Rod's Boon (3.5e Spell)

Invoking the name of Rod as you sit beneath his holy symbol and read a brain-enhancing tome, you grant yourself superhuman creativity, craftsmanship, and magical competence.

This spell skirts the line between mundane and epic; though not an epic spell itself, it can enable you to cast epic spells that would otherwise be far beyond your reach.

For the duration of this spell's effect, you (or your target) gain a divine bonus equal to twice your caster level on all Craft checks, as well as on Spellcraft checks made to add new spells to your spellbook, to develop and to cast epic spells, and for any other spell that might require you to make a successful Spellcraft check to cast it. (You also gain this same bonus to Psicraft checks made for equivalent purposes, such as manifesting epic powers.) In addition, you gain a +4 competence bonus to your caster level for all spells you cast belonging to the conjuration or transmutation schools (other than Rod's boon), and you gain a +2 competence bonus to your caster level for spells belonging to the evocation and necromancy schools. Furthermore, you can create things more quickly and efficiently than normal; while you are under this spell's effect, each day that you spend working on a magic item or epic spell is counted as two days towards completing that item or spell, and your gp and XP expenditures are reduced by 25% plus 0.5% per caster level (to a maximum of an additional 25% reduction for a total 50% reduction at level 40). This benefit stacks with other effects that enable you to make magic items more efficiently (such as Efficient Item Creation), but it does not allow you to reduce the cost of an expensive material component or focus for any spell (including Rod's boon or permanency cast on Rod's boon), nor does it allow you to reduce the XP component of a spell that you are casting (including Rod's boon or permanency cast on Rod's boon). Thus, the gp or XP component(s) of any spells that must be cast to create a magic item (such as casting wish three times for a ring of three wishes) is/are not included in the reduction of gp and XP expenditures granted by Rod's boon. Rod's boon also does not decrease the casting time of any spell, not even an epic spell. Even with an active Rod's boon, you must still have the appropriate item creation feat(s) and meet the other relevant prerequisites (including the ability to cast all required spells) in order to create a magic item, you must have the Epic Spellcasting feat in order to create or cast an epic spell, and you must have a spellbook as a class feature in order to add spells to your spellbook.

You can only cast this spell on a creature other than yourself if your caster level is at least 24. If you do, the benefits that creature gains from the spell are still based on your caster level.

If your caster level is at least 26, you can use permanency to make this spell's effects permanent on yourself (you can do so for another creature if your caster level is at least 28). Doing so costs 9,000 XP for yourself or 10,000 XP for another creature.

Though this spell refers to Rod, Slavic god of creation, you may substitute whatever god is most appropriate for your campaign. Change the name of the spell accordingly. Whichever deity you choose to associate this spell with, it is only available to worshippers of that deity.

Material Component: A tome of clear thought enchanted to provide at least a +3 inherent bonus to Intelligence, which must be read from cover to cover within the 24-hour casting time; the magic of the tome of clear thought is superseded and consumed by the magic of the spell, so you do not actually get an inherent bonus upon completing the process of casting this spell. Alternatively, you may use a manual of silver magic, libram of gainful conjuration, libram of ineffable damnation, book of exalted deeds, or book of vile darkness as the material component of this spell (the magical effects of the book are superseded and consumed by the magic of the spell, as long as you begin casting before opening the book and triggering the effect by accident), but you must use the book appropriate to your spellcasting category and alignment, or the spell will fail and you will lose 20,000 XP (and the book will vanish just as if it had been read normally). This experience penalty replaces the spell's normal experience cost (see below), and you will lose the full 20,000 XP even if this causes you to lose a level (an exception to the rule that you can't spend so much XP on an experience cost that you would lose a level as a result).

Focus: A silver holy symbol of Rod worth 3,000 gp. For a cleric or druid, this holy symbol can be the same divine focus used to cast your other spells, but it must be made of silver and cost at least 3,000 gp in order to cast Rod's boon.

XP Cost: 2,000 XP.