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View Full Version : Revamped metamagic (Silent, Still, and Quicken Spell)



rferries
2017-07-20, 06:01 AM
Removed metamagic spell level adjustments for Silent, Still, and Quicken and reorganized their prerequisites.

Eschew Materials [General]
Benefit
You can cast any spell that has a material component costing 1 gp or less without needing that component.

The costs of material components and foci for your spells are reduced by 5% per caster level (to a maximum of 100% reduction). If a spell requires a focus, you must still provide an equivalent (albeit one with a reduced or negligible cost).

Natural Spell [General]
Benefit
You can complete the verbal and somatic components of spells while you are polymorphed, in a wild shape, or otherwise transformed (but still conscious and mobile). You substitute various noises and gestures for the normal verbal and somatic components of a spell.

You can also use any material components or focuses you possess, even if such items are melded within your current form. This feat does not permit the use of magic items while you are in a form that could not ordinarily use them, and you do not gain the ability to speak while in a form that does not permit it.

Still Spell [Metamagic]
Prerequisites
Natural Spell.

Benefit
You can cast any spell that has a somatic component without needing that component.

Special
This allows you to ignore the arcane spell failure of armour.

Silent Spell [Metamagic]
Prerequisites
Natural Spell.

Benefit
You can cast any spell that has a verbal component without needing that component.

Special
Bard spells cannot be enhanced by this metamagic feat.

Quicken Spell [Metamagic]
Prerequisites
Eschew Materials, Natural Spell, Silent Spell, Still Spell.

Benefit
Whenever you cast a spell without any of the components of that spell (i.e. by using the Eschew Materials, Natural Spell, Silent Spell, and Still Spell feats), you may cast it as a quickened spell. Casting a quickened spell is an swift action. You can perform another action (other than casting another spell, as that requires channeling too much magical energy) in the same round as you cast a quickened spell. You may cast only one quickened spell per round. A spell whose casting time is more than 1 full round action cannot be quickened. Casting a quickened spell doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.

Special
This feat can’t be applied to any spell cast spontaneously (including sorcerer spells, bard spells, and cleric or druid spells cast spontaneously), since applying a metamagic feat to a spontaneously cast spell automatically increases the casting time to a full-round action.

This feat can't be applied to any spell requiring a focus (even if the cost of that focus has been reduced to 0gp by the Eschew Materials feat), since physically presenting and wielding the focus requires too much time.

ShiningStarling
2017-07-21, 05:00 PM
... interesting, but a little bland, and miiiiight be overpowered, but might not. Keeping quicken from breaking the action economy is a big step towards it not being overpowered. Do the spells have to be prepared that way for wizards, and do they still increase casting time for sorcerers? I mean, I don't see why you wouldn't apply silent and still on every spell, which is flavorfully boring. If you still had to prepare quickened spells, that would mean you had to be careful about whether you want to use up your swift action for it... but let's be honest, of course you will. Also, 2 flaws on a human wizards can net all these feats at level 3, or 1 flaw by 6th level...

I love that the quicken really makes gishes more viable!

rferries
2017-07-22, 07:39 PM
Most of the original feats were already pretty bland and underpowered (does ANYONE actually use Silent Spell, Still Spell, or Eschew Materials?), these are just meant to be slight power boosts.

Quicken breaks the action economy -but generally you'd simply be spending the extra action on an attack or activating a magic item. Plus you have to invest in all the feats (5 feats total) so if you're tailoring your entire build around it I don't think it's too broken.

I'd rule that you can just apply the feats on the fly, and yes you should be free to use them for every spell. You could get a reputation as a wizard that never speaks (Silent Spell), or one that channels all his magic simply through his voice a la Saruman (Still Spell), or even one that casts spells through sheer force of will (Quicken Spell).

Flaws are an optional rule, so you'd have to discuss with your DM if you can load up on these feats that way or not. A pure-classed wizard could get them all by level 9 (or 6 for a human) anyways.

Thanks for the feedback!

ericgrau
2017-07-22, 08:17 PM
Can the wizard still cast spells via a staff? Wand? Scroll? Other magic item not including these? Can he use his standard to activate another magic item that doesn't mimic a specific spell?

I suspect the player will find something else good to do with his standard actions and break action economy anyway. Actually much harder than ever due to the no level adjustment. You can easily find tons of things to do with your standard that are better than casting a spell that's 4 spell levels behind. And not just the smart players. Any player. Do you really think anyone is dumb enough to use his standard to fire a crossbow, open a door or some other minor mundane action? Maybe for a few sessions if he isn't trying, then he finds something and keeps doing it forever.

At minimum gishes will grab quicken to make non-casters cry even harder.

Good point, silent and still need some help. Quicken doesn't need help. Eschew materials... there are a lot of REALLY good spells with costly material components that players under-utilize only because they're too stingy, not because they aren't worth it. With eschew even cutting the cost in half they could get nutso bananas.

rferries
2017-07-23, 12:37 AM
Can the wizard still cast spells via a staff? Wand? Scroll? Other magic item not including these? Can he use his standard to activate another magic item that doesn't mimic a specific spell?


Quicken breaks the action economy -but generally you'd simply be spending the extra action on an attack or activating a magic item. Plus you have to invest in all the feats (5 feats total) so if you're tailoring your entire build around it I don't think it's too broken.

Yep, I mentioned that. The feat allows you to nova with your items but you'll just be burning through charges that much faster - winning the first few encounters easily but risking being out of charges later on when you need them. I don't see this as particularly broken (especially with a DM that doesn't let you get away with nova tactics); however if the consensus is that it's too powerful it's an easy fix to not allow use of spell-completion/spell-trigger/use-activated magic items in conjunction with the feat.

The most expensive material components are still only a few thousand gp; by the time you see even a 50% cost reduction (10th level) you can easily afford them anyways.