Shadow walker illumination and eclipse spell metamagic

[azhrei_fje]

Hey all. I tried searching for this but my Google-fu must be weak.

I have an unchained rogue with the shadow walker archetype. Here's the ability I have a question about:

Illumination Control (Sp) wrote:

At 3rd level, a shadow walker can manipulate nearby illumination. At the start of each day, a shadow walker gains a number of illumination points equal to half her rogue level and can spend illumination points to use certain spell-like abilities. As long as she has at least 1 illumination point, she can cast light at will. She can spend 2 illumination points to cast darkness, and 3 illumination points to cast daylight, deeper darkness, or motes of dusk and dawn. These spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to the shadow walker’s rogue level. Using these spell-like abilities does not hamper the shadow walker’s vision; for example, she can see through the deeper darkness she creates, and does not take penalties for light sensitivity in the area of her own daylight.

1. Can the shadow walker use an eclipsed spell metamagic rod to cause the light spell to create the equivalent of a darkness effect?

2. Can the shadow walker see through this darkness effect as though it didn't exist?

And an unrelated question:

3. If the shadow walker can cast darkness spells from levels in wizard, can she see through that darkness as though it didn't exist? (I notice that the ability says "for example", which to me means that there are other situations and it's not an exhaustive list.)

Thanks!

[Pizza Lord]

If you had an ability that applied metamagic to SLAs then you could. I don't believe metamagic rods work with other than spells. (On my phone, so Googling not efficient for me right now.)

As for your other spells, no. The ability to see only applies to the specific effects of the ability. The relevant wording is 'Using these spell-like abilities...'

[azhrei_fje]

Sorry for the bandwidth, all.

My Google-fu suddenly peaked and I found a reference to this FAQ entry that specifically says that metamagic rods don't work with SLAs.

I don't like that FAQ entry because the description of SLAs specifically says "they are like spells except for A and B" and metamagic rods don't affect either A or B, so apparently it's a nerf based on balance, not based on any reading of the rules. (More searching and... the section on metamagic feats does say they don't work on SLAs. Sigh.)

So... If a shadow walker can't use a metamagic feat or rod to accomplish this, are there any racial abilities you know of that might allow it? I'm going to check the Book of Shadows (where the shadow walker is defined) because maybe the fetchling has something like that...

Thanks again!

[Quintain]

No, unfortunately, it is a deliberate game design decision to make SLAs less flexible (in terms of metamagics) than actual castable spells.

[azhrei_fje]

Hm, bummer. Thanks for the input.