Redesigned Metamagic Feats

[Tilenas]

While looking at the different spells, it occurred to me that most had very distinct ranges, durations, and areas of effect. Sometimes these would scale with caster level, sometimes not. I decided to simplify the process and reduce the number of possibilities for each category.
Along with this, I redesigned the core metamagic feats. They now increase certain spell characteristics not by percentage value, but rather by categories.
For some it seems to work well, while others prove problematic. Some examples for first group:

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Extend Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast spells that last longer than normal.
Benefit: The spell's duration is increased by one category. A spell with a duration of concentration, instantaneous, or permanent is not affected by this feat. An extended spell uses up two additional spell slots of the same level or higher. The categories are: 10 rounds (1 minute) - 10 minutes - 1 hour - 6 hours - 1 day - 1 week.

Quicken Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast a spell with a moment’s thought.
Benefit: The spell's casting time is reduced by one category. A quickened spell usesup three additional spell slots of the same level or higher. The categories are: ritual (longer than 1 round) - 1 round - 1 standard action - 1 swift action.

Enlarge Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast spells farther than normal.
Benefit: The spell's range is increased by one category. An enlarged spell uses up two additional spell slots of the same level or higher. The categories are: personal - touch - 30 feet - 100 feet - 300 feet

Heighten Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast a spell at a higher effect level.
Benefit: A heightened spell is cast at +1 effect level.

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I replaced caster level with effect level. Effect level increases by one every two class levels. Every effect level has some effect on the spell, and is found in the spell's description, e.g.:

Cure Light Wounds
Necromancy (Healing)
Level: Clr 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: Standard
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Save: Will half (harmless)
Level 1: When laying your hand upon a living creature, you channel positive energy that cures 1d8 points of damage plus a number of points equal to your Cha-bonus, if applicable.
Level 3: You can channel positive energy into a single creature within a 30 feet radius.
Level 5: You cure 2d8 points of damage plus a number of points equal to your Cha-bonus, if applicable.
Level 7: Instead of healing one target within reach, you can cure all creatures within 15 feet of you.

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I haven't figured out how to apply this approach to metamagic to empower/maximize spell, and silent/still spell feats. Any ideas?
Also, please speak your mind on the whole issue (or issues) of caster level and metamagic. Do you think my system simplifies it a bit? Oversimplifies it maybe? Did you think the RAW needed a patch-up in the first place? All comments welcome!

 

[Kerrick]

That's an interesting take on it. It's kind of what I did for my revision of the epic spellcasting system - you can increase the time increment for a level increase, e.g.

If you're going with effect level, empower is easy - simply increase the effect level by 2-3. Empower can stay the same, really, as can still/silent - the last two don't change any variable effects.

 

[Tilenas]

So I'll integrate empower, alongside heighten, with effect level:

Heighten Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast a spell at a slightly higher effect level.
Benefit: A heightened spell is cast at +1 effect level. It uses up one additional spell slot of the same level or higher. [Forgot that last part earlier]

Empower Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast a spell at a higher effect level.
Prerequisite: Heighten Spell
Benefit: An empowered spell is cast at +2 effect level. It uses up three additional spell slot of the same level or higher.

I don't know if it would be feasible to also include maximize spell in there because:
- I was looking for effect level to not go beyond level 17 (or whenever a class gets its highest-level spells). Thus, at high class levels, your low-level spells are already "maxed out" and your high-level spells can't be improved much further. Thus, the feats won't be nearly as useful as at earlier levels
- One design goal is to make low-level spells a real option throughout an adventurer's career. The same should apply to feats. The question is whether characters will still use heighten spell once they have empower. I made the "lower" feat a prereq for the "higher" because players shouldn't be able to skip it and wait for the big one. On the other hand, it might be overly harsh to force them to invest two feats. Difficult...

...
As for still and silent:

Subtle Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast spells without verbal or somatic components.
Benefit: A subtle spell can be cast without the use of words or gestures. Each omitted component causes the spell to use up one addtional spell slot of the same level or higher.

In line with my last concern above, two feats that do virtually the same thing (casting spells secretly or when tied/gagged), each for a subset of spells, should be rolled up into one.

 

[Kerrick]

1:1 (Heighten) is a much better value than 2:3 (Empower), IMO. If it were up to me, I'd never bother taking Empower, especially not with the prereq. I'd change it to 3:2 (+3 effect levels for +2 spell levels). They're really redundant - I'd ditch one (probably Heighten) and keep the other.

