Vote on the poll and post why you chose that metamagic option.

Edit: This is based which one you think is the best for any reasons at all.

It's a silly question. Best for what?

Quickened is a popular option for short burst builds.
Twinned is great for enchantment builds.
Subtle is the best defense against Counterspelling.
Careful is essential for Evocation builds.
etc...

People need to move beyond simple binaries.

As @Memnosyne plainly put there is no 'best' answer. The best advice to any Sorc player (especially newbies) is to first decide your play-style (Melee/Blast/Healer/De-buffer/Controller/Tank etc), then decide your sub-class, then you look at what spells you want and finally what Meta’s best support all your choices.

E.g. As I said in another thread, Distant Spell is low on the list but on a Divine Soul Sorcerer it can be top 2, but it depends on your spell choices. It’s all relative.

That said, I think Quicken is the only meta that approaches “must-have” on most builds simply because of the amount of flexibility it gives you and its cheap, but it’s by no means essential.

Quote from Memnosyne >>

It's a silly question. Best for what?

Quickened is a popular option for short burst builds.
Twinned is great for enchantment builds.
Subtle is the best defense against Counterspelling.
Careful is essential for Evocation builds.
etc...

People need to move beyond simple binaries.

 (Underline mine)

Careful spell only makes you pass the save, not take no damage, so it actually works very poorly with most damage-dealing evocation spells, since they still do half damage on a successful save. Some, like sickening radiance, are save for nothing, but SR is multi turn, and whether Careful Spell affects all saves by such a spell or just the first is ambiguous. The main spells used with careful spell RAW are actually hypnotic pattern and (prior to a certain Jeremy Crawford tweet) web.

Quote from Myastan_Torinn >>

Quote from Memnosyne >>

It's a silly question. Best for what?

Quickened is a popular option for short burst builds.
Twinned is great for enchantment builds.
Subtle is the best defense against Counterspelling.
Careful is essential for Evocation builds.
etc...

People need to move beyond simple binaries.

 (Underline mine)

Careful spell only makes you pass the save, not take no damage, so it actually works very poorly with most damage-dealing evocation spells, since they still do half damage on a successful save. Some, like sickening radiance, are save for nothing, but SR is multi turn, and whether Careful Spell affects all saves by such a spell or just the first is ambiguous. The main spells used with careful spell RAW are actually hypnotic pattern and (prior to a certain Jeremy Crawford tweet) web.

 Careful spell is great when there are characters in your party that have Evasion, just saying.

Since this is so difficult because metamagic has a ton of specific uses based on build, I think that SUBTLE has the greatest value for both in combat and out of combat usage. But...I know quickened and twinned can be much stronger in regular use, but mainly in combat situations.

Will generaly pick quicken and twin but best I'd say is subtle for sheer role play potential along side avoiding counter spell and some other restrictions (casting verbal spells under water anyone?)

3 years since the last post but subtle is very DM dependent. A few DMs pretty much give suble spell for free, some will let you try to not be noticed with a slight of hand / stealth check, usually against the targets pasive perception, that can get pretty guaranteed to succeed at higher levels  if you choose your build with that in mind, especially if you have a bard or Artificer to help you out if you roll low. On the other hand if all spellcasting without subtle spell is noticed by everyone around then subtle spell is much more valuable.

Subtle spell can also be great outside combat. In one campaign we were stopped by a faction of religious zealots on trumped up charges wanting to arrest us. (they had taken a dislike to us as we opposed their policy of genocide of another faction). We were greatly outnumbered and even if we could kill them all it would be disastrous politically. I subtle cast sending and got the leaders of the other factions we were allied with to turn up and talk them down. It is also very cheap so suitable for metamagic adept. (My character in the campaign above is a wizard with metamagic adept).

Extended is another good option for metamagic adept, the evening before the boss fight cast Extended foresight on another party member and take a long rest, then you have the benefits of foresight and you have your 9th level slot for the boss fight.

It's empower:

Can be used on top of other metamagic
Only 1 point
You can use it after  you know a spell hits/has bad damage rolls since it's used "when you roll damage".  Other metas like twin or quicken might end up having no impact where empower is pretty much always going to improve your damage unless you somehow roll lower when only rerolling the first low rolls.


Twin is great but there are very few good spells that the class can actually be used with it.  It costs points = slot level so it can be a resource hog.   (One execptional spell to twin is dissonant whispers if you are abberand mind or fey touched)

Quicken spell is great but it mostly ends up allowing an extra cantrip.  This uses your bonus action and the is mostly only going to be used for added damage from a cantrip.  Empower can often make up the difference in damage, at half the sorcery point cost, while not take up your bonus action, and still allowing for other metamagics.

I chose quickened due to my sorlock, but it does conflict with my spiritual weapon. Twinned can be very powerful but also eats up a lot of points. In heindsight, I probably should have chose subtle spell due to its’ psudo war magic abilities as well as its’ stealth outside of battle.

This cadaver popped up in my feed again and I have played a few more metamagic using characters since then. I really found a love of twinned spell on party boosting spells like Polymorph and Greater Invisibility. Twinning a single damage cantrip has been pretty darn powerful in many situations, especially ones with riders like Chill Touch or Mind Sliver that can get a an AoE spell to stick or keep targets in the AoE.