Arcanist - a Sorcerer variant

[Grayhawk]

Khaalis, you believe the 9 feats are too powerful.

What if the feats were not given, but could be used *only* with the allowance given. (ChaMod + 3)

With Cha 20, I could only Quicken 2 spells. If I want to quicken more than that, I would have to get the feat.

??

Maybe my write up isn't quite clear, but that's actually how it's supposed to work.

In my revised Spontaneous Metamagic mechanic you actually only get Cha bonus worth of level adjustments to be spend on any metamagic feat. You still know all the (9) metamagic feats, but can only use them a very limited times. The feat I created would then grant you extra level adjustments to apply (see the 4th post from the top).

But even though it's pretty limited, I'm still afraid that it's too big a benefit to be able to apply these extra level adjustments to all of the metamagic feats.

Actually, I'm so concerned with overpowering this Sorcerer variant, that I'm about to drop the idea all together. I think that the free Eschew Materials and one extra spell known for each spell level from one of the UA domains may just be enough.

I'd still like to add something extra governed by the Cha stat, but it needs to be more of a flavor boost than a power boost.

Maybe allowing for the Arcanist to either Still or Silent a spell Cha bonus number of times per day? Doing both would cost double. More uses would require the feats to be bought normally. Using this special ability should propably function like metamagic feats normally do, meaning both increased casting time and the spending of higher level spell slots.

This way you don't get the added complexity of having two different mechanics governing metamagic when the normally bought feats are used.

Thoughts?

 

[Grayhawk]

After giving various spontaneous metamagic mechanics some thought, I've found that I feel the core way of having them take up higher level spell slots is the best way to balance them.

Thus, my Sorcerer variant will have to learn and cast metamagic feats the old fashioned way.

But each day he'll get to apply Cha bonus worth of level adjustments from known metamagic feats without an increase in casting time.

Thus, an Arcanist with a Cha of 18 (+4) and Empower Spell (+2 level adjustment) can cast 2 empowered spells a day without increasing casting time. Extra uses would require extra CT as usual. If he had Quicken Spell (+4 LA), he would only be able to use it once per day, twice with a Cha of 26 (+8), etc.