A New Take on Metamagic

[airwalkrr]

Things to look for:

- Watch for automatic successes. That wizard with +8 will have +11 at level 4, and ALL her 1st level spells can be automatically Extended for example. At level 10 she will automatically empower all her 1st level spells, but she can also automatically extend or silent all her spells up to 3rd.

True, and that is kind of the point. I don't think it breaks the game horribly if this is allowed. It still costs a feat and makes your lower-level spells a bit more valuable. Would you really worry that a 10th level wizard can empower all her 1st level spells when she could be casting cone of cold on you instead? I would much rather be the target of an empowered burning hands than cone of cold. Bad guys won't benefit too much from this rule for that reason, until you get to the point where the bad guy automatically quickens 1st level spells; at that point, 1st level spells are often moot in their power, but might give the bad guy the kind of staying power he needs to stay around longer (i.e. shield).

- Lots of rolls. Failure by 5 or more is the only mechanism that puts some limit here, but if the Wizard knows that she cannot fail by more than 4 (which means she's probably 4 or less levels from an automatic success), then trying to use the metamagic feat is a no-brainer.

You have two good points here. The addition of a lot of rolls may make the game a bit cumbersome for spellcasters. That will take some playtesting to sort out. Your other point about metamagic becoming a no-brainer in some cases is addressed above. The only ones that will typically become no-brainers are relatively low-level and thus not generally a problem.

- No rules for using more than one metamagic with the same spell, is it forbidden?

Yes, actually. Under this system you cannot use more than one metamagic on the same spell. However, one could easily extrapolate the rules to come up with a fair way to do this. Say +5 to the DC for adding Extend, Enlarge, +10 to the DC for adding Empower, Maximize, etc.

- You need a cap for Heighten.

Good point. Heighten spell would merely increase the DC to that of the highest spell level you are capable of casting.