Long story short, I was stuck at an airport for 4 days. I had a lot of time to think, so pondered over a ton of new metamagic feats, rolled them over in my head, mentally playtested them, and came out with a few. My premise is to try to come up with some low level modified ones, AND to actually try some level decrease ones. I'll also write down my thought process for a few to compare with others who make their own feats as well.
*Some metamagic feats lower the spell slot needed to cast a spell. However, this does not gain the caster access the spells he could not cast normally. For example, a 10th level cleric can't use a metamagic feat and a 5th level slot to gain access to 6th level spells. The save for the spell is the same as the original spell level, unless modified by other feats.
Chaos-fueled Spell [Metamagic]
You allow the essence of chaos to power some of your spell energy, taking the unrelability chaos brings.
Prereq: Chaotic alignment
Benefit: Your spell gains a 15% spell failure when cast. This failure can not be lowered by any means. A chaos-fueled spell takes up a slot one level lower than the spell's actual level.
-- Now, if your actually going to try making metamagic feats that drop level, I figure the golden rule is you need a penalty that applies harshly to almost any spell you can think of. Spell failure universally hurts any spell, there's no trick spell that doesn't get affected by it. Now most wizards I know don't deal with any kind of spell failure, they won't use it. However one level lower on your spells is very attractive... so I think for the gamblers out there the risk is worth the reward.
Consistent Spell [Metamagic]
You give up average power in your spells for a consistant effect.
Benefit: Apply the maximize spell feat to the spell and then half it (rounding down). Thus a consistent spell does half the maximum damage, effects half the maximum targets, heals half the maximum amount of hp, etc. A consistent spell uses up a spell slot equal to the original spell slot.
-- Consistentsy is a powerful tool for a spell, which is why maximize is +3 while empower is +2 and yet normally can give a better effect. However, the cost in this case isn't the spell level, its the fact that I'm always doing worse than the average because of the way dice are. Also, one facet I think WOTC overlooks in their metamagic is that it does cost a precious feat slot. Could you see getting a lot of use out of this feat? Very much so. But when a fighter gets use out of his feats on every swing, allowing a wizard or sorc to get some "consistent" use of their feats is fine in my opinion as long as the effect isn't broken.. and doing less the average all the time is hardly out of balance.
Fated Spell [Metamagic]
An appeal to fate gives your spell great power, and you a great cost.
Benefit: Choose a single target. You gain a +5 to the DC of the spell against that target. However, you instantly take the exact "harmful" effects the spell inflicts upon the target, such as damage, ability drain, death, etc, regardless of whether the spell would normally be able to effect you or not or regardless of any protection you might have. For these purposes, the target counts as the caster. Therefore, a spell that only effects animals would still have its effect on a nonanimal caster. Also, a fated fireball that deals 20 damage to a target deals 20 damage to the caster even if the caster has elemental protection on. Spells that are mind-affecting, have no save, or require concentration cannot by fated. Should the target give up his save, no feedback occurs. Should the spell be dismissed, or be dispelled on either of them, its is dispelled for both of them. A fated spell takes up a spell slot equal to the spell's normal level.
--That feat is a mouthful, but its important to clarify it. Personally, I'd much rather see interesting feats that are a bit wordy and nitty gritty then boring feats with just a few sentences. The first problem with this feat was the dual domination problem, where but caster and target are dominated by each other. There was a few ways to get around it, but none were very clean, so I opted to drop those kinds of spells from its use. Second, was to make sure people didn't cheese this with buff spells to get two for one. I think I made that clear enough. Lastly I debated between, no spell increase and a +1- mainly because there's definately some instances where the penalty to the target may be worse then the same penalty on the caster. However, I opted for +0 because wizards and clerics would have to figure it out before hand.. which means they may get into situations where that spell would actually hurt them worse. For bards and sorcs, my personal belief is metamagic should be better for sorcs than wizards, it helps set them apart. So I allow the sorc to have a bit more power in this case.
Link Spell [Metamagic]
You physically connect yourself with your spell, taking its punishment to give it great durability.
Benefit: You create a physical link between you and the spell. For the duration of the link, any damage the spell recieves is transfered fully or partially to you. Every round on your turn you may decide to take half or all of the spell's damage. In addition, if the spell is successfully dispelled, you may choose to girder the spell. You take 1d8 points of damage per spell level of the linked spell (which includeds metamagic mods and cannot be negated by any protection) but the spell remains unharmed. This allows a spell to survive in an antimagic field, however, whenever a spell enters an antimagic field, or for every round it remains in the field you take the above damage. The link does not prevent counterspelling. Maintaining the link requires concentration and can be maintained at medium range. The link may be dropped at any time but cannot be restablished. A linked spell requires a spell slot one level higher than normal.
Special: Using a linked spell two levels higher than the spell's normal level allows the link to be maintained at long range.
--I have a cool story that goes with this feat... but I'll post that in a seperate post as to not clog up space. One of my favorite feats, I like the idea for conjurers, especially summoners. The biggest worry for me was whether the power to girder spells against dispels and antimagic fields was too powerful. But I figured since its concentration and you take a few d8's it balances out. I also like customizable metamagics, you you'll notice several points of customability in the feat.
