Heighten Feat

[Freewolf]

Ok, can someone help me out.

The language for this feat has always seemed weird to me and I do not really get it and what it accomplishes.

Can someone lay out what exactly this does and give me a few examples of the difference it makes in spell casting with a few particular spells.

For that matter what particular spells is this particularly good with?

Thanks

[Dandonk]

Heighten affects the DC of the spells you cast, if they're lower than the max level spells you can cast.

If you're a new level 3 wizard casting your web, having heighten does nothing. Web is a level 2 spell, the highest you can cast already.

If you're a level 20 wizard, though, the DC of the web you cast with heighten on will be 7 higher than if you did not have it on - since your max level spells are no level 9.

The DC of your spells is: 10 + spell level + casting stat modifier + (items, feats, whatever).
Heighten will set the "spell level" part above to the max level of spells you can cast. Thus it will do little for your already high level spells, but will help a lot with web and other low level spells.

Heighten also costs extra sp per level heightened.

[tekkentroop]

Heighten Spell increases the DC (difficulty check of monster saves) of spells below spell lvl 9 to your highest available spell level.

example: web dc for wiz is 10 + 2 (spell level) + int mod + gear/feat mods. If you got a lvl 17 wiz and heighten web, the dc is 10 + 9 + int mod + gear/feats, which is +7 to the dc.

Heighten is quite expensive (less if you got wizard capstone or the expensive improved metamagic enhancements), but on SLAs its free, so its a must for archmages and sorcerers (who got cheap DC-based SLAs with low spell levels)

Sorcs get +8/+7/+6 on the DCs of their SLAs for free, so they must take heighten



Even on my pale master I took it to increase the DCs of my lvl 7 spells by 2 and of my web by 7.

On a divine caster, heighten is less interesting, soundburst or bladebarrier would get expensive and implosion is lvl 9 anyway, they also got less feats than wizards. Still, extremely caster focused builds would include heighten.

On bards, heighten is uninteresting since their best dc-based spell (dancing ball) is at their max spell level (which is only 6) anyway.

edit: ninjaed

[Kinerd]

The Difficulty Check (DC) of a spell is in part determined by its spell level. The full formula is...

10 base
+ spell level
+ casting stat bonus
+ feats/enhancements/items/whatever

So all other things being equal, Web (spell level 2) will have a DC 7 points lower than Wail of the Banshee (spell level 9). Heighten turns that spell level into the highest you can cast: hence, if you can cast level 9 spells a Heightened Web will have a DC 7 points higher than unHeightened Web.

[Dandonk]

I wonder why we all used web as an example hehe

[Freewolf]

Heighten is quite expensive (less if you got wizard capstone or the expensive improved metamagic enhancements), but on SLAs its free, so its a must for archmages and sorcerers (who got cheap DC-based SLAs with low spell levels)

Sorcs get +8/+7/+6 on the DCs of their SLAs for free, so they must take heighten

Thanks this post explains it for in in terms I finally get.

What are SLAs?

[Hathorian]

I think the key spells for heighten are CoD, FoD, SLAs, AOE nukes, OSOD for real arcanes, web, disintegrate and blade barrier.

[WruntJunior]

I think the key spells for heighten are CoD, FoD, SLAs, AOE nukes, OSOD for real arcanes, web, disintegrate and blade barrier.

Seriously, does no one like PK? It feels all lonely in this thread.

[Enoach]

Honestly I found the simplest way to Explain Heighten was:

It makes all your Spells that Allow for Saves equal to the Highest Spell Level you can Cast in both DC and Cost. Now there are enhancements and gear that can reduce this cost.

For Most Spell Casting Classes that is 9th level and Bard 6th level. One of the reasons why it is not high on the Bard List as at the most it makes up 5 DC. On a caster capable of 9th Level Spells that is as much as +8 DC to as little as +1 DC.

Now on a class where DCs are important each one is roughly equivalent to +5% better chance of landing your spell.

Now I agree it is not always cost efficient to cast every spell with heighten which makes the Meta magic setting on hotbar'd spells nice, so you can configure them.

[Gkar]

Seriously, does no one like PK? It feels all lonely in this thread.

Two saves instead of the one finger would give you makes it a poor choice by comparison. Also few people build for illusion DC since that's about the only useful illusion spell.

[Gkar]

Thanks this post explains it for in in terms I finally get.

What are SLAs?

Spell Like Abilities.

