Sudden Metamagic - Please critique

[Angel Tarragon]

Sudden Metamagic [Metamagic]
You are able to use the effects of one metamagic that increases the spells level once per day without increasing the spells level.
Prerequisite: Any metamagic feat that increases the level of a spell
Benefit:You are able to use any metamagic feat that you have without increasing its spell level. You may only do this once per day.
Special: You may gain this feat multiple times. Each time you take it, you are able to cast one more spell per day without increasing its spell level.

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Note: The influx of Sudden Metamagic feats from the Miniatures Handbook and Complete Arcane are ridiculous. This feeat allows you to choose any metamagic feat that a character already has and use it on any spell the carater can cast once per day.

For example, if Mialee has the Empower Spell, Maximize Spell and Still Spell feats, she can choose which one of these feats to apply her Sudden Metamagic Feats to. If she can use her Suddening spells are not specific in the metamagic feat it applies to, so that the character can choose to change which base Metamagic feat it applies to.

 

[airwalkrr]

I don't see a problem with condensing the sudden metamagic feats. I still have a problem with sudden metamagic itself though. I house rule it to require a high caster level like the Quicken Spell-Like Ability or Maximize Spell-Like Ability feats in the MM.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

So, what would you think of adding Spellcraft 8 ranks to the list of Prereqs?

 

[airwalkrr]

Other than clerics, I find most casters who make use of metamagic feats already max out Spellcraft so it is something of a rubber stamp. And I don't find sudden metamagic being abused by clerics (they go the DMM route).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

DMM? I'm not sure what that is.

 

[green slime]

DMM? I'm not sure what that is.

Divine Metamagic.

Lets you burn X+1 turning attempts instead of increasing the level of the spell by X. Requires the specific metamagic feat for which you wish to apply Divine Metamagic.

Personally, I don't allow characters to cast spells of a higher effective level than they otherwise would be able to.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Personally, I don't allow characters to cast spells of a higher effective level than they otherwise would be able to.

I am curious to know what your reasoning behind this is.

 

[starwed]

Hmm, I don't like requiring you to already have the feat. Sudden Quicken, for instance, then becomes useless for sorc's.

Rather, make the prerequisite a number of metamagic feats equal to the power of the metamagic feat. (How many levels it raises the spell.) That prevents you from getting sudden Quickenright off the bat, but you don't need to waste a feat if you only want the sudden version.

Of course, no form of Sudden Persistant spell will be balanced, but maybe that's a problem with the Persistant Spell feat. ^_^

 

[green slime]

I am curious to know what your reasoning behind this is.

Excluding the use of (relatively) expensive magical items (scrolls, wands, staves, and similar effects), there exists no way for a character to cast a spell of level above what could be expected for that character's level. This is in and of itself is a very strong argument against allowing exceeding that limit frivously. The magical items themselves are hard to access, and are severely limited in number of uses.

Every single case where the limit (((n+1)/2) spell level cast by a "n" level spellcaster) has been allowed to be exceeded in various splatbooks, it has lead to abuses, and errata.

There aren't many optional rules that allow a fighter or rogue to do things at level that far exceeds their present abilities. I wonder why?

 

[frankthedm]

Excluding the use of (relatively) expensive magical items (scrolls, wands, staves, and similar effects), there exists no way for a character to cast a spell of level above what could be expected for that character's level. This is in and of itself is a very strong argument against allowing exceeding that limit frivously. The magical items themselves are hard to access, and are severely limited in number of uses.

Yep.

Sudden metamagics as written give the caster the ability to add multiple levels to a spell they cast at a whim. IMNSHO that is like a feat changeing the 5th level's wizard's 3rd level level spell slot into a 5th level spell when cast.

Those who like these feats often object to the power level of the core metamagic feats[thus thier issue is with the balance of the game] and often claim NPCs should have already used the 1/day uses of these feats when said foes encounter PCs, which does not hold water since the PCs will be the invaders who have been expending resourses to get to said foe.