First a small rant. I don't like most metamagic feats. A feat cost plus a very high ongoing cost is too high in my opinion (looking at a recent thread on this forum many agree with me). So here are some lower level metamagics, I'm also experimenting with actually having metamagics that lower the overall spell level, we'll see how it works. After each feat, I'll write a bit about what I'm thinking, to justify them and to help out anybody else working on metamagics.
Note: Some metamagic feats lower the spell level for a spell. This does not give the spellcaster access to spells he would not normally be allowed to cast. For example, a cleric who can only cast up to 4th level spells can not use metamagic to gain acess to 5th level ones. The save for such a spell is the save for the spell at its original level.
Note: Some of the feats use the term casting time increment and duration increment. If the duration of a spell is 1 round or one round per level, then its increment is 1 round. 10 minutes per level equal a 10 minute increment and so on. Casting times of a full round and less count as 1 round increments. Duration increments of permanent count as a 1 day increment. Instantaneous durations have no increment. If a feat says after a certain increment, then the effect takes place right after the spell has gone through that increment. So after the 1st duration increment for a 1 round/level spell would take place right after the spell had finished its effects in the 1st round of its creation.
Chaos-fueled Spell [Metamagic]
You allow some of your spell energy to be powered by chaos energy, but incur the unreliability of chaos.
Prereq: Cannot by lawful.
Benefit: You gain a 15% spell failure on casting the spell that cannot be reduced in any way. A chaos-fueled spell takes up a spell slot one level lower than normal.
-- The idea of a feat that actually lowers the spell level, if you have to come up with a pretty universal penalty among spells. That's really hard to do, but spell failure is probably the best. Most casters don't want to deal with spell failure at all, and so 15% is a lot. But then again, how often have you wanted to prepare just one more 4th level spell, but didn't have that 4th level slot? So its tempting, but of course a gamble.
Consistent Spell [Metamagic]
You incur the power of order to give your spells consistentsy, but at the cost of power.
Prereq: Cannot by chaotic.
Benefit: You gain exactly half the benefit of the maximize spell feat (rounded down). You deal half the maximum damage, cure half the maximum hps, etc. A consistent spell takes up a slot equal to the normal spell slot.
-- In this case, the ongoing cost is that since the way dice works the average is always higher than half the maximum, you are giving up potential power everytime you use it. Now of course there are times when half the maximum is all you need- but hey isn't that what metamagic is for?
Decay Spell [Metamagic]
You hold back on some of a spells needed energy, but in return the spell decays quickly over time.
Benefit: For every casting time increment or duration increment (whichever is shorter) after the first, the spell decays by 20%. Spells that deal damage or that have hp have 20% less hp and deal 20% less damage. Illusions have a -2 to the believe save for every 20%. For others spells, treat the failure as spell failure that you roll once during every increment. If the failure is roll, the spell is treated as suppressed until the next increment, and then failure is rolled again. Once the failure reaches 100% the spell ends. Divinations and spells with instantaneous durations can not be decayed. A decaying spell takes up a spell slot one level lower than normal for that spell.
Special: You can lower the spell level by 2, but the failure becomes 50% per increment.
-- The inspiration for this feat was for conjuration specialists, the idea of a specialist creating an item in his hands that just decays and turned to dust over time kind of appealed to me. If you notice this feat is very wordy. That's intentional, it needs a lot of clarification or it can be broken with certain spells. In my mind, better a very nice feat that takes a bit of reading to get the hang of, vs a boring feat that's easy to read. Now, I can see a lot of people thinking this feat is terrific for those spells you only need for one round, and it is. But for a wizard preparing this, he has to think about that ahead of time. Sorcs don't, but I feel metamagics should be better for sorcs anyway, its one of the things that sets them apart from wizards. Also, the special section is to give the
feat a little flexibility.
Link Spell [Metamagic]
You link yourself physically to your spells, giving them great endurance but sacrificing your own.
Benefit: Upon casting a linked spell, a physical link is forged between you and the spell, from up to medium range. It requires concentration to maintain the link. You can give up the link at any time, even not on your action, but cannot regain it once its lost. On every round on your turn, decide whether you will take 50% or 100% of your spells damage. Whenever your spell recieves damage, treat it as the under the shield other spell with the given percentage.
