D&D 5E Your best suggestion for a spellcaster's feat?

[Saeviomagy]

I think Metamagic is basically the main reason for playing a Sorcerer over a Wizard (a second reason being perhaps being attracted to one of its subclasses) and it's not even a very strong selling point. Metamagic feats would kill the Sorcerer class for the rest of the edition, unless they were meant strictly for the Sorcerer i.e. they would require to already have a source of spell points. This would not be a bad idea in fact, considering that Sorcerers get quite few metamagic effects overall.

For starters, I think that metamagic feels like a mechanic that was just chucked on sorcerors because they couldn't think of anything else to do with them. Heck, they don't even get metamagic until 3rd level. I'd much prefer to see sorcerors get something truly flavoursome, and I think that having them take a subclass at 1st level and giving them bonus spells like the favoured soul has helps with that.

However

I would also say that if you give access to one metamagic ability, along with "convert spell slots to sorcery points", then you're still going to be behind the sorceror in terms of how much you make use of the feature. Plus it costs you a feat to get.

 

[MoonSong]

For starters, I think that metamagic feels like a mechanic that was just chucked on sorcerors because they couldn't think of anything else to do with them. Heck, they don't even get metamagic until 3rd level. I'd much prefer to see sorcerors get something truly flavoursome, and I think that having them take a subclass at 1st level and giving them bonus spells like the favoured soul has helps with that.

However

I would also say that if you give access to one metamagic ability, along with "convert spell slots to sorcery points", then you're still going to be behind the sorceror in terms of how much you make use of the feature. Plus it costs you a feat to get.

I prefer the current status quo, where if you want metamagic, you need 3 levels of sorcerer. It might not be the best signature ability, but it is the only thing we can get. We could have had something that truly compensated sorcerers for the uber flexibility of wizards and the overall nerfs to magic, but we have what we have. (4 spells known at first level + 2 per additional level on top of a bigger spell list would have been enough)

 

[Henry]

Personally, I feel like feats are better thought of in regards to fulfilling archetypes than in adding new cool abilities. Much in the way that magic initiate gives someone a smattering of magical training to represent someone who has an innate knack or dropped out of the clergy, or how the duelist feat makes someone more "swashbucklery."

 

[Saeviomagy]

I prefer the current status quo, where if you want metamagic, you need 3 levels of sorcerer. It might not be the best signature ability, but it is the only thing we can get.

I guess I don't really understand that kind of thinking, where the existence of a class is being justified by denying it's mechanics to any other class. In my mind a class needs to be justified by having a thematic niche. I think the sorceror subclasses sort of do that, but need to have a bigger impact on the base sorceror than they presently do.

 

[MoonSong]

Personally, I feel like feats are better thought of in regards to fulfilling archetypes than in adding new cool abilities. Much in the way that magic initiate gives someone a smattering of magical training to represent someone who has an innate knack or dropped out of the clergy, or how the duelist feat makes someone more "swashbucklery."

Maybe feats that add thematic bundles of spells to your personal spell list?

I guess I don't really understand that kind of thinking, where the existence of a class is being justified by denying it's mechanics to any other class. In my mind a class needs to be justified by having a thematic niche. I think the sorceror subclasses sort of do that, but need to have a bigger impact on the base sorceror than they presently do.

It is an archetype, I love it because of it. But it basically is just a second rate class without exclusive access to metamagic -and it even is with that-

 

[Henry]

Maybe feats that add thematic bundles of spells to your personal spell list?



It is an archetype, I love it because of it. But it basically is just a second rate class without exclusive access to metamagic -and it even is with that-

The theme bundles - that could work, incorporate spells they wouldn't otherwise be able to get. However, I'm thinking more on the lines of mechanics to reinforce the flavor of an "archetype", and using the Savage Worlds game design model, it doesn't have to be much, just a core idea or two that shouts the flavor of that theme. Problem is, I can't come up with anything that I feel is missing on the spot.

Hmmm... Let's say you wanted to better represent a Pathfinder "bloodrager" type, someone who bolstered their raging with raw magical energy. Therefore, a feat which allowed someone who is raging to expend spell slots for some magical effect - perhaps allowing personal range only spells (not cantrips), or adding d6's to damage on melee weapon attacks as an energy type (fire, lightning, etc.) - perhaps a d6 for each spell level expended, or a d6 for every two levels expended (minimum 1), or something similar. Perhaps both of those effects, the personal spells and the weapon aura damage (feats are supposed to be pretty powerful these days after all). That's just a spitball, not balance tested in any way, but gives you an idea of what I feel like they are aiming for in the feats they do have now.

 

[Henry]

Oh, and as for the sorcerer - let's not forget that the purpose of a sorcerer in 3e was an alternative to Vancian casting that had been experimented with for a long time in home D&D campaigns. It was first and foremost a way to add this in without changing the magic-user and cleric default method.

Once "prep a list and cast on the fly" became the default standard in the game, you kind of have to invent a purpose for existence for the sorcerer after that, which is where all these past six or seven years of "sorcerer as bloodline power" have come from - making them cooler and giving them more than one trick for their ponies.

 

[MoonSong]

metamagic used to be available to all sorts of casting classes. It also originated with the wizard in the High Level campaigning guide. The sorcerer was added with the idea of something similar to spell points and no memorization. Natural AC and Resistance to Damage and Wings are their special effects. Having meta magic thrown in was a nice icing, perhaps too nice. But to say any and all meta magic should go to the sorcerer, kind of defies the concept of magic and is really an inverse of the ideology of the sorcerer.

Metamagic is the idea that you have tinkered enough with the ideas of magic that you gain new insights into it. It is something you would expect as a consequence to repeated spell research. In other words, a wizard thing. But they have turned that so far on its head that the wizard doesn't even make sense anymore.

Can anyone explain why a wizard couldn't learn metamagic, without making the wizard sound like the 3rd edition sorcerer?

In a way metamagic in 5e isn't "high understanding of magic", but a way to show the magic is organic and not formulaic to the sorcerer, "magic comes naturally to me, so I don't need to follow rigid formulas, if I want to cast without opening my mouth I can."

on a balance perspective, the wizard already is uber flexible and basically superior on every way, they have more spells prepared than the sorcerer knows spells, and more variety of long term effects. A sorcerer would be completely overshadowed if wizards could get metamagic.

 

[CapnZapp]

But that's a crappy reason.

I'd far prefer if metamagic was class independent and sorcerers gained some truly cool stuff instead.

Metamagic is dry and flavorless. It's not a good choice for a class-defining feature, IMO.

 

[CapnZapp]

I would like feats that enable and make it easier to focus on other elements than fire.

Makes it possible to play things like Thunder evokers, Water witches and Acid slingers. Without having to wait for new class options or lots of new spells. Because this isn't 3e where you'd get new prestige classes every week. Better to fix things like this once and for all, and what better way to do it than with a feat...!

As regards the original question, I had somewhat hoped somebody would open the can of worms that is feats that remove or lessen the restrictions put on spellcasters in this edition.

Mainly feats that would allow you some way to cast at least some (or even one!) spell without concentration.

Feats that gives you more spells known has been mentioned, though.