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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sepulchrave II" data-source="post: 3075015" data-attributes="member: 4303">Random ThoughtsI think that himafaf (what an awful acronym; we need to find something else) - as an approximation - is supported by metamagic in general. It is generally conceded that a spell metamagicked to level X is not as effective as a spell native to level X - although it may shine in one particular area. A maximized fireball enjoys a window where it deals more damage than a dbf (12th-18th level for a wizard), but suffers in terms of its DC. Neither is it delayed - although Delay Spell seems massively overpriced at +3 spell levels.If there was no delayed blast fireball spell, its effects could only be replicated exactly by an epic level caster using metamagic on fireball: Heighten to 6th (+3), Enhanced by +10d6 (+4), Delayed (+3). This is a 13th level spell; it's an extreme example of the inefficiency of metamagic. It woulld take 7 applications of Improved Metamagic to bring this spell into competition with a regular dbf: perhaps delayed blast fireball was originally contrived by an epic-level sorcerer or wizard of this caliber.The more metamagic you add, the more inefficient the spell becomes, until you get Improved Metamagic. With greater and greater Improved Metamagic, the inefficiency begins to disappear, until it reaches a point where the metamagicked spell really is equivalent in power to a spell of that level, and finally to a point where it utterly surpasses it: no-one would argue that a native 4th-level dbf wasn't overpowered; it's illegal via the rules (because of the damage cap for a 4th-level spell), but possible for an epic wizard to replicate nonetheless.Feats which allow an exponential increase in one or more seed parameters do exactly what Improved Metamagic does, but their focus is much narrower (say the range and duration of a particular seed), and their effects much more extreme. Somehow, we need to find a way to balance this extreme focus against the breadth of utility offered by Improved Metamagic. This is tricky.</blockquote>

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