Sculpt Spell

[Mavrik]

Hi
My player came to me having been on the boards and seen that Sculpt spell was an oft voted for feat when list of good metamagic feats appear.

We had a discussion about it ....

The feat allows you to change the shape of a spell... line to ball... cylinder to cone etc.
But...
It doesnt say as a wizards you can do this on the fly... is it reasonable to suppose that the feat allows you to prepare the spell (if you are a wizards /cleric etc) with the new area you decide upon, with a 1 spell level cost... or do people think that it allows you to prepare a spell sculpted at a 1 level cost and then as you cast it decide on the area is takes up

I suppose one of the main reasons for this thought is that we just recently ruled that MetaRods work the former way and that you use the rod in the morning to prepare the spells with the appropriate effect rather than pass it around the party in combat using spells already in memory...and this seems the same thing

Thoughts would be cool... just so my player doesnt think I'm picking on him again

Mavrik

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm not completely confident about this idea, but I would say it should be allowed to choose the shape at the casting time, not at the preparation time.

The feat may in some occasion increase the total area, but generally I think it does not (tho of course the point in changing the shape is usually to affect more targets), and the most flexible shape (the multicube shape) typically results in a smaller area.

If there was a metamagic feat that let you changed all your area spells into a fixed shape (same area), it would be very similar in power to Energy Substitution which lets you change all your energy spells into a fixed energy type, and that has +0 cost.

So my conclusion is that the +1 cost for Sculpt Spell should include the option of shaping the spell in real time when casting it.

 

[Mavrik]

Thanks Li

How do you rule the meta rods .. on the fly or prepared?

 

[Mavrik]

Just wondering cos all these feats have the same inflection..... do you allow energy substituion to change on the fly?

I dont think any of the feats (that I can think of) allow on the fly changing thats the role of the sorceror... the wizards spells are prepared ahead of time, and thats kinda what the feats imply.

If not your enroaching alot in to the area where the sorc at least gets a look in

Mav

 

[Thanee]

Prepared. The rules quite strongly suggest so, by saying, that they are used as the regular feats.

Besides, they are better balanced between spontaneous and prepared casters that way. The spontaneous casters keep their disadvantage (longer casting time) as well.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Li Shenron]

Just wondering cos all these feats have the same inflection..... do you allow energy substituion to change on the fly?

Energy Substitution only gives one option, nothing to choose on the fly! You can have Energy Substitution (Fire) which turns any other energy into fire, but Energy Substitution (Cold) is a different feat when you apply it. So the Wiz either applies ES(Fire) or ES(Cold) at preparation and that's it.

 

[Li Shenron]

Prepared. The rules quite strongly suggest so, by saying, that they are used as the regular feats.

Besides, they are better balanced between spontaneous and prepared casters that way. The spontaneous casters keep their disadvantage (longer casting time) as well.

Do you require the shape of Sculpt to be chosen at preparation?

 

[werk]

I require that spells be prepared with the metamagic, as per the description of metamagic feats in the SRD. That applies to energy substitution or scult spell.

 

[shilsen]

Do you require the shape of Sculpt to be chosen at preparation?

Can't speak for Thanee, but I'd say "No".

 

[Mistwell]

Prepared. The rules quite strongly suggest so, by saying, that they are used as the regular feats.

Besides, they are better balanced between spontaneous and prepared casters that way. The spontaneous casters keep their disadvantage (longer casting time) as well.

Bye
Thanee

You're kidding, right? I have to choose exactly the spot to protect using sculpt spell at the time of preparation? Gimme a break! Better balanced, more like totally destroyed for one class. It means Wizards essentially CANNOT take a whole host of feats because without perfect knowledge of the future the feats are useless.

You prepare the spell in advance with the feat, but you do not prepare the result in advance. The result is you can scupt the spell at casting - you don't prep the shape as well in advance.