Sculpt Spell

[Shard O'Glase]

I know it would be great to be able to modify your spells on the fly with different areas as necessary with just a +1 level kick

But

I think thats a little good... I cant see anything wrong with a lets take fireball as a cone in the morning... or glitterdust in a line.

It not about how sucky other feats are its about balance for a +1 increase compared to other feats.

Now... if you want a sudden sculpt spell or an on the fly sculpt spell feat with say a +2 or +3 kick then thats a different argument. But as a +1 kick its too flexible compared to other +1 feats

Mav

actually +1 level seems perfectly right for a manipulable area of effect spell. Lets say you were designing a spell that effected an area that was 4th level. At 4th level its damage cap is 10d6 just like fireball. Fireball has a long range a large area of effect, exactly how would you make this spell better than a 3rd level spell. An unusual enery type like sonic maybe, or maybe you'd go kind of like firestorm and give it a manipulable area.

If its just fireball as a cone, then its a weak 4th level spell. You shouldn't use a matamagic feat to make your spell weaker than it was before. I mean sure that's how most metamagic feats work, I spend one of my precious and limited number of feats to learn metamagic feat X, I modify a spell using it and its now a weaker spell than other spells of that modifed level, whoo-hoo. Lets make sure all the metamagic feats suck like this one, can't let any of them escape our eye of suckatude.

 

[Jaerom Darkwind]

I'd say that you have to prepare the spell with a specific altered area. If that makes it sub-par for wizards, they can cry all they want while they cast two spells per round. Not every feat has to be spectacular for every class.

 

[Saeviomagy]

First off, I view Sculpt Spell as a little broken as is.

In my game, you cannot cast it on an area spell that has a lesser area then what Sculpt Spell grants. In other words, you cannot use it as a cheap way to Widen Spell a spell.

How do you work that? Do you count up how many squares the spell would have covered in it's original form and then ban the application of sculpt spell on any spell that has less than sculpt spell's area? Which version of sculpt? Or do you do it for a specific shape of sculpt when that shape is applied to a spell? Does the spell not work, or is it reduced? etc etc.

Secondly, the feat does not state that you can change the shape on the fly. Making "on the fly" changes is beyond the scope of what a +1 metamagic feat should do. That would be like putting Silent Spell and Still Spell and Eschew Materials into one +1 feat and then choosing the component you want to drop at the time of casting.

Yes, yes it would. Except that any of those three (excluding eschew, which is a freebie and not metamagic at all) are significantly more powerful than changing the shape of a spell, especially in a case-by-case basis, and with the additional restrictions you place on shape spell. You'd have to evaluate this new feat based on it's power.

Saying that some hypothetical feat with totally different uses is powerful, and therefore this feat is too powerful despite being only trivially similar is a bit of a crap argument. Wish is a spell. It's too powerful for a 1st level game. Dancing lights is also a spell. Clearly it's out of whack for a 1st level game.

Finally, I do not like the "4 cubes" option because it does not state how you can arrange the cubes (e.g. whether they have to touch on a side, a corner, or not at all, etc.). Plus, depending on arrangement, that can make an area effect spell nearly individual target level of targeting which virtually no other area effect spell has.

Like any other spell which has an area of "X 10ft cubes", or a notation of (S) for shapeable. The cubes have to be touching, and no feature of the area can be less than 10feet. That's a far cry from 'individual targeting'

I also think that the "metamagic range" counter argument is not very strong. Most spells allow for a range "up to x" and Enlarge spell increase the maximum range. That does not change the "up to x" portion of a range spell. The range variability is in the spell before applying the metamagic feat. That's an apples and oranges type of argument.

I'd disagree with that - the feat changes the range of the spell, not the maximum range. Certainly, almost any spell (except for a spherical burst or spread) determines it's actual shape at casting time (different directions for most of them, different arrangements for 10' cubes). It's just that usually the shape taken must be a certain class of shape.

Similarly, a spell which has two different forms need not have the form chosen at memorisation - a prime example is telekinesis. It has no text to suggest that the selection of form is performed explicitly at casting time, but I'm fairly certain that it works that way - I've yet to see any character anywhere ever written up with "telekinesis(violent thrust version)" on their list of memorized spells.

 

[Li Shenron]

It would be nice to know what level increase was decided by the authors when they chose to make a spell shapeable (S). I tried to check the DMG and T&B sections about researching spells, but I found nothing. Maybe someone could check Complete Arcane?

(edit)

BTW, those who require the shape be chosen beforehand (at preparation time). Do you actually have characters in your campaign using the feat and finding it useful?

I always considered the feat quite strong for +1, at least when compared with others such as Widen Spell (but at the same time I consider Widen to be overprices, definitely one of the most costly MM feat for the benefit, so it doesn't make a good comparison).

However, I see no point in preparing a cone-shaped fireball or a fireball-shaped lightning bolt, unless you do it to catch a couple of monsters more in the area, which you can do only when you see where the monsters are, so at casting time.
There could be some spells with small areas that benefit from re-shaping because the final area is larger, but a few spells should not be the reason to make a feat otherwise suck.

Just changing the shape at preparation for me it can't be worth more than +0 slot. Energy Substitution costs +0 for the same reason, because you cannot know for sure whether the change to the spell is actually going to be better or worse!