Lifeward has a "Duration: Special delayed reaction. The spell is not activated until..."
Energize says "one of his currently active spells".
Would this mean you couldn't pre-energize the Lifeward (even though it's already "cast") because it's not active yet? Like you'd need to wait until the MDC armor was busted and the protective effect initiated?
This could be pretty inconvenient since the original spellcaster of Lifeward might be way more than 10 ft away before the duration of Lifeward is up.
One idea I had for this is perhaps a "Talisman of Energize Spell". Then you could give that to the lifewarded ally to use to bolster the duration of their lifeward effect.
It seems fair to allow especially since you could only do it once per suit of armor (can't use Energize Spell on the same spell more than once).
Where this could get complicated is with recharging the talisman. There seems to be a fixed cost of 500 PPE regardless of what spell you put on a talisman (making it more cost effective to charge it with higher-cost level 8 spells compared to talismans of level 1 spells) but it IS cheaper to recharge with lower level spells...
There's the rub though: since the cost of Energize Spell is variable (depends on the cost of what you're energizing) you'd have to decide on the time of recharge how much PPE it would cost, ergo how much PPE worth of spell you'd be able to energize.
I'm not sure how specific that would need to be. IE if you used 56 (50+6) PPE to restore one charge of Energize Spell, could you use it to energize any spell costing 6 PPE with a duration (example: 1st level Cloak of Darkness or 2nd level Light Target) or would you maybe need to specify which spell the talisman energizes ahead of time (ie "Talisman of Energize Cloak of Darkness" or "Talisman of Energize Light Target" rather than "Talisman of Energize 6 PPE spell")
This specificity is probably also important for variable-cost spells, like for example the 1st level spell "Manipulate Objects" which is 2 PPE per 5 pounds with seemingly no upper limit... so you'd at least for the recharge I think need to specify how much PPE worth of MO you're putting into the Talisman.
The exploitability of that is probably also a good reason to maybe bolster the initial 500 PPE cost of creating Talismans by charging the "50+cost" recharge rate upon initial creation too. I don't think that's RAW but it's really the only way I can think to limit the problem that Manipulate Objects and other variable-cost spells (Mend the Broken is the only other which comes to mind, aside from Energize Spell) being available for unlimited amounts for a paltry 500 PPE investment. That way you're always paying more than it would cost to normally use the spell.
Even though Talismans are limited to level 8 spells, I think perhaps you could have a Talisman of Energize spell which specified a higher-level spell. Like for example a "Talisman of Energize Void" which allowed you to double the duration of the 15th level spell Void (FOM 159) to 2 weeks per level. Since that would normally cost 712 PPE to do, allowing that for 500 PPE feels super-wrong, whereas making the Talisman for 500 PPE and then charging it with 50+712=752 for a total cost of 1252 PPE seems a lot more reasonable.
This should also mean you could opt to just place 1 charge on a talisman initially.
The only exception I can think of should perhaps be PPE batteries, where the initial 50 PPE you get could be considered "built in" the 500 PPE cost, and then the "spend 60 to store 30" could happen after you reduce that 50 to 0. Or maybe beforehand... I guess if it was down to 29/50 PPE you might still want to do it to maximize your prep.
How to use "Energize Spell" via proxy-casting seems like a potentially confusing issue to me... the "one of his" requirement preventing you from bolstering allies' spells for example...
In the case of using a Talisman/Scroll who is the owner of the spell? Does the user become the owner? Or is it still considered the maker of the Talisman/Scroll/TW device?
Similarly, would it be the user of Talisman or Scroll who counts as the person whose spell it belongs to? That would certainly be simpler and more versatile, but the variable cost of Energize Spell and the variable cost of (re)charging Talismans (or creating scrolls) means you'd at least need to specify the PPE cost of whatever spell you're energizing, if not the specific spell itself. The former is obviously more versatile than the latter.
I kinda like the idea of needing to specify which spell you're energizing when creating a TOES (Talisman Of Energize Spell) or SOES (Scroll of Energize Spell) and naming the resulting item where the spell's name is substituted for "spell", ie for 102 PPE to make:
- "Scroll of Energize Cloud of Smoke"
or
"Scroll of Energize Globe of Daylight"
rather than
"Scroll of Energize Spells that cost 2 PPE"
Share your thoughts guys.