Arcane Disciple: How does a low wisdom interact with metamagic when spell slots are available

Question

We have a 17th-level wizard with intelligence 19 and wisdom 14. He has these feats (among others):

• Arcane Disciple: War (Complete Divine)
• Metamagic School Focus: Evocation (Complete Mage)
• Persistent Spell (Complete Arcane)

So the question is this: Is he able to persist Divine Power? It is a level 4 spell, so by the rules of Arcane Disciple, he meets the requirements to learn, memorize, and cast the spell. The crux of the issue lies in this section found on p.88 in the PHB:

Effects of Metamagic Feats on a Spell: In all ways, a metamagic spell operates at its original spell level, even though it is prepared and cast as a higher-level spell.

The player's argument is that it simply takes up one of his higher-level spell slots, but that it is still level 4 for the comparison to his wisdom score. My argument is that being prepared and cast as a higher-level spell means he needs wisdom 19 to do it.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

The benefit of the feat Arcane Disciple (Complete Divine 79), in part, says that "you must have a Wisdom score equal to 10 + the spell’s level in order to prepare or cast a spell gained from this feat" (emphasis mine).

When the 4th-level Clr spell divine power [evoc] (Player's Handbook 224) is modified to a 10th-level spell by the feat Persistent Spell (Complete Arcane 81) then effectively reduced to a 9th-level spell level by the feat Metamagic School Focus (evocation) (Complete Mage 45) it's prepared and cast as a 9th level spell.

So, while that spell operates as a 4th-level spell for most purposes, it's still prepared and cast as a 9th-level spell, and that means that the wizard—who gained access to the spell through the feat Arcane Disciple—would need a Wisdom score of 19 to prepare and cast it.