*Some metamagic feats lower the spell slot needed to cast a spell. However, this does not gain the caster access the spells he could not cast normally. For example, a 10th level cleric can't use a metamagic feat and a 5th level slot to gain access to 6th level spells. The save for the spell is the same as the original spell level, unless modified by other feats.
Chaos-fueled Spell [Metamagic]
You allow the essence of chaos to power some of your spell energy, taking the unrelability chaos brings.
Prereq: Chaotic alignment
Benefit: Your spell gains a 15% spell failure when cast. This failure can not be lowered by any means. A chaos-fueled spell takes up a slot one level lower than the spell's actual level.
-- Now, if your actually going to try making metamagic feats that drop level, I figure the golden rule is you need a penalty that applies harshly to almost any spell you can think of. Spell failure universally hurts any spell, there's no trick spell that doesn't get affected by it. Now most wizards I know don't deal with any kind of spell failure, they won't use it. However one level lower on your spells is very attractive... so I think for the gamblers out there the risk is worth the reward.
Consistent Spell [Metamagic]
You give up average power in your spells for a consistant effect.
Benefit: Apply the maximize spell feat to the spell and then half it (rounding down). Thus a consistent spell does half the maximum damage, effects half the maximum targets, heals half the maximum amount of hp, etc. A consistent spell uses up a spell slot equal to the original spell slot.
-- Consistentsy is a powerful tool for a spell, which is why maximize is +3 while empower is +2 and yet normally can give a better effect. However, the cost in this case isn't the spell level, its the fact that I'm always doing worse than the average because of the way dice are. Also, one facet I think WOTC overlooks in their metamagic is that it does cost a precious feat slot. Could you see getting a lot of use out of this feat? Very much so. But when a fighter gets use out of his feats on every swing, allowing a wizard or sorc to get some "consistent" use of their feats is fine in my opinion as long as the effect isn't broken.. and doing less the average all the time is hardly out of balance.
Fated Spell [Metamagic]
An appeal to fate gives your spell great power, and you a great cost.
Benefit: Choose a single target. You gain a +5 to the DC of the spell against that target. However, you instantly take the exact "harmful" effects the spell inflicts upon the target, such as damage, ability drain, death, etc, regardless of whether the spell would normally be able to effect you or not or regardless of any protection you might have. For these purposes, the target counts as the caster. Therefore, a spell that only effects animals would still have its effect on a nonanimal caster. Also, a fated fireball that deals 20 damage to a target deals 20 damage to the caster even if the caster has elemental protection on. Spells that are mind-affecting, have no save, or require concentration cannot by fated. Should the target give up his save, no feedback occurs. Should the spell be dismissed, or be dispelled on either of them, its is dispelled for both of them. A fated spell takes up a spell slot equal to the spell's normal level.
--That feat is a mouthful, but its important to clarify it. Personally, I'd much rather see interesting feats that are a bit wordy and nitty gritty then boring feats with just a few sentences. The first problem with this feat was the dual domination problem, where but caster and target are dominated by each other. There was a few ways to get around it, but none were very clean, so I opted to drop those kinds of spells from its use. Second, was to make sure people didn't cheese this with buff spells to get two for one. I think I made that clear enough. Lastly I debated between, no spell increase and a +1- mainly because there's definately some instances where the penalty to the target may be worse then the same penalty on the caster. However, I opted for +0 because wizards and clerics would have to figure it out before hand.. which means they may get into situations where that spell would actually hurt them worse. For bards and sorcs, my personal belief is metamagic should be better for sorcs than wizards, it helps set them apart. So I allow the sorc to have a bit more power in this case.
Link Spell [Metamagic]
You physically connect yourself with your spell, taking its punishment to give it great durability.
Benefit: You create a physical link between you and the spell. For the duration of the link, any damage the spell recieves is transfered fully or partially to you. Every round on your turn you may decide to take half or all of the spell's damage. In addition, if the spell is successfully dispelled, you may choose to girder the spell. You take 1d8 points of damage per spell level of the linked spell (which includeds metamagic mods and cannot be negated by any protection) but the spell remains unharmed. This allows a spell to survive in an antimagic field, however, whenever a spell enters an antimagic field, or for every round it remains in the field you take the above damage. The link does not prevent counterspelling. Maintaining the link requires concentration and can be maintained at medium range. The link may be dropped at any time but cannot be restablished. A linked spell requires a spell slot one level higher than normal.
Special: Using a linked spell two levels higher than the spell's normal level allows the link to be maintained at long range.
--I have a cool story that goes with this feat... but I'll post that in a seperate post as to not clog up space. One of my favorite feats, I like the idea for conjurers, especially summoners. The biggest worry for me was whether the power to girder spells against dispels and antimagic fields was too powerful. But I figured since its concentration and you take a few d8's it balances out. I also like customizable metamagics, you you'll notice several points of customability in the feat.