In addition, whenever your spell is successful dispelled, you may choose whether to girder it. If girdered, you take 1d8 points of damage per spell level of the spell girdered (include metamagics) but the spell remains unaffected. This also allows a spell to resist the effects of an antimagic field, but you take the indicated damage whenever the spell enters the field or for every round it remains in the field. Girdiring does not help against counterspelling. A linked spell takes up a spell slot one level higher than normal.
Special: You can hold the link up to long range if you make the level increase 2.
-- The idea behind this feat was to give summoners a chance to give their summons more power. It also allows mages to actually do something when their spells go into antimagic fields. However, a 1d8 per spell level hits up fast. Less for clerics, but its still a penalty. I also have a really cool story with this feat, but I'll post it at a later time.
Cycle Spell [Metamagic]
Your spells gain great power at certain times, but grow weaker at others.
Benefit: Upon gaining the feat, choosing a period of time. The benefit you gain is based on the rarity of that time, if the feat is used at a different time subtract the listed benefit. Some example time periods are:
1) Day or Night: +1 caster level
2) Common hour in a day (afternoon for example): +1 DC, +2 caster level
3) Obscure hour in a day (very early morning, very late at night): +2 DC, +2 caster level
4) One day in a 7 day week: +2 DC, +2 caster level
5) One minute in a day: +5 DC, +5 caster level
6) One day a month: +5 DC, +5 caster level
7) One day a year: +10 DC, +10 caster level
8) One day in the caster's life: +30 DC, +30 caster level
A cycled spell takes up a slot equal to the normal spell slot.
-- I think this is a very DM driven feat, as the dm would definately have to make sure the feat fits in with his campaign. Its also a great npc feat, able to create like a moon priestess who gains great power one day of the full moon and things like that. I think it gain be a great background feat for players, and its a great "time to shine" feat because the rarer ones really pack a whallop. Any suggestions on tweaking the dc and caster level changes would be appreciated. I recognize that this is a big feat for sorcs as they don't ever have to take the penalty. But they do take the feat slot, and they get precious few compared to wizards.
Phase Spell [Metamagic]
Your spells are unstable, but easy to create.
Benefit: Starting on the first round it is created, and for every round after, roll a 50% failure. If the spell does not fail, it acts as normal. On a failure, the spell phases out of existence for a round, treat it as suppressed for
that round. The spell will continue like this throughout its duration. Spells with instantaneous durations can not be phased. A phasing spell takes up a feat slot 2 levels lower than normal.
-- Phase spell and decay spell are somewhat similar. The advantage on decay spell is you always get full benefit of your spell on its first round. Advantage of phase spell is that its duration doesn't burn out quickly. Overall, I felt the phase was a bigger drawback and so gave it a -2 level adjustment.
Seed Spell [Metamagic]
Your spells start out weak, but grow into powerful creations.
Benefit: When casting a seeded spell choose one of the following models:
1) The spell appears minimized (all numerical variables are always 1), becomes consistent (as the feat) after the second duration increment, and then becomes maximized after the 4th duration increment and remains maximized throughout its duration.
2) The spell appears minimized, becomes consistent after the first duration increment, and becomes empowered after
the 2nd duration increment and remains so throughtout its duration.
3) The spell appears suppressed (as in an antimagic field), appears and becomes minimized after the second duration
increment, becomes consistent after the 4th, becomes maximized after the 6th, and becomes maximized and empowered after the 8th and for the rest of the duration.
4) The spell appears shrunken (the area is 50% smaller than normal), becomes normal size after the 1st increment, and becomes widened (as the feat) after the 2nd.When a spell's growth would create new effects, begin those effects at that time as appropriate. Instantaneous spells and spells whose effects already change with duration cannot be seeded. A seeded spell takes up a spell slot equal to the slot normal for that spell.
