Careful Spell and Evard's Black Tentacles?

[SharkForce]

Yeah, I figured it was too good to be true. It's a shame too because that means the only metamagic that affects it is subtle (which you kind of get later as an Aberrant mind sorcerer) and extended (which only increases the duration by 1 minute (which doesn't seem to be worth the sorcery point). I guess quickened might work too but still.

unfortunately, the official interpretation is that careful spell is *supposed* to be complete and utter trash except when combined with a tiny selection of spells, which allow it to be occasionally useful.

the way it is written doesn't support that at all, by the way, no matter what nonsense people spew out of their mouths (and no, being a dev doesn't keep anyone from spouting nonsense; the words on the page do not change just because they meant for them to say something completely different from what they say).

as written, when you cast the spell you choose people. those people are then guaranteed to pass saving throws. it doesn't say a single damn word about the timing of the saving throw, or for that matter the number of saving throws, so the only reason we even know that they meant for it to suck is that we've been very specifically told that it was supposed to suck. and also, we learned at the same time that the people who write D&D don't seem to be capable of grasping the fact that some random RPG author cannot retroactively rewrite the english language to mean whatever they want.

in any case, basically it's supposed to work well with fear, confusion, and hypnotic pattern, be frankly pretty bad with AoE damage spells but at least not completely non-functional, and to not work well at all with basically anything else. if you really love one of those three spells but have to constantly worry about friendly fire, or if you have a full party of people with evasion and love fireball, consider learning careful spell. otherwise, you can leave it alone until later. or never.