that each blast of 6D6+6/7D6+7 requires an attack roll to hit, as a Ranged Touch Attack. So, figure:
10 (BAB) + ~6 (Dexterity via Belt and Tomes) + 2[/4] (Heroism [Greater]) + 2 (Size) = +20/22 to your attack rolls. If you have a friendly Bard, your damage and attack potential skyrocket, as those attack and damage boosts would apply to your Battering Blasts (and are increased by Empowered).
Most creatures at maximum level/CR, who are of a relevant size, have a Touch AC in the low to mid 20's, so having a Bard in the party makes your Battering Blasts almost guaranteed to hit, whereas without one still leaves you with maybe a 15% chance to miss.
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Hi Darksol
Thanks for the correction on otherworldly kimono.
I take that empower and maximize dont stack the way I thought they would. But 463 force dm. is respectable use of a 4th level spell slot.
Ranged touch attacks also suffer from miss chances due to concealment, mirror image and similar.
But if you have a mediocre casting stat, then Battering Blast is a perfect match.
"Probe" via quickened magic missile, or simply light 'em up with a targeted quickened dispel magic if they're wearing such a thing. It spares them a round, which at that level of play is worth 12k gp. Granted, the rest of the party may transform them into chunky salsa before your initiative comes back around. :D
The upside of such a foe is ... the group gets access to a freebie. If there's a bunch of 'em, soon everyone in the group gets fully tricked out with those bad boys, up to and including familiars, animal companions etc. ;)
However, if a creature is carrying a Ring of Forcefangs, or enchant it to various off slot places (pretty cheap at high level games at 12,000g), that can hard counter Battering Blast.
I have yet to see or read stories of GMs using that sort of crap; although ingenious, the odds of a GM creating a "custom item" to purposefully screw you over because they value their ring slots more is like winning the lottery. Regardless of the result, it's a sign of a very petty GM who is super-mad at your very inoptimal build invalidating all of his encounters, in which case there are problems to solve that are well beyond the PC dealing with a "Definitely-Not-a-Ring of Forcefangs" item.
Of course, the Ring can be a hard counter, it's an expensive piece of equipment, takes up one of two Ring slots (the other of which is being used for the Big 8), and I can assure you there are much more powerful rings that people would rather have. For example, Ring of Freedom of Movement, Ring of Evasion, Ring of Regeneration...They're all expensive, sure, but those are worth the money and the slot, and then some. Ring of Forcefangs is situational, and although neat and cool, isn't exactly winning any awards here.
At any rate, it doesn't change the fact that Force Damage is the least-counterable spell effect in the game in comparison to all of the other elements, even Sonic damage. Did I also mention that Force spells have full effect on Incorporeal creatures? That's a real big buff if you're in a campaign fighting a lot of Ghosts and stuff.