-- This was one of my favorite concepts, where the ongoing cost is time. You'll notice the advantage of this feat is that anything that would benefit from the maximizing, empowered, etc will be hurt by the minimizing. For those who are confused by this feat let me give an example:
I cast a summon spell that summons 1d4 + 1 creatures. With model 1, 2 creature gets summoned in the first round. The summoned monster does its thing. In the second round it does its thing. After the creature's second round of action, an additional creature is summoned (its consistent, so 3 total). The creatures do there thing, and then do it again. After that round, 2 more creatures get summoned in (its maximized so 5 total). With model 2, 2 creatures are summoned in the first round. After the creatures act, one more creature gets summoned to make it 3. After the next round of action for the creatures, you roll 1d4 + 1 and empower it. As low as 3 creatures is possible (I use the magic missile example of empower), or as high as 7.
Fate Spell [Metamagic]
You cheat your enemies out of their own fate by sacrificing yours.
Benefit: Choose an enemy when casting this spell. Against that enemy your spell has a +5 DC. However, you recieve the exact harmful effects of that spell as your opponent recieved, which disregards any protection or immunity you might have. Therefore, a fireball that does 15 damage to your choosen opponent does 15 damage to you, regardless of any fire protection you might have. You also suffer the secondary effects, so if a fireball kills the opponent it kills you as well. If a drop in strength paralyses the subject it paralyses you. Spells that require concentration, that have no save, or are mind effecting cannot be fated. If the opponent voluntarily gives up his save, you do not take the backlash. For spells with secondary saves, the opponent makes the save at the +5 DC. If he continues to suffer the effects of the spell so do you. Only by the opponent losing the effects of the spell can you rid yourself of the effects. Dismissal of the spell or dispelling of it on the opponent frees it from both of you. A fated spell takes up a spell slot one higher than normal.
-- I like the concept of fate, and I like wizards suffering to make their spells more powerful. This one was tricky to word, and I don't know if its quite balanced. THe idea of secondary effects also applying makes the feat a tentative one to use, and prevents higher level people from overpowering lower level people with it, because the risk to the higher level people is great.
Sapphire Spell [Metamagic]
You use the essence of the magical sapphire stones to give your spells great power.
Benefit: Your spells gain a material component of a certain gp value of sapphire. Depending on the amount of gem used, you gain a number of free levels to the spell that may be used to power any combination of metamagic feats possible, whether you know them or not. Sapphire spells take up a slot equal to their normal slot. The amounts needed are:
For spells 1-3 (not including metamagic feats):
50 gp: +1 free levels
150 gp: +2 free levels
200 gp: +3
600 gp: +4
For spells 4-6:
200 gp: +1
600 gp: +2
900 gp: +3
1500 gp: +4
Spells 7-9:
500 gp: +1
1500 gp: +2
2500 gp: +3
4000 gp: +4
Special: If the gp value is obtained all in star sapphire, you gain an additional +1 free level.
-- I like the idea of power components, so I set up one here. I originally was going to have a specific gem for certain spells, but that was very very complex and made the feat huge, so I went with just sapphire. If your curious how I figured the price, I took the prices for the metamagic rods, divided by 50 to get a rough estimate. Then I normally rounded down a bit, but rounded up for spells 7-9.
Haste Spell [Metamagic]
You cast your spells faster, but they are weaker in return.
Benefit: You may cast a spell as a move-equivalent action. Hasted spells have half the normal caster level, rounded down. If the new caster level is too low to cast that spell (including metamagic feats) it cannot be hasted. A hasted spell counts as a quickened spell for the purposes of spells per round. Sorcs casting a hasted spell still do so as a move-equivalent action, but cannot use any other metamagic feats when doing so. A hasted spell requires a slot one level higher than normal for that spell.
-- Not very long, but I did a lot of thinking on this spell to try and make it work. For those screaming that they now can bust out 2 8th level spells a round, the half caster level means you'd have to be 34th level to do that (9th level spells require 17 caster levels, so you need to be 34). At best for nonepic games, you can hasten a 4th level spell to 5th when your 18th level, or a 5th to 6th if your using some of my feats like cyclic spell. AT first I wanted this to be no level change, but I just couldn't make it work as the half caster level doesn't bother a lot of spells after a certain point. I want this feat to be a quicken lite so casters can use it earlier (a 6th level wizard can hasten 1st level spells, as opposed to quickening them at 9th). It also allows casters later on to get some use out of those lower level slots, that usually go by the wayside as you go up in level. Finally, give sorcs quicken spell people, it doesn't break the bank. Since WOTC won't, I'll at least give them this one.
