Two questions

[swordfish]

1- about heightened Metamagic: I read about it but still do not understand what it really does? And why when I heighten a spell , I do not see any numerical values change in description and the level of the spell does not increase?
2- about Phantasmal Kill spell: people say it is really good but its damage in description is low. As well people say loremaster will make the spell and other like-spells better, and I do not get it 🌚
I am really confused
This is on hard difficulty and I am at level 9

[Gracey Face]

The difficulty class of your spells is based on the spell level. You can write any spell (or cast for spontaneous casters) in a spell slot higher than the spell's level (so, say, a 2nd level spell in a 9th level slot) but you get no advantage for doing so. The Heighten metamagic lets you treat that 2nd level spell in a 9th (or whatever) level slot as if it is 9th level so your DC instead of being;

10+StatMod(5 for example)+SpellLevel (2)+Modifiers (2) or 19
will instead be
10+StatMod(5)+SpellLevel(9)+Modifiers(2) or 26

There are other interactions. For example Globe of Invulnerability spells protect you from any spell of X level or lower and heighten raises the effective level of a spell so that it might bypass this.

It doesn't change numerical values such as damage or duration however.

It has extra utility in this game because you're not allowed to use higher level spell slots for some reason by allowing you to use higher level spell slots for utility spells.


For Phantasmal killer the damage is completely meaningless. The whole point of phantasmal killer is that things that fail it will die regardless of current hitpoints. The spell, if things fail it, doesn't actually do damage, it just flips a switch and the enemy goes from alive to dead. That's why it is good in this game (kind of) because it's one of the few save or die spells you have access to.

[swordfish]

Originally posted by Gracey Face:

The difficulty class of your spells is based on the spell level. You can write any spell (or cast for spontaneous casters) in a spell slot higher than the spell's level (so, say, a 2nd level spell in a 9th level slot) but you get no advantage for doing so. The Heighten metamagic lets you treat that 2nd level spell in a 9th (or whatever) level slot as if it is 9th level so your DC instead of being;

10+StatMod(5 for example)+SpellLevel (2)+Modifiers (2) or 19
will instead be
10+StatMod(5)+SpellLevel(9)+Modifiers(2) or 26

There are other interactions. For example Globe of Invulnerability spells protect you from any spell of X level or lower and heighten raises the effective level of a spell so that it might bypass this.

It doesn't change numerical values such as damage or duration however.

It has extra utility in this game because you're not allowed to use higher level spell slots for some reason by allowing you to use higher level spell slots for utility spells.


For Phantasmal killer the damage is completely meaningless. The whole point of phantasmal killer is that things that fail it will die regardless of current hitpoints. The spell, if things fail it, doesn't actually do damage, it just flips a switch and the enemy goes from alive to dead. That's why it is good in this game (kind of) because it's one of the few save or die spells you have access to.

I am sorry I do not think I got why when I highten a spell, it does not show in a higher spell page.
Also if highten has to do with DC then why DC of the Grease spell never changed?
Mind my slow understanding 🥹

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by swordfish:

I am sorry I do not think I got why when I highten a spell, it does not show in a higher spell page.
Also if highten has to do with DC then why DC of the Grease spell never changed?
Mind my slow understanding 🥹

You might not actually be heightening it. You can apply heighten to a spell and not actually raise its spell level (this lets you get extra spells as a class like sorceror which has the ability to trade away spells, as an aside, since you keep the metamagicked version).

When you apply a metamagic to a spell a little bar with a number should appear underneath showing what the new spell level will be. For heighten it defaults to the spells current level and you can use some arrow keys that appear to change what spell level you want the spell to end up as.

(Though this might not be the way the default UI works, I had a mod that improved some of the UI. I am pretty sure this is how the default UI works however.)

[swordfish]

Originally posted by Gracey Face:

Originally posted by swordfish:

I am sorry I do not think I got why when I highten a spell, it does not show in a higher spell page.
Also if highten has to do with DC then why DC of the Grease spell never changed?
Mind my slow understanding 🥹

You might not actually be heightening it. You can apply heighten to a spell and not actually raise its spell level (this lets you get extra spells as a class like sorceror which has the ability to trade away spells, as an aside, since you keep the metamagicked version).

When you apply a metamagic to a spell a little bar with a number should appear underneath showing what the new spell level will be. For heighten it defaults to the spells current level and you can use some arrow keys that appear to change what spell level you want the spell to end up as.

(Though this might not be the way the default UI works, I had a mod that improved some of the UI. I am pretty sure this is how the default UI works however.)

Thanks buddy 🙏🏻

[hilburnashua]

With Heighten Metamagic I often end up adjusting making a version of the spell in my book for each possible level. Ember's spellbook was insane consdering I had given her Heighten, Reach, and Persistent.