Sudden Metamagic Feats from Complete Arcane

[Kershek]

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[Mouseferatu]

Besides, a save on disintegrate doesn't do half. It does 5d6, regardless of level.

 

[Kershek]

You're right - it's only 5d6. I didn't see that.

However, there are other things you can do with these sudden feats. For example, You can Sudden Enlarge a Fireball while using a Rod of LESSER Maximize (since it's still only a 3rd level slot). This would give you a range of about 1000 ft+ with a Max effect while using a very cheap Maximize lesser rod. Or the same with a sudden WIDEN Ice Burst (which would cover 160 ft diameter) using a Rod of lesser max.

You can also use metamagic feats on 9th, 8th, & 7th level spells which in most cases can NOT be done even with the super expensive greater Rod.

 

[Rashak Mani]

Thanks for the tip about subscribing...

Well I'd say off the bat not to allow Sudden Feats with Rods or other feats... that should avoid potential exploits and absurd results of combining multiple metamagic effects.

I would like to hear more in game experiences with these Sudden Feats... especially "weaker" ones like Sudden Extend or Silence. Even experienced gamers sometimes judge feat wrongly out of game.

 

[Kalendraf]

I haven't seen much mention of Sudden Widen, but I think that is one of the better sudden feats. With AoE spells, the +100% effect doubles the radius of the burst causing it to cover a much larger area. Whether a larger blast zone helps much will depend somewhat on the situations faced and is thus campaign specific. In many of the encounters in my campaigns, a Widened spell would often allow it to hit anywhere from 1.5x to 2x the usual number of targets, perhaps even more in certain spots. Having that ability just 1/day would be very handy.

For lower level casters, Sudden Enlarge applied primarily to certain short range spells (i.e. Scorching Ray) can be quite helpful. However, at higher levels, the range issue is generally less of a problem, both because those spells reach further, and the caster usually has enough other spell options with larger ranges.

 

[humble minion]

Compare and contrast to the variant metamagic in Unearthed Arcana, which, instead of having to apply your metamagic at spell preparation time, allows you to spontaneously apply each of your metamagic feats 3/day. No prerequisites, nothing, although only being able to apply your metamagic spontaneously meant that you'd never be able to cast a metamagiced spell as a standard action. I've used this version (with Extend Spell, playing a 11th-level cleric) and it didn't seem too unbalancing.