Subtle Spell looks good. Very elegant.

As for a cap: Set it high enough that PCs won't easily reach it, but just enough so that they can reasonably achieve any combination of feats they want. For example, if you want to be able to empower and maximize L9 spells, set the cap at 25. It's just like encounter levels - while they might never reach epic levels, they'll be fighting epic creatures at L19-20, so you should account for them.

 

[Hawken]

Instead of sacrificing spell slots of equal level, I'd suggest a number of slots equal to the metamagic level increase. For example, you want an enlarged Fireball. Enlarge spell requires a 2 level increase, or a 2 slot expenditure. Instead of having to "waste" three 3rd level slots for 1 enlarged Fireball, you sacrifice one 2nd level or two 1st level slots and get your Fireball enlarged.

If you want to quicken a Cone of Cold, instead of having to deplete your 5th level (or higher) slots, you scratch off 3 levels of slots (three 1st level, a 2nd and 1st, or a 3rd level) and get your Cone of Cold. Modifying a single spell has never been worth higher level slots or even more equal level slots. Also, at progressively higher levels, low level spells have reduced effectiveness or application, so they're not going to be 'missed' nearly as much as a slot of equal or greater level. And you're not going to slit your own throat either. A quickened disintegrate, in this system would require a total of four 6th level slots. That's a one-shot deal and if your target saves or resists, you've pretty much wiped out an entire spell level worth of magic in a single action!

An even easier solution (for metamagic) is a point based system. Assign point values to spell levels (1pt for 1st level, 3 points for 2nd level, etc.). Tally your points by converting the number of spells per level per day you get into points (a 3rd level wizard would have 4 points; two points for one 2nd level and two points for two 1st level spells per day). Then assign point values for the metamagic.

One level increase (Subtle spell) = 1 point.
Two level increase (Extend, Enlarge, Empower Spell) = 3 points.
Three level increase (Quicken Spell) = 5 points.

So, you want to cast a Quickened Fireball. That's a 3rd level spell (5 points) plus another 5 points for Quicken Spell, granting you a Quickened Fireball for 10 points. If you have only 30 points for spells per day, that's an important decision, but still do-able. Even if you have 150 points to spend on spells, that's still an important decision, but its not going to prevent you from casting other spells of the same level or force you to cast a low-mid level spell as a high level spell just to change a single factor.

I also like the way you combined Still Spell and Silent Spell into Subtle Spell. Very smooth.

I agree with Kerrick on the Empower. Making Heighten a requirement is ok with me (take it or leave it), but you should keep Empower's effects as listed (increase variables by 50%), not this +2 effect level stuff. That doesn't mean much at all compared to what you're expecting players to give up for it.

 

[Tilenas]

1:1 (Heighten) is a much better value than 2:3 (Empower), IMO. If it were up to me, I'd never bother taking Empower, especially not with the prereq. I'd change it to 3:2 (+3 effect levels for +2 spell levels). They're really redundant - I'd ditch one (probably Heighten) and keep the other.

I agree with Kerrick on the Empower. Making Heighten a requirement is ok with me (take it or leave it), but you should keep Empower's effects as listed (increase variables by 50%), not this +2 effect level stuff. That doesn't mean much at all compared to what you're expecting players to give up for it.

Just by eyeballing it, I was afraid empower would become too powerful. Guess it shows how perceptions can differ. This calls for some playtesting! For the time being, I should probably stick to the stuff that works:

Empower Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast spells to greater effect.
Prerequisite: Heighten Spell
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of an empowered spell are increased by one-half. Saving throws and opposed rolls (such as the one you make when you cast dispel magic) are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. An empowered spell uses up two additional spell slot of the same level or higher.

Maximize Spell [Metamagic]
You can cast spells to maximum effect.
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of a spell modified by this feat are maximized. Saving throws and opposed rolls (such as the one you make when you cast dispel magic) are not affected, nor are spells without random variables. A maximized spell uses up three additional spell slot of the same level or higher.

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Also, at progressively higher levels, low level spells have reduced effectiveness or application, so they're not going to be 'missed' nearly as much as a slot of equal or greater level. And you're not going to slit your own throat either. A quickened disintegrate, in this system would require a total of four 6th level slots. That's a one-shot deal and if your target saves or resists, you've pretty much wiped out an entire spell level worth of magic in a single action!