Note: Some metamagic feats lower the spell level for a spell. This does not give the spellcaster access to spells he would not normally be allowed to cast. For example, a cleric who can only cast up to 4th level spells can not use metamagic to gain acess to 5th level ones. The save for such a spell is the save for the spell at its original level.
Note: Some of the feats use the term casting time increment and duration increment. If the duration of a spell is 1 round or one round per level, then its increment is 1 round. 10 minutes per level equal a 10 minute increment and so on. Casting times of a full round and less count as 1 round increments. Duration increments of permanent count as a 1 day increment. Instantaneous durations have no increment. If a feat says after a certain increment, then the effect takes place right after the spell has gone through that increment. So after the 1st duration increment for a 1 round/level spell would take place right after the spell had finished its effects in the 1st round of its creation.
Chaos-fueled Spell [Metamagic]
You allow some of your spell energy to be powered by chaos energy, but incur the unreliability of chaos.
Prereq: Cannot by lawful.
Benefit: You gain a 15% spell failure on casting the spell that cannot be reduced in any way. A chaos-fueled spell takes up a spell slot one level lower than normal.
-- The idea of a feat that actually lowers the spell level, if you have to come up with a pretty universal penalty among spells. That's really hard to do, but spell failure is probably the best. Most casters don't want to deal with spell failure at all, and so 15% is a lot. But then again, how often have you wanted to prepare just one more 4th level spell, but didn't have that 4th level slot? So its tempting, but of course a gamble.
Consistent Spell [Metamagic]
You incur the power of order to give your spells consistentsy, but at the cost of power.
Prereq: Cannot by chaotic.
Benefit: You gain exactly half the benefit of the maximize spell feat (rounded down). You deal half the maximum damage, cure half the maximum hps, etc. A consistent spell takes up a slot equal to the normal spell slot.
-- In this case, the ongoing cost is that since the way dice works the average is always higher than half the maximum, you are giving up potential power everytime you use it. Now of course there are times when half the maximum is all you need- but hey isn't that what metamagic is for?
Decay Spell [Metamagic]
You hold back on some of a spells needed energy, but in return the spell decays quickly over time.
Benefit: For every casting time increment or duration increment (whichever is shorter) after the first, the spell decays by 20%. Spells that deal damage or that have hp have 20% less hp and deal 20% less damage. Illusions have a -2 to the believe save for every 20%. For others spells, treat the failure as spell failure that you roll once during every increment. If the failure is roll, the spell is treated as suppressed until the next increment, and then failure is rolled again. Once the failure reaches 100% the spell ends. Divinations and spells with instantaneous durations can not be decayed. A decaying spell takes up a spell slot one level lower than normal for that spell.
Special: You can lower the spell level by 2, but the failure becomes 50% per increment.
-- The inspiration for this feat was for conjuration specialists, the idea of a specialist creating an item in his hands that just decays and turned to dust over time kind of appealed to me. If you notice this feat is very wordy. That's intentional, it needs a lot of clarification or it can be broken with certain spells. In my mind, better a very nice feat that takes a bit of reading to get the hang of, vs a boring feat that's easy to read. Now, I can see a lot of people thinking this feat is terrific for those spells you only need for one round, and it is. But for a wizard preparing this, he has to think about that ahead of time. Sorcs don't, but I feel metamagics should be better for sorcs anyway, its one of the things that sets them apart from wizards. Also, the special section is to give the
feat a little flexibility.
Link Spell [Metamagic]
You link yourself physically to your spells, giving them great endurance but sacrificing your own.
Benefit: Upon casting a linked spell, a physical link is forged between you and the spell, from up to medium range. It requires concentration to maintain the link. You can give up the link at any time, even not on your action, but cannot regain it once its lost. On every round on your turn, decide whether you will take 50% or 100% of your spells damage. Whenever your spell recieves damage, treat it as the under the shield other spell with the given percentage.