They are things that mimic spells that you get free or near free due to past lives or enhancements like archmage.

[Hathorian]

Seriously, does no one like PK? It feels all lonely in this thread.

Good call, forgot about PK. I use that spell even on my Sorc. Great for leveling especially at the lower levels when it is the only instakill you have. It doesn't land as often as FoD but it is an option when all other instakills are on cool down. It is a poor man's FoD so to speak.

[Freewolf]

Thanks for all the input everyone.

Last question about this is that I see most people referencing the utility of it in reference to arcane spells. Web in particular which I totally understand. =)

What Cleric spells would most benefit from this, and ultimately would it be worth it rather then getting a Spell Focus or Spell Pen down the line.

Thanks All

[ArgentMage]

Thanks for all the input everyone.

Last question about this is that I see most people referencing the utility of it in reference to arcane spells. Web in particular which I totally understand. =)

What Cleric spells would most benefit from this, and ultimately would it be worth it rather then getting a Spell Focus or Spell Pen down the line.

Thanks All

For Clerics: Hold Person, Destruction, Greater Command, Soundburst, and even
Blade Barrier and CometFall would benefit from Heighten. Since Clerics have few
feat slots, though, it's hard to get enough boosts to make most of these land
with any regularity at a higher enough level where Heighten would be used.

I generally get an Evocation and Necromancy focus item and then stick to
Destruction, Implosion, and Blade Barrier.

[hermespan]

Heighten affects the DC of the spells you cast, if they're lower than the max level spells you can cast.

If you're a new level 3 wizard casting your web, having heighten does nothing. Web is a level 2 spell, the highest you can cast already.

If you're a level 20 wizard, though, the DC of the web you cast with heighten on will be 7 higher than if you did not have it on - since your max level spells are no level 9.

The DC of your spells is: 10 + spell level + casting stat modifier + (items, feats, whatever).
Heighten will set the "spell level" part above to the max level of spells you can cast. Thus it will do little for your already high level spells, but will help a lot with web and other low level spells.

Heighten also costs extra sp per level heightened.

QFT

What this means to you:
Heighten becomes useful at levels 16+. By level 20 it will be on pretty much full time unless you are farming casual.

[voodoogroves]

It doesn't work exactly like PNP (in more ways that that, but that's the one that is relevant to DCs).

It actually computes its benefit a bit wonky. If you have caster-level boosters, you can get higher than normal DCs for boosted spells. I've verified this with Flesh to Stone on a level 15 earth savant (it is an earth spell). The new DC is based more on the spell level of spells you could cast if you had that native caster level (so on a 15 Earth Savant, F2S heightens like it was a 9th level spell).

It does not change the effective level of the spell for other purposes though (unlike PNP) - so no bypassing mantles / globes.

[Jingwei]

Thanks for all the input everyone.

Last question about this is that I see most people referencing the utility of it in reference to arcane spells. Web in particular which I totally understand. =)

What Cleric spells would most benefit from this, and ultimately would it be worth it rather then getting a Spell Focus or Spell Pen down the line.

Thanks All

It's better to have enough DC and not enough spell penetration than to have enough Spell penetration and not enough DC.

How much is enough DC?

In epic hard, I'd say:

DC 40 barely adequate
DC 45 pretty good
DC 50, good enough

For epic elite, add maybe 3-5 to each of those thresholds.

-----------

For spell penetration:
epic hard: 38? able to hit anything
Epic elite: 55? able to hit anything

-----------

For most divine casters, getting enough DC is going to be difficult enough, especially with the +3DC twist from magister so far away on the destiny track.

[Hathorian]

It's better to have enough DC and not enough spell penetration than to have enough Spell penetration and not enough DC.

How much is enough DC?

In epic hard, I'd say:

DC 40 barely adequate
DC 45 pretty good
DC 50, good enough

For epic elite, add maybe 3-5 to each of those thresholds.

-----------

For spell penetration:
epic hard: 38? able to hit anything
Epic elite: 55? able to hit anything

-----------

For most divine casters, getting enough DC is going to be difficult enough, especially with the +3DC twist from magister so far away on the destiny track.

These #s are too high. My sorc has 42-46 DC, depending on ED and he is a god in EH quests. +34 spell pen is no fail for drows for most EH quests. Depending on your build/spells, spell pen can be vitally important to be effective.I have all 3 spell pen feats on my necro sorc.EH DA was a breeze last night even with me being on grand master of flowers ED.