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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteelDraco" data-source="post: 1378665" data-attributes="member: 359">Chill, man. Nobody's saying you're a bad DM or anything. You had a problem, and people are offering observations and suggestions based on the problem you outlined. You didn't say "I think the metamagic system is basically flawed, what do you guys think about this alternate method?" You said that a specific problem was occurring regularly, and you were thinking about changing the rules as a result of that problem. People were just offering thoughts on the problem you were having.Metamagic is a wonky system, and one of the things you see talked about in the House Rules forum the most. I still haven't found a system that I think works particularly well while retaining the Vancian spell slots. Metamagic's simple in a spell point system, but there just isn't enough different things you can do with spell slots to make it work well. It's rarely worthwhile to use a slot two or three levels higher for a metamagicked spell, since there will almost always be better choices at that level. Only when an effect isn't duplicated by higher level spell is  it really useful to use metamagic, which is why Magic Missile gets used so often - it's unavoidable, auto-hitting force damage, which is probably the best damage type in the game. Upon reflection, your idea has a problem in that it doesn't make any distinction based on the level of the spell that's being modified. An Empowered Magic Missile and an Empowered Meteor Swarm both just use up a spell slot of their normal level and a 2nd level slot, but the Empowered Meteor Swarm gets a whole heck of a lot more mileage out of that 2nd level slot. You might try writing up a few spell lists with your system, and comparing them to a standard spellcaster.</blockquote>

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