Does reading the Book of Exalted Deeds prevent casting non-upcast 5th-level spells into a Ring of Spell Storing?

Question

The Ring of Spell Storing states (emphasis mine):

This ring stores spells cast into it, holding them until the attuned wearer uses them. The ring can store up to 5 levels worth of spells at a time. When found, it contains 1d6 − 1 levels of stored spells chosen by the GM.

Any creature can cast a spell of 1st through 5th level into the ring by touching the ring as the spell is cast. The spell has no effect, other than to be stored in the ring. If the ring can't hold the spell, the spell is expended without effect. The level of the slot used to cast the spell determines how much space it uses.

While wearing this ring, you can cast any spell stored in it. The spell uses the slot level, spell save DC, spell attack bonus, and spellcasting ability of the original caster, but is otherwise treated as if you cast the spell. The spell cast from the ring is no longer stored in it, freeing up space.

The Book of Exalted Deeds states:

[...] Once you've read and studied the book, any spell slot you expend to cast a cleric or paladin spell counts as a spell slot of one level higher. [...]

Thus, any 5th-level spell cast using a 5th-level spell slot would count as using a 6th-level spell slot, which cannot be stored into a Ring of Spell Storing. Is this correct? Is there some rule I've missed or way around this besides ending the benefits from the Book?

Answer 1

This is correct.

As you have quoted from the Book of Exalted Deeds:

Once you've read and studied the book, any spell slot you expend to cast a cleric or paladin spell counts as a spell slot of one level higher.

This means that when you expend a spell slot of level N, it counts as level N+1 for all features.

This is probably a glitch.

The RAW ruling here is a serious nerf to the Ring of Spell storing, so it is almost certainly completely unintentional. I'd expect most DMs to allow the Ring of Spell storing to continue to function as it did before reading the book.

Answer 2

The level of the slot used

You don’t use a higher-level slot after reading the Book of Exalted Deeds (if you did, that would be pointless). You still use a 5th-level slot, it just “counts as” a 6th-level slot.

There is some ambiguity about what “counts as” applies to—the spell’s own parameters, presumably, but other things get fuzzier—but at any rate a ring of spell storing certainly should not be one of them—a major artifact like the Book of Exalted Deeds shouldn’t have weird, between-the-lines, unmentioned drawbacks.

Answer 3

No, you can still cast spells at 5th level and store them in the ring.

You can cast a 5th level spell using a 4th level spell slot once you have read this book. This means you can still store 5th level spells in a ring of spell storing.

Normally when you cast a spell, you do have to use a spell slot of that level or higher:

When a character casts a spell, he or she expends a slot of that spell's level or higher, effectively "filling" a slot with the spell.

But after reading the book, your slots count as one level higher:

Once you've read and studied the book, any spell slot you expend to cast a cleric or paladin spell counts as a spell slot of one level higher.

This means that you can expend a 4th level spell slot and it counts as a 5th level spell slot for the purposes of casting cleric or paladin spells.