My goal is to make low-level spells more useful at higher levels. I don't want a 13th level wizard to blast out his 5th-7th level spells and then call it a day. That's why I went for the "additional slots" system rather than the RAW "higher level slot".
To achieve that goal, you came up with a pretty good system yourself:

Instead of sacrificing spell slots of equal level, I'd suggest a number of slots equal to the metamagic level increase. For example, you want an enlarged Fireball. Enlarge spell requires a 2 level increase, or a 2 slot expenditure. Instead of having to "waste" three 3rd level slots for 1 enlarged Fireball, you sacrifice one 2nd level or two 1st level slots and get your Fireball enlarged.

If you want to quicken a Cone of Cold, instead of having to deplete your 5th level (or higher) slots, you scratch off 3 levels of slots (three 1st level, a 2nd and 1st, or a 3rd level) and get your Cone of Cold. Modifying a single spell has never been worth higher level slots or even more equal level slots.

Fuelling metamagic with lower level spell slots hasn't occurred to me before, but I like it. And it illustrates that my design goal hasn't necessarily to be about the low level spells, their spell slots do the trick just fine.
I'll give this system a thought.

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Your other system is halfway toward spell point magic, so I ask you: why not go all the way? Is it for balancing reasons or something else?

 

[Hawken]

I didn't go all the way because a spell point system for magic is kind of like sushi--people either hate it or love it, there's very little middle ground.

My suggestion though stems from my experience that metamagic tends to work better in a point based system rather than a slot based system. In a slot based system an empowered Ice Storm is never as good as a normal Chain Lightning--for example, so my players rarely ever tended to use metamagic. It just wasn't worth it. A modified low level spell is never as good as the higher level spell you have to lose to get it.

Even with your system, as originally mentioned, an Empowered Fireball is still far from worth it. Lets say the caster is 10th level. Empowering a Fireball involves a total of 3 3rd level slots or 30d6 worth of fireball damage (or 15-25 d6 if any saves are made). You're giving this up for 15d6 (or 7.5d6 on a save) fireball damage. There's absolutely no reason to do this from a numbers point of view. I'm not trying to re-hash anything, I just wanted to illustrate a numbers breakdown with what you proposed.

If you think Empower/Maximize make things too powerful, then use them "in reverse". Instead of increasing their maximum damage, increase their minimum damage! Like so:

Empowered Fireball: 15d6 fire damage, 7.5d6 on a save--0d6 on a save w/evasion, 7.5d6 on a failed save w/improved evasion.

Alternate Empowered Fireball: 2 dice of damage are converted to "arcane" damage. This damage ignores energy resistance/immunity, it is not affected by Evasion or Improved Evasion and is applied whether a saving throw is successful or not. So damage for a 10th level Empowered Fireball would look like: 8d6 fire damage, 2d6 arcane damage. On a save, 4d6 fire damage, 2d6 arcane damage. Evasion: 2d6 arcane damage on a successful save. Improved Evasion: On a good save, see Evasion; on a failed save, 4d6 fire damage, 2d6 arcane damage.

Evasion and Improved Evasion are fine against 'standard' spells, but if you're going to put slots, points or whatever into beefing up a spell, the last thing you want is anyone ignoring it. Plus it keeps rogue types competent and dangerous but they are no longer the anti-caster class able to casually shrug off spells that would decimate armies. I consider this to be a small step toward "un-nerfing" wizards.

I'd treat Maximize in a similar fashion, but making it unnecessary to combine it with Empower. So, Maximize would work normally, but 100% of the damage is arcane damage, so resistance and evasion will not work--but a saving throw would function normally in this case. This causes the spell to inflict either maximum damage (100%) or exactly half maximum (50%) damage on a successful save.

So here are my takes on Metamagic, using some of Tilenas' ideas:

HEIGHTEN SPELL
--Select a number of spell slots (up to 3 levels of slots) that you want to expend for this alteration. For each level of slot spent, your spell is treated as if it were 1 level higher. When spending only 1 slot, the save DC and caster level are each increased by +1. When spending 2 slots, the save DC and caster level are each increased by +3. When spending 3 slots, the save DC and caster level are increased by +6.

This can be applied to high level spells but no spell is treated as having more than 9 levels. The increase in save DC and caster level will still apply though.

A secondary benefit is increased maximum spell damage. A 3rd level Fireball that is Heightened by 2 levels would now (as a 5th level spell) have a damage cap of 15 dice instead of 10. An Empowered Heightened spell would convert one additional die to arcane damage--so, a 15th level Empowered Heightened Fireball would inflict 12d6 fire damage and 3d6 arcane damage.

