Entry level metamagic

[Rainbownaga]

The background is a Warmage who has (possibly stupidly) taken point blank shot for the first level feat. For future levels there are a lot of cool metamagics like the fel line, born of three thunders, energy substitution and explosive spell.

The problem is that metamagic feats seem to fall into two main catagories, those that have a metamagic feat as a prerequisite and those that don't really do much for a character with only first level spells. These catagories overlap and don't really seem to leave much else.

So far, fel weaken seems cool since it lets me use cantrips as debuffs, but I somehow doubt that -4 strength to living enemies is going to be that useful in the long run.

Are there any more metamagic feats that are immediately useful? Any sources welcome.

[Radar]

I'm not good at optimizing, but Consecrate Spell (form Complete Divine) looks interesting if you intend to be a blaster. Changing half the damage to Untyped? Yes, please. It's still a +1, so you won't get much power from it right at the start. There aren't many ways to utilize metamagic right from the start, so i guess you have tho wait for it a bit and reap the benefits on later levels.

[KurtKatze]

hmm, if you already have point blank shot you may consider to take precise shot, to eleiminate the bothersome -4 for shooting rays into melee. So the PB-shot would not be intirely wasted.

Extend spell can be useful sometoimes imo. Extended mage armor isn't the worst thing to have and it opens the way for the better metamagic feats.

But metamagick only starts to make sense about 7th level where you have a 4th level spellslot to utilize imo.

[Rainbownaga]

What I was hoping for was other metamagic feats like born of three thunders or the fel- series that add interesting effects to spells without either costing too many levels or prerequisites.

The problem with being a warmage is that many of the good metamagics don't really achieve anything; there aren't really any spells worth extending (except for chill touch and fists of stone, but I dumped str), no point at raising save dcs, and no issue of having the right element available.

That said, I don't want to wait too long because born of three thunders is something I could start using strait away (stun and knockdown to give the team mates time to wail upon one or more targets) but I need to have elemental substitution which itself requires another metamagic feat.

I'll probably taken sudden empower since I get the feat back at level 7 when it is more useful, but I still need another metamagic feat first.

[Sophismata]

What I was hoping for was other metamagic feats like born of three thunders or the fel- series that add interesting effects to spells without either costing too many levels or prerequisites.

Searing Spell. It's +1, has no perquisites, acts as a prereq for other metamagic (the Sudden feats, Repeat, Chain, etc...) and allows you to blast even resistant or immune foes.

Used on cold creatures the spell will deal double damage.

Now, you might be thinking "I don't need to worry about resistances, since I can spontaneously cast", and ordinarily you'd be right. However, energy substitution and admixture are fixed to a specific element. Now you know what that element is.

[Keld Denar]

Fell Draining is the best of the fell metamagic line. It gives one negative level per foe per spell. Negative levels stack, so subsequent castings of Fell Draining spells give more negative levels which makes foes even more vulnerable to your spells and the spells and abilities of your allies. Its a +2 equiv, but is TOTALLY worth it to put on cantrips when you get access to level 2 spell slots. Fell Draining Acid Splash or Sonic Snap is really effective, and put it on a multi-target spell like Magic Missile to debuff multiple foes each round.

[Cyrion]

Sculpt spell hasn't been mentioned yet- this will be useful for creative targeting or extending the number of targets. It's cheap at +1 level, though it does require any other metamagic feat as a prerequisite.

[Fishy]

It hasn't been mentioned yet, because 'metamagic that has other metamagic as a prerequisite' already has.

I've got Sudden Extend and Sculpt Spell on my Spirit Shaman, because Extended Produce Flame is pretty good, and Sculpted Entangle is love.

[Greenish]

Invisible spell from Cityscape is +0 metamagic.

[Kylarra]

Invisible spell from Cityscape is +0 metamagic.

I was going to mention that.

[Vizzerdrix]

Sanctum Spell is a +0 too, isn't it?

And it can be used for all kinds of early entry stuff.

[valadil]

Sculpt spell hasn't been mentioned yet- this will be useful for creative targeting or extending the number of targets. It's cheap at +1 level, though it does require any other metamagic feat as a prerequisite.

Came in here to suggest that. Sculpt is awesome. I took it on my rapid metamagic sorcerer. At level 4 (meaning the earliest level I could use it, unless there are AoE cantrips I don't know about) people were complaining my character was broken. Sculpted Color Spray could hit everything and I didn't need to get close to hit with hit. Sculpted Grease effectively quadrupled the spell. Grease is normally a 10' x 10' square. One of sculpt's options is 4 10x10s. I think the designers assumed you'd be dividing up a fireball for more precision but less area.

[TheMadLinguist]

Came in here to suggest that. Sculpt is awesome. I took it on my rapid metamagic sorcerer. At level 4 (meaning the earliest level I could use it, unless there are AoE cantrips I don't know about).

Caltrops qualifies