In addition, whenever your spell is successful dispelled, you may choose whether to girder it. If girdered, you take 1d8 points of damage per spell level of the spell girdered (include metamagics) but the spell remains unaffected. This also allows a spell to resist the effects of an antimagic field, but you take the indicated damage whenever the spell enters the field or for every round it remains in the field. Girdiring does not help against counterspelling. A linked spell takes up a spell slot one level higher than normal.
Special: You can hold the link up to long range if you make the level increase 2.
-- The idea behind this feat was to give summoners a chance to give their summons more power. It also allows mages to actually do something when their spells go into antimagic fields. However, a 1d8 per spell level hits up fast. Less for clerics, but its still a penalty. I also have a really cool story with this feat, but I'll post it at a later time.
Cycle Spell [Metamagic]
Your spells gain great power at certain times, but grow weaker at others.
Benefit: Upon gaining the feat, choosing a period of time. The benefit you gain is based on the rarity of that time, if the feat is used at a different time subtract the listed benefit. Some example time periods are:
1) Day or Night: +1 caster level
2) Common hour in a day (afternoon for example): +1 DC, +2 caster level
3) Obscure hour in a day (very early morning, very late at night): +2 DC, +2 caster level
4) One day in a 7 day week: +2 DC, +2 caster level
5) One minute in a day: +5 DC, +5 caster level
6) One day a month: +5 DC, +5 caster level
7) One day a year: +10 DC, +10 caster level
8) One day in the caster's life: +30 DC, +30 caster level
A cycled spell takes up a slot equal to the normal spell slot.
-- I think this is a very DM driven feat, as the dm would definately have to make sure the feat fits in with his campaign. Its also a great npc feat, able to create like a moon priestess who gains great power one day of the full moon and things like that. I think it gain be a great background feat for players, and its a great "time to shine" feat because the rarer ones really pack a whallop. Any suggestions on tweaking the dc and caster level changes would be appreciated. I recognize that this is a big feat for sorcs as they don't ever have to take the penalty. But they do take the feat slot, and they get precious few compared to wizards.
Phase Spell [Metamagic]
Your spells are unstable, but easy to create.
Benefit: Starting on the first round it is created, and for every round after, roll a 50% failure. If the spell does not fail, it acts as normal. On a failure, the spell phases out of existence for a round, treat it as suppressed for
that round. The spell will continue like this throughout its duration. Spells with instantaneous durations can not be phased. A phasing spell takes up a feat slot 2 levels lower than normal.
-- Phase spell and decay spell are somewhat similar. The advantage on decay spell is you always get full benefit of your spell on its first round. Advantage of phase spell is that its duration doesn't burn out quickly. Overall, I felt the phase was a bigger drawback and so gave it a -2 level adjustment.
Seed Spell [Metamagic]
Your spells start out weak, but grow into powerful creations.
Benefit: When casting a seeded spell choose one of the following models:
1) The spell appears minimized (all numerical variables are always 1), becomes consistent (as the feat) after the second duration increment, and then becomes maximized after the 4th duration increment and remains maximized throughout its duration.
2) The spell appears minimized, becomes consistent after the first duration increment, and becomes empowered after
the 2nd duration increment and remains so throughtout its duration.
3) The spell appears suppressed (as in an antimagic field), appears and becomes minimized after the second duration
increment, becomes consistent after the 4th, becomes maximized after the 6th, and becomes maximized and empowered after the 8th and for the rest of the duration.
4) The spell appears shrunken (the area is 50% smaller than normal), becomes normal size after the 1st increment, and becomes widened (as the feat) after the 2nd.When a spell's growth would create new effects, begin those effects at that time as appropriate. Instantaneous spells and spells whose effects already change with duration cannot be seeded. A seeded spell takes up a spell slot equal to the slot normal for that spell.
-- This was one of my favorite concepts, where the ongoing cost is time. You'll notice the advantage of this feat is that anything that would benefit from the maximizing, empowered, etc will be hurt by the minimizing. For those who are confused by this feat let me give an example:
I cast a summon spell that summons 1d4 + 1 creatures. With model 1, 2 creature gets summoned in the first round. The summoned monster does its thing. In the second round it does its thing. After the creature's second round of action, an additional creature is summoned (its consistent, so 3 total). The creatures do there thing, and then do it again. After that round, 2 more creatures get summoned in (its maximized so 5 total). With model 2, 2 creatures are summoned in the first round. After the creatures act, one more creature gets summoned to make it 3. After the next round of action for the creatures, you roll 1d4 + 1 and empower it. As low as 3 creatures is possible (I use the magic missile example of empower), or as high as 7.
