Playing with Metamagic feats

[Quartz]

Metamagic feats are fun. They make spellcasters more versatile and interesting to play. But the cost for wizards - a prepared spell slot of much higher level - is very significant. So IME they really don't come in to play for wizards until L9+, usually later. Much later when the wizard is multiclassd. Sorcerors are a different matter.

So, has anyone got a way of fitting in metamagic feats without using higher level spell slots? My first thought was to make it a difficult Spellcraft skill check, but that would be obviated by magic items which give bonuses to Spellcraft. Concentration checks fail on the same grounds. Adjusting save DCs or giving an attack penalty doesn't get to be orthogonal and so fails the KISS principle. Backlash (q.v. ELH) seems good, but how large should the backlash be? 1d6 per level of the spell + 1d6 per LA (e.g. 3d6 for maximise, so 6d6 for a Maximised Fireball)?

 

[FireLance]

One idea I had was to require the spellcaster to spend swift actions over a number of rounds to apply a metamagic feat to a spell, say 2 swift actions per spell level adjustment of the metamagic feat, and a move action can be used for one of these swift actions. A spellcaster who wants to Empower a spell can thus cast a spell and spend two swift actions in the first round of combat, and then another two swift actions to Empower the spell he casts in the second round of combat. This has the additional benefit of preventing spellcasters from opening up with multiply metamagiced spells in the first round of combat.

In the special case of Quicken, a Quickened spell is cast at -6 caster level.

 

[el-remmen]

Metamagic feats in my games can be applied on the fly by arcane casters (divine ones still need to prepare them that way ahead of time) - but instead of taking up higher slots, they are limited to a certain # of uses per day, and are limited as if they were higher level spells.

For example, if a meta-magic feat normally counts as if 2 levels higher and the highest level spell you can cast is 5th level, then the maximum level spell you can use the feat on would be 3rd.

 

[GreatLemur]

I always dug the idea of metamagic spells, myself. That is, separate spells of a fixed level--equal to the level increase for applying the analogous metamagic feat--that you cast right before the spell that you want it to modify. So extend spell would be a 1st-level spell, and in order to cast an extended invisibility, you'd only be expending a 1st-level spell and a 4th-level spell, rather than one 5th-level spell. And, of course, you could combine regular spells and metaspells however you please, so the wizard would get sorcerer-like flexibily with metamagic. The down side, of course, would be spending that additional action (usually a standard, I'd think, although quicken spell should be a swift action) to cast the metaspell.

 

[Destil]

I've been allowing limited free usage of meta-magic to reduce some of the opportunity cost of the feats. From my house rules:

Metamagic

You can stack the same meta-magic feat onto a spell more than once. Multiplicative benefits are of course handled additively (a triple extend gives you a spell with 4x the original duration and requires a spell slot three levels higher than the original).

When you take a metamagic feat you gain bonus spell levels per day that can be used only to power metamagic feats. You gain a number of bonus spell levels equal to the cost to use the feat once (so Empower Spell gives you 2 bonus spell levels and Extend Spell gives you 1 bonus spell level). You may spend these bonus spell levels power a metamagiced spell without raising the spell level. You can not use this to cast a spell that would require a spell slot higher than the maximum level of a spell you can normally cast.

All metamagic feats (except Heighten Spell) have a prerequesite that you must be able to cast spells of the same level of the increase in order to take them. So Empower Spell has the added prerequesite of requiring you to cast 2nd level spell, Silent Spell requires you to be able to cast 1st level spells, et cetera.

Example: A 5th level wizard with the feats Extend Spell and Empower Spell would have 3 bonus spell levels to spend when she prepares spells.
She could prepare 3 1st level spells that are extended each using a 1st level spell slot.
She could prepare a single 1st level spell that’s empowered and a 2nd level spell that’s extended using a 1st and a 2nd level spell slot respectively.
She could prepare a triply extended 0th level light spell (that would last 40 min per level: 3 hours 20 min) using a 0th level spell slot.
She could not prepare an empowered 2nd level spell because that would normally be a 4th level spell, higher than the maximum spell level she can cast (3rd).


I explored the idea of 1/2 level increases, allowing a cantrip to be used as well to cover the 1/2 level increase here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=196338, but the thread got a bit derailed and there hasn't been much comment on that idea (my own fault for the title, I suppose). It's also an attempt to reduce the opportunity cost of a feat.

Here's what I'm considering:

Eschew Components - Includes all benefits of Eschew Materials. Also allows still or silent spell as +1/2 level each.

