Walk me through Midnight Metamagic

[Particle_Man]

I thought I understood this feat from Magic of Incarnum but could be wrong.

So does someone first, 1/day, invest essentia into the Midnight Metamagic feat (subject to the essentia capacity of that feat), and then immediately move that same essentia into the various spells to be affected by metamagic feats?

Or does one invest essentia in the Midnight Metamagic feat and then invest separate essentia into the spells to be affected by metamagic feats?

[KillianHawkeye]

Seems pretty straightforward to me....

Step 1: Once per day, pick some metamagic feats that you know and want to apply to some spells you've got prepared (or known if spontaneous spellcaster). You can pick different metamagic for each spell, or even multiple metamagics on the same spell, as long as you can pay the essentia cost.

Step 2: Invest essentia equal to the spell level increase for each instance of metamagic that you want to apply (minimum 1) up to the maximum essentia you're able to invest based on your level. The book's example is of a character with an essentia cap of 3 investing one point to Enlarge a spell and two points to Empower another spell.

Step 3: The first time you cast one of the chosen spells, you get the assigned metamagic benefit for "free" and then get your invested essentia back. One shot for each investiture. You're then free to use the essentia as normal.

[Particle_Man]

What throws me is the wording in the first part where it says "you can invest essentia into this feat 1/day" and then later "you invest essentia into spells/the essentia invested in the spell goes back to the essentia pool once the spell is cast".

a) If a human cleric with midnight metamagic and extend spell at 1st level has 1 essentia (from midnight metamagic), can that human invest that sole essentia into a single "summon monster I" to extend it? Or is the sole essentia "locked into" the feat midnight metamagic and the person would need more essentia from elsewhere to invest in "summon monster I"?

b) If instead we had a 3rd level duskling cleric who chose the incarnum domain and knew midnight metamagic (so had 3 essentia) and extend spell, and prepared summon monster I, summon monster I (again) and summon monster II, how many of those spells could the duskling put a single essentia into to get the benefits of midnight metamagic to extend the spell without increasing the level? Would it be only a single spell (probably Summon Monster II)?

[KillianHawkeye]

a) If a human cleric with midnight metamagic and extend spell at 1st level has 1 essentia (from midnight metamagic), can that human invest that sole essentia into a single "summon monster I" to extend it? Or is the sole essentia "locked into" the feat midnight metamagic and the person would need more essentia from elsewhere to invest in "summon monster I"?

Did you read what I wrote? The only essentia you invest are the ones for covering the metamagic costs. The 1/day restriction means that you have to make all the choices and invest all the essentia for that day at the same time.


b) If instead we had a 3rd level duskling cleric who chose the incarnum domain and knew midnight metamagic (so had 3 essentia) and extend spell, and prepared summon monster I, summon monster I (again) and summon monster II, how many of those spells could the duskling put a single essentia into to get the benefits of midnight metamagic to extend the spell without increasing the level? Would it be only a single spell (probably Summon Monster II)?

You could put Extend Spell onto both SM1 and SM2 for one essentia each (total: 2). It seems to be the case that you can't pick the same metamagic on a particular spell more than once because whatever metamagic you select for a spell automatically gets used the first time you cast that spell, but a DM might be flexible on that regard.

...Except that you're too low level to invest that much essentia into the feat. You need to check table 2-1 to see your essentia cap based on character level. From levels 1 to 5, that capacity is only one, so you could only Extend one spell for "free" with Midnight Metamagic. My above statements would be true for a higher level character with an appropriately higher essentia cap.

[Particle_Man]

So the essentia point (call it Bob) goes from the essentia pool, through Midnight Metamagic (and thus Bob cannot bring fellow essentia points Sally and George along unless the owner of the midnight metamagic feat has a higher essentia capacity, due to being a higher level, for example), and immediately to Summon Monster I and sits there, and then once (free Extend) Summon Monster I is cast, Bob the essentia point goes back into the essentia pool.

[KillianHawkeye]

You got it. :smallsmile:

[Particle_Man]

I guess I was falsely supposing that Bob would get locked into Midnight Metamagic, but would allow Sally the essentia point to be placed into Summon Monster I for the free extend. And then Sally would be free when SM I is cast, and Bob would be free when the last midnight metamagic'd spell was cast.

But if Bob *becomes* Sally, then that makes things simpler.

Anyhow, thanks!

[KillianHawkeye]

But if Bob *becomes* Sally, then that makes things simpler.

Anyhow, thanks!

Also, more awkward at Christmas parties. :smallamused:

Glad to help!