new feat: spell addition (metamagic)

[Scion]

He could have traded fire shield and stoneskin for fireball and cone of cold, and still gotten displacement, blink, and mirror image.

True, but good luck hitting many people with them, given that the spells will come into effect at the beginning of the casters next turn

As for brokenness, I posit that the purpose of giving buffing spells a limited duration is to reward those who expend the time and energy necessary to know when a fight will happen.

So, the ability to be incredibly overpowering in assult, but having nothing for defense, is built into the game and should not be questioned? harsh.

You dont always have the luxury of knowing when a fight will happen, in fact those time that you do know I would put under the special category of 'almost never'. After all, if it is a true ambush type of situation then the other party has already gone through the effort and time and energy to make it so that you 'dont' know.

If you see having buffs before going into combat as being an inherent part of class balance, then we're just going to talk past each other forever and I think we might as well discontinue the debate.

Yes, that is why a certain class only gets spells, d4 hd, one good save, and a pet and is considered 'balanced'. Because they could, with those spells, they can do a great deal. With them they can even be almost up to par for anyone else, so long as that anyone else isnt heavily specialized, but only for a short time. However, if 6 spells last for 6 rounds each, and you need to cast 6 buffs to get up to that point, then you just cant do it.

We are coming from different areas of experience I am sure, I wish to diminish the overwhelmingness of surprise rounds (even with this it is still incredibly deadly for whoever is being ambushed, so no worries about them getting too soft), and for a good option of things to do. Much better than the lackluster quicken if at all possible.

I would like to see if anyone else has any opinions on the subject either way though, preferably with some examples as well, but this is a hard subject to get examples for.

 

[rkanodia]

Like I said before, we're talking past each other. And, like I said before, I still think that the top half of Spell Addition (cast two spells at once, for a slot of level equal to their sum plus one) is a fine feat. That's my opinion, and I've provided my justifications for it. However, the thread is wandering off of its original topic. Perhaps you should examine the way your game is run; adjudication of what exactly constitutes being 'unaware' is largely in the DM's hands, but there aren't many circumstances under which a potential surprise victim should be denied Spot and Listen checks to figure out what's going on. If you still think surprise rounds are too good, then go ahead and use the feat in your game. It's your game, after all.

 

[Scion]

spot and listen check? That would allow for a round, or two, at most. Which is not sufficient time for what you are advocating.

If you are down to the spot check already then the game is already afoot, not going to happen far enough in advance to cast all of those spells.

In order to have enough time you need about a minute before combat starts, no less, and if you have more but the amount of time until battle is indeterminant that is just as bad in the other direction. So it would still be bad, and not a useful solution.

So you like the first half of the feat, that is good at least. I should probably change that part back to being at least a standard action, and the second part to make it at least a full round action though. Even more flexibility. Good stuff.