Flexible Spell - You can use Widen Spell, Extend Spell, Enlarge Spell.

Augmented Spell - You can use Empower Spell, Heighten Spell, Maximize Spell.

Quicken Spell - Worth a feat on its own, Grants 4 bonus metamagic levels per day. Sorcerers can use it with the following.

Sudden Metamagic - Allows a spontaneous spellcaster to metamagic Cha Mod + 3 spells / day without extending the casting time. Bonus feat for Sorcerers at level 1.

 

[Kaledor]

Metamagic feats in my games can be applied on the fly by arcane casters (divine ones still need to prepare them that way ahead of time) - but instead of taking up higher slots, they are limited to a certain # of uses per day, and are limited as if they were higher level spells.

For example, if a meta-magic feat normally counts as if 2 levels higher and the highest level spell you can cast is 5th level, then the maximum level spell you can use the feat on would be 3rd.

This is one of the suggestions in Unearthed Arcana. It's the method we use in my games (both as player and DM) and all of the casters really like it. It makes metamagics a little more useful and spellcasters feel that there's a little more value in actually taking the feats. They're never abused -- and IMO seem to make more sense: the spellcaster has learned how to alter their spells in the same way that a fighter learns how to alter their attacks (Power, Cleave...). You don't see fighters "memorizing" that the 4th attack of the day will be powered!

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I considered, but never actually tried out, the following (which was based on something that Chris Haines wrote, using Spellcraft as the basis for the check):

Whenever a spellcaster wants to alter a spell with one or more metamagic effects, he makes a "Metamagic Check". The Metamagic check is equal to 1d20 plus the Spellcaster Level plus the Spellcasting Attribute Modifier. The DC of this check is equal to 11 plus twice the spell's level plus the metamagic modifier. A successful check means that the spell was successfully modified by the metamagic effect(s). If the check fails, then the spellcasting fails, but the spell is not lost.

In general, the metamagic modifier for a given metamagic feat can be found by adding 1 to twice the spell slot increase. For instance, a maximized spell takes up a spell slot three levels higher than the original spell... From this we can determine that the metamagic modifier of Maximize Spell is 7 (three times two, plus one). Likewise, the metamagic modifier of Quicken Spell is 9 (four times two plus one), since a quickened spell takes up a spell slot four higher than the original spell. Some metamagic effects are variable, and have a variable modifier. Heighten Spell, for instance. The modifier for these sorts of metamagic effects can generally be found by adding two for each multiple of the effect, and then adding one again. For instance, to heighten a spell by three levels, you would add a metamagic modifier of seven (three times two plus one).

Chain Spell: +7
Contingent Spell: +11
Reach Spell: +5
Empower Spell: +5
Enlarge Spell: +3
Extend Spell: +3
Heighten Spell: Variable modifier, see below.
Mass Spell: +9
Maximize Spell: +7
Quicken Spell: +9
Silent Spell: +3
Still Spell: +3
Suppress Spell: +7
Twin Spell: +9
Widen Spell: +7

With this system, neither prepared casters nor spontaneous casters need to spend feats to gain access to metamagic or prepare spells with metamagics in advance.

One flaw of the systems appears to be that low level spells would almost always be worth it to apply some metamagic effects to at higher levels. Applying metamagic effects to higher level spells, or applying more metamagic effects to spells ran the risk of the spellcaster doing nothing for the round, which worked out nicely... But that risk become pretty much nonexistant for some of the lower level spells.

Later
silver

 

[Nifft]

Use Meta-Tokens of some kind, with one token equal to one spell level increase, and (as others have stated) prohibit casting meta-spells with total spell-level + token-cost greater than the highest spell you could normally cast.

The meta-tokens refresh each day when you prepare spells.

Extend Spell, Still Spell, Silent Spell, Energy Substitution [Metamagic]
Benefit: You can use the feat in question, costing one token per use. You gain two meta-tokens.

Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, Widen Spell [Metamagic]
Prereqs: Any other metamagic feat.
Benefit: You can use the feat in question, costing two tokens per use. You gain one meta-token.

Quicken Spell [Metamagic]
Prereqs: Any other metamagic feat.
Benefit: You can use Quicken Spell. You don't gain any tokens.

Extra Meta-Tokens
Prereqs: Any metamagic feat.
Benefit: You gain four meta-tokens.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

... or something like that.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Quartz]

So, no love for backlash?

 

[Nifft]

Backlash: no love. There's enough ways to get temporary hit points that it's prone to abuse by some.

How about a caster level check instead? Those are harder to boost (relative to skill checks).

Cheers, -- N