EMPOWER SPELL
--Spend 2 spell level slots and you convert 1 dice of spell damage to arcane damage regardless of what type of damage is normally inflicted. One extra damage die is converted to arcane damage at 6th, 11th and 16th caster levels. This arcane damage ignores energy/damage resistance and immunity and is not affected by Evasion, Improved Evasion. Spell Resistance may apply if normally allowed.

This feat cannot be combined with Maximize Spell since both use arcane damage.

MAXIMIZE SPELL
--Spend 2 spell level slots and you convert all spell damage to arcane damage and inflict the maximum amount of damage possible. Like the Empower Spell feat, spells modified this way are not subject to Energy or Damage resistance or immunity. Evasion and Improved Evasion do not work on a Maximized spell either. However, saving throws, if allowed, work normally, as well as Spell Resistance. If a save is successful, then exactly 50% of the maximum damage is inflicted.

QUICKEN SPELL
--Spend 3 levels of spell slots (in any combination) to Quicken any spell. No more than 9 levels of spells can be cast in a single round. So, a wizard with a Quickened Lightning Bolt could also cast up to a 6th level spell normally.

SUBTLE SPELL
--Spend 1 level of spell slots to make a spell Subtle, not requiring Verbal or Somatic components. Alternately, the caster can spend a 0 level slot to remove the need for either Verbal or Somatic components, but not both.

EXTEND SPELL
--Spend up to 3 levels of spell slots (in any combination), to extend the duration of a spell. By spending 1 slot, the duration is doubled. Two spell level slots quadruples the duration, while 3 spell level slots increases the duration by 6 times. Durations cannot be extended beyond 12 hours in a 24 hour period.

WIDEN SPELL
--Spend 1 spell level slot to have a spell that affects one person now affect 2 people or targets. Spend 2 spell level slots to double the targets affected if the spell affects 1 target per caster level. Spend 3 spell level slots to double the area of effect of other spells.

ENLARGE SPELL
--Spend 1 spell level slot, or two 0 level slots, to double the range of a spell.

New Idea:
IMMEDIATE SPELL (Metamagic)
Requirement: Quicken Spell.
Benefit: You spend 4 levels of spell slots (in any combination) to make any spell up to 5th level an Immediate Spell. Where a Quickened Spell takes a free action to cast, an Immediate Spell can be cast as an Immediate action, at any point in a round whether its his turn to act or not. No more than 9 levels of spells can be cast in this manner, so this feat is limited to 5th level spells or lower.

New Idea:
DISMISS MATERIALS (Metamagic)
Requirement: Subtle Spell
Benefit: By spending a 0 spell level slot, you can cast a spell without material components as long as those components have no gold piece value. By spending 1 spell level slot, you can cast a spell without material components that have a value between 1gp and 999gp or up to 100xp. By spending 2 spell level slots, you can cast a spell without material components that have a value between 1,000gp and 4,999gp, or up to 499xp. By spending 3 spell level slots, you can cast a spell without material components that have a value of 5,000gp or more, or an xp cost over 500xp.

This feat can be used to eliminate the XP cost of creating magic items, when used in conjunction with Item Creation feats, however, doing so increases the time to create the item by 1 day per 50xp that would otherwise be spent.

New Idea:
Anytime 1 spell level slot can be spent to activate a metamagic feat, the caster can instead select two 0 level slots to use instead.

 

[Bladesinger_Boy]

Spellpoints with Metamagics, Cast-on-the-Fly (CotF)

If using additional slots (rather than high level slots) to power metamagics is the direction, I would want to avoid anyhting more than another slot of that level. If it gets too number-crunching about amount of spell slots saced, this lends itself much better to a spell/mana point system (as mentioned above). Spell Points mean all casters use Cast-on-the-Fly, which I am very in favor of.

In the LARP I play, NERO, you used to have to prepare your spells like a normla wizard like 15+ years ago I'm told. But I've been playing for 9 years and we've always used CotF. I think we tried to go back to it for one event so see how it played out, and it totally sucked: so much more prep work, so many prepared but useless spells, and casters (because they are forced to chose their spells) get discriminated against by way of what they did or did not prepare. NERO makes casters playout like D&D sorcerers, with spell slots from 1 to 9 using Cast-on-the-Fly rules.