Asking the Experts: Best Metamagic Feat?

[Saeviomagy]

Some people rave about Sculpt Spell, but I haven't used it myself. Only a +1 adjustment to make spells go exactly where you want (sort of).

Sculpt spell is ideal for any kind of blasting mage. Fireball normally hits a 20ft radius, making it unusable in many dungeons.

Sculpted fireball hits 4 10ft cubes, which usually is just perfect for covering your enemies and not your friends.

It also works on a whole bunch of spells, giving real benefits.

Next up, explosive from Unapproachable East looks pretty good - pushes enemies to the edge of the blast. Nice for battlefield control.

 

[foxylady]

Epic makes a difference

Quicken? Couldn't disagree more. You are burning high level slots for very low level effects. Just Flamestrike away.

Once you hit Epic, being able to Quicken your spells without expending higher level slots becomes, to put it mildly, the cat's meow, especially for sorcerors.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Once you hit Epic, being able to Quicken your spells without expending higher level slots becomes, to put it mildly, the cat's meow, especially for sorcerors.

yeah but since you got to wait till epic for this feat to not be a crap feat, the feat really just sucks hard.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

[Quicken] really just sucks hard.

In D&D combat (including magic), attack actions are currency. People still underestimate how valuable getting two spells a round is, even if one of them is a low-level spell like magic missile or web.

Still, in terms of "power" I have to put Energy Substitution just ahead of Quicken. Being able to lay down sonic fireballs and lightning bolts has saved my group's collective ass many times.

 

[Crothian]

For sorcerers in 3.5: The psuedo quicken feat in the miniatures handbook is a real candidate,

What is the psuedo quicken feat?

 

[Camarath]

What is the psuedo quicken feat?

Sudden Quicken - 1/d you may apply Quicken Spell feat to any spell you cast, without increasing the level of the spell or specially preparing it ahead of time

 

[Michael Tree]

Quicken spell is useful only for higher level characters, and then only for certain types of builds. Until epic levels it's fairly useless for offensive spells, especially ones that have saving throws or damage based on level, but it's always great for buffing spells. To a melee cleric, a 5th level spell for a quickened Divine Favor is invaluable, and a wizard casting a quickened Haste on his allies at the beginning of combat can drastically change the nature of the combat.

 

[pawsplay]

Sudden Quicken.

 

[diaglo]

There's no better think tank for d20 games' mechanics (IMO) than the EN World Rules Forum participants. So I am asking the experts...

What is the best Metamagic Feat and why?

If you have qualifiers that make one better than another for a given situation, circumstance, class, etc., please also include that in your analysis.

Thank you in advance!

how about a novice answer. i don't even know if this is a metamagic feat. but i have seen nearly every spellcaster take it:

spellcasting prodigy.

it must be broken since it is usually the first feat they all take. even more than improved init (which we know the designers have a thing for considering it is by far the most taken feat in the MM)