Metamagic: -CL rather than +SL ??

[Malin Genie]

Here's an idea I've been tossing around, and its only in the early stages but I'd appreciate any comments, pointing out possible abuses, and help balancing it.

The idea is to have metamagic not alter the level of the spell cast. Instead, it reduces the effective caster level of the spell (which of course cannot be reduced below that which would be necessary to cast a spell of that level in the first place.)

As an example, Maximise Spell might be -6 CL rather than +3 SL. So a 14th level caster could cast a maximised fireball as a 3rd level spell, but all parameters (range, damage, ease of counterspelling) are determined as if he were an 8th level caster (so it would do 48 damage.) A 10th level caster could not maximise the fireball as his effective level would be reduced to 4, too low to cast a 3rd level spell.

The idea would be to have the reduction in CL equal to twice the increase in SL in general - if particular metamagic feats would prove over- or under-powered with this change, then the CL adjustment could be tweaked. For example, Extend Spell might be -3 or -4 rather than -2, because the kind of spell it is used on often doesn't have level-dependent parameters other than duration itself.

If we look at its application to the much-abused persistent divine favour / divine power - although a cleric casting these would only expend 1st and 4th level slots respectively, the bonus granted (at -8 or so caster level) would be more modest - an 18th level cleric could get +3 to hit and damage (rather than +6) and the BAB granted would only be +10, worse than his original BAB...

 

[Al]

The problem would be non-CL variable spells. For example, Persistent Shield- it doesn't matter what level it is cast at. Similarly, Maximised Time Stop (ouch...) and other such spells. How about 4xExtended Hold Person, or Confusion?

Moreover, due to damage capping, eventually even Metamagicked CL variable spells will be at full efficacy. For example, a 16th level caster can cast a Maximised Fireball doing 60 damage as a 3rd level spell; at the moment, it is a 6th level spell.

Personally, I think that this is a very bad idea.

 

[Spatzimaus]

To reinforce what Al said, realize that every "Dispel Magic" will be Still and Silent. Hold Person and Silence would be MUCH easier to deal with then.

Wow, here's a scary one... Heighten Disintegrate. Caster level means basically nothing for this spell, so just keep dropping CLs to increase its save DC.

A while back I was trying to balance a sort of "Power Attack" for magic for my campaign, where the caster could trade 2 CL for +1 save DC when casting a spell. The problem was, many spells (Hold Person, for example) just aren't hurt badly by dropping CL. Then we tried making it only apply to damage spells, but between damage caps (a level 20 Wizard casting Fireball with +5 DC? Even if you only let it apply once, there's still no downside) and Psions (most of their damage spells don't scale with level) we eventually just dropped it.