CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
I think you and I are on the same page here. I've done a lot of playtesting of these feats under my proposed system, and did some reworking of the metamagic feats. I think that we have figured out the best way for them to work. It's a little more math-heavy than I wanted, but there was just no way around it.bladesong from another thread said:I still believe this to be the better option (from previous thread):
Option 4: Assign an adjustment that must be added to the Caster level check for each meta-magic feat. I do not know what the level adjustments are off the top of my head, but I would say if it usually makes the spell 4 levels higher, add it to the spell then double it. So on a 1st level spell a 4 level addition makes it 5, so by your system it would add 10 to the DC. If you feel that is too high, you could add the flat amount to the DC after doubling the level of the spell. So if a feat would add 4 levels, with a 1st level spell you would double that to 2 then add 4 for the feat for a total of 6 added to the DC of the check. If that is too low consider 150% of the levels added for a feat (i.e. if it adds 4 levels, add 6 to the DC of the check).
They can use as many metamagic feats as they want as long as they do not exceed 9 (provided you are using only up to 9th level spells).
So magic missile (level 1) could have: Empower (+2), Quickened (+4), Silent (+1) and Still (+1) used on it bringing the total spell level to 9th. Then using his caster level check as you have described, his DC would be 28 to cast this spell. Meaning an 18th level caster could fire this off 50% of the time.
This really should be a straight caster check...I would not allow them to add any ability bonuses. Their stat already dictates what level spell they can cast.
In 3.5E, a metamagic feat increases the effective spell level slot. Under this new system, that would change two numbers: the level of the spell you could apply it to, and the caster level DC for casting the spell. So over the weekend, I am going to reword all of the metamagic feats, and write them up like this example.
Enlarge Spell [Metamagic]
Prerequisite: ability to cast 2nd level spells
Benefit: You may cast any spell that you know, up to one level lower than the highest spell level you can cast, as an Enlarged Spell: the range of the spell increases by 100%. Spells whose ranges are not defined by distance, as well as spells with ranges other than Close, Medium, or Long, cannot be enhanced with this spell.
Metamagic spells are more difficult to cast than regular magic. You incur a -2 penalty to your caster level check when casting an Enlarged spell. This penalty stacks with other penalties from additional metamagic feats.
The green text will vary from feat to feat.
[SBLOCK=The math]Caster level penalty = (spell slot adjustment of the original feat) x 2
Spell level prerequisite = (spell slot adjustment of the original feat) + 1
Spell limit = (spell slot adjustment of the original feat) +1[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Additional rules to add]1. Include a rule stating that penalties to the caster level check will stack. I.E., casting a quickened, empowered spell would incur a -12 penalty (-8 for quickened, -4 for empowered).
2. Metamagic spells should fail in spectacular fashion, rather than simply "fizzling out" like regular spells. Create a list of "special" spell failures to roll on, and/or recommend the "Major mishap" table from Wild Spellcraft.[/SBLOCK]