Fate Spell [Metamagic]
You cheat your enemies out of their own fate by sacrificing yours.
Benefit: Choose an enemy when casting this spell. Against that enemy your spell has a +5 DC. However, you recieve the exact harmful effects of that spell as your opponent recieved, which disregards any protection or immunity you might have. Therefore, a fireball that does 15 damage to your choosen opponent does 15 damage to you, regardless of any fire protection you might have. You also suffer the secondary effects, so if a fireball kills the opponent it kills you as well. If a drop in strength paralyses the subject it paralyses you. Spells that require concentration, that have no save, or are mind effecting cannot be fated. If the opponent voluntarily gives up his save, you do not take the backlash. For spells with secondary saves, the opponent makes the save at the +5 DC. If he continues to suffer the effects of the spell so do you. Only by the opponent losing the effects of the spell can you rid yourself of the effects. Dismissal of the spell or dispelling of it on the opponent frees it from both of you. A fated spell takes up a spell slot one higher than normal.
-- I like the concept of fate, and I like wizards suffering to make their spells more powerful. This one was tricky to word, and I don't know if its quite balanced. THe idea of secondary effects also applying makes the feat a tentative one to use, and prevents higher level people from overpowering lower level people with it, because the risk to the higher level people is great.
Sapphire Spell [Metamagic]
You use the essence of the magical sapphire stones to give your spells great power.
Benefit: Your spells gain a material component of a certain gp value of sapphire. Depending on the amount of gem used, you gain a number of free levels to the spell that may be used to power any combination of metamagic feats possible, whether you know them or not. Sapphire spells take up a slot equal to their normal slot. The amounts needed are:
For spells 1-3 (not including metamagic feats):
50 gp: +1 free levels
150 gp: +2 free levels
200 gp: +3
600 gp: +4
For spells 4-6:
200 gp: +1
600 gp: +2
900 gp: +3
1500 gp: +4
Spells 7-9:
500 gp: +1
1500 gp: +2
2500 gp: +3
4000 gp: +4
Special: If the gp value is obtained all in star sapphire, you gain an additional +1 free level.
-- I like the idea of power components, so I set up one here. I originally was going to have a specific gem for certain spells, but that was very very complex and made the feat huge, so I went with just sapphire. If your curious how I figured the price, I took the prices for the metamagic rods, divided by 50 to get a rough estimate. Then I normally rounded down a bit, but rounded up for spells 7-9.
Haste Spell [Metamagic]
You cast your spells faster, but they are weaker in return.
Benefit: You may cast a spell as a move-equivalent action. Hasted spells have half the normal caster level, rounded down. If the new caster level is too low to cast that spell (including metamagic feats) it cannot be hasted. A hasted spell counts as a quickened spell for the purposes of spells per round. Sorcs casting a hasted spell still do so as a move-equivalent action, but cannot use any other metamagic feats when doing so. A hasted spell requires a slot one level higher than normal for that spell.
-- Not very long, but I did a lot of thinking on this spell to try and make it work. For those screaming that they now can bust out 2 8th level spells a round, the half caster level means you'd have to be 34th level to do that (9th level spells require 17 caster levels, so you need to be 34). At best for nonepic games, you can hasten a 4th level spell to 5th when your 18th level, or a 5th to 6th if your using some of my feats like cyclic spell. AT first I wanted this to be no level change, but I just couldn't make it work as the half caster level doesn't bother a lot of spells after a certain point. I want this feat to be a quicken lite so casters can use it earlier (a 6th level wizard can hasten 1st level spells, as opposed to quickening them at 9th). It also allows casters later on to get some use out of those lower level slots, that usually go by the wayside as you go up in level. Finally, give sorcs quicken spell people, it doesn't break the bank. Since WOTC won't, I'll at least give them this one.
