Why is the there no Mass Spell metamagic feat?


log in or register to remove this ad

Probably because the value of making a spell 'mass' differs dramatically depending on which spell it is. Mass True Strike, anyone?


glass.
 

Presumably it would change range of "Touch" to range of "1 ally/level within 30 ft. radius of you".

Range of "Personal" would remain personal.
 

Different spells with the Mass ability on them are increased by different levels. Mass Bull's Strength increases by 4 levels, IIRC, whereas Mass Snake's Swiftness only increases the level by 1, and Mass Suggestion is only increased by 3 levels.

However, I haven't looked at all statistics of these spells and others to determine if the difference is because of duration, area of effect, etc. or just that it's at the correct power level.

My point is that Mass is one of those things that effects the power of different spells different, as would Swift. I don't know what the Legion thing is though...
 

Dog Moon said:
Different spells with the Mass ability on them are increased by different levels. Mass Bull's Strength increases by 4 levels, IIRC, whereas Mass Snake's Swiftness only increases the level by 1, and Mass Suggestion is only increased by 3 levels.

I don't know much about snake's swiftness, but the other two could be accounted for by their relative increase in range... but then I veer into House Rules, and this is not the place for that. :)

-- N
 

There is no good reason that I've seen. One of the first metamagics I houseruled into existence in 3.0 was Mass Spell (change a single target spell with range of close or further, to a 1 target/level spell where no target is more than 15ft from any other target or something similar). It was an obvious choice and dead easy to reverse engineer from the existing mass spells. Makes a lot more sense than chain spell too.

In 3.5 they arbitrarily mixed up some of the 'mass spell' effects, for no readily apparent reason, so there isn't the clear relationship there once was.

I can only think that since mass charm, mass suggestion etc existed as spells prior to 3e they decided to keep them in and not do a Mass spell feat.

It makes a fine metamagic feat at +3 levels, and the removal of personal and touch spells as valid targets for it eliminates most of the problems that might otherwise have appeared.

Cheers
 

Dog Moon said:
Different spells with the Mass ability on them are increased by different levels. Mass Bull's Strength increases by 4 levels, IIRC, whereas Mass Snake's Swiftness only increases the level by 1, and Mass Suggestion is only increased by 3 levels.

These were 3.5e and supplement changes. In 3.0 it was consistently +3 levels.
 

victorysaber said:
Likewise for swift ... spells.

There is Quicken Spell, which does exactly that.

Chain Spell is similar to a Mass Spell feat, but doesn't work on the typical spells, that have a mass version, so isn't really it after all.

Bye
Thanee
 

Thanee said:
There is Quicken Spell, which does exactly that.

Quickened is different than swift though. Unless I'm mistaken, virtually all of the Swift spells last only that round whereas Quickened spells are their normal direction, just with a quickened action. Thus a quickened Fly is 7th level and lasts for 1 min/level whereas the Fly, Swift spell is 2nd level and lasts only that round.

Swift spells would probably be 1 level lower than normal considering it's limited lifespan, but can only be used on spells with a duration greater than Instantaneous, of course.
 

That's just a subset of the swift spells, which work that way, to keep their spell level low and thus keep them viable for low caster level types and multiclassed spellcaster.

Bye
Thanee
 

Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top