What's the best metamagic feat?

[Tilla the Hun (work)]

Bah Humbug. The best one is "shape spell"... or is it sculpt?? The one where you can affect an area of your choosing, period, for only +1 level.

Substitution or admixture of energy comes a close second... Lightning bolt becomes a fire and acid bolt But it's second because the first one allows you to shape that bolt exactly how you want it

 

[Pax]

Tilla, you're thinking of an Archmage High Arcana, which is a class feature ... not a feat. It's called "Mastery of Shaping", and it is a grand ability ... but it's not a metamagic.

There is a "Sculpt Spell", but it doesn't let you put "holes" in your AoE, it just lets you select between a few "standard" area types (burst/spread, cone, a few cubes, etc).

 

[Xavim]

Quicken Spell is by far the best metamagic EVER.
Not only do you get another spell off in the round, but there really is no contest once you hit epic.

Quicken + 3Multispell epic feats = 5 spells/round. Without Increased spell capacity you can pull off a 9th level spell and a variety of 1-5th for your other actions.

Mix this up with a few Improved Metamagic feats and your unstopable.

 

[James McMurray]

Quicken Spell is by far the best metamagic EVER.
Not only do you get another spell off in the round, but there really is no contest once you hit epic.

Quicken + 3Multispell epic feats = 5 spells/round. Without Increased spell capacity you can pull off a 9th level spell and a variety of 1-5th for your other actions.

Mix this up with a few Improved Metamagic feats and your unstopable.

But you're also well into the 30s for character level, so you should be pretty tough...

 

[Seule]

From a practical point of view, as someone who took a blastmage to 21st level, I have to go with Maximize. It increases reliability, but most importantly, it completely eliminates die rolling. When you are popping off 2+ spells per round, at epic levels, just being able to state a flat amount of damage rather than having to count up 20 dice of damage makes combat go a whole lot quicker.

Plus, it's cool. You can cast a spell to the maximum possible effect, every time. Who doesn't want that?

--Seule

 

[Pax]

Seule: two words: Maximised Timestop ... hehehe!