Is there a Metamagic handbook? [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Eldariel

2009-10-11, 08:45 PM

Has anyone written a guide to metamagic or at least created a list of spells worth psychically metamagicing (rather apply via a rod)?

Not a real handbook, no, but it should be quite simple. Depending on metamagic, quick list of low-level Core Wizard spells:
- Grease, Glitterdust, Web, Solid Fog, Stinking Cloud and so on are all great candidates for Sculpt Spell.
- Rope Trick, Greater Magic Weapon, Phantom Steed, Mage Armor and such buffs are superb with Extend Spell early on to make them last. Same applies to some early summons and such, and high-level 10 min/level spells, particularly low-level ones.
- Split Ray is great with any damage-dealing Rays such as Enervation and Scorching Ray (though mind that there are multiple Rays there so meh); stuff like Ray of Enfeeblement with just penalties hardly benefits of it.
- Quicken Spell is great with low-level spells that have use regardless of opponent's strength such as Glitterdust, Grease, Web and so on; they're limited but it's still another action.
- Persistent Spell has some uses outside DMM: Persist, though most of them are outside Core (particularly the archery spells like Sniper's Shot, Guided Shot, Hunter's Eye and such with normal duration of just 1 round, and some Cleric-spells like Divine Favor). Still, stuff like Mirror Image (yeah, the images are spent but it's great vs. surprise attacks), Shield and company isn't useless to Persist.
- Chain Spell is superb with some buffs (Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Aura, Magic Vestment and so on) to buff all of the entire party's equipment with just one casting. It also has various offensive uses, particularly with Dispel Magic-line to single-target opponents and all their items (that version is the strongest Dispel available). The spells with reduced effects are only very situationally useful.
- Empower Spell is decent with any damage spells, usually beating out Maximize Spell in efficiency. I'd again highlight Enervation as a potential candidate for this.
- Energy Substitution should be really, really obvious.
- Silent Spell is handy with Dimension Door to get out of any grapple or such. Not worth picking, but handy if you get it as a bonus (such as through Unseen Seer).
- Invisible Spell [Cityscape] has all kinds of nice uses when you think hard enough. Invisible summons, Polymorph and such can make for some really surprised opponents, and as it's +0 Adjustment, you can apply it to all your spells. Thus handy for using spells in situations they aren't appropriate in, for example.

If I were to rate place "raw" metamagic in order it's worth picking them in, it'd probably be like:
- Quicken Spell: Extra actions are huge, even if it's less powerful than your normal action.
- Extend Spell: This is just crucial to make some buffs last long enough for the adventuring day on both, low and high levels (just, which buffs you use it for varies).
- Split Ray: This is probably the best offensive buff in the game, if a tad limited. If you intend on actual direct offense, picking a bunch of Rays and Split Ray is a great call.
- Sculpt Spell: It's quite possibly the most usable metamagic in the game as it's worthwhile basically ever since you get level 3 slots since so many level 2 spells are great Sculpted. Particularly the "4 10' cubes"-mode is incredibly useful, but as you get to choose the shape while casting, they're all handy.
- Chain Spell: A tad expensive to apply, but it has so many uses that once you start to get level 6 slots, it begins to become useful (if you can spare the feat).
- Invisible Spell: Best +0 adjustment in the game, probably.
- Energy Substitution: Again, +0 adjustment; great for people who actually wanna toss balls of...fire, acid or whatever around. First on this list I wouldn't normally pick given infinite feats to work with.
- Empower Spell: +2, generally worth it damage-wise. Good, again, for people who want to damage people.
- Persistent Spell: Pretty niché without any way to make it cheaper. Still has some uses.

I'll also point out the obvious: what you do affects greatly, which feats you should pick up. Outside Incantatrixes, UMs and MotAOs who get lots of these as bonuses (and in two of the three cases, strong ways to negate the costs), I usually only pick Quicken Spell and 2-3 other metamagic feats; often Sculpt Spell on low levels, almost always Extend Spell and then Split Ray/Chain Spell if I can spare the feats.

Persistent Spell is sometimes very key (like for my present character in Arcane Adventures, going for the Hunter's Eye/Guided Shot/Sniper's Shot/Construct Bane/etc. Persistence and related archery; probably need a source of Divine Power though. Luckily he has UMD), but often has little use. So yeah, Quicken and Extend spell are the two most universal ones, shortly followed by Sculpt Spell, Chain Spell and Split Ray.

Heighten Spell is great for Sorcerers and has some fringe uses for some specific builds outside it (*cough*Shadowcraft Mage!*cough*), but Wizards should usually evade it. Maximize is only worth it if you can negate the cost and same mostly applies to Twin Spell, Repeat Spell, Energy Admixture and so on.

Basically, +4 is a lot; generally a +4 spell can do what the metamagic feat tries to replicate anyways, and usually better. Quicken is an exception since particularly offensive Swift Action spells are an extreme rarity.

And of course, that's written with Wizards in mind. For ones that interest other classes but not particularly Wizards:
- Rapid Spell: All other classes have to deal with 1 round casting time on summons through this (if they want to focus); Wizards just take Rapid Summoning. Has some other uses too, though they are quite few as 1 round spells are rare and full-round action is generally doable (and Quickenable).
- Reach Spell: Most Wizards have easy access to this with no adjustment through Archmage. Other classes not only lack said access, but have auxillary uses for this. E.g. Druid can only Chain Greater Magic Fang with this (due to range) and overall, a lot of spells can only be Persisted or Chained with this feat applied to them due to some limitations in the spells the feats can affect.
- Echoing Spell [Secrets of Xen'drik]: This is only useful for some specific builds that get insane CL boosts (e.g. Shadowcraft Mage). Still mentioning.
- Smiting Spell [PHBII]: Gishes love this one.
- Retributive Spell: See above.
- Fell Drain [Libris Mortis]/Fell Weaken [Libris Mortis]/Searing Spell [Sand]/Piercing Cold [Frost]/Born of Three Thunders/Black Lore of Moil/etc: Just a bunch of blaster feats.
- Ocular Spell [LoM]: Can do pretty busted stuff. Meh, actually, this is good for Wizards too. I just forgot about it writing the above list.
- Sanctum Spell: Hardly good on its own, but the making the spell count as a lower level is very, very abusable in getting past restrictions on stuff like Spellstoring Ring.

All the metamagic without source listed are Core/Completes.