Localized surface plasmon singularities from metal nanoparticles in active media are investigated on the basis of classic linear electrodynamics. It is found that the gain threshold is inversely proportional to the shape factor of the particle. When relating this phenomenon to the plasmonic field-enhanced emission from gain units, we show that the maximum electric field around spheroidal particles impacts upon the gain threshold via a two-exponential decay function. Our results provide a way to reduce the gain requirement in metal nanoparticle-based spaser or random laser systems.