archmage and metamagic

[Braininthejar2]

Rapid maximize (I hope I remember the English name of the feat right) allows me to maximize a spell once a day without affecting the spell slot.

Archmage high arcana allow me to sacrifice a spell slot to get one of my spells as a 2/day spellike ability, and it allows modifying a spell with metamagic if a legal slot is chosen.

Is it possible to combine those two to get a maximised spell twice a day at the spell's normal slot, or would the feat being "once a day" made such use illegal?

[Khedrac]

Because you apply the Rapid Maximize feat at the time of casting, the rapid version of the spell isn't one of your spells so you cannot apply the archmage ability to it. Memorize it maximized (at the cost of the increased level) and it works normally.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Spell-Like Ability
An archmage who selects this type of high arcana can use one of her arcane spell slots (other than a slot expended to learn this or any other type of high arcana) to permanently prepare one of her arcane spells as a spell-like ability that can be used twice per day. The archmage does not use any components when casting the spell, although a spell that costs XP to cast still does so and a spell with a costly material component instead costs her 10 times that amount in XP. This ability costs one 5th-level spell slot.

The spell-like ability normally uses a spell slot of the spell’s level, although the archmage can choose to make a spell modified by a metamagic feat into a spell-like ability at the appropriate spell level.

The archmage may use an available higher-level spell slot in order to use the spell-like ability more often. Using a slot three levels higher than the chosen spell allows her to use the spell-like ability four times per day, and a slot six levels higher lets her use it six times per day.

If spell-like ability is selected more than one time as a high arcana choice, this ability can apply to the same spell chosen the first time (increasing the number of times per day it can be used) or to a different spell.

Benefit: Once per day, you can apply the effect of the
Maximize Spell feat to any spell you cast without increasing
the level of the spell or specially preparing it ahead of time.
You can still use Maximize Spell normally if you have it.

Archmage's Spell-Like Ability class feature says you prepare the spell with the metamagic feat applied, and the Sudden Maximize feat says you don't prepare your spell with that feat applied, so the two are incompatible.

The sudden metamagic feats like Sudden Maximize aren't really worth taking, ever. You're better off getting a metamagic rod, or even taking Craft Rod and having someone with the relevant metamagic feat assist you in crafting the metamagic rods you need.

You're probably better off taking the feat Maximize Spell-Like Ability from Complete Arcane and applying it to the spell-like ability you gained from that class feature.

[Zaq]

Archmage's Spell-Like Ability class feature says you prepare the spell with the metamagic feat applied, and the Sudden Maximize feat says you don't prepare your spell with that feat applied, so the two are incompatible.

The sudden metamagic feats like Sudden Maximize aren't really worth taking, ever. You're better off getting a metamagic rod, or even taking Craft Rod and having someone with the relevant metamagic feat assist you in crafting the metamagic rods you need.

You're probably better off taking the feat Maximize Spell-Like Ability from Complete Arcane and applying it to the spell-like ability you gained from that class feature.

The Sudden X metamagic feats have niche utility. I agree that they aren't always a primary choice, especially on a traditional full caster, but they're very useful on partial casters, on weird casters and SLA users, in E6, and when you have one very specific trick in mind that you want to rely on.

Maximize SLA is actually pretty limiting. You have to pick the SLA when you take the feat (meaning that you have to have the SLA at that point and you can't take it in advance), and the caster level restriction means that it's actually really difficult to time the feat slot so that you can actually get it on the SLA you care about. I agree that the 3/day use rate is better than Sudden Maximize's 1/day use rate, but Sudden Maximize can be taken at any point in your build (once you have another metamagic feat, at least), can be applied on the fly to whatever spell or SLA you see fit, and (most importantly) can be used on your most powerful trick as soon as you get it. It loses a bit in uses per day and that's why it's not really a primary pick most of the time, but I'll take it over Maximize SLA almost any day except on really, really specific builds.

[Mordaedil]

I made them a tad more useful by increasing the number of uses to 3/day for all Sudden Metamagic feats. Still not great, but they've become picks some of my players go for, except the quicken one. Takes too many feats.

[Braininthejar2]

Ok, question answered, thank you