Where is metamagic going?

[Mac Callum]

The Book of Hallowed Might II has "keyed spell items" that function something like that.

THere's also another book that had some item (a ring, I think; I want to say it was an FFG book, but I'm not sure. I alway forget which book it is) that gives a particular spell as, effectively, a bonus spell known. (FWIW, it cost spell level*spell level*1000 gp -- same price as a pearl of power.)

Hmm, something like that would make me a lot more comfortable playing a Sorcerer. I absolutely can't stand their limited spell selection. If I knew that I could always commission items to fill the gaps in my repertoire I'd be a lot more comfortable.

Just like Wizards can commission or make items to make up for their limited number of spells per day.

Thanks.

Brock Mac Callum

 

[fafhrd]

Didn't Andy Collins say that they had come up with a way to "fix" metamagic, but it was considered too radical to introduce in 3.5? Anyone know what that was? (Assuming you think metamagic is broke and needs "fixing", which I'm not convinced of, but anyway ...)

Not sure what he had in mind, but I think it'd be a whole lot more useful like so:
to metamagic a spell, you use up additional spell slots of at least comparable level to the one being enhanced. Casting a silent fireball takes 2 3rd level(or higher) slots. Casting an empowered fireball takes 3 3rd level(or higher) slots. Lower level casters can still use metamagic but it is costly in terms of daily repertoire and it gives sorcerers their deserved edge. Quicken would be difficult for wizards to implement, less so for sorcerers.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I believe the Andy Collins system (from one of the House Rules articles in Dragon from a year ago, IIRC) gave a caster spontaneous metamagic usage (2 or 3x/day, again IIRC) that could be taken multiple times for more usages. Sort of like an amped-up version of Sudden Metamagic.

If anyone can find the issue, it was from one of the spring '03 issues, when they were hyping 3.5 in Dragon.

Note: After paging through UA, I believe it's the same as the "Daily Uses" variant of the Spontaneous Metamagic rule on page 152.