What metamagic feat can your Arcane caster not live without?

[Lord Pendragon]

The major problem with Still and Silent for a wizard is that you can never be sure when you'll need them until it's too late. If I could research a silent, stilled teleportation spell, or a silent, stilled version of dispel magic, I'd never take these feats. Empower is consistently useful, as are Energy Affinity, Energy Substitution, and Extend.

I agree. Empower Spell comes in useful quickly, and stays useful. Still and Silent spell, well, they aren't very useful most of the time (especially for wizards) though when you need them, you really need them.

 

[fba827]

i've always been partial to extend spell - one level for double duration is nice. of course, my spell choices tend more towards duration-type spells (as opposed to blast spells which really wouldn't benefit from such a choice if that is your area of choice)

 

[Li Shenron]

What metamagic feat can your Arcane caster not live without? Trying to decide what would be a good first feat (lvl 5).

The useful are many, but none you cannot live without.

One that I've never seen wasted and sometimes I have seen make the real difference is Sculpt Spell from T&B.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Dimension Door only has a verbal component, naturally my wizard memorizes it as a Silent Dimension Door as a 5th level spell. He always has one memorized as his "ahhh-crap!" spell.

Teleport also only has a verbal component, so no need to Still it.

 

[Thanee]

does empower spell affect the non-random part of false life? IE. would I be getting 1d12 + 15 at tenth?

It would be (1d10 + 10) *1.5, but close enough.

Also great for Ray of Enfeeblement and Enervation.

Note, that Empower is actually better than Maximize for spells with a high bonus to the roll, like False Life.

I dont really cast any elemental spells (I'm a hardcore necromancer) so the energy sub feats probably dont fit the flavor of my guy.

You didn't ask about necromancers specifically.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Geoff Watson]

Quicken Spell.

But the DM has reduced it to +2 levels and allows spontaneous casters to use it so it's much better than by the RAW.

Geoff.

 

[Thanee]

For a sorcerer who is limited in spell selection, Empower spell is great, and heighten for those Invulnerability Globes.

The best thing (IMHO) is, that you can raise the save DC of your lower level spells and thus keep your selection of useful "higher level spells" greater.

Heightened Slow is a really good spell at high levels, but Slow has too low DC to be useful.

IMO, Quicken is overrated; you wait until 11th level to cast a 1st level spell at the 5th level slot? I don't think any of the core spells are worth that much.

9th level, actually. And once you are 13th level, you can quicken 3rd level spells and then it becomes really, really powerful.

And even 1st level quickened spells, like Shield, Ray of Enfeeblement or Magic Missile can really make a difference.

But quicken really starts to shine at higher levels, where it is all about the speed.

Bye
Thanee

 

[sledged]

What metamagic feat can your Arcane caster not live without? Trying to decide what would be a good first feat (lvl 5).

There isn't one. They're highly useful, but I haven't found one that my arcane spellcaster couldn't go without. And I've made a couple that didn't have any. However, one metamagic feat I found quite useful was Innate Spell (PGtF) combined with Supernatural Transformation (SS). Use it with magic missile and you have a spellcaster that can three times a day launch magic missiles that allow no saving throw, ignore spell resistance, and hit incorporal creatures all without the spellcaster provoking an AoO. Given that 90% of all arcane spellcasters I've encounter have at least one magic missile spell prepared (or know the spell), the absense of one first level spell slot is no big loss. The only real drawback is that this combo requires four feats: Silent Spell, Still Spell, Innate Spell, and Supernatural Transformation.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, there is no feat you absolutely cannot live without, but there are some that are close.

For higher level play, that is Quicken Spell for the wizard and Heighten Spell for the sorcerer, IMHO.

Silent Spell can also be really important then, being able to dimension door with no components is a great help in tight situations (Sorcerer would need Arcane Preparation to be able to use it in a grapple, tho).

Anyways, for the necromancer, I'd go with Empower Spell for now. It's nifty and useful with the low level necromantic spells and stays useful later on.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

My sorcerer is 11th level and finds the most consistent use from empower spell. Use it *all* the time.

However, up until 6th level the best metamagic feats were the ones with only a +1 level since those could actually be put to use I used to get fantastic use from enlarge spell on my burning hands before pesky 3